001I leave with this picture here I just wanted the picture to signify the sky's the limit and that's really how I feel Martha and I had a chance to sit down today to visit and to daydream I love to daydream about what can we do and where can we go and Martha and I know that there's some hurdles there's some things that might be kind of challenging but you have the right person in place Martha's the right person to have in place to overcome those hurdles how can we get into more locations when I met at the senior center just last week with with that group and then I got in my car and I drove all the way it was so far over to the Early Learning Center I was thinking about how many
002houses I was passing that maybe don't have a car like how are they getting there and so it's Martha's job to find out well then how can we meet them where they're at we want to reach every family we want to give them the opportunity to walk to us or we go to them and so that's the dreaming part that's fun the sky is the limit that how can we get ECFE more places more readily accessible to All Families so that's what I'm thinking about what are you thinking about do you have any questions do you have any wonders Mr chair director Ward um Stacy and Martha both thank you very much um I just want to point out that an investment in early childhood family aded is one of the best investments that we
003can make period it's been shown by Art rollneck of the Federal Reserve that for every dollar we spend on investing in early childhood family ad we get a return of around $17 you know and they also St uh Stacy Marth you know this also that I board members you've heard me talk about Aces ad adversarial childhood experiences that these little ones go through in some of the families and that makes a huge impact on the possibility and potential of their successful life down the road now do we want to and by the way the the the most development of the brain happens between the ages of 0o to five 0 to five now 16y olds will challenge that but um but zero uh Early Childhood family develop family education so um I want uh I
004just wanted to make those points and the intergenerational thing the whole intergenerational thing has also proven research based to show huge huge impacts on young Children's Life along with our senior citizens so when us folks um are in the nursing home or assisted living or whatever we want to see those kids we want those kids to come and help us um get be young again so it's a great investment it's an investment that lot a lot of time get gets overlooked by both the state and the federal government and um I hope uh Stacy Martha uh that you guys uh sing your song loud and clear to those that are holding Pur strings thank you thank you that's very kind John any other questions or comments this is wonderful thank you for sharing tonight thank
005you thanks I have a small bookmark that we created that I'm just going to leave with you so the next time that you're reading can stick in there remember family education pays off it pays off yes welcome thank you than absolutely right I'm told the live stream is now up and running so everybody can leave now and go home and watch this is like a Viking game I stayed for the whole thing all right we'll move on to new business then um so let's move along to the presentation and approval of the district's new strategic plan as presented Dr H so what you have linked is a year worth of uh meetings and discussions uh defined partner EDS report is embedded in there uh if you recall a year ago for three of you who
006are two of the three were knew who took office uh you uh selected partnered to be our uh District strategy planner partner um they've walked alongside of us this entire time so here it is in full compulation um one other thing I've included uh with that is uh at the request and it was one of the steps to take but I know director Don linger asked about how can we start to create more of a one-page summary um so there's a draft of that uh that's been put in there at the board retreat director Hyman asked about kind of that measurement process so that uh detailed measurement goal documents in the back of our strategic plan director Hyman and I have had discussion at length this is all great for what's you have to know
007about nuts and bolts but we want to know more about a dashboard or report card where we can present some of that data regularly um and that it can be seen rather than having to be so in depth but this is the driving force then puts the work on uh myself and our directors to bring it to fruition uh we did have a follow-up meeting with uh we invited stakeholders back that group met on the 13th of December was very affirming they felt that that was in the plan uh was reflective of all the input that was gathered uh the priorities that were set forth they felt that um we had captured that so in the new strategic plan um is a new mission statement which will impact uh we'll have to go back to
008policy and uh that's a separate policy in itself um but the new Mission as designed and proposed is educate and Inspire so education is all things that we do academically Inspire is everything we do for a child's experience within our district so educate and Inspire each student by providing Innovative opportunities to create lifelong success as presented to you for approval once it's approved um some of the work has already begun because there's just work that we continue to do that matched up with priorities but there's a lot more work to go forward once we've adopted this great okay questions and discussion please couple things I would mention um you know this process is it's tedious it's not it's not something you can do in a week or two and I think it's hard to keep
009the momentum going so thank you superintendent an for for keeping the momentum going on this and for keeping the community engaged I think the most important part of this was having all of those voices at the table in the input to help us kind of sess out what the priorities are because now we take this forward and and this builds the priorities for the budget and the priorities for programming so it's really an important document and and I'm proud of the great work that you and your team have put on alongside um partner Ed so thank you Mr chair Mr chair Dr Hyman and then director Ward I concur with uh director spear as far as keeping the me momentum going and uh I've had conversation with Heidi uh on developing some sort of a
010calendar where we are talking every board meeting about accomplishments um and proficiencies and whatnot and and that's the main purpose that's why we exist as a school district uh is to educate our children and to provide them the means to be qualified to go out to attend college career and life uh so that is something that I will continue to ask you about Heidi as far as that that plan a calendar where we're talking about some of these things and and and sharing and sharing the the growth of our students and and how they've uh become more proficient Etc I mean that that's that's the report card so to speak and uh yeah there been a lot of work and U this is a a nice plan and we don't want to let it sit
011on the shelf and I know you won't and I know I won't let you let you leave it on the Shelf cuz I'm going to ask you all the time what what are we what are we doing what's happening in our elementary schools what's happening in the high school so no this is a this is a a great a great start and it's going to continue to get better CU it's a living breathing document so again thank you and uh for to the staff and whatnot so director Ward thank you Mr chair and um I want to also Echo what director Spear and director heidman said but I want to give kudos to Dr Han for always being that leader that drove us to come up to this final document um and I want to
012also shout out as director spear did to the stakeholder Community stakeholder group uh to the staff and to the board members we have we have had some Lively discussion as as a board as you all know about the Strategic plan and um and how we can use it how we will use it and um and and it won't be on the Shelf it'll be a document that will uh help make our district um better and um so a kudos to everybody involved because it was tedious it is tedious as director spear said but it also is stressful and overwhelming um it was a lot of work it was a lot of work by a lot of people and I remember when uh our board voted on which msba or partner Ed um company to do
013the Strategic plan and I voted for the msba because they had more experience on this but I will say this publicly um Paula from partner Ed and partner Ed staff did a remarkable job working with us on the Strategic plan so I just wanted to give kudos to everybody involved thank you thank you director Ward well I guess the only thing I'll throw in on the end of it is that again it was a year ago basically tonight that we voted to hire partner Ed and start this process of formalizing the development of the Strategic plan so uh we now know know that it's not 9 months of of uh gestation but a full year before we delivered this baby um and what we have now is a Playbook now we got to go out
014and we got to execute the plays on the field the good news is we know that all the plays in The Playbook work unlike a team I won't mention who happens to be my favorite exactly it happens but the point is we know this will work we just to to everybody said it better than I can say it which is we just you know again it's it's it's all about making sure we take the directives that are in there and keep our foot on the gas pedal as much as possible to execute on those objectives and I think an important part of that is is near and dear to the entire board's heart at least and I know to yours as well Dr Han which is um just because there were Community stakeholders involved in
015the beginning in the development of this plan that isn't really where your job stops um you know this isn't just a six or seven person effort this isn't a 12200 staff in the school district effort this is a this is a community effort that includes everybody uh in in our school district and whether that's just being supportive whether that's being involved I know Dr Han's going to be putting some more um groups together to continually kind of keep checking course and making sure that things are going well with the execution on the Strategic plan and I I just want to make sure that people understand that you your your thoughts and involvement are as welcome now as they were a year ago when we began this process that's all I really have to say about
016it I think too with the goals that have been established they their laser focus goals the priorities underneath each of those goals as I've discussed with director Hyman today those are going to be constantly changing because as we reach that priority then the next one comes then the next one comes so it truly will be a living process for us all to go through um I'm very grateful to the the directors that have been involved and the staff that have been involved um because they did they stayed very committed throughout the whole process and have continued to to step forward to be committed a reminder that the next step from this once it's adopted is you recall when you adopted partner Ed is the portrait of The Graduate and so we've started some of that
017initial work and then community members and staff members to be prepared now we're looking for the attributes that we want to identify as key to our brainer graduates to set them up for Success uh in career and in college Pursuit so that'll be the next level coming that should be coming out in January but that all ties in directly to this work so very good I do you feel that this is did you get what you want I I did uh well that's that this was full well it wasn't really right well I appreciate that question director Doner one of it was we were very um my priority stepping in is I wanted input I wanted input from staff students community business and I do think one of the things that happened is we we
018had a lot of input we gathered a lot of input um we did a lot of listening uh the results is really as a district you know we hadn't really had an active strategic plan since about 2011 to 2013 and so to say what are our key goals or what are we focusing on when there's all these things that are asked of a school district and all these request um to me this becomes a guiding force um I know in speaking with our staff when you look at a mission statement where we can tell people what we are and why we do what we do um most of our staff me included struggled to quote the current mission statement that had been adopted how many years ago and so I I am really excited about
019this um and the community and staff that have been involved have given that respon so um but like I said this is just step one of about a thousand uh that have to come to action with our school district so I'm I'm happen in a day no but it's it's a solid step to give a strong footing to move forward and I'm very grateful for everybody that participated but you're right those who are willing are not done yet so very excited about that too I really appreciate this document that will be a snapshot in where we're at I we have the goals and priorities established but to be able to measure those goals and priorities and I think that's um something that you director Hyman really um honed in on and I appreciate that because
020this will be what what is helping us decide if we're moving in the right direction so at what point will these be filled in annually so that's where we've actually had that discussion um and that's the next step once you adopt it then we start to map that out how you report it and that's one of the challenges I put back with partner Ed is you know their experience and experience with districts to me this is really great for all of th those of us in the weeds but how do we communicate that out and so when we start to look at timelines because the minute one priority is met the next priority steps in and so how do we want to start moving that through but to me the minute it's adopted we're starting
021in that okay process right well then I will entertain a motion for approval Mr chair I'll I'll uh move the approval of the new strategic plan thank you presented by Dr hun I'll second so we have a motion from director Ward with a second from director spear any further discussion hearing none Kelly roll call please Sarah spear yes John yes Bo yes yes D yesy yes thank you motion carries all right we'll move along to the uh approval of the third reading of msba policy 631 Library materials as presented so in your packet which was really nice uh uh based on feedback that was received at last board meeting there were three main changes when we went through and ad uh adjusted the policy we made points highlight those in yellow so you can see
022exactly since we've had so much red lining and crossing and moving um but those adjustments have been made to the policy based from feedback from last board meeting all feedback specific and relevant to policy has come from board directors there's been no other further input or comment from uh internal staff or community so it's been updated based on the most recent discussion from previous board meeting I make a motion to approve I'll second there's a motion from director spear with a second from director Breen to approve the third reading of msba policy 631 Library materials as presented any discussion chair director Hyman uh first of all I just want to make a general comment um there's been quite a few comments made to the point that the school board has been spending too much time
023talking about library books my question to Heidi this is not uh surprise gotcha question because we talked about it this afternoon I asked her are library books vital component of a student's education she said yes that's why we're spending time talking about library books it's something that a lot of you may not want but some in the community do but it is vital uh so I just I want to make that point second thing is I think in the selection of the library book The the materials I think there's maybe a little bit of redundancy it it it's not a big deal but when we look at paragraph A5 if you have a chance to look at it the library material shall meet high standards of quality Etc it again it's not it's not a
024make or break for me but uh it just appears that uh paragraph uh A and C we describe in more detail in item number seven and paragraphs or point B and D are described in more detail in item N9 and paragraph E and F are described in more detail in item four so I'm suggesting that we take out all of the sub sections in paragraph five where we talk about Library materials should meet high standards because they are discussed in more detail in items SE or four S and nine and again I'm not going to lose sleep if there you know I'm I'm just throwing that out for discussion okay thank you other discussion commentary questions I just have a I'm don't want to open a whole can of worms here but page seven item
025three so the superintendent or design shall establish a date um this meeting shall occur no later than 25 school days from receipt of the request of re-evaluation of a resource for from resource what is that that's a typle that's a typle resource form I think it should say but anyway my concern is that if we have um how do we protect ourselves of being accused of non-compliance if the time Li limit is not met based on the fact that we have numerous book challenges and I don't know if there's a way that we can protect ourselves from that I think that we I believe our district has done due diligence in following the timeline to the best of their ability but we're backed up and we're already out of compliance with the current um book
026that's being challenged so I'm wondering are you thinking that it needs to be taken so what happens is at least how it's ran is once one book is completed but the calendar starts for the next one right feeling that needs to be Spilled Out in policy I think so I don't think that would be um I don't think that that's prudent I don't think it would be legal I don't think it that let's just pretend that that I wanted to complain about a book but Kevin had already done a book what do I care about Kevin has nothing to do with my deal you're going to put rules on the the uh people that are causing problems with the book not causing problems that are bringing the book to the school's attention and put their
027strict time frames you know if you go to the principal and gets turned down you get 14 days right isn't that the rule that we've got written I don't see how you can all of a sudden change the rules on the other side I it's a it's an unfortunate situation how many of these book reviews have been done in the last five years Heidi prior to this year zero under policy 66 that's probably not really going to be an issue this kind of a anomy we're going through so my two cents on it is this that the policies are policies um if we get thrown in Schoolboard jail for non-compliance with the occasional Schoolboard policy it sort of is what it is I mean you get the same emails I get where and there was
028one where I responded basically and kind into into that one on behalf of the board and said this I agree you know basically we're making best efforts to comply with the policy but given the demand on resources this is how it is and like I said if you want to if you want to put us in Schoolboard jail you can put us in Schoolboard jail but the reality is there's you know I don't I think there's a reasonable expectation that we're doing things um with due diligence and expeditiously as possible and and and if you look at things like um APAC and our vote of non-c concurrence with APAC it's another great example we're never quite we're never quite there on that either and there's any number of places where I'm afraid if we went
029your route and we try to put some guard rails around it it opens the door to people picking apart other policies for that very same purpose and really getting into the minutia of it when in reality our job is to is to get Heidi and her team to comply as readily and strictly to the policy as is feasibly able to be done that's that's that's where I sit with it thoughts can I just ask clarification of of how your your question and so and to tie back to director Don lingers so I think director cor your question is is let's say we receive one form today one form tomorrow one form knowing that several of the committee members have to be on the same meetings you're saying give some designation of in what so reevaluation
030will be taken in the order has received is that your question I guess I just feel like I want to protect ourselves from being um accused of non-compliance and I think yeah we um historically there haven't been a lot of book um challenges but we all know if we read that book challenges are on the rise and I don't know what the percentage but it's an it's an incredible ask of of many districts to review multiple books and I just so can I so here's one thing I could say this meeting shall occur no later than 25 school days from the receipt of the request for re-evaluation of a resource form uh resource reevaluations will be taken in order as received then sets that clock yeah something along that line I mean it still doesn't
031Shield you from the 25-day requirement other than to say you know because again like you said if no matter what you try to put in there I mean you know if you had 40 book challenges in the same week it could be a year before you get to one of them but maybe we are letting the community know that we will take them in the order that they're received which gives them some feedback about one reevaluation will not occur before the conclusion yeah of the previous challenge hopefully it just have controversial book go ahead director Ward um you know I I hear director brien's concern and I agree with her and I think that uh the point is um we could say something as simple as a new um the next challenge will not start
032until the previous challenge is finished that's a great suggestion in my opinion M I like that what you were saying so in in the event of multiple resource challenges yeah subsequent challenges will be taken in order with that time frame the 25-day time frame after the completion of the previous resource review because I think we can fix that language tonight and adopt it if we can get it right or we don't we don't really have a time crunch to get this thing we can kick it back one more and kick it in into February I guess there's no re I mean once you have your final reading it's just formally adopted but at any point in time you can revise all right well let's let's let's um let's just we we'll do like we did
033before with we'll do a a policy committee subset and we'll take a look at it and clean it up and get it around to the board okay then I think the other thing I have director Hyman's note of repetitive he feels repetitive points are being made in selectional library uh materials a number five he feels are repeated in 79 11 in paragraph C that's at least what I heard yeah what I'm saying I I think the the the paragraph or the the the points a b c and d and e and f under uh Point number five are better described in the actual paragraphs themselves okay that's all that's all I'm saying so potentially look at okay director doninger um first of all this thing is way cleaner than it started and all that busy
034talk is kind of all cleaned up and whoever did that great job because this is way this is way more professional we're not seeing things two or three times so that's really great you guys did a great job I think um just let you know I'm going to vote no against this policy um for two reasons one is I think it's condescending I think it's ridiculous to say that anyone that wants to come uh test has to attest to read to have read viewed or listened to the material in question in its entirety we don't demand that out of the librarian we don't demand it out of the principal we brought up before I don't think we need to rehash the hash but I want to be on record shown that I'm not voting for
035this because that's pretty uh ridiculous to the people that help pay for the books they have to read the whole book but the people that ordered the book bought the book okayed the book and by the way told told you that you can't go ahead that you're wrong doesn't have to read the book but for me to protest a book I got to read the whole thing I can't I can't I can't St with that I've got to be able to fre and then I still don't believe that we should have the student Representatives I know everyone disagrees with me that's fine I just want you to know I'm voting no but I really think if we're going to leave the kids on there this whole thing of that every they have to read the
036whole book in their entirety but no one else does is just ridiculous it's over the top why what what what are we talking about I don't understand is it to show them who boss or what is the purpose well I think that's a great question and I think the purpose is if you're going to ask for 250 hours worth of people's time to re-evaluate the book that the person asking for that's not what we're talking about Sarah we're talking about a request to look at a book with the principal so I'm not asking the principal to spend 250 hours to read the book I'm just saying hey I saw I don't know if you know this book is in your library I just want to bring your attention I don't think it should be in
037front of these kids no one said we had to put a committee together no one said we had to do anything don't forget that with this policy principal could be like eh maybe you're right that's a little questionable put that one over here you know we don't no one's asking for that at this point right so I just don't know why it's if it's good for the goose it's good for the gander and I don't think we should I don't want the principal to read the whole book I don't want the librarian to read the whole book I really don't even want the kids to read the whole book but I just think it's it's it's it's just condescending it's just like we'll show you who the boss is you want to come in here
038and talk about a book what we got to test them we a lie detector test how are we going to know if they read the book I it's just foolishness but you know whatever it'll be fine it's a lot better than it was when we started and it's a lot better than the old policy we had so I think it's you know I think you guys did a nice job on it Randy and cevin on the on the uh and everybody else on that committee clean this baby up I mean it it's a nice policy now so there you go all right well I think we've made made enough um language suggestions that it's not going to get a vote tonight it's going to get kicked to the February meeting okay um what I would
039say is I I guess I hadn't really read it in that context I mean I know you've brought up that concern before but I never really noticed that we have it up under the informal instead of under the formal and i' say before the next time we look at it maybe that's something to consider is do we require that somebody read the entire book for the informal request for Recons where do they take their task before they get to come in and talk well like I said it's an ATT attestation yeah it's um but to your point if I but what I would say in defense of the mindset behind it right is why these other people aren't reading it is because they're selecting off of recommended lists these books are in thousands of libraries
040across the country so somebody is choosing to challenge its educational Merit its social relevance its quality as a piece of art well how can you really do that if you haven't read it I guess I I can get behind that argument to a certain extent with the exception of certain objectionable scenes if you will that are in those things like I've been on the record with that too where I understand that but if you start to get so take that out of the mix for a second let's just say that the whole theme of an overall book um is objectionable versus very specific sequences or imagery that's depicted in it um that you really disagree with the overall theme of it now you're challenging the work based on truly based on its value as a
041whole how can you do that if you've not read it and then I would go back to the last appeal that we heard last meeting where the individual that challenged that particular book who is a a a great person with a really hearts in the right place but the whole basis of the appeal was on the state statute on obscenity which states that the work as a whole has to be considered but Kevin has nothing to do with that this is just that we are going for an informal thing to a principal and you're demanding that the whoever is doing it has to read the whole book I'm just saying I think it should be out of policy can I so I want clarification on the policy because if I look on page six which
042is under Section seven six number three number three last it says right but it says the complainant shall complete the form so they don't have to attest a reading the book until they're moving forward to make a formal request for a committee to get together to review that material so it's the next step from the informal so it's not saying that that has to happen informally at all at least that's how I read this unless you again I'm not reading it that way though so if the concern has not yet been resolved the request for reevaluation of a resource form shall be provided by the principal to the complaintant the complainant shall complete the form and return it to the principal within 30 calendar days during a student calendar year which means the minute I
043submit that form I'm invoking the request for reconsideration of materials so actually I am reading it the way you're reading the complainant must test having read or viewed or listened to the material in question in its entirety so they're saying I'm going to ask for the whole committee to do this because I filled out this form so that's how it's written it's not part of the informal process it's part of moving to the formal I'm just telling you how I'm going to vote and I think it's condescending and I think it's kind of an insult to people how would you know if they read didn't read the book why do we know they didn't read the book why is it even in there in the first place this is why people are sick and tired
044of government because you treat them like they aren't honest you treat them like they're not smart and so it's fine I'm going to vote on this policy with that language in there it's no big deal we don't have to burn the house down over it it's just you know I brought it up before and I think it's ridiculous so I have my opinion you can have yours we can all get along just I'm not voting for that thing I'm just trying to make sure it's spelled out clearly in policy you I mean I cross the sentence it's all we need to do for me make me happy I mean there's more than me in this deal so any know yeah I'm comfortable with that well we can you're comfortable with removing having no I think
045the way it exists right now comfortable with the way it is right now I'm comfortable with the way it is and I I do think people should read the book it's a literary it's a literary work and it should be taken one sentence at a time it's a it's a whole we're never going to know anyways you follow me it's like what are you going to do are you going to ask them did you read the book entir did you read your you an expectation right it's just an insult it's a slap in the nose it's unnecessary that's all that's okay I just want to sell the school I want people to be happy to have their kids go to school here I want to be proud of being in brainer I don't want to
046give them reasons for negatives that's just a negative that has zero teeth in it there's nothing we can do about it we are never going to know whether they read the book or not and we're just putting that in there for what for ourselves to make us feel like we're in charge I don't know it's okay like let's just move on can we just vote I'm ready to vote I I vote for voting please let's just vote actually there's no vote because we have to revamp that language oh not again we got to do this again in February we're going to send her back to we're going to send it back to policy all right sounds good next for again but you're February before the board meeting or after is well documented we're going to
047take it back to policy's pretty simple well the motion can fail and then it just it just actually you can just we can move it back to policy oh you can also yeah you can also move to remove your motion and and move to uh I'm gonna um amend my motion to send this back to committee policy committee okay further work I think it's on I will second that okay so we have a motion to send 631 back for another look at um the sections that we discussed tonight yep I made two two notes from director Hyman's comment so we have a motion from director spear we have a second from director Hyman discussion okay I have one last thing then um specific to director Hyman's concerns about the redund pieces uh is the board
048comfortable with us trimming that some more and giving you a chance to review that individually once we've trimmed it to to do that because director Hyman and Dr Han and I will work on that and I know you guys will make sure that those each of those are represented I didn't look through and match them up as well as director Hyman did but I I do like the conciseness of that list the authenticity and so on and so forth so as long as they're each represented in those other areas I'm comfortable with that okay I I would agree I want them represented I like the way visually I like how this looks because it it um conceptualizes I guess what library high quality standards are without having to read all of the other without them
049being mentioned uh director Breen I'm going to break precent a little bit here but um you've done a lot of research on this and it's we can have a third board member looking at these revisions and not break any laws would you be willing to um have a look at some of these drafts with us as we're doing that to make sure the consistency comes through yeah I would be happy and I think we can balance what director Hyman's asking for with what you're trying to maintain is that okay okay thank you I a Spoke the riving policy committee meeting will haveen January 23rd at noon okay so we can address it then so we will meet at on the yeah so we can get the draft done then um but in the metime we'll
050work with you to make sure that we don't accidentally throw a baby out with the bath water okay so we have the motion and the second from director Heyman any other discussion hearing none roll call please Kelly John Ward yes yes yes hold on a minute what are we voting on we're voting to send it back to committee yes yes Sarah yes thank you motion carries all right we'll move on to the approval of the third reading of msba policy 720 vending machines as presented motion second all right we have a motion from director doninger with a second from director spear do we have any discussion or commentary there's been no additional uh director Ward so um I'm assuming that um we're talking about vending machines with snacks or pop or whatever um up at
051niswa they put in a vending machine I think was the Lions Club putting in a vending machine with books as a reward for the kids and I thought you know that was remarkable I've seen it up there i' I I've got some grandchildren that think it's the best thing since sliced bread so does all my question is this when we talk about vending machines um is this are we going to um not allow certain vending machines as donated by Community organizations or I mean has that been discussed or considered so the vending this policy covers if we're going to make a profit right if we're selling and the vending machines that you're referring to John um um there's no selling right the kids can just get a token and go get it so this covers
052if if we're selling items it's up to $10,000 right over 10,000 that STS to be a differenty well it's just that they have to follow what's in here and there's lots of statutory guidance based on uh updated nutrition laws that's why you don't see Pop vending machines and snack vending machines and candy machines and schools anymore so the vending machines that have come in and why this policy got questioned was they were putting a vending machine I believe in staff lounges have pop available to staff um so I know when you talked about Pro like the old rules where groups were making tons of money off of vending machines there's lots of laws where that can happen right now and there's lots of nutritional restrictions that we as a school district cannot dispense those yeah
053and I would assume if looking at the nutritional restrictions we're probably not going to make a profit what we would put in there the students probably wouldn't be putting their dollars in so uh you know the high school has the warrior Outlet you know the warrior outlet has to comply with those guidelines as well so at the high school that's typically where students are seeking their snack and um and revenues made from that outlet are reinvested back into the and fresh popcorn is nutritious it is it is no I'm I'm not yeah it's a whole gra yep but I know director Mercy thank you for Marcy thank you for that ification of the question that I Rose yeah no problem right any other questions for rcy or discussion all right hearing none we'll do a
054roll call vote please Kelly Kevin Bo yes yes DJ D yesy yes Sarah yes yes motion carries thank you Marcy so excited that all right uh next up we have the approval of the directors and assistant director h books as presented and G Bennett please hello hi so you guys all got the red line and kind of the finished product um to review over the weekend um basically the main language changes was removal of the Dina students because there was a lot of revamping the last handbook period because there was a lot of confusion about how the Deans played into that as we've discontinued that role currently we took all that verbiage out of there so it kind of cleaned it all back up again um a few other tweaks and language just to make
055things more clear um other than that it was just an increase in the salary schedule I'll make a motion I'll second we have a motion from director Dellinger with a second from director Breen to approve the directors and assistant director handbooks has Pres presented any discussion hearing none we'll do a roll call vote please Kelly yes DJ yes Randy yes Sarah spear yes yes yes thank you motion carries thanks Angie all right our final uh new business action item for tonight is the appeal of the book challenged for queen of Shadows uh so I believe that director Mera supplied all board members with all of the relevant documentation from the ad hoc committee meetings um believe our board representative on that was no was director heidman I'm sorry and so I think um given that
056we just kind of went through this discussion process last month for the uh the prior book challenge um I guess um so the appeal is based on the documentation I do want to make a clarification I did speak to the appellant uh at some length and uh to to make a point of clarification about the appeal the way that the appeal form was worded the appellant was attempting to say in the appeal that if we as a board choose to uphold the ad hoc committee's decision and retain the resource that the appellant was hoping also to challenge it so that it could not preemptively challenge it so that it could not be used in curriculum at some subsequent Point down the line in discussion with this person what I was able to kind of work
057through and what we kind of come to is um the reality is that once 631 is in place 606 is a policy that will continue to move along and deal with curriculum items 631 is a policy that will move along and deal with Library materials um since the book is not and there's no intent it's never been submitted for approval to be used as a curriculum resource the question really isn't in play at the moment so what's in play at the moment is strictly the appeal of the resource as a library book and then if it should for some reason pop up on a curriculum list then it could be challenged at that point separately despite whatever we decide tonight under 606 as a curriculum resource does that make any sense okay so everybody's tracking
058with that so um we wanted to make sure that the appellant got um every opportunity for the entire concern to be aired and heard by the board in the way that it was presented to us so that's that's effectively how we've decided to go forward with it so with that said I would entertain a motion so I want to be clear we're we're not retaining this as a library book is as of the the appeal that's before us if there's a motion to be made is to accept the appeal and essentially not retain the resource that would be the motion or we could have a motion to reject the appeal but we're not considering anything to do with curriculum correct it's all I just I just wanted correct sure that doesn't mean that it's grandfathered
059in for curriculum it means that it's open to be challenged under the curriculum policy if it were ever to be introduced which based on what it is and how it is I would uh find that to be an extremely unlikely circumstance I'll make a motion to reject the appeal I'll second it okay we have a motion from director spear with a second from director Breen to reject the appeal discussion Mr chair director Hyman I was the school board leaz on on this ad hoc committee and um I will state that uh it was conducted in a very fair and very uh professional manner uh the student who spoke uh uh spoke with uh conviction and uh Clarity along with all of the other the other folks um my biggest concern was was the violence within
060the book it started from the front and went all the way to the back and it should be part of the public record I did take notes and I noted all of the uh sentences and thoughts of of violence throughout throughout that book as well I mean it should be part of the public record I I don't see here anything in our uh document for the agenda there's no link to the uh uh documents that were provided to or by Mr Mera they're all on the website um so not attached to our board agenda but all those minutes have been posted previously to the public meeting okay so the minutes from both committee meetings are public okay okay the appeal form is not published that was just given to you as the board they're all
061under there are eight attachments um from the email we got from Kevin sharing all of those um minutes and from the the two meetings that you had so they are attached in an email where did the amended I believe the amended one where you needed to change your certification signature Tim that's all fixed right okay yeah okay I just wanted to yeah we we addressed that last week but I mean even though I disagreed with the the outcome uh it was done in a very professional way and uh uh there was no uh no throwing anything no throwing books around or anything uh it was good discussion uh uh Etc so uh uh I will be uh obviously uh voting uh not to retain the resource but uh it was good discussion and uh it
062was done in a very professional manner Manner and uh I think um director Mera being put in the position that he was no one wanted to be the uh chair and um uh he did step up and I I think he he was very fair and uh uh I think it was handled in a very professional way so those are my only comments thank you and direct H and followup just pulling up on our website so the notice is there the approved minutes say need to be linked so the minutes that you received they still need to be linked into the onto the district website under meeting's agendas and minutes so we'll get those done so again the motion is the motion is to deny the appeal so we're retaining the book correct that is
063the motion that is on the table do we have any further discussion hearing none roll call vote please Kelly down linger so uh what does yes mean and what does no mean no mean a no vote means you're you're voting no against rejecting the appeal so I'm if I vote but no means you want the I want to hold up the appeal so your vote is no my vote is no heidman no Sarah Bear yes John Ward yes Kevin yes yes all right so on motion carries four to two all right we'll move along to committee meeting updates chair dondlinger well the finance committee met the day of the last meeting so there's been no changes and no additional meetings so there's really nothing to report thank you and then I think that was the
064only committee one that we had on here we'll move on to informational looks like you're fresh off of a brainer Public Schools Foundation meeting director spear yes we met today and I would mention a couple of things so tickets are on sale for the big event so if you haven't purchased yours yet mark your calendar February 3rd at Grand View and then also how do we purchase them through the you can get them online through the BPS site been looking were they just made available recently no I think they've been out there a little bit do I go to the Brainard Public Schools Foundation that should get you there if not I'll send you the link okay and it'll start being on social media so go okay it's right on their main homepage there's a
065little astronaut logo yeah that was right before Christmas that was um and the other thing I would mention is brainer Public Schools Foundation does a phenomenal job of managing uh this scholarship portal with over a 100 scholarships from the generosity of our our community and so that's open right now for seniors to apply and it'll it'll close February 28th and so just want to put that reminder out there if you have any seniors in your life get them out there and applying for some of those great scholarships it's it's a wonderful offering that the the foundation has Sarah that's one application covers one application yeah that's nice I believe is last year over $180,000 was given specific from the brainer Public Schools Foundation but scholarships were awarded to just over 200 I think it was
066254 seniors don't quote me on the exact number but over a million dollars in scholarships were awarded to that number so this is it's huge if you look at the graduates of Rainer public high school there is significant scholarships um awarded um and I'm very grateful to the foundation and the work they do and to we have so many generous uh community members that invest back even outside that foundation for the scholarship Fe so that's it great thanks okay we'll do an equity Task Force update recommendations from director Breen so in October Rick Jensen came to our task force meeting he's the graphic design instructor at the high school um he was present for the purpose of asking his students to create posters bookmarks Etc promoting belonging through speaking up it's kind of a continuation
067of the interruptor bias training encouraging students to speak up when hurtful comments are made toward others so members of the task force will soon be selecting those posters that will be made available to the buildings within our district and they'll be um middle level high school posters and then younger posters as well um we're also continuing to generate questions for a variety of stakeholders which includes students staffs families and community members members and we'll be making a plan to assess how the school district is involving those stakeholders in meaningful ways and then this data will help to determine how we can best strengthen those Community Partnerships we're continuing that work I think it needs to be noted for the record that these reports of the equity task force have improved greatly since director Breen got
068on there and I'm not the one doing the reports thank you very much Michelle that's outstanding we do have a meeting tomorrow I believe right yeah y That's great all right Marcy with the Business Services report so in your board packet um you finally got the June report so we did get the audit done these are the final numbers uh nothing really to note other than um the the audit presentation will be at next board meeting for 2223 and then the next um report is November's report uh we're tracking higher in food service and construction and the post-employment trust but I noted last time we'll we'll review I will review those in the revision so you'll see a change there and then also in your um report is the enrollment we are down 31 from
069the beginning of the school year the 5year averages being down about 57 at this time so tracking better than we had in the past yes yep any questions just one uh have you been tracking uh there was an article that I that well I think a lot of people may have read it uh our state budget is not in the best shape and they keep talking about uh the free meals they estimated what the cost was going to be at the state level and they're saying they're going to they're going to blow right through that I mean it's going to be astronomical compared to what they had budgeted how is that I mean how is that going to affect us or I mean obviously the state is controlling that but right I have probably we're
070probably reading the same things there's nothing that's been trickling down as far as Yep this will impact you in whatever fiscal year there's been nothing like that it's just that information of yep it's higher than what we had anticipated so do we get dollar to dollar match on that is that how that works they give us a dollar or a certain dollar amount per meal and it's actually higher than what we get if we had paid meals so it it is a benefit to us I know Heidi you had mentioned something that you know during the process of this being voted on in St Paul your uh superintendent Association was meeting or talking about this and there wasn't 100% consensus that that it was a good idea well I think you know the the mindset
071behind it was phenomenal right supporter to and take away food insecurity right I think what what our group was talking about just like you did as a board there were lots of mandates that came through legislatively and a lot of them were Fast and Furious as you've been adopting and changing policy but when you look at the unfunded mandates that are coming through um who potenti right now it's funded how long will it be funded some are unemployment they're already past the first year when you look at the implementation of the requirements of the read Act and the professional development so there's requirements that are coming and the funding isn't following that which behooves the district then to have to respond um Alyssa Thompson our food service director is watching this very closely of how
072the will be impacted and I think several directors brought it up is um for those of those for those families or participants who could pay for a meal why aren't we asking for that right now that's not the guidance but that's some of the suggestions back you go back to that we still have an angel food fund we have lots of generous community members who fund that because we do still have outstanding balances even though there's free meals and there's additional meals that happen but there's a lot March is going to be interesting as I um and we go further into this session to see how they're going to address some of these issues have you guys at the your superintendent Association have you have there been any discussions about how other districts or what
073is there a plan to contact the State and like that well I think a lot of that is just Gathering data so the best thing is they they take a guess at what it is be now we have actual what the cost or expense will be they now have actual data behind that which is now what we're hearing and so as our legislators enter their next session how's that going to play out it's not a budgetary session so very entertaining you know um if we had people pay for their own meals Marcy just told us we' get more money from the state but yet this was sold as the biggest education funding bill you know it's like it's like I don't know that when everybody thinks about education funding that free lunch for everybody was
074big part of the deal but it's a big part of the additional funding that they did you know it's all there's this big story that the schools just got all this cash and yes that may be somewhat true but if it's all going for lunches it doesn't mean that we can fix some of our deficiencies that we have in other departments you know it's kind of sad that it was it's been sold as that kind of it's probably the biggest example there are probably another dozen examples of what you're talking about as it relates to the the overall education bill right a lot of that money's ear marked and then they threw all these new costs on us that are going to catch up with us shortly and uh not quite as rosy as they
075told everybody guess that's politics so any other questions for Marcy thanks Marc thanks right glad the audit's over let your hair grow back in now all right let's move along to the superintendent's report Dr Dr hun so just to followup uh moving forward here as we move into January you're going to hear more about the portrait of The Graduate I saw lots of our Comm seen a couple of them still that participated so we'll be anxious to have that group U move forward portrait of The Graduate our initial impetus into that work is going to be really working with um business community so working and having conversations about how to address and get some of those attributes back or attribute input um and so again adopting the Strategic plan uh significant thank you to all
076those that been involved and then um just kind of a reflection piece so I you know I've been doing these Monday motivations some staff readed them some staff don't um but today's motivation was really about how do we know uh that the work we're doing is important and that we're in the space where we're supposed to be and uh in our school Community we've had two staff members that have passed away in this in these short couple of weeks and it's been um it's been difficult for a lot of our sta staff and and me included when you work so closely alongside we've talked about how we spend more time with each other than oftentimes we do our families um and we do it because we love these kids and we love these kids like
077we love our own kids um but the one thing that's been overwhelming is watching staff um one make sure students are okay uh but in this instance uh making sure each other's okay and so uh again through all these challenges and political or div this or whatever it has our job is really about kids and the people who choose to take all these roles in our our school system um because it's a whole system are incredible and I'm just you hear me say it all the time but truly grateful for what they do and it's really it's really reflective when you get to slow down and see each other in a different light reflecting on um the Legacy that staff have left with each other so that's what I'd like to share thank you very
078much all right then with that we'll move along to uh director updates and commentary director Breen well kind of to continue in that same vein um we as board members have been receiving numerous invitations to visit classrooms by a variety of educational staff and I really appreciate these invitations and and wish I could honor each of them um personally I've accepted a longterm subp position for the next six weeks which would make it difficult for me to attend classrooms however I will do my best to reach out to schools as my schedule permits but I do want our staff to know that I recognize our district employs devoted highly educated and talented Educators without a doubt I respect and celebrate the dedication compassion and positive difference you all make in the lives of children every
079day that's my comment right thank you Dr Hyman yeah it's been one year one year since uh bunch of us got elected and boy it sure went by quick um my only comment is I am I think I've I've stated some of this already I'm going to really focus uh my attention this year on uh student outcomes proficiencies and uh and you know let's let's see where we're at what what do we need do we need to align resources do we do you know do we need to do certain things differently uh I am going to be going into some of the classrooms uh uh that's one of the benefits of being um uh retired uh from a regular job uh is that you have the time to go into the into the schools and
080I am going to be uh uh going in and talking and listening to some of the requests that I have received from from the St staff uh and I was in uh Forest View a ton before and plus I think the only school that I did not Sub in was niswa and Heidi called me up and she says you know I can pull some strings for you but it didn't it didn't work out but we tried but so I'm I'm going to really focus on student outcomes student proficiency uh and and if if if we need uh staff development let's let's do it let's let's get her done uh because that's what we're here for we're here to educate kids and uh that's our main mission uh is to provide uh kids with an opportunity
081when they leave here uh to be able to read and I think that is at minimum if if we cannot have students leaving our district uh and not being able to read proficiently they're going to be behind the eightball the rest of their life and we've talked about this uh uh at nauseum I mean we all know reading is important so that's where I'm going to focus my attention uh for this year now am I going to be concerned about other things well obviously yes but you know we need to spend time talking about outcomes proficiencies where we're at where we're going and the old uh strategic plan that's where we're at and that's what we wanted and that's what we got I have nothing else to say you think possibly the reason you never
082accept it n cuz you've never been north of northon Lake no baseball fields up there for you or anything like you like I grew up on Lake Edna oh that's right he was a kid toor we get tired before the wagon you gr up in southern Minnesota what are you talking about let's stop this I'm talking about the summertime it's my turn it is director Doner okay I make a motion uh Kelly that you don't put Clerk and treasure and all this stuff in front of her names anymore uh number two Happy New Year hope it's prosperous for you safe good health all those kinds of things done get this meeting rolling thank you director Don linger uh director Ward uh thank you Mr chair I just want to Echo exactly what Michelle said uh
083in regards to our staff and so much appreciate everything they do and that and Miss bowsley kind of laid it on the line there in my opinion and um from a student perspective and um so nice job Michelle you took the words right out of my mouth thank you and thank you staff thank you director Wen director spear I just really quickly wanted to Echo the same thing just to recognize that all all the Educators that showed up here tonight thank you and and we see you and we we hear you and we're so grateful for the work that you do and it was so cool to hear Miss bowsley give her testimony about um her experience in this district and I'm pretty sure we could pack the house with kids that have the same
084story thank you very much well I've got a couple of things actually um the first one is I just want to kind of put a postcript on the the appeal that we heard tonight um and I want to speak almost directly to the two people that appealed and the people within uh that portion of the community that raised those concerns I want to make sure that they understand that um even though their appeals were not upheld uh last month or this month that those appeals played a very vital role in getting us uh where we're almost on the verge of approving a much more Dynamic Library resource policy and uh there's more focus on you know how these things are are brought in reviewed looked at it seems like the informal policy where principles are
085taking another look at the resources that are in the libraries um has a heightened Focus so I think um if you feel like your your efforts were in vain I really would tell you not to think that way to think that you had a a a meaningful role in the process of the school district and that even though uh in my own particular case I didn't vote for either one of those appeals uh I understand where those folks were coming from and I respect their opinions I just didn't happen to agree with them in this case the second thing would be to kind of echo what um Michelle John and Sarah kind of already put out there as it relates to staff and all of those things but I'm going to go a slightly different
086Direction with it and say this that um yes we have Educators that are on a lengthy period of time without a contract um this school board is not unaware of this uh we are working on it almost daily to try to figure out every lever that we can pull and because of the way that these uh situations operate we're you know sort of muzzled in terms of what we can talk about what we can't talk about but what I can tell you is there isn't a person sitting at this table that doesn't value our Educators to the highest possible possible degree period and that's reflective in what we're trying to do and I would um tell people in the community at large uh just to give it time let the process play itself out there
087is a process underway and don't believe everything you hear from anybody from any end of any Spectrum just let the process play out uh we're doing it and this school board is committed to putting a contract in place that hopefully when it's all said and done in the dust settles will be considered historic uh and with that I have have no other comments for this evening so with that we'll go on to Future meetings uh we uh the board at least five of us I believe director doninger is unable to join us but the other five of us will be down in Minneapolis next week for the msba leadership conference I think all of us are going to be there Thursday morning throughout the day then Florida Bo he's in florid oh yeah John's not
088going either yeah he's skipping out you know I thought you flying in for I'm sorry yeah all stuff on me I was just looking around in my peripheral vision I forget he's straight in front of me I'm looking right at him uh so the four of us will be down there Michelle Randy and Sarah and and then of course Heidi will be down there with us so we will be down there on Thursday all day Friday until about noon I believe uh we'll probably pick up some great nuggets on uh leadership aspects and compare notes with other school board members and learn lots of cool stuff and uh so that's what's going to go on down there as Heidi mentioned on January 23rd we will have a policy and community relations committee meeting which is
089chaired by director Hyman and my and I'm on that committee we will be looking at uh finalizing 631 at that point and then finally our next uh regular school board meeting will be on February 12th so with that said um we are going to do a 5 minute recess and then we will go into a closed session per uh Minnesota statute 13 d03 for labor negotiation