001okay I'd like to call this meeting to order and I'd like to make a motion that we move to Executive session pursuant to ARS 38-4 31.03 A3 and A4 for discussion or consultation for legal advice with the governing board's attorney regarding personal matters and to consider its position and instruct its attorneys regarding its position regarding contacts that are the subject of negotiation second all those in favor we will be back foreign I'd like to make a motion that we reconvene in General Session seconded all those in favor we will now call this meeting to order thank you all for waiting for us Mrs Richards oh I'm sorry please join me oh we'll call roll call that was right I was right I was right thank you this is Richard's roll call please Mrs Reese's confusing
002me I don't know why the presidential members of the board let the record show that all five board members are present thank you now would you please join me in a moment of silence thank you I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation another indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I'd like to make a motion that we approve the agenda all those in favor motion carry it's five to zero Mrs Richard's superintendent's report hi hello there we are tonight we have another exciting episode of Higley Adventures to share with you Coronado Elementary's PTO met their goal of raising forty four thousand dollars during their recent fundraiser reaching this goal will ensure that all PTO events are free and
003it will also help with the renovation of their Library so we want to show you just a little glimpse of principal Armstrong [Music] thank you take me [Music] and we also [Applause] we want to thank all of our ptos across the district as well as our booster clubs we couldn't do what we do without you thank you a local Law Firm recently honored a Higley Academy teacher hope Berg as their August teacher of the month she was featured on a billboard and also presented with a 500 check that's exciting [Applause] congratulations to our four Higley High School students who have been awarded National recognition from the College Board congratulations to Haley Vasquez mitsu Navarro Jaden O'Hare and Mason Anderson these students earned this academic honor because of their GPA of 3.5 or higher and outstanding
004performance on the PSAT the psat-10 and or AP exams now they can list these honors on their applications to colleges when they apply so let's give them a round of applause [Applause] congratulations to our five Williams Field high school students who have also been awarded National recognition from the College Board congratulations to Daniel Romero Emma Childress yaden lot Karen Kent and Maya Cruz these students earned these honors because of a GPA of 3.5 or higher outstanding performance on the PSAT or the PS and the PSAT 10 or and AP exams they will also list all of these accomplishments on their applications so let's give them a round of applause thank you Hayden is one of our Higley High School students She was recently featured in hearing our way magazine which is the only magazine for
005kids and teens with hearing loss Hayden worked alongside our husd teacher for the hearing impaired to write the article featured in the magazine we're so proud of you Hayden [Applause] thanks are they okay all right now nobody's looking forward to this but we have a surprise fall break September 25th through October 6th who wants to give a round of applause for that [Applause] our next board meeting will be Wednesday October 11th here at the district office and we have a School site visit to San Tan Elementary on Friday October 20th and we hope you guys will join us foreign from our constituents the time on our agenda has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board those that wish to wish to speak should have filed filled out speaker
006cards which are due prior to the start of our meeting members of the board may not discuss comment or take action on matters raised that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ARS 38-431.018 action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for future consideration and decision at a later date also we ask the audience members practice proper public medium decorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal outbursts to ensure fairness to all points of view those that refuse to follow these rules will be asked to leave speakers please limit your remarks to three minutes thank you for your cooperation first up we have Mr Wyatt Ford share with all of
007you should I restart her sorry yesterday September 19th was my son's book fair event for his school we saw a variety of different books from informative dinosaur monographs to Pokemon comic books and everything in between once we were finished browsing the side aisles we decided to head to the front of the book fair they are propped up front and center of the venue was a book titled in the spirit of a Dream by Ada Salazar upon opening the book I was appalled at what I saw here's one of the excerpts I read verbatim we come as migrants often unwanted to this country that will always belong to the First Nations to inhabit it this quote is further substantiated in the table of contents section by a chapter labeled undocued poets for those still wondering meaning
008illegal aliens per Scholastic on their official website this book has a target audience of five to seven year olds why this book is teaching our kids that no matter what they do this country will never belong to them why need I mention our state's deteriorating border crisis it's unfathomable to me that this rhetoric is available especially given our circumstances simply put this is my land This Is My Children's Land This is my first generation Honduran grandmother's land I serve this country my ancestors served this country men and women have fought and died to be able to say this is our country the United States of America home of the brave furthermore I would like to clear any notion that this may be directed at Higley Unified School District it is not the most you folks
009can do is try to get Scholastic the entertainment company that provided the aforementioned book out of your schools you may still be asking why undisputedly BlackRock Incorporated Investment Group purchased just under 5 million shares of Scholastic in January of 2022 those numbers are still active as of 2023 per nasdaq's official filing report this is 15.4 of the Scholastic company BlackRock is a company that has destroyed the middle class and that has left our housing market in Ruins they're also publicly endorsed by the world economic forum as per the world economic forum's official website thank you to all of the Higley Unified School District staff for what you do as for Blackrock in the world economic Forum we see what you are doing without political bias you may control some of those who make laws you
010tell us you will own nothing and be happy well I say when tyranny becomes law Rebellion becomes Duty six semper teranus thank you next up we have iorella Latham president Schultz members of the board my name is Ira Latham I have four children that attend in the Higley Unified School District I'm here today to talk about the proposed dress code changes that are up for voting uh I was I spoke before on the dress code changes it was voted down for much of the same reason I think that it should be voted down this time I read through the dress code the new proposal it's much more wordy this time but it says the exact same essential thing it's my request uh president Schultz and members of the board that you reject this current proposal
011and you either enforce the current dress code that we have or you have a dress code that reflects more of the concerns of the parents in the district as a parent I expect the district to be able to enforce policies that help my children be able to go to class and know how they can contribute to a safe classroom environment as well as limiting the needless distractions in the class this policy does not do that I also think that it brings a lot of unnecessary pressure on teachers having to deal with the vagueness of this policy because I have no other way to describe my concerns about this policy I'll do an object lesson this is what I do for my kids when I have to tame them why we're doing things the way we
012need to do them under the proposed policy this would be appropriate in a classroom wow now if you ask me this is inappropriate for a board meeting if you have a dress code policy that allows us in a classroom it does not promote a hell a safe classroom environment as well as limiting the amount of distractions in the classroom I would like to request that the board reject this current policy either enforce the policy that we have or have a policy that reflects more concerns that reflects with what uh condo conducts a better environment for the students for them to get the most education out of the class as well as prepare them to enter the workforce when they leave the school I can't think of any place of work where I could walk in
013in an interview and be taken serious in something like this so let's put let's let's be adults for these students let's put the right policies in place to help them have success in the future thank you Monica Latham as shown um thank you for letting us speak as shown we are super passionate about our kids in this environment I don't care what other districts do this that's not what we're here for we are here for the kids in this district and this is we're trying to make a difference for our kids for our kids future this is super important to us because changing the stress code does not help the education whatsoever for our for our children it actually hinders them because you are going to get different shapes and sizes that's not a problem
014but you will get more bullying that will happen girls are just mean boys are mean they will they will do it to these individuals if it's this dress code is passed do also I have heard of teachers that turn their room into ice boxes because they do not want to be known as sexist or favoring or whatnot other students and they make sure that they turn them into ice boxes so that they wear and cover their themselves so they don't have to deal with any of that this is inappropriate what they're asking for the School attire to be approved I really hope you can reconsider because it's not fair to the teachers it's not fair to the students and as parents I'm I know five families five families that took their kids out of school
015this last year because of things that have been passed and I would not be surprised if more people pull their kids out of school and money out of this District if this dress code gets gets approved thank you for your time Linda Payton hi I'm I have five [Music] um no I have nine grandchildren in this school district and I would also like to address the dress code um you know I've watched through the years and it's gotten worse and worse and I think a lot of it is because it's not being enforced the dress code that we have right now needs to be enforced or it needs to become more modest we are letting our kids education go bad because the young man I'm sorry the pornography and stuff that is out there they
016can get it on the internet but they can come to school and see at the schools which is totally wrong and it's due to the non-compliance of in making the dress code enforced and so that was one of the things I wanted to talk about um also I wanted to talk about the I like our school district to become a model for other schools on having a really good dress code instead of following the the styles that the other schools have why don't we become the best and have people that want to come to Higley and did people that want to leave we have a lot of people leaving this District because of dress code and because of the education that's being taught and I know the education comes from the top and you have
017to kind of teach some of that but we're going to try and change some of that I hope through the parents getting involved and plus our our state board is really On Target on helping what helping with that and I'm really grateful because one of them is here today thank you um also I would like to talk about [Music] um a couple of times ago it's about two months ago there was some um there was a one of the board members that was very rude to another board member and the rest of the board members sat there and allowed that to happen for five minutes I was totally appalled and I would hope that from now on you would think about yourself and think about yourself being in that position and not allow that to
018happen it is it was not a very good situation and I would have really appreciated if you guys would support one another in helping one another and pulling together instead of pulling apart we as a district could be absolutely wonderful I've lived here 30 years and it used to be really really good the modesty was much much better we need to get the modesty back in this school it is really really suffering and I think that if you would start in enforcing the dress court code or even make it more modest you would find a lot of students coming back and you would find a lot of people wanting to move here and I thank you for your time I appreciate the good things that are happening but I'm really really concerned with especially our
019young men having to watch this pornography in the schools with their fellow students that are in the classroom with them and that's why you know they don't want to study a lot they would rather watch that so anyway I would appreciate you considering it thank you very much thank you Heather Balch Heather did I say that right I'm sorry I think I've said it wrong before then I apologize I I know I'm sorry thank you no problem at all good evening governing board cabinet members of our wonderful um Higley team I am Heather Walsh I do um I've been in the district for 20 plus years and I do serve on our executive board of our heckley Education Association so I'm here to talk to you a little bit about that tonight I'm higlia education
020association's mission is to advocate for Education professionals both certified and classified and to unite members to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student in a diverse and interdependent World our goal for the 23-24 school year is to help husd retain staff members and we believe that open communication is the best place to start so we've been talking and here's what we've heard so far Higley teachers love Higley Higley staff loves Higley our staff feels supported by their administrators substitutes love working in our district they talk about how supported they are by their schools as well as how respectful the students are to them so that I thought that was really cool um ptos on the campuses I saw PTO back there uh they support their campuses and provide the needed supplies for
021all kinds of events and activities overall our employees love the culture that is created here in Higley on behalf of the Higley Education Association executive board I pledge that we will continue to support the collaboration between teachers and staff with Administration so that we as a district can provide the best public education experience for our students thank you guys so much Nancy William nope I'm messing that up overwhelming is there a Nancy Nancy can you please tell me how to say your last name wilming of the time um I'm a grandparent my grandchildren have and do go to deeply schools I'm going to speak about the dress code and I am simply going to read some definitions from the Merriam-Webster dictionary which one would assume to be currently applied in the Higley Unified School District
022number one school an organization that provides instruction to acquired knowledge or skill number two instruction formal teaching number three educate implies development of the Mind four standard established by Authority having recognized and permanent value number five code a system of principles number six discipline training in habits of order and rules number seven decency code of ethics socially accepted Behavior conduct that conforms to a standard of right or wrong profession a vocation trade or occupation number nine skill proficiency at executing something with all these words and definitions in mind these are the reasons we send our children to school this is the guidance we expect in order to set them on a path to achieving their individual goals I find the need for a very clear dignified established dress code to be much needed requirement in
023our schools this will habituate our children to an environment and a manner of dressing that will enhance and optimize their chances of success as adults thank you Linda Manning oh I'm sorry yes I missed one sorry Ginger Smith hi my name is ginger Smith I have three girls in the area and I feel like we're forgetting that we're not just raising girls we are trying to raise women to be leaders in society but we're allowing them to believe that they're nothing but objects when we allow our children whose brains are not completely formed yet to believe that they're in control over what they get to wear I want them to be able to express themselves but we need to be leading by example and sharing with them that express yourself in dignity and respect if
024you can't respect yourself I'm not sure how you can respect others so it's a distraction yes that's also a concern but also just we need to be raising these girls to be women in society and to have that self-respect and dignity that's what we need to really focus on as a society that's all I have for tonight Linda Manning hi good evening thanks for having me and hi I just wanted to address the Peaks behind me um I've been part of the Higley school district for 18 years my husband and I adopted my three grandchildren they went to Cortina they went to Sossaman and they came over to the high school there might be people in this room that might recognize me I was a permanent fixture in Cortina in Sossaman in Higley High School
025daily um when I took on my grandchildren we had certain standards my daughter had gone through a rough time and because of that we reached in to save these children I was very happy with the Higley school district and I will go on to say one statement sex sells that has been the mantra for as far back as I can remember from toothpaste to toilet paper chocolate doesn't matter Hollywood all the rest of it it's all about that what I had seen over these years that my grandchildren were attending here one who was the head of the the yearbook another one that got an award for Trailblazer um all with 4.0 grade point averages the youngest one just started ASU doing wonderfully my husband was in the Marine Corps he died with four purple hats
026we had strict rules at home children need boundaries they beg for boundaries never once did I ever see and God bless her I became very good friends with Nancy diab who was the principal at coitina and as my children left Cortina and they went over to Sossaman so did she and when she left there and she came over to Higley so did they so I've known her for a very very long time she knew the Dynamics of my household it's me I get that second pick um she knew the Dynamics of my household and because of that she knew how important it was for me to keep a very close watchful eye on my grandchildren because my daughter suffered at the hands of an abuser a sexual abuser um a groomer my my antenna erupt
027I don't know if we have numbers of how many in the different school districts and departments that have been charged with sexual assault it might be a number we want to look into but when I walked into the high school one day and I saw this girl come walking out I thought to myself where the hell am I are you kidding me right now somebody led her out the door like this shame on the parent however at the same token the school has allowed it Nancy diab had a motto a school dance my granddaughter came down over the stairs I said new get those shoes off first of all you'll be carrying them all night second of all Nancy's her it could be a school dance shingles lasagna Getty so me being Italian I was
028all over that if they weren't in the dress code they were not allowed entry these girls need to be respected thank you your time I know who's in that school and what they're thinking while they're peering down thank you your time is up thank you you can see what they had thank you your time is up moving on to the consent agenda I make a motion that we approve item 6.1 through 611. all those in favor aye opposed any post no but I do have a comment do you want to finish the vote and then make the comment okay so all four zero yes okay four to zero this is Van Hook um and the only reason why I'm commenting is because I didn't get the answers to the questions till after the agenda was
029posted but I did see that there was a question regarding um the s supplementals for staff and there was a question in regards to an amount that was on there due to a contract of a little over four thousand dollars and it was asked how this was an elementary teacher receiving certain amount but it was the response back to that question was this is an error should read hea president stipend to which my response was um that this was discussed in a previous board meeting um that I still don't understand why we are using taxpayer dollars to pay stipends to the AGA president when they are getting their dues paid by teachers to represent them so if they're attending events as an hea rep uh [Music] why are we using taxpayer dollars to pay them
030to to do what they signed up to do for hea that's all I just wanted to point that out thank you moving on to information item 7.1 presidential yes we had a board member ask for this policy to be on the board agenda for discussion this is policy beddd Rules of Order we also have Miss Jennifer McClellan here should we have questions or need additional clarification perfect thank you I believe this is when you need to sorry again okay um so I asked for this policy to be brought forward um due to the reason that uh at the last board meeting when we were discussing um the dress code uh board vice president Anderson made a motion to amend the policy and I seconded that motion and we had a vote on the floor and
031instead of voting on that motion another emotion was made to table it um and then that motion got a second and that one got a vote but the original motion that was made was dismissed and so the Amendments never were made uh because that motion never got a vote so I wanted to to um ask that we amend the Rules of Order um to say that um to so under the line where it says the motion requirement where each motion um each action requires emotion all motions must be seconded before discussion or voting and then to add an order of motion which would State emotion must be voted on before another motion can be made um to because otherwise we can just keep making motions on top of everybody's motions and the initial motion could
032never get a vote so that's just something that I wanted to get added to this policy so if we added that to the policy then the second um Vote or the second the amended would never have made it so Mrs Anderson's never would have been able to make that motion because we've already if we voted and presumably the boat would have died um it wouldn't have passed we wouldn't have been able to add something else to the agenda for a new vote because it's not on the agenda so it never would have happened if I am I correct Madam president Ms Van Hook I think what you're saying is that if that language were added that you couldn't amend emotion and I do believe that would be a unintended consequence of that language and if
033that language is added you will also have to reconcile the discrepancy between that language and the language later in your policy that states that emotion to table is in order at any time so that so the motion would have never been able to happen because it would have died and it's not on our agenda and so that's what essentially we would be eliminating the ability to even amend an agenda item am I saying I just want to make sure asking legal so that I'm saying that correctly Madam president miss van hook so if if that language is added if emotion was made you would have to vote on it to be able to amend it um and once you vote on an agenda item there would not be the ability then it either passes or
034fails so you're correct that once that emotion is made you would not be able to amend it you would have to vote on it and then if it didn't pass you would be required to consider it at the next board meeting because the the agenda item itself is the original motion correct that's why that is because the agenda item to discuss we have to do an original motion so that that's the first motion the amendment was in fact the second Motion in order of what happened for the dress code so not not just speaking for an amendment but in any situation if there's a motion made on any situation not just an amendment and then somebody can just make a motion on top of that Madam president how do we resolve the situation where if
035there's emotion to be able to to vote on the motion other than other than tabling can they make any other motion on top of another motion without getting a vote Madam president Ms Van Hook under your current rules you could make a motion and then amend the motion that's what happened the night that we were doing the second read for the dress code policy and that's permissible both under your current rules and under Robert's Rules of Order um and similarly your governing board policy beddd allows a motion to table at any time as does Robert's Rules of Order um but the language that you're proposing currently would require that once emotion is made in second it be voted on if I understand your language correctly and that would eliminate the ability for the board to
036amend a motion got it okay any other questions concerns this is me I would also like to express I think the only reason we tabled over that amendment is because neither the policy itself the agenda item would have passed because based off conversation only two of us supported it the way it was when you motion for the amendment it also still would not have passed because only two people supported with the amendment attached which is why we tabled it to readdress and then come back at a different date so it wasn't yeah in particular it's just the policy itself that's fair but I I feel like I I think it's important that if we're making an amendment the idea that you would have another motion to amend something else logistically we would have to vote
037before we look at a second amendment in order to progress so we're making sure we're keeping in line with our language a motion to a table I think should be protected in terms of superseding so if we have another situation in which we can't come to a consensus and we can't move forward instead of it dying come back and give it life again the other thing it would do is handcuff us to be able to make an amendment so if you did want to make an amendment or if somebody wanted to make Amendment on the board they wouldn't no longer be allowed to do so I understand thank you any other questions okay moving on to 7.2 uh bdg School attorney the first read and this is yes Mrs Richards or Mrs Van Hook okay
038it's it's a board member asks for this policy bdg School attorney to for discuss ion all right um so for this policy um uh the second sentence where it says the superintendent shall designate those employees of the district categorically or individually who may consult with staff attorney or an attorney from a pool of which the district is a member um so there's three things that on this policy I wanted to see if we can amend so for that section um if we were to switch the verbiage to say the superintendent can recommend District staff to the board for approval to consult with district attorney um and then um yeah so that whole sentence would switch to that to where the recommendation would come to the board and then the board would approve that recommendation you
039know I wish we had this in front of us because I'm having trouble following sorry so the second paragraph that's on the current policy to be changed to so instead of the superintendent designating the employees that could contact or consult with the attorney that the superintendent would recommend District staff to the board for approval um to consult with district attorney can I ask why you would like that um for the purpose of being able to uh bring back some of the controls to the board because based on this policy a lot of the attorney responsible like contacts with the attorney are attached to the superintendent and I believe that that should be something that the board should be able to approve or deny I think there's some unintended consequences with language like that um because
040don't take the words exactly it's just a recommendation no I I hear you and I I understand your purpose um but there's a lot of legal matters that are a time of the of essence and for instance our next board meetings not until October 11th um we have special education that works with attorneys all the time to make sure that you know laws are changed and that we're following what we're supposed to and and things like that they work hand in hand with the attorneys from the trust in our our pool of attorneys that we can can work with HR if there is a a Personnel issue that we need advice from an attorney I mean if if there's a tough situation that we're dealing with and we need to get advice from attorneys before
041we can can do something to make sure we're legally covered they wouldn't be able to do that until we gave approval these individuals are selected ahead of time well that's what this says is they're essentially it's cabinet members who if need be can reach out to District or to I want to say the district attorneys that the attorneys that represent our district so it's not anyone individually that's that's being able to do that um the superintendent's not going and saying oh well you have permission to to contact an attorney now if there's a situation that our superintendent's handling with an individual and it may not be one of our cabinet members that we need some legal advice on that the superintendent is going to make that initial phone call together and say hey this is
042our situation I have this person with me um can you help us and even if at that point our superintendent has to bow out for whatever reason but individuals don't within our district just don't have the authority to go and use the council that represents the district right there are certain like it says categorically so SP you know special education director not anyone within special education has the ability to to utilize our our Council right so those those people are are selected ahead of time anyway right yes there there are certain departments and head of departments I guess if you will those individuals may consult with right with an attorney um so what difference would it make to have those approved by the board okay so now that sounds something different to me so you're
043asking that the individuals be identified it sounded like you were asking before they could contact Council no that okay ahead of time yeah so instead of leaving it so vague on just individuals similar to what we have approved for the um hearing officers like you got a list so if we can have a list of who has the authority to do that right is what you're asking and to be able to as a board approve that list like annually or something okay I thought you were asking that before they could contact legal counsel that it had to come before them no no no and I like that was not gonna work out well okay that makes some different sense I'll leave that for some discussion at that point um should I go on with the
044rest or do we Is there further discussion just for that line Madam president may I be here on one concern that I have um so if what the board is proposing is to allow the superintendent to give a list and only those people are authorized to contact legal counsel um there is a concern that I would have that if another individual in your district is required to speak with legal counsel and they're not on that list that that might be a violation of your policy and I'll give you some examples so today I spoke with to a district principal District assistant principal urgent matter related not your school district related to a proposed expulsion and if those individuals certainly the assistant principals are not likely to be on that list that was the individual who
045had the knowledge that I needed another situation that comes up frequently is where you all are subpoenaed your individuals employees are subpoenaed sometimes that's your teachers and so typically those those individuals would never be authorized to get legal consult but they are under your current agreements so if if you are going to adopt language like that you would still need to give your superintendent discretion to approve the use of legal counsel for those times when those individuals couldn't come back to the board to get your approval I think your intent is to initiate is that correct I mean because in those circumstances yes those individuals would need to speak with legal counsel but they're not necessarily the ones who initiated the right yeah so for there to be an initial list and then from there
046like as needed basis and again like I these whatever I wrote down isn't obviously the legal language that would be in there but um just to get the point across is to be able to just like those officers to be able to get an approved list initially and then if there's other you know emergency cases that need to be added so did those individuals let's say somebody is subpoenaed did they caught contact you directly or do they contact Sherry and and then go through Sherry to get to the attorney Madam president miss Van Hook in in all instances in all school districts that I work with especially with the prepaid legal system there are only um it would go through the superintendent or the superintendent's designee to make contact with the attorney for the public
047body to get the legal resource so I believe that happens already I have not been contacted directly by anyone other than Sherry Richards since she's taken the home got it yeah yeah right just not to talk to but initiate that right can I ask a clarifying question I'm just trying to understand I guess the necessity of it outwardly I look at everybody that exists within the district office and within our our district as a whole and I wouldn't know or have any real reason to have an understanding of what I would be approving in terms of what needs to be done versus what's not what is a good list what isn't and I think part of that is because that's I mean that's not my job right and I I guess I'm just trying to
048understand like if the desire is because you want more control from the board to be able to have a say in some of these things I I understand that for certain for certain areas I guess I'm just confused as to why this is an area of concern like what about the current system and how it is being done are we unsatisfied with um that would require or necessitate a change just to have more control in an area that I just don't understand the reasoning from it I guess is what I'm trying to understand like what what do we hope to gain from this considering none of us even based off the questions we've had from the lawyer as we discussed this really have any clear idea on how frequently how often or in what situation
049who is needed right so in that case if you apply that to these officers do we have that information about these officers but we're still having to make that approval right as a board we're having to vote on these officers so same would apply here um I think what's happened is um and in reality like I think a lot of the boards um work has been or or the board's Authority has been given to the superintendent versus the Board having to do those things and so it's it's a matter of us as a board being able to have a decision in that um and obviously it would be in conjunction with working with the superintendent to identify those people but the ultimate um approval would come from the board I guess I guess what I'm
050hung up on is I mean a we hire the superintendent that is where our Authority comes in we are the ones who approve policies I'm just it feels like there's a lack of trust of individuals to do their jobs and I'm just trying to understand for example the the hearing people that get recommended to us it's because they have done their processes already any of the time some of these things come up for our approval it's because they have done their processes already and I think it's important for us to ask questions and I think it's important for us to to get justification for decisions when we need them I just this feels to me like like an effort to to have more control over something for the sake of control rather than expression that
051we can trust the individuals in there if our control came down to this is a policy or decision that we could have an understanding or an impact of like I I don't care if at the end of the day we have the list and we go okay good on you for that list but I still want to make sure that the the ultimate practice of us as a board in conjunction with everybody that works from staff to district office as a whole is that we trust the people to do their job that are in that job and then when we have reason to not trust that is when we start following the procedures and policies we have in place so I guess I just don't really understand the the the Merit of it right and
052and this isn't a trust issue just like they do the work and bring us these officers to approve they would do the work and bring us this list to approve as well it's there's really I mean it's not a trust issue it's just being able to have that as the role of the board which technically it should be but go ahead Michelle uh Miss Richards I'm not sure if this for you is it is it McLennan or McClellan it's McLennan McLennan yeah there's no problem I'm not sure call me anything Jennifer is fine um when we are approving the uh hearing officers tell my voice is going to hearing officers or the evaluators we've also approved that list is that something that we are mandated to approve or are we given those names by the
053district per policy or is that just a nice thing that you guys do for us Madam president miss Anderson it the I believe the list of hearing officers you're talking about is a list of hearing officers to hold hearings for personnel matters and that sort of thing and it is mandated that you decide as a board whether you're going to hear the hearings yourself or whether you're going to approve the hearing officers you're also required to approve them because you have to procure them so there's two reasons for that requirement this would be discretionary uh I can address members of the board the hearing officers I think that we're referring to tonight is for the long-term suspension expulsion hearing officers it's on the agenda on the consent agenda those individuals are brought forward because they've
054been through and certified by the trust as a trust certified hearing officer to conduct long-term suspension or expulsion hearings now they they're certified because of the trust s that we only use a hearing officer that's been through their training and that will help to keep the school district out of litigation to ensure due process is granted if there ever is an expulsion or long-term suspension so that's a little bit of a different comparison because those individuals if we're going to be backed by the trust for potential litigation we need to make sure that we're using one of their certified hearing officers who have been certified passed through the program and had gone through their standards to be able to hold hearings so that's why that list is approved because if we didn't use a trust
055hearing officer and the hearing was botched and we came back and ended up in litigation we wouldn't have the support of the trust potentially answers the hearing officers what about our evaluators for staff so we're required to make sure our evaluators are qualified evaluators and have gone through training so we always bring you that list of Administrators that are qualified to do that so next section um the oops the fourth paragraph um currently says the superintendent and the board president shall be designated as the representatives of the district who may confer with Council the district will not be responsible for fees that accrue because of an unauthorized individual board members or staff consultation with private Council um my recommendation is to change that to say that the superintendent and all board members shall be designated
056as representative of the district who may confer with Council for guidance and clarification on legal matters affecting the district or the board um and then obviously the the line that says the district will not be responsible for fees because unauthorized staff consultation with private Council um the main thing here is being able to add all board members because if there's ever a situation where uh one or two board members or three it doesn't matter the number of board members but if the issue is um let's say with the superintendent or if there's an issue with the board president or whatever and other board members need to be able to contact legal counsel with our current policy we're not able to do that and as as board members I shouldn't have to go through the board
057president or through the superintendent to be able to speak to legal counsel I think that we were all elected into these seats for a reason and we're all equally board members and just because one carries a title of board president that shouldn't be an you know it shouldn't exclude all the other board members to be able to have equal access to legal counsel when when and if we have questions um so that is why I'd like to be able to add all board members in there um and then um at the end of the last paragraph where it says only the superintendent may contact private Council by telephone or in person regarding matters pertaining to day-to-day operations of the district um this I don't know if the top portion what I just added would if
058we were able to change that to all board members would kind of help that section but to protect the board if there was an instance where there was an issue with the superintendent and the day -to-day operations then are we not allowed to contact legal counsel regarding that but not at where it says only the superintendent well there's two different things there because we're not we're we're not responsible for the day-to-day the superintendent is but if at that point is is we don't have an issue with the day-to-day operation we have an issue with the superintendent so we would have our board president contact legal regarding our superintendent not the day-to-day operation so the nitty-gritty getting in the weeds of the day-to-day operation is it's kind of cause and effect that may be the reason
059that there's an issue with the superintendent is what's happening in the day-to-day but we went and contact them regarding the day-to-day at that point the the board is contacting legal counsel regarding our superintendent because then at that point our issue is with our superintendent right not our day-to-day so I just I just feel like there it might be like contradictory um or maybe the verbiage can change to where in cases where legal matters relate to the superintendent the board shall have the right to resolve such issue and may contact private Council wording is the way it is because this is a a board policy like our our policy and all of them are board policies but it's regarding board members and that um board members should not be involved in the day-to-day operations that's that's
060not within our purview it's not within what we do and so I think that that's the reason it states that is that if we don't if we don't like how something's happening and going from one Department to another department we just we don't like that process and and we have some legal concerns about it that's about the day-to-day operation like we shouldn't be contacting legal counsel about the day-to-day that should be a conversation with our superintendent and we can express our concerns if there is any legal concerns or anything and then that's when they would contact legal counselor you can contact them together or whatever but I think that the reason it's worded that way is because board members don't don't and shouldn't be involved in the day-to-day operation it's not the day-to-day that I'm
061concerned about it's just as board members being able to contact legal counsel um yeah but I think that's that part that last sentence that you were talking about I think it's purposely in there to avoid board members trying to get legal counsel and guidance regarding the day-to-day operations right so I think that the reason the wording is that way is is to try and and avoid that saying that our policy we agree as board members this is our policy that we we are not permitted to do the day-to-day operations to contact legal counsel and then um and uh the section says the attorney retained by by the board shall communicate directly with the governing board on such legal matters so if we were to con it's not on in the policy that's just recommended like
062where is it um so when as a board we do contact legal counsel that they have the right to speak directly to the board and not have to go through um the superintendent now my experience and Miss McClellan can jump in my experiences anytime we've had to involve legal counsel whether it's be contracts whether it's personal issues or anything that the board has been involved in legal um once that contact is made in here it's saying through the board president that at that point that conversation between legal can happen between individual board members where if they needed to speak to you about something that they could contact you without the superintendent so once the initial consult and process for whatever the situation is going once legal counsel has been involved if there is a need
063to talk to individual board members they do that um as well as then the communication back that if there's an email you know if they need to keep us updated on something that they they would email the board directly and not necessarily it doesn't mean the superintendent's not aware but not it doesn't mean it has to go from the superintendent to the board members that then there is that conversation and and everything directly with legal I uh I agree with the with what the point you're making with the the second part of the language and the day-to-day operations but I want to pose a hype you know for the first one regarding just the board president the superintendent and the board president show hypothetically what if there's a situation where the superintendent not miss Richards
064um was you know handling money or doing things in in you as a board member not the president were aware of it and the president at the time was unwavering in the support for the superintendent not saying this has ever happened before how would that be handled Mr Clinton I think I mean from your standpoint um I'll let you answer before I give mine okay Madam president Ms Anderson and and Ms Reese it's a good point if the board in other words your point is if the board president's cutting off access to the attorney then how would you get around that if you're not provided and the answer is very simple you ask for an executive session any board member has the right to ask for an executive session and the attorney would come the
065policy as written is for the purpose of limiting your legal fees I did just have a slide bar with uh with Mr Moore and he indicated that your prepaid legal usage has more than doubled tripled in the last year so there's a good purpose to try to limit access to the attorney um and the other concept that you'll have to be aware of if when you're tinkering with this policy is that if one of you has a conversation with the attorney for the public body that attorney cannot is also a conduit under the open meeting law and can't reach open meeting law so the attorney can't have and multiply conversations between the five of you in um in breach of that law so there's a reason for that reason to have one person designated the
066other issue is that attorneys work for the board as a whole I represent when I represent Higley unified I represent both your District administration and the five of you so it to get direction from the attorney like you have an agenda item today to give direction to the attorney for the public body and the reason you have that is because the five of you have to come to consensus and direct the attorney so if you have multiple board members contacting council with multiple Direction being given and on whatever matter might be at exists the attorney is not going to have a clear course of action and is not going to be able to act and sometimes those actions have to be taken rapidly so um they're they're uh the policy as written is adopted by
067the majority of school district sandersella for the purpose of providing clear direction to the attorney not allowing the attorney to hear to their ethical obligations Ms Reese brought up the point that for the most part if there is an issue that concerns another board member they are given access and that you receive Communications as a board as a whole from your attorneys when necessary and that should be the practice of all the law firms that you work with um so that you you may want to consider to address Ms van Hook's concern two things number one if any board member has a legal question you should be able to ask your superintendent to get the answer and that answer should be provided to the five of you so if that's not happening that would be
068a communication tool you could use without amending board policy but you could also consider amending board policy to add that at the discretion of the governing board president authorization may be given to an individual board member to contact Council and that would address Ms van Hook's concern but also limit your legal costs um sorry did you have a question yeah um yeah so I I just I wanted to be able to get something in policy um mainly for the purpose that hypothetically speaking issue with board president or superintendent and not being able to go through them that we still have an ability to be able to call and ask a question um even without having to call an executive session I mean it would be awful to have to have to call an executive session
069and pay for you to come all the way out here when it's a simple question that could be answered over the phone Madam president Ms Van Hook I do think you would have that Avenue just not in through the telephone through email um to forward your question to the superintendent and get an answer back but if you can't include the superintendent due to an issue what do you do then it again Madam president Ms Van Hook if you are want to discuss the employment of the superintendent you should call for an executive session to get your legal advice because that especially in that situation um most open meeting law allegations that come forward concern Personnel actions so you have to be very cautious especially in that situation if you have con if any board member
070wants to discuss the superintendent's employment you employ her or him and you would just call for an executive session with Council to discuss that matter could potentially another Avenue be and I it could be a roundabout Avenue but kind of what you're talking about if for some reason there's a concern and what Mrs Anderson said like they're unwavering could you request an agenda item that the board authorize a member then at that point to seek legal advice I mean it's not pretty if you can't go to your if you can't go to your board president and you can't go to your superintendent you have a situation obviously going on um and could you not then have an agenda item where you ask the majority of the board that they be given permission I know we
071can vote on allowing someone to represent the board somewhere where we are authorizing that person to be the board representation for whatever it is could we not ask for an agenda item and say you know I I really feel the need to seek legal counsel and I would like permission from the majority of the board my concern there is then the majority doesn't really have an idea due to open meeting law what it's about to then be be able to say yes or no well that's that's Madam president miss Reese you you could ask for an agenda item to authorize an alternative board member to contact legal counsel you can also there's also the viable option of of switching officers mid-year so if you're if the majority of the board is feels that the board
072president's not representing the interest of the board as a whole so something else I would like to um at least keep in mind as a board member individually I one thing I appreciate is that when that does happen we're all given the same info and I feel like the fact that Avenues exist so we can call an executive session or the roundabout changing mid-year those types of things I I just want to make sure that all of us are on the same footing I think giving opportunities to do things that aren't currently already in place or aren't currently functioning given the fact that as it stands it is functioning right um I just I think there is potential for problems and it feels reminiscent of things that have happened in years past and that you
073have certain individuals who are given directives or believe they're given directives because they viewed something that was said to them differently and they're the only ones that have that information and then that continues to happen and it results in in us being ineffective right like I think we are a governing body for a reason this is something that we should do as a collective group and so I I guess I don't feel personally the way things are structured that we aren't we aren't getting the opportunity should this you know doomsday scenario present itself I think there are things in in place but I also think should that situation arise my hope would be that more than just a singular board member is aware of the fact that things don't seem to be following through so
074for example I sent out an email saying can you ask legal this and I never get a response back or my response is different I think that gives us opportunity then to start looking at executive sessions start doing those types of things right because I I just want to make sure we're all on the same page and have the same information because that can get us into some not great situations and to that point which is why I feel like we as board members all should have equal rights to be able to contact legal counsel in case there is a situation where we can't go through the super or um or the board president I hear you on that I think the only thing that gives me a concern based off of what legal has
075expressed to us is the cost I I think it is important for us to keep in mind our goal is to try to make sure that we're spending money in an area that is beneficial to the larger Community beneficial to students I believe that's why every single person is in this room at the end of the day is for the students and I I guess my concern is and instead of us channeling it through one of the two Avenues to where if you get multiple you can do it as one email instead of individual the billing potential of that the legal fees of that become really big and then I feel like we have to stand up here and then defend why we are essentially wasting public funds for things that still have that opportunity
076right so like I feel like if there is a situation that is of the magnitude with which you are describing we have options that exist I think funneling things to to limit our prepaid legal cost is important when we are struggling to finance other things throughout District well I mean you know you look at the situation uh we're all adults we understand that we don't want to overspend and charge the district you know any extra funds but to you know and and we keep that in mind when there are things that we might want to question and obviously if we can go through the superintendent and be able to ask them questions we would do that um but as a as a last resort um to be able to have that right as a board
077member to not be limited um and to know that if there is ever a situation where we can't go through these two people that that option does exist in policy um and anything else minor questions or whatever it is that yes those you know we can go through through them um but if there's a situation where we can't then and to be able to have that right as a board member but we do have that right as it was expressed right we have the right to ask for an executive session we have the right to do those things should you feel that situation arises so again I I'm inclined to to say funnel it through the channels that are currently in place as a policy that's been in place and has seemed to function just
078fine to limit prepaid legal cost and again should the situation arise where we need that we call an executive session and have the opportunity of doing that and it also again gives the benefit is all of us as a board member a governing body are accessing that same information at the same time with legal counsel separate of superintendent if you feel it needs to be I I don't think the last resort option doesn't exist it does right but the cost of calling an executive session versus a phone call in the scenario you're creating I think that's a legal fee I'm okay with if we have a superintendent who is skirting questions and refusing to go to Legal I I think that is something I can stand and justify in front of the community and say
079yes I'm okay with paying this money right because what may be a big issue to you may not be a big issue to me and that's part of the reason why we funnel it in the same way so you may view what I view as a level two as a level four and decide to contact and and do that executive or not the executive session the the extended legal fees and that may not be the same place like I I hear what you're saying my point is the process already exists we have those options and should it be a situation that is a dire situation I think an executive session is definitely warranted in that completely because in that session we can talk about do we look at new superintendent do we vote for a
080new president I mean I think those things exist and that's why having an executive session to do that in those moments is part of policy [Music] so Madam president Ms Van Hook what I would suggest is that uh Miss Vendo has proposed language that she'd like to see as a second read if you can send that language to Ms Richards then I will attempt to make those changes to the proposed policy and it would come back for a second read um I don't hear consensus that does not move forward at this time so thank you moving on to action items 8.1 ratify I move that we ratify payroll and expense vouchers all those in favor aye aye all those opposed I abstain from the vote okay motion passes four to zero one thank you four
081zero one um moving on to action item 8.2 approval overnight of overnight and or out-of-state staff travel I make a motion that we approve 8.2 seconded all those in favor aye all those opposed Christina I didn't know if there was any conversation before the vote oh uh questions comments concerned because I'm assuming there's a reason it was pulled up oh sorry so it's going down um I do have some things to say about this so um looking at the nctm math conference um I'd like to read some of the BIOS from the presenters uh sorry I'm not sure if I'm going to pronounce it correctly but Jamila is the first Speaker uh while we may feel a sense of urgency to address deep-rooted Equity issues our attempts are often thwarted by landmines that can be
082identified and removed through strategic analysis creative action through storytelling real world examples we explore why it is so hard to move Equity uh work forward while beginning to find the courage to move towards Next Generation models for school transformation and unhinge ourselves from a legacy of implementation over imagination second speaker Kevin let's identify the purpose of learning math consider the existing structures and what changes should be made examined how to equitably teach mathematics and help our students see themselves as capable learners Equitable equitably teaching math I'm not sure what that means um but uh I would assume that everybody within our district is equally and equitably taught math Julia and Karen two math educators of color challenge conventional wisdom and discuss essential non-negotiate negotiable elements needed to transform the math learning space to one that
083cultivates mouth joy and justice Crystal Watson Crystal has worked along other Scholars to develop culturally responsive reflective and or anti-racist curriculum resources that centers young people in every lesson and those that don't know culturally responsive teachings is the same as CRT just in different words Luke Wilcox Luke believes that traditional lectures based on math class needs to be disrupted in order to achieve more Equitable outcomes for all students [Music] um last but not least one of the workshops necessary but not sufficient building on five equity-based practices that impact identity in K-12 mathematics in this pre-conference Workshop we discuss actionable strategies that K-12 teachers and leaders can use to go beyond Equity as the ultimate goal working towards Equity is a necessary but not sufficient step to counter white supremacy anti-blackness xenophobia and other systemic forces
084that act on and shape mathematics education wow in this pre-conference Workshop we will explicitly discuss actionable strategies to dismantle systematic and anti-black racism in K-12 mathematics I don't know anybody who would say that there's anti-black racism in math if there is any racism in any of our classroom I would expect for it to be reported as racism is never okay and neither is teaching anti-racism by being racist hmm the other travel conference that's on here is the NS nceca conference the National Council on education for ceramic Arts um ceramic Arts connects us to physically to physical and cognitive experiences that Foster environments of cultural Equity diversity access and inclusion a Ceramics conference yet they still push this Marxist agenda I guess these organizations have to keep up with their ESG scores we continue to send
085our Educators on taxpayer dime to events such as this that is again extremely divisive about Dei social emotional learning critical race Theory it's supposed to be math and Ceramics conference how about keeping it about mouth and Ceramics instead of pushing and teaching Marxist agenda which is one of the reasons why so many parents are pulling their kids from public education at what point do we say we are for public education and we are going to do what is necessary to prevent parents from pulling their children and that no we will not participate in such training the more we participate the more they will keep doing it if we truly cared about public education we would stop funding these organizations that's all I have to say thank you uh presidential board member Van Hook um so
086there's a lot uh to cover and I will do my best to keep it as succinct as possible the first thing I want to address is the Equitable practices in math for example IEPs ensure Equitable practices for example you have some individuals who have difficulty with numbers you have some individuals with difficulty recalling certain types of information and so because of that they have certain IEP accommodations to help bring them up to the same level that's what Equitable practices mean by that it's not the idea is we do want everybody to be equivalent Equitable but not everybody's at the same starting point and not everybody has the same toolbox available to them so we make sure everybody has access to the same tools I hear and understand that these words are troubling for you because
087we routinely have these types of conversations um but the the nature of Equitable practices in education is vital otherwise students get ignored their needs their desires their their ability to perform and Shine for us is limited if we don't ensure that they have access to the same toolbox um as far as diversity in math I am a white individual so it is difficult for me to be able to express from a personal standpoint ways in which people are discriminated against for their for their outward appearance what I can tell you with respect to math and it is similar with respect to differing diversity groups for example we are all four women on this board and we all went to school at varying times in the past some of us were probably good at math and
088our teachers never encouraged us because we were women and the expectation was we couldn't do the same the point of ensuring these types of training and ensuring these type of Equitable practices is because we have biases that we're both aware of and sometimes unaware of and so we want to make sure that we correct for these things to ensure that we're providing for all of our students regardless of their Circumstance the opportunity to perform and shine in the same ways I hear your concern with things like CRT we have repetitively talked about how that's not taught in our schools and that's all we can care about at the present moment right we have talked about how the importance of making sure our students succeed all of us have talked about how it's for the students
089these Equitable practices are part of that right I hear that the language outwardly especially if we're already primed to be reactive to some of these words and then the conclusion is well it must be horrible what I'm trying to express to you especially in certain subject areas there are an important need to create Equitable practices because there are learning situations in which they don't have the same toolbox available they don't have that opportunity so I I guess my question to you when you hear these types of things we also have members of our community who are persons of color we are for white women representing a community of diversity there are some people in this community who are so very grateful that our teachers go to trainings that let them see their child and they
090know that their child will be seen and heard and respected because of these types of training if your concern is the curriculum that comes back again we have curriculum that's provided by the state we have standards that are approved and go through us and we have policies in place if you feel teachers aren't doing those things but the the words and the alarm that you are sounding as a result of some of these things aren't what's happening and the practice and the need is a must because students will suffer if we don't ensure these types of practices [Music] so are we saying that we have teachers currently that don't see children of color I'm saying the opportunity exists and that's why we go through training to learn what cultural norms are and to learn how
091to present these things um how does this kind of training that our teachers attend how does that look to our white students I mean it should it should it should it should apply to all the kids there shouldn't be anything with color we shouldn't be sending teachers to train on how to be anti-black if we have teachers that see a black person as a problem then they shouldn't be working but these this these types of teachings are racist to begin with ma'am I I hear you in that I agree in a perfect world nobody should be racist full stop the idea that we are colorblind or should be colorblind is non-existent there are I'm white outwardly you can see that I'm white there is there's no denying that that opportunity the idea of Equitable practices
092and me as a wide individual learning that there are aspects of cultural norms there are aspects of differing diversity groups that I am not a part of what that does is it makes me a better teacher to all of my students full stop our white students benefit just as much as our persons of color from Equitable practices we can actually prove it when you look throughout history and you look at efforts we have made to expand civil rights everyone is brought up everyone when we make protections for Ada students with disabilities everyone benefits by these opportunities that that's all this is it's not a big effort or Focus it's not as if any single person and if they are you're right we should follow through with that but we're not having teachers telling specific students
093that they should hate themselves for certain things or that they should do any of this we're literally making our efforts to try to encourage every single person to say you can't succeed and part of that starts with training on how to ensure Equitable practices and it goes beyond just race I need you to understand that there are other things that as a teacher I can benefit from when I learn how to see and meet the needs of every single kid and understanding that those differing needs just means a different set of tools that I can help raise up for success right now we have a curriculum in place and if you have students who are telling us that they are harmed by these things we can talk about it right now I don't see where
094the harm is in making sure our students get seen by all of our staff and there is nothing within this that excludes that because again Equitable practices raise up everybody that's how this works we literally can prove it if you could yeah thank you if you could just so we could keep in control of the meeting refrain from clapping please again teaching uh anti-racism by being racist is not something that we should be sending our teachers to there shouldn't be any type of racism happening within our schools and if you say that there's no CRT being taught in our schools you must have missed maybe you weren't copy on it actually now that I think about it but there was a parent that emailed in um about uh an assignment that their child was given
095at sauceman that was completely CRT um so it does exist and um we don't need to be bringing the stuff back into our school and teaching our kids how to be anti a specific color because kids don't give a crap about color they are friends with whoever they're friends with based on whether they're nice or whether they're you know however they're they're treated and we shouldn't be having teachers bringing this stuff back to our schools so that's all all right um as stated whenever we dealt with the language conference um it's not part of our standards it's I assume for math to teach certain topics and I would assume that if a teacher walked into one of these trainings that was perpetuating or trying to make it seemed like because you're a certain color you're
096racist or if you're not a certain color you're not racist and not saying don't read into what I'm not saying or that certain races can't learn because people have been insulted by that as well um then I imagine because it doesn't fall within our standards or it shouldn't be in our curriculum that they would just walk right out of the the seminar um and I want to believe that we have teachers that are capable of that and know better and if they have questions or doubt themselves or whatever that they reach out to are our instructional coaches they reach out to HR they reach out to miss Richards if they need to but I see both points absolutely being a teacher there are absolute limitations and it can go too far and it can push
097certain topics to go into areas that are untrue or there's areas that absolutely need to be discussed but let's stick to our standards let's stick to what our teachers know what they they should and should not be learning or teaching I guess any other comments questions concerns all those in favor aye all those opposed nay motion carries four to one moving on to 8.3 jica student attire third read imove that we approve this motion questions comments concerns and can I just say we've talked about this three times so I think we've heard everybody's feelings and concerns and yeah well thank you for letting us speak some more and expressing more [Music] um I just wanted I went and listened to both meetings over again and wrote down some points that um were never really clarified
098or that I just want to make sure that we come back to it was brought up that there were 10 schools that have passed this trust policy um I'm sorry thank you District thank you for correcting me um those 10 districts if I think you guys received them possibly um it's Arlington which is between Gila Bend and Tonopah Colorado River by the way so Arlington passed the original one that we received the first time I believe and they have mid-drift included Colorado River which is in Bullhead City they also have midrift in it Dysart which is in Surprise midriff Flagstaff has front has the language of front back side middle of thigh pants or pants that go to the middle of thigh Kyrene um they have a regulation on theirs where they mention needs to
099cover the midriff Lake Havasu also has a regulation with the language of midriff Queen Creek now Queen Creek is interesting um I called them because I said hey I want to listen to your meeting I want to know the dialogue I taught there I didn't even know that there was a change and I was told that they did a full whole all policy approval possibly one maybe two days is that correct you were there I understand Madam president miss Anderson that's correct they did a full reading in one board meeting a study session and then approval okay so it I see it as and correct me if I'm wrong there wasn't huge Dialogue on specific um policies if you will the governing board members answered asked questions as needed as we reviewed the policies I
100don't remember any specific Dialogue on this particular trust model policy okay and Queen Creek is one that does not have the word midriff in it Santa Cruz which is in Rico Arizona includes midriff Show Low includes midriff and Pima which they had posted since and they do include midriff so it's one of the terms we've been battling over to include or not include Gilbert um did not or has not passed this particular policy Mrs Reese in one meeting had asked what the definition or what is midriff how do we Define midriff so I just Googled it and it's the area between the chest and the waist so that's what they're saying specifically that area to be covered uh the neighboring districts so I looked up theirs um so we have Tempe l uh their language
101says cover chest and torso and the clothes to not be see-through Tempe High School and these are in regulations by the way the language to cover the private parts Stomach back chest undergarments and not be see-through Apache Junction was pretty much the exact same language as tempio Chandler wear clothes just don't be disruptive Gilbert was in a regulation it said cover all private parts and don't be see-through Mesa cover midriff private parts and don't be see-through um now the language of torso because I thought we'll cover chest and torso that seemed like the same and then it is it really is redundant to say that but the Torso is defined as the human body apart from the head the neck the arms and the legs so basically include shoulders chest lower abdomen back and buttocks
102I'd even just look what do you mean torso and what do you mean those areas so I'm reading these out specifically because um Miss Reese you were looking for good language and I'm trying to find maybe there's something in other policies that you would appreciate and maybe help guide us to getting the language right so I I do not mean to be condescending in any of this or take up your time but I just want to maybe point out some policies that are out there our current policy that we have in place uh GB EB Dash R so that is the regulation um for staff and kick myself because buried in all my documents but it states that teachers should dress to be an example for students so we expect them to dress literally says
103for students so if we already have that expectation in how they dress then I imagine we would want to follow through with our dress code that it it is similar to that it's in our policy I believe our current policy the one that we're not approving but what is already in place um is similar to most of the neighboring districts or those that um improve the trust language and I feel like it's pretty open we allow piercings there's no language that says no piercings we allow tattoos so there's no language that says you can't have tattoos we can have changing hair color you express it hats back in that day you couldn't wear hats even leggings those tight yoga pants Oh I don't care tank tops wear it wear a tank top um it doesn't
104even mention spaghetti straps it just mentions about showing the bra straps and even myself I I get it you know it's it's incidental a bra strap will show we're not going to dress code girls because that happens um our current policy has no language in fact nobody has mentioned spaghetti straps in our past few meetings but it keeps getting brought up like we had I just want to make sure that that's clear our current policy does not require any measuring either so there's all this mention of measuring we currently do not require measuring in our policy current policy um I'm not against males and females wearing tank tops or even spaghetti straps the incidental exposure straps on undergarments um in fact that's language and a lot of those too um no matter the decision what
105we make a group is will be or feel or will claim to be disappropriate disproportionately impacted I had males who believe male were dress coded more often than females and then I went and asked the females and they felt like they were dress coded more than females I mean more than the males I've asked over 10 female students current and recently graduated their thoughts on current dress code and I made it a point to survey those who were less conservative or not conservative um and those that were conservative I asked for their opinions and as Miss Wade implied to accumor's meeting the students were pretty tough and they were pretty strict on on the expectations oh is it Miss Reese I said that I apologize well kudos to both of you um I specifically asked
106the less conservative females if they if they felt like having a dress code with our current policies expectations so cover the midriff the chest the buttocks if it made them feel like their body was not okay unanimously they're like no um and I'm not naive personally I'm not naive to think these females opinions speak for all females but it's important to know that not all females feel a dress code like ours makes them feel shameful or bad about their body um I also inquired about feeling sexualized with a dress code and again it was unanimous responsive no one response from a female stated that stores songs movies and shows Market the sexualization of females I do find interesting um you know if we're going to talk about disproportionate uh Avid volleyball player played high school
107and college and I recently watching the games if you look at the girl shorts versus the male shorts completely two different links girls are very very short and the males are are like basketball shorts almost they're pretty decently I'm just putting that up there um and we brought a lot about business so a dress code school or business has the sole purpose of promoting professional demeanor personal respect professional respect and focus on the matters of the environment we are not saying skin is not professional we are saying that there is a professional and respectable disposition that can show skin in moderation we are a school district in which students are mandated to attend we are not a Parks and Rec entity in school just like in jobs there is a time and place for certain
108dress not all places of employment have the same expectations for dress but the majority of different career fields and jobs available have dress codes that expect employees to cover their midriff their bust in their buttocks for decency for the representation of the business for safety for camaraderie and professionalism these are some places I went to I went to department stores professional dress covered engineering firms covered they can wear shorts now by the way some of those firms are pretty casual grocery stores covered gaming stores covered Medical Offices of course construction companies and sites covered a financial institutions hardware stores hotels an airline and an airport emergency responders my city offices I've been in legal offices now restaurants is interesting I might be a little too open in my past life but um well so I've
109gone to I believe two breweries if you will um the dress was there were some short shorts and there were some midriffs but that was a brewery and it was laid back and we were all enjoying the evening I may or may not have a been like to some other entertainment type venues where there was not a lot of clothes on I'll mention Hooters Hooters would be one example not very covered but this was interesting whenever I was Googling Hooters so a Hooters amends recently amends their uniform policy after employees condemned disturbing new shorts so Hooters wanted the girls to wear shorts beyond the shorts that I don't know the last time you've been but pretty short to where the girls were describing them as underwear like it's short and they did not want to
110wear them and and it created such a backlash that Hooters had to say okay you can choose which short shorts you can wear I found that interesting [Applause] um there was a comment at um from a public member or member of the public regarding my research on the top 100 schools that I think the language was three of the top schools have a minimal dress code and that's three of the best um it I I just like my students I welcome The Challenge and I did I sat my butt back down and I went through all of it again um well I got to 49 I'm like I'm done um if I could just borrow your ears for a second just so you know I I don't want to give you false information that is
111not my my intention is at all the tops and this was 22-23 when I went to it today they had already switched to I'm sorry that was 2122 that was all they had and then as of today they were already at 22 23 and there's been Minor Adjustments not big but the top school which I believe is still number one to this past school year is in Virginia their language says I'm picking the ones that would anyway exposes gen so you cannot expose genitalia chest buttocks underwear or undergarments due to transparency length or lack of coverage all right and then we go to school number two which is in South Carolina undergarments shall not be exposed in any time clothing shall not reveal bare skin between the upper chest and mid thigh short skirts and
112dresses shall be of adequate length and is to assure modesty and that's not enough there's more if you need me to go further but I figured that was enough to drive that point for the second highest School the third school was in Indiana wearing low-rise baggie or sagging pants that reveal any skin or undergarments is prohibited see-through or sheer garments are prohibited length of shorts or skirts should be at least fingertip length when arms are resting at the side of the body the wearing of low-cut tops or blouses should be avoided number four is in Miami Florida any revealing clothes or tight outfits or items with Graphics that are offensive or create disruption inadequate coverage any revealing clothes or tight outfits and again inadequate coverage that's I'm just highlighting the language number five was in
113Chicago now they were one of them that didn't have specific they just went to having a sexual explicit images suggestive clothing or pornography on their clothes and it's a the administration will make the determination if it's battered or not adequate or not the sixth one Reno Nevada absolutely could not find anything for their school and there's one that I called and emailed and still didn't get a response I just find that odd number seven in Tennessee any dress considered too revealing will not be allowed see-through outfits bare midriffs open back slow cut tops tube tops tank tops halter tops do you see how our district is a little um I don't know I don't want to say better but not as looking forward you know what I'm getting at number eight Dallas Texas halter tops
114you can't have revealing or provocative the length of the dresses skirts and shorts will be no shorter than fingertip length um going on to number nine in Georgia shirts shirts that expose the waist and or cleavage are not allowed low cut see-through and or backless shirts uh the pants shorts and skirts must be worn at the waist so number 10 is I'll just stop at number 10 just so you can go to the top ones is in uh Pennsylvania shorts and skirts must be at knee length or longer garments intended to be used as undergarments must be covered appropriately sleeveless tank tops and camisole tops are not permitted tube tops tops to reveal midriff and exposed backs are not permanent those are our top ten there's one that wasn't very detailed just said the admin
115will determine and there's one I could not find top ten um if you need me to go further I absolutely will I'll hang out afterwards you're willing but I've got like 80 pages in here so if you want me to keep going I'm just kidding um but Christina I don't know if any of that language helped out if there's anything in there you felt more comfortable with or anybody on the board that you feel more comfortable with but I'm hoping I'm driving home that um neighboring school districts and top 100 school districts appreciated modest stress thank you Mrs Richards um you sent this dress code out to admin correct um we collected informal input from them yes and what was the feedback that you got from that based on I'd like to know what our
116administrative feels comfortable with and what their you know what they're comfortable with and how they feel about the dress code because they're every day seeing the kids and they're in the schools so president Schultz overall the feedback that I received was that they were okay with what was being proposed you know and they they said things like well if we're gonna let him wear hats can we have specific training on what that means or hoodies or whatever so I think whatever is determined it's our responsibility to make sure we all interpret things the same way if that makes sense so overall that's what they said about these proposed potency and regulation we would create the policy but then we would allow then you would create the regulations such as I'm guessing showing your face would
117be yeah with a hat on you can't walk with it that would be part of the regulations that you would support after that but this would just be our overall General policy like during testing yes sorry [Music] um expressing themselves sometimes they did want a hoodie on if they were having a hard day or they did want their hat on if they were having a hard day so it was a comfort mechanism for them I'm guessing yeah so I mean overall the feedback we received was they were okay with it they just want to make sure if they do have questions that we all work together to say just kind of like what we're talking about yeah so thank you you're welcome other questions comments or concerns I just want to point out also that
118um the amount of emails that we got in support of a modest dress code um should also be considered um you know the the majority was parents asking for a modest dress code and uh just definitely need to consider those voices as well I agree but I think that we are we all need to take it into consideration but I know there was emails that it was just sent to me nobody else was listed now if they sent it to the board individually I don't know um I would say it was pretty kind of half and half pretty even on I think that it's fine and others are wondering why we're even looking at changing it so um and that is something that I have considered with reading my emails and what I've received I
119do appreciate the regulation because it does put a little more definition to it that that there's some thought there instead of it just being so so wide open um but I want to say too is the last couple weeks I've been on different school campuses and I want to say the the majority of our kids are dressed appropriately I'm not I've not seen one of them going okay hold on and I mean my kids were raised pretty conservatively I don't think my oldest daughter ever wore pants until she was probably in in seventh grade she believed in long skirts and I are you sure you don't want some shorts nope everything was long skirts and and everything so my kids were raised pretty conservatively um and so I I'm pretty sensitive to some of that
120I I probably have a little more sensitivity on like well that's a little revealing um but no being on high school campuses I didn't nothing stood out and was like oh my gosh like this is horrible um and I think that that for the most part they dressed fine I I didn't um I didn't see where it was a a huge issue where I was concerned of well a wardrobe malfunction or anything so um I think we've spent a lot of time on this I think we've heard from community on both sides that it it's fine the the change is okay um and like I said I I trust our kids I think they've made I think our kids make good choices um but but our policy currently says no midriffs and and we see
121some of it though not inappropriate not too short but we see some of some of that middle stomach showing because you were saying you were seeing midriff's not covered and you were okay with that that it it was not right looking at it going oh my gosh they need to to cover up that it wasn't it wasn't offensive it wasn't um I didn't see people like looking up at other people um so yes I mean they're the kids are dressing and people have said you know we're already dressing this way and and this and that but they were it it wasn't over revealing it wasn't in my mind what my worst fear was like oh my gosh we're you know we're gonna have these tube tops and we're gonna have you know these things um
122and you know you're hoping that they're learning this at home and and they're addressing what is appropriate to their home life that we all teach our kids what our own um limitations are acceptable and that for some parents it's a little more than others but again like I said being on these because let's be real the dress code is about middle school and high school I don't think we really see if an elementary school's showing their midriff it's probably they're growing pretty fast and they they didn't keep up with with the change of clothes so um I I did not see anything that our current kids are wearing um even though it was outside of our current dress code that was concerning and so kind of goes back to we talk about trusting our our
123teachers um we do need to teach our kids self-respect and we do need to teach and that's boys and girls not just girls we need to teach boys and girls self-respect and respect for each other as people and I just I didn't see anything that was concerning that's currently going on and I don't think with the change in dress code that's going to all of a sudden make a shift and that we're going to see that they're going to make the the same decisions um the beauty of it is that this policy doesn't have to be forever and if we do notice that shift if we do have issues if um if we're finding that we are really having to worry about this and and that we're having issues and we have kids that are
124concerned and it makes them uncomfortable and they're uh we can change this policy at any time and if we find that the new policy does not work well we can revisit it and we can change it and if we need to pull it back because it's just too open and it's just it's causing it things to be too revealing there's always unintended consequences on things and you can play things in your mind and you can estimate um and there's some things you can't anticipate and if there are we can bring it back and we can look and see what do we need to do if we notice a shift in how our classrooms are we need to listen to our teachers we need to listen to our admin and I appreciate you talking to our
125admin they're the ones who have to enforce it um and if they're comfortable with it because that was my concern is that it is fake if we do have issues if there are concerns on it's not being enforced equally or properly um like you've been said before when we first started talking about dress code in high school middle school a kid should not get to third or fourth hour and that's the first time they're being dress coded then there's a problem and if we have those issues we can revisit that so um I really paid attention to what I was seeing on our campuses and um and is it what I would want tell my kid that they can wear probably not but that's my parent responsibility to tell my kid what they can and
126can't wear this is ensuring that we do have a practice address code is an expectation and we have an expectation for our students and um it's not a business it's not we can't expect them to be professional and Mrs Anderson I appreciate that you mentioned our staff dress code being the example because I still think that's important that they see how professionals dress they're not professionals yet they're kids there's and they're still learning we need to teach them but I think that I don't think this dress code teaches them not to be a good person I don't think the dress code teaches them not to have to adapt when you get a job you have to adapt to whatever that dress code is whether it be a uniform whether it be like you said an
127engineering firm that now they can wear shorts whether it be a construction site where they have to wear a certain kind of steel-toed boot those are your dress codes and and they just need to know that whatever that is they have to follow it so um if they're not following our dress code there's consequences just as any other dress code so I I did try and pay attention when I was on campuses specifically and sometimes that I was just like purposely like what are they wearing okay I gotta see what are they wearing and and everything but I didn't see the issues I thought I was going to see all right voting all those in favor aye all those opposed nay motion carries three two moving on to 8.4 I move the we approved Direction
128given to legal counsel during the executive session identified as agenda item 1.2 above [Music] all those in favor aye aye all those opposed oh sorry Amanda okay motion carries five to zero moving on to Future agenda items 9.1 I would like to add something to a future agenda item um given statements that were made earlier day earlier today I would like if we as the board can get I don't know like a presentation of sorts on how much prepaid legal fees are costing this year in comparison to two years in the past um if you know like and by your estimation as you're involved in this like what is causing it what are the reasons is there just certain things that are happening or whatever um but I would really kind of be interested in
129that um to to try to figure out why we're spending substantially more yeah where it's coming from I think that's great yeah I was concerned by those comments as well um and I mean I don't know what to include in it those types of things as far as like what you're after whether or not you what the reasoning is and how that comes up um I I would assume that's not something we can look at neighboring districts for in terms of like what theirs looks like or whatever but sometimes comparisons in those way are also beneficial maybe it is something we can compare to neighboring districts no we can't really okay I just didn't know what the trust go things into it yeah and size everything okay well you're just taking into those considerations all
130right anything else yep I just want to say thank you for continuing to update the Student Art in the boardroom I've noticed and it's beautiful and then the hallways so thank you I appreciate that you're welcome um board initiatives I think that's it president Schultz can I want to add like future agenda item we had a request for an update on ESI okay so we're gonna add that at some point um for you guys okay perfect thank you um with that um I hope everybody has a great oh well I wasn't I was going to say have a great fall break and then adjourn ing I hope everybody has a great fall break thank you very much I'd like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting all those in favor hi thank you be
131safe