001that was. >> Yes, of course. >> Adrian, yes. Hello. Hello, Miss Gibson McClean. >> I can hear you. >> Great. We can hear you also. Thank you. Hello, wen noes. Good evening, everybody. We're going to go ahead and get started with our board meeting. It is now 6 pm. The Crane School District understands that our community of schools is located on the ancestral land of the Odum Duid and Akimo Udam people who descended for the Hokum and have inhabited these lands since time in memorial. The Odum whose name translates literally to people are a vibrant culture in communities spanning countless generations into the past, continuing to thrive in the present and carrying a powerful legacy for generations into the future. With this acknowledgement, the Kraton School District formerly recognizes the traditional care and keeping of
002these lands by indigenous people is an aspirational model of community stewardship that we are committed to honor with practices, policy, and human relations. But that brings us to 1B, which is our roll call. Miss Katie Gibson McClean online, are you present? >> Here. >> Yay. We have Miss Ays, myself, Mr. Jones and Miss Marquez. We want to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting and remind the audience of the request to address board cards that must be completed and submitted to the board secretary if they wish to speak to an agenda item. Board policy provides for two cards. White cards to be submitted in order to speak to an agenda item and blue cards to be submitted in order to speak during public comments. Due to the open meeting law, board members are not allowed to address
003the items that are not on the agenda. That brings us to 2A, which is approval of the agenda. I move the governing board approve the agenda as presented. May I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I Any hearing? None. Motion passes. And that brings us to 3A, which is our governing board updates. And Miss Marquez, I will go ahead and start with you. >> Thank you. And a big welcome back to school, everybody. Um, I got to go drop my third grader off at Kraton Academy yesterday. Thankfully, no tears on our part. Um, little bit of attitude, but um, it was cool to see new faces, lots of new and diverse um, teachers and staff. And I'm happy to hear we are pretty much fully staffed up at all of
004our schools. Um so that's great. Uh also, you know, welcome back to all the admin. Anything else? Attended last week the welcome back rally which was my first and that was really exciting. It was cool to see like everybody together and um you know that keynote speaker was really I don't know asked some really good questions that kind of really made me reflect on like my own ethnicity and culture and family. Um and so it was nice to be able to share that with with some of the people there. And I love the story of La Palma. So Viva La Palma Dr. Pombo that was cool. Um, and also over the summer I got to attend the schoolboard partners, uh, our collective power summit, which was really awesome to to get to meet people from
005all over the nation who are dealing with some of the similar issues that that we are here and um, just, you know, get some more more knowledge and um, skills to to serve in this role. And one thing, one of the feedback that I got from that rally from people from out of state saw how all the the folks from Phoenix here were interacting. They're like, "Man, y'all from other school districts, you know each other. You're tight." And like it was it was I got that feedback more than once. And so it's cool to like know that I can reach out to board members from other districts and kind of see, hey, what are you doing in regards to this policy or how are you being affected, you know, by this new executive order or
006whatever the case may be. So, um, that's encouraging. So, I know, you know, the way things are are headed, just being everybody being connected and being on on the same level and and pushing for the same things is going to be really helpful. Um, so I'm glad that, you know, we are able to make those connections both, you know, as board members, as parents, as community members. Um so uh and also one good thing I learned at that particular summit was um the value of and importance of like policy versus regulation and procedural stuff. And I know that's going to come in really handy as we're working on policy stuff um as well as regulations to help protect our students and our families and our teachers and our communities. So, um that that's really exciting
007and um make sure I didn't I think I got it all. But anyways, welcome back everybody and um we'll be seeing you around. >> Thank you, Miss Marquez, Mr. Jones. >> Good evening everyone. Uh yes, also a great first day back for my sixth grader and second grader and it was uh great to see everything rolling out well at Builmore Prep and hearing good news from Mr. Man about the rest of the district and uh our fully staffed schools. So, uh, this school year, I now that I'll be, uh, on the board for a full school year, it's great that we'll I feel positive about seeing, um, you know, our decisions being made here on the board and that data coming back and hopefully I I think we're going to see some, uh, positive returns.
008And um you know I think if we key in on a few things especially absenteeism chronic absenteeism uh we might really see uh some very good results relates to SOFG. On a personal note, um we all know it's been going on for uh well since he was sworn in, but uh the dire news that keeps coming in every day about decisions related to defunding public education and you know, we've been lucky so far, but it seems like this political force, and we'll call it what it is, fascism is uh on almost every level of federal and state government. And uh I I think they're uh you know that's one of the key things for them is uh to defund, ruin um denigrate public education because uh the critical thinking skills we're giving our students here
009are, you know, going to be the, you know, possible way to fight back in the future. Um, and those critical thinking skills of being able to call out a genocide for what it is, to be able to say, hm, mass agents snatching people off the streets with no due process, uh, really resembles the Gestapo of, uh, national socialist Germany. So, uh, we just have to continue attending our garden here and making sure our students have those critical thinking skills in the future. But, uh, let's have a good meeting and keep rolling on. >> Thank you, Mr. Jones. I appreciate that. Miss Ays, >> good evening. Um, welcome back everyone. Thank you for saying that. Um, I went to um the National Education Association conference um in um Oregon. Um and that was a lot of
010that was a topic of conversation. So um thanks for saying that. Um I'm extremely exhausted. Um the first couple days of school is so exhausting and I can't even tell you like how tired I am going back into the classroom. um and having 41 students this year. Um so I am really happy to hear that we are completely staffed. Um when I talked to Mr. Man the other night, um he was telling me about some comments that people have made that they really want to come here and that makes me really happy that um we have a district where people um are seeking to come um because they hear good things about us. Uh, and I think that's wonderful. Um, so, uh, welcome to all the the new people. Um, I couldn't attend any of
011the new stuff because I was at work myself last week. Um, so I'm sorry I didn't get to meet uh, everyone, but um, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Ayes. Miss Gibson Mlean. >> Hi, everybody. Sorry, there's a children's guitar playing in the background. Um, okay. So, welcome back. Uh, I am sorry for not being able to attend anything last week either. I really wanted to go, especially after I saw um the welcome back thing and how great it was. Um, my husband was out of the country for work, so I was alone with my two kids because they just so happened to have the entire week off as well from any kind of child care. So otherwise, I would have been at all the things last week, but I hope everyone's first couple days
012back with students are going well. Um, my son, my older son just started at Academy yesterday, uh, in kindergarten and he's already had the bestest day, he said. So, um, very exciting to have, uh, Mike as a student in the district. And I see that tonight we have on the agenda um a vote for the to continue the advisory committee. So I'm eager to get back to work on all of that and I'm sure we'll talk about it later. Um but I'm you know obviously eager and hopeful to get to back to work that we're doing and continue all the work that we're doing and also um at the same time have a lot of you know despair and hope and and things happening at the same time. So, I hear everything that everyone else
013has said and and feel similarly. And so, um just know that uh if you're in this district, we're glad that you're here. We're glad that you've chosen to be in our district with us and that we're hoping to have everyone's back um in this like kind of uncertain time. So, welcome back everyone and I hope uh we're off to a great start here. >> Thank you, Miss Gibson Mlean. And for myself, yes, thank you. Welcome back to everybody. It was amazing, especially being at our new orientation just because I've attended those in the last 5 years. And for the first time, I saw the fabulous words of Mr. man, the vertical articulation of our district from the top down of what's being asked, discussed, and told to our new employees to make sure that we
014really do have a common theme, language, understanding of we're putting our students first in this district. and we're going to do whatever we can, especially given the times that we're in, as other board members have alluded to, to make sure that we stay focused and make sure that our students are being taken care of in all ways, in all capacities. So, that was great to see. I appreciate all the staff, everybody who did a wonderful job putting that together. I know it takes a lot of time and planning behind the scenes. So that was great to give a great also welcoming back to all of our staff that we did recently as well. So those were um great things and one of the things that we can or at least for myself I'll speak true
015to for what's me is that we will stay focused and also we're going to start having a legislative update section on our board because civic engagement is the most powerful tool that we can all have. So the more we're informed, the better decisions that we can make that are best for ourselves, our students, and our communities. And it is my belief that as an elected official, I should be empowering all my constituents regardless of where they stand. So just know that we will be informing as things are moving and what we can do with our voice and our democratic processes that we have to change those things. that we're not happy or if we are happy, keep supporting them like bonds and overrides and all the beautiful things that those create for our students and
016the conditions for them now. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Man for the superintendent report. >> Sorry to cut in. I just forgot one thing. Can I just say one more thing? Sorry. >> I would be remiss, but um you know, Mr. man and I attended uh the memorial for Libby Goth this Goth this weekend and I just wanted to you know bring her up in this meeting and speak her name long before she was ever involved in SOS Arizona or many boards that she belonged to. She was a mom here in the Kraton district who was a PTO volunteer um at my middle school where her daughters both went to school at BPA and she volunteered there for over a decade just just at the school before she even did some
017of the committee work that she did and before she got involved in so many other things that she's been involved in in the last decade or so. And so I just wanted to speak her name into the room and recognize her for the decades of work she's done in our community and to just show that someone doesn't necessarily need to be an elected official or have a title or even get paid to just make such a tremendous impact on the community and to have um such a lasting impact as well because there's so many things in our district uh that have been positively impacted by Libby and so um she'll be greatly missed. Thank you for sharing that reflection and I can personally attest that I would not be here if it wouldn't have been
018for a lot of her support when I first ran in 2019 and 20. So, thank you for bringing that up, Katie. I appreciate that and she will be dearly missed. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, I think I'll kick off by just building on what Katie just shared. Um it's a huge loss obviously for her family, friends, um but also obviously for our community and for our state. Um she was a tireless advocate not only for education but for the Phoenix Mountain Preserve um and a variety of other um critical things and she always fought very hard to try to get good political candidates elected because she always made the argument that the only way we can fix the system is to get the right people into the system. And so, um, she tell
019you what, um, President Coreo mentioned bonds and overrides earlier. Um, you know, she also helped us pass those as well. And, um, one of her her daughters always writes a supporting statement for us. So, um, the whole family has been hugely supportive and our heart goes out to them, um, you know, in this sort of tragic time. Um, in addition to that, um, just since we're on a note of loss, another name to be spoken into the room, um, is Maryanne Horn, a kindergarten teacher, um, with us from Excellencia. Um, and actually that was her second run in Kraton. Um, she had left us at one point, but prior to that, she was at Luminda School for for a number of years, and she was just one of the most wonderful people I've ever worked
020with. And um I know it's a huge loss for for Nick's team at Exalencia and for many people who knew her throughout the district. Um and I consider it a personal loss as well because I truly considered her a friend. So um just wanted to make sure that we kind of shared that out because I think this is our first board meeting since since we lost her. So, um, we did share it with our staff at the welcome back rally as well, which was, I think, one of the hardest things we've ever done at a welcome back rally cuz usually the goal is to be upbeat. And so, having to kind of bring the sadness into the room is hard, but I think it's truly it also represents what a community we are. And it's
021important for us to be there for each other during the hard times as well as during, you know, the celebrations and the times to get, you know, excited for a new school year. So, um it's been very nice to see everybody back. Um it's been amazing to have kids back in the schools. Like, it just really like being in the schools in the summertime is so weird cuz they just feel so empty. Um so, if I highly doubt someone is out there watching this board meeting and they have not managed to get their kid to school yet this year, but if you have, please make sure your child shows up tomorrow on August 6th. we still we've still got some kids we're rounding up that we want to make sure are showing up for school.
022So, um so that's very very important to us. Um beyond that, just excited for the new year. So appreciative of all the people we get to work with and all the hard work and thank you to our teachers and staff. I know you have to be exhausted as we roll towards day three. I know those first two days are a lot. Um, and this first week is always kind of a tough week, but hopefully it's both um, tiring and also exciting to kind of be back for the new school year. So, appreciate all of you. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Man. That brings us to 4 A, which is a student outcomes focused governance update. In the fall of 23, Crane School District adopted a student outcomes focused governance framework to ensure a focus
023on improving student outcomes. This framework is grounded in six research informed competencies. One, vision and goals. Two, values and guard rails. Three, monitoring and accountability. Four, communication and collaboration. Five, unity and trust. Six, continuous improvement says constante. Guided by the six competencies, the board created a set of goals and guardrails. The goals reflect the community's vision for student success and the guardrails reflect community values and set boundaries for leadership. progress monitoring within this framework. One of the most critical components is the progress monitoring. Progress monitoring is structured conversation between the governing board and superintendent where we ask several questions. Does the student perform match our goals? Is there evidence of growth towards these goals? Is the strategy strong enough to produce that growth? And then when done well, all these questions and the monitoring will
024support the district by these several indicators. Modeling reflective leadership, clarifying strategies and next steps, setting clear priorities across the system, providing continuous feedback for improvement. This is how we hold ourselves accountable to the outcomes our students deserve. This is how governance truly serves its community. With that, you guys will see today that we do not have a progress monitoring report or any guard rails. But what we are going to take this time to talk about is setting our calendar for our two-way communication. One of the biggest components of a student outcomes focused governance work is that we do have a consistent two-way communication with their community. So they can let us know and have an opportunity for them for us as elected officials to hear from our community on what's working, what's not, what they
025would like to see in the school and if any of the information or any of the things that we have been doing in the last year have resonated with them. Have they felt an impact, a difference? And this is how we can collectively bring the governing board back feedback to the governing board and make our decisions in and the district when we're actually hearing for our community. So this is going to be a time basically for us to look at our schedules and figure out how we're going to do this. The best way to do this is that we're going to have to go in twos. No more than three members can be at one community um listening session. Another thing that we also need to understand is that this is the governing board's immunity
026time. So technically it needs to be led by us. We have to be held responsible for creating the agenda what we want, how we're going to do it because at the end of the day it's our job to communicate with the community, not necessarily our superintendent or administrators. Um, a thought that Jay and I had conversated about was maybe having some of the first community sessions in this boardroom just so people kind of know or we can work with the principles at the schools and let them show up in their place um that they're used to coming to. So, those are some things that we can talk about and think about some ideas once we decide what we can start off with. cuz the way that I operate is that we should be going to
027our community, not necessarily having them show up to our space, but that's a conversation we can fluidly have. And then after that, I would like for us to at least have four dates set in mind. Technically, we only need two, but because we have new board members that were not in the process with us when we first gained our goals or our guard rails, I think it's a good opportunity to be out and kind of hear, especially since we've been in a year in the work. So, with that being said, I will turn it over to anybody that wants to start discussion, any wondering suggestions that you may have. This is our time. Mr. Jones, go ahead. >> Uh, I just would think, uh, going out to the schools would be better since we have
028these board meetings monthly anyway. If the public wants to join, they're always free to join, including anyone concerned about SOFG. So, >> I I mean, I like that idea, but I I prefer to be at the place where they're already used to, so they don't have to make an addedon trip somewhere. So, I like that idea. Um, Miss Marquez, did you have something to say? >> Yeah, I was just hoping maybe you would just maybe elaborate more on what it should look like. So, like round table or panel or >> Yeah. So, usually the way that it looks like is we go up there and give them just a brief description of what SOG is, kind of what we went through, and then the way that I do it is I literally tell them, "What
029do you want to tell us?" We we have paper. They they talk amongst themselves, but I give them no guardrails because that's the whole point of them to freely speak on what they want, what they're feeling, what they're seeing, what not. And then the way that we did it last time is we had a whole bunch of different surveys and we discerned all those. We tallied, we went into topics, you know, all these different things. So reality, when it comes to the discussion part, there really are no guard rails because that's what I want them. That's kind of what I tell the kids, too. If you wanted ice cream every single morning at 8:00, tell me that it's not going to happen, but I need you to tell me what you truly want. So then
030we can collectively decide on what needs to be met by what they're saying. So there that's the only free thing that happens, but other than that, the structure is just letting them know why we're there, and we want to hear free meal. And we usually open it for open-ended questions at the end. >> And um would this be open to basically let like everyone parents, staff, students, community members, or who are we looking to make >> any Yeah, it's any community member. It can be a business owner. It can be a parent. It can be the across the street. It could be the babysitter. Any community member. And I've invited even other districts before. So even other people from not necessarily this community have shown up to these before just to get a nuance and
031feel for what it is. So it's really open to everybody. >> Okay. >> So one thing I was kind of visualizing as you were speaking and describing it. So I don't know you might have seen it at some of the conference conferences but I had seen it for the first time this summer. So a speaker will go up and they'll have everybody scan a QR code and be like okay now here's your question. and they'll ask a question, but then up on the board everybody's answer kind of pops up and like like a I don't know I don't even know what it's called like a word diagram or something. But it's cool because then you can see the common answers because they get bigger. So it's like you know what's your favorite food and they
032say 20 people pick ice cream then ice cream gets bigger and tacos get small. I don't know if you've seen that before, but >> yeah, we've seen those kind of surveys. And when we get down to like the actual details, I think we'll probably set up another study session to go over details. >> Okay. >> Um like intricates of what that would look like. Right now, I'm just trying to gauge. >> But yeah, that's an actual good idea for interaction. Um but right now, what I'm trying to gauge is do we prefer them to be here at the schools? Because if we are going to be at the schools, our principles are going to need to know because we're going to so kindly ask for time and space for your lovely board members to be
033in your schools and open them up for us so we can have this two-way communication. And also what those days look like in case it does conflict with somebody, we can send an email then they can let us know and start working on that bigger. But those inner details we can go over what that would actually look like at a different time. >> Yeah. So I I think yeah at a one of the schools at the gym or something or I know like TCA we've got the learning stairs. So just depending on what kind of turnout we might be expecting. >> Um Miss do you have any questions, comments, wonderings? >> Um I' I would rather have them at the at the schools. I think that more people will come. Um, the other question that
034I have is could we possibly do it on a weekend like a Saturday? Um, and the only reason I say that is because that might be a better day for people to come. Um, I'm only available after work, um, not during the day, which is fine. I can do them at night. That's not a problem. But, um, I just think maybe Saturdays could be another day. And I think that's a good idea as we strategize like times, right? Maybe if we wanted to do a weekend at a central school, that would be an option. And then we have maybe sometimes in the mornings at other schools and then we do one evening one. So that's why I kind of wanted to do a variation um so we can because we haven't really done any two-way
035communic communication in in a minute. So and that's part of our board self- evaluation. And if we're not completing these, then we can't move on to the next level for our own evaluations. So, it's important we get those scheduled. But yeah, I like that idea. We can definitely plan for a weekend. And usually the people that can't make it on weekdays, I would prefer that you guys have that option first. Um, and like me, I'm a little bit more flexible during the day, so I don't it doesn't matter. >> Um, >> so at least one weekend, like a Saturday. Um, so I I know last year we did the kind of the district-wide PTO meetups that Ivonne led here quarterly. I wonder if at one of those of um meetups. I'm not sure where his
036team is at with scheduling those if that's continuing. Um, but that might be a good one because that's a good core hand group of people who are really involved and then maybe we can get kind of a more kind of targeted feedback from that group and that those would already be scheduled. Then we just coordinate with Ivon and his team on on that. >> Okay, I like that idea. U Miss Gibson Mlean, did you have a comment? >> Yes. So, um, I agree with Miss Ays about a weekend day. I think that would be very important especially for families that don't have flexible weekday schedules. Um I guess I'm um more curious about what the planning is going to look like given that I know a couple times it was said just now like we
037can discuss that later but we have to do all this planning in per in a school board meeting. So, what's the extent of tonight's conversation? And then it and then what's the extent of like planning for planning moving forward? I guess were we going to get into the weeds of anything tonight or just kind of throwing out these ideas and then I I guess I'm just trying to get a timeline in my head of of how long like how this is going to go. >> Yeah. And I think we're going to have to set a separate study session to go into all the details. Um so that's what the plan is. Yeah. right now is kind of to get a filler for the pre the pre- stuff, kind of look at our calendars, give out
038some dates options, figure that out, and when we have the dates and concrete for sure, then yeah, absolutely. We do need to have a study session that we will schedule and go over all those details on what that looks like and what we'll need and all that. >> Do we already have an idea of on how many of these we want to hold or is that going to be a discussion after the study session as well? >> I think we should have four, but you guys can say less or what? We only need to do two. >> So like once a quarter is what you're thinking or >> Yeah, probably. And we should probably get two done before December I if we can. >> And I'm wondering and and Miss Suarez might have more knowledge
039about this than I do, but if you identify who the two person teams are for each of them, those two people can work together on one because you're not violating open meeting law. And then totally and then they can coordinate with the location through Miss Suarez and then that way you're not you're not just limited to having to wait for a study session to come around in order to be able to conversation. So um anyway just >> No, I like I actually like that idea way better. So figure out who the pairs are and then between the pairs we figure out dates, times, and all that fun stuff. >> Yeah. And I think we would I think being that it can only be two at a time, we would be have to have a minimum
040of three to get everybody in it involved. >> Oh, a minimum of three sessions. >> Right. So all five board members can >> have a chance to participate >> unless someone wants to go solo. >> Unless someone I mean if we did the PTO one, they're used to seeing me. I could very well with Ivon tag team that. And I'm assuming um Heather and Katie will be together because the weekend one, right? >> Yeah, that works. >> And then I don't mind doing a second one. >> I could do a night one, too. I'm not opposed to that. >> And should we all just volunteering? Yeah, >> we consider this uh these first uh two or three meetings like a test run and come back with what we've learned in just the presentation itself and
041what forms of communication and presentation work best. Uh, and then this might be a stupid question, also a little terrifying, but what if we uh >> at some point in the future, not this first one, but uh did a student >> uh presentation or presentation to the student so that they know what they're being subjected to or what we're trying to uh help them achieve. So, I love that you're saying that because that eventually is going to tie in into our future agenda item of the student bill of rights and all that stuff because we do want student listening sessions. Absolutely. And I think that's something that eventually we'll have to coordinate with um Mr. Man to figure out how we can do that because we're going to have to be in the classes. But
042yes, student I think student listening sessions with governing board members is imperative as well because then the students are telling us what they would like to see. >> So yeah, those are great. >> And if I could, I' I'd highly recommend >> doing the first student session with our Kids Congress students. They're just >> they're they're super insightful. Yeah, we and we we did a sort of version of that uh earlier this year. >> Yeah. >> But they may be able to give a little bit of insight as to like what would be potentially helpful to their peers as it expands out, right? Like they may already have some feedback for us, you know, on some of the information the way we've shared it, the ones who are returning from last year. Um and we
043may be able to get some fresh insights from the new ones and then, you know, kind of leverage that. So, >> and the first one is on September 19th. There you go. >> Kids Congress. >> Okay. So, for now, what I'm hearing, I think this will work at least from here until December. I'm hearing that Heather and Katie will get together to set up something on the weekend. And I guess school sites, we have to discuss how that would work. Or the two people can just tag team, right? >> Yeah. I think if I think if the two people work with Miss Suarez, she can help coordinate with the sites and um you know the I think the key is if we're going to go out to school sites, not doing all of them in
044one region of the district. So like you wouldn't want to do Excellencia Gateway and the Kraton Academy and then you know the rest of the district's kind of left out. Um, so if we can do something that's maybe vertical the other direction, so that way cuz our our district's kind of narrow and long. So if we do something kind of in the northern part of the district, the central part of the district, and the southern part of the district, then that'll help, you know, create broader availability to families who maybe have transportation challenges or whatever. >> Yeah, absolutely. And then obviously when we hit next year and we're doing the other round, we'll hit the other schools that we didn't hit that one time. Um, so Heather and Katie will do the weekend. I think
045the PTO idea is a good idea because if you do that, that's two. And then Tristan and I can tag team another school and that's three by the end of December and we can figure out if we want to do a morning or an evening one. It just depends. We can work that out. But I think that works out for right now until December. Do you do you guys agree? >> Um, yeah. Okay, cool. So, Hilda, we'll be following up with you and principles, I really really appreciate you guys ahead of time. I know that this is another and another added on duty, but it's imperative for the board to really get a feel for what parents, community members are really wanting and needing for their babies. So, we appreciate you guys working with us
046on this. >> And I'm going to say, um, maybe when you guys come up with your dates, come up with more than one. Yeah. in case if it doesn't work, including the Saturday ones because that'll involve >> correct >> the school because our schools are not open on Saturday. >> Yeah. >> So, >> perfect. Thank you for that. >> All right. Any other questions about our two or going out to the community? Perfect. That concludes our student outcomes focused governance update. That moves us to 5A, which is public comments. Our first comment is from Phoenix, please. >> We're going to do three minutes. >> Yes. And you will have three minutes. And if I stop you, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be rude. >> That's okay. >> Thank you. >> Um before I start,
047I can I like I recorded part of it. Can I like put it up here? >> Yeah, of course. >> It's going to be two minutes and then I'm going to do a little bit of talking. >> No problem. Thank you. >> My name is Phoenix Haynes. I'm a second year teacher at Monte Vista and I made a comment last year thanking the board and saying that I had planned to move out of state after my first year because I am afraid for my ability to teach in Arizona as a trans teacher. And I said that I stayed because of the support from my admin, the community of my school, as well as the support from HR. And I had requested that the board make a comment denouncing and condemning the policy attacks on trans
048students staff that have occurred in the valley at places like Puria Unified Mesa as well as Tempe Elementary. I received a email from Heather very soon afterwards and I really appreciated that you had mentioned something about meeting. I would really love to uh touch base on that because I never got a response back. you had mentioned creating a group of folks who might be impacted by anti-trans policies and then creating stronger Kraton policies to protect us. Um, since then I have learned that a good friend and co-orker in this district quit teaching not only because they're burnt out but because they experienced transphobia from students and families at their school and did not feel supported in making a report. and all of the conversations took place behind closed doors and they were not informed of
049it until their principal told them that all of this had already happened and been processed through HR. I heard that and the things that they had said and I just sobbed. My partner is also a trans teacher. We were just so heartbroken and these are the exact scenarios that I said would happen. You're going to lose teachers that you cannot afford to lose because we are scared. And if we do not feel like our schools are going to protect us, you are not going to have us as teachers. You cannot afford to be losing us. We are not here for the pay or the benefits. We are here for the students. And just think about how trans students might feel seeing a teacher be dehumanized like that. They will not want to go to school.
050They will not want to live. They will not want to grow up. So, please make your statement sooner rather than later. And if you have questions, please contact me immediately. I can help you. Thank you. >> And on the way here, I happened to mention this to somebody who I was talking about being a teacher here and they were like, I went to LCK. And I was like, by any chance, do you happen to have any thoughts about how you were treated slash what the queer community was like? And they said there was so much rampant homophobia the teachers saw and deliberately ignored. That made me just heartbroken. And I want to stay here really bad. And I want other schools to know that this is a safe district for their kids to go to
051and to teach in. And I really feel strongly that a statement I don't know if you've already made one. That would be embarrassing if I like didn't see it. But I shouldn't have to look through the agenda notes. It I would really appreciate coordination. Um and let me know when you do that. And please I will help you. Thanks. >> Thank you. Our next comment is Gail Smith. I'm here today. Good good evening members of the board. For those who don't know me, my name is Gail Smith. I Our family has been in the Kraton district for 86 years. I attended the Kraton district. I worked in the Kraton district. My son is in the Kraton district. I'm here today with what seems like a very small problem, but it had a huge impact today
052on my child. Um, these are the required supplies for the school for this year. Doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Today, my son had to carry this backpack home back and forth to school, weighing just shy of 20 pounds with his items because there is nowhere in the classroom for him to be able to keep his supplies. They have tables. There are no desks with storage. There is no storage provided in the classrooms. There are no lockers for the middle school students. Everything in this backpack is on the required list of items that he was required to bring to school. What he actually needs to bring home are these two items, his homework folder and his water bottle. But having no storage for the kids to put their belongings and keep them safe
053by the time my son is a walker. We live in the the neighborhood right behind the district office. It was 115 today. By the time I picked him up, I had gone to get in the line and he started walking. By the time he got in front of the district office, he was about to pass out. He was drenched with sweat. He was carrying a 20 lb backpack on his back. He was in tacocardia. And it became then a medical emergency. This is a ridiculous amount of stuff to lug back and forth by these kids every day. Speaking from a person who has had four back surgeries, these are the reason why people have back problems. This is the reason why he was his back was absolutely drenched with sweat and he was then in
054a medical emergency. So it may seem like a little issue but it had a huge impact on my child today. So, what I'm asking is for a safe place for these kids to not have to lug this this amount of stuff back and forth every day to school when really all they need is a homework folder and a water bottle. And I just want you to keep in mind how it affects the kids. >> Thank you. Thank you. Although we cannot give public comments back because it's not in the agenda, we can direct superintendent to look into certain issues. So, we will make sure that he follows up with both. So, thank you. >> Can she share what school? >> Um, yeah. No, there's no back and forth questions and yeah, that's why we directed
055the superintendent to look into it and he will. Um, that moves us to our six, which is approval of consent. I move the governing board approve consent agenda items A through X in accordance with policy 132. May I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Any naysay? Hearing none. Motion passes. That brings us to item 11A which is general approval for continuation of governing board advisory committee to review student policies and any other related policies. And I will turn this over to Miss Katie Gibson Mcclean and Mr. Man. Sorry. run into another room. >> I I can I can take point for the moment while you're MLAN while you're um >> I'm in another room now. Okay, fair enough. >> Um Okay.
056So, uh as we have discussed previously, uh this is now our third. Am I crazy? Is this our third year? >> It is our third year. >> Okay. Yeah. So, um this would be our third year uh continuing this committee if the board were to approve it tonight. Um, obviously this committee was originally created um, Miss Cio had brought to the board's attention um, her concerns with a lot of the student conduct policies and wanted to see those looked at and rather than kind of doing things similarly, we wanted to make sure we got as much um, input and um, and feedback as possible before we made these changes. So, that being said, um we went through and and went through a bunch of the student conduct policies over the last two years. There are
057a couple policies within the student conduct umbrella that we still want to take a look at. Um and then, Mr. man. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I mean it would be nice so that if we were to get to a point in our work this year where we want to transition um that we could also move forward with examining some of the staff policies that mirror uh the student policies that we've already amended, but please go ahead and uh correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, Mr. Man. >> Nope. I I don't think you're wrong about any of it. I think, you know, one of one of the things that we've done um over the course of the summer with the change in the policy manual is that we did a crosswalk
058of the policies that were adjusted um at the end of year 1 as we went into the beginning of year two. I think they were put into practice in the old policy manual. Um so we've done our best to migrate those in. And one of the things we would like the committee to start the year with is to take a look at those and verify that they are aligned with what the original recommendations were so that way we didn't break anything in the process of changing manuals. So, you know, one of the things, you know, since we've changed, um, you'll see some of this with some first reads on the 19th, um, we talked about one of the items prior to the board meeting briefly, um, because the, um, some of the language, you know,
059pieces are a little different and we're still kind of fine-tuning and refining that. And so, um, we want to make sure all those components are correct. And then last year the committee completed some policy recommendations but they were based on the old policy manual. So I think the second phase would be for them to u migrate those do like a crosswalk with the new manual to get that to get a integrated recommendation that can come back to the board to get those policy changes in place. And then obviously the third piece would be what Miss Gibson McLean was talking about which is those remaining policies on the student side that are still on our list. But I 100% agree that the next step would be to move into staff policy. Um in addition to that
060and I'm really sorry um that Phoenix left before this item because one of the things that was going through my mind is that Miss Ays and I have been having some conversations about some other um policy and committee work that we want to do around our policies related to LGBTQIA and transgender. I know transgender's in there, but specifically transgender's come up a few times and so um and ironically Phoenix's name has come up as somebody that we would like, you know, to be involved in in this um work. So um and to also help us find some others who might who might participate. So, one of the things that um we had talked about yesterday evening um that we wanted to check in with Miss Suarez is whether there's enough breadth in that charter that
061the board's giving to be able to have like a spin-off subcommittee to work on some of those other, you know, policy areas. And that would also be a policy area where we might start with the student policy, but then also tackle in parallel after the fact the um uh staff policy because one of the things that we've been noticing is there's a lot of parallels between student and staff policy, right? So, so when when we make a statement in student policy that we're trying to be um protective of certain things or we're trying to make sure that we look at things with a certain lens, we want to do those same things for the adults in the in the system that we want to do for our students that are part of our our school
062district. So, um, so I don't know if we need to make a change in the action item in order to make sure that we can cover all three of those things like the way the board um, makes the motion or >> Can I ask you a clarifying question first, Jay? I'm sorry. Or Dr. Mr. M. Um, >> when you say a subcommittee, because that's going to be like a whole different thing. Um, you know, the way the advisory committee works, it has to be an open meeting. So would the subcommittee be like another advisory committee or are you looking for that to be like a superintendent committee because I think that would change how kind of the vote go or like how it's how it's worded. >> I would have to defer to to Miss
063Ays if she has a preference. I think we could probably do it either way as long as the policy recommend as long as the policy recommendations come back to the governing board. Yeah, I think if we were to do it that way then um I guess my recommend my hope would be that um if there is a subcommittee that can at least get the initial work done that then it could be brought to the um >> to the advisory committee so that it can be um presented to community with the other things that we're doing. So that whole process can also happen with whatever is being done on these subcommittees before things are brought to the board. So, we're still getting that input from all places that are possible. >> Yeah. I I think what
064would make that um much more efficient and viable is it would allow the groundwork to be laid. And I know Miss Z already has done a lot of research and has some policy examples, but it would allow the groundwork to be laid in a superintendent committee, which could happen probably more quickly and efficiently um with a little bit more calendar flexibility and then come back to that policy committee. And I I maybe and this is just me, I push back against that just because we at the end are the policy makers as governing board members and I don't want that stringed off to staff or anybody else because at the end of the day we're the ones that I would prefer to for it to be like an advisory versus a superintendent subcommittee. But that's
065just me personally. >> But do you get what my suggestion was? >> I did. >> So I mean that adds that extra layer. So it would still be going through all the same vetting that you're already permitting the advisory committee to do >> after it's done the superintendent thing. So I guess I'm having failing to see where the connection is there. >> I I was just saying as long as it's not just a superintendent. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's all I was saying. >> Okay. >> Because we were talking about in the future it could just be one and I was saying I would push against back against that. I'm okay with the groundwork and then going to the advisory just not getting in the habit of creating superintendent subcommittees to do the
066work of what we were elected to do which is making do policy. >> I agree with that. >> Okay, perfect. Yes, it sounds great. >> And I think the only thing that the motion needs to be changed is to review student and staff policies. >> Okay. And just add staff instead of student No student and staff. Okay. >> Policies. >> Thank you, Miss W. >> Do we have any other discussion or questions from any other board members before I make the motion? >> Mr. Man, anything else? >> No. Thank you. >> Okay. Awesome. I will make the motion. I move the governing board approved to continue the governing board board advisory committee to review student and staff policies and any other related policies with approval to direct the superintendent to bring forth the same committee
067members from last school year in addition to approve that Mr. Man and Miss Gibson McLean continue to serve as ex official members of the committee. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Oo I think Tristan beat you. All those in favor? >> I I >> I. >> Any naysay? Hearing none. Motion passes. Yay. That's great. All right. And that brings us over to future agenda items. Board members, do we have any future agenda items? Hearing none. The only one I am going to add, I would love to entertain a discussion of adding an XCO board member from us to the community foundation um board at some point. And so I would just love to have a conversation about that at some point. Um, anybody else have any future agenda items? All right. Hearing none,
068I will move on to 13A. I move the governing board adjourn. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any name? >> I got it. >> Yes, Katie. Hearing none. Thank you very much. Muenos notes. Have a great night. >> Thanks y'all. Good night. >> Thank you, Katie. Bye.