2024_11_12 SFAS School Board Meeting

001to the flag of the United States of America the it stands indisce all right folks than for coming in tonight we got a few items on the agenda here uh next up will be the adoption of the agenda is there a motion second second discussion the only discussion I have on to add on there is that we do have someone here now tonight from the student council so we're going to add in student council will be under information items and reports it be a 5.0 and the Grace will be the speaker tonight for us from student council from the high school have have her name in there and new item uh you have your hand up yeah I would like to suggest moving the approval of policy 6065 to um the top of the action

002items first because we have a lot of people here in the audience that are interested in that we us once be said everything even in the order whatever reason to pull up ahead I don't I make a motion we move it 6 point seven on the agenda is there a motion in second to move 6.6 to the top of the action item all in favor say I I oppos I okay and I know who said what all in favor please raise a hand all opposed motion pass 63 so we'll move uh 6 43 we'll move 6 606 yeah appr policy 67 we moved up on top yeah we get there make a mistake correct it right away we talk about it okay any other issues on the adoption of the agenda if not all in

003favor say I I oppose motion passes thank you very much uh consideration visitors first one up will be Jim Jim two minutes two minutes um i' like to talk about the library issue and there's a I'm a lifelong Blood Donor and one of the things they ask every time is if you engageing in these activities and some of those activities are in these books and the Red Cross needs at least three months to test blood to make it safe so if it's not safe for our blood supply these activities are not safe to be exposed to our children because they may be making lifelong decisions and they don't have a chance to have anybody tested they have so we we do uh have border border or crosswalk guards make sure our kids don't do foolish

004things and everybody knows that young kids tend to do foolish things if we let them run across the street and said you might not get hit by a car we wouldn't do that to them and by putting stuff in their library that is exposing them to Future Danger I think is irresponsible because it indicates to them that we approve of this and I think it's we have to love our children enough to protect them for themselves thank you thank you J next up will be Jake hum Jake thank you for taking the time uh School Board cabinet customers uh I just like to point out the Veterans Day programs that were given Monday on Veterans Day and Tuesday today uh today um because uh I really got a lot out of going to these two

005and so did the students uh kids um were dressed up in red white and blue some of them were carrying Flags we had Mike star speaking at the high school which was really appreci appreciated by um the masses uh telling us about the memorial that you guys did recently and then Mr Burr uh spoke at the middle school today and there was a lot of great stories related I he I heard kids sitting right next to be talking about oh I want to be in this but I want to be in this and so the effect there was great and I just uh think it's beautiful that we live in such a a patriotic community and um that they value their veterans and I really appreciate that you guys put that out there for our

006community to remember it was well received by the kids and well received by the adults that attended as well so kudos to you too and then kudos to this district and if you've not attended this I highly suggest going to those programs next year it was super worthwhile thanks right thank you very much all right next up consent agenda there motion for consent agenda we have a motion a second second thank you rob discussion if none all in favor say I oppos consent agenda passes thank you very much okay move into information items and reports uh first one's going to be 5.0 be student council great Sun gr great okay um I'm representing student council I'm Grace hrew and I'm here to let you know what's upcoming and happening in our school so we have

007an upcoming Community night where we have Santa Claus Santa and Mrs Claus crafts games cookies a jazz band performance and a choir concert and there's also basketball game on that night and we have a food drive right now currently in our school and we have a gratitude wall for the month of November and then we just got back from our crain's leadership camp where we learned of ways we can move in our school and help our school St Fran school thank you for yeah she also knows that in the future they wouldn't Grace Grace you have to come back up front oh yeah because consideration visitors we don't talk because of discussion but with you we do have possible question what night is that Community night it is December 13 I believe or 14th is

008Friday yeah and then again uh let us know ahead of time and then what we do we have spot at the table for you and you sit the table again give your presentation you see there's two or three other students involved with this so you let us know ahead of time that's Wednesday before the Super add it vaness add it to the agenda be here all right question and you don't have to you can leave after you homework all right any question anyone else all right coming in tonight thank you much okay first one second item up now on five will be 51 neity in school a lot of you have it on your file up here uh what I'm looking at to we got a lot of stuff tonight I'm looking at 20 minute

009discussion on mutal of schools 20 minutes so I'll go ahead who wants to start it off maybe I'll just kick it off and then Amy if you could step in so sometime ago Kelly requested to discuss the topic neity in schools which mean different things to different people the way I understood it though is that the concept means the importance of not pushing a political or social agenda within a school setting that's one interpretation anyway but I think you have a more comprehensive View and maybe can give some more examples so I did uh Identify some different areas where this can be relevant uh in the school district first instruction um might mean that Educators refrain from discussing political or social issues or they share multiple perspectives on controversial topic so it's not just one

010opinion you know there multiple perspective shared uh some people might call this a fair balanced approach others might call it a point Counterpoint approach we use kind of both phrases here at the school board meetings another area where this uh is no would be flags and posters in schools and um you know it's just another issue that has surfaced over the last several years actually um and there are some stakeholders who Express concerns to board members about a flag in the high in a high school room uh there used to be more posters and plags in the school but I think most have been removed um but there is still at least one in the high school room when I outline something key issues as far as making those kinds of decisions and then the

011third one I didn't really say much about it but it has to do with political advocacy and so that is not allowed by school policy and state law and so we're you know educators are not allowed to let's say bring in Trump or Paris posters you know encouraging people to vote in a particular way that's just not allow so those are the three areas that I just briefly High highlighted in the background information sheet and Amy if if you're interested if you can maybe expand expand on that Amy yeah we um one of my concerns is to ensure that our schools are neutral that all children will walk in the door and um they don't see anything up on the walls that is trying to persuade them and and any political way and a and

012to ensure that the um discussions within the classroom are also neutral you made a really nice point of um what I was concerned with and you did a nice job at putting it forth and writing for the board so pretty comfortable with what you put forth Caron any question Pam so I agree with what you said the problem that I have and I think the reason why we are having this discussion is because we can say that there's no anti-trump or antiaris but we saw a video that was anti-trump and it was Pro vaccination and and put the mask on or shut up and all this was in a video that had nothing to do with the class discussion it was in a science class I think in the Middle School we've also had and

013and I don't know how much people are aware of this but I'm going to bring it up because it needs people need to be aware of it but and Carson you're aware of it and I believe you took care of it although I've never followed back to see if it's gone but there was a huge painting of ma in the Multicultural Multicultural Union room and when I asked the adult in the room what that was there for her response to me was is it's there to um for an example to our Vietnamese students of a leader who came from poverty and Rose up to be a great leader ma was not a great leader ma massacred thousands and thousands of people he communist so why that so that those are you know and then there's

014been a couple there's been a and these are the only things that we know of is because they were brought forward by either parents or students themselves but um another video that was um anti-trump um back in 200000 must have been 20 I'm not sure when it was it was it was probably the first year I was on the board he was anti-trump anti um um board wall building and all that stuff and it was rhetoric okay propaganda and rhetoric that was given to our shown to our students the other one was a literally a discussion that a teacher had talking about how the Republicans um Jimmy rig things and do things and there was not a cter point so that was a recording so that those are the things and those are just the

015things that we are aware of that's the things that I've been made aware of um there's other things like assignments I think that students have brought forward um that show that there is definitely a a leaning towards um I don't even know what you want to call it but um but it's definitely politically driven so these are the things that so we can say that you know I appreciate you saying that our teachers are not supposed to tr mod any this but how do we ensure that that's not happening on a regular basis because we have no idea what's going on in every classroom we have no idea we have to trust and we've said that we voiced it but even after we voiced it these things come up a neighbor came to me and

016said you know Hillary Clinton t-shirt was being worned by a teacher and I came in with a trump t-shirt and I was told to leave and put on a different shirt you know so we can say all these things but how do we ensure that this is not happening in our classrooms and I know you can't be in every classroom Carson and I know Stacy can't be and principles can't be but these are why we've had these discussions at this table some of those I'm aware of and I can tell you that we did address them yes and I think um we address them appropriately um people make mistakes you know there are hundreds of thousands of interactions that occur every day in the school our size and people make mistakes and so we rely

017on hearing about those mistakes so we can follow up on it but I feel really good about how we've handled those particular situations so how do we make sure they're not going to happen again so so I hear yeah okay people make mistakes even though the board's been talking about this for four years since I've been on the board and we've been talking about it talking about it um we've had teachers that have come up and wanted to meet with us and have defended themselves so it's but it still happens so how do we proactively what do we have to put in place so when it happens what are the actions taken is it just with that one teacher or is it just as an example to say this was shown if any of you

018the rest of you are showing this I mean what are we actually doing to the rest for the rest of our schools teachers Administration what are we doing to make sure that they're all aware that you may not think it's happening but right next door you it happened and so how do you keep that from happening again and again in different classrooms different times in different schools I'll throw a couple of examples of things that you can review or be better uh one would be to include uh information like a employee handbook uh that specifically talks about not just political advocacy but also this concept because really our goal should be to one to our particular opinions you know we want a fair approach so we can hear different perspectives and then let kids decide

019themselves you know it's not our job to convince them one or the other um certainly uh we can provide more training uh to teachers and other staff members so we can remind them uh clearly when there's an incident Rises you know we we want to talk to the to the teacher it's a teaching opportunity right yeah a coaching opportunity a reminder that we need to do some things differently people have really responded well to that um when we've talked to about it and I'm not familiar with any person who who's done it a second time you after that you know we we don't want to necessarily you know call a staff meeting and say we won't do this this teacher made a mistake but certain examples can be shared just like the examples in this

020particular um meting and those can be really valuable I remember once in a in a different School District there was a a teacher who brought a political sign um you know he took it from one car was going to take it to another car left it in his room you know but it was showing his political advocacy and so I talked to him we wrote a a policy in the employee handbook to address it and then we brought it up at a staff training you know the next year so it's those kinds of things that you brought up that have to be on on it you know from as soon as they arise abouts i' well he and I have discussed the pronouns and so what's the response what you explained it to me that

021what's the response pronouns because that's been a concern that's been brought up numerous times does have to do with neutrality or is it kind of Shifting to different well neutrality that would be not pushing enough yeah right now if there are by the way I'm reviewing our current procedure um as far as uh personal pronouns with the attorney I just sent some information to her uh last week I think um to get additional clarification um but right now our current policy is that if uh a parent puts in a written request to the school district uh to change the personal pronoun of um their child uh that we go through a process that involves Vanessa changing it on the or adding it as a profile uh to the the students uh record and so um

022those cases though it's it's parent driven um now there are also students who approach uh teachers and others their their friends and their classrooms and they want to change it without going through that process um and I that's the part that I'm checking with VI train um I personally believe it's better to make sure that parents have access to that information I don't want to hide anything but before staining that I want to make sure the attorney agrees with that so that's been our our policy actually for several years predates me so it's probably four or five years old and I'm guessing that would be 17 and under if you're 18 then they would be they can do it themselves AB so that's clarified I think and I think I'm fine with between a parent

023and teacher I think what they do in some districts and what I've heard we're not doing here is when the teacher stands up and and and pushes that in front of a whole classroom of and that's what my concern was because they do do that in many districts in this state and my whole thing was that's personal and that needs to stay between the student and the teacher I'm fine with whatever they decide to do but we're not going to push it a teacher standing in front of the classroom and ask students have which they do in the district south of us I'm glad you I'm glad you brought that that was my concern yeah is it what parents do personally Give an example with one of my sons who goes to Carlton college and

024during orientation um I don't think the kids were there but parents were there and each person introduced themselves you know their names and the personal PRS and you know if I were like a a 16y old child you know in that room that I feel pressured to share the same information and that part I feel uncomfortable about because some people don't want to share that information in front of others so but those are kind some of the questions that I posst to our attorney just to make sure that we're on solid footing now with all that being said you know I think there'll be some changes starting in January so I'm not going to slow down the review but I think in January February there'll probably be some federal changes and so then we'll adjust

025our policy accordingly so I'm not trying to minimize the concern but I do think there's some changes coming add I also we want to go back to your Journal that you get from MDA go back into your Journal go back into the main issue here the uh May June issue of 2024 here page 20 and look up and read what doing to take care of their marginalized students down there to support those students who need help great article in your uh magazine here from NBA really help you understand what schools are doing to take care of those kids and you a hand up yeah I just wanted to I mean I agree with everything that Pam said and she she said a lot of what I was thinking and going to share but I think

026it's really important that we provide guidelines for the staff and students um so everybody knows that and what what the ramifications are if you go one way or the other I mean I just think those guidelines are really really important and having this conversation um and an effort to create those guidelines I think is really really important so getting more granular on on what this looks like neutral the definition um things like that are are really important going forward yeah we had a good discussion about that you know I think the the goal is to just share expectations we can't anticipate every single circumstance that might come up but at least we can do our best to set our and also as myself been in the schools for 12 years I've never seen a teacher

027or an EA or a cook or a bus driver or maintenance person wear any t-shirts for political reasons kids t-shirts hats you see it all I've seen them both for 12 years no school and high school but I've never ever seen a teacher or a staff member wear something now could it happened one time and if he corrected that could happen but I've never heard of it and I've never seen it in my 12 years of being in school I asked my wife about it you's been there 27 years youve never ever seen a staff member wear a physical t-shirt ever but kids they do all the time yeah May bug me about it and we have stay neutral when when they talking about it I just wa is we have still teacher or staff

028member so okay any other further discussion questions on your vality so so what is the best way forward just to continue what we do and to to know that is some of this going to be written up in a handbook or do I mean I'm just wondering because we're having a great discussion the we're not taking action tonight but is there action and when I ask this question it isn't that I don't me public say well you need to trust the staff well this is about having expectations and knowing and so that the staff is aware of the expectations and I will say this is a good thing because your best teachers and us the teachers that I grew up with now I graduated number of years ago but you never knew where your teachers

029stood politically and those are your best teachers those those are where those te kids walk out and they say I think he's a Democrat the next one says no he's a Republican no the kids don't know there are many teachers and most of our colleges they know exactly where they stand and it's too bad because that isn't the way it should be so yeah to answer your question I think the the best spot is to include it I shouldn't say staff handbook that's in Brandon's area I'm setting up District protocols for standard operating procedures and and that will be given to all employees and that's I think a really good spot for it and and um you know so that would be in place for next year uh which is probably better because I think

030there will be changes coming out from the federal level and so we kind see how that shakes out and then make sure those are Incorporated in them as well perfect so I'm sorry it sounds like I'm kicking it down kicking the can down the road but I want to go through the the weal review first make sure that's set and then we'll make adjustments okay so I make another thing that I observed and heard from students mouths is you know they understand you know when they're talking about um this was in the the Student Union that Nate and I attended that meeting yeah um Multicultural student the Multicultural and you know we were talking about you know the harassment you know and the the racial slurs and the things that were going on in the

031school we're we're listening to them talking all those things and and and very empathetic around why that's going still going on and what are we doing about it and why aren't we nipping it in the bud right away in the classroom when it's happening those kinds of things we had a really great great discussion going on the interesting thing that came out though was that the student that was advocating so strongly for all this said well I understand that we're in a conservative community so I understand change takes a long time so basically she was basically saying that because we're in a conservative community that all these things are happening and and I know you guys can't fix this real quickly because we're in a conservative Community I don't know where those ideas come from

032that we're a conservative community and that because we're conservative we allow harassment racial slurs and all these things but those kinds of discussions in that type of a environment in that Multicultural you know can feed on itself and feed on itself and where does that come from WR I don't I don't get that that was that was very disturbing to me and there was no refuting of it there was kind of a affirmation of that student and how she felt about that kind of an agreement that yeah it's tough to change things here um that was very disturbing to me and I know name I had the conversation with you on the parking lot but I don't know if you remember it but I remember that meeting real well part of that I remember the

033MS I think it was three yeah okay Pam and Nate I and of course the most heartbreaking part of that conversation is how many times she was called the N word right on a typical day yeah and that's I took from that meeting that we need to address this somehow some way right um and I don't know you know how she came up with those perceptions of conservative liberal but I do know that both of you all and I were appalled by what was happening to her right and uh if you're conservative or liberal or libertarian we were appalled right you know that's that's what I took for that and I don't know I mean I guess and maybe we're going off subject now a little bit with that but um I felt that that

034was another kind of a red flag and what are we teaching these kids is based on the things that I was hearing um and hearing you know these videos that I seen and these reports I'm hearing from from um parents on assignments and things like that um just just leads me down that same passing we have some correction to be doing and I don't know why you know why we're so far one way or the other we should be right down the middle not worrying about these things so those are my concerns you got a question you got two minutes to that for discussion is it possible to get um Regular reports back on how this topic is um progressing through through the channels because You' said you're reviewing it you're talking with legal you

035know we're looking at different things can we get updates um to know so that we can track where we're at and keep keep on top of it y you bet yeah I don't think it'd be every meeting but at least regular updates that maybe to put maybe to put note in um sometime next spring early summer um so that it could be in place by Fall because you said you'd want it possibly in um so possibly spring sometime that have it in the back of your mind probably you two because depending on we don't know who board chair will be so to make a note of it so that it automatically comes up for discussion and so that we stay on track and yeah I just wrote early spring perfect I think will have information

036as long as we all know that that it's going to be subject to change because of you know State and nationales but you know I can certainly give the updates or the community the school board and Community updates all right we move on then thank you very much next up will be 5.2 admin report Mr superintendent oh by the way I have a cough and sore throat so I apologize for my rasy voice um want to highlight a couple of things Jake already talked about the Veterans Day programming which program were exceptional time and proud of our students and staff for their participation uh Mike star and I were Shark Tank uh investors at the middle school last week along with Stacy I kitley joeel the U industrial Tech Teacher runs this each uh semester

037and the kids you know come in as if they're you know they're asking for investments into the products that they they do they have a fullblown presentation they actually create something with the 3D print they think would sell and then we have a good conversation um I'm always really impressed with what those eth graders can do and it shows some innov programming where you involve not only using software and creating 3D print but collaborative work design work presentation skills you know speaking to complete strangers um so I really enjoyed that also went to um Treasure Island play last week and I say this every time I go uh but I'll tell you what Mo has an unbelievably great program and we shall all be proud of that and so that was enjoyable I did give

038a status of some challenged Library materials one has to do with me Girling the D girl which is currently in the high school media center the next one is out of darkness and they're going to be the Review Committee is going to have a meeting on December 3rd to discuss that that's all kind of pending what happens tonight because if we change the policy then that might change the you know kind of how it's going to go forward so it's kind of so so me Earl and girl can you tell us what the what the complaint was on that I don't know that well can you tell us what the complaint was on that what was the challenge uh on both of them it has to do with um sexual explicit content oh it does

039yeah on both of those okay I hope that's a fair fair thing to say yeah yeah okay okay so so and the committee said no we want to keep it uh that's their recommendation okay yeah but then the person can still file an appeal that go to me I'll look to see if the process was followed and I think that could be a quick turn around time and then the person could appeal to the full school board so they have to appeal at each time yeah okay yeah uh the next part um oh by the way there was a third book that had been challenged but it turns out the U individual they have a child in school at that time so right now it's not on the challenge list but I'm sure somebody else

040will probably pick it up and challenge it so I don't remember the name of the buck off so at one time so they're no longer the child just graduated or what what what happened yeah it just doesn't have a child in school I I can't remember it was a preschool child or maybe they went to a different school I I can't remember the details uh I did include some discipline data um on the next table there and I'm hoping to do that uh probably every month or every other month but I'll show the data month by month so we can kind of compare from one year to the next so it's a little hard to read but you see the first three columns are 2003 data and the next three columns are 2004 data and

041you see that uh we are making a steady progress in fing how many diso incidents we've got so the September to October why the big jump I mean we went from 231 and Majors to 433 and 59 or excuse me minors and Majors went from 59 to9 yeah and that's a pattern that we've seen both years and I remember when I was a high school principal I always felt like there was a quote unquote honeymoon period the first part of school people were outside they're moving around it's not a DAT it's not a DAT no there may be some discipline incidents that in October but certainly would explain you know the significant increas so does this include like the harassments and those things all those things that the students put in and yeah understand Majors

042we do want to track it time up I'm going to go back to the um challenge Library material so me Earl and the dying girl they we've decided as as an admin to keep that book in the libraries oh the um the first step to a challenge is the complainant will talk to um the high SCH the principal or the licensed media specialist now we have licensed media specialist so we're to try to encourage people to talk to her you know right away um it's sort of an informal request uh to remove the material if the uh media specialist says no to that then the individual can fill out a formal complaint uh request and um and then they send it to me and then the Review Committee meets to uh discuss the book and

043U the review was not required decided to actually read the book and then they used this they looked at some criteria to determine if they thought it should remain the library and so in that particular case they recommend keeping it in the library so what grade level or what school is it in the St Francis High School Media Center correct okay so what's the process now that it's gone through and they' we've decided to keep it in there what is the process can they challenge that or appeal that and bring that here yeah they appeal it to me next um you know after the the Review Committee has reviewed it uh then the appeal goes to mean uh what I'll typically do is I'll make sure that the process was followed uh appropriately um I

044also tend to look at the age range or the grade range that's recommended by the different entities that are reviewed um and if it's not matching that grade range then I'll ask some really hard questions about why it's still enough in the library um but if those two things are satisfactory then you know I would deny it uh and then the person can immediately appeal it to the school board and how does that how does that work so you deny it and you say fill up this paperwork we'll get it on the agenda what does that look like well it kind of depends on the book policy today um but right now with the current policy I would take just an email saying Hey I want to uh to the full school board and then

045we would put it on the agenda uh for a school board meeting uh one issue we' have to decide is do board members want time to read the book themselves or do they want to you know wait or just review the uh different materials U you know like uh publisher reviews and you know those kinds of things so that's the part that's a little mky uh one issue that I'm sure will come up at 66.5 would be do we want a public hearing or not about the B so um that's one thing we should decide today we was the public comment but what do we want a formal public hearing further discussion I can I can wait until we're going over the policy but I looked it up on bookbooks and it's a three out

046of a five it's minor restricted minor restricted yeah so and it says the summary of concerns is this book contains inexplicit sexual nudity sexual activities excessive frequent profanity and derogatory terms and what I like about bookbooks is that it actually tells you the page where the so-called call the violation or whatever occurs and it also has on the bottom um or on the top it actually has the words that are in there and how many times they're they're used so prints out the passages it'll it'll say how many times dick is ass the f word goddamn I mean there's a list of words and how many times are actually listed in the book so and our committee said they think that it's fine to leave it so yeah okay any other discussion right now all

047right we're moving to action items we move 6.7 up on top it's the book policy uh I'm not going to ask for a motion in a second we're going to have discussion that way we're going to prevent all these uh last time go around admin this or or you know inject this or I want to men that we have discussion 30 minute discussion then I'm going to call for a motion in a second okay by then we're going to know how we want to word this thing put this together that way there no all the big changes so we can do it outside of a motion in a second more comfortable reading and talking about it Brandon's going to talk about it we sent all the paperwork to the attorney you've seen what would happen

048with the attorney's uh recommendations and we're going to go across that right now tonight all these different Cod codes that's in your book Poli we got 30 minutes Mr BR go ahead all right good evening what was brought before you is attempt to follow the board direction from the last meeting and so there is a Redline documents in your board package as D3 at the end um for version three and it includes all of the redline uh changes that were presented in the previous meeting but then it added the direction from the board which is that is all um clearly indicated by highlighted in yellow text so if it's highlighted in yellow that is adding what was um given as far as Direction at the last meeting is we listen to the recording many times

049to make sure we got it right and um so if you look at page three of that red line there was adding um some definitions and that's and highlighted in yellow and then on page four and five um there was changes made um page five adding two community members and then um page four added that a Community member could bring an objection so that is what we understand was the direction of the board so that um document ending in B3 is the one in front of you uh that was presented to the school district attorney for legal review and if you look in the background information the legal response is um part of the background it speaks to uh the attorney's opinion about adding the definitions to um part the the third page of that

050document or um part 5 S and then the other two uh changes that are highlighted in yellow are permissible there wasn't concern most then um superintendent already spoke to the public hearing we wanted to clarify in there I think there was some discussion at the last meeting about public hearing it is not required the appeal process first goes to the superintend go to the school board but it is not required to be a public hearing if it is there is a a policy that we have in place ever need to be followed so that is just one thing we wanted to clarify this evening so hopefully we frame everything up as directed from the board so that you can start a discussion okay so questions right now let's open it up for discussion what question

051do you have what do you understand not understand what you be drawn out of here it needs to be withdrawn and changed what do you have for comments questions okay so the thing that we were at this point we're really adamant against was the explicitly sexual content in the explicitly violent content I mean the books that talk about how to perform abortions you know how to give yourself an abortion um the molestation the um men on little girls you know um having sex with them against their will all these things are in these books very explicitly so when I read this um so the legal review uh Part 57 including these Provisions would Place content based restrictions on Library materials which in most cases is not permissible under the First Amendment apply with the First

052Amendment and Minnesota statute any restrictions on Library materials in this policy should avoid broad categorical prohibitions that could be perceived as prohibiting materials based solely on the nature of their content okay so um that's a disturbing to me because it talk because we specifically said sexually explicit we said that it's inappropriate for our students this is to me content-based restriction so that says well then anything is open I just this to me felt like a response to a public library not a school library I don't know how the rest of you guys felt about that statement I didn't I to me so we can't restrict any content based restrictions um againand Brandon help in Brandon and explain why she I mean the law content bed so the um so this this a policy that's coming

053before you ending in B3 was sent to the attorney the exact policy right so this is the response to that highlighted yell parts and the concern is that um inserting that would could potentially bring challenge for the First Amendment and it's I'm non attorney a lot of this is case law from I think up to the Supreme Court and it's it's that you cannot um look at certain parts it has to be as a whole it has to be objective as a whole and that's these definitions are not doing that from a legal standpoint okay so then the next paragraph make sure we address BR ask talk we recognize who's talking here what time frame anyone before bam anyone else right now have a question yet discussion okay bam go ahead okay so I want

054to just kind of continue on the thought process then so then they say so we therefore part of this is for our audience that they understand what's being said because they haven't necessarily seen this but I want to spell because I want to understand it myself we therefore recommend omitting this portion of the policy and instead focusing on the educational value and age appropriateness of Library materials okay so that's what we said to start with was the age appropriateness so I'm in agreement with that and the educational value so I think that's what one of our visitors was talking about what's the value in this and we don't really want our kids reading this kind of material because it could lead them down a really terrible path um so those Provisions already provide grounds for

055excluding sexual explicit content on a Case by case basis that is not suitable for a student audience okay so if this is the case so that approach would align so this is saying that the current I think this is saying that the current policy accomplishes this does it not is that what this is saying we recommend omitting this portion um and instead focusing on the educational value and age appropriateness of Library materials isn't that already in our policy didn't we already talk isn't that already in that I don't have the background in front of me but isn't that referring to like a five a is that that what does it say I'm trying to go back and forth I wish I had I think there's more of that background that maybe you're not reading that

056it's referring to that's in the policy um had FR sorry five a c so I if I might go ahead if I might read them so 5A is Artistic quality and or I got to make this a little bigger for my old eyes just a search items here yeah I got I'll read them here all right now I can read them sorry guys oh I see it number five you see it yeah 58 is that what you're talking about then okay so all right so to answer that then it's they're saying it's already in here because it's it's it's Library material show me high stands of quality in one or more of these categories artistic quality or literary Style authenticity critical thinking educational significance factual content High interest for intended audience and readability okay then

057my question is this me Earl and the dying girl who has very explicit who is it's for it's not recommended for miners which is anybody under 18 it just passed the committee the committee said no we should keep it in there and this is our current policy it's already in our current policy so it didn't catch this book so we're missing our whole community's concern with we're not catching these books and keeping them off or taking them back out because this is already in place so that's my concern we've already had it tested and it failed to our community standards but passed to this which our legal advice is saying you already got it covered it's not if it's age appropriate we don't think it is age appropriate so it's subjective the wor Stu it

058is subjective but I will point out that there are multiple other um reviews by you know sources that do show that it's appropriate for high school kids yes and we've had that discussion but the problem is book The problem is what we're trying to avoid here at this board at this board and with our community support because I believe everybody here is against the B of the books that are currently in the library um so so what we're saying then is it doesn't matter that this meets the criteria of high standards for our students to be reading because it's readable or because it either has educational significance or high interest for intended audience so if we have students that have high interest reading these kinds of books it passes the grade of a high standard

059it's not good enough that's what we're trying to say here so from uh so it's it's really missing because this to me is so subjective um we've already done the test and it it it passed the test of the policy yet we have community members and half the board here who says it's not okay for these they're not age appropriate so that's what I have to say yeah a policy like this one that you just said p is be very very subjective what one person sees versus somebody else sees it there's eight different companies out there you take that book too there's eight that I know of they have a review on a book which of these support it which don't support it you have 9 10 12 15 of them I don't know I'm

060up to eight right now that I found on book R viws so it's all going to be subjective what's good what's bad fact is we're bringing something together here and the legal beagle told us some of the stuff going get you in trouble and there's already lawsuits out there against school district for pulling books out who's got all we're trying to do is protect ourselves who's got one who got what lawsuits Florida and what book I have no idea they just said there there's lawsuits down there for pulling books off the library so again it's objective but what do we do to protect the district not to get by a lawsuit Mr Mrs attorney what do you say they gave us what they say recommendations come from Administration I am not going to override the

061attorney for vot because we asked for their expert help us out we don't get Su and so that's where I come from if she says take it out keep it I follow the expert I'm not going to argue with me with the lawyer if I get my law degree and I argue with so that's why I come from on the whole system I guess that's interesting an interesting perspective because again we go back to a lot of our stakeholders don't like this stuff in the libraries and then we're saying but we have a policy it this book got through so it's okay but we want to get a levy so give us money but we don't want we don't want to hear from you because our attorney said not to do this it just just

062it it it's not all clicking um if if it were up to me I'd say let's let's um let's go ahead and and take it just as it's written here to include number seven that's all um highlighted in yellow because that's where it drills down and takes out the question and and subjectiveness this is where it's at you asked about the lawsuit in Florida okay group of major Publishers authors and parents have St Florida education officials Over law that allows parents and local residents to limit what books are available in school libraries that they desect or describe sexual contact the lawsuit filed by all these big companies here uh alleged that the state law in acted last year brought about hundreds of book removals in violating the First Amendment right to free speech what I

063find offensive she may not find she finds it offensive I don't find offensive that's a subjective what we're seeing here in our policy and that's why these lawsuits are coming out right now because they're first it comes down to the First Amendment we may not agree we may not like what's in there how was written I agree should can't see it but some of these books haven't been checked out for 10 years when I asked some of the the library specialist when is that book outl you looks up well that was seven years ago someone looked at it seven years ago one person looked at a book say years ago so again it's raw material I agree yet First Amendment right is going to overr you and I just don't get our district in a

064lawsuit uh you got to hand up first I come back to a you when one of us becomes an attorney we have the right to make a decision in this as a board and have legal guidance at this table we currently don't and I will not vote I will not vote for something that goes against what our and if you want to against that many of us probably should resign from this board because if you're going to get us on the lawsuit I'm not going to be part of those games and again I went to a workshop last year put on by an attorney through msba and they talked about it right here about censorship in the First Amendment and I went to this training back in August 7th 2023 about what's going on have

065a whole bunch of stuff listed inside here but one best thing I picked up about the whole conference for that one day is what Shandra de o conell stated when she was on Supreme Court Our obligation is to define the liberty of all not to mandate our own moral cold and she she was on the Supreme Court for many many years we don't take on more Po and that's she had a good statement about it and it was a good attorney I mean a good process I went through with this whole process the workshop and it keeps going back the First Amendment we may not like the discussion we not like the wording we don't like that the content in the book yet the first amendment is going to overwrite it and these lawsuits are

066happening already in Florida is one of them sure many more out there Amy had a hand up also Amy Yeah question again who's suing who's suing the state of Florida pardon me who is suing the state of Florida you said who was it P and was group of major Publishers okay I'll stop you right there I got the it's publishers if parents are and authors the Publishers the authors I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure there's a group of Publishers that are publishing the book that came up in here and they're suing that we want to put these in the schools for these children to read okay we'll see what happens down there but I need to tell you something do I need to read again what 7A states it is sexual explicit we so my

067job is as a school board member is to approve policy for educational purposes for the school for the students of district 15 okay it has educational purpose I'm all for it I don't know why have we spent all this time figure out a way maybe the attorney needs to write something up then that's legal or maybe we need to contact um what is it Upper Midwest law and we'll have them write us up one attorneys I bet they disagree with this I just have a hunch they might but I'm fine if you go Law Firm who's going to pay for that they do a lot of it pro bono but I'll find but I'll find out okay because I've in contact they wrote us a policy or one about four or five years back to

068keep the CRT out of the schools and that's why they've sued and they wanted court but I've been in court many many times in my past my old job and you have a court you have two different attorneys up there the defense and the and the uh in the county attorney and you have the jury at 12 sitting over here both sides give their information jury tells which one is right which is wrong then we the decision then we move on so I agree is very subjective do you want to put this school district in a possible lawsuit on first amendment when our attorney that we have came for years is telling us don't do that don't put it in there that's what I'm trying to get to yes so if we were to take

069it out and I can read it again what I want out which is pretty an act of explicit sexual intercourse normal and perverted actual or simulated including genital to genital anal to genital oral to genital intercourse but whether between Humans Beings or between human beings and an animal that's what we're trying to keep out here let's just let's just say it out loud okay this isn't about free speech and I don't know why we're let's figure out how to get these books out of our library it shouldn't be this hard if you want I'm fine with removing this language but only if we can add book looks in then we'll use book looks as the deciding factor which then showed up that it was mind and restricted we use this to show movies if a

070movies are rated we don't show it in the schools if it shows up to be G we can show it in the schools but this it has a rating system and I'm fine with removing this language as long as we put on book looks then in the policy that will guide our staff into making decisions so I'm fine with then then the attorney will be happy and we're using bookbooks and we can move forward and again B on come back to neor and again Bas on the train from the attorneys that I went through from SBA training here that day within the contents of the First Amendment censorship is the government restrictions on Free Speech this extends to written materials such as books we agree that some of the stuff written is not the best

071yet are we this the first amendment why why Le the First Amendment we all know what could happen on Mr n so in preparation for tonight's discussion um you know I did I did my research just like all of you did your research I talked to some of our staff um looked at some of the things and the procedur that we do and I I wrote just a quick uh statement because I want I want to be able to hit the points and it actually hits everything that we've talk uh tonight so I'm just going to read that quickly but uh first off from my knowledge and understanding we have no issues within our school district of students being forced to read or participate in discussions related to the books in question or books that

072in reference I think superintendent has already told us that you probably can attest to that as well the inclusion of number seven under selection of Library deals should not be included in this policy and I'm going to give you my justification as to why I believe it is too broad of the statement these descriptions should be part of a procedure that is followed by the Review Committee as criteria used in making a decision to restrict or remove a material instead I offer to be part of this policy which is already covered in state and federal law library materials shall not include pornographic this um depiction we know what the definition of pornographic is that's a state definition it's in law hear me out talking um excerpts of books paints at times the wrong picture the

073truth is yes these books in question talk about sex or explicit sexual act but not everything sexual is inherently pornographic or obscene sexual health and educational books descriptions of Holocaust atrocities books on child abuse and sex trafficking and other and others serve as educational purp or serve an educational purpose maybe not to you or me at times but who is to say it doesn't serve a purpose for students in our district that have been raped forced into sexual trafficking or a victim of child abuse why would we put something into policy that diminishes students autonomy and puts up barriers to things like sexual health information books addressing abuse or injustices provide valuable opportunity for high school age students to identify what harm looks like and have conversations around safety consent and Injustice and at times

074under the guidance of a trained educator Librarians or even family members if the student student chooses to bring the book home isn't this empowering our students and allowing an environment for freedom of thought some of the books in question mere experiences some of our young people have had or are having that is a true statement that is an ugly truth we have students that have or are going through some horrific things I believe this is where we as a school board can take positive action but rather we spend time identifying these experiences as inappropriate or removing them and are invalidating the youth who have lived through them while also depriving them of information that might help them overcome situations and even process their own realities again when we look at an excerpt out of a

075book instead of the entire book and what it is um what it is talking shouldn't we as a district ensure we have Library materials that represent all within the district not just those that feel U that we feel should be represented isn't that the beauty of a public education we as a school board need to recognize that we have a community with a wide range of values and beliefs there are members in our community that don't agree with my values and beliefs or yours we must refer to our experts we can use experts in helping our community make our committee make decisions as well again there's there's a long list of different types of um rating sites that we can use that I think are included in the procedure we've talked about expanding that procedure

076as well we can continue to be transparent with what we require our students to read or participate in we can be proactive in sending reading lists out early and we can show the connection and educational benefit of that so parents can make decisions for their child we can hold our administrators accountable to making sure everything we do in the classroom has the value intended for our students we should encourage students to have the option to read books they enjoy even if they cover difficult topics we should ensure we offer books and opportunities to help students understand our world and become citizens in our diverse Society we should not restrict information or discourage free thought that goes against the primary function of Education which is to teach students how to think for themselves we should not

077restrict student exposure to different perspectives and experiences even if we personally don't agree with them or are fearful of them all of this exposure helps our students develop empathy and understandings books can open a world to someone we should not make a policy that limits that opportunity we should ensure we have a policy that allows for a detailed look into the appropriateness of an entire piece of material for our students students which is what 66.5 does without the inclusion of number seven the role of parents and Guardians is to make those decisions for of of our students the parents and guardians of our students and that should remain with them not the board again my belief in how this policy is written is it Amy I understand what you're saying and hey we're talking about

078this book and this event that it describes right but when we put number seven it talks about all of those areas it says we shall not have that so we have to remove things that include any of that and that is not uh an interpretation that we are making at the board level it specifically States what it cannot have in there and there are very educational um books that have examples of this there is there's a couple sporting books it talks about touching the but there's books that talk about um a player or a coach giving a good game on the back side of a player if we put this in our policy it specifically needs to come out right it is so descriptive and Broad and what that's not sexual explicit stand by stand

079by so um I don't believe it should be in there again I think our attorney is spot on we have an attorney from for a reason we're asking them um to support our policies um that's my specific comment on seven on the number [Music] seven so I completely with Nate on his assessment great presentation of looking at this from all perspectives not just your own perspective um secondarily you want to talk about books and know I brought it up at the last meeting the first book I would challenge or find somebody a challenge for me as the Bible because that would be rejected based on this um we could go to tequil moing bird next I mean the list goes on and on and on we have to look at it for the entire content

080and ensure that we're representing all and it feels very close-minded the discussion here at this state and and last week and the week before that and the month before that um just the entire conversation I think we need to remember that we're talking about library books where our students have access to these books without their parents um and what they can that's just that's all I want to say they had no ACC that their parents aren't there to tell them this is probably not the right book for you they have access to these books because we put them there am had a hand oh and describing a coach putting there his hand and saying good job to a player to sexually explicit rap rape of a student I find very offensive to think that our

081staff can't figure out the difference um this isn't closed-minded this is ensuring that taxpayer funded and I'll say it again taxpayer funded Library materials that they don't want this garbage in the schools this is paid for by the taxpayers they fund this district and how we can't figure out to get we're not showing R-rated movies we're not showing even PG-13 to the elementary kids it's a rating system I'm fine with taking 70 but then I want book put in and a replace and let's have the attorney look at that and I'll end the conversation you say book lit you mean book lookss yep we'll put it in the policy that they that's the one they use to determine whether or not it stays in because that's the one that and that R then that rating

082system it's very similar to the movies we use those to show movies in the school this will be the same thing it'll just be with the books [Music] first P um I find it very offensive also some of the statements and very insensitive um for an educate we're not talking about a a classroom discussion here about molestation or ccul abuse we're not talking curriculum here we're talking about these individuals have free access to these books if the one student that checked out that book s years ago I don't know where that student is right now but they may be down a pretty dark Deep D terrible path right now because of the book they read I don't know but that's if anybody does any kind of research on what this this kind of material does

083to your mind and does to to addiction and going down this path and contining to go on this path you need to read on it you need to understand the psychological effects of of and I don't know if it's just a woman thing or if it's a man thing also but I know as a woman and I read some of these things and some of these things that are being done to little girls and to and to girls that are in high school by other students it's it's it's horrible it's it's it's violent it's it it would make girls be scared to walk out in the dark they'd be scared of I mean I don't know where you guys are coming from thinking that this is all okay but this audience here the majority of

084them that I know most of them uh they don't think this is okay okay and and our moral values in this community are not where we're talking here in this in this material these specific books we have not called out the books that are just kind of you know an experiential thing we're talking about books that are vulgar violent um sexual acts being done on children against their Wills they're being drugged I I mean we can't even read them at this board table how can we expect them to be in our libraries so what I'm saying is okay then if we can't do this because we're afraid of a lawsuit we better get some some caged in area and a glass wall and a lock and if any student wants any of these books you

085can put pants in there if you want any students want these books their parent has to be there and say yes you can take that book out because their parent is then going to know that this wall of books is obscene okay they're not obscene I can't use that word right but they're sexually explicit and the parents would then know right now the parents don't know a a child comes home with a book from pquad or whatever her name is the author who I know has been on social media gee why are my books being kicked out of the schools because she's losing money okay but it's called 19 minutes how does a parent supposed to know that 19 minutes what's in there how's the student supposed to know you pick this book up and

086you read it oh this is about this and then you start getting into the pages and all of a sudden you're into very explicit sexual conduct step by step by step I I don't know I'm good to go with the with it like it is and let the let the community decide that this is okay I we'll see what happens in Florida because it's Publishers that are pushing back now and I truly believe publer than parents I don't know maybe the parents are are publishing a book I mean I know how we use that here in the school we say well I'm a parent but I'm also a teacher or I'm a parent I'm also a publisher so you can be both okay I don't but anyway the point is is our taxpayers are paying

087for these books they don't want them in there they don't want them in their trials book bag we don't want to be read at the in the in the school bus out loud to each other we have children who have been molested and do have dealt with sexual abuse and all kinds of things and if another student all start reading about it laughing about it carrying on you you can't control it okay so move on here you know let discussion some of you say yes take out seven some say keep seven so for discussion where you at with it because I want to get moov here we we talk all night I want to make sure we follow uh the policy here what do you think about the book here I'm okay if we go

088ahead and put book looks in and take seven up but then we need to use book first one of the resources it would be a required resource that that are our our folks have to hit that first and if it's not in there and if it's rated Zer to two I I said it in my last one I can you know we can make copies of this again and put this in the policy I'm okay with that because that will screen out and it'll use the book rating system that's the same as the movies and what uh what's oural wave so we're using that going to add in Brook you can also look at that ohed last meeting but I think p is asking for something different I want this in the we want this

089in the policy because the policy is going to dictate that that they have to before they purchase any further books or approve books into classroom libraries they have to check book looks first and if booklook says it's zero to two fine they can they can order it they can buy it if it's three to five they cannot well that's booklet what about the other one they were using I'm saying this comes first and after this if it's not in bookl looks then there's probably not an issue that we're going to object to because they're not all not every book is in bookbooks and then they can use the others so I have wording if you want to put it in there okay stand byad hand up now come back so how many how many revie

090materials did we use in review of this book the book that we were talking about ear book and second of all do we anywhere else in any of our policies refer to using something such as this a specific resource and shouldn't that be in a process not in a policy that we're going to have to ensure that we update regularly when businesses come or change names or do anything else like do we say we use the Red Cross or we use X or we use why I don't think we do I'm pretty sure we say clear listing any spefic spefic business in any policy this isn't a business this is how many how many resources did we use and usually they have like three to five stac poting out eight different services including books including

091book good all right uh Amy and come back to Amy so I'm find with the only way I will be fine is to use book looks and I'm fine with putting it in the policy because I want to ensure I mean we already saw what happened the Earl me or whatever book is passed it's fine this should be on our but but but it's it's minor restricted in book looks so why did why did it pass I'm just curious you know that it went through eight of them oh okay it could go through 20 of them but it should to me it should to pass mustards at one rating and most if not all the others had a higher rating that would be okay for high school kids y so that that's why what I

092like about book looks is that it has the mind it has all the infractions so many times you say well the school board can read the whole book well that's going to take a long time but on book looks why I like it is that it has the page number and what it says so for instance in me Earl and the dying girl on page 60 it says yeah Earl I'm going to eat her huh yeah do you even know how to eat um not really papa gains never sat you down and some one day you're going to have to one day you're going to have to oh eat the no he did not teach me how to eat a butle God bless that man yep I would teach you some eating technique but it's

093a little complicated son I don't have time for that I got like 20 over here that I need to eat is that right I'm on a deadline so do I need to continue should I continue we know what you're saying we saying booklet is one item that can be used along with other ones too yep and I want it it pass mustard with these other ones I don't again think this needs to be for under 18 if you're 18 and when I hate it when people say oh You Bing books no I'm not they can go to the public library anytime they want and check out the book I have my own library card on phone too and their phone that's fine we're not saying they can't what we what we need to be careful

094of is using taxpayer money to buy some of these books that are inappropriate for our students for miners so I heard from tell board members that book looks does not have every book then there's not a review for every book so if a book is challenged that is not part of book looks it automatically is going to pass muster right it's automatically going to pass because it's not in there so we we already stated that that must mean it's okay but yet there's a a member of our community that wants that book removed and because the committee said nope it's good to go because it's not in book looks I would caution putting book looks in a policy I am support of bookbooks I want that to be used I want that in our procedure

095along with the seven eight nine other um sources that we use I think it should be used but again if we have it as one what happens when a book that that someone wants to be removed is not in booklets and now the committee used that as one of their criteria and it says it's good to go because it's not in there that must mean it's right it's okay but that book needs to be moved out book looks is run by two individuals that do not have education in library materials they need an education but what I'm what I'm stating is we have trained individuals that have gone to school that we have hired to look through this process to use criteria I want them to use it as a resource absolutely but it should

096not be in a policy that mandating that is what we use because again this this LLC which is a business was started in 2022 what's to say it goes out of business in January okay it goes out of business in January now we have a policy that says we have to use that now we go back and we pick another one and now that one goes out of business I want the procedure to have the options for our committee to use good ah well I'm fine with putting two of them in there if you want that way you know it has be book looks and something else but it passed muster by our professional educated people that this book is okay and it's mine really are you kidding me so you're gonna no I'm sorry

097this that doesn't fly with me our educate our educated individuals who work for I15 said this book was okay I don't believe it is I believe the majority of our taxpayers will say it's not okay and I'm not talking about curriculum in a classroom I'm not talking about the Holocaust I'm not I'm talking about library book materials that are purchased with taxpayer funded money of making sure that ones that come in we don't end up with any more of this stuff you know if parents want their kids to read this I would think the majority of them don't but if there are some that want their children to read about this stuff they can go to Thea Library the r library right down here they'll have the books on the on the library so we're

098not Banning them but we're making sure that we're spending our money on books that yes that have an educational value to them and again the how this is so subjective uh South Carolina they pulled from the school district down there 95 books off the shelf took off they took 95 books out spent months going through all the books with the committee they had a committee set up like we have similar to our policy here after went through all the books five books were pulled 90 went back on the shelf that wouldn't they used I have no idea they didn't talk about in the article which what did they use to look at the books all they said was five were pulled 90 went back on the sh so again very very subjective here to keep

099ourselves moving here n a hand up first and then we're going to wrap this up pretty quick I'm already after my 30 minutes Nate you want to be here till midnight I'll be here until midnight for you it doesn't bother me a bit okay I'm just get through here because we got a lot more stuff on the agenda you want to overwrite the attorney overwrite the attorney Nate am I have a question for you and I appreciate this conversation yeah um but we you talked about there's members of our community that do not want that in there right we've had members of our community in the past come up during public comment that do want those books so why is their voice less important than the other voices why why why are they not um

100if they want those books in our school they want their students to be able to have access to them right again these are not on a classroom curriculum on a classroom read list we we verified that we understand that but there's members of our community that don't agree with us right that say Hey I want that part in there it is a public institution they pay their taxes too and they want those books available for students at appropriate levels right just like we've talked just like we are trying to rectify with certain books just like we did with a fourth grade classroom that had a book that we uh that was brought to our attention and our administrators and our educated individuals went yeah you're right this is not appropriate for this level it's appropriate

101at this level so we move and we corrected that so what is your comment back to to their voice being her they they're welcome to come just as all these individuals have come to a board meetings call me up anytime my phone is off I got six more weeks call me up anytime let me know which book you're going to demand that stay on there and I'll listen they have every opportunity to come forth as we're discussing it I haven't heard anybody fight to keep these books on the sh not one I mean no one to my knowledge we someone talk about the broad perspective of book band in one person but they're welcome to come forth and these books will come forth to the school board before they're taken off the shelf to my

102knowledge am I correct if they don't if they continue on and they're going to have the opportunity to say you know I want this book on and this is why I want my children to read about it they'll have the opportunity I'm not shutting down anybody I'm saying that some of these are and I can't believe we're having all these discussions about making sure that these vile books aren't in the hands of our students I can't believe it it's taking this long okay so take look at the policy we have what's the consensus here and then we'll go back for a motion and a second and then the final discussion do we have consensus and what you want pulled out of here and added additional information for us go ahead Nate I have one question

103on the other part of that there's three changes that we asking for um I thought we discussed up to two community members to not limit it or because if we mandate two community members we all know that that doesn't necessarily always get filled right there's not always someone that wants to be part of a committee for a certain book but I thought we talked about up to that allows that we can have two community members but if there's only one that wants to be involved it doesn't restrict the committee um if it's a staff member that does a you know there might be a circumstance where a Community member might not be needed because it was a staff member that requireed Reed it ran through the committee the superintendent decides if that's por but up

104to two community community members I thought that's what we discussed I didn't listen back to the recording that's what the final discussion was I did have a question on that piece of it lots of discussion items and so sometimes it was talked about two community members and sometimes it was up the two community members I think the last part of the discussion said two Community I might be mistaken but we kind of want for so I'm glad you brought it out add make sure add the policy two community members what else and pull seven out right you want to pull seven uh7 AB C no May will be pulled out that we're talking about okay and we want to add in or not add in booklet in or out or use materials that the experts

105say we should use so we don't have company out business or whoever they may be so I'd like to see book looks in as a requirement and I would like that to also use the rating as the requirement because again as Amy has said yes we used book looks we looked at it but we didn't adhere at all to the rating because the rating was not for miners so that means 18 and under or under 18 so it should have been pulled if it was book books one of the resources no I no I would like it to be the first stop first stop is look at bookbooks and if it's appropriate shake your head all you want I'm giving you my go ahead so so that I want it to be required because that

106because I believe in that rating system because it's the movie rating system it's based on the movie rating system so I think it's legitimate the other thing is is um it was two community community maners and then the other thing was is I believe that these should be open to the public they should be able to hear the discussions that go on so they understand the books that are being challenged the other thing I want to make a point to is if we actually pass this policy and book books is in it we we pretty much do away with a lot of Committee Member work because the book shouldn't have to be challenged because if they're they should just go through book looks and be decided whe they should be in our library not so

107they shouldn't have to be challenged com Nate takes a lot of work out of the committee we we just talked about we had community members that talked about an over um arching books right so if we add that specifically into the policy and we just said it P that's an overarching removal of books so community members do not have a say if those get removed you just said there's no committee work so how does a Community member have a chance to go no I really want that book I'm going to come and challenge it because we have a removal policy we don't have an addition and if we use book looks and we use that as the gospel it comes straight out and you just said that there's no committee work there's nothing I am

108adly opposed to that so so why don't we have it where um it is removed but then it is placed on some type of Schoolboard report so board members are also aware I think board members need to be aware of what books are being removed and why so if community members are calling board members they can say oh yeah so it needs to be somehow informed of the board of what those are which then people who watch the agenda they can come forth and say you know what that should come back in the libraries and this is why and they'll have that opportunity so consensus so just thinking about this from the Texas perspective a federal court of appeals on Wednesday blocked Texas law that would require ratings from book sellers that deal with school

109liaries so we're going to require our books to be using ratings when we be walking down the same path that Texas has been in where we're required to use used book ratings for our books in the library and now it's being appealed in the courts I don't know just thinking so it their statement was we agree with the state that it has an interest in protecting children from harmful materials but neither the state I.E the district nor the public have any interest in enforcing a regulation that violates federal law huh also on me book the paper here Bron back on page five under Delta Two members of the school district Community with no direct connection are we saying they have if they're on the board for the review they have to have connection for the

110district kids in school or something like that that what we saying there how that be page five number two EO number eight does that mean that you have if you're a Community member you have to have a connection somehow through kids and scho or what no just you cannot direct connection with the request for reconsideration for reconsideration so means if you request have a book removed you can't sit on the committee she said that's permissible okay all right uh and then got a question I make a motion that we approve this policy with the change to eliminate seven but to include that book looks be a primary and that we also follow up if it's not in primary and I don't know how that looks if it's not in the primary book looks rating that

111we follow up with the other um institutions that we're using that would be my that's my motion so that primary is booklets get rid of 7 A and B get rid of 7 A and B um include book loads says the primary and if it's not in book looks then we follow up with the other I don't know eight or nine or 10 whatever that that she's using now I second it okay discussion discussion Rob if we pass that can we run that by the attorney before it comes into [Music] I I would urge having the attorney look at it before we approve something I think I think we're running into an issue and right or wrong you know I think we would be approving something that would potentially cause problems so I'm confused well

112first because stand by stand by we have a second on the flooor okay just take a vote to go discussion okay not have a motion second we don't have to vote on it because I have a question discuss we're still discussing we can discuss for an hour I don't want to but okay go ahead so I'm confused that you're confused because we approved a policy that was supposed to do what we wanted it to do last January February and now that we're actually you're telling us that you're using book looks and other rating systems to remove books off there so what's the deal that we're putting it in writing what I mean c things first of all there's just one rating system that would be propose for the policy that's one issue the other issue

113is that the whole policy talks about looking at the whole book not just the sexual explicitness of the book we aren't uh we aren't considering the educational value the artistic value the readability or any of those things and I think that's what we get into a mind that's where we can be challenged um I don't know if we would be challenged you know we're St Francis we don't have a newspaper presence in the state we don't have a lot of people I don't know what would happen but I do think if we were challenged we' be in a tough spot I so got well then what would you like to see added do you want one of the other books so that it isn't just book looks I want book looks as a primary if

114you're fine with adding what were the other another one what was one of the other ones that she used I already have that procedure that we would look at multiple groups including BS that is a primary resource it's in the procedure not the policy um so I added that two weeks ago but so was that part of the decision that was just made at the high school the keep oh yeah Earl book okay yeah but the and here's the catch and here's the frustrating part I think for for all of us or at least some of us is that you know the we talk about all the things that we're considering but then there's that one part of it you mentioned earlier about the readability the artistic value the educational value and so then you

115you have to waigh you know which one is more important in that particular text and that's kind of what Pam was saying it's really subjective and so if a group of you know people on the committee say wow this is a powerful book you know even though there's a lot of this language in there then they're going to vote to keep it you know there will be sometimes when there there might be some value but it's not worth what's here so that's it's it's truly subjective there's doubt kind of getting back to what Joel was saying when I first started looking at this last spring the Texas law was in place and in some ways it would have been really good for it to stick because it was talking a lot about sexual explicitness with

116the rating systems and the law was essentially saying that Publishers would need to put a rating on each one of their books before it's placed in the library and then if that was in place you know what happens in Texas and California often happens everywhere else you know then Publishers would have been doing that routinely and then we could have chosen okay we're okay with a rating of 17 plus or 16 plus because that's what the publisher have but that's one um you know the court I assume the court of appeal I guess I don't know but they put a stop to that law so that's why cones aren't doing it so I thought I thought we had it last spr I thought we're going have subjetive standard we can use but then it's on

117and then Pam Rob go next Rob all right I'm just gon to make this even go longer and on this what if we just got rid of the Review Committee and it just comes straight with the scho you say add something what not add what just get rid of the revie Review Committee it goes the challenges if the challenge passes through the media specialist we just come here it's done opens up K worms because if there's someone challenging it's that we will continue to challenge but we just cut out and not waste everybody's time before that because if somebody's challenging it's coming to us anyway okay um I do have extra language that's what I was trying to get to is ADD book looks okay so we already talked about that and then the second

118PLL would be if the book is not in book looks then refer to Preferred tools to assess age of corporateness for each book making before making available to students in the district so that covers so if it if it's not in book looks because they're not all going to be in book looks then you use the other tools that you're using to figure out the age appropriateness so that is the other language that I'm proposing that we put in here simar way and I sent it to Vanessa so Vanessa you have it Sim n say you was saying booklet primary resource if not booklet you other resources you said you yeah I have language here that I sent to you agree language she agree with this language that I sent to Vanessa it says um

119book looks rating system is based on the MPAA Motion Picture Association of America before any book is purchased for is5 libraries including classroom libraries The book must be looked up in book books and if listed if listed having a rating of 02 only no book which is rated three which is Parental Guidance required four no minors five adult only okay so you've got parental guidance you've got minors no minors and adult only may be purchased by any District employee no books of these rents even if donated may be accepted by any District employee to be used in the district that's bullet one bullet two is if the book is not in bookbooks then refer to the preferred tools which you already have nine of them I think you said to assess age appropriateness for each

120book before making available to students in the district those are the two bullets that I would like that we would like to put in there what I'm understanding that to me doesn't matter if it's an amazing Masterpiece artistic value doesn't matter if there's great educational value it doesn't matter if the book is trying to encourage people not to go into prostitution or not to have premarital sex none of that matter matters it just matters at one one rating service says that may not even hire licensed media specialist That's What You Say Yeah licensed media specialist doesn't really mean a lot to me because my parents and my parenting ability some of these licensed media people don't even have children I don't know who they are they don't have children I don't know what their what

121what their life experience has been but as parents as being a parent is being a grandparent and all my grandbabies or my kids exposed to this kind of materal and yes there are great literary art artistic there's great books that can that are great and you and I talked about I've gave you an example of things that they don't have to be sexually explicit to get the point across okay they don't if they're very well written and artistically written they they will they will get just scared to go down that route of prostitution because there's consequences to it but they don't have to spell all this explicitness to get that point across if they're well written if they're educational value if we can't find I mean this well you guys already know what I think

122but but there there are very good books out there that can can portray the same stories and I talked about that the last board meeting young adult versus you know the racy you know mature you know young adult or whatever I forget I have to go back to my notes to figure out what they're they were going to use two different terms that the Publishers need to start grabbing a hold of so that we don't have adult books in the school libraries if they figure that to that one reading service just one well I I think it's in the courts right now and I think that there's a lot of parents across the country that are challenging these books and that's why we have lawsuits and you know what let's let those lawsuits figure out

123what's going to happen a book looks Mission specifically talks about profanity nudity and sexual content it does not talk about the other items that we have deemed important for a book to be in our library right the artistic value the educational value all of those things it talks about those three things again I'm supportive of it being used but if we put it in a policy it limits what it's being used for okay it needs to be part of the procedure and to Rob's uh comment about it bringing directly to the school board I'm going to tell you right now I spent a lot of time on Schoolboard issues I spend a lot of time during my my busy life to focus on this District because it's important to me I don't know if I

124would have time to review every single book that has been brought forward and give the time and effort that is needed to put into that a Review Committee is getting paid to do right they are directed they have guidelines as to what they're doing and they have the time to go after that and I I'm not speaking for all the board members but there has been multiple board meetings that we have had board packets that have not been reviewed by us completely and we have questions that answers are in there so if we're going to add more to our boards our board meetings that we must do book reviews um because I will not make a decision without reading a book one of the books is 900 pages right some pretty long there there's some

125long books that are out there and and where does it stop if we all of a sudden have 95 books at this board we are not doing the things that are beneficial to advance this District if we are spending time doing that so Rob I like the out of the box thinking I just don't feel that that is a good method because it's going to come to us anyways if it gets to that point but I want I want to have the the backing and the knowledge from that committee brought forward to us as well [Music] so the fifth us Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the Texas Education Agency on Wednesday from enforcing Escape law requiring book sellers to raate the explicitness and relevance of sexual references and materials they sell to schools the appella

126court one of the most conservative in the nation cided with the book sellers who sued the state after claiming House Bill 900 violated their first amendment rights I'm pretty sure that's what our attorney was guiding us on I'm pretty sure what is being requested to be put in this policy will violate Amendment for First Amendment rights I don't understand why you're continuing to walk on a path that will get us in trouble I just don't understand it at all first offand thank you for staying [Laughter] second I understand not wanting to review all the books but they're coming to us anyway if they get rejected like this one is today or tonight it's going to keep going down the channels and now we're wasting more people's time and if these committee members are getting paid

127we're wasting their time and our money paying them to review these books for me it was just just come here get it done it's coming here okay anyone else I'll just y Amy this policy was written up by msba am I correct so so there's we all know that there's parents out there are wanting this msba reacted and they gave us a pretty watered down version of a policy and I feel like msba said here you go here's your policy but you can't do anything with it but you know what you can tell your public that you have a policy to reie to remove books but then I hear well we really shouldn't be removing them because we're going to be so what is it really I mean why would msba say that you can

128remove books basically when they gave us this policy but oh no you really shouldn't walk down that dark and scary road because someone in St Frances May sue us because they want their kids to read sexually explicit material let's just vote people I'm fine either we vote tonight or I'm fine with waiting till the new board comes on I think it'll come out even a different vote more in favor of it in January or February with our new board members of I know that got elected so we can either do it tonight and add book looks and or we can wait till February and have the next board we have one of them sitting right here and I'm sure then they can decide but msba said that here is your policy to remove books so

129let's let's let's come on they WR they wrote up a policy so let's add in bookbooks and let's go about our business yeah I guess I'm going back to my thing let's take the lawyers out we don't have to worry about it it just comes straight to us so that's what I'm supporting if you want to have a policy that's pretty much by your attorney to keep you out hot water if even if it comes to the board and the board says no or yes it's still be sued one way or the other if if it's already in the model policy I believe is that it comes to the board after the Ral right so I don't know what would be against what would be two for okay so we have a couple stuff to

130add into it we reash it talk about it and a second and we'll see how it goes in okay so first of all you're saying right now what you want to add in my notes are saying here booklet as the primary resource if not in book use other resources or other what you say Pam yeah I I sent it to vaness has it yeah if it's not in book looks then you use your other resource to to gauge the age appropriateness corre to get that a little better if you want but I mean that's basically I think and eliminate number seven you're saying right elate number seven all well yeah apparently we could get sued if we say on That explicit sexual anal toal animal we don't so we don't want we don't want to

131get yeah we'll take that up I just had a clarifying thing for Rob and for Amy uh so having a committee was put into state law in August 1 that specifically states that we must have a policy that establishes a procedure the policy must not impair limit rights the policy must establish um um to reconsideration will be administered by a licensed library media specialist under Minnesota rule an individual with master's degree in library science or a library information science or a professional librarian I don't believe any of us meet that criteria so I don't think you can come to the board or bypass that it specifically states in the state statute that you must have one of those three but it can come to the board it it says at the end that it's finally

132to the board but it tells you you have to have a policy that is administered by one of those three again I think I just think that is not applicable initially go through the step between am policy yeah it's I'm not asking to remove the the committee I understand that that's an important aspect of this that was part of mba's writing up of how to do this I'm fine with keeping it it will end up at the school board level at some time and you know if they disagree with the decision that the committee made my biggest concern is some of the dates of these it's taking a long time for some of these but that's fine okay Rob and then if we are voting on this I would like to add to it that

133would go through the attorney report it's approval right it be Rewritten andne look at it again right okay if you're saying write the policy up and then give to the attorney we'll bring it back again correct motion T to allow for the attorney to review the amended motions well and that's I think that's not debatable is it you need a second but you want want right okay need a second we already had a motion in a second yeah say table Yeah but now your table need a second is your second the table what we're talking about for the policy tonight second no debatable no you don't debate it second second okay so we have a second not debatable it's not uh it needs a majority vote to table it okay so it needs a 43

134vote you want to table it aiming wait what clarify that the amendment that she's put forth is going to the attorney and then would come back is it the next meeting no on the table right now okay so approve yay or nay on the table y or nay Amy so if I vote yay that means I'm in favor of the amended a motion to table what Pan the language you put in and I'm fine with the attorney looking at it to bring it back okay well the motion the actual uh document wouldn't be approved just tabling it so we can get the attorney to approve the language to bring it back forr of another version with motion I understand that similar to what happened last time yes so the language will be sent to the

135I know I'm by voting yes I'm not approving the um policy I'm approving the language that will be said to the attorney correct okay so I'll I'll say Y no and no Nate yes J yes Char yes so it's a 5 two so we'll get it all written up and Mr nson do a great job he does it so fast time rewrite everything we add in what Pam talked about what talked about we going to keep the community system going what D was talking about won't be in there all right now we come back and that right yeah and I would like um discussion to ensue with the attorney if she says that this is not permissible then does that mean you need to discuss that does that mean our committee is imp permissible because

136they're using the stuff in the committee so what I don't want is for you to come back and say oh our attorney said no we can't no we can't do this because you just might get sued but yet you're doing it at committee level do you understand what my concern is that this again is just another delay because we're worried about getting sued when you're using this procedure it may not be written in the policy but you're using something very similar it may not be book looks but you're using a procedure that would remove books off the shelf I heard eight or nine different versions of it so we need to have a discussion of it or why did msba allow districts to put for committees to remove books then we need to talk about

137this well the difference though is that the rating systems are one component but the whole book has to be reviewed for its value so that's the difference it's not just the rating system making the decision it's a review the whole text right right or wrong I mean that's that's what the law says so if they come back with concerns of that we're just using the rating system in book looks I would like discussion on from our attorney of What language can we put in so that the goal is to you understand what the goal is of what will be the majority of this board slim majority I'd say it's probably a 4 to three but it will be a overwhelming majority starting January 1 and we understand what the go I'm just saying I'm just

138saying I'm just saying you understand what we're asking for so I would hope that there would be some discussion with the attorney so that you can't come back and say well this language isn't very good you can't do this I want to figure out how I can do it legally I think you understand my question if if it's not meeting the the lawyer's interpretation that you'd like to to at least have some Alternatives discuss with you send something back then of what I can do and I can call Upper Midwest but I don't want you to come back and say no you can't do that because it's just like msba came forth with nothing that we can use rewrite it we get send down the attorney we see it maybe next meeting I just sent

139brand I just sent it to Brand okay so we'll have it as our next meeting or possible December for discussion I think yeah use it pretty quick okay any further questions that move on good good discussion so the folks in the audience please understand the polies going to be written with the additions that we talking about here it will go down to the attorney after Brandon rewrites it we'll listen to what the attorney says and we'll bring it back to the board for another discussion and a vote that's what we're doing now all right good let's move on uh let's see here 67 so 61 approval of election canvas uh of the results that we just had here from school board Brandon you talk about that who talks about okay you saw your board book

140there all the numbers who voted in who got the uh went and everything brand yeah um before you is we we did get the abstract from the county this after and then it it has the highest vote Getters the highest four vote Getters you're ping resolution to confirm that vot result we have so motion to accept the uh the uh the results move by Pam y thank you second Rob thank you discussion all in favor say I I oppos 61 passes number two authorized insurance or Insurance of certificates of election if branded yeah so what that is is directing um I think the clerk to be able to authorize that those uh certificates get presented to the the high the four highest gets after the appropriate time frame has passed for any objections to the

141election okay and then um for your information there is the oath um there's two things in there the oath and something else that would be given to the individual assign okay so a motion to accept come thank you a second second Thank you Pam discussion on 6.2 I just want to Quick say congratulations to those who ran um and congrat well thank you for all those who ran there was quite a um quite a few that decided to run thank you for doing that but congratulations to the four top Getters so um I'm excited to watch you from afar but congratulations well just I'm fine voting on this just clarify yes my name is on so I just uh back what Amy said congratulations to the four that uh got the the votes um I'm

142more excited about the number of candidates we had that means we have some passion in our community uh to be part of this school board and to help this District so that's a really good thing and I'm super excited to to see the the new four come on board and see where we can go with it so congratulations anyone else all right discussion all in favor say I I oppos motion passes for 6.2 thank than you uh 6.3 consideration super contract there a motion for the contract there a second second by deal discussion Wonder was there a twoyear option discussed most of our contracts are years wonder why this my superintendent are three are they they can be up to three years so can be really any time frame years you maybe sub committee present

143the district's perspective go ahead Brandon correct me if I'm wrong but I I believe our discussion was based off of alignment with other contracts that are coming up and that we didn't want to have um a superintendent contract discussion the same time we were having a teachers contract or other and now that we've aligned all of them uh to have that and to help the superintendent work through negotiations and be part of that process as move for that was one of the reasons that a threeyear contract was selected is that any question comments support okay discussion gu and then the percentage because we don't this contract doesn't start until July [Music] 1st Capital talks about this year's budget what we will get in June so just how we came up with the number the number

144of what the percent incre increase and PID okay would you come up with that [Music] anybody so I mean it was a negotiated rate um one of the clarifying questions that the committee wanted to know is um although there's no parameters for this contract the what does this what is proposed and before you fit within the um numbers that have been used for our projections and that answer is yes which is what 2% was most 2% I think 3 two and two 3 and two three two and two is what is what is proposed in front of us okay I I I have a question was with a lot of our contracts um we look at other districts of similar size and we try to do Market addressment where is our superintendent sitting as far

145as other superintendents of similar size um because most of our employees aren't at that high level we're striving to get them there um was that looked at and discussed and the other question I have is 3% and 2% 2% is a different amount when you're talking his salary versus our teachers that Mak substantially less was that discussed as well during the contracts maybe uh so yes to both of those questions that was discussed we did I believe and I might be off but I know we looked at 18 different surrounding districts or like districts uh and with this um you know we're projecting some of those other contracts uh because they weren't settled yet either but we some were projected and I believe it put around eight or nine in that ranking um amongst the

146and Brandon you might have to correct me if that was off but I know it was it was almost in the dead center and I I know we've got some of those spreadsheets that we can share uh and then the percentage piece that we talked about we did talk about a known amount uh that is coming to the district every year with the state funding we did not project in of the inflationary rate because we understand that that may you know that law may change those things may fluctuate so we did not use that as a portion of an increase we kept it at the the level that we knew we would be getting uh in and again met the criteria that we had set forth for uh forecasting and planning as a board um

147specifically looking at that fiveyear plan that CES has developed in help you know and one of the other things we disc is year three of this current contract he did not go back and renegotiate and open up that salary mon where we did provide that same adjustment to all of our employees if their contract was already negotiated before that 3% came in we went back and made those changes and we didn't do that with the right exactly but we didn't go back and do that for that for this contract we did for further discussion comments well yeah go ahead I struggle with this one not that um not that I don't have respect from Carson but there are areas where I struggle if I think he's the right leader for this District in this community

148um in some ways I'd like to give him a one-year contract and let the new board offer anything more than that since we have a new board coming on in January and that way they're not right away having to deal with um I don't want to not offer them a contract because it's a lot of work to hire a new superintendent and they may decide they want to keep the current superintendent but I don't feel like it's fair that I um that I decide the next three years when we have a brand new board coming in in three months that his contract isn't I mean we could even save this off until January and I would be fine with that for them to decide because this is a three-year contract and we have a new

149brand new board coming on in less than two months so I'm not sure how to go about this but um that's me speaking honestly J so for some of us who have sat at the table for a while we understand that if a superintendent is not going to get a contract before probably the beginning of January is they're going to be looking for a different job because all the jobs open up at that time frame and I would not I would not uh be a i i would support Caron and looking for a different job because there's only that window of opportunity for superintendent so because they got to get that contract signed before July 1st when their new year starts and that's sending a clear message to our superintendent we don't support them and

150we don't want them back um and I don't support that actually Amy you make an amendment I haven't done any okay right now I'm just talking what what what I'm thinking in my mind it isn't that I I'm not sending any message other than um I'm not I'm being honest I'm not sure at times that I feel like he's the right leader for this District I think I've struggled many times to have conversations at this board table that are important to this community and uh offering a one-year contract would allow the new board to work with them for a year and then they could decide in a year to I'm not for not offering them a cont contract I don't believe that would be even fair sometimes to our new board because they would have

151to right away start interviewing the process and but I am for um but I'm willing to listen to other board members because I always come open I'm just being honest as I always am so we did discuss that a little bit in the committee we talked about you know you know a new members of the board I wouldn't call it a new board because there's three m M of us that will still be here uh so it's not a new board it's new members that's part of the school board right every every two years we could have the same situation um Brandon when can we start negotiating a contract with the superintendent how far out years one right it's 365 days we can start negotiating so if we give a one-year contract uh and we

152talked about having the new the new members of the board have a a year to work with them really we'd be entering um you know come July we could possibly enter in another contract negotiation but they're just getting to know the superintendent so again we all have been in position for a minimum of two years we understand the goals that the superintendent has worked with us on uh that has presented to us a lot of the things that we have talked about and agreed have that three to five to seven year plan um when it comes to the process and I'm really excited to see what he can do in that time frame right so that's why I'm very supportive of a threeyear he has presented to us some of those goals some of the

153Breakthrough goals that we've talked about we all know that stuff's not changing next year we all know that in a one-year contract that's not going to change he might make progress on it right because that's what we're expecting but it's not going to meet the all those goals those goals are a long-term effect and I I highly believe that um as we move forward and there there's nothing that says a board has to you know we we can move in two years the new members of the board we can look at the contract and go you know what we want to enter we want to start talking again right because you're not meeting expectations we have that ability to do that um again I'm supportive of that three-year plan because of what he's presented to

154us where we want to see this District go in those three years and I'd be supportive of of a one year I would also be supportive of a one here for the same reasons that being said Carson and I had many many talks but I feel like the can kind of gets kicked down the road but I think it would be good for the new board to work with Carson at their expectations and um go from there I think it would be so we either let the new board decide or go in one year may I ask what you think that I'm I'm not missing with the community on I don't understand we've had a really big long discussion here right now that that has been put off and put off and put off for

155a year and half just as one example yeah because of the the book removal process well that's that that's one yeah so yeah there's other things there's other things you know I don't want to talk all of that stuff here at the table from your but you know the review that we gave but here's the here's the deal first in the eval had the evaluation system from a year ago um you know feedback was given we set District goals and we met nearly every single one including breakthrough goals none of those goals included things like removing books from the media center or removing flags from none of those were discussed as part of my goals I focused on reading math and behavior and I thought that was kind of our goal together those are certainly

156the goals that that I was given and I want to make it clear I'm one Cog in a large team of people who made that happen so I'm not trying to take credit for it but I was part of it and I think we should be proud of that the other thing I want to point out you don't mind you the values that are listed on that plet there those are the values of the school district approved by the school board several years ago I want to know what I'm not fulfilling there we've never had that discussion but I feel like I'm doing it so I feel like there's a a sub Curren going on that people want me to make certain decisions and and I'm a Believer in the Democratic process where you have

157points and counterpoints you have fair and balanced discussions just like what should happen in the classroom and I push back probably everybody in this room at some point that's my job I can't just guess about what two or three members want me to do and do it that's not the right thing to do so if you're talking about values I'm going to push back and say what values was approved by the board might not fulfill it what goals did I just ignore um I think that should be part of the discussion as well but I'll respect what the board you know decides and I'll move on from there those are my two s so I'm speaking just to respond you want me to respond or no I'm talking all right then I won respond so

158two months ago y all were talking about the books here you're talking about Tales you're talking about social emotional learning and I never got a phone call I have never received a phone call so I go out be proactive and I ask people uh County Market bills gas station farmers market for any events that we go to any concerns about the school district what do you see is happening in the school district anything we can help you out with no like we like this school we like this school yeah there's bullying on the bus we heard that last year when I talk to all the people I got 57 responses I've been to now I'm up to 57 now one person has brought up social emotional learning pill me books superintendent n they like our

159school district and I never had a negativity except for bullying so this is catching me off guard what's happening because I don't hear it they don't and they're honest with me I'm sure they are when I ask them what do you see about our bate can we do better they love I when I walk through the schools we have good people here who love our district and I don't see all this stuff folks I don't know where youall getting from I don't call people I walk up to them and say oh you're from District I'm district 15 and for good don't like we like the district so that's where I come from uh I'm do support the three-year program it's always been out there 12 years on the board I have never ever yet see

160anyone make an amendment or a change to a three-year oneyear contract for superintendent Amy's been on 20 years Amy have you seen anything like that I've been on 21 and they've been off for three years yeah but in all fairness just because doesn't mean that that's what you always do yeah I agree with all fairness that's all right now well I was going to say something but you know I guess Point didn't want to hear it I want to respond to you again I have a good working relationship with Carson I I we've been very open and honest with each other I am speaking from my constituent standpoint I've had people reach out to me and say we need to change so I am that voice okay I'm that voice I've said that before we

161had that conversation with carison so it's not should be a surprise well okay Amy and I'll say I sit here I've been on the board for 21 years I struggle with this one I do because I personally like you carsten and you know I don't know I'll be honest I'm always honest but I don't know what to do with this one because the superintendent role anytime you get someone new you kind of lose a couple years that's just the way it is because they come on they have to get to know the district and they have to get to know and then they have to figure out what they want to do and what they want to make changes to and Kon you've done really good things in a lot of areas and I'm afraid

162that if if I don't offer you a contract that we're going to have a standstill and I've spoken to people within the district what are your thoughts I do have a concern of some things that do sometimes take longer because you think differently than I do and many of the things that I've broughten up are in my Lane are what they're in my Lane policy you know I'm not calling you up telling you what to do how to manage what to do with your I don't do that I know what my role is but I am passionate about and I have been passionate about and what I really wanted for years was neutral classrooms ours are better than Statewide there are some ones in the state and my daughters pulled them out of an okah

163hanapin because they're not neutral they're anything but they have the black livs matter sign they did I'm not sure if it's still up in Anoka High School but they did they have a whole wall in Andover High School on liberal presidents and you know but there's nothing on conservatives my kids pulled them out of there that's why that whole neighborhood open and rs to St Francis it's cuz we are trying they understand and there's just another guy kind of ser said I'm open and rolling to St Francis say said really tell me more so out of aoka yes and he told me neutral schools neutral it's huge with parents huge so what's my role in that I feel like you when I was push it I've seen neutral schools the first time we've talked about

164it and I started talking to you about about it when you got on when you became superintendent I have not seen another school district that's more neutral than St Francis and but I wanted something in writing because we're getting a lot of teachers that are going through the colleges and they're not neutral let's just be honest in this room they're anything but but St Francis is but we're getting teachers from these colleges that are very left every one of them the liberal arts and colle Es are not neutral anything but and so do I want something yes I did for a long time and it wasn't that I demanded it carsten it's that I wanted it to come forward to the board for discussion I'm off in a month and it's just showed up on

165tonight's agenda I'm thankful that it did but we don't have an issue here sure there some examples here and there but we address them so I don't understand why I'm being criticized if people are choosing St Francis because of what you want that's a part I don't understand because I wanted I wanted it something in writing similar [Music] to I did okay also in you answer the superintendent that school board chair I said the agenda and I even said to him why are we put neutral on back on the agenda why why do we do that it's never been on the agenda we're already we do a good job of it I see it why are we going to have discussion on it we don't need it superintend say no M and he been asking

166for this have discussion so I finally did not put the monkey on him you put the monkey on me because I have said no for many many months on neutral on the book stuff we have said no for many many months until we got the msba uh paper from the msba for the policy so that's why was a delayed process for many many many months not because the superintendent because we're waiting on msba to give us a policy so do not put the monkey on him you put the monkey on me I said no about for discussion he convinced me to put it on the agenda for this week okay sir go ahead and do it so I not POS but I don't think it's been an agenda item before any but I know we've

167talked it it's been in the administrative report we have talked about new neutrality uh since I've been on the board we've talked specifically about a a single flag in a non classro uh in the high school we've talked about that multiple times on this board and what you're asking for something in writing that is our job we set policy not the superintendent so if we're holding him accountable for setting a policy on neutrality that is our job and again like Mr star said uh he sets the agenda we as a school board have failed that if we haven't discussed the policy and put it on there that it does not fall on the superintendent and again the goals and the evaluations that we've done with him have not included hey we want you to write

168a policy so because he does might not agree with an opinion of one of us individuals on the board we want to push back and say hey we only want to do a one-year contract or we don't want to do a contract because you didn't do what we want you to do which is our job we write policy that's like our sole job as a school board not the superintendent to write the policy does he give us uh support and recommendations absolutely but if we want something in writing we can't blame him for not having it up so I don't know how many times in the last I don't know five six years I've heard I want I want us to focus on the basics Reading Writing and arithmetic Reading Writing and arithmetic that's what

169we're focusing on That's What We R him on I don't understand where all this up everything else is coming from when we're focusing on the basics Reading Writing because some of our professional development includes um things that we've just discussed at this table um that um well we don't need to get into that tonight but um we have discussed certain things that some of the professional development and some of it's being pushed down from the state and there's going to be lots of discussion on um pby and lots of discussion on ethnic studies and I'll be watching from afar from that very closely but um that's my concern is ethnic studies that's coming down the PIP not touch right now and I will say and I will say in all fairness that you should have

170your job is and I've been board chair many times Mike your role as board chair is to run an effective and efficient board meeting it is not to silence those on your board and for you to only bring forth ideas that you agree with when I was board chair you called me and wanted to put masking on the agenda this was January after Co and I knew the board and I knew that they wouldn't vote to mask our students but you thought we should and you wanted to put it on the agenda and I didn't say nope I'm not doing it nope mik no I'm I said if you want it on there you think you want a discussion did I put it on there I did I did and that's being a fair board

171chair where you're not silencing those on your board your job as board chair we all have election certificates every one of us so I'm just saying he if I recall I have the Flor jail he's the one who said you can blame me you can not the superintendent so I'm saying he shouldn't have done it put the monkey on me I'll take it I ran the board way I wanted to see it run I I contact a lot of people about running boards I feel comfortable the way I R my board I hope I hope in the future board chairs don't stifle board members that are duly elected by their citizens what I'm saying here there's Amendment you have Amendment you want to make it to onee contract is that what you're saying I haven't

172said anything nothing yet I have not Mr star all right do we have any further destruction on on the superintendent's contract okay as you see that way written right now the contract okay we're have R call V aming yes or no no good thank you yes thank you Pam no thank you no thank you n yes thank you Jill yes thank you star yes passes for three superintendent contract for three years thank you again for the discussion and as I've said before I'm willing to find Comm ground I really am and uh hopefully discussion tonight on two important topics is part of that next time we're going to talk about curriculum opt out there's some good news on ethnic studies as an elective apparently so you know we felt good that and there's some other

173things I'm keep working that because next time I for regard thank you again okay move on next item will be number 64 new activity St Francis High School on the action item there motion to accept thank you second Nate second discussion on girl soccer can you explain to me what this is and why it's a board decision I guess the question I have I didn't get a chance to call um did we have some issues with some funding from a different that wasn't that wasn't the responsibility of the of the district was was it the activities recently or that was the I think I thought there was something just reset where we lost some funds or they the bank deposits didn't get B oh yeah that's a that's a totally separate issue um and so

174what this is It's A Student Activity account re and so girl s is first on the list and what they want to do is set up an activity account so that students can raise money that can be spend on students okay several years ago there was a change in state law that that requires the Student Activity accounts to be controlled by the school board so we getting them approved all okay we had seen it before right I haven't seen it maybe we're supposed to come all right it's um what happens is if if it's approved then we will have have the advisor who I believe is a soccer Co soccer Co will need to sign a for with the student officers saying that they're AG follow the rules that are stat and so when that

175happens then students actually will decide how to spend the money but the advisor there to make sure that it's spending the guidelines so they're very strict guidelines on how so for example they cannot buy bleachers for the school district that's not allowed because this is for students money raised by the students for the students okay they can pay for a coach bus to go to an activity instead of a regular school bus they could buy some food for like a an activity you know or celebration or something like that you know they can do those kinds of things but they can't be reimbursing the school for staff they can't be giving money away they can't be you know doing those they're very strict on I'm sorry for battling so much and is that a local

176financial institution or where those account that's the biggest change that happened several years ago uh in past years uh Student Activity accounts could have a choice they can either be with the school district or they can have their own bank accounts this is state about and uh that has changed now we're all board control at least in St Francis so it uses our accounts uh the students will sign off on the check request but we still review it to make sure it's compliant and that there's money in the account so that comes to the as part of the consent agenda yeah yeah kind of Define what this is between this and a boo how about I give a c version and Chris can kind of relate to what St Francis does so booster clubs are

177external organizations they're not controlled by the school any way so they can raise their money they can spend the money obviously they're publicizing that they're benefiting the school so there's that promise that they're making but it's external and they have own Accounts at Banks or wherever they have um and you know they will donate money to the school district we accept those donations and then we spend them accordingly Al so that's the difference they're external these are completely internal by my kids I guess so why why do teams want this versus having more control of being booster club that's that's a great question we talked about that earlier today Chris I'm going to give you the tough one actually pretty easy um we run concessions in the school district right to s basketball soccer wrestling

178any sport or activity can sign up work concession stand and then we do profit sharing out of those proceeds so if each activity work the same number of M be divided up equally right state law prohib school districts from paying booster clubs directly so those funds are earned by the kids in in our institution and kept in our organization and we have to have a way to account for them and spend them appropriately so that's the that's the biggest thing um we have one program that's a a smaller program that doesn't have a booster club and they only use Student Activities in new of a booster club because booster clubs come with inherent challenges as well yeah so teams can have both cor just want toar corre and socer go ahead soccer would be one

179of those teams that you approve tonight that would have girls basketball so what I'm hearing is the one of the main focuses and reasons is so that if they work the um concession stand the money can be put to their Student Activity account versus it cannot be put to their booster club so it's an easy transfer of money when these CH when these students work in L and I think yes 100% correct I think one of the other real benefits from an educational perspective is kids are actually working for earning something and deciding what to spend them in their chosen hobby your passion right like that's that's good development of young people it is Mo second for girl soccer and F the discussion if not say I I oppos soccer passes we have soer accept

180discussion if not all fa say I policy pass thank you very much approval policy policies you see a whole bunch on there 102 207 4113 416 418 419 513 515 521 and 532 the policy committee has been very very busy is our motion to accept the policies thank you second discuss also want to thank Jill paying for years of service on the PO policy committee it's been an extra hour once a month typically and it's arduous work you're looking at a lot of documents asking questions I don't think we're Havey meeting in December so lastes today so I wanted to thank you for that work really well done we have a great policy review and revision process discussion questions with all policies we all here if not say I iOS all those policy pass thank

181you very much 606 care that on meetings and preliminary topics again you give it to the superintendent or committee yes I may add to the agenda I may not add it to theenda we do that St Al in the future it's going to change maybe after January 1 to get a hold of us and let us know what you want to do out there m Mr Nate I did not attend any advisory meeting early but I know that we get update from them things are going very well they still have a very engaged parent Advisory Group which is nice to see and that is a testament to all L programs are running and then I just wanted to say a thank you to the district as a whole as a veteran I think they honored

182veterans very well this year with all the programming the individual class events I received some letters in the mail from high school students uh thanking me for my service uh so I know that that class is doing that to our community which is absolutely awesome and we are seeing more and more community members attend our events for so thank you to the district as a whole it it made my heart full and was pretty special so that's all I have for tday y i i attended the district advisory act committee meeting and um some of the things that they talked about was um assessments what the purpose of those are for how they're work how they work through the system um haly dagel gave a wonderful presentation about um the event they held called orange

183shirt day um and she did a slide presentation also about some of the challenges and the history of uh the culture that um they were uh commemorating um we spoke also about s'more communication we had an update on that while we were there and um we reviewed or discussed some the assessment or District assessment policy 618 um so a lot of information it was actually a really good it was a really good um presentation and meeting thank you oh one more thing that I wanted to mention that there is um a program called the ACT fee waiver program that I think um our our public should be aware of so if you meet certain queria or it within a certain criteria there is an act waiver program available um so you would have to reach

184out to Sam Holland Sam Holland thank you Sam Holland to um get more information on that imag high school that a b imag everybody they know good I don't me I met with Peggy and Jason at the transportation department and I am now van certified so watch out right went to the play last week and it's just every time I go there I'm just amazed at what those kids can do on that stage I would I would never be able to do what they do up there so I'm just in awe of what they do um just want to take thank the public for reelecting me and last is winter sports activities are starting up we started up girls basketball this week boys start next week we already have a game next week so look

185at your calendars and go out there and support these kids Amy attended policy we reviewed probably 10 policies that'll come forth for a first reading at the next Bo meeting and that's that I don't have anything else okay [Music] I want to give a shout out to one of our students here sport St Francis writer mold in loyal D he has all St honors in class A Voice cross country so congratulations here Mr Ryder for making the state honors it's not a picture of him but picture of cross country Runners so he was a good little Runner out there some good stuff for himself uh shark pain again super talk about it the young students who made their designs with 3D printer what a great tool they're learning learning how to make stuff and all

186their product that they talked about actually dra out on paper measurement do this and do that and then go to a 3D printer and print it and they made some really neat looking items to for sh tank to invest in their product so did you invest pardon did you invest we did as a group we would select out of all the kids who had the best one we would invest in and we brought that group in to say we invest your account so they all got in the end each group got somebody win and I think one of the groups will be the next they do and you do they're eighth graders I mean they were you know how to talk on not to talk and everything it was interesting was uh the Treasure Island

187was great again the vet program again next year M Nate takes over the uh the vet program all system on it and then I went to East V third graders for uh Veterans Day and put the word out again third graders I said what do you know about veterans and the young girl first to veter arean they take care of animals Animal I ra his hand up I said yeah yeah people I let it go one more time third hand went up and she said veterian okay stop I know what veterians are now again I'm a veteran a military veteran you have to understand what a veteran is and then from there we have good discussion on and I read the book the poppy lady that's what they want me to read last year and

188again this year was the poppy lady uh the Lady Michelle who Dev up and brought the poy red poppies to sell fun for to veter home it was a great story for the kids and we talked about veterians fun time thank you everyone for supporting our D me our military uh program yesterday and again today thank you very much is now 98 thank you very much