001uh approval of the agenda i'll make a motion to improve the agenda i'll second all in favor aye aye aye opposed okay so move on to public comment um just a reminder that if there's four or more requests we limit to three minutes for that so when the buzzer goes off if you could uh wrap up your we'll give you a few minutes not a few minutes but we'll let you finish your thought after that we're not going to cut you right off at three minutes so let's start with mr langlais and i recognize that um three minutes of another member's time or another guest time was yielded to you i understand yes sir okay are you guys having problems hearing us yes oh that's in a bad spot too hello good evening my name
002is christopher langlois i'm a 2003 graduate of gwynn high school i live and work within this community i am here i am well read i am visible and i am angry two things really quick my flair president waldo doesn't get me picked on my flair makes me loved by this community the pride play miss ketala stands for acceptance and unity it's literally in the definition it is not perception google it we're both willfully recklessly and dangerously ignorant if you have to argue and talk over a flag's truth and what it stands for when someone was trying to educate you on it don't speak on something you're completely ignorant or non-supportive to it's dangerous queer people like me get killed every day from that mentality and i refuse to be the next matthew shepard i'm sure
003you have never been questioned nor have you ever been insulted or bullied or murdered because of any of your sexualities and i'm sorry but miss kettle of the way you spoke over tj was inappropriate president waldo you stated you don't know the students well in this school that you aren't here enough to know the ins and outs yet you are so quick and bold to play an idea card that card should have been left well enough alone the collected gasp of those in attendance radiated with me to my core go the idol route stay quiet and in the closet strip the flare from yourself so you don't get yourself picked on quit gaslighting no one should be picked on for any sort of sexuality disability or the color of their skin period unacceptable on to
004don't ask don't tell the card that should not have been played regardless of idea or woeful ignorance something that was repealed from even our armed forces shouldn't be a thing that this school system is speaking about in 2022 not even as an i don't know idea don't ask don't tell may have been a thing 20 years ago but it's not now and i refuse to walk back into the closet every time i step through the doors of my alma mater to sing the national anthem at sporting events i felt the second hand shame and embarrassment after that comment even more so after hearing how a trump flag and pride play are the same things where they are clearly opposites onward my favorite teacher in high school was miss waldo your wife she taught me and
005many others that came and went through her door that we have a voice we are seen we are loved regardless of our walks of life and above all else that we would be heard we are to stand when forced to sit down and we are to be loud when they tell us to be quiet and that we are to show up when visibility on an issue we're passionate about needs a flame thrown at it that's when you pull the phoenix from your soul to become your own firebird and to the students and kids in this community i will be that fire burn i did my research i went directly to the source of the issue i spoke with students and their parents all walks of life queer kids straight kids black kids mixed kids asian
006kids indigenous kids and hispanic hispanic kids do you want to know what i did next i listened i took notes i listened to their stories what they had seen and heard and felt first hand i listened to them their words still shaped me to the fiber of my being what they said made me furious and many of the things they shared broke my heart to the parents and students that i spoke to i am personally so deeply sorry for what you have had go through in the school district but my apology isn't enough the consensus of my conversations was this all of us in this room all of us in this community every child and parent and individual needs to be held accountable and responsible for what comes out of their mouth this bullying issue
007doesn't just affect one single group of kids in this community it affects all of them every race gender special needs and everyone in between every child that comes into this school should feel visible and heard not fearful about what we said to them or done to them while walking the halls or in a classroom school is supposed to be a safe place for these students a place to learn and to grow into who they are and who they're going to be as a person a place to figure themselves out it's not solely just for an education losing our flair and dumming our personalities or even adopting a uniform is not going to answer the issue nor is it or has it ever been a solution the solution is honestly easy if together everyone we stay
008compassionate for one another love and respect everyone as individuals and just be nice to one another the change will eventually come and that change will be revolutionary it will take a lot of work from everyone in this building and in this community but our small town is better than yours as a mindset we are a strong people and together we can we can prove this hashtag to be right we can do anything we set our minds to here no one is perfect we are all flawed therefore if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all seriously needs to come back to the forefront to the kids of this district the last of my speech is just for you i will fight for you i will be your voice i will do
009everything in my power to make sure that you are heard and seen but it's your time now to lead the change it's time for you to step up and help each other instead of tearing each other down be the change you wish to see administration and school board can only go so far this needs to come from you be better do better love better and accept what you cannot understand if you have nothing nice to say regardless of your own personal convictions choose to not say anything at all let each other live let them prosper in their own existence it costs absolutely nothing to be kind and you get so much back if you love instead of hate be mindful and never hurtful be fearless and loud and always walk in your truth thank you
010[Applause] miss noel i felt the need to speak tonight on behalf of the lgbtq community i want to first emphasize that this community is not a political party being part of this community does not define your political preference it is an inherent part of your existence just like heterosexuality is for those who identify as such i say this because it was stated at the last board meeting that the trump flag and the pride flag were at opposite ends of a political party again the lgbtq community is not a political party it's an aspect of someone's identity the pride flag is not a flag of violence in fact it is the exact opposite it is one of love and acceptance to equate it as somehow politically equal to an accessory designed to carry a gun in
011a public school is nothing short of absurd it also represents a group of communities that have experienced unmitigated discrimination oppression and violence throughout american history only until recently have members of this community been able to enter public places without the fear of violence or join the workforce on a similar footing as others during the last war meeting a member mentioned that donning a pride flag could place a target on the back of the bearer so to speak this mentality does not suggest acceptance or even tolerance the suggestion that a student who wears a pride flag places a target on their back places the blame of any discrimination on the student who chooses to wear the rainbow it excuses misconduct of students who feel victimized a community that has faced historical oppression it tells lgbt students
012or their allies keep quiet don't rock the boat don't ask for equal treatment if something happens to you it's your fault it was brought up that perhaps gwyn community school should adopt the don't ask don't tell mentality this is terrifying don't ask don't tell is one of the most regressive possible options to propose don't ask don't tell is a policy that discourages students and the lgbt community from understanding who they are understanding that there are others like them and understanding that who they love is not something to hide to encourage students otherwise is extremely isolating to that end i would like to share some statistics 19 of the lb gtq plus community attempt suicide each year this number is reduced by 40 if that student has at least one ally study after study demonstrates that
013there are heightened risk factors are not because there is something inherently wrong with lgbt youth but because they experience greater degrees of isolation and alienation than their peers don't ask don't tell is a policy designed to isolate an alien as a staff member of gwen community school it is our responsibility to provide inclusive classrooms a classroom where all students are celebrated for their strengths and their differences most often it is a member of our staff that is that child's ally this is not a dramatic thing it can be as simple as displaying an inclusive poster in your classroom are respecting the students pronoun of choice it is my hope that we can work together to make sure that all our students are accepted this modest good evening my name is casey matas my pronouns are
014she her and i'm a graduate of gwynn high school as well as a substitute teacher and the mother of student to be three children in the district i would first like to acknowledge the students on whose behalf we speak and those who have spoken you are brave and i'm so proud of you i'm here tonight to touch on comments made by board members that impact two communities i am a part of the first is comprised of the victims of school bullying stop bullying.gov gives explains that students who are bullied are more likely to experience things like depression anxiety declining grades and are nine times more likely to consider or commit suicide mr waldo suggested we try dulling our shine i hated that advice when i was in school i grew to resent any part of
015my personality that stuck out or attracted attention i grew to hate myself when the bullying didn't stop and the faculty failed to intervene i resorted to actions that have left me scarred and honestly lucky to be alive i have spent the past decade and a half trying to recover i would do anything to keep another child from experiencing that kind of pain it is 2022 there are so many ways for you to become informed on the pervasive issues associated with bullying yep mrs ketala your suggestion was that sometimes bullying can make a person tougher i can assure you that the countless nights i spent wishing i didn't exist did not make me tougher then and the ptsd and trauma that i experience and cope with as an adult does not make me tougher now there
016are children up children dying from this our kids deserve better than an uneducated than uneducated remarks instituted in place of policy the second group i speak for is the lgbtq plus community i have been lucky to sub at gilbert wynn middle and wynn high school for over a year now in that time i've gotten to know almost every student in those schools though admittedly not all by name the night before june 1st as i happily decorated a pride bulletin board in the band hallway interviewing to go and check out i spoke i spoke to some of our students they informed me that they wanted to wear their pride regalia to school on the last day but were nervous about any backlash they might receive i assured them that they would be safe and i encouraged
017them to celebrate themselves openly i am ashamed of how long i was instead they were met with hate discrimination and intimidation i find the board's responses disgusting don't ask don't tell in uniforms have less to do with protecting these kids than they do with attempting to suppress their existence mrs kettle you you relayed your hope that we could be respectful of each other's differing opinions but here's the thing a person's identity including one that falls under the lgbtq umbrella is not an opinion these children exist and make up a large portion of our student body queer kids are at an astronomically high risk for being bullied sexually assaulted and committing suicide by diminishing them the way you have you have made those risks even greater these are our kids and if you have spent if
018you any of you had spent some time getting to know them better you would quickly learn that these queer students are some of the best students we have they are respectful kind ambitious helpful and hardworking all things i've learned in the classroom but more importantly they deserve to be protected when they walk through those doors they deserve to receive an education not bullying threats or opposition that is then amplified by people sitting in seats of power that are meant to protect them so where does that leave us with our kids that don't feel safe in schools and a community ready to recall each and every one of you it seems insurmountable but you can still choose to step up you can look within yourselves and consider all that you have and will hear tonight you
019can invest time in getting to know our students and their families and you can move our district forward however if your personal biases or beliefs render that and on render that an unconscionable path if they keep you from protecting all of our students then it is time not to excuse me all of our students not just those that fit in your ideal binary then it is time for you to step aside and make way for someone who is willing and capable of doing the job correctly it's your choice step up or step aside thank you uh miss swellman hi my name is teacher here very good and from little humans not so much the big ones but bear with me i just wanted to briefly start by expressing how disappointed and troubled i was watching
020the footage from the last board meeting some members of the board like in the lgbt community to a political party aligned at the opposing end of trump trump flag it was insinuated that students were making targets of themselves by exercising their freedom of expression and there was a suggestion we should try for a don't ask don't tell policy all of these comments came across incredibly hurtful to a group of students and others in the community who are just trying to figure themselves out and live their lives being lgbt is not a political statement it has nothing to do with politics more importantly it felt like these comments were made dragging a vulnerable community of students who had nothing to do with the dress code issue that was being discussed by the board i'm hopeful that
021these comments did not come from a place of malice and we're not intended to be harmful to the lgbt community but i teach my students that when it comes to the things we say impact is often much more important than intent so i invite the members of the board to reflect on their statements and the impact that they have which you can see by people talking here i don't want to dwell on the past i'm mostly here to suggest that as a district we work towards becoming a more welcoming environment or as welcoming as we can be to all of our students students should be should feel safe and see themselves represented in our classrooms one way i think this could be worked towards is to start the district-wide um committee for diversity in inclusion
022a committee which i have already tried to start once and was previously shut down by previous administration the committee should be made up of board members i hope administrations and faculty who are committed to making the winner and community school district where a district where every student no matter their race ethnicity disability gender identity family structure or sexuality feel safe and included the committee can be tasked with examining things like our libraries policies the district has professional development opportunities curriculum and overall culture through a diverse lens to make sure that every student feels like they have a seat at the table in the classroom i would love the opportunity to serve on such a committee and i am quite sure that others in this room would also love that opportunity and be willing and able
023to do this important work diversity is not something that should be feared or looked at as a political talking point or agenda item creating a diverse and inclusive learning environment is simply making sure every single student can bring their entire self to school it's making sure no student feels like they have to hide or alter important pieces of their identity to be able to have a safe learning environment i really hope you agree with this sentiment and consider supporting the creation of the diversity and inclusion committee and open it up to those of us willing to do this work to say i have a few things i'd like to address first thing i'd like to address is my son nehemiah spain being kicked out of summer school miss paulson made some pretty big allegations against
024nehemiah the principal looked at the video i stated this at the last meeting miss paulson's remarks were unchewed nehemiah was not kicking screaming throwing things mr bruce agreed with miss polson that emi should be kicked out of school and has yet to look at that video i have not had a phone call or anything stating it has been further looked into a little disappointed knowing that mr bruce's um contract was just reviewed and there's a lot of things he hasn't been really stepping up to play to um at the main meeting i did leave the board with some questions one of the questions was can you put your political religious and personal views aside ms keller in april your biggest concern seems to be why is good friday not a holiday on the school schedule
025well let me let you know not everyone celebrates goodbye that is a religious view you need to keep that on your own privacy if it's going to be that way i would expect that the jewish community the african-american community the arabic community and every other community that they're jewish or their holidays on schedule also also as far as personal views mr waldo you really disappointed with me with you don't ask don't tell i expected a little more out of you seeing as your police officer i don't only worry about the concern of our local children i worry about the concern of those of your policing in the upper peninsula because i don't think everyone's getting a bear chance miss myers you stated that bullying makes you stronger casey spoke on the statistics our community is
026going down we need help our children need help ashley i'm a little disappointed that you haven't stepped up a little more trying to push mental health awareness you work for pathways they've reached out to our administration and they do nothing our children are dying our children are overdosing is it worth it can each of you sit here and say i did my best i don't think so i don't think the community thinks so um just so much the lgbtq community i don't think that they need to wear pride shirts and say hey i belong to this community they're asking to be included if we had an all-inclusive community or school no one would have to feel that way to this day has anyone reached out to mahatma's family of when they were caught he was
027called the n-word during a basketball game absolutely not why did they come to me this is mahatma's family this is the african-american family i should not have to stand here and try to advocate for everyone step up or step up thank you okay my name is kai spang i was at the last meeting i brought up blatant discrimination that we the students of gwynn high school are going through president waldow my first statement is to you i am rather disappointed in how you addressed me i very clearly last time told you that my pronouns were he they yet you refer to me as miss to the school board i am very displeased your response to my concerns were don't ask don't tell your response to my concerns were putting the blame on the victims of
028bullying rather than actually cutting it out at the source and actually finding out what is happening to the students at this school the last meeting i barely recognized any of you john waldo i have not seen you in my life and you are the president of this school board this tells me soon after school that you haven't bothered to actually personalize yourself with any of the students we don't know you and yet you are running our school explain to me how that makes any sense it seems to me that you think that only a handful of students are actually affected by bullying i am here to tell you that it is the majority of us do not feel safe and you are sitting here complaining about a dress code thinking we should have uniforms and
029how we shouldn't be broadcasting ourselves out to everybody we are not going to just hide in the corner we hadn't done that long enough that doesn't work that just isolates us makes us feel like we don't have any safe place to go this is a school that is meant to be a safe place and it is not ask don't tell we'll just tell students that they don't have anywhere that they can go if they feel like they're being discriminated against it makes them feel like they're the ones to blame i cannot tell you the amount of my friends who have come to me saying hey i know that you've gone to the school board meeting hey i know that you are speaking out against us and i want to say thank you because when i
030had a problem and when i went to a staff member they told me hey just stop doing that and if it keeps happening come tell me or if they went to a staff member and said hey this is going on how the staff member said oh boys will be boys or that person does that all the time nothing's going to change rather than actually trying to help the student i am very disappointed and very upset about that thank you dusty milner hey guys my name is dustin milner um i'm from glen i graduated in 2009 i am currently the head coach of the american legion baseball team i'm here to talk to you about that tonight i've talked to i would say every coach in the uk in the last two months and we want
031to propose the idea of a high school baseball club not full-on team paid by the district instead a club paid on by the legion team we would just transfer our funds over to that and then the kids would play high school baseball here for glenn high school as a model town and then after the season ends we would go into the legion team and go back to being in the glen lightning as of right now our turnover rate is really good really really good um we got 16 kids on the roster i lose one next year due to his birthday i lose two the following year and i gained five next year probably gain anywhere between eight or nine the following year after that um i could run numbers up all day long about the
032kids that the little league here in gwynn are bringing up left and right planks playing baseball but growing up as a kid that played baseball my entire life this is the best chance at getting a high school baseball team because of what um the little league has been doing the last couple years and rebuilding that program our team this year was phenomenal we got a super young team um they got a lot of heart i didn't know about this meeting until like yesterday 10 30 at night they said go down and see what you can do or whatever but as far as the district is concerned i talked to quite a few coaches and they are more than willing to get us on the schedule for this year as a win model town or baseball
033team they're more than willing to play us they prefer it be honest with you the closer they get to home you know whether it be iron melting or norway or ishmael ghani even marquette they have a lot of teams where they play that are going up to the sioux or going up to jeffers or going out to iron county or anything like that they would rather play teams that are closer home same with us as far as any kind of any kind of money is concerned we're going to upfront all of that just so that our boys can wear the model counter uniform you know and that's all i got [Music] you guys mind if i turn this fan on go for it if it bothers you guys let me know but i'm dying of
034her singing let's move on to financial report okay first thing on the agenda for financial report is the presentation of the loans our monthly check register that begins on page 10. and on page 17. let our treasurer review all of these one question that came up was just any cost to have any presentations um it's another word for that you know school assembly type things those are if there is a cost for those those are usually spent through the student funds and that's what happened when we had one with nick baumgartner at the end of the school year that cost was paid by the three different buildings gilbert elementary k so your elementary and then the middle school high school split between that so that's really the only question that's come up about things like
035that um so with that i would ask the board approved the june accounts payable for the amount of one million ninety six thousand seven hundred nine dollars and thirty nine cents i'll make a motion to approve that a second all in favor aye aye opposed unheard um just an update on like our audit process with it being end of the school you know end of the fiscal year was you know june 30th so that's why you might have noticed that there weren't any other financial reports in the board packet because that would be called the audit which we're still working on so we're not going to give year-end reports until the audit is done auditors come at the end of this month for a couple days and they'll come again in august um to finish
036it up and so we've just been doing just really heavy into grant work wrapping up grants just a lot of people work involved with that and then other year-end work with that the house fiscal agency did put out an estimated district impact for the the bill the financial package for the for the money that the the governor did sign that we would be coming our way next year so the 450 dollars per pupil now i'm going to read you some totals on here but you need to keep in mind that a lot of this is on a per pupil basis so this is not written in stone this is just an estimated impact but it is because it is a very good it's it's very good news okay so but until we actually have our
037count next fall and everything shakes out when we have the details but the 450 dollars per pupil um they're estimating that that's going to give us just around 400 000 more now mind you this isn't more than what we already budgeted for because we already put 435 dollars in the budget and you already passed that so there was just really about 15 more dollars per pupil in that but compared to what we had in um 21 22 to 22 23 the change would be about 400 000 dollars there there's some rural district money which is very small under 5 000 the at-risk is going to be fully funded and this is one of the i would say the most unique pieces of this budget we have never seen at risk to be fully funded there's
038always been a probation of about 25 so which just means that they haven't funded that categorical um since in the past 20 years you know since since i've been here it's never been fully funded and at times it's gotten cut in the middle of the year not very often but that has happened this time they're saying it's going to be fully funded so um i estimate that that's going to be about 150 000 more for us for at-risk funding so right now we've got the counselors and that sort of thing um in all all of our counselors in there so we're taking a look at that also with our esser funds because we have some counseling services in that we also have the student success coordinator in that some of those pieces that could fit
039in at risk we might be doing some shifting around as well as looking at potentially new services only because with esther the other big piece with esser is the hvac that we're looking at and those costs have continually gone up matter of fact we thought we'd be able to get all three buildings done with sr3 and we had to pull back and only look at the middle school high school because every time we get new engineering numbers it doubles and triples so we might be able to work something out that way which is very important um there is going to be you know you might have heard some mental health per pupil payments that's looking to be about 75 to 100 000 um and some special education changes as well so um which could be
040about 250 000 so and then there's some school safety per pupil payment again being per pupil but maybe now all of these new categoricals i would say the doubles and the details so how you apply for them how you have to spend in what the reporting periods are those are all details we still have to work through the governor just signed this you know last week you know thereabouts and so now it's up to the department of treasury and mde to walk all of this out um so we don't have any details specifically like i'll just take school safety you know that's that's a brand new categorical what does that mean is that infrastructure is that in staffing you know where where is the legislature coming on this so um a lot more questions to
041be answered on how how this money is going to be applied but it is good news it's very good news but details are still yet to roll out on that okay perfect with that with the special ed increased funding because and i know the details aren't all yet but if they are and we can get curriculum funded oh um can you check on that yeah absolutely yes yes you know and overall again like yes how this is spent one thing to keep in mind is that special ed is always underfunded every single year so what this is doing is this is really just bringing it back right understatement understatement always underfunded so yes it's a good thing and i hear you on the curriculum piece of that yes and i think work is still being
042right our last meeting that there was a math curriculum and a special curriculum as well and you all passed a budget that had a fifty thousand dollar placeholder already in for special ed not a specific excuse me for curriculum a fifty thousand dollar placeholder for curriculum it wasn't earmarked specifically for anything but we knew that work needed to be done and we just wanted to earmark some money for curriculum mixture so that piece was already done so if it's more than that then we will also have some additional money to put that in so did you see anyone who would have these specifics um i did not say when we would have those because i really don't know because i'm wondering about school safety and maybe a liaison oh very interesting um i do not
043know but it's that was specifically mentioned in that information with a cost share not sure exactly what that's going to be if it's a 20 cost share 25 those are information that we don't know yet but yeah i think there's a lot aimed towards something of that nature so well i really think that it would help brad and tina and rob we'll add some backup for a lot of the things they're doing and keeping in mind though those legacy costs right when you have these special categoricals it's great so they might give you seventy five hundred thousand dollars this year and you can find a position what about the year after that you know what's the plan so doesn't mean it's not a good topic of discussion but that piece should be a topic of
044discussion as well is how do we continue to fund it you know where is it on the priority level if the funding was to go away and we want the general fund to pick it up then what is a lower priority that might have to then slide off we just need to have those conversations up front sooner or later i hope yep we will continue anything new that comes out you know brandon also gets all that information as well so we'll keep reporting on it anything else about seeking a fun update so i will share a couple of things when pj jump in anytime you feel that uh something um our fire and pa system um at gilbert is complete nobody's complete right now ahead of schedule they did a nice job being able to
045get in there um which allows our cleaning crew to get in there and forward into getting that taken care of i hit a schedule at sawyer we had a meeting today with our ohm and masters and walk through kind of the process where they're at at sawyer things are moving along very nicely there uh we do have a hold up the lighting is ordered it's scheduled to be delivered on august 2nd so we're versus shipping yeah shipping on august 2nd so we're hoping that that gets delivered they feel that they would have you know if it stays in that timeline that they'll be able to have that installed and ready to go so things are moving forward um in regards to that stuff very well um they'll be moving into the high school middle school
046next week they'll have a crew getting started over here and they feel very confident that they're on the timeline to be more than complete you know having it completed in more than enough time before the summer wraps up um anything else on that that i missed uh only with gilbert we did the punch list today oh okay yeah so now we'll give that to masters and it's it's about to fix it's really minor things it's it's light covers are the wrong color a couple of things here and there um honestly the problem with buying power's worth of work and then they should be ready and the other the last thing with jim floor we had our gym floor resurfaced and redone um that was a couple weeks where it was shut down um very pleased
047with the product of getting that done so we've had lighting upgraded in the in the gym and the floor redone hopefully we'll be able to maintain and keep that on that 10-year schedule so it doesn't get lost in that shuffle but very pleased with the product and the outcome of it and hopefully have a chance after the meeting this evening please walk down doors are open get in there and i know we've had kids in our and coaches have been working so it's nice to have that back in action as we start moving into the late summer workouts and in the fall season so that is thinking fun update what about a strategic plan update if you have a question when we get all that installed so we had talked a couple years ago about
048police if something happens in these buildings that they could not find the very specific place that they needed to go so once all of this is completed will they be able to find that spot like electrical like the yes like the fire and pa and all that yes yes so if they get called they will be able to go specifically yes and that's that'll be a walk through that i'll set up the chief here at some point and you'll be able to get in there and walk through so that they have a comfortable feeling of where those or anything is at in the building all three of the buildings okay yeah they're in the middle and they'll set off an alarm save mandy's room gilbert school yeah with the fire alarm system the way it's
049set up is if there's a fire alarm there's a panel by the door that they walk in but it says what panel or what what device went off so it isolates to an area to a hallway to a roof you'll know specifically where to go yes fantastic for a different if it's a non-fire related event the panel will display everything but if it's a firearm that goes off yes it will it will tell them what you want to put it off that's part of the upgrade and they'll be able to do walk-throughs here as we speak into the ball pj and i'll set that up and get our emergency services a chance to get in the building so would this be like you know let's say at the high school um i'm assuming they still
050use the app if there's a problem they can use the after using that yep 911 has worked through our rave it's communicated via your phone all of our snap apps so would we have to continue using that then probably we would still use that yes that's still a service that will continue is it district using that now or just the high school that's all all buildings strategic plan part of the operations i brought my book with but part of the operations and finance one of our focuses is going to be it talks about develop enrollment targets implement retention and growth strategies one of the things i'll be working with elementary principles starting now and moving forward is just looking at we have a number of students in our district that go to school somewhere else
051and we're going to look at targeting and trying to figure out what can we do to attract what can we do to bring some of those students back and look at enrollment one of the areas northstar has the academy and marquette they've now they will not be utilizing busing services for next fall so that'll be an area that probably hopefully be an opportunity for us to revisit with folks and say hey is this an opportunity for us to get the kids back and looking at enrollment so principals and i will be sitting down and working through some of that stuff and um hopefully meeting with some of those families and discussing an opportunity to come back and re-enroll will brad and be involved in that too pardon me well brad be involved in that as
052well oh yeah well yes but brad will be a part of that conversation discussion yes thank you so that that's the area that i'm we're going to be focusing on here moving forward as we work towards start the school year um whatever we can do that that number is just about 50 of the students that are enrolled in that academy and that would be ones that we'll be looking at when we get some of those kids back so so the informal superintendent evaluation schedule i think there's been some discussion amongst the board about maybe doing an informal evaluation at us as a quarterly like interval sure instead of sitting down halfway through and then at the very end it doesn't give us any time to maybe tweak things or adjust things as we go well
053then we need to sure sure that stays on the agenda that we keep that track on it yeah do we want to oh it's not imaginative okay so it's a conversation discussion it was something between something i think that got shifted and adjusted sure you came out as a new superintendent and maybe wasn't given the attention that it should have been but going forward we're going to stick to that that fair because for the audience well they know what we're talking about yes they might um so can i talk yeah okay absolutely so what it means is that um every quarter we will do uh an evaluation just like a mini evaluation so that when mr bruce has his yearly evaluation there it's not so much and then there's things that can be tweaked or
054you know whatever we need to do as we go on um jane could you put that on the agenda as an action item next time thank you okay do i have a department update yeah mr soaring is just going to provide uh an update in regards to some athletics got a couple minutes here on the clock thank you um unfortunately i wasn't able to be at the june meeting with a family vacation but thank you for the opportunity here in july i'm very pleased with mhsaa summer activities with middle school and high school kids i mean obviously you'd always want every single kid there but that's not realistic during summer with everything going on um so anything that's been on site that we've coordinated with the maintenance department on when we can and can't use
055certain venues on our uh overall facility here um have gone really really well i'm very proud of the coaches that are giving up family time off the contract clock so to say to um provide these kids with these opportunities and the off-site opportunity with advantage has gone very very well because the majority of the days other than one typically is off-site up in marquette and so that transportation bus that different departments have paid for through the sports departments has continually been filled our schedules right now for fall sports high school is basically in place you'll see those posted by the end of this week on our athletic page on the district's website middle school stuff typically takes a couple extra weeks to get tweaked because those are the second version of schedules the local ads
056start tapping into we do have some open coaching positions have been receiving applications so in the next two weeks i will be working diligently on that um the one big one we're trying to solve is an interim position for varsity volleyball kendall equalize expecting twins actually i just yes absolutely i just met with her today to continue to brainstorm who she taught who she's talked to who i talked to and that's a tricky one because it's an interim position we don't want to lose kandel kandel doesn't want to go anywhere but we want to respect the fact they have a family starting and a family of two out of the blue all of a sudden so um we will find solutions for that and be able to make that happen for all of our varsity
057girls this year on the volleyball team um two sets of dates to keep in mind august 8th is the high school start of all mhsaa sports and then august 22nd based on how middle school schedules are shaken up seem to be the common date we'll start off with the middle school sports this fall will have the opportunity with middle school cross country middle school football and then 7th and 8th grade girls basketball and last but not least um just met with some of the boosters and some of the boosters and i spent the weekend down in ireland at the gus smacker kind of hanging out um watching some of our local kids play and we are definitely going to be conducting them with the model towners the question now is working with jess steyer and
058d carter to see what's the perfect date within our early home schedule here within august so i think we're gonna the goal is to try to get it in before that first what i should say the last week of august the goal is to try to get in before then but we'll keep that communication alive and we'll let all you guys know because as we do it and win every year we're looking to be bigger and better and that's jessa's mindset and she passed along some ideas to me for this meet the model tower so i'm excited but thank you for the opportunity and after the meeting or anytime this week even though i'm off contract really in a sense with my schedule right now on vacation time um agents learn really quickly the month
059of july especially middle of july you got to start tapping at the office quite a bit more because athletics is right around the corner so anybody there in front of me anybody behind me more than welcome to reach out because i'm tapping into the office daily with everything thank you superintendent's report yep so part of the update staffing we've had some vacancies in regards to some folks that have taken some jobs so we have one staff member was moving back to their home state another staff member took a job with another district where she lives and then another staff member we can't hear you another staff member had a job received or took a job with the isd so we had three openings we did fill some of those vacancies um still with the kindergarten
060numbers uh unsure in regards to what that enrollment will be we kind of put pump the brakes a little bit in that regards um and we'll be monitoring that in the next few weeks here as hopefully enrollment comes up so um confident with where things are in regards to staffing um unfortunately i was notified over the weekend at the board meeting in nice community schools tonight they will probably vote to accept mr lawson as the middle school principal so that will lead to a vacancy with us so once i get notification in regards to that i will get that posting around hopefully we'll have that set up for tomorrow and we'll get that process started um puts us in a timeline that's a little bit shorter than i'd like um but i'm confident that we'll
061be able to set that up in the next few weeks and hopefully that first week of august we can set up interviews and get somebody on board to fill that vacancy and fill that role so [Applause] that those are the updates that i have there in that regards there was a question in regards to flex room we've had some shifts and changes there with our numbers our special ed numbers our case loads are increased um so we've got uh staff filling taking on as many case loads as they can which is going to put them in the classroom so it's going to be a change with our flex room and how it's going to be staffed we have a staff member repair out there that will monitor that room on a daily basis supervised by
062one of our teachers out there along with obviously the principal which will be a shift as we move forward with a new person in that so there's moving parts there now unfortunately but uh confident that that will utilize that you don't know who that'll be yet who who's going to be running elementary on entire flex room oh um i'm assuming terry's going to stay in there right now um right now bobby chambers is slated to work in that room that's who we have but ultimately with a new staff with a new principal coming out there there's going to be some there's some moving parts so um i really can't take that for sure well what are your feelings are you still going to have a teacher staffing it um no i don't i don't have
063enough with our caseloads where they are i've got to put special ed teachers in front of kids and manage that part of it so it's going to be something a little bit different we're going to utilize the model that they have at gilbert which has been very successful and you've been working with with mrs paulsen and their behavioral interventions that they have so there's some there's pieces there that we just got a little appointment and come and talk to you more about that yeah yeah and we're going to high school and again the um replacing the principle up there is going to be you know it's going to create some some pieces moving so what about the high school high school real estate we don't have any any plans for any changes at the high
064school currently right now uh and i do have correspondence i did have a note from a thank you note from gwen lions club they expressed their appreciation for allowing us to host the car show they utilize our property they just verified and asked that permission prior to said absolutely no problem and they shared a thank you card expressing their appreciation and grant so we have to revisit the work schedule or the work session scheduling we gave up on doing it this summer because of schedules so i did reach out to tim hall obviously he had he had august 3rd on the slated but is available in september just you know he asked for you know three or four dates that something that he could work with um and he would be happy to make that
065fail so he's just waiting for me to reach better contact him back how long will it take it's a three-hour session probably a night other than a board night absolutely um is it just like board member 101 is that what it is or what is it what was it the board member 101 or is it more of a i think it's a follow-up to that right now we're looking at september is that what you said yeah i can tell you right now for the for me it's going to be early in september um we've got some family stuff going on that i will not be available the rest of the month in the beginning of october is going to be very tough so it was like the 19th or 20th it's too late in the
066month the 19th is the board meeting that's right sorry uh 12th it's a weekend for labor day yep it's going to be before that saturday morning i'm not willing to do a saturday in the fall because i'm not around enough it would have to be for me the night or before the first through the night tj what's your schedule make your priority the first of the knife doesn't offer us anything because of like memory or labor day in the middle other than the day after labor day labor day i believe that will work yes for me only for you mondays are tuesdays the 6th that can be the 5th order 6th this is labor day 5th is labor day don't matter to me you'll be doing the seventh is what's going to work for me
067every tuesday is bad let me have a childhood dance okay the sixth of the wednesday oh i'm in july i'm sorry do we want to put it to october because clearly september's not working august 29th is the first day of school monday and it's a what a half day right just it's more even though it's in august but it's yeah at least wednesdays don't work what about third thursday i'm not in town well i'll be honest with you i i dictate my work schedule so that i can attend board meetings on monday nights and that forces me to work weekends when i have seniority that permits me to not have to do that so if we have to push this to october to get it on a monday or tuesday or coming on a saturday
068that's fine we can do that but at some point at some point you know other than work and illness or child care issues personal issues of camping vacationing and things like that have to take our board seats have to take preference over that well not when i've made my reservation six months in advance because we ran for a seat to be here that's what i read also we can look at a monday in october if anybody's available the third works for me third worst step i just make it work no the tenth works for me is that a holiday it's a columbus day it's not a holiday i'll be here okay 10th or 17th 17th it's a regular board meeting oh that's right there we go with that again 10th works for me third that's
069true 536 what whatever six on the 10th what time uh the three hours [Applause] october 10th six okay i'll get all mr hall this evening second reading about it any opposed numbers uh extended continuity learning plan this this is just an extension of our continental learning plan in the case that we are out for an extended period of time in regards to a shutdown of any sort um everything pretty much stays the same we will utilize the services and how we've done that in the past this is just stating yep we've got it still in place and and it's what we have is what we're going to utilize okay do you need an emotion on it or anything yes it is actually okay i'll make a motion to approve it a second all in favor
070all right the opposed sort of discussion with it okay i make them oh sorry new business action school of choice resolution page 18. i make a motion to accept the school of choice resolution all in favor aye aye aye aye is opposed any discussion on the elementary handbook changes which are highlighted in yellow in a handout if you're gonna get in my copy if you'd like i didn't get one this is the elementaries obviously this will kind of work for both buildings um and uh high school middle school will meet because of mr surrey mr fluger's schedules hasn't maxed up yet they will have it for a next board meeting in august prior to that or prior to the start of school we'll have our middle school high school handbook updated but this one is
071for elementary so will the title of this actually say ksr and gilbert elementary schools it says when a quinn elementary student handbook updates i was just hoping to be more specific oh we can absolutely it is the elementary school no i know i'm i was just wondering if we shouldn't be more specific okay i can certainly just thought i had i'll make a motion to uh approve the changes in the elementary handbook second i have one question like that's just sentence okay okay so when when um they report to the office or whatever because i know that we've had several issues with head lice not getting taken care of somebody's going to check them right yes okay who does that in the building do we know the secretary i had to do it once that's
072what i'm asking is there somebody specific yes that was my only question we have a counselor available sometimes it's a staff member or some you know but not one person okay my my question is because this is this technically policy so we need two reads on it no no this is not a fault you know perfect i just wanted to do that good question thank you so we had a second do we have it all in favor all right all righty opposed oh my voted yesterday i was ready is there any further discussion on it okay we'll move on to personnel resignation um brian brian jv football assistant coach gwen high school effective day reservation june 7 um we'll take the resignation for that i make a motion to accept his resignation with regret second
073all um employment we'll take them is there any objection take them individually or please take them individually individually okay um anna is it so in stan music teacher gilbert and kai sorry elementary school effective data higher first day of the 20 22 23 contract year sending a motion to make a motion to accept her a second all in favor the opposed um alexandria is crude okay rude classroom teacher can i say elementary school effective date of higher first day of the 2022-23 contract year in motion i'll make a motion to accept that second all in favor aye aye aye the opposed are these gals here you're welcome it's just nice to have a face to the next i'm sorry i can't pronounce the names crystal weller uh classroom teacher kaiser elementary school effective date of
074higher first day of the 22-43 contract year i'll make a motion to approve cristille willer all in favor [Music] welcome chris crystal and ally were both student teachers this past few years so we're pleased to be able to get them on board and keep them here they did a great job and we look forward to them continuing working in the district perfect oh gifts and donations donors choose graphic memoir literature circles project value that 626.36 for mrs holland's classroom at gms ghs and model tower bold campaign donations in may june 2022 uh total 3662 from various alumni get a motion make a motion of gratitude to accept all second with gratitude all in favor aye aye aye the opposed none heard uh we didn't get any new public comment for the last section okay um
075it you said there's been an increase in the classroom i have a little issue with that because i don't know how much i would um 100 believe your hand in the stream i have a real hard time with marx it falls on my side and nobody expects to investigate it except mr awesome i also want to say something in regards to mr alaska going into middle school not in my beginning of the year the man was my worst enemy i thought man would be all right but guess what the reason he couldn't he was not given the resources or the opportunity to do correct he learned it out towards the end of the year and now he wants to take him away he's gotten on board with the teachers nagoni my apologies thank you thank
076you okay did speak about how you spoke about bringing students who recently left the school district after the school district well as a student at our school i think we have bigger concerns to deal with i just like to say that okay so we're on the board member comments and i'm going to start off with that because i think it's only fair that everybody else seated at this table some of the comments were directed towards the board in general when they should have been directed at me personally and i can take responsibility for that i tried to keep take notes i tried to keep track of things so i'll try to touch on some of the common things among among each of the comments that came from the audience today there was a comment made
077about apologizing for not not knowing me and i apologize if people don't know me however i do have a phone i do have an email address i am approachable and people that know me know that they can come talk to me even if their views may be different than mine we generally always can come to some consensus the only comments i've seen have been comments on social media where i don't have the avenue to even correct anything that was misplaced or misspoke so i would encourage anybody if they want to know where i stand on things or know where i'm coming from or maybe clarify something that i say because sometimes it doesn't come out the correct way and i apologize for that but i've always been very open to anybody of anybody's anybody's feelings
078personalities or we differ an opinion on things i do agree that win needs to be a safe place for all students and i underline all every student here should feel safe here the comment regarding or the dimension of a diversity and inclusion committee that's a fantastic idea i mean that's something that i mean i'd like to see that take place honestly because i think the only way that we're ever going to get anybody to talk about anything is if we have people from different points of view coming in in a respectful environment being able to talk about that and that's a lot of times the commonality and i'm not going to throw anybody in particular under the bus but um there's a person in this room that we started out with different viewpoints but yet
079through talking to each other we've learned that we're not that far apart we all want the same things and that is the exclusiveness in the school regarding the things about the the flags and things like that that i would i would have hoped that that whole dialogue would have been posted on social media instead of a minute or so of it cut out of there because it really didn't put it into context the context of that conversation was that i was here on the last day of school and i was standing here watching what was going on in in the school so the comments regarding were specific to that incident and that incident alone by no means any suggestion that anybody should have to be able to was it diminished or shine i think was
080said if i'm quoting that correctly nobody should ever have to diminish their shine on either side of it the point that i was trying to drive home was that going towards that inclusion and diversity in the district that means on every side of it the left side the right side the middle of it every school every walk of life every preference in life has to be respected equally the same um as long as you don't see anything that's right no we're this you know this i didn't interrupt you during your comments so i would appreciate if you don't interrupt during mine so the other student that other comment that i wanted to address was getting to know the students coming from somebody that for one doesn't even know me how do you know that i
081don't know students in this district how do you know that i don't have an interaction with students in this district and talking about um respect for pronouns we talk about being respectful and being understanding of people and trying to address people properly some people refer to other people as sir ma'am it may not be correct in this day and age but it's a learning curve for some of us that find you know that find that the things have changed but by no means should that be taken as any sign of disrespect whatsoever it's simply trying to be respectful and address somebody respectfully and then it goes towards the tolerance you know the tolerance is demanded that we that that someone who may appear to be not so understanding or so inclusive towards different lifestyles are
082supposed to be tolerant however a minor misstep in referring to somebody by the improper pronoun when the attempt was to be respectful should be given a little bit of tolerance as well tolerance goes both ways as far as that's concerned so i would hope that the opinions that i s or the statements that i made or the opinions that i may have put out here are mine and don't reflect anybody else unless they spoke and said it directly i don't think anybody else sitting here should be held accountable for anything that i may have said or the discussion that the direction that i led that descript that discussion so i would hope that you would come to me though and maybe clarify because i do honestly believe we can come to a pretty equal spot
083in understanding amongst all of us so next yeah um somebody casey you said i said toughen up well i have learned to toughen up is what my daughter said because my daughter has been her being harassed in the school my daughter is being bullied i wasn't talking about all kids that are being bullied i was talking specifically about fenya so i'm sorry that you took it the wrong way and i'm sorry if other people took it the wrong way and i'm sorry if i don't speak up but it was senior that said that and that's what i was trying to say and there were a couple teachers back there i don't remember exactly who hardly anyone in in the audience um but senia has been having a hard time and that's who i was telling
084she came to me and said mom i've learned to toughen up and i thought well i guess that shocks me a little but maybe that is the way i don't know but she's the one getting bullied and it is tough and i don't say it's not it is and when i i'm just these are off the wall different and when i spoke about good friday that i did as public comment not as a board member i stood up there like you guys stand up there with my little thing and i stood up there like that um when i talked about uniforms i'm not talking about just people of different sexualities i'm talking about rich kids poor kids all kids i think maybe uniforms would be a way to not have them bullied because maybe they
085aren't rich enough to buy the cool tennis shoes or the cool pair of jeans or the in things you know or maybe they only have one outfit to wear to school and they get picked on for it because i've heard from a lot of teachers and a lot of different people and that's what i said i don't know and yes chris i shouldn't have interrupted i was very frustrated at that meeting and it stopped because i couldn't get a word out edgewise so i did interrupt tj i know i did so i am sorry for that and i am sorry that you guys took all of my comments about school uniforms wrong i just see a lot of schools in the country that have uniforms and it seems like it puts everybody on a level
086playing field maybe i'm wrong i very well could be i'm not the smartest person in the toolbox but that's what my talk about uniforms was everybody on the same level playing field including my own daughter because i tell her all the time you can't wear that to school you can't wear that to school you know kids get dress coded boys don't get dress coded different things like that all the way around it's not just about sexuality i don't know and and um hi i i have i'm totally not understanding and i'm very confused about he they so i welcome you to come to me personally and teach me about what you mean by all of that because i don't understand and i try to look things up on social media but it doesn't it doesn't
087always work so i welcome you to come to me and somebody tell me what you know explain to me so i do say proper things to you and i'm really sorry that you guys took whatever i said and everything that i said in auto context yes casey i don't know if i'm allowed to say that i don't know either but i wanted to say instead of you know putting it on a student um as adults i have resources i have contacts with living with change and a bunch of different programs that would love to come and educate not just you all but the staff in general i would love to get you in contact with that and anything that i can do to make that happen i would have to do it because this is
088all new to us yeah so first of all i'm a little heated so i apologize in advance um i was the board member who brought it up about good friday not in a religious affiliation for me it was because we had agreed as a district a few years ago that we would do the common start calendar with the entire county and everybody else had that day off except for us so that's why i brought it up so with that said so so i've been on this board the longest and i used to do the social media thing where i would complain and i never had a solution to the problem and so i decided one day with some great encouragement from a few teachers that i was no longer going to be an armchair quarterback
089and i was going to throw my hat in the ring and i was going to come and be on the board because i wanted to see change and i've seen a ton of change since i've been on this board and it is really easy and this is going to offend probably everybody but it's really easy to come in here and tell us what we're doing wrong all the time but nine times out of ten this audience is empty when we're trying to make huge things happen when we have no money when we have no resources and we're all here trying to do the best we can with the information we have and we don't have any public support so i have a suggestion you can run for all these positions this year we have two
090coming up and if you want to come up here and do this by all means put your hat in the ring you i think you have until july 27th 26th and hold on um so it's really easy to start crap on social media and all of this stuff pick up a phone every single one of us has them pick them up text call do whatever you need i'm pretty approachable like i said i'm really heated right now but anybody that knows me knows i will give you the benefit of the doubt and i will give you the time that i have to try to help you to fix your problem to send it to the next person up so we are volunteers that is what we are so we are volunteering our time to try
091to make the best we can do so with that said maybe some of you can come to us me in particular and say you know what this is a huge problem in our district this is what i want to do to help fix it because i will be the first one to sit with you and to come up with that prop you know to a group a community meeting whatever so that everybody can get the knowledge that we all need so that we don't say things that are misconstrued so and with that said dustin i am 100 behind you yes i did please if there's anything i can do to help with that let me know okay and all it you know if there's a group of of of individuals that are going to start
092meetings and start a group for the lgbtq please invite me and ava's just said invite her i would love to be a part of it okay i just really like two things i know a lot of us in this room it just it was said that we were taking things out of context um and speaking for myself and at least five other people i know in this room i watched the entire board meeting from start to finish online that's what ian's doing here you have to be mindful that some people might not be in the room but they're still paying attention because this whole thing goes online i will say i agree a lot of it did get taken out of context which is why i went and watched the whole thing because i wanted
093to see everything that's the first thing um the second thing as far as like coming to people um as i briefly mentioned in my work with my comment um i this is my second try starting driving star university inclusion committee sorry for it was on the committee like it got shut down and it's not mr but like it was prior administration was i was told that it was far too political the stance to take to have a diverse and inclusion committee that's why i made the decision to come and do it in public comment because i was shut down by the previous administration okay and again i'm just like just so you know there was an attempt that was made i know chris was on the committee like there were people on it but it
094got shot down my administration okay and i'm very naive when it comes to stuff like that to be completely honest with you but i didn't know about it and i don't know who the the person was that didn't share that with the board but you can fire one of us a text message i mean i'll give you my phone number i don't have a problem and that's something we can let everybody else know because we would love to be a part of it and i don't know if i can 100 commit to every time because i have a lot of other things as well but i would like to be a part of it been a few years though um but it's been tried i do have two actually things to say mr waldo um
095and you're probably not going to appreciate this i feel you're very well rehearsed um okay stop you're not gonna attack us yes it is well we're we're moving on to board comments right now so he's done done i'm done all right so uh i have a tendency to go on and on and ramble and all that good stuff so prior to hearing what everybody said i had written down a few things so i'll just read what i wrote and then the rambling starts so i i wrote that i hope we can we can all agree that our schools should be places that are safe for all students they can be places where students can focus on learning and developing into amazing young adults and some of the speakers earlier already alluded to this but we
096know that statistically lgbtq plus youth are more likely to experience stress and fear in school than their non-lgbtq plus peers verbal harassment physical harassment and physical assault can be more commonly directed to lgbtq plus youth it can affect the likelihood of young people attending and completing school so what can be done and i'm uh i'm a very much solution-focused woman forward type of mindset um i generally try not to speak in absolute terms so um so just take this is what the school what we can do as a school district as a board as administration the school climate can be a protective factor for lgbtq plus youth schools in general and our district in particular can encourage respect for all students we can prohibit bullying harassment and violence against all students we can conduct social
097emotional learning activities in school to enhance peer relationships and help all students develop empathy we can maintain safe spaces for all students we can enhance cultural competence of school staff when the administration teachers and all staff are actively involved in creating this environment students can feel safer and although we as a district have begun to incorporate these strategies there are things that the school district has done to incorporate everything i just mentioned throughout our district it's vital and super important to acknowledge that there's always room for improvement and that we can always be doing more by actively monitoring and doing progress checks on our on our efforts we can ensure that these initiatives stay at the forefront in order to provide the best learning environment for all of our students so that's what i wrote
098um it's i mean to me growing up here in the u p it's incremental change it's tough right um and the experiences that i had are not the same experiences that the students nowadays experience or have have to go through um some of them are some of them have uh gotten better right uh incrementally a little bit we're not there yet um but we're we're working towards it uh i don't like to take any steps backwards i always like to try to move forward and having this safe environment there's always going to be disagreements but this this meeting that we have it's to me it's the smallest part it's not the smallest part because we get to hear from people but more more normally when nobody's here and it's just us talking about numbers and
099doing stuff that's there's always stuff going on there's conversations that are being had there's um you know we're looking over budgets we're doing having different committee meetings so it's hard to to see but there are efforts being made and sometimes sometimes we need events kind of like this to kick-start things to get get us moving forward even faster like the dei committee that i sat on i think we sat on one or two meetings and then it kind of it got got squashed right and i never brought it up to anybody else that's that's that's on that's on me i didn't i don't think i told anybody else about this because i didn't feel like not that the board wouldn't be but that it was it was not going to be um it was not
100going to move forward in the way that i wanted to see it happen uh i think that now we can get it going in the way that is going to be actually give some fruitful results right so i'm glad to see the buy-in from the board and um you know now it's actually putting putting words into action and being able to to be accountable and to keep doing these progress checks right and i do i i do encourage any concerned public member to reach out i've you know i've spoken to some people and i've spoken to people on the board that i might not necessarily agree with a hundred percent um i'll throw myself outside john and i have had multiple discussions um and they have been uh they're a lot easier when you can
101actually talk to somebody one-on-one instead of um from this spot so i just i really i really i hate that that people need to feel um hurt and need to feel unsafe and need to feel threatened in order to come and talk to us right and in order for initiatives to get moving but sometimes that's what it takes and it really it's really a it's a tough thing to do sometimes but um but i'm hoping that uh you know that we we get buy-in from the board and administration and that we see some continued results because like i said every single one of those things we have policies our second reading of neola policies those just addressed non-discrimination okay so it's in policy now um where it was before to an extent but this was
102an updated policy um you know with the social emotional learning we have we have programs going on at throughout this district that is trying to promote that it's just making sure that we get buy-in and consistent results from all staff all teachers all administration all board and uh and we have we have safe spaces for kids the goal is that any kid would know that any classroom any any bus driver any staff member right would be a safe adult to talk to that's the goal and we're moving towards that getting there right um but we're not there yet but it's not to say that we're not doing anything okay we're doing some things maybe we can hopefully we can accelerate that process okay and that's awesome well said aj i like your incremental i i
103think i i like i like i like quicker increments but you know we all do we all do but change is slow but at least it has changed are you going no okay um first of all thank you everybody for speaking tonight appreciate it um it was nice hearing from everybody on their thoughts um and concerns and whatnot so i appreciate you guys all speaking tonight i know it's very hard to get up and speak in front of people sometimes i hate it here i sit um so i do thank you i really do means a lot i apologize i'm guilty i don't get around to school um i can't i work uh during school hours so i don't get here to meet the kids i know a few um i'm relating to most of
104them so the ones i know so i do apologize i don't get in i don't get into school i know a lot of the teachers or some of the teachers anyway um the administration and that but uh yeah so i am guilty of that but any other now i'm just gonna leave that alone i think that was uh talked about enough already um but i am also here if you guys need anything um so on a positive note congratulations to all the new full-time employees and i also um somebody said it over here i don't remember who but i hope we can move forward with the baseball also um thank you for bringing that to us um anything i can do to help with that as well let me know i'll be more than happy
105to it's always good to bring new stuff into the school so anything i can do to help anybody just let me know okay thank you first of all i'd like to welcome the new people you knew people probably don't know what i taught you for 25 years and i love my teachers and my parents and the staff so and the rest of you thank you for speaking up um i appreciate that you know what else i appreciate one that you just came and two that you stayed after you spoke a lot of people speak and then they leave you know it's kind of upsetting to us um it'd be nice if they would stay and hear everything that is going on and i'm here to tell you a lot of it is boring you know
106i get it um to mr bruce and miss evans i would really encourage you to make a meeting and look at that video if you two could do that dustin i too agree yay i like involving his kids as much as i can um probably would be a good start to start with mr suring and mr bruce they could set up a meeting boy are you going to be busy um and i don't know who's in charge of pd but it might not be a bad idea to do a pd on the lb gd whatever i can't remember what it is because i'm not that knowledgeable in it either all i know is i just accept people for who they are um model town bold um it was nice we had that little update in
107there but one of the things that people don't want to contribute to is one they don't know what it is and two where's the money gonna go so one of the things that a couple of us have discussed was specifics i talked with rob maybe an astroturf football field okay but in doing that it's like well can i go to sports well i agree i'm also all about community if anybody's ever driven by my house at any holiday i had proposed that we kind of get back to after school programs that we can include all kids we can include all people within the community not just teachers um if you don't know what community schools was it was a bunch of after-school activities designed for anybody in the community it wasn't just necessarily kids um
108it was for adults it was for kids it was for if a middle school kid had to go up to gilbert school to take macrame for example you could do that and it was for anybody and community members not just teachers i would encourage teachers and staff if we can get this on a goal i want to include this as a community thing and get to know our kids get to know our parents because that's what we need to do and and i know it after working for 25 years you're exhausted at the end of the day last thing you want to do is stay after school but i would really encourage you to do that because you can learn so much about so many people that you live with in this area so those
109are a couple of the things that people ask those are a few of the things that we're looking at that is where that money is going to go so if you haven't contributed to that you know the question came well does it have to just be alumni when no are you for gwen then yeah it's you could pay me a paypal loan right we got the little qr code um it's tax deductible and we want to keep it perpetuating for a long time because they're we all know in this community it's hard to do things if you want to do things you have to go to marquette i want to try to avoid that i would much rather have oakley doing dance and gwen than me having a drive to market every tuesday but it
110is to me all about community and um you know pass a word on that and if you think you have something to offer please do okay tina i'm because i want to go home no offense anybody i'm dying up here it's hot give her the information have her contact me you know my number that's what i'm trying to find out well nobody contacted me [Music] but i just heard from so many people like we can't just go to sports because they wanted they thought this money was going for the gym floor none of this money went for that gym floor but it would be nice to have a nice field out there for the community to use not just a football team maybe we'd get a soccer thing going or something i don't know but
111i think it would also cut costs and having to go out there and paint the little lines and pick up goose poop and whatever else they have to do out there um but it would be it would be a good community like activism kind of thing you know especially with everything that everybody has talked about here tonight getting to know everybody else you know it's um it is it's difficult if you're not given the opportunities to do those things and finally and lastly because yes i want to go home i got an injection they have a terrible headache um i do go into the schools not only did i just work here for 25 years i still go into the schools i apologize to gilbert i had surgery on the gilbert time so i didn't
112get anywhere i couldn't even walk down the hallway my house so you know i plan on doing that but what i would ask if any of these people come welcome them when people some teachers when they saw me coming they closed the door because they think i'm out to get them fired and that is not the case i want to know what's going on i want to see what the kids are doing sometimes i see bad things yes i do if i see another person on a cell phone when they're supposed to be working with a kid i'm going to go ballistic okay i also saw so many good things wonderful math lessons that were interactive for all kids raising the little chicks okay christy does her fish you know there's wonderful things that are
113going on and it's sad when all we hear about are the things that are bad but there are a lot of good things going on volunteer volunteer at your schools you can learn a lot from people that way okay i'll adjourn it at 8 15. thank you hi there