001e the meeting will start in 1 minute if then good morning everybody and welcome uh to the Nebraska State Board of Education uh February 2nd meeting oh and I am on the wrong page okay um let's see good board members please engage your microphones before speaking and turn them off when you're finished speaking please note uh that board members may be using their cell phones and laptop computers to access agenda and information related to the meeting live streaming is available through the State Board of Education website would the recording secretary please call the role paty cojon here Lisa fricky here Patty here Jacqueline Morrison here Kirk Penner here Sher Jones here Elizabeth Elizabeth TM Deborah ner here commissioner Maher here seven present one absent okay all right would everyone please rise and join me in
002the pledge of the allegiance information regarding the open meetings Act is posted as you enter the room from the main entrance doors the open meetings Act is also posted on the State Board of education's website our uh agenda item 2.1 is is uh CTE recog uh month recognition and our speakers today are Katie Graham and Sydney CSA welcome Katie good morning I'm actually just going to introduce some incredible guests that we have invited happy CTE month every February nationally we recognize the incredible opportunities students have to connect their education to their future uh in in the workforce today we have got three special guests we have Dr Jim sutfin who works at the State Chamber and has been an incredible partner through our partnership the Department's partnership with the chamber um to connect education and
003business and then we have a student we have Mr Caleb most who won this year's extemporaneous speaking competition at the National FFA convention and we have Mr Jesse zweep who is a skilled in technical Sciences educator at Lewisville public schools and a skilled in Tech a skills USA adviser so each of them have just U short remarks to share with you about CTE and their experiences so I'll turn it over to Dr suin well good morning and um appreciate the opportunity to come share some of the work we've been uh getting done I want to first start off with saying that I'm a first generation college graduate um my dad was a steam fitter and my mom was a secretary and growing up in the uh well a long time ago um there was only
004one choice in our family and that was um with my parents and that was you would go you would go to fouryear school you would go get a bachelor's degree and that's all I grew up knowing and today I want to talk to you a little bit about some of the work we've been doing around CTE and the great partnership that we've had with the Department um and try to dispel some of the myths um that maybe that maybe are out there that could be be helpful you know I think we have some tremendously talented students across our state um we have about 25,000 students that start ninth grade every year um they all have dreams and aspirations and I say start nth grade because if you take a look in a 10-year window um
005you use four years for high school and six years for postsecondary um we see a lot of stopping out along the way about 35 to 40% of those students end up completing a degree or a Workforce license um so that stop out occurs along various along various points and what we know today as a state of Nebraska is that there are four really significant issues that we have to address um if we're going to continue to grow our economy um one of them is child care one of them is Workforce alignment um one of them is housing and the other would be immigration and those goals are really what the state chamber is working on on a on a daily basis right we are in conversations all the time about those four so what we
006know also is because we have great students those great students have the opportunity to have great teachers and we have some of the best school districts in the country in our state and hands down our our kids get an opportunity to do really great things we also have tremendous business owners um I have yet to meet a business owner uh somebody that's a manager in a business that isn't 100% engaged and working on what they're trying to do to provide service to their customers um and products for the marketplace so educators are intensely focused on educating students and businesses they're focused on serving their customers and we're more alike than we are different because of the unique position that was created between the department of Ed and the State Chamber I get the opportunity to
007wake up every day and think about Connections and how do we connect business to education UC ation to business K12 to Community College Community College to university university to K12 so a couple of things that you may or may not know about Nebraska um and this is where I always try to start whenever I'm presenting we have a population of roughly 2 million folks we have a Workforce of about about a million we have the lowest one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and the highest labor participation rates in the country wasn't too many years ago that the birth rate was about 3.6 for every two people um that is now about 1.6 sustainability of a population um requires 2.1 so we know that we are not even replacing the generation of the
008workforce we have today um because and we do not have enough population to run the economy we have in Nebraska today because we already have 50,000 open jobs the state chamber and business and educators all have a vested interest in seeing our students land careers and that interest engage them and pay them a good salary um we exist right we we exist to help students choose their dreams to their talents to their careers um and these H3 opportunities are exactly the type of work the ND CTE team has been working on and you have some unbelievably passionate people that work in your CT area it's hard to not be passionate when you get to work around Katie Graham who has um um unbelievable positivity um and it's in her counterpart and Sydney and the work
009that they do together the last couple of weeks we have um had six meetings across the state um with a focus on regionalizing the discussion around CTE it was a brilliant move by the CTE team to do this because it put a lot of like school districts together to have that conversation about how to how to use the dollars that have been funded through the through CT Nebraska education and through the matching you know and through the Perkins money that comes in federally um was a tremendous win for our state and our kids in CT last year when the legislature allocated additional resources and created a state state match um at a level that was um more than we'd ever seen before but front and center at that discussion was a regional landscape analysis um
010there was lots of conversation around here are the top jobs in this market area that fit the description of high skill High wage high demand and how would that change your CTE program or enhance your CTE programming at your high schools um or even at your middle schools with the 50,000 job openings we have in our state um being able to regionalize this is really significant work and I think you're going to see more come out what have even legislative discussions around regionalizing um goals and objectives for the workforce um so that we can continue our way of life in Nebraska I really feel like um as Educators and I'm a former educator retired retired superintendent retired school teacher that we're in the human capital business right that's what we're in we're raising them we're
011raising up kids and our ability to tell them them that they matter um I think can be one of the great byproducts of this partnership the ctso program that we offer in the state of Nebraska you know the skills USA FFA you could go you know you could go on down the list Educators Rising creates opportunities for kids um that they may not get in a direct curricular program it may be co-curricular but also supports their curricular program and those touches that kids have in there and where businesses are now being involved and getting touches with them tells our students that they matter and that we want to keep them in our state our Bachelor Degree um net migration out is about 4,000 Nebraska residents a year um we think we've all called that called
012that the brain drain I think more than ever our students knowing that they matter um and that we want them to be here in the state of Nebraska and here are the opportunities that are there for you um is again a byproduct of what this partnership can be about so the other night and I'm almost done um the other night I was at dinner with a company that had talked about um a line of Robotics that they put in and through that line of Robotics they put in they were eliminating 80 positions um they had worked extr ex hard um at at making it so nobody lost a job right they put in they put in a hiring freeze they did some things to to allow allow it to Triple Ripple through that replacement of
01380 people with those robotics only said to me high skill High wage high demand jobs and that our educational programming and the work that we're doing in CTE and the work that the the State Chamber is trying to help with is a way to fill um those positions that are being caused through Innovation [Music] and how awesome would it be to be 15 or 16 years old today and know that you could um have postsecondary training whether it's through a degree path a Workforce license um but you could be into a high skill High wage job where you're running Robotics and um and have a career that starts that You' have that has the ability for social Mobility has the ability for advancement um and can help you live out the live out the American
014dream so that's the work we've been doing um you got a great team here at ND right that CT team is phenomenal and Dr Maher um your leadership has been very much um impressive and needed in our state I want to thank you for that i' take any questions if you have any okay [Music] questions we'll let the good speaker come up next thank you Dr zeen okay good morning good morning all right my name is Caleb most um I'm originally from ogalala Nebraska and I'm currently a freshman at the University of Nebraska LOL studying agricultural education with a minor in Spanish and I'm here today to just talk to you a little bit about my experience with Career and Technical education so my experience with CTE began my e8th grade year that year I
015took my first agriculture course um at my middle school and I immediately fell in love with agricultural education and really CTE as a whole because that class that I took I remember it being so Hands-On so interactive it was something that I looked forward to every day it was a class that really stood out compared compared to a lot of my other ones just because of how interactive it was and I remembered that I was just able to almost take something home with me every day that I was able to remember because there were so many memorable experiences in that class so because I had such a positive experience with my eighth grade intro to agriculture class I continued taking agriculture classes for the rest of my high school career and those classes ranged from
016a wide variety of topics I took classes on natural resources animal science plant science AGR business and more and in those classes as I was able to just gain a wide variety of skills in a lot of areas of Agriculture food and natural resources and I was also able to do a lot of career exploration which was really cool um during High School I also participated in my high school's FFA chapter for four years and I had so many crazy and amazing experiences through FFA so I was able to help along with my classmates start a school-based cattle company at my high school that we operated for um two years of my high school career and then it's still going today I created my own beekeeping business and honey business um with the assistance of
017my FFA adviser and a community Mentor I attended leadership workshops where I was able to grow personally and learn about leadership and teamwork and then I was also able to participate in a lot of different competitions including veterinary science agricultural sales uh parliamentary procedure and then my favorite extemporaneous speaking so last May at the Nebraska state FFA convention I was named the state champion and extemporaneous speaker which was really just a crazy experience in itself it had always been a goal of mine to win a state championship in FFA because then you get the opportunity to compete at the national convention in Indianapolis um and so I competed in Indianapolis this last November and honestly I was just happy to be there I mean I was a college freshman I had a lot going on
018in my life I had done as much preparing as I could but I was just happy to be there to compete and to represent our state but even though I was just happy to be there I kept advancing through the rounds until ultimately I was named the national champion in extemporaneous speaking in FFA which was honestly such a great thank [Applause] you yeah it's honestly still surreal to this day I yeah it's so crazy that that happened but um although my FFA and my ad classes prepared me for competitions they also prepared me for a little bit more than just High School competitions so in the classroom in my a business and a leadership classes I was able to learn about creating a cover letter writing a resume preparing for an interview which are skills
019that I've used a lot since graduating I was able to learn about teamwork by being a chapter officer and how to work on a team and be a leader and I was also able to learn about a lot about financial management and recordkeeping through our school-based Cattle Company so I was able to just gain a lot of skills through my ad classes um but I think the most important thing that I was able to do in those classes and in my FFA experience was just explore a ton of agricultural career and be exposed to those um my time in FFA and AED really is what has led me to pursue agricultural education it really grabbed my interest but it was also really cool to see a lot of my classmates explore careers in agriculture I
020had a couple friends that took some ad classes with me who grew up in town and had no agricultural background at all and now because they took those classes they're here at UNL pursuing careers in agriculture they felt like they had a place in agriculture that maybe they wouldn't have known about if they hadn't taken those classes if they hadn't participated in FFA and I just think that's really cool and really important work that agriculture food and natural resource classes are doing and that FFA is doing in our state and even for the students who were in those classes that didn't end up pursuing careers in agriculture at the very least they were able to gain some foundational knowledge about agriculture food and natural resource systems that makes them a more well-rounded person and that's
021knowledge they can use for the rest of their life so my time in FFA and agricultural education was invaluable frankly I had so many amazinger experiences and I'm so thankful for my time in that organization and in those classes and so during this career in technical education month I would just encourage you to look around at all of the wonderful things that CTE organizations like FFA FBLA FCCLA Deca and more are doing in our great state by even just looking it up online because CTE classes and organizations are really doing some great things in our state and are impacting the lives of high school students so thank you for your time thank you uh let's see yeah yeah do you have any questions oh yes or comments at least may I please so cayb by
022appreciating the seeing the traditional Blue Jacket FFA or FFA has been around a long time and I'm just kind of surprised they still have that dashing blue jacket but that's um your agricultural education with a minor in Spanish may I ask what your future hopes or dreams or plans are yeah absolutely so I my my goal right now is just to be a high school a teacher but the reason I have the minor in Spanish is just there's such a um growing population of Spanish speaking students um even in my hometown I experienced that and then also through doing some observations uh last semester in my aged class we had to get 30 observation hours in various schools across the state and I even just experienced then Mone students who only spoke Spanish and so
023I think that I guess that's where my minor comes in is I think that just because some students only speak Spanish that doesn't mean that they shouldn't get an agricultural education so I'm hoping to be able to communicate with them as well very good thank you yeah well you stole my thunder I was hoping you would go into education you'll do very very well and in your position as a freshman at the University um encouraging your classmates to go into that profession as well I mean you could sell anything just by your how you speak but I would really really look forward to you being a teacher and encouraging others to join you in that Pursuit thank you so much yeah thank you so I'm after we heard Dr suffen speak um something that I
024work on every day in my day job um is we we know that our population is not growing um at the rate we need it to but that also means we can't afford to lose anyone we can't have any brain drain we can't have anyone lose the state or leave the state and so I'm just curious what are the things that we need to be doing to make sure that we keep students like you here and what are the things that your peers are looking at um when they're deciding to graduate am I going to stay in Nebraska am I going to go somewhere else um what are those conversations like and how do we make sure that people like or students like you don't leave yeah so that's a great question question um I
025think that a lot of the things that I guess I hear for students who are leaving the state is that that is just that they don't feel like there's opportunities for them in their careers here in Nebraska and so I mean whether that's true or not I think one of the things I guess that could be done to help key people here is just to continue highlighting all of the opportunities that there are in Nebraska even in small towns for a wide variety of careers I mean I think a lot of people think that they have to go to a bigger city or they have to go to a state with a larger population to be able to live out the dreams that they have for their careers um so I guess I would say
026just highlighting what's going on here in Nebraska I mean personally in my major right now there's about 20 other agricultural education freshmen right now here at the University and as far as I know all of them plan on staying in state so I guess at least um in that factor or faction of people um we're all planning on staying here but I think it's a lot about just highlighting the opportunities that are available here and I have one more question yeah so the second thing um I got to talk to some people about this week um so I'm so happy you're here um is innovation in a and so whether we're looking at a tech um the technology that goes um on in agriculture and on the farms but also a security and making sure
027a lot of the um technical components are secure and just really looking at how do we Bridge some of that technology and Innovation with the a industry so I'm just curious are there are you taking classes on some of those topics now and if not are there places where you think there are opportunities for us to um create curriculum so that you have it or that other students have it to be able to be at the Forefront of the a industry yeah so right now I'm not taking any classes I guess that are super into like a biotechnology or a security but that's something that gets talked about I guess even in like some of the more basic classes like I took a plant science class last semester and I'm in an animal science class
028this semester and so there's definitely some biotechnology that gets discussed in those classes just cuz it relates to those topics um but then there's some upper level classes I know that I'll have to take eventually about those topics um but I guess kind of like you were saying I mean there's there's so many opportunities available in agriculture for people who don't want to just Farm or Ranch there's so many careers available with technology um as it continues to develop and as we need it to continue to develop so I guess um something that I guess I've talked about before and learned a lot about is if you kind of incorporate some of those um like technology Concepts relating to agriculture in like a high school science class that allows it to be exposed to a
029lot more students than just if those things are being talked about in ad classes because not every school has an a program not every school has ad classes but every school does have a science program and science classes that are required so if some of those things can be talked about in the science classes then it's exposed to more students well I I can tell you're an extemporaneous speaker you're so fluent and um it just you answer the question and then you support it with evidence and but I'm curious um how how did you prepare to be an extemporaneous speaker yeah so I actually um the first extemporaneous speaking I ever did was my freshman year of high school um I was on our high school speech team and I was not something I wanted
030to do at all but my speech coaches told me you're doing this you have no choice go um and I'm very glad that they did now looking back but so I was kind of forced into it actually at the start but then after giving it a couple chances I really just fell in love with it and it's something I knew that I guess I was good at and something that I wanted to continue doing so to prepare for it the main thing that I do is just go through prati just do practice rounds um so I was set up my FFA advisor has a friend here in Lincoln that was able to come come to the university and do a couple practice rounds with me where I was able to there's resources available of like
031past National FFA extemp topics so I randomly chose a couple of those um did 30 minutes of preparation and then gave my speech in front of him answered questions from him and then got some feedback so really just trying to simulate that environment of extemporary speaking as much as possible um and then also just staying up to date with a issues things that are happening in the a industry and I was able to do a lot of that in my classes actually this last semester which was really nice so that's kind of what I do to prepare well I think I know you're a teacher and I can certainly imagine her saying you're going to do it you don't have any choice get going um that it has served you very very well as far
032as being an extemporaneous speaker um it's a pleasure to listen to you and to have you here with us thank you Caleb first of all I think you give us all great optimism for what the future may hold here in Nebraska so thank you for that this is a big deal winning a state championship is a big deal winning a national championship well is a bigger deal congratulations that make us all proud can you share with us what your topic was at the national level yeah would you like to hear all three sure um so for the there's three rounds um that I had to advance through at the national competition so my prelim round I talked about I think the question was what role does agricultural education play in ag literacy so that was
033right at my alley a perfect question for me to have my second round um question was a lot longer and more wordy but the general idea was um how do farmers and ranchers work with other entities in the food system on sustainability um yeah on sustainability and then my finals topic was how can farmers and Ranchers advocate for the use of pesticides and herbicides and educate the EPA on their importance which we had just talked about herbicides and pesticides in my plant science class the week before so that was also really good timing yeah that was fabulous thank you Caleb really appreciate your time today and all that you're doing yeah thank you [Applause] [Music] all good morning uh my name is Jesse zweep um as a teacher I'm always excited to follow up when
034students do really well like that so everything is going okay um um I'm a teacher at Louisville Public Schools I teach skills and Technical science I've been teaching for 18 years um I can't tell you I'm excited to be here today because it's Friday the weather's nice so it kind of feels like an episode of Survivor at school so I'm excited to be here um what I'm here to talk to you about today is the revision grant that Lewisville applied for in 2021 and 22 and received we received $100,000 um grant for our CT program um through state and federal funds and so I just want to give you a little explanation of how that process worked and what we did in our district and so it was a collaborative effort between our CT teachers
035administrators and most importantly our community stakeholders um the grant allowed us to really review align and improve and expand our CTE offerings and so what we found through this process was that we needed to align our curriculum and our offerings more with our local needs and a couple of those examples are we have ashrow cement company and so if you've driven on a road in the state it's come out of Lewisville we don't take any credit for the potholes but we do we're proud of the product that we make there but they needed machinists they needed welders and electricians and in a small community the high school is sometimes a great place to get those and so we wanted to build a better working relationship with them we've got Coppel Chevrolet and GMC which sell
036a lot of vehicles and so they need needed technicians and so as an automotive teacher I'm I have three periods a day of Automotive so we're trying to get kids to follow that path and get and work in that industry we also have some development north of Louisville um a couple big tech companies you might have heard of Facebook and Google have built some monstrous buildings up there and they need people to do their electrical their Plumbing but it also the infrastructure the housing is just going crazy you can't find places to live and build and so we're seeing now that these companies are coming to our school districts wondering how do I get kids into the into the Housing Industry how to be Carpenters how to be electricians and plumbers and so that's really
037it was a neat opportunity for us to reflect on those things we found that maybe we needed to do some more work-based learning um we've had kids that go out and their afternoons if they're if they're caught up on their credits they can go work but it wasn't very formal and so we've started to implement that um we did have a good um we have a lot of variety we do have um Family consumer science business and we do have SDS in Louisville so we have a wide variety that meet our students needs so through the revision Grant what we did find is we do have students that are going out and doing work-based learning now they might work at the bank they might work at the coule dealership but they're actually earning credits they're
038coming back um they're reporting there's someone that comes and follows up with them and so that's a need offering or opportunity for them we added a Home Maintenance and construction course um which is actually um a pretty popular course um we teach Plumbing electrical drywall Masonry um and so students it's a semester course where they'll do that and then the other semester they go and they learn to build a shed and they do the framing part of it what we found is we have some students with special needs that needed some tangible things to do and life skills and so we've we actually have a lot of students that come take that class because it's something that Hands-On that they can do and it's kind of helping them develop a skill that maybe they could
039take once they leave our building so that they have an opportunity After High School and so that's been a neat um neat experience for me and them because they found that they really really have enjoyed doing some of that work um we added another Automotive class because of the need um and it's just not another class we found that if you have an option of young ladies who want to take automotive and they have to be in a class with 15 adolescent boys they're not too excited about it so when you add another class and all their friends they go to the council they get it figure it out they go hey we can be in third period Autos together and now I have a class that are more young ladies in there learning to
040be Automotive technicians it's a pretty powerful thing so I'm excited for that um we also were able to modernize a lot of our equipment when I started in Louisville um I had a two pieces of a metal athe one was a World War II surplus Atlas and the other one was from early 60s they're still working great but through the grant we were able to purchase some new equipment um that has CNC capabilities that you would see in the modern Workforce today and so just to give you an idea of what some of that cost might be for a district without this grant the CNC the lathe was $18,000 and we also received a plasma cutter to be able to do some manufacturing items was $28,000 so um this grant really helps provide some of
041those big ticket items and some tops Notch um equipment that students would be able to use when they enter the workforce um and then finally I always I put down here it's important to note that when we work with these business and industry people they're not just uh sponsors that you might see on a sports program um if I need help with something I have a direct line to somebody that I can call that partnership through this revision Grant has really allowed to meet people through all the business and industry areas that there's a Lifeline for teachers I'm not an expert in everything um but it's nice to be able to call and get something and the other part of it is is the consumables part um we go through a lot of welding electrodes
042and metal and gases and that can be a burden on school districts and so having these Partnerships I don't have to purchase any of that um Ash Grove just donates their metal to us so it's a it's a huge benefit for our school district and our students and then finally um we wanted we found out that we needed to reach more students in the middle school and Elementary level for CTE and we chose to do that through our ctsl skills USA and so now during February um we actually go down and we I have high school SK USA members Mentor um first second and third graders for a week and what they did was is my students actually developed a careers coloring book and so what we then they take that and they go down
043there and they dress up as welders they dress up as a nurse or whatever it might be and then they talk to these kids and they Mentor them and they explain what it might be and they color with them and they just and they work with them the Innovative part that I thought was cool was my students idea is they when they made the coloring book instead of putting a man as a welder they put a woman as a they put a m a you know or male nurse and so they really opened my eyes to their how the world they see and so now we have that um we go to each year it's a pretty powerful thing too because now we're seeing these kids in middle school and high school they're starting to
044ask more questions how do I get to be more involved in our CT classes um let's see we also um skills USA also has an opportunity called action skills it's a competition for students with special needs and last year I had two students compete and one of them plays first he has a aspiration to be a firefighter so he brought all of his bunker gear and his goal was to be able to get dressed and put it all on in one minute and he did and so he' worked very hard plus he had to give his speech and explain each part of it and do it and then the other one he really liked the plumbing part so we take copper pipe they have to clean it they cut it they put the flux on
045and they solder and then we dunk it in water to see if it holds there or has any leaks and he did that and so he demonstrated how he did all those things and so it's a pretty powerful thing to see we're giving an opportunity some of those special populations through our ctsos so um and I guess in closing here the revision Grant really is a pretty powerful thing for school districts as a Lifeline as you can see um and again I want to also thank Dr Katie Graham and Sydney Co kza for their efforts um they really pretty powerful and good leadership and I'm also very thankful for people like Aaron Jones who are the director of of the CT and Greg ster for skills USA in Nebraska so any questions from you very
046quick have you noticed an effect on attendance with your expansion of yes your offerings and um I guess to the point where it's kind of funny there's sometimes I have kids that'll come to class cuz I have autos and medals for early in the morning and then they'll they'll be there and then for some reason they leave they only want to come they might skip their English class which is not good but but yes in general it's it's there they get out of bed that's we put them early in the morning because we want those kids to be there and so um it's actually a good conversation when um if you want to work on your car you got to be passing other classes that's my rule and so it's a it's a motivator to
047be there it's a motivator to sometimes stay a little after class to continue to work and so yeah it's it is pretty powerful thing to have them in there y one other what are your hopes are your next for Lewis phills program what would you like to see well we're we're growing um when I started there I might have had maybe six to eight kids in a class and now um I'm getting 15 to 16 and so our space is kind of getting limited so which is a good thing lville has been a great Community where it's very supportive at CT programs and so um we're just continue to expand you know um again we like to one day I would like to be able to do uh like a Habitat for Humanity in Louisville
048where we're building those houses um and so serve the community a little bit better in those aspects with our students so um I I have to say that um I I would love to take one of your classes I don't know how good I'd be at it but uh Your Enthusiasm is infectious and shows all over you so I imagine you are one of the best teachers in the school thank you and um I I think that uh the creativity that you're using to work on first and second graders so that they dream of those jobs just like our student said I'm dreaming of this and you're giving them that opportunity and plus you're allowing your older students uh to collaborate with the younger students and say this is really cool and so it's it's
049building on itself and we can see that and hear that from you today in here and um I guess as a teacher that's one of my dreams that I see more of that in classroom so thank you very much you bet and it's funny you mentioned I actually one of the there's actually been T we have a lot of community people um parents that like we would love to take your home maintenance class so you know um I'm boys looking a way to have a fundraiser for my skills USA chapter so maybe we'll have a night class you know so but yeah it's funny it's it's a possibility so again enthusiasm y y thank you anybody else on the board okay uh Mr zweep I just don't even have the words it's like you inspired
050me so much with your creativity your inclusivity your Forward Thinking your I mean it's uh really appreciate all that you're doing and thanks for being here today thank you so um and to to all of our three speakers and to uh our our fearless leader who does an amazing job year round and so thank you to all we're going to just take a five minute break so we can uh just one-on-one say thanks to our guests here and uh uh so we'll be back in it's is it 9:30 what time is it we'll be back at 9:45 it's 9:40 right now so thank you everybody okay uh we'll convene in one minute all right we are convening and we are at Agenda item three our commission the next item of business is the commissioner's report
051commissioner Maher please provide your report thank you uh there first of all there are zero items that have identified to be removed from the consent agenda if board members wish to remove additional items from the or any items from the consent agenda please fill out the form at this time any items removed from the consent agenda will be taken up under additional business I have a couple of items to inform the board about um this month and so I would just start by saying good morning good morning and thank welcome to all of those here and those listening at home I'm pleased to be able to share a few key points from this last month um first of all strategic plan this came up yesterday in conversation but I want to start by talking about
052one of the goals that you gave me which I haven't spoken a lot about yet in the first few months on the job um is the Strategic plan um in November I tasked our nde officer team with discussing needs and next steps as they pertain to the Strategic plan and our team and I have determined that the the best course of action is to breathe life into our current plan so you will hear that from me in a more formal manner next month um I want it to feel relevant to our staff and to our stakeholders and I want to re-evaluate the plan and let it run its natural course uh which culminates in 2026 U again I'll share a great deal more with you about this next month but that's a a glimpse into
053what's uh coming with a more comprehensive update but here are some actions uh that I'm taking in the meantime one I'll likly recommend maintaining the current goals strategies and roles and two I'll revise our tracking of progress and assign metrics and reporting structure for the next two years again that's a teaser for the March meeting uh second update comes with the superintendent's advisory committee uh I'm very thankful for the wisdom and the guidance that I get from this group uh I shared that with them just this last week uh as as we met for the third time um uh a few key updates that we talked about with this group one our super superintendent focused first on affirming any recommendations they have about the assessment prog uh process that we've been going through um that
054seems to be um coming to A A A logical conclusion before the RFI RFP process um we're thankful to Dr Clark Dr Trudy Clark for all of the work that she's put in to this area and she leads our assessment team and really has been a a steady voice and Steady Hand throughout my time here and I'm sure for months and months and months prior to my arrival at the Department of Education um second Dr enson shared feedback from the accountability process and outlined potential ways we could enhance our state aest system we're um just getting kneed deep into that process looking at um what we want it to do and what it's doing right now and making any changes going forward we will go through a process on the accountability system much like the
055process that we followed through the assessment system where I have given an initial conversation to the superintendent through the superintendent advisory Council we'll be meeting with superintendant across the state through esus also we'll be meeting with uh triac niia and those groups who are most closely connected in the school districts uh with that accountability process we've got a lot of work to do there I'm really pleased with the the kickoff of those conversations um my advisory Council also provided a lot of input on what the certification process um does look like and what it might look like Brad durksen came and spoke to the advisory Council on what we do right now what alternative certifications we do right now I think sometimes times it's easy to forget that we do have alternative certifications available right
056now and then where can we head in the future to address the issues of Workforce and and reduce the barriers that we have in the certification process going forward um and then finally the committee engaged in a discussion of legislative happenings what bills to watch and perceptions of bills and and dist School District stances or ESU stances on some of those bills where we might not be taking a stance um at the Department of Education also I was able to share what our process looks like for taking stances and advocating for or against bills I noticed that um Dr Schwarz from Millard and Dr plaus from Bennington are here they are two members of The Advisory Council I suspect they're just here to see if I'm telling you the truth or not thanks for your
057for your attendance um finally in in the legislature um speaking of the legislature as I did with the advisory Council I'll round out my report by saying I've been encouraged with our agency's responsiveness and engagement with the legislature I don't know that it's any different than the past but I know from the last month with the legislature being in in session I'm pleased with uh our response as a department our team led by Deputy Commissioner stead and also um Lane Carr and Tammy Barry at all really do a a very good job I believe in doing the care careful analysis of bills fiscal impacts that comes from Bryce Wilson and his department and informed advice to give to me and ultimately to you so that you can make decisions on on bills that are in
058front of us legislatively we've been very active in the legislature we've testified at several hearings so far we've written several letters of support and we're we've been providing advice behind the scenes to legislators and to their AIDS and we have a really busy week coming up that is the precursor to a very busy month coming up that concludes my report all right thank you Dr Mahar any uh questions this is um more a comment rather than a question but I know next when you said next week you're next week next month you will present on your recommendation for the Strategic plan when we received that report can you also speak about um the ideal time to start working on the next strategic plan because I understand if this one runs its course through 20 six
059there's probably some time in 25 or 26 that we'll have to start working on the next one so I think it'll be um just good to hear what if that is the initial recommendation how how we would start the the process of creating the next one I should just say yes but I will tell you that is part of the presentation as I've begin begun to put that together so yes all right uh thank you commissioner uh we can move to agenda item four the president's report I'm reporting that there is no president's report so that was best uh agenda 5.1 is public comment period uh we will now move to our public comment period uh this period may be made available to any person who wishes to address the state board on any subject
060within its Authority including items appearing on the agenda except for contested cases up to two hours will be allowed for the public comment period a majority of members present and voting may also take action to allow or terminate public comment at any time during a meeting please note that public comment should be on topics related to the work of the state board's constitutional and statutory Authority uh those wishing to speak must be signed in at the table outside of the meeting persons speaking to the board during public comment should State their name at the beginning of the allotted time uh anyone refusing to be identified will be prohibited from speaking each person may address the board for up to five minutes a majority of members present and voting may take uh action to reduce or
061extend the amount of individual time allotted to all the speakers if at any time persons appearing before the board exceed the the time limitations set Force forth in this policy or on the agenda or become abusive or threatening in language or behavior it shall be the responsibility of the president to determine what is out of order the president May refuse permission to continue to address the board so it looks like we have two public comment cards that are submitted um I'm going to ask uh board member Penner to announce those thank you thank you we have two up first is Christine hayner I'm pronouncing that correctly and Dana Fontaine so first is Christine thank you very good my name is Dr Christine Hefner I'm the president of the Nebraska School Library Association and I'm repres
062represented on this board by Dr or by uh Mr Kirk Penner as a school librarian for over 20 years I can't count the number of times that I've looked towards neighboring states like Iowa and said to myself thank God I live in Nebraska thank God I live in a state that cares enough about its kids to make sure every student has access to highly qual to highquality school library program where they can grow as lifelong readers and lifelong Learners last Monday I met with the coordinator of libraries uh for De Moine public schools in De Moine Iowa a district of around 31,000 students their District serves 38 elementary schools 11 middle schools and five high schools they currently employ two school librarians for the entire District in De Moes Public Schools the high school and
063middle school libraries are used for staff meetings and study halls they are not open to schools or to students during the day no new materials have been purchased for their middle schools or high schools in the last seven years uh according to the De Moine register over 450 titles were pulled from the school School libraries at the start of this last school year including Classics and Holocaust Memoir this is typical uh across school districts in Iowa which again is why I am so thankful every day that uh Nebraska is not Iowa I am so proud that Nebraskans have a long history in recognizing the key role that literacy and access to libraries play in the overall education of our students I'm proud that Nebraskans value the power of literature and reliable information and that we
064make sure every student has access to a school library that is current and up to dat and that reflects the needs of the community that that Library serves rule 10 as it stands upholds these values and beliefs and I am really proud that our Nebraska Board of Education has protected and Pro prioritized student access to good library programs through rule 10 the changes that Mr uh Penner is proposing to rule 10 diminish Nebraska's investment in school libraries and in Nebraska's kids among these changes there would be no requirement for schools to update or maintain their school libraries with new books or resources the current rule requires that each Li Library purchase up to 150 new books per year which is not an overwhelming investment and it ensures that a school library can make necessary updates
065and Replacements of wornout materials without this infusion of new books a library collection will quickly become worn out and outdated on average this is an investment of less than $2,000 per year for a school library that serves the entire community the proposed changes to rule 10 have an unbalanced focus on pornography and sexually exp explicit content and neither lb 281 14632 or the federal children's internet protection act warrant these changes lb 281 14630 2 encompasses the act of creating child pornography which is not in question in our school libraries sipa already federally mandates filters to prevent access to obscene images or content over the Internet which again does not ex extend to our school library collections certified school librarians work very hard to select appropriate content for the communities they serve and examples of of
066sexually exp explicit content in school libraries are rare there are already processes in place at the local level to challenge and remove titles deemed inappropriate by removing the provisions that ensure every student has access to a high functioning School library we are abandoning our students to whatever ideas and information they can find on the internet and degrading the quality of our Nebraska Schools rule 10 as it stands provides the foundation for strong library programs in every District across our state Nebraska kids are served well by rule 10 as it stands and the proposed changes do not make our schools or our school libraries better for our children thank you thank you Dana Fontaine good morning I'm Dana Fontaine a librarian media specialist I am also an advocate for all libraries and classrooms I am a
067proponent of education and very concerned about the proposed changes for rule 10 not only are the proposed changes vague but they are very harmful and detrimental to Nebraska schools the first question I pose to the board is why attack libraries when students have the internet in their pockets 00 6.01 States quality indicator the life Li media Technology Program provides a wide range of accessible print and electronic resources that expand opportunity for learning contribute to information literacy support the local curriculum and enhance and enrich learning experiences for all students with your proposed changes based on sexuality the curriculum the curriculum in this statement will not be able to be taught any of William Shakespeare's PL plays will not be able to be taught hardly any mythology will be be able to be taught even the classics
068such as The Scarlet Letter which is solely based around sexuality or sexual acts my second questions are what is considered an average person building off of this what makes a reasonable person this section proposed changes state that emphasis is placed on the development of skills necess Neary for independent lifelong learning the key word here being independent do we really want to get rid of independent thinking students will read what they need if they do not understand something they will go seek it out whether it's in a school library or on the internet as a school library it is our responsibility to provide answers for those questions we obviously can't control the questions being asked but we can provide the answers to those questions it is is our responsibility to provide quality answers instead of the
069misinformation on the internet it will be dangerous if we start censoring books based on sexuality or any information that makes us uncomfortable even the Bible located in the D as according to the Dewey Decimal System 220 h72 has passages Ezekiel 167 Deuteronomy 25 11:12 and Genesis 198 has numerous sexual messages between its Pages the third question I POs to the board is when was the last time that you were in a library the proposed changes also State schools shall provide an effective library media Technology Program through the employment of qualified staff and the acquisition of library media technology materials sufficient to meet the instructional needs of the staff and students certified Librarians are the most qualified staff for the position what is going to label the staff as qualified for example I have two Master
070degrees and presented conferences do you want to fire all freethinking Librarians and fill the positions with lesser qualified staff I also have concerns with the penalties an issue of compliance this leads to my fourth question who is going to police this the superintendent of Class A schools have thousands of students and staff to worry about and rely and Trust on professionals on professional Librarians to help them out with judging whether a book is right for their collection we as Librarians have the object objectivity needed to determine what is appropriate not only for the age group which is in which we teach but for the interest of our students and staff I can assure you that Librarians have the best interest of children in mind my final question is what was the Catalyst that caused these
071proposed changes will this be made public these proposals seem cherry-picked to fit an unwelcoming agenda rule 10 does not need to be gutted in my district rule 10 levels the playing field rule 10 is amended with these change if rule 10 is amended with these changes then your lower income students might not get as many materials as the more affluent schools a school with 100 kids will be at a disadvantage to the larger schools because there is no longer a minimum number number of books that are going to be purchased districts can take that money and use it for other purposes do you have any questions for me as a practicing School librarian and I also welcome you into my library our library at any time thank you okay in addition to uh the public
072testimony we've heard we've also received seven written public comments that have been submitted um see let's see and those can be found in the electronic meeting agenda for the board and the public to review all right is uh we are going to move to agenda item six to approve the consent agenda is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda py so move second second uh thank you all right it is moved and seconded to adopt the consent agenda per board policy there is no discussion on the motion to adopt the consent agenda would the recording secretary please call the role Penner yes Jones yes fricky yes ner yes Gobles yes Morrison yes teg Meer coj yes yes seven yes one absent okay uh the affirmative has it and the consent agenda is adopted with
073seven yes and one absent all right we are on agenda item seven standing committee reports uh the next item of business are the reports of the standing committee I will report on behalf of the executive committee meeting I'm going to need my glasses for this one all right uh the executive committee reports that on February 1 uh well uh that we have had weekly meetings that were held since the January board meeting uh members present were myself Elizabeth techm uh Jacqueline Morrison and cck Penner uh the committee reviewed the nde at our last meeting the committee reviewed the nde uh deficit request issue listing with the governor's recommendations in preparation for nd's hearing before the legislators appropriation committee next Tuesday the committee then reviewed the commissioner's recommendations on bills scheduled for hearings next week the
074committee also discussed positions on LR 278 CA the Constitutional amendment to change the membership of the State Board of Education the committee decided to continue the discuss with the board and the work schedule uh that was uh yesterday afternoon the committee recommends that the board adopt the legislative positions as recommended by the executive committee except for lb 1052 uh I Committee Member Deborah ner requested a separate consideration of the board's position on lb 1052 and it will be taken up under a separate motion uh before adjourning the committee discussed plans for the works session that we had yesterday afternoon that was very successful this concludes the executive committee report any questions or discussion okay uh is there a motion on item 7.1a yes okay I uh I move to adopt the legislative positions as recommended
075by the executive committee with the exception of uh lb second I'll second the motion okay it is moved and seconded to adopt the legislative positions as recommended by the executive committee with the exception of lb uh this says 102 but 1052 okay is there any discussion on the motion uh okay the motion is is to adopt the legislative positions as recommended by the executive committee with the exception of lb uh 1052 with the recording secretary please call the role Morrison yes teg Meer Co Johns yes ner yes fricky yes Jones yes Penner yes Gobles yes seven yes one absent okay the affirmative has it and the motion to adopt the legislative positions as recommended by the executive committee with the exception of lb 1052 is adopted with 7 yes and one absent all right we
076are on agenda item 71b and this is an action item I requested but because um I'm presiding today uh board member Morrison has agreed to uh make this motion I have the motion as prepared however I think I want to change a word so bear with me I will um it the the motion just so that everyone's aware the motion currently reads I move that the State Board of Education support lb 1052 and direct the commissioner to immediately send an email and letter of support to members of the legislator's education committee communicating the change in the nd's position from neutral to proponent I believe that rather than the motion being that the State Board of Education support lb10 52 we would be moving that the State Board of Education become a proponent of lb 1052
077and direct the commissioner to immediately send an email and letter of support to member of the legislator's education commit committee communicating the change in the ind's position from neutral to proponent so that is what I would like to change on the written motion rather than use the word support we are consistent with our other language that we are would be be a proponent for the bill um and so with that I move thank you is there a second second thanks Lisa all right it is moved and seconded that the board education becomes a proponent thank you should always talk to the lawyer first of lb 1052 and direct the commissioner to immediately send an email and letter to support uh two members of the legislature's education committee communicating the change in the nd's position from
078neutral to proponent is there any discussion did you want I do unless someone wants to go first otherwise I'll share yes okay my heart and my brain are not on the same page my heart says yes teachers would so appreciate this it would boost morale and it is true many do spend dollars out of their own pockets and I can attest to this my first year of being an elementary school counselor I spent $800 of my own personal money second year was $500 and then my third year being elementary school counselor I spent 300 these purchases made my job better for me and my students and easier but it was my choice to make those purchases now for my brain my brain says it's too much to ask of our taxpayers personally speaking the taxpayer
079paid my salary for 35 years and contributed to my retirement for which I'm most grateful can um the fiscal note on this bill is between $5 and $8 million that is a significant price tag can we perhaps find other ways to provide teachers with money to pay for out-of-pocket purchases maybe pto's or ptas um could give their teachers money personally when I was teaching at elementary school our PTO gave each of us a $50 bill a crisp $50 bill which we really appreciated perhaps Community businesses could adopt a school or communities could hold a chili cook off where the proceeds would would be divided amongst the teachers for this purpose I'm I support the idea of assisting teachers without with outof pocket expenses but not at this price tag um and at the expense of
080taxpayers that's just my opinion thank you okay thank you Sher anybody else Patty Sherry I I agree with you that I think we all are very supportive of teachers and want to support them in whatever ways we can but when I look at this um my perspective is that local schools have the opportunity to find ways to support their teachers and for that I I can't support being a proponent of this bill Jack willan I I appreciate the conversation here and I think a part of this is where I was um going yesterday uh we took a position on a $45 million bill uh for school safety related expenses and we didn't say I think local school districts should figure it out themselves we said if this is a need in the classroom or if
081this is a need for schools then we would support it we didn't say that's too much of a burden on the taxpayer to ask them to support safety for kids and so at that time when I said we need to have a strategy as a board on what we're taking positions on or asking School dist districts where their needs so that we can be consistent with where their needs are um because it puts us in my opinion in in a position where how can we say yes yesterday to one uh request that the legislature has for providing additional funding for schools uh which is outside of the tiosa formula and saying no to this one um which is also additional funding for schools in a different kind of way um I am supportive of this
082because I we were supportive of the one yesterday I don't see them as fundamentally different and as I heard the CTE presentation today um yesterday I was like there's got to be there there have to be other things that school schools need whether that is updating their it systems or something else it seems like he was working with equipment from the 1940s um until he got this particular Grant and so there's probably other school districts out there that are working with Antiquated equipment but do they make it work yes our schools resourceful our teachers resourceful absolutely they are but that doesn't mean that we have to continue to ask them to be as resourceful as possible I know that every school PTA or PTO is not the same and it goes back to an equity
083issue for me um I've been at a school uh my kids attended a school where they we were asked to pass the hat and within 2 days they raised $100,000 I've been at another school where the pass the Hat was a 15,000 PTO budget for the entire school year and so to say that a teachers's ability to purchase supplies for their uh students is governed by the amount of money that the PTO can raise and that the parents are able to put into a pool uh that presents Ane equity issue for me the other uh thing I would say about this particular uh bill I think I just lost my train of thought but I'll I'll stop there so for those reasons I I'm I'm inclined to support this whether or not it passes is
084a different story but if we're going to I think we have to be consistent in what we do I think that's a place where Kirk Pinner and I are we agree not saying he agrees on this but I I think we both agree on consistency and that's one thing that I'm always um asking for uh from this board is that we be consistent in our actions and I think this is inconsistent with some of the other actions that we've taken if we say Noy well I um having been a teacher for recording two years I always try and step back and think about this from the teacher point of view I have to tell you I I agree with everything that you said uh about consistency but uh our goal our number one goal as
085a board of education this year was to increase the number of teachers that are attracted to Nebraska to teach and we are uh as far as I can see I I read someplace the other day um we weree 700 teachers short to start the school year and now we're $900 900 teachers short to start the or to keep teaching this year and so I think one of our goals should be to make teaching more and more attractive uh to students in Nebraska and to school systems in Nebraska um I don't think that we should give up uh any anything that's um not right or too much or anything like that but teachers are facing the same problems that our constituents are facing in this uh economic climate that we're living in and frankly when I
086went to buy things for my classroom I I was a sole earner of money in my in my house um with as a single parent and so I know it was a struggle then to do that but I did it and so um I think this bill speaks to a lot of issues that say we support you we want you to have the things that you need in your classroom we're willing to help you do that a little more because we can and uh it it it seems so simple to me uh I know it's a lot of moneyy but our teachers are worth a lot of money and we need more of them I remembered my second Point whenever I do my income taxes every year the federal government asked me are you a
087teacher who spent money in your classroom and I no um but I believe that there's a federal tax deduction for teachers who receive something like this so so in my opinion the federal government has already made a decision that the taxpayers all of us collectively um Can can take uh basically we can lose some of that tax revenue to be able to support teachers if what they're doing is using this money to put it back into the classroom we've decided that already as a society um by our federal tax code and so here if we're going to do it I don't see this as any bigger of a burden on the taxpayers of Nebraska um it's it's the same concept in in a different way in one hand they're getting a re reimbursement on another
088they're getting a reduction on their taxes but either way we've already said this is important and so I don't see this as inconsistent with what we're already doing as a nation anybody else okay um I'm I just wanted to make a a few comments since I was the one that asked that we um consider this um I guess I just you know I I like to remind people my lens is coming from a district you know I have Ops in my district and I don't have the exact number but I know we're 80 over 80% free and reduced lunch and we also have you know some high schools in our district that are so large they're bigger some than some other school districts we have the largest population of refugee Youth Of Youth who have
089been in the country less than five years have come from refugee camps you know with all sorts of uh needs and you know plopped into our classrooms and uh the teachers are the ones who try to prepare them to be ready for learning I have so many friends that have told me they've just had to go out and buy coats and mittens and scarves and and just B basic supplies for a lot of their kids uh it's it's a school district also that uh doesn't have the funding uh that other school districts or other yeah in my State Board District have available through their PTA it just isn't the same at all and I consider this a huge Equity issue but also just coming back to what we've set as priorities for legislation this year
090here um you know we believe in the whole body health of every child we we say that we believe in the school environment and if those are our beliefs then uh we can support that by supporting the teachers who make a difference in those areas and at the same time uh We've also said that as and I don't mean to repeat what paty said but that if our education shortage is really our top priority this is a very small token way to say we see you teachers we see the challenges that many of you have and we want to uh support that some of my teacher friends were like you know this is such a small token thing that it wasn't but to me it's it is a step in the right direction that we
091are acknowledging the challenges that many of our teachers face and the other thing is this is for all teach teers parochial public Etc and we will have an opportunity at nde and sboe to say what are the criteria that have to be met in order uh to ensure that this money isn't being wasted and so I I do feel like it is um it is an important step and so I did want us each to uh vote on it uh so any other comments Madame President yes Lisa um several of us have been on panel at conferences and listen to teachers um conferences in the summer throughout the year and one of the things that we've heard often is we would like the public to um do more supporting of what we do in the
092classroom what we're seeing in the media what we're hearing is negativity and the narrative needs to change whether this passes or not not we're sending a message out there that we care about the teachers in the classroom who are taking care of the students that need an education to be successful in a career or college so that's why I'm going to uh support this sending the positive message that you make a difference every day that you're in the classroom with these kids with needs of all kinds thank you py okay all right um I I just want to make one other statement I assure you that this is a symbolic gift to them and that there the teachers that would go out and spend this money will not stop doing things for their kids if
093they can do it financially so um it's symbolic uh and democracy is based on universal caring about the good of all and I I just think this is a this is a sign that we care we want we want you to um to know that I'll make an additional I just believe there are other factors that have a greater influence on teacher staying in the profession than than this I guess from what I hear teachers want supportive administrators and parents and they want improved student Behavior so that's just what I'm hearing when I go out all right the motion anybody else okay the motion is that the State Board of education support lb 1052 or no that we are a proponent of lb 1052 and direct commissioner to immediately send an email and letter to
094support uh of support to members of the legislator's education committee communicating the change in our position from neutral to proponent would the recording secretary please call the role ner yes Gobles no Morrison yes Co John's yes fricky yes Penner no teg Meer Jones no four yes three NOS one absent that's okay the affirmative has it and the motion that the State Board of Education support lb 1052 and direct the commissioner to immediately send an email and letter of support uh to members of the legislature's education committee communicating the change in our position from neutral to proponent is adopted uh let's see um pardon okay uh I guess we are what time is it how are we we're good we're now on agenda item 7.2 budget and finance committee chair paty Coons will report on behalf
095of the budget and finance committee meeting the budget and finance committee reports that at its Thursday February 1st meeting members present were py coj John's Patty Gobles Lisa fricky and Cherry Jones our committee reviewed four action items supporting all four for full board consideration the first item reviewed was a contract for the Nebraska Early Childhood data system the potential contract with DHS DHHS will allow for continued Improvement and information related to Early Childhood provider options available throughout our state the second item reviewed was the request to authorize the commissioner to enter into contracts for replacement of the portal a data collection system used to conjunction with schools and several other Data Systems including a comprehensive needs assess system Finance data Improvement project um pecard tracking and reconciling system and SharePoint monitorization projects um just a
096side comment on that that portal has been used for over 20 years and we're all using technology that becomes obsolute in two years the third action item was also for contracts related to technology updates these potential contracts are for systems used for collecting data including the Consolidated data collection system which is outdated soon to be unsupported and inefficient compared to our newer technology this item also includes project management as well as procurement and application development in this request the last action item reviewed was for contracts to provide technical support for the new systems along with application specific and Regulatory Compliance training this request is designed to make sure that the new systems can be used efficiently and effectively after the funds to develop these systems are gone additionally our committee reviewed three upcoming action items
097including an update on Esser funds and upcoming contracts and amendments that will be coming in the next couple of board meetings the other two items the committee was briefed on was for Early Childhood classroom vignettes to be used in coaching training and program improvements a possible contract renewal with the National Association of Elementary School principles for 30% PK uh third grade Leadership Academy last the committee reviewed the monthly board travel expenses noting no concerns in this area the this concludes the budget and finance committee report passy coan's chair thank you paty are there any questions on the reports in item 7.2a okay is there a motion on item 7.2 B yes yes there is I move to authorize the commissioner to contract to contract for the Nebraska Early Childhood data system ecds is there a
098second I'll second thank you it is moved and seconded to authorize the Comm commissioner to contract with the uh for the Nebraska Early Childhood data system also called ecds is there any discussion on the motion okay oh paty one thing that I don't think was said in my report is that all of this equipment one thing that was uh missed in the report and I think it's important for us to understand is all of these um requests will also decrease man hours of work and so um uh that will uh help because I I as I listen to the people that were talking to us and I'm sure everyone that's on the committee will agree that they're doing Herculean efforts to get everything done with what they have but when something is 20 years old
099they need some help thank you paty Patty really the essence as I see this with this particular item is that we need to improve this system for Early Childhood data because as Melody shared with us yesterday it's impossible to get unduplicated numbers which means that any data that you're trying to pull from that may not be valid data and we need to be sure that we have systems working together so that the The Early Childhood I mean there there are tons of data points related to ECE and we need to make sure that those are as accurate and valid as [Music] possible okay thank you Patty paty one thing that I think is also um evident Patty in in this as we look at it is that as they bring it up to date we
100need to continue to uh uh be caregivers over that and make sure that we are updating materials technology as uh as it's needed um so that we don't end up going another 20 years before and it's an emergency um before we look at it thank you paty anybody else all right it is uh let's see the motion is to authorize the commissioner to contract for the Nebraska Early Childhood data system would the recording secretary please call the role Morrison yes fricky yes Jones yes Gobles yes cojon yes ner yes teg Meer Penner yes seven yes one absent all right the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to contract for the Nebraska Early Childhood data system is adopted uh we are now on 7.2 C is there a motion on item 7.2
101C yes I have that motion I move to authorize the commissioner to enter into contracts for the nde portal replacement and other Associated product project s second I'll second okay yeah that was a question not a statement thank you for understanding what I it is moved uh and seconded to authorize the commissioner to enter into contracts uh for the nde portal replacement and other Associated projects is there any discussion Patty yeah in addition to the information that py shared um this is about efficiency not only for internal efficiency but also for all of the school districts that have to enter a portal to put in data that we need to have and I think it's critically important when you're working with a system that's 20 years old even in how you access that portal is
102Obsolete and it's more than time to update this portal Lisa if I understood what um member um Google said made me think of um as it is now uh a teacher has access to this portal and then has to go in and deactivate it if they leave which is a big project this would automatically tie in with when they are released or not teaching in that District that automatically goes away for that particular teacher so again the efficiency py I I'll keep this really short but it'll make sense to all the board members customer service thanks Jack Wellen um I think everybody here knows I have never been a fan of this project and I'm still not um I don't think we ever should have given eser money to these to this project um and
103to Pat Uh passy's Point uh we need to have a plan to continuously update our technology annually and the fact that we're 20 years behind probably means we didn't and when this prop proposal was brought to us it was not brought to us with for what I remember a plan of how we're going to continue or find funds or where we've identified funds for the next 10 years to uh keep this up to date and so to take once in a lifetime funds that were for kids to update our systems that we didn't plan for that we didn't ask legislature to contribute to maybe we did and they didn't give it to us um and maybe we didn't push I I I think it's wrong um but anyways that's just my intro my actual question
104is it says on I read this one and I also read 7.2 pointd and typically when we get these documents before us we are approving in a contract with a vendor and here I'm not seeing that this is actually us approving a contract with a vendor um it's outlines that these will be new contracts and that there will be a procurement process and that they will work with the oci to go through that procurement seems like there's also some type of uh relationship or procurement of services not yet Deborah um because I'm not sure that's who I want to talk to um saying that we are so so then it's saying that we will be contracting with the Ocio which is our internal the state of Nebraska's internal kind of Technology group so I I
105understand that but what I I think I guess what I would like to ask the committee first is are you just asking or were you asked for us to just give permission for them to enter into whichever contracts that they want and see fit and then if it so happens that one of them is less or one of them is more than the commissioner can move money around as he sees fit to make sure that we spend this money and then it doesn't ever come back to us is this just a pre-authorization for an expenditure of funds and did you guys discuss that in your committee and say we're okay with that py well I'd like to call um our our lead person from the computer Department from technology up um or somebody who can
106speak to this with more expertise this uh technology is not something that I spend a lot of time uh with if I don't have to but Kristen I I I did not see um any plan um yet but I can't imagine knowing the people that are working in that committee that they won't uh do due diligence uh to do it and bring back uh materials to us and um um make sure we're doing the right thing with with all due respect um py I my question isn't about technology at all um no I know it's not and so my question is about when when this committee is bringing this to the full board I assume asking us for our approval with your recommendation correct can somebody from the committee tell me what you're recommending that
107we do because unlike the other uh contracts that usually come to us and or things that come to us in this form we're saying yes I agree that you can contract with a for Consulting for the amount of X this just says here's how we're going to spend the money here's how we're going to go through the procurement process and then it also says and if we need to we'll move some money around in different buckets I don't know what the exact line is but it talks about the commissioner being able to do it and so what are you guys recommending to us that we're giving authorization for what was the committee's understanding we're beginning the search and uh Kristen do you want do you want to go ahead and explain more of that sure
108um so for this this particular item I believe that there will be one RFP uh which is in process uh for the pter placement because that is the biggest project um generally speaking when we have done smaller projects we comp we contract with oci either the office itself or the labor procurement system that they uh that they run called kendis uh that does not require Contracting with the Ocio because they are state agency or with Co do not require a full RFP procedure because they are a state agency with regard to the question you had about uh the commissioner's ability to sort of move things around we have identified the major projects that we intend to do up to the dollar amount that we intend to do it and RFP for the portal kendus for
109the other projects we are at this point um 6 months till the end of Esser um these things are necessarily estimates in terms of what these things will cost if we get an RFP back from uh a successful bidder that's a million dollar uh a million a million $200 um I would like the commissioner to be able to have the ability to approve that contract uh essentially what it is is a savings Clause due to the lack of time that we have uh for the remainder of these projects and I think sort of the context that this was talked about uh in committee yesterday um and I think you probably hear more about next month uh Lane also has a a list of projects potential projects for what we anticipate will be an underspend a
110net underspend for things that we plan for for erer so are you asking that we delegate our authority to generally approve each individual contract that's over a certain amount to the commissioner yes and this one is in the amount of $2.5 million and the second one is in the amount of let me get to it if I'm looking at it right well it's not on the first page let me go to next one um give me just a second I'm sorry bored I should have this number in me I think it's even larger than 2.5 million three billion three all together so so if the board today approves these two items the commissioner then has the authority to enter into $5 million worth of contracts without ever having to bring any of those contracts back
111to this board yeah I think that's that's accurate in that regard I will say that that is not like with respect to Contracting with cavenas throughout the lifetime of Esser we have authorized the commissioner to enter into contracts with whomever to complete the work of specific projects I don't see this as being any different I don't know what you mean when you say we uh the board in past agenda items has given the commissioner authority to enter into project-based contracts with regard to it development and services the majority of which are through oci but at this moment we don't even know if this would be all of this would go through o IO um the contract for portable replacement will be an RFP which is already in process we don't know the successful bidder yet
112um because we're not far enough into the process uh generally speaking what we do when we require additional technical expertise in order to complete smaller projects is we contract with oo through kendus to add extra staff for projects so why couldn't why had why did the RFP process not occur beforehand and the contract with whoever we are seeking to award be brought to this board why wasn't that planned so that the board could follow its tradition traditional way of reviewing contracts and approving them I think at this point it's down to the The Limited number of time amount of time we have to do some of these things the RFP process has been started we have approved in past meetings other contracts where the RFP process has been kicked off there is sort of an
113inherent awkwardness in issuing an RFP when there's not board approval I also don't want to wait too long uh to get started on an RFP so we've tried to strike that middle ground balance to make sure that all of this can be done by September 30th okay thank you I I don't have any more questions for staff no okay I'll just talk loud we just add on we hear that a lot a Time issue thank you we just hear it a lot that it's a Time issue on my two years on the board it it's Non-Stop and so uh again Jacqueline is very consistent on this um but it's something we need to maybe plan a little bit better for because time is always an an issue with nde so that's all I have to
114say thank you challenges Patty um I I would just like to back up a little bit and explain that in committee um Kristen provided the committee with a very detailed strategic plan outlining all of the projects um the need for contract employment as opposed to rfps mean I I just got this yesterday so I haven't had time to read through it in as much detail as I want but it it's a very thoughtful strategic plan and I'm sure that you've spent considerable amount of time putting together the plan yeah also it's really important to understand that part of uh the result of some of these projects is to be able to continue updating the system so that we're never in the position again that we have a portal that is 20 years old and really
115can't be updated anymore so that is part of that plan and that was part of the discussion in our committee yesterday that there are built there's built-in training there are builtin strategies to be using that will allow for continue up continued updating of the portal as well as some of the other application [Music] projects I think all of you should have received also a copy of that strategic plan attached to each of these items Jacqueline I just want to note for a second the irony um when we were working on our bylaws uh there was a $50,000 limit and staff had asked or I shouldn't say they asked what they suggested or hinted at um that that number may need to be Revisited um because the cost of goods cost of services things have gone
116up and so that $50,000 threshold may not be the right number and we came back to with a proposal to this board for I think it was $75,000 and they said no we we're not comfortable giving up that amount of authority we'd rather keep it at 50 and the committee that was working on that said that's fine um not a problem we can keep it at 50 if that's the level at which the board is no longer is not comfortable giving up Authority after that 50,000 anything under that 50,000 threshold we're comfortable anything above that we want to see what we're spending our money on so the fact that we can be brought a proposal for recommendation to for a total of $5 million and we say okay that's fine time crunch technology it's hard
117go ahead we'll give up that give up our Authority for way more than a $25,000 threshold we're talking about $5 million uh and time is of the essence that's always what we hear from the Department when they want to do something that doesn't follow those board's policies time is of the essence I think it's unacceptable I I don't think it's an excuse and I think if we're going to stick to what we believe and $50,000 was the number that we decided on not even 60 days ago not even maybe a little over 30 days ago it just seems very contradictory to me that we would recommend this uh a and I'm not going to say it's usurping our processes but it is a loophole uh to get around our processes that we're being asked for
118so I'm I'm not supporting this and it's not because of my fundamental disagreement with with spending these Esra funds on this project it's because to me it's disrespectful to the board to keep putting us back in this position and asking us to pass these things because we didn't you the department didn't plan properly and and maybe it's a staffing issue seems like one of the ways that we're dealing with the Staffing issue is going to be to utilize Ocio uh's help but we've been talking about these uh things since 2020 so this is a three this is four years of planning that could have happened ahead of time so I just don't I don't buy that we ran out of time I think uh this is just a way to for the Department to do
119what they want to do without having to bring it to the board and so I I don't agree I'm I'm surprised that the committee uh who I believe some of the people on the committee may have not have been comfortable with the $100,000 threshold is bringing this to us and asking for approval so um that's that's the end of my rant but I'm I'm surprised that we're okay with this this is not about technology this isn't about understanding the complexity of a system this isn't us trying to figure out um inputs outputs who you know portals this isn't about us crunching numbers this is a philosophical question question about are we going to authorize the commissioner to enter into contracts outside of bringing them to us and it seems like the that committee said yes
120we're comfortable with it in the amount of $5 million [Music] paty Kristen will you be able to um do everything that needs to be done with the time limit of using the Esser plan or the Esser money funds for that is it possible um for you to complete this in the time that you have left the activities that have been proposed in the three items for today uhuh yeah I believe it is so you could get it done I we intend to get it done yeah you intend to get it done so if we approved it next month because I see the I see the point here about breaking rules and all that sort of thing um I get that but um I also see the point of the good the good for our constituency
121our staff um the whole state um so my question is if you can get it done before we lose that money before we um no longer have this opportunity in history um and you say yes right um I say yes as of today I don't know that so we have six months left so we would be talking about pushing this off for another month um that leaves five months and there is a lot of work proposed here I have I do have concerns about the ability to get all of this done the shorter the time gets we are running down to the end of the clock um I understand the point that Miss Morrison is trying to make not I'm not trying to make a point I am making I think you answered paty's question
122anybody else okay uh the motion is to authorize the commissioner to enter into contracts for the nde portal replacement and other Associated projects would the recording secretary please call the rooll tagm ner yeah yes yes Morrison no Co John's yes Penner no Gobles yes Jones yes fricky yes five yes two NOS one AB the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to enter into contracts for the nde portal replacement and other Associated projects is adopted is there a motion on item 7.2 D I have that [Music] motion I move to authorize the commissioner to enter into new contracts to meet project management procurement and app application development needs I just want to say you didn't read that with very much sincerity I'm kidding is there a second I'll second okay uh it
123is moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to enter into new contracts to uh meet project management procurement and application development needs is there any discussion on the motion I have a question okay I I noticed some body language occurring in the past interaction that was occurring um about whether or not we are actually uh delegating this Authority or or not and I think that was Ryan kind of having some tritation so if if I'm wrong or I'm not saying the right things I'd like to know what what's what's help me understand what's not happening or what is happening MH Ryan for are you referring to my reaction when I heard another board member say Break The Rules correct yeah I hadn't heard you say break the rules rather loophole so when I heard break
124the rules that caused a a reaction in me because um the board can decide what it wants to do as it just did with the last um as it just did with the last motion right so um I would reinforce the point that I think I heard from staff earlier in that there have been many motions or items that have been brought before the board board that authorize the commissioner to contract with vendors yet to be named or unnamed vendors so the notion of that is not a new precedent okay thanks ran any other discussion all right the motion is to authorize the commissioner to enter into new contracts to meet project management procurement and application development needs would the recording secretary please call the role Gobles yes Neri yes Co Johns yes Jones yes
125fricky yes teg Meer Penner no Morrison no five yes two no one absent all right the votes are five yes two NOS the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to enter into new contracts and to meet project management procurement and application development needs is adopted is there a motion on item 7.2 e yes Madam president I move to authorize the commissioner to enter into contracts for nde to provide technical application specific and Regulatory Compliance training sessions and materials is there a second I'll second thank you it is moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to enter into contracts for nde to provide technical application specific and Regulatory Compliance training sessions and materials is there any discussion on the motion Madam president I would just um it's my understanding that this is
126to accompany what we just passed and that the training um is appr apprpriate to make sure that people understand what the capabilities of what we just passed can do and how they appropriately take that information and use it in their area so it's almost like a marriage that this needs to be passed because training is key to success in so many areas of anything okay Patty and I would add to that that um and I'm sorry I don't remember if this was for D or e but cyber security in schools has become a critical issue and some of the training talked about is cyber security training that would be um provided to school districts through the esus or just to individual districts so I think that's really a a great service for us to be
127provid [Music] providing okay Lisa I understand the the comments and concerns um of the board members with the last three or four um issues that came before us but now that it's passed if we want to complete and make that transition successful we need this so it's done properly and um safety concerns with techn ology I mean it's it's really a piece that's needed to go with what we just passed okay Jacqueline just curious um I found the line with Federal deadlines for completion of Sr spending on September 30th 2024 the commissioner May reallocate resources among specifically enumerated projects above as well as approve additional modernization and data Improvement projects of like kind of benefit to of the Department of Education school district and Nebraska school districts and so it is that when we're I'm
128just for the people who are approving this um are you is the commissioner the Arbiter or decider of what's a like kind project that he wants to then enter into or is that for the board to decide if it's like kind or it it's completely within his discretion I'm just curious how you guys my other board members who have approved these are interpreting that line M Lisa that line again for me please the last part the part about light kind thank the commissioner May reallocate resources among specifically enumerated projects above as well as approve additional modernization and data Improvement projects of like kind of benefit to I think it means the Department of Education and Nebraska school district so if the commissioner decided there was another like kind project uh that was I guess of
129benefit to a Nebraska school district then are we saying he could appropriate all of this money there without coming back to the board did you want to no um as I had you reread it um like kind in in coordination with what we just passed is how I took that not something out there I I thought it all fit together in this one um cyber security um revising things that are antiquated I I was thinking that could possibly something might come up in doing this that they need another component to make it work I am not techy so I don't know what it might be and I I understand that it's the idea that he might do something somewhere else I I'm likening it to what we just passed and hopefully what we will pass
130just now does that make sense okay I give myself [Laughter] permission I love that you bring up these discussion items uh and they're crucial uh and I think everybody in the room has heard you as we have in the past like this is not new and I I I believe that there is Improvement that we've seen cuz this has been you know a discussion for years uh and uh you know I guess sometimes I just because I worked for a board for so long you know I I just found myself in between a rock and a hard place where I had a grant and you know I was doing my best to you know meet the goals but you know also be transparent and accountable and let my boards weigh in and you know sometimes
131we do they you know I staff are just in between aack and a hard place and I want to believe because I have faith in Kristen and Dr Maher that we are at one of those places and if Kristen keeps doing this then you know what I mean then we'll have in my opinion then I'll have reason for concern but um I want us to get the best possible rfpn product and and give them some nimbleness now we are you know Dr Maher can interpret this to a wider Authority and if he does go on a huge spending spree we have an opportunity to uh respond to that I guess I just have faith that Dr Maher's uh not going to interpret this in a broader way than what we're just talking about right here
132and now and I I but I also want to go back to I think what you're saying is really important uh I believe that you know this is a tough one uh for board members because we do I mean what you're saying is important but we also want to make sure that uh we spend these dollars successfully for the good you know the greater good and um and so we just hope I hope we aren't in this kind of situation too many times now would anybody oh paty I I appre I appreciate um Jacqueline your ability to to go through things and to to find the the thing the loopholes and all of that I really do and um I think it's really important for our board that we have someone like you that can
133do that I'm sorry that um I made a mistake in word choice and um uh I think that happens to all of us in in life but I agree that what you're saying um in the best po possible worlds um would not um have happened however just so you know that um my motivation was that we don't have uh we have we're underst staffed and I think the committee would agree with that if you ask them are underst staffed for doing what they have to do in the in the technology committee and they they were uh they um have really worked hard to plan all of this and do all of this and so I felt bad about even asking can you accomplish this in that short short of time anyway um thank you for
134being our Guardian against ourselves I I don't I'm not asking any board member to defend their position we are all independent thinkers and can vote however we want I do know that there are certain staff members that when I read something coming from that particular division of the Department of Education it's thorough it's you know it's coming to the board we're rarely asked to make make exceptions we you know I you know when you talk about I have faith in the commissioner I have faith in the department um there are some that rarely ask us to make exceptions and when they do you say you know what I'm with you because you this isn't a regular practice I also know being on the other side as someone who works in government I have to answer
135to people too and every decision that I make I'm sometimes thinking if I don't do my eye and cross my tea I am going to be called out on this and I'm going to have someone to answer to and if the perception of this board or or people's perspective of this board is it doesn't matter they're just going to approve it anyway then nothing's going to change because no one's being held accountable or or actually taking us serious when we say we're not just going to approve something because it's the last minute um I'm not suggesting that we lose out on the opportunity for these but I am pretty sure this is not the first vote the second Vote or the third vote we've taken under the oaces that if we don't move fast something
136detrimental is going to happen in the next 90 to 180 days how about we not be put in a position where if it didn't happen or if we don't take this vote if we don't make an accommodation that we're we're facing Doom and Gloom in 6 months as long as we just say okay we're facing Doom and Gloom we're going to approve it we will continuously be faced and asked for us to do something different because because of that and I I just think it's not fair to this board to ask to put us in that position um not to pick on Patty but she said I just got this yesterday okay if you knew something this big was coming we could have got this two weeks ago we could have got this three weeks
137ago to be able to think about it and discuss it but you know a couple days before we're asked to vote on this it's just it's just not fair to the board and I just think it's it's a bit disrespectful so I this is not an to my board members I'm not upset with you or I don't judge you for however that you're voting um I just think it's a bigger fundamental issue I have and it need I would like for things to change anybody else all right the motion is to authorize the commissioner to enter into contracts for ND to provide technical application specific and Regulatory SL compliance training sessions and materials would the recording secretary please call the role TM ner yes Morrison no Penner no Gobles yes Jones yes cojon yes fricky
138yes five yes two NOS one absent okay uh the votes are five yes two NOS one absent the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to enter into contracts for the nde to provide technical application specific and Regulatory SL compliance training sessions and materials is adopted agenda item 7.3 the planning and evaluation committee chair Sher Jones will provide a report from the planning and evaluation committee meeting yes the plan and evaluation committee reports on their committee meeting on February 1st members present were Patty Gobles paty cojon deer and myself the committee reviewed the following four items the authorization to submit the Essa which is every student succeeds act plan Amendment nde staff provided an overview of each section and changes made with stakeholder input as well as a tentative timeline for obtaining
139feedback from the United States Department of of Education next item the authorization to contract with the Northwest Education Association n WEA and DRC data recognition Corporation for Statewide Assessment Services for the 2024 25 school year the approval of rule 11 waiver request for Franklin Public Schools the approval of the computer science and technology standards the committee recommends the approval of these items the committee discussed the proposed revisions of position statement S3 on early literacy committee members expressed appreciation for updated language nde staff will return next month for approval the committee received an update on the upcoming approval of non-public schools for the 2024-25 school year under rule 14 regulations and procedures for the legal operation of approved non-public Schools nde staff will return next month for a discuss discussion and approval in May the committee
140received an update on the process for a request for information for Statewide assessment nde staff provided a tentative timeline and process for obtaining stakeholder input the committee received an update on the science standards revision Pro progress nde staff shared a summary of science standards survey number one nde staff answered questions relating to the writing team selection process and timeline the committee received an update on the midyear progress report for each priority School Assante elementary middle and high school and I'll just add to the information shared regarding the science standards our science standards are under revision the last standards were revised in 2017 and there will be more opportunity for public input this concludes the the planning and evaluation report thanks Sher are there any questions for the committee chair okay is there a motion on
141item 7.3 a I move to authorize the commissioner to submit Nebraska's revised every student succeeds act plan is there a second I'll second thank you it is moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to submit Nebraska's advised every student succeeds act plan is there a discussion on the motion okay uh would the recording all right the motion is to authorize the commissioner to submit Nebraska's revised Essa plan would the recording secretary please call the role Co Johns yes fricky yes Jones yes teg Meer Penner yes ner yes Morrison yes Gobles yes s yes one absent all right the votes are seven yes one absent the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to submit Nebraska's revised Essa plan is adopted act agenda item 7.3 B is there a motion on this item
142I am enthusiastic to move in this motion I move to authorize the commissioner to contract with nwaa for Statewide Assessment Services is there a second second is there any discussion on the motion okay the motion is to authorize the commissioner to contract with nwea for Statewide Assessment Services would the recording secretary please call the role Penner ner yes Morrison yes TM Gobles yes Jones yes Co John's yes fricky yes six yes two absent the votes are six yes two absent the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to contract with nwaa for Statewide Assessment Services is adopted agenda item 7.3 C uh action item authorize the commissioner to contract with DRC for Statewide Assessment Services is there a motion yes Madam president I move to authorize the commissioner to contract with d
143DRC for Statewide Assessment Services is there a second I'll second it is moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to contract with DRC for Statewide Assessment Services is there any discussion on the motion all right the motion is to authorize the commissioner to contract with DRC for Statewide Assessment Services with the recording secretary please call the role Jones yes Gobles yes TM Morrison yes Neri yes Penner fricky yes Co John's yes six yes to absent the votes are six yes two absent the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commission a contract with DRC for Statewide Assessment Services is adopted is there a motion on item 7.3 D Madame President I move to approve the rule 11 teacher waiver request for Franklin Public Schools is there a second it is moved and seconded
144to approve the rule 11 teacher waiver request for Frankland Public Schools is there any discussion the motion is to approve the rule 11 teacher waiver request for prank Franklin Public Schools would the recording secretary please call the RO Morrison yes cojon yes Jones yes fricky yes teg Meer Gobles yes Neri yes Penner yes seven yes one absent the votes are seven yes one absent the affirmative has it and the motion to approve the rule 11 teacher waiver request for Franklin Public Schools is adopted is there a motion on item 7.3e yes madame president I moved to approve the computer science and technology standards I moved to approve the computer science and technology standards is there a second I'll second thank you it is moved and seconded to approve the computer science and technology standards is
145there a discussion Mo the motion is to approve the computer science and technology standards would the recording secretary please call the role Jones yes Neri yes Penner yes Gobles yes coj yes teg Meer Morrison yes fricky yes 7 yes one absent the votes are seven yes one absent the affirmative has it and the motion to improve the computer science and technology standards is adopted board members uh let's see we have I skip uh agenda item 7.3 f is a discussion item uh the revised draft of the proo proposed revision of the State Board of Education position statement S3 on early literacy are there any questions or discussions on this item Patty yes um this this uh position statement was due to expire and it also was in need of some up upgrading and improving I
146appreciate that we have moved this from being an early literacy position statement to one of foundational literacy because we recognize that certainly the early literacy is the starting point but literacy and working on literacy continues throughout education so I'm really pleased that with the revision some of the statements were were updated I mean the wording was updated I also appreciate that the statement itself was reorganized and categorized to be consistent with our multi-tiered systems of support so I really like that sense of congruency and how we are communicating to the public um so I I appreciate the work that has been done to revise the position statement and we we know that we certainly support literacy that's one of our board priorities Patty Lisa I concur with what my fellow board memb said that they
147work very diligently to get this to be a very good product um I would just like the writer of um the final writer with this uh would consider in the last line it says consider factors including Vision hearing or other learning issues since we um um have had uh improvements in dyslexia and helping school districts and it was a legislative uh um consideration a couple years ago I would like it to read consider factors including Vision hearing dyslexia and other learning issues any other discussion items or or I'm sorry discussion on this topic or questions M president do I need to ask for an amendment or can they just do that on their own this is just discussion okay thanks good yeah the staff will yeah review and report back all right uh with no
148other questions or discussion we're on to agenda item 7.4 uh chair Lisa fricky will report on behalf of the rules and regulation committee meeting thank you madam president um we met yesterday February 1st uh the roll in reg's committee members were um me as chair Elizabeth techm Kirk Penner um that were present the chair discussed the State Board working agreements with the committee members to help the meeting move move along smoothly the committee members reviewed the rules report and discuss the length of time some of the rules take for final approval after they approved by the board we still have things that need to be signed by the governor and items that still need to go before uh the Attorney General's office so at the request of the committee nde staff provided an overview of
149previously discussed revisions to rules 10 and 14 from 2021 staff presented potential educ educator certification policy changes committee members discussed the presented issues and um potential solution and we'll uh continue the discussions that we had for future rural revisions and related certification Committee Member Kirk Penner presented a proposal for future revisions to rule 10 related to section six library media technology this item is on the business agenda for discussion uh this concludes my rules and regulations uh report Madam president any questions uh for Lisa all right Madam chair yes yeah just a a question for information purposes Lisa could you share a little bit about what some of the ideas were for Innovations related to teacher certification there were numerous ones I would like to request that that the sheet that um Brad durkon handed
150out it was itemized very clearly so there were five of them I don't have them memorized yet but I think that information sheet if I may request that every board member get that um it's very helpful I'm glad you asked that because I I meant to ask Brad this morning if that could be done and I think if you have any other innovative ideas Brad would like to hear them he asked that of our committee he did a fantastic job reporting um yesterday as he always does all staff do and so I just would like to make that request will that help um that does help in addition to that I I hear that part of the discussion was related to possible future changes to rule 10 in the future is is that um idea
151to go back to you know we had two years ago we had started moving toward a very comprehensive revision to rule 10 so is the idea that we would go back to that revision and start working through that or were the ideas related to rule 10 other than that I can share with what I perceive to be the next steps um that was mentioned because two years ago when we were at the old site we went to another building reg Leti um monitored and guided us through uh table groups working on changes needed to rule we came up with the idea of a AAA so it' be three separate rules instead of just one rule 10 where it be um accountability accreditation and assessment thank you poor brain lapses sometimes but anyway um I think
152we will probably be getting back to that soon according to what I interpreted the language and information given yesterday um and I think we all need to remember roles are a process and they're in the process I think of behind the scenes um gearing up for that future um possibility of us getting together and uh getting stakeholder input other input to revise rule 10 possibly AAA three different buckets and so I'm excited I really am I I I want to get that's straightened out for school districts and I think they might like that too did that answer your question okay okay uh we'll move on then to 7.4b Kirk Penner would you like to begin the discussion on this item thank you uh Deborah I appreciate that just wanted to bring this up for discussion
153and go through the proper channels uh on this rule revision and I'm just going to go through with the revisions and you can see the revisions anything underlined it is added anything with a strike through it is removed basic stuff so you can see that I add and I don't know if you can you put that on the screen Ryan so anybody can see or do you not yeah I think it'd be better so everybody can follow along sorry about that we'll just kind of start at the top there so you can see that the quality indicator does not changed that was word that was already in the rule and then the underlined uh about the mission uh about assisting students and teachers to become effective users and ideas of information and you can read
154the rest to that being lifelong Learners uh School shall provide an effective library media Technology Program through the employment of a qualified staff and acquisition so nothing's touching the certification of a media specialist uh at all and that next paragraph I didn't touch that as as well so each school has a library media area which is available to students during the entire school day um and everything's needs to be properly cataloged and then I added that the library media Technology Program shall consist of a balanced collection of print materials uh just kind of some some references there and then in if you go down to the next paragraph I took down took out the minimum requirements for those items which I have I think and I know Sher has too in Elizabeth we've heard that
155from some superintendent that that's a a requirement that they could work with their Librarians better or or media Specialists and that no Library should have any pornographic materials or sexually explicit content available to minor CH students that is what I added next line goes into those minimums that are required every year and on that on 6.01 C and 6.01 D and then there's some definitions there on what a library is um library is basically everything in that school the school library is the official what you would call your official Library area technology gives an explanation pornographic basically that's the Miller test in one two and three and that would eliminate which I have no um reason to believe there's playboys and Pen houses in our schools but that that is really what that um is
156talking about there and on letter e on the back side sexually explicit cont content which I reference in 6.01 B on that last line and I'm going to read it for the first I'm going to read it for one time and then I know if this would ever get into rule it's going to be the statute number not the words is that what we're doing now in and we're going to reference a statute number in the rule as opposed to saying it so this this is actually this is a where did that go I added some early wording but the definition of sexually explicit content comes from Nebraska statute 2814 63.0 2 it's the definition of sexually explicit that I'm adding here or that has already been uh put into Statute in the Nebraska legislature
157so this is a this was statute passed this definition was passed and so I'm going to read read it one time because I'm not here to read I did that two years ago I'm not here to read stuff right okay but I I just think it's important that people know that what statute 28 14630 2 says and so I added some early words here sexually explicit content meaning detailed or expressed without vagueness implication or ambiguity whether by text or image including but not limited to real or simulated inter course whether genital to genital oral genital anal genital or oral anal between persons of the same or opposite sex or between a human and an animal or with an artificial genital genital real or simulated masturbation real or simulated sastic abuse erotic fondling erotic nudity or
158real or simulated defecation or urination for the purpose of sexual gratification or sexual stimulation of one or more persons involved and visual depiction means live performance or photographic representations and includes any undeveloped film or videotape or data stored on a computer dis or by other electronic means which is capable of conversion into a visual image it also includes any photograph film video picture Digital Image or computer displayed image video or picture whether made or produced by electronic mechanical computer digital or other means that is the definition for sexually explicit in Nebraska statute then I go down and give some more definitions what a school district is what a school what a parent is and then there are requir requirements U of the school district and again it comes back to no Library should have pornographic
159materials or sexually explicit content available to minor students the question always comes on about sexual educa sex education and so those are exempt as long as those materials are purchased specifically for sex education class and then it talks about the library and media technology shall consist of a balanced collection of print materials non-print materials multimedia sources and I think that's mentioned uh on the front page as well and then on the policy and I think a lot of schools already have this policy already there should be a policy written approved by the local board concerning the criteria to be used in the evaluation selection educational suitability and age appropriate nature of material for the library media technology program the written policy shall contain criteria for selection responsibility for selection and guidelines for responding to complaints
160regarding materials in the library in the district um you've on five You' got to you've got to have a record of acquisition and classification and catalog and a computerized Library catalog or an alphabet alphabetically arranged card catalog using a recognized system which everybody's going to have a digital they're going to have an Excel file or whatever document for that um you have to have a central catalog on six and then this the requirement is to copy and paste that link onto your local web page to Aurora Public Schools web page of every book that you have in your library and if you look at library on the front page excuse me school library School library is where it comes it's School library catalog is the main libraries that that building has it does not include
161classroom libraries or the private private Library the catalog doesn't the rule about the sexual explicit content does but the cataloging of the classroom does not uh you can see there by August 24th and annually the superintendent's got to say hey the public online school library catalog is on online at the for the general public at the bottom there nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit students from Reading owning possessing or discussing any book that they obtained without the assistant or encouragement of a school district its employees or libraries provided nothing in this part shall be construed to authorize bringing pornographic material or sexually explicit content on the grounds of any school district so if you non if there's a non-compliance of this rule possible rule edit you can see there an A and
162I changed this to Nebraska taxpayer so we don't have everybody all over the United States and world looking for things that shouldn't be there if you have an alleged violation they take it to this uh they take it to the local superintendent and if he or she is not resolved to the satisfaction of the Nebraska taxpayer a written complaint can be provided to our Department of Education that summarizes allegation including time time date and location the complaint to to the Department of Education must also include a copy of any complaint to the local superintendant in his or her response and then with 14 days of receiving a complaint the Department of Education shall notify the school that they that we got it and the Department of Education shall then conduct an in investigation to determine
163whether a violation has occurred the department of education's Legal Services shall notify the concern Nebraska taxpayer and school District of the results if the department concludes that there is a violation the school district has another 14 days to request a hearing before the Board of Education the Board of Education shall review the complaint and the record using a preponderance of evidence standard may take additional evidence at its discretion so publish an order with its findings of fact and conclusions of Law and then letter e is something I think we struggle with nde just agency wide is we have a school or schools sometimes that are in non-compliance of a rule and there's no teeth to any of our rules because we've never taken an accreditation away from a school because nobody knows what that looks
164like and if it happens to be uh so that is something we're trying to we talked about it briefly not this rules and regulations committee but a time ago about so what if they don't comply what if on a on a totally separate issue what if they don't comply uh and so that is that is something that needs to be addressed and then if it's a teacher that's constantly violating the law it says in here that we can pursue the suspension of re and or revocation of the teaching certificate so that's really the gist of it um just open for discussion here um Pros cons what you like what you don't like from that angle and I will be quiet Thank you Kirk uh anybody want to ask questions or make comments Lisa thank you
165Madame President um we had two um library media Specialists visit with us this morning um and shared information one from the head of the Librarians Association and I just want us to really think about what they had to say I think that's very important um I I need um I have no further words at this time for now anybody else Jack Ren the definition sexually explicit the Contex content what was the Statute was it a criminal statute that you took that definition out of or what was the context that that was a child pornography act but was it in the criminal is it a criminal definition I can't answer that right off the top of my head without going to the specific What's the statute 14 excuse me 28-14 6 3.02 28- 14 63.0 um
166I'm pretty sure chapter 28 is our criminal code but I'll just double check um 20 the next one visual prohibit act it shall be unlawful okay so I I can just tell you without getting into any details I would have some concerns initially about taking pieces of a criminal statute where people typically have the burden of proof Beyond A Reasonable Doubt inserting it into this and then saying we're going to move to a preponderance of the evid preponderance of I think that's what you said preponderance uh standard so that that to me is an inherent conflict initially I guess just the lawyer and me um the procedure I think it's there's some problemss with due process here um and to just give you one example if something is not resolved to the satisfaction of the
167concerned taxpayer that is very arbitrary of what would satisfy me versus what would satisfy somebody else and so you are giving a lot of power to one individual to decipher what what what would make them satisfied um that's that's very that's that's not a true do process standard so um I think that's a concern that I'd have and then and then I could go on um if the so one here is if the department concludes that a violation has occurred or may have occurred okay so if the department makes a determination that something may have occurred then a school district now has the ability to request a hearing why would a school district request a hearing if we say something may have occurred um that would seem like the burden would then switch to the
168department to have the hearing to be able to approve whether something did or did not so I I'm not going to get into whether I like or dislike the the language uh I I have some other concerns there about um I think one of them said a reasonable person again reasonable I I believe I'm a very reasonable person there's probably people here who don't think I'm a reasonable person um so that that becomes uh a question and then the LA it says considering the youngest age of students with access to the material to me access means the ability to to to get to a book well if it's a school that's serving K through 12 um and you have different sections in a library I've been to a Library lately um a couple um um
169a child who was in kindergarten could still have access technically to a book that that may not be age appropriate for that child um that doesn't mean that the book is um shouldn't be in the school because maybe to a 10th grader or 11th grader that is appropriate material and just because my younger sibling can access that book doesn't mean that the book should be removed from the entire school and so I think I think again I could see some problems with that that aren't necessarily consistent with how how schools are set up or how libraries operate so um those are my initial concerns if you just wanted some feedback anybody else Patty yeah I I guess I have a number of things I could say um it's interesting to me that library has redefi
170been redefined to me any employees in the district right who might have materials for students to use so that means if a teacher has a book for literature a literature class that's considered a library and and I'm opposed to redefining something beyond what it truly is so there's a lot of language in here that I I think is ambiguous and also I think is stretching the true meaning of things my understanding from librarians I've spoken with is that most of them already use the Miller test or some version of the Miller test when they are selecting materials uh my mom was a school librarian for her entire career and when I she's 95 and she could still say to me Librarians are taught to use good judgment When selecting materials and I used to read
171every single book that came into my library and knowing my mother I'm sure she did right but I I guess part of what I'm getting at here is I'm concerned that in rural development such a critical piece is stakeholder engagement I don't perceive that there's been any stakeholder engagement in the suggestions for development of this particular rule this is not a rule that's being dictated by State Statute right that's a that's a different ball game so it just it's very perplexing to me because we have talked about on this board how we need to be transparent with our public and we need to get stakeholder engagement and that's not happening with this that's very very concerning to me you know I I appreciate having several Librarians come to provide public comment I got phone calls
172from citizens I got emails from some Librarians all expressing some great concerns inad stating that some of these things are already in place as you mentioned Kirk a number of schools already have a policy related to libraries and and they they vary probably in terms of their depth of what they include but again to me that goes back to that's why we have local school boards they're back to Jac one of Jacqueline's points there are some small schools that the school library is the community community's Library you're putting that school district in a very awkward position with some of the things that are proposed in this rule anybody else Sherry yes um I'm not sure where to start I guess I think maybe some wording we could we could work on but I want to
173re re I want to re respond to the intent of a this last section of it my priority is the well-being of our children and there is much evidence of sexually explicit books in our schools that's there's evidence of that and I like the definition even though it might need to I don't know if it fits in statute or whatever but the definition I think is very clear to people selecting the material what we mean and I think that needs to be that's very clear and I think that's helpful and about I appreciate the work of media Specialists and their knowledge um but I don't think that they could be the only Safeguard to ensure that sexually explicit materials are not accessible to our students I don't want to give one person the um be
174one person be the only Safeguard so that's why I appreciate a lot of the part of this um part of this policy change um let's see I had an elementary I have heard from some media Specialists so but one teacher that I heard of was an elementary teacher with two young children of her own and she said to me schools must have high standards for what is available to students in their libraries for parents are not there to help their children select books and I appreciated that um that comment I'm glad that this does not include classroom libraries other than not having the sexually explicit material in their rooms um they don't have to catalog them that would be very burdensome for classroom teachers and I would not want to burden them like that that's
175important um those are some of my initial comments I guess anybody else are you finished or Sher or did you want to keep going anybody else want to comment I can wrap it up you want to comment I'm get a comment is that okay but I want to make sure everybody else are you have you been able to say everything Sherry you go on if I think okay okay uh first of all I just want to thank Kirk because I feel like Kirk is doing for the State Board of Education what Taylor Swift is doing for the Kansas City Chiefs and so like keeping us all right keeping people paying attention to us so all right that is said in humor uh but uh yeah people do pay attention when there's controversy uh but at
176the same time uh you know I'm not going to get into the language of this because I feel like there's a great deal of process concerns about it um some of my process concerns come from you know we just unanimously approved the CH you know reviewed I think we spent a year reviewing R 10 and as a board all of us here today unanimously approved the rule 10 changes and so it it just seems like if this was really the big issue of the state that it would have come up we would have heard from people at that time and it we didn't uh at least not significant in numbers and I know my next question will offend but I still come back to you know when I hear one or two superintendents might say
177something I always come back to when they only represent less than 1% of the students in this state and they're not on public record I I don't think that it is uh it needs to be heard it needs to be considered but you know we have a very large state with very Divergent needs you know student needs and my last point is all I would say that every single one of us uh I think I heard when we campaigned we all believed in local control that that was a key and I I strongly believe that it you know uh this is a local control issue we have our rule 10 regulations and at some point we have to uh leave it to the local school districts to determine what is best for their libraries because
178you know I the libraries in my district might have different thoughts and feelings than libraries in other places across the state and so I'm sorry that my joke didn't land very well Kirk laughed I don't think anyone else did but anyway uh that's all I have to say thank you I'll just wrap it up here so I'm trying to get sexually explicit content out of our libraries there's no justification to have it in any of our libraries and it's in some school libraries it's a fact I spent two year two years ago my second meeting on this board reading it so don't tell me it's not there first of all in some libraries we do have control over rule 10 and we do have control over Library facilities and materials as one of our powers
179as a state board of education it's listed in State Statute I grabb the state statute to uh Jacqueline's point to give a definition of what sexually explicit is because I don't want to be vague I don't want to be subjective I want to give the Librarians and the school boards and the school superintendent something they can go to and say I can't have this in my library just like the health standards where we thought you know we wanted School said hey I need something to go off of we need to write Health standards so schools are always looking to nde for guidance and my point in this is to give the schools guidance for what they not that I need to I shouldn't have to even touch this but it does appear in some of
180our school libraries it's just a fact and so that's what I'm trying to do is trying to Garner some type of consensus I'm trying to work with the rest of the board to keep sexually explicit content out of our schools and it's there in some school districts and we need to be consistent some of the uh some of these stuff that was mentioned I'm pulling straight from State statutes on some of the lawyer stuff that you were talking about that's over my head a little bit pulling it verbatim right off State statutes on the procedural side of it but at no point should sexually explicit stuff be in the in the schools ever but it is and why I I don't I don't I don't know why it is I I have no idea why
181you would want to put sexually explicit stuff that I read two years ago and continue to see in Nebraska schools and I name the schools whether it's text or graphic images why we feel the need to do it why do we because it's there and so what I'm looking to do and this is just discussion and I don't have a whole lot more to say is I'm looking for for the seven of us I know Elizabeth's not here to come to some agreement on how to keep sexually explicit material out of our libraries we have the author Authority as a lo as the State Board of Education to do it it's one of our state board of education powers and duties 79161 and go from there and so we will uh see what happens over
182the next month but if you you have any suggestions but if it's just going to be picking at it and saying you know anything to do with it that's an interesting stance but I appreciate everybody's input very good input but I'm just to at some point you got to acknowledge this is in some of our libraries and I I still have people saying it's not jaine I will tell you my stance is going to be I will not agree with this um so I I won't Pi I won't just pick at it I'll just flat out tell you um I I took many sociology classes I read lots of books when I was in high school there are a lot of conversations that happened about rape women the power dynamics of that in Wars how
183women have been used and controlled and all of those types of things are in history books sociology books that are in libraries and high schools it was important important for me to read about that as a teenager as a young adult um it's important in how I live my life and how I teach my what I teach my children and when you get to this parsing of sexually explicit content and whether or not there's some academic value and what a reasonable person would believe I believe you start to um it it's written very broadly and you can start to get to important material that students need to read they need to understand they need to learn about to be an educated society and so because of that I think it's a local control issue I
184think it's a discretion issue for librarians and um I can't support something so broad because when you get very broad um you you don't get to the nuances of things it's it's it's too much and uh kids may actually miss out on great learning opportunities that they need so I I won't support it Madam chair oh sorry thank you and jacquan I believe all the topics you mentioned there I think they can be brought up and discussed without them being sexually explicit so I value all the topics that you said without being in explicitly sexually explicit text and again I would um Mr Penner you mentioned that we have the authority but I think we not only have the authority but we have the obligation to oversee that districts do what needs to be done
185to protect our students from sexually explicit materials so we have the obligation not just the authority and we need to protect the hearts Minds bodies and Souls of our children and that is way important to me um so I will fully support this bill there may be some changes to make with numbers and whatnot but I will for the protection of our children I'm I'm on this Kirk I think I heard you mention that the procedure comes from State Statute could you cite what state statute not Nebraska not Nebraska okay I guess one of the things that came to mind when I heard you talking also is I feel like if we take the temp around the state you know a lot there are board members being removed from school local school boards for being
186extreme on this kind of an issue and I I think that par my feedback that I receive is that uh not only is this a local Schoolboard issue but parents uh want to be respected and when we try to regulate something that should be a local Schoolboard issue that local professionals uh who are skilled at making these decisions and we try to step in I mean that is something that uh that is getting parents irate across the state at least that's what I'm hearing Lisa um I don't think I can support this um sure we all want to safeguard our kids that's at the heart of who we are as mothers as parents and citizens in Nebraska it's already in State Statute the definition and it's up to the Local School Board Wards and um
187media Specialists the people that know their community and and no we don't we don't want explicit things that are harmful to kids in our libraries but I also trust local boards parents and the library media and those few schools that you mentioned that have it those local boards need to make a tough decision um I don't know I just have concerns about putting all of that in rule 10 that's fine it'll come to the V uh board for a vote uh next month so you'll have your opportunity to vote no on on what I have here a question um I don't remember a rule coming to us this fast in a process without other considerations from public input or some kind of input why are we rushing this without hearing from superintendents local boards why
188are we not taking our time with this we've had concerns about some of the wording I think we all want to safeguard our kids and when we tend to rush things to production without looking at each part whether it's a factory line or whether it's you know uh whatever it is rushing to an end product without input without longer time to think about this it that seems counterproductive to me Cy my head hurts from listening here okay um Kurt you say that it's in some schools and have you been transparent with that um as far as with the schools identifying it and saying this shouldn't be in here yeah okay and what do they reply to that uh a lot of times they take it out but sometimes they leave it in because they will
189say it it has broader meaning what do you think what uh what do you think of what's happening I'm I'm just trying to formulate in my head things what what do you think um of the repercussions of some of this like The Scarlet Letter being cut from from uh literature classes and um William Shakespeare's um Romeo and Juliet what do you think about that is that sexually explicit or is that sexual content I suppose it depends on um when you're reading it what you're thinking well the sexually explicit that yeah the sexually explicit definition explains exactly what sexually explicit is in this but do you see how that's being mised I'm trying to make it totally objective that's why I'm saying sexual con sexual content is not in this rule it's sexually explicit content is
190in the definition okay can I ask a question sure um I'm just curious uh because I'm I'm happy for this to come next to to the board meeting next month as an action item um so we could take a vote on it um but my my question is what's the process of how this is coming to the board next month as an action item so typically something is raised in a committee and then a committee then moves the item to the recommends moving the board moving the item to the board at as an action item or the committee chair works with the uh board president or with a commissioner to say here's what our committee's agenda is going to be and so um I I did miss the rules and regs committee meeting yesterday so
191full transparency uh since we're being transparent um so I'm just curious when you say it is coming um was that a discussion that happened within your committee that they said this it we as a committee are bringing this to the board as an action item the following month or was this you did you work with the president to have this put on the agenda this month as a discussion item and then you're going to then go outside of the committee directly to the president next month to have the action item I I just don't know what procedure cuz you said that very definitively um and I think histor Ally we've said we're bringing the committee chair has said I'm bringing this as a discussion item and then we will bring this as an action item
192coming from the committee so I'm just curious about that procedure yeah I just uh working through the process and there's nothing in the law that says that the committee has to bring it out well the committee you don't have you don't vote in committee to bring something out but an agenda has to be formed and so who is putting that action I there there we don't we're not operating under the law uh we're operating under our boards bylaws and procedures so operating under law for me means something else maybe but uh who someone creates our agenda each month and so who who is putting it on the agenda as an action item is my question I am through who through an email to the board president and Dr for and Dr Maher and I just
193include everybody on that so pursuant to our board bylaws you will be making a request to bring this as an action item okay I'd have to read the I'd have to read the bylaw again so I'm curious have you spoken with our legal counsil about the legality of this because I'm Beyond how I feel about it there's this is this has got all types of due process problems and even if this board were to approve it it still has to go to the attorney general for review and have you had that vetted I grabb that straight off a state statute so it has been vetted have I personally Ved this is not a Nebraska State Statute we have an administrative procedures act uh that F that outlines our administrative procedures this is not the Nebraska
194administrative procedures act yeah so I'm going to wait till I got input before I went anywhere and I think I got the input that I kind of expected so you would then make amendments and before you brought the amendments to the board for discussion on those amendments or to a committee you would make amendments and then bring it next month as an action item I'm just following what you're telling me I'm just saying if there were changes that needed to be made I would insert the changes doesn't sound like there's going to be any changes to be made okay got it it's me again so at the beginning of the meeting I heard a lot of discussion in this part of the table about consistency you know and consistency of process consistency of a lot
195of the things we do and so the consistent way for our rule change to occur uh uh is certainly not what's happening what you are doing uh instead and and I this is a question I guess you know you came on the board with this issue on your radar because I know in your second board meeting uh it was memorable uh and then we spent a whole year reviewing rule 10 and this never came up and then you vote voted to support the rule 10 changes that we made and so here we are you know a few months later and now you're rushing you're not following what you say is your belief that we have a consistent process for things and this is kind of even though it might you might have the authority to
196do it it's not the normal process and you're rushing through a discussion item and a vote you know on something that we could have done La you know had last year when we were updating rule 10 and so I guess I I just am curious just because that question has been asked of me I I got one more question because now I'm all kinds of confused uh maybe I should just let this go but what are if this came to the board as an action item I know what our rules process is what do you anticipate that the next step step is well if this were voted on and approved well I was hoping for whoops I was hoping for some consensus on how to being transparent that we could make this rule work and
197see if we could keep sexually explicit content out of our libraries and that's not happening okay so that's not going to happen at all so there are no changes to be made but rule 10 is sitting on the governor's office sitting somewhere ready to be done that would have to be totally done first and then I'd have to come back with this and add it add to it later but I was expecting actually some thoughts that hey that's a good idea to keep sexual explicit content as to finded out of our school libraries and I only have one and so I don't know what to do with that but my plan is to bring it out of committee I've over the last two years I've said hey does anything have to be voted out of
198committee and it doesn't because we don't take vote in committee um and instead of just bringing this like I did two years ago just to an just to a normal meeting and putting on the agenda I thought I'd follow the kind of the process through the committee bring something out of the committee instead of in February like Deborah said that I just came with this as an action as an action item uh for the full board so I thought I was making an extra step to do it properly and I was getting some I just think that's the the right way to do it I was trying to do it the right way well I I guess and typically procedurally this is very hard for me because uh we've been working very very hard in
199the rules and reg's committee and I I've been very very hard on the department about sticking to a procedure with our rules and we're just at the point where I think the department and the board are moving in sync on what our rules processes are going to be from the time that they bring the committee the rule the committee reviews and it doesn't have to start with them the committee reviews the rules and then we want the full board to have an opportunity to see that before it's then published for 30 days which is another it has to be published to get public input then we get that input back and then if that's depending on what that input is then ultimately the full board would then vote um on that after there's been public
200input and so there's there's just so many processes so that's when I said when you you're bringing us an action item without it even having gone to the public for some type of review it's like what point in that process do you see yourself in because I don't I don't know because we're not in the normal process Madame President um Kirk your statement about there's only one person that cares whether or not pornography is in our libraries or not that's not true it's because I don't want it to get into the hands of students who are shouldn't have it it's about the rule and about the procedures that we already have in place in our schools with local boards and constituents who can go through a policy to say they have an objection about a
201book and resolve it plats smouth is a good example of that so to tell me that I don't care about what gets in the hands of students that are not mature enough to handle it bothers me you have every Authority on this board to help with this rule you have every authority to help you're you're an elected official in your District you could help do this because we have the authority on the State Board of Education and we're and so we're talking a lot about process here talking about process and we're not talking about the issue and that's concerning but if we're we're going around in circles here but I sure could have brought it a different way but I brought it through committee and ultimately you do have a say in keeping explicit sexual
202content away from kids you do it's under our it's under our board responsibilities but I'll just leave it at that Deborah can I say something I do have a say if I walked into a school in in Omaha and there was was a book in Omaha public schools that I didn't like I'd pick up the phone and I'd call Jane erenberger who was my representative on the Omaha Public Schools board and I would go to my public schoolb meeting and I would make it known and then if the action that I wanted didn't happen when Jane comes to knock on my door to ask for my vote this year I will tell her no and I will vote for somebody else who I think will listen to me and all of the other constituents in
203our area that's the current process that I I would use um and I do care about kids and I do care about what's in classrooms but I also know that words like reasonable person um could could lead to some really uh broad results that that could be just as harmful as they are impactful may I just add that the current process is not keeping sexually explicit material away from our children I know that um I've seen lists and lists and lists of books in numerous Public Schools so what we're doing now is not keeping our children safe from harmful materials so I don't know about the so the process maybe we need to work on I don't know if we need to ask Ryan to make comment about the process if the process is not
204right and we can change the process a little bit extended a month I don't know but I'm wondering if there is a faulty process here if we need to do something different I mean may I ask should I ask that or not I would you be willing to answer that or or respond to my wonderment I think I might go back to be at the next meeting Mr pener it would be it would be a motion to to in basically in principle agree with the proc the way we are heading to try and eliminate sexually explicit it wouldn't be these exact words that's why I was hoping for some edits and a direction that I could I could maybe or the committee this the rules and regulations committee could get so let's say that that
205plays out and that motion were adopted at next month's meeting to move forward is what I'm hearing then the rule revision would still have to go through the administrative procedures act which includes preparing a hearing draft and putting that hearing draft out for notice to the public and having a hearing and the final draft of that would have to come back before the board for approval um and as was mentioned or referenced earlier the process would not be able to start so the board might signal at next month's meeting that it would want if it were to signal at next month's meeting that it wanted to proceed with that it's really a direction to the commissioner to say we want to move forward with this um but we wouldn't be able to start on the
206process officially through APA until the governor signed or didn't sign the current revisions to rule 10 so that's how this would carry out if there was an affirmative vote to move forward with it does that make sense that makes may I that makes sense to me Ryan but Kirk when you said what your motion was going to be it did not have anything to do with rule change you said agree in principle that that to me has nothing to do with the rule and when I hear that we would agree that this is something we all believe in that sounds more like a proposal for a position statement all right uh agenda item 10 go to the order this section of the agenda is intended for board members to offer informal observations of the work
207of the state board board members may make brief announcements about attendance at future events for the purpose of informing other board members no business or motions or suggested actions of the board may be offered at this point in the agenda nor should board members engage in substantive discussion about other agenda items or introduce new agenda items do we have anything for the good of the order all right agenda item 11 thank you to those who attended in person and who tuned in to the broadcast the next meetings of the State Board of Education are scheduled for March 7th and 8th in Lincoln Nebraska uh the February 2nd 2024 state board meeting is adjourned thank you oh I get to hit the gble it's lunchtime oh that was sort of a