Jamestown School Board February 06, 2023

001no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no foreign [Music] foreign [Music] good evening I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Jamestown School Board to order it is February 6 2023 at 5 15 PM in the Thompson Community room in the Middle School I'd also like to recognize all those in our audience tonight please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States foreign no requests for Public Communication conflicts of interest does anyone declare any conflicts of interest any conflicts of interest yes Aaron just in the event that the board goes into executive session for the negotiation strategies I would like to declare the conflict with my wife being a teacher in the public school that being said

002I do feel like it'll be impartial in the discussions here any other conflicts Gail I would also declare that my daughter is a teacher for the school district but I believe I would not in any way be influenced by that and would make sound decisions I also have no financial interest in her her Affairs anymore because she's a grown-up Jason is now an appropriate time for a motion to um deal with those conflicts can we make a motion to set aside the conflicts if they so choose if someone is interested in making that motion however we could also do it at the end if we go to sex position it would be up to you either either way would would work so Dan would you be willing to read the norms thank you without being

003previously asked so thank you I can read okay the board developed Norms are to share and respect varied opinions and speak with the United Voice once a decision has been reached the prudently prioritize resources in a student-centric manner that aligns with the district's strategic plan to exhibit a mindset of continuous Improvement through adequate preparation for meetings and a commitment to board education to commit to assessing board Effectiveness to ensure high quality governance for the staff students and community of Jamestown thank you Dad okay moving on in our agenda number two consent agenda at any time if a board member would like to remove something from the consent agenda they can do so it does not need a second would anyone like to remove anything from the consent agenda would anyone like to remove anything from

004the consent agenda would anyone like to remove anything from the consent agenda if not is there a motion to approve the consent agenda motion by Dan second by Yale any discussion there being no discussion all those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I I oppose same sign motion approved moving on to our regular meeting under a recognition number one we have the wda academic all-conference and some of you may have seen this on different social media or news things the the good news is the list is so long of students that we aren't going to read all of the names but it listed all the fall Sports it's in your drive where all the students met the academic achievement requirements this fall and so that was a really nice graphic that that they

005put together so we appreciate that under correspondence we had you have some correspondence we have a thank you card from the family Margot Howard the family abroad and family the Roger Haute we have a thank you card for um from Heidi Eckert and Tammy Dumas for some flowers for their father's passing and also Sally OST sent us a thank you card for the retirement plaque and the retirement party so we appreciate all those and just want to make more of those in addition in your drive you might have noticed Dollars for Scholars we received a letter from the president diannement and appreciating the previous support they want to note that in 2017 they only had 16 scholarships and five years later last may they were able to award 45 scholarships totaling 44 600 to graduating

006seniors looking to further their education at vocational technical college or university institutions their goal is to provide a scholarship for every graduating student they will be taking part in giving hearts day on Thursday February 9th and so there is some matches from and and so their goal is to raise twelve thousand dollars so um just want to make note of that um when you're if you're looking at giving heart state that they are one of the um opportunities to to give so thank you for that under reports um number one negotiation seminar report for those that attended the negotiation seminar would you be able to just say a few words I think it was Jason and Dan I'll start um two two-day seminar uh the first day much like our annual conference they they refer

007to as the early bird um so that that was a good good reminder session on um some legal things but also like uh you know School Board committees making sure that those are set up noticed all that wonderful stuff correctly then we went into negotiations with superintendents other admin and then of course the afternoon of that first day was dealing with teacher non-renewals and discharge so that was a good review for a new member or if you're a newer member I would encourage that also because it's it's a good refresher I think Christy was glad that she participated in both days then the second day was when we really got into the negotiations piece again having gone through a couple of sessions on the board a lot of it was review but there's people there

008that have been there probably a dozen times or more and they say they always pick up something new and so we heard a lot from Amy De cook who is our the school board association's uh general counsel I enjoyed the the uh session that was geared towards impasse and how to avoid and make sure we do everything we can before we need to go there and of course a highlight this year on that was the new timeline of July 1st needing to have a contract or declare declare impasse unless both sides agree to continue then we had a experienced negotiator panel moderated by Dr Lech a lot of good scenarios there that are occurring in school districts now and then the legislative panel kind of wrapped up the day I'll just say and I was

009actually supposed to be in Bismarck today with the superintendent's family engagement cabinet but I didn't go because I'm doing some other legislative things and I and but I did talk to superintendent Basler and I don't think it's any secret that there's a different vibe this year in Bismarck towards probably not just education but a lot of things and I'm not saying a bad Vibe or I think there's a lot of creative creative thinking going on which is good in my opinion but just a different vibe on in Bismarck on uh in the legislature so that was what I thought not really I I guess I'll just add that I did you mentioned the new timelines and the dates I did cross-check and so all the plans that we have laid out from Dr Leck and

010everybody we're compliant with those timelines and the plan we have moving forward is is uh consistent with that so um again I've never been on never experienced this before so it was good to see it laid out so well on the procedures followed and um so I'm looking forward to it any questions Jason from the board or comments or I guess I would just like to comment um thank you um this is the start of it first takes two days out of work and and onto your life to go and attend this so I appreciate your your dedication and your time served in that as well as the upcoming meetings and so forth so thank you for that any other questions or comments okay okay moving on board education number one educational competency procedures for

011policy BBC we'll start with that and then we'll move on to our next one I know as a board you'll be surprised by this but I have very little to say in board education we have talked about this policy in the past it's important that we continue to bring it back for bring it back to you it's the method policy BBC is the method for filling a board vacancy we're aware that we have a board vacancy very quickly I'll share that your board policy outlines you have three options you can simply select or a point you can go through a selection process you can go through the election uh in the past we have almost exclusively at least the time that I have been here used a selection process I'm assuming that's what it that

012that is what you want to do but it is not my decision to make it's the boards in terms of how you want to proceed I'd be happy to answer questions related to these options but you could ruminate on this for another meeting or so or you could give me direction in terms of how you want to proceed but again your options are an election a simple appointment or a selection procedure so with that I would stand for questions any questions Erin go ahead yeah I guess I would be in support of do going through the selection process and starting with that so I'm I'm agreement with that you want to start looking at a timeline at this meeting or do we want to look at that at the next meeting um but well I

013think we got that 60 days of what we have to engage in so um yeah I would just if we can just give the direction in this meeting I think that'd be best and then move forward with that and then from our last process we just we talked about also um giving the if the viable candidates an opportunity to come in front of the board to uh to you know two or three minutes to speak on their behalf how's I don't think we need necessarily a motion for this just a general kind of agreement that that's I mean we we're governed by the policy of 60 days so we have to do something in that timeline is that an acceptable process everyone in favor of that okay Dr Leck you want to move and you

014and Christy want to move forward with with that process so the selection yep and we will have more information then for you on February 20th at our next meeting and we'll outline the process and we can look through the selection procedures and look how how and when we could you know create a timeline look how and when we can integrate uh board interviews or allowing them to speak before the candidates to speak before the word in the past the board has done that at times and at times have have not so we can certainly do that yeah I've been part of part of both and so um so it's you know what it been through the process with either one so either is good okay and nothing else Dr lack any other questions from the

015board or comments board education number two it oh sorry Dan there are 60 days and good question Dan um number two education and competency work based learning we have a few folks here Mr Gaylor Mr heinert and Mr wagon foreign and thank you for inviting us I'm Derby heinert I'm assistant director James Valley Career and Tech and Jerry wagon is with me too he's our work based learning coordinator um Jerry comes to us from most recently Montpelier he's had over 37 years in education now he first started in Edgeley and then moved on to Montana where he served for 25 years in education both as a teacher and an administrator and then came back to North Dakota and finished his last 10 years with Montpelier in the in the administration too it's been great having

016him on board his retirement was brief and I'd like to keep it that way uh simply because uh Jerry is absolutely dynamic in building relationships which is maybe the most important piece of work based learning and we'll get to that in just a little bit Co-op is just that it is all about work based learning and there's a couple different ways Co-op or excuse me work-based learning can be earned and achieved so part of that can be in the classroom all right and we have a couple larger projects going on in our center right now and when it's in the classroom it's a sustained simulated experience that would be very similar to Industry for example in Building Trades right now we're building a 400 square foot Lake cabin and that will take us right up

017to the end of May okay with that particular project so in terms of meeting the 45 hours of work based learning for that experience that will be no problem at all we also have a full restoration taking place in Auto Collision right now it's a 2007 Dodge pickup and they have replaced quite a bit of equipment on that vehicle and done a lot of repair work it is most of it is is set and ready for the paint booth so that has been a neat project for our kids as well we have a number of projects in Auto Tech and too many to mention that would fit the guidelines of work based learning uh and so that's a unique way of getting there not every kid has an opportunity to participate in a co-op it's

018open to every kid but because of schedule constraints and things of that nature other other activities that they're involved in sometimes there are some obstacles along the way I will tell you this I'm very grateful it's their co-ops do a great deal for kids first of all it creates a network for them so they get to meet people of industry and work side by side with them with professionals that have been in the business for a long time they get to work with equipment and see a new state-of-the-art equipment that we don't have as of yet and so it's great that they get to have an experience like that they have the exposure of working with the public they gain some real enriched experiences in terms of what it's like it to be an employee

019one thing that we talk about in career and Tech all the time is career ready practices so we're constantly talking about professionalism we talk about collaboration communication technical skills and co-ops are rich with that okay and so I appreciate having that there truth be told we would have a difficult time right now seating everybody in CTE if we didn't have co-ops all right and Jerry's going to share some numbers with you in terms of how we've grown in that capacity this year for example in Auto Tech alone we had to create three blocks for Auto Tech much of that is due to the demand for diesel technology some of our kids are just they're just truly passionate about automobiles a couple of them are going to go into small engines some are going to work

020maybe someday like in a automotive garage like at wilhelms or Stouts or something of that nature but by and large diesel technology is definitely driving that and the co-op gives kids an opportunity to build some great relationships set hopefully eventually would lead to a sponsorship I want to be respectful and mindful of your time and Jerry has a presentation to share with you but I just wanted to give you an idea of what co-ops and work-based learning can look like so I'm going to hand it over to him and if you have any questions of me at the end I'll be happy to answer those for you thank you thanks Mr heinert um kind of makes me feel old though 37 this is year 38 definitely a new capacity for me as the work based

021learning coordinator at jvctc and I'm thrilled to be there it's just an amazing experience and the opportunity that we're providing our students as it's unmatched and so we'll kind of go through it make a brief summary of what we have and you can see that up on the overhead there to give you a quick second to turn around um but basically work based learning is just a chance for students and a simple way to put it is to take what they've learned in the classroom and put it into the real world experience and hands-ons you know it's it's easy for students to learn in the classroom but it's not always easy to apply and so that's one of the great benefits of the work based learning and it not only benefits students but it benefits

022to employers as well as the educators and our goal and the key word in Mr heiner mentioned the word earlier was talking about relationships we're creating relationships with students and businesses and our school because we all are Partners together and so there's a key part of what we're doing here with work based learning North Dakota Choice radio I'm sure you guys have talked about that plenty but this is part of being Workforce ready this is a key component of it having to lease those 40 hours of Mr heinert mentioned that a little bit earlier as well so I'm not going to go into that so I'm just going to throw these up there whoops maybe went too fast um we'll try one more time thank you we used to having a clicker but anyway if

023you take a look at all those different benefits our students are getting from having a co-op experience it's amazing and because once again we talked about learning in and out but we're also developing those work habits um that's it seems like one of those things that's slipping away from our students a little bit and we can start them a little bit earlier and get us some guided practice to do that communication skills that's huge uh and we talked uh with our students about if you're going to be gone make sure your boss knows so often we're hearing about you know employees not showing up they don't let anybody know and the employers are counting on them and so those Communications are huge as well and we talked about self-confidence self-esteem I think some of our

024students are finding out they can do things they never even imagine that they could do and what an awesome experience for them a little bit about our employers as well um you know it's it's creating a way of getting some potential employees we all know that we're all struggling to fill all those positions and that gives them a chance to start feeling those positions bringing those students in from high school and next thing you know they might be working for them and they won't have to worry about that where's that next employee going to come from uh we're hopefully either going to be highly motivated uh you know and I don't like reading through everything you guys can read as well as I can but being able to participate in that work-based learning experience and

025helping the students and pick the students a little bit and say oh we're kind of looking for this and we're looking for key components and we can maybe fill those needs whether it's welding or some other field and it doesn't hurt to have a good positive image either because we all know we'd like to give back and to the community and this is a positive way to do so and if you have any questions at all please jump in let me know far as our school goes you can see up there we talk about clarifying goals and number three after that third bullet I think that's one of the things that I've seen over my many years thanks Darby um my many years is that students have kind of lost their focus on how to

026get a goal and I'm not sure if the pandemic kind of threw kids off track or what but a lot of times you see a lot of shoulder shrugging and what do you want to do and so hopefully by getting them into the business getting their hands dirty they can go yeah I think I can do that now I have a goal I have a focus instead of just trudging through school and so that's a great positive thing that we have there we also see some more really great relationships being built there keeping up to date on working with the business of what's going on in your business what do we need to do what do we need to be teaching so those are really good benefits that we have I got the next couple

027slides have some of the businesses that we're working with I don't have them all but I just wanted to get you a feel for all the business that are participating with us now um and you can see there's a wide range of businesses that are taking part in this whether it be construction working with a professional support staff we have a student working in Machining we need machinists and they're just thrilled to death to have somebody out there who can do those things we and the second one we have working on a butler working at Southwood Heartland Heating and Cooling everybody knows we need plumbers we need electricians and we need the heating cooling People You Name It We need it we have a student working doing a co-op out at the jrmnc that lurking

028at being a physical therapist I mean those are just some of the things and that's not them all I should mention interstate engineering which is a great one we have a student out there he's doing computer programming and working in creating a base and test Labs I mean wow this is an outstanding student but what a good experience he gets to do that and he's helping Interstate engineering so like I said that's just some of them we really appreciate every business that it has come through for us and I got to tell you one of my favorite parts of job is going out and visiting with the different businesses and they're so happy to have you there and willing to work with me and the students they go yeah yeah you know and not everything

029is going to be perfect we know that because in the end there's still 17 18 year old students but they're really happy to have that opportunity to kind of foster that growth of those students I just throw that up I'm not going to talk about it but golden path uh Solutions is just another organization that is in Fargo that provides an opportunity for different ways for businesses and students and schools to connect and I'll just throw that up there you can look them up on the internet but the QR code for that as well um and that's just the contact information the QR code down in the bottom right hand corner is just a summary of the presentation but I just want to kind of share a few little facts with you really quick so

030when I began this job back in August and it was like well Jerry I think we're going to have about 15 students well uh you're he's laughing because we know what happened is that it jumped up to 25. 25 okay yeah and you know and that's great you know working students I'm getting to know all these students and names and faces and when they come in some of them are so enthusiastic it just makes a joy to be there and it really is it you know everyone wonders how I did it for so many years it's the students that keep me young and these guys who do that so we had 25 this first semester and well we thought it would grow so the second semester we're at about 39 students now so we're jumped

031about 57 percent and um I'm working two days a week for uh 10 hours total so you know it could be a little challenging in between semesters and I think um as they it got going as well but I'm going to go out and try to visit some of the business I can't always go and watch students because that's what I'd like to do but there's some of those professions you can't go I mean I can't follow a CNA or something like that that just is not very professional but those are some of the things that you know think about we did talk I like about all the different professions or the things that our students are doing and I have taken the opportunity I've kind of reached out to some of the community groups

032I have talked to the Rotary Club as well as the Kiwanis uh also presented to the Chamber of Commerce the workforce committee so we've been you know we've been and Mr Heiner's been great help and as well as all the staff members and the counselors of the school we been learning to work together there's some things that we still got to figure out but definitely has gotten better at the second semester and I guess I know there's going to be a bright future for this and I can just see it expanding even more because why not get the students where they get their hands into into the work so anyway I'll answer any questions you might have as well any questions for either of them Jason right perfect segue to answer or hopefully deal with

033issues a lot of local issues even Workforce and whatnot where are we at in the process of linking some of these students to secondary education are we at all working with uh because we're doing a great job now of getting uh young people lined up with potential employers um I'm just wondering if you know reaching out and and doing a little more on the college enrollment guidance I'm sure that's already happening but anything to speak to that yeah that's a great question um one of the things that I have when I have the visits with every individual student you know I always ask them what's their goals and aspirations and we talk about the colleges and different choices that they have and um and you have to put out there and I know the counselors

034at the school do a great job but also the the instructors will just reach out to them as well so no that's a great question have any of the cooperating Partners discussed or brought up potentially tuition reimbursement for some of these students yeah Butler is currently doing we have a student out there and I think I got a process going Mr Hunter you might have knows some more John dears has worked with us in the auto tech area as well Titan has a program to um it has slowed down a little bit but this is no exaggeration every two weeks I was receiving a phone call from industry last year as far west as dick well Williston Dickinson they were looking they wanted to meet with our kids to talk about oil feed field opportunities

035things of that nature but more or less you're speaking of the college realm we do really encourage businesses to link well to consider sponsorships you know and so we also provide a tour to ndscs we have toured Lake Region State College I'd be happy to take kids to BSC if there's interest there you know in terms of the trades uh yes in certain program areas there just seems to be a natural fit there's a segue if you will we're building a format right now it's a work in progress again I want to be respectful of your time but it's it's a CDA credential that we'll be building in child care so our our students will eventually leave with a certificate that allows them to transition uh either straight to the workforce or it's a nice

036segue too to go on to a school like Lake Region where they can further gain licensure for for child care too so uh yes in short yep any other questions from the board thank you we'd like to really just again reiterate thank you to the businesses in our community that have supported this um you know it's always a little bit extra to have have another person there and and to make it a positive experience for our students but we appreciate everyone helping with that if a business is hearing this and thinking you know I think it'd be a good opportunity for a student um to do a co-op in our business what do they do how do they reach you oh it just if someone listening to this has a business and thinking they it

037might be beneficial to have a co-op you know if they want to host a co-op in their business who do they contact sure well they can contact James Valley current Tech at 252-841 talk to myself uh they're well welcome to talk to anyone in that program area that would you know be in that field so there's so many ways to do it they can of course talk to to Jerry too he would set up once speaking to a teacher you know they want to build that relationship to find out hey just where exactly is that skill level that student you know and so that's why you know it it's complex to say well it's just one person but there's a lot of leg work that's involved in behind the scenes because if Jerry gets the

038contact he comes to me about it and then we have a visit with the teacher and say Hey give us an idea where is this kid's skill set at you know and so we're we're a big believer in that we don't want to mislead industry you know and we have some kids that are highly skilled uh and that's really exciting to see they will transition well whether it's to further their education off to a a school the trade so whether they move straight into industry so yeah thank you and thank you for your time tonight thank you yeah Dr luck your superintendent's report thank you you have my written report um I think the board is aware one of my favorite things to do at board meetings is board reports I'd like to talk about

039and provide awareness to the board on all of the things that we're doing the things of importance those are the things that typically I bring to you I'm not looking forward to my board report because I need to share information with you that like you probably well what it did for me is likely the same emotions that you had it made me angry it made me sad it made me disappointed and it was not something that I'm looking forward to talking about but it's something that we as being an accountable institution need to talk about we need to talk about and own and talk about what we're going to be doing moving forward what happened what we're doing moving forward this is an important conversation that even though I'm not looking forward to having with

040you it's an important conversation that we have so of course I'm talking about January 31st basketball game between Jamestown high school and Bismarck High School I did Issue a press release I know that you've the board is aware and you have seen the press release but I want to talk a little bit about that incident at least in in the terms of what what occurred um as I noted in the press release the district did find upon our investigation did find that students engaged in behaviors that surprised us elicited those feelings of disappointment and anger and sadness because they violated our anti-harassment and discrimination policy as the board is aware that's policy AAC um harassing language discriminatory language they have no place in Jamestown public schools that has that is contrary to the values that

041that underpin our district they are contrary to the values that underpin our community um and these are actions that we need to talk about and deal with appropriately and so I want to talk a little bit about uh procedurally how something like this works um but as a generally speaking I just want to reaffirm that as a district we need to accept accountability for what occurred ensure our policies are followed and then look to address moving forward how we're going to react so as you might imagine from initially these types of things begin with an allegation we have to interview we have to go through an investigatory process that's how it works we have to determine what happened what what occurred and that was a process that I can share included dozens and dozens and

042dozens of interviews with students with employees with others that were in attendance at the game um in since January 31st and really that began on the evening of January 31st the initial communication out I was made aware around 10 o'clock 10 15 I unfortunately wasn't at this game but I did hear and it was made aware we initiated a conversation immediately with um Mr Gaylor who was a supervisor there Mr rolson who was the supervisor there to ask what had occurred that shifted to a conversation with Jordan Wilhelm who was the coach of Bismarck High School I wanted to call to hear you know what he had again at this time this is very new we had very limited information the I had a conversation with Coach Wilhelm to see how what occurred from his

043perspective and to check how his how the boys were doing that was followed by a call to the district superintendent Dr hornbacher at Bismarck public schools because we wanted to make sure that he was aware I shared the same message with Coach Wilhelm that I did with Dr hornbacher that this was a very serious thing and we would very swiftly begin to investigate which is what we did starting on the next day so again we engaged dozens I I couldn't even put a finger on it I'd have to count and I'd need Mr Gaylor and Mr Conway and Mr roltz and others all engaged in interviews uh as part of this investigation and ultimately what we found was those allegations to be accurate those those uh discriminatory remarks were made and as you could imagine

044that elicits consequence in those consequences are followed in policy and and uh those are what were enacted but consequences are only a piece and I think that's really important that's an important piece we have to be accountable as individuals but beyond individual consequences there's a much bigger picture here and that's um how we're going to react and I want to touch on that but I want to talk about one other thing before I do that and the other is we have two real really two prongs of the investigation that we have to consider you know the first is what occurred and once we found out what occurred uh we could drill down into well if that happened in just like in any consequence that this student did this here's the consequence the second prong of

045the investigation is are other questions that that I'm sure many in the community have heard the board has heard and that is you know how did we handle the issue during the game after the game and I shared a little bit about after the game and we're investigating now what occurred during the game so that's where the the status of Investigations are now we're looking at what occurred during so that's where I'm at I can tell you a few things that the district has done either myself Mr rollsen Mr Gaylor have done in that time that looks beyond just the incident but but what are we going to do about it so we have reached out a number of different times actually well twice to BHS through the coaching staff we wanted to determine if

046restorative practices were desired by the by the basketball team in their processing that that desire if they want to engage in those or not but we felt it was important to offer so they could help to process the situation and for us to facilitate be a part of facilitating healing for Bismarck high school basketball players I appreciate Mr Galer engaging with student leaders that's mostly been the student council at least as far as I know although there could be others involved as well but just looking at um you know what can we do what do we need to do what is what types of activities are our students interested in and would respond positively to that's something that we're also interested in doing to facilitate greater awareness we've had I don't know how many conversations

047with different members of Bismarck High School administration uh in one of the areas that I've been really appreciative of Bismarck High School Dr hornbacher made available to us and I had a nice conversation with her but Sashay Shetler is the is the Indian education coordinator at Bismarck high school we had a very nice conversation regarding resources that they have that they'd be willing to share with Jamestown public which I I think is is a wonderful offer and we'll certainly take them up on that but lastly I've also had a good opportunity I know if you remember the name Dr uselman Tamara usselman is a former superintendent in Bismarck now she serves as the Director of equity and inclusion at Fargo Public Schools have a long-standing friendship with Dr uselman and she has really been invaluable

048as a wealth of knowledge to help us understand what procedurally how we can help to move forward I think she's been really a great resource but with that I'm going to stand for questions before I move on in different parts of the report your hand up first thank you for the report and keeping us up to up to date on this it's uh uh the board right now is necessarily not involved in a lot of the details on this so it's squarely on your shoulders to handle a lot of this at some point though after this initial round of Investigations and the corrective actions are done I do think I would like to have the board meeting some kind of an executive session to have us give us opportunity to ask questions in more detail

049to look longer term make sure that we have the right level of oversight um because it did go so far outside of our community I think it'd just be prudent for us to have some kind of insight strategically when this initial portion of it is done you know we just shared you know we do have policy that governs a lot of this as you as you shared it policy directs how a lot of this uh proceeds and the information that we can share isn't always what you as a board may want to know it would exclude certain things that I couldn't share with the board we couldn't share with the community FERPA as a good example that we couldn't share student names of course and disciplinary actions that are tied to students things like that

050though we simply can't share but to the degree that I can I'm certainly willing to to communicate where we are what we've learned from the situation and how we are going to react moving forward I do want to thank you for um what was hard for all of us to deal with um but I really want to emphasize that we need to look and have a deeper understanding of why things like this happen they don't just happen in Jamestown I'm very sad that it happened here and it happened at a school and in a community I love but there are bigger issues here I think to avoid them would be we'd be very remiss um as as I was processing what happened I started to do some some research too and I found out that

051most children of A different race when they come to school it's the first time they uh actually hear a slur that average age is six that broke my heart why is that happening um we can't have that I think it gives us an opportunity to explore with with kids crowd mentality and what happens when we're with a crowd and we may do things that aren't like us it brought back a real painful incident from my past that I've shared with students when I was having pizza at Pizza Corner after a dance and there was a young man who had cerebral palsy and there were people in my group who made fun of him and I remember being corrected by somebody else and it was a great learning experience for me uncomfortable and my silence was

052complicity and I've had to learn to live with that and understand that but we need to help our kids understand those things I also feel that diversity inclusion and Equity are at the heart of this and I want to make sure that as we pass that CRT language later that that is not what we are doing CRT the way it's written there we should still be talking about things that make us uncomfortable because this is uncomfortable I'm sure it's uncomfortable for everybody here but it's necessary that we will not shy away from those things and that we will learn history accurately and what happened my brother-in-law's mother was in an Indian School and I've learned more about that than I ever did when I was in school I was never taught that and that is

053important that they learn history accurately and that is not what we're doing if we pass that because what is underneath all of this is what really matters because what happened here Could Happen anywhere and what happened here shouldn't happen anywhere that's just my my thing also to consider that your school counselors there's particular ask a curriculum that deals with racial Injustice in schools and racial equity and inclusion they could be a tremendous resource for you moving forward too because we cannot ignore this it's way too important I'll get off thank you for sharing your experiences Gail if I can just interject real quickly um something I wanted to talk about when we were talking about FERPA and investigations for example take time and sometimes when we take time and it takes a great deal of

054time sometimes that can be viewed then as an action we aren't doing anything because it takes so much time to get us to a place where we can accurately say okay we've talked to 47 people here's what we found and you know to make a determination that's not rushed these are this is a important conversation but we have to be factually accurate on what we find and there's times when we talk about when we or we we leave out things like students names or what level of discipline was was included things that we can't talk about in that sometimes make it makes it seems like we're minimizing well we are not I can tell you we have not taken this um we we have taken this strongly since the very very first time that that

055phone call came and we found and I found out this is what occurred and I know for many other people that were involved when they heard it was the same experience you had that kind of gut shot visceral kind of feeling that's what everybody had and we do not condone what occurred but that doesn't mean we we can very quickly rush to judgment we have to take time and investigate so we are doing this accurately correctly and making sure that when we do issue consequences and we do take action that we are doing the right thing and but sometimes I get it when something like this happens a lot of anger occurs I respect that and I understand it but that doesn't mean that we aren't taking action I I couldn't think of a stronger

056reaction than what we have been dealing with over the last week uh almost week but again I understand how from the outside looking in that may appear that not very much is happening but I can only assure you that it is but it just takes time to do Gail I'm going to go to Aaron then I'll come back to you and this is quickly I also want to point out that those students involved too I hope that they have an opportunity for growth because change is possible and change of of understanding what happened and an opportunity to be accepted and to grow is also something that should be a part of this you know I I don't I don't think a mistake that a kid makes because they were acting in a way that that

057they got away from them or they didn't understand should penalize them forever I hope this is also an opportunity for growth and and treat it like that and which is the great thing about you know those restorative practices practices really give that opportunity for growth so I'm glad that that's something that's being used so I didn't want to make it something that way either thank you Gail Aaron go ahead yeah I think we just need to recognize as a board too that we have responsibility in this and we need to hold ourselves accountable obviously not from the administrative standpoint but from a policy standpoint which drives culture into our environment um so I think we it would we owe it to ourselves to reflect on this and see what we can do better as a

058board from a policy standpoint and addressing some of the preventative stuff not just the consequence stuff because consequence stuff is after the fact how can we get in front of it so that's I would like to you know with Dan's suggestion there or some sort of that that we as a board take some action ourselves on this to uh do things better thank you Aaron Melissa did you did you have any other comments okay Jason I guess I don't need to repeat a lot of the same sentiments around the room what what really struck me yesterday was I did get the feeling as I'm sure other folks do that and I respect what Dr Leck said about the timing or the time it takes to deal with this correctly legally all that good stuff but

059it just really struck me yesterday that I hope the perception out there is that we don't care because and I don't think that is but it could easily be assumed that nothing is happening because we're just going to try to make it go away and that's not the case I just want people to understand and reiterate that this does take time and anger and time don't always go well together uh one of the questions though Dr lek on what you mentioned um could you provide some context looking at doing some activities students might be interested in doing did I could you just elaborate on that sure I think a part of moving forward is engaging with students that it's not just a heavy-handed uh you know Dr Leck or Mr Gaylor somebody says well these

060are the these are the initiatives we're going to use this is what we're going to do to dry to improve our cultural competence yeah the idea behind engaging with student leaders is to make sure that that is those ideas are developed in conjunction with students and not just done to students we want them to be a part of engaged in that process to determine what kinds of activities like we might think an activity is great and the students say you know what that's not that's not going to move the bar maybe we need to do this just engaging with kids to our students to make sure that we are doing activities that will connect with them Jason and can we also ensure that we're including adults in you know what we're going to be doing

061here too in terms of what we're trying to accomplish yeah I think so and I think that depends on I think we would certainly have adults engaged in those conversations as well facilitating with students but if there are other areas other individuals that could help you know I mentioned like sachet and Dr usom in both great resources but if there are others that want to help out I I can't imagine Mr Gaylor would say no please don't help foreign well I'm encouraged by the fact that with crisis comes opportunity and I think this is a wonderful opportunity to to dive deep into this as uh Gail mentioned I think that as we got into the critical race Theory discussion the woke laws I had more people stop me on the street than I have had

062in several years and the general feeling was that we don't need this that racism doesn't exist anymore that we need to teach the ABCs and nothing else and this is an opportunity to show our community that that is not true that we need to embrace what has happened here in a positive way in that it's a it's a it's an opportunity to educate and to you know one of one of the premises of CRT is that that racism is embedded and it's systemic and we need to look at that and talk about it even no matter what happens at the state level we need as a community to look into this in a in an open-minded way and with a with the idea that we can grow from it and that these students don't need

063to be just punished but need to be educated and I'm looking forward to the outcome thank you okay you know maybe one last you know statement on this before I move on to my report it's Gail you mentioned it earlier it's I I think the board has an opportunity and I felt like I had an opportunity in my report uh to model these are uncomfortable conversations it's uncomfortable to look at a failing it's uncomfortable it's uncomfortable to say we didn't do this very well or we failed a group of people or we did something that we should not be proud of that's hard to have an open Con open conversation about that it's hard to have a dialogue when you don't do something well it's easy to talk about the stuff you do well it's

064really hard to have a conversation about something that made people angry have resulted in a very visceral feelings from people not just in Jamestown but in Bismarck and you know Williston and really across the country we've had feedback so I think it's important that we as a board you know model that this dialogue even when it's uncomfortable needs to happen so one one last opportunity for questions before I move on okay moving into down my uh written report I outlined the Jamestown Parks and Rec literacy walk agreement that you'll be dealing with later on just for the sake of clarification with this agreement um this ties to the comprehensive state literacy development Grant as as I've talked about with the board there's criteria or uh categories in which those dollars need to be spent in

065they can't be transferred from one area to another we have really been challenged in the birth to age five for obvious reasons we are a K-12 institution the birth the five we don't have the same level of institutional needs that that make it very easy to spend dollars in the K-12 area but we have to spend those in birth to five we typically have done that through primary Partners um our most consistent primary partner has been two rivers Activity Center through Parks and Rec and just to verify this literacy walk would be in um Denault Park and there would be a series of stations with a book parents and children would walk to each station and each station would be a different page of the book there'd be discussion questions just a way to encourage

066activity but also encourage literacy and just as a reminder because this is in birth into the you know Elementary area and we use it differently it has to be either spent in birth to five or it needs to be sent back to the state and in conversations with Parks and Rec who again have been wonderful partners with us throughout our two literacy grants and I definitely recommend moving forward this I think it'd be something that could give back to our community uh in in support literacy and kind of fit in the mission of both parks and rec and Jamestown Public Schools so I'm making that recommendation later on in in the agenda you have a timeline for the superintendent summative evaluation that is for your consideration you can make changes to that as you need

067to it's just a place for you to start we do have some new course offerings that request has come in from Jamestown high school and I just as I wrote in my report I think it's important that we recognize that um when they're offered that doesn't mean that they're going to be included on the schedule they're offered and if enough students take them and Staffing supports them then we can put them on the schedule you know we are looking at what our current Staffing what exists from a staffing standpoint right now you know so just when you're adding courses you're adding requests courses for request that doesn't mean they're going to be placed on the schedule there's a Fiber contract that you'll deal with later through Dakota Central and just for the sake of clarification

068this is just formalizing an existing agreement and Christie's been great working with Dakota Central on a few sticky areas and we feel good now about the language that's in that contract and I'm not going to talk a lot about legislative updates but I am tracking a a Google doc or I've included a Google doc of all the bills that I'm tracking no I take that back some of the bills that I'm tracking right now there's like 190. I don't I think I have maybe 40. that might even be high in here I've been a little bit busy but what I intend to do is to include General updates on those bills that I'm tracking for you that include the actions that are taking where it's at and as I go down it'll be a description

069and then what I want to do is add a little bit more information for context you know you want to follow this bill because of this or the concern with this bill is this the the benefit of this bill may be this or this is how this bill might be used and so I want to add a little context as we go but that'll be a live document rather than in the past I've just listed all the bills I figured it doing a live Google doc might be easier for you to follow if there's any bills that you want me to take particular time on to share just let me know I'd be happy to do that either in this meeting or in subsequent meetings I'd be happy to share more information about any of

070the legislation but there is a lot this year so with that I would stand for other questions the question but just a comment to follow up with the legislative report I'm currently serving on the government Affairs committee for the School Board Association of North Dakota so I could be the messenger for the board should we have a you know a specific way we want to look at a bill um per Dr Lex you know analysis [Music] nothing in our old business under new business nothing under activities or buildings undergrounds under curriculum assessment instruction a approval of new courses at the high school for the 2023 to 2024 school year is there a motion motion by Gail is there a second second by Melissa we have a motion in a second for approval of new courses

071at the high school for the 2023 to 2024 school year any discussion Dan a question on the the leadership offering um with that and it's just more of a question for uh Mr Gaylor when going through the details just how does that integrate in with things like student council and those other leadership activities I recall when will was reporting it there was some kind of concerned about getting people to support those kind of functions so this kind of can we take that into account when we offer that class sure I know they are not directly connected but I would hope that they would um feed you know have a natural feed into that course as well but not directly correlated at least not to my knowledge and that's maybe Mr Gaylor question but I had

072already in just a total number of courses that we have within our curriculum and so this is you know just on its on its face here these courses yeah they seem like good courses however holistically uh you know the overall curriculum is continues to grow and are offering to support it and we're doing it with the same level of Staffing the as indicated in the in the proposal so just you know a couple concerns with that again with the I think we need to look at a more holistic view of our course offering and you know I I think we're really getting down to sort of watered down and then you know it has the appearance of piling on on existing staff um you know it's it's it's a change it's something new if something

073gets dropped or you know someone's got to pick this up and how we you know just expecting you know do more with less kind of a scenario here or so I have some concerns in those regards and um so I I'd like to I guess I'm not in real favor of adding more courses until we can get a comprehensive view of what this means uh for the for the staff and District as a whole and just to reiterate I understand the question I just want to make sure that we're on the same page because we have the classes doesn't mean they make it into the schedule there would have to be student interest to take the classes and if there isn't then they aren't offered but or they aren't placed on the schedule having them

074means a broad having them in the in the course book means we have a broad selection but if there are you know say three students that are interested in a particular class we wouldn't offer it it would have to work within the schedule and the current number of Staffing so I'm not sure that that would take away necessarily or pile more on it's just what would be offered based on what interest is that make sense I under I still understand your point yeah but I just want to make sure that you understand uh from a scheduling standpoint it wouldn't be you know we aren't uh piling more work onto somebody uh it would be these courses are designed usually by the department they have a desire to teach them but again students have to be

075interested to to sign up and take those courses it wouldn't be just more classes that were piling onto a teacher it would only be if the schedule allows for it damn so as far as the the schedule is concerned is that something that's coordinated with the school counselors to you know kind of maybe drive kids towards one class if the Departments help create these and they would they find Value in these are the counselors involved in helping steer the kids in the right direction yeah students register uh and then a schedule is made based on that and there's a there's a degree of confidence that goes through Empower schedule and it's been a really long time since I had to do this so bear with me but um there's the schedule is created based with

076a level of confidence that we can get students all of the classes that they want so I hope I'm not getting that too wrong Mr Gaylor Mr Gaylor feel free to come forward he's going to correct all the things I got wrong the student course requests go into PowerSchool as a system and then we're able to do a build with the schedule which matches and um helps us estimate where we could move classes in order to get more requests filled so it's always a combination of what requests are out there and then how that plays out across a student's day classes have like waiting factors within the back side and I'd be glad to talk with you more about that but there are certain classes like we know that students will want to get into

077their music classes they need to get into their core required classes so they receive a higher weight in that back the algorithm that goes into that and then we do what's called a load process which is loading all the requests with how the schedule has built and then we get a match on that and over time we've increased that matching ability starting from about in the high 60 percent uh Eric when Gail was here into the 80 and up to 90 percent match um we do have some natural things that so adding like dual credit last year you guys had a dual credit comp 110 and 120 and those are things we had offered online before but now are able to offer in person and next year the department chairs had made decisions about do

078we offer writing for do we offer creative writing do we offer a novel because the student enrollments were not sufficient for those classes so a natural organic way is that the new additions a lot of times are replacing things taking things off of the plate for a staff because we do operate on a static staff um amount and so we can only staff certain things so the the my assumption has always been wrong and you can correct me if I'm or always be been that uh we have the ability to offer these courses um and then we also have the ability to not offer courses based on enrollments and so though our course catalog is extensive there are plenty of courses that we don't offer each year based on a lack of requests for it

079thank you Mr healer appreciate that Sharon go ahead excuse me so with that then what is the load on the on the staff to be able to bounce around from this class one year to that class the next year different students I mean that's kind of part of my concern is right being able to prep for those classes sure and then having the time to do that on you know some of that depends on what you teach um you know in in some for some staff you might teach you know algebra one for four preps and you know one section algebra two that might be your two preps that you have but we're we operate at five or seven when you do the extended contracts when the board approves extended contracts that means they're taking

080one of those preps to six or seven if you wanted to add the so each year in the scheduling process we work with each department chair to try to make sure that we balance that load the degree that we can so we look at all those requests and where things fell and determine how many sections we need to offer based on those requests as well so then that's a conversation with each department chair about the sort of the who is teaching what how many preps do we have balance in that to the degree that we can if that makes sense go ahead Aaron just one final thing I think this is just a probably a topic then that we should address as a part of our strategic plan and what we offer for curriculum and

081coursework and you know so it helped so we can have some guidance on you know these are the areas that we want to focus on for our district and what we want to try to present to to the students so and maybe one last thing to reiterate is generally speaking the course requests come from the Departments so these are things that they want to offer and so there's a request and I I would think if there's a request to offer then a teacher would be more willing to take on that prep if they're making that request to do it Dan as part of that process is there a process for dropping a class out of the the catalog just so each year they send out that course catalog in each department chair reviews their area

082of that and there are some general elective areas that administratively with the counseling team we review those sounds like there's a process in place for that and so then my con well I think we need to look at redundancy also uh and I don't know if there's anything built in on like if we have a plethora of courses are we being redundant in any of the objectives learned I don't know if that's built in but I just noticed like the intro to a class that's a huge leadership component to that and then we're offering a leadership course that might be a poor example but I'm just not sure if there's anything for redundancy built in there isn't but I think that's a good question I guess the redundancy perhaps would be occur that discussion would

083happen inside the department but if there's something between departments perhaps there's that would just be covered administratively I would assume Mr Gaylor correct it's a good question that's a good question I think related to a couple of the points there too I think they're there could be some efficiencies in terms of curriculum and I don't know if you look at what happens across the state with standards-based learning and other environments and looking at not just the the courses as they are specifically but looking at curriculum and standards together and the opportunity to maybe combine things in the future is just we're not quite at that point yet but having that pre-conversation could be something to look at as a as a curriculum what's offered and when and how often so that we can take that

084step when we're ready thank you thank you Mr Gaylor again for giving us the additional information I appreciate that okay we have a motion and a second for approval of new courses at the high school for the 2023 to 2024 school year any further discussion if no further discussion all those in favor say aye aye oppose same sign motion carried number four finance is there a motion for approval of the budget revisions motion by Aaron second by Diane any discussion and welcome Christy I'm a motion a second for approval about budget revisions if there's no further discussion all those in favor say aye aye opposed same sign motion approved B approval of the Dakotas Central fiber optics service agreement is there a motion motion by Dan second by Steve and now this just kind of

085puts in writing what we've done before right correct formalization it does include some language related to uh that we didn't have in place before if we were to add or terminate lines okay and that's what Mrs Grounds was working on with Dakota Central okay so we have a motion a second for approval Dakota Central fiber optics service no further discussion all those in favor say aye aye opposed same sign motion approved C approval the Jamestown Park and Rec agreement is there a motion motion by Aaron second by Gail any discussion there being no discussion all those in favor say aye aye opposed same sign motion approved approval of sale of property motion by Dan the second by Steve that was those computers yep Motion in a second for approval of sale of property any discussion

086all those in favor say aye aye opposed same sign motion approved Personnel superintendent summative evaluation timeline it's informational it's in the drive take a look at that and make sure everything is complete by those deadlines otherwise you'll hear from Amy and thank you for your diligence in getting that done um B approval Awards determination appropriating appropriate negotiating unit for administrators is there a motion motion by Diane second by Gail any discussion we have a motion a second for approval Awards determination of appropriate negotiating unit for administrators any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye oppose same sign motion approved C approval boards determination of appropriate negotiating unit for teachers is there a motion motion by Steve second by Gail we have a motion a second for approval Awards determination of appropriate negotiating for

087unit for teachers any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye oppose same sign motion carrying six policy and procedures a approval of the second reading of the gaae critical race Theory policy is there a motion motion by Aaron second by Dan any discussion we have a motion a second for oh sorry Melissa didn't see you waving I just wanted to clarify that this is just a policy that is required by the school board legal team it is not necessarily saying that we are approving teaching critical race in our classroom the policy relates to it is a required policy it relates to administrative rules that were created based on North Dakota Sentry code from the special session so law was passed related to critical race Theory we are required by law in administrative regulations

088to pass a policy and this is the policy that was developed by the North Dakota School boards Association in relation to the law yeah yeah it's it's all legal requirement question Melissa though so we have a motion and a second for approval of the second reading of the gaae critical race Theory policy any other discussion from the board any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye oppose same sign motion approved B approval of the amended fdh students in foster care policy and subsequent review of fdh-e2 foster care student transportation plan is there a motion most of my yarn second by Steve we have a motion in a second for approval of the amended fdh students and Foster Care policy and subsequent review of fdh-e2 foster care student transportation plan any discussion all those

089in favor say aye aye oppose same sign motion carried C approval amended FDB education of the homeless student policy and subsequent approval of FDB BR education of the homeless dispute resolution procedure and attached review of FDB E2 District level dispute resolution form is there a motion for C1 and a motion by Aaron is there a second second by Jason so we have a motion and a second for approval amended FDB education of the homeless student policy and subsequent approval of FDB BR education of the homeless dispute resolution procedure and attached review of FDB E2 District level dispute resolution form any discussion there'll be no discussion all those in favor say aye aye oppose same sign motion approved nothing other intuition nothing under other items for future agenda Aaron sorry I miss someone over here I

090saw a hand okay go ahead Aaron um just in regards to the budgeting for next uh annual uh do we have a schedule of when we want to have that together and will we be pulling the finance committee in that uh as a to help with the prepare the recommendation for the board yeah the preliminary agenda are the preliminary the preliminary budgets approved in July but we'll we'll work on a timeline and yes we will need to bring a finance committee meeting together a handful of things that you need to talk about in particular support staff in that Arena so that would probably probably be in March April Dan I'm just just uh you know pursuant to the initial comment uh from the superintendent's report can we add in an agenda item for a couple

091months from now informational to have a discussion regarding the further impacts of the investigations yeah and I'd like to probably talk with you about maybe a little more detail on what you'd be looking for and that would help me understand too maybe we can even do a board education or something so we can you guys can make sure you're okay what you want is covered so any other items for future agenda if there's other items that you think of outside of this board meeting just let myself or Dr luck know so we can get them on the agenda meetings to be scheduled there's a health insurance committee meeting Tuesday February 21st 2023 at 3 45 PM in the district office conference room our next school board meeting is Monday February 20th 2023 at 5 15

092PM in the Thompson Community room possible executive session to discussion negotiation strategies is there an emotion for that I don't know that we need that but I want to leave it open for a motion okay moving on the monthly superintendent evaluation Section 1 goal and vision setting and section 5 operations and Resource Management reminder that there is the evaluation timeline to complete so we can have be ready for that at our March 6 meeting there be no further business before the board the meeting is adjourned thank you everyone foreign