PLCS Board of Education Meeting May 22, 2023

001foreign all right good evening uh welcome to the papilliona Vista Community Schools Board of Education meeting for May 22nd 2023 I will start off on our call to order with the Pledge of Allegiance please all right thank you very much roll call please here here here thank you very much I'll call your attention to the open meetings law posted at the entrance to the room please and with that we'll go to section 2 Communications and I'll welcome Colonel Cooley from offut for our military advisory welcome Colonel how are you tonight sir good uh thanks ladies and gentlemen appreciate it as always the opportunity to be here and uh make sure that uh that the the office is doing its part to maintain this great relationship what we have with uh Papillion uh this is Community

002Schools so uh first off uh congratulations on another successful school year so uh get the uh the Breather that the that the teachers and administrators absolutely deserve uh we are entering a summer uh permanent change of station season uh so a lot of people a lot of kids moving around and thanks for the support that we get from uh plcs for uh getting kids enrolled especially when they have uh non-standard and less than desirable time frames so thank you very much for that entering Springtime and uh going into summer we have already evacuated our Jets twice for uh for Hail so I've been fortunate and we've had only a little bit of hail hit the hit the base uh but I know we've had some huge enormous hail that's been in the area so we've

003uh we had a very busy evacuation season last year or weather season last year hopefully we'll won't be as quite as demanding as it uh that does pull a lot of air crew and maintenance people unexpectedly uh we had a big exercise uh the first of the 5th of May it was the Readiness Readiness evaluation validation and it was we were pretty successful we don't have the the official report from Air Combat command Inspector General yet but uh it was a pretty big muscle movement uh we had simulated attack simulated chemical attacks so a lot of dusting off of a lot of Rusty skills so pretty successful uh Colonel Thompson uh Wing Commander my boss is departing on the 22nd of June for her change in command uh and Colonel Howard the vice Commander will

004be fleeting up to be the wing commander on that day we're looking forward to the base picnic on the 2nd of June uh the office offit advisory Council and the local community really goes all out for this and I want to thank appreciate the opportunity for a bully pulpit to uh pass that on my appreciation uh we thoroughly enjoyed it last year and looking forward to it again this year we had aircraft in Alaska and Nevada supporting exercises right now uh not a huge movement but anytime we have jets away from station that does pull quite a few people away uh we are uh see today we are 11 days past the delivery of our new um wc-135 constant Phoenix arrival uh news uh perhaps a bit misleading it is a uh repurposed uh kc-135

0051960s vintage but uh it has all the new Engines new avionics and so uh we're running out through its Paces now the new aircraft we are a second of three new airframes that have been delivered at the third will be delivered in December and we have another uh a big inspection coming up in July it's called a unit Effectiveness inspection that one will be another very big movement uh not as we won't be exercising uh simulated attacks anything like that this is a programmatic evaluation where the air combat command Inspector General will come in and make sure that we are following the rules making sure all of our bylaw requirements are met or our regulatory requirements are being fulfilled so a big spin up for that but uh I'm pretty confident that we'll be square

006away if any questions ladies and gentlemen I'll uh that is all I have for this evening I appreciate it I moved plenty of airplanes for Hail so yes and screwed one up and didn't get it moved and got in a lot of trouble so I've been there both ways but um yeah it sounds like a busy spring and summer coming up with all the inspections and everything else going on so yeah indeed it's been it's been taxing but the wing has done very well great thank you very much thank you appreciate you being here all right next up will be our public comment for items not on the agenda uh when I call you call you up please come to the podium and state your name and address and you'll get three minutes to speak

007and I think we decided it's two minutes 15 seconds when uh the first beep will sound um from Miss branco's timer over there um with that being said I think we have three here tonight so first of all would be Mr Mike Erdman okay hello everyone thank you for the opportunity to speak again tonight uh Mike Erdman 926 South Madison Street Papillion I know there will be a little bit of the board or excuse me the bond results a little bit later but I'm here to just say a few thank yous to uh to about the bond passing first I want to publicly thank all the community members that voted to keep our outstanding District the best it can be by passing the bond request although only a 30 voter turnout was in favor 2-1

008margin that showed our district understands how much educational opportunities benefit our community I like many others in this meeting room tonight and the Greater Community have benefited or their children have benefited from prior bonds and I was happy to vote in favor as a way to pay it forward whether it's academics sports or the Arts our district always excels and is and it's because of the resources that our community puts behind it also want to publicly thank board members Valerie Fisher suanne Whitt Marcus madler Brian Lotus and Skip Bailey for your support and on the bond and your continued vision for the future of our district thank you for putting our district and students ahead of personal politics your common sense approach is the reason why we are continuing to have a great School District

009but I also want to thank some players that really played a key role in this I want to acknowledge you give a big shout out to our Communications uh director of Communications in that diamond um for all our efforts in organizing and communicating an enormous amount of bond information my pers first professional position out of college for seven years was for a marketing and management research firm I specialize in focus groups surveys personal interviews and observational data collection extensive analysis and report writing I know what a Monumental task it is to combine information from several collection methods combine it and present it in a succinct manner it can be an overwhelming effort Miss Simon I've always felt well informed and understood all the data presented all the timelines that represented and always having answers for

010questions asked you and your staff are the true unsung heroes the people behind the scenes that often get overlooked as the driving force behind major accomplishments so thank you for all your efforts in communicating a massive amount of bond information and finally to all the recent grads congratulations go out and make your way and don't forget the opportunities given to you my hope is in the future that you too will pay it forward supporting BOS in the school district where you live to get future Generations the same or better opportunities than you had here at plcs thank you foreign thank you next up Mr Ralph Tate last time it was too close good evening my name is Ralph Tate and I live in Papillion tonight I want to address a difficult social issue that is

011transgenderism also referred to as gender dysphoria it's wrong to play on children's emotions and feelings at a time in their lives when they are ill-equipped mentally and socially to deal with that subject I'm specifically referring to children who by state law include all those under the age of 19. I recognize there are adults who choose to make such a transition but as adults they have the legal right to make that choice growing up is hard enough with challenges enough I think part of growing up is finding the answers to the question who am I it can sometimes be a challenging question to answer we all need affirmation as we grow up and try to make sense of the world around us we as adults do not need to add to Children's Confusion by undermining the

012social and moral foundations they're trying to build upon learning to make good choices as part of growing up where's our compassion to help vulnerable children understand that their feelings are real but that doesn't necessarily make them true does a boy feel like he is a girl to be true that to be sure the feeling must be very real to the boy but that doesn't necessarily change who he is biologically if he felt like a dog will we put him on a leash and feed him dog food of course not if a seven-year-old girl feels like an adult do we allow her to vote and drive an automobile absolutely not the feelings do not necessarily reflect reality we need to validate their feelings at the same time we need to reaffirm them as individuals understanding is

013a powerful medicine we need to stop treating gender dysphoria as a fact when it really is a misplaced feeling so how are we treating children with respect and dignity by encouraging them to hate their bodies and allow them to take harmful drugs which oh by the way are not approved by the FDA or remove perfectly healthy body parts part of which both of which result in long-term irreversible damage there's no medical test that that can be performed that identify as a person as a transgender it isn't a physiological Condition it's a mental disorder that deserves understanding compassion treatment and prevention it's a feeling that Canon frequently does change in fact according to medical research more than 7 out of 10 children claiming to be the opposite sex change their minds during adolescence so why am

014I addressing you tonight regarding this issue there are school policies that need to be closely reviewed reviewed to ensure they re-affirm all children books and school policy books and school libraries need to be reviewed and those books that promote and encourage gender dysphoria need to be removed especially in elementary and middle schools which of course brings up the issue of banning books but I believe that that is misplaced because I acknowledge that there may be parents and Guardians who think transgenderism is acceptable but they are free to check out books out of the public library buy them at a bookstore or purchase them online all these options are available however the use of taxpayer money collected for public schools should not be permitted to push this social agenda so thank you very much for your

015attention all right thank you last up is it Daniel lechner Daryl I'm sorry you're right those are ours my apology as before I'd spoke before I just just get my first name and I am a la vista resident my name is darlia lechner and I do live in Lavista first off I would like to say thank you again it is really refreshing my daughters went to Parkview Heights Elementary School was very much Native that and I want to thank all of our many members of our community and the board for getting that need that was so needed uh I the principal is going to love it they're going to be dancing up and get down in the school it just makes me makes warms my heart uh more than a third of my life have

016devoted to children and I'm not going to stop today and as all of you because all of you have done this for our kids in our in our community we're family here I want to thank you all you probably don't get enough thanks for what you do and it means a lot to me outside of that I did want to touch on it just briefly on the other thing and I want to also thank our police forces in in our area because they make our community even safer I could not count the times how I've seen them reach out and devote so much compassion to those members in need of help or just a little bit of compassion to get them through some very difficult times or police our EMTs our hospitals they're all important

017to us and a little bit of thanks goes a long way sometimes one of the key things I didn't want to address too is I was a school bus driver for many many years I was on the school buses before we had cameras on them and I was on school buses after they instituted the old take cameras if you remember vcr and all that craziness most kids won't but uh they have digital cameras now and I am honestly thinking this may be something we need to look at into in our classrooms especially with certain behaviors getting out of control with various students this could address some serious issues and could save our teachers our staff many heart aches in the future there are very we've been using those systems for years as school bus drivers

018this could document protect teachers protect students and other stuff and answer questions rather than it being one person's word against another or kids because I understand you take sometimes kids words with great assault we all know they sometimes tell stories sometimes they don't um I also want to ensure that we apply some protections to our teachers who are fighting Sims there's an internal fight that they're trying to protect our kids to they're scared I'm here little things from now and then most of who I hear from are from Ops teachers that are scared to come forward because they're a fear of losing their job or backlash due to the transgender Community they're a very volatile Community they will remove people any way they can and that's something I'm concerned about thank you again do you

019have any questions or okay all right next up under section two Communications is the superintendent's report thank you very much Mr Bailey and members of the board happy Monday everyone we are in the last week of school it doesn't seem possible more on that later but I also want to Echo the comments made earlier by a member of our community it's been a successful school year thank you for our parents our community members and our board for making it so for those that are watching online as always thanks for engaging with your board of education and staying involved with what's important to you and that is our schools and our kids I don't want to steal any of Ms Ivan's Thunder but I did want to lead with just a little bit about the bond

020results we did get the certified results from this Effington the election commissioner just about an hour and a half ago a terrific victory no other way to describe it terrific Victory uh and if you even want to go back and lump the last Bond in with this Bond 2018 2023 this community has supported the better part of a quarter billion dollars and improvements for our kids improvements that will quite literally change the face of this community in this school district and the opportunity for kids and families to better themselves and to create opportunities and and I'm awfully proud to be part of that the volume of support is staggering to get in politics anything above a 60 win is considered uh it's considered a mandate last time we were at 67 percent this year we're

021at 66.4 we were hoping when the certified results came in we'd get to the 67 we didn't get there but I'll take a 66.4 uh so I want to thank the community for putting the Trust In us I want to thank this board for your leadership I want to thank our staff our parents for those that voted for us thank you for placing your trust for those that didn't vote for us we're going to work really hard to make sure that that trust is well earned whether you supported us or not you're still part of our family and we're going to work really hard to make sure that that trust is not unfounded so thank you again but more on the results from this Hyman in just a little bit I also wanted to congratulate

022our seniors we had our board members attending the commencement exercises at Baxter what a classy event for both Titan Titan went first I graduated just under 500 Monarch went second we had 475 our kids dress appropriately they act appropriately they're excited their families are there it's just it's just a wonderful celebration for this community in our schools and our kids and I mentioned it in my graduation comments but I'll I'll say it again here because I believe it in my heart of hearts and that is we hear a lot sometimes in the media National and otherwise about this next generation of kids and they're this and they're that and they're they're not what previous generations have been and I'd I'd say that's hogwash if you've spent any time at all in our Public Schools if

023you spent any time at all with our kids uh you would see what I see and with people around this table see and that is the future of this country is in very good hands we've got kids doing things I didn't dream about doing graduating from a small High School in Nebraska back in 1991. we've got kids that are gifted talented giving back to their community and they're going to do some incredible things for their community and for this world and for those of you that haven't been in our schools lately you're missing out I'm telling you there's some pretty cool things happening and I'm awfully proud of what our kids are doing uh on the legislative front we'll have Mr Gay coming in at the next meeting and give us an after Action Report

024we're down to nine days left in the session uh not as much legislation has passed as we anticipated but there'll be a flurry of bills going across the Finish Line I did have the opportunity to meet with Governor pill on a week ago Friday this is the second time that Governor pillan has met with myself and a couple other superintendents it's a very very positive development uh previous administrations for a variety of reasons just didn't prioritize that so given that he's six months less than six months into his tenure and he's already meeting with Metro superintendents to talk a little bit about what are our priorities what are his priorities and how can we find common ground is pretty outstanding so we'll continue to keep you posted as we have further communication with Governor pillin

025graduation events I know you're going to hear about this from board members but several really outstanding events I'm going to quote Miss Fisher when she often says board members don't get paid they donate a lot of Blood Sweat and Tears for our community for our kids and for our families but this is the time of year where you get your payback so to speak you may even shed a few tears along the way because it's pretty incredible stuff but young adult transition program program project search Zoo Health Systems Academy ideal several dare graduations the Ed Academy graduation and then Dr settle's leadership cohort I think we graduated 15. so you you just run the gamut of of kids and backgrounds and interests and what they want to do next but the one common thread is

026again we've got really good kids and families that love them and support them so it's really been a fun couple of weeks I also wanted to share we don't have any recognitions this evening uh we didn't quite get this done in time but we had some really outstanding results from state track from both Monarch and Titan we will recognize them at the next board meeting but I do want to give a shout out to the girls at South who are the overall class A Champions that's pretty darn incredible so uh more to come on that and last but by no means least again just want to thank everyone for a wonderful school year we've had our setbacks all public schools do but boy it felt like maybe the first kind of normal year and a

027good long while and that felt pretty darn good so I just want to wish parents and kids a safe and relaxing summer and want to thank the staff for the outstanding work they do and with that Mr President I'd conclude my superintendent comments all right thank you very much and with that we will move on to item D board reports okay I will start been a busy couple weeks uh as you stated one to uh both the graduations um it was great to see if you have all your pamphlets that I can remind myself of what I went to uh it was great I mean great weather uh all the people in town um driving around the neighborhood seeing all the graduation parties too it's been it's been great to see I also went to

028the monarchs honors night which I think that had a record of 18-ish million in scholarships awarded to our graduating monarchs always a great event there and having a family out the family's out to support their their students we had the foundation board meeting last week last Monday also was able to go to the first time uh this year I went to both the yatp ceremony and the ideal graduation I wasn't able to hit those last couple years so it was the first time I went to both of those great events uh great staff in both those programs uh and again seeing the families come out to support their children or it's just great to see and then I also went to the nasb legislative update meeting like you said Dr Wrigley not much has gotten

029through on the legislative side we're still waiting on the education education package but just getting updates from them and highlighting what they expect what they're thinking could be on that final list and what to potentially look out for and then lastly I did go to the Tara Heights field day on Friday it's always a great event they had perfect weather there since that's where my my kids go and like you said with the last week of school just want to thank all the teachers and the staff and everyone in our buildings and behind the scenes on on a great year hopefully everyone can get enjoy the summer get rested and and come back strong for for next year and all the students again hopefully hopefully you guys can have a good summer break and and

030come back ready to go you took every single thing I was going to say so yes these are all of the things that we went to um from honors night and these were after the last meeting because honors night for Titans was before that so um honors night senior health Academy ceremonies the senior recognition ceremony for the zoo the two commencement exercises the yatp project search which is probably my favorite one to go to because those kids are just amazing and their families are amazing and then the ideal program was the last one and I want to congratulate all the graduates for their successful completion of their school year and wish them good luck in their future endeavors 18 million was the little over 18 million for monarchs I think it was close to 20

031million for Titan which is a record so what that says to me is the school district does its job those kids are learning their they're doing what they need to do to get those scholarships and you don't they don't hand those out to people who are sloughing around so congratulations to the parents and the families too for the hard work they do to see their kids get through their graduations and thanks for all the things you said because they were everything I was going to say Dr rickley stole my thunder of thinking or giving a shout out to the lady Titans track team uh both it was fun watching the updates all day I was wanting to get out to Burke uh it's just such an exciting time out there uh with the crowds and

032everybody in from all over the state of Nebraska but a phenomenal individual performances by many Titans on both boys and girls side as well as monarchs on the boys and girls side a couple new record holders and multiple stage multiple times state champs so it's a glad the weather held out last week for state track and now it's time for the end of the year so I attended many of the things that sueanna Marcus mentioned as well my biggest moment of Joy was being able to hand my niece her diploma on graduation day so um was pretty excited to be able to do that so I won't take up any more time since we all have been busy well I didn't attend any of those events um I was down south of uh Houston Texas

033taking care of my granddaughter but I just again want to congratulate all of the students that graduated their parents their families and our staff who made sure they got where they needed to go to be able to have that great accomplishment and not that it matters to know the rest of you but I did get to go to my granddaughters seventh eighth grade band concert where I did get to see a celebration because she was named the outstanding seventh grade band student of the year so I did get to have some celebration and in person with her for a change so but it just this time of year you could I could see it even down there in Pearland Texas you know the excitement with families and kids as they're getting near the end of

034the year graduations were happening actually flew back with some family members from West Side Nebraska who West Point Nebraska who were down in Houston for their granddaughter's graduation from high school so it's neat to hear other people talk about the excitement that they see so um just thank the other board members for being present for those events and again wish everybody a really great Summers we're getting ready to wind down the rest of our kids in school as well yep graduation was great I've heard from a number of parents from both monarchs and Titans that my speech was the best because it was about three lines long and we were done so um but no it's fantastic it's in it's fun to be able to sit up on that stage but it's better to stand

035at the podium and watch this time we got them all to throw hats which was fantastic so to get it to watch that is from that angle it was amazing um but I was able to attend a few things I enjoyed the heck out of it it is amazing time of year um as the husband of a teacher who has two days left she's excited I know all the teachers are ready to be to be done for a few months and they have done an amazing job and we just can't thank all the teachers all the staff the administrators all the hard work you guys did I your statement was right good to kind of feel like a fairly normal year for the first time in a while so but I did want to thank

036everyone for all the hard work for the school year anything else for more comments all right well then I will move on to E uh letter e committee reports first buildings grounds and finance uh we have not met since last meeting we have a meeting scheduled for next Friday okay thank you uh human resources and student services we did meet last week our agenda item was strictly on the 5000 series we did an in-depth review of all the changing changes recommended for each of the policies that you see in your packet today we did talk about all of the different suggestions for changes that were submitted and reviewed them all and do support the presented changes as we discussed all right thank you very much and third curriculum in americanism the curriculum americanism group did

037meet this past week and the two items that were really covered in that meeting are the math standards which are on the agenda this evening as well as the first finalized book review so that is also on the agenda this evening all right thank you very much right that wraps up a section two Communications moving on to section three action items action by consent so I guess foreign motion by Ms Whit and a second by Miss Fisher any comments the roll call please yes thank you very much Item B board meeting minutes of May 8th 2023. I'll make a motion to approve the board meeting minutes of May 2023. second all right thank you I have a motion by Mr madler and a second by Mr Lotus any comments roll call please yes yes thank

038you very much and item sees the adoption of the math standards on this Siri that's right I recall that I gave you an overview of the Nebraska State College and Career ready math standards at the State Board adopted in September and tonight we're really looking for a motion to adopt those Mass standards so we can start in our toolbox process to get those aligned and implemented for our students I'll make a motion to adopt the Nebraska College and Career state math standards 2022. all right motion by Ms Fisher and a second by Mr madler any uh comments discussion okay roll call please yes all right thank you very much the last item under action items the ESU 3 driver education contract Mr Richards thank you Mr Bailey um each year we renew our new renew

039our agreement with esu3 to allow our students to take driver's education through the Educational Service Unit and uh you know that's tonight so they did raise it for the first time I can remember so I think with gas prices going up they raised it fifty dollars a person it went from 350 to 400. I would still recommend that we go ahead and partner with esu3 to provide those opportunities for our students through through that program not having any happy to answer any questions if you have any on that that's true I think we talked about it last year when we did it but can you remember how many kids signed up for this how many of our students you know I'm not exactly sure yeah it does have the minimum of 15 so obviously it

040has to be yeah right we usually have at least a couple dozen sign up yeah okay and I think Mr maddler is Mr Richards reminded our administrative team this morning um just because we have this contract with the ESU students aren't obligated to use esu3 if they want to go to Safety Council for driver's ed if they want to go to Cornhusker driving school or another private driving school they certainly may there's just one more option for kids and Families for the parents to pay we're currently we don't have to pay it it's just yes the parents want to they have the ability to go through esu3 yep that's correct um I was going to ask both of those that he did if you have a child in school that wants to take drivers up

041but they can't afford it do we offer any help for that or do any other programs offer help for it we typically don't offer help for that type of program any type of program that is a student's on a free and reduced lunch here in the district and it's a district program we do provide help with any of those fees but since it's an outside program that offers it we don't I'll make a motion to approve the 2023-2024 ESU number three drivers education contract as presented all right thank you I've got a motion by Mr lotus in a second by Ms Fisher any further discussion okay don't get the minimum what what happens then we've had that happen before not in this District but I've seen it happen ESU usually allows those students to still

042participate all right thank you anything else all right roll call please yes all right thank you all right we'll move on to section 4 discussion information items when we get down here toward the DNE we do have some comments for items on the agenda so we'll when I get to those items I will have those folks come up and speak we still have the same rules um when I call you up please provide your name and address and then you will have uh three minutes to speak just like before so but before we get to those we will start with item a which is the 2023 bond election results as I'm in well this is really exciting it's over and it we couldn't have asked for better results um I thought I'd just go through

043kind of the results and remind you of where we've been and where we're going from here key messages haven't changed all the way through Safety and Security updating our older facilities serving the projected growth of student enrollment no tax rate increase and then the importance of returning your ballot by May 9th at five o'clock just a reminder of where we wanted to go we had set that range of 30 to 40 percent voter turnout um we had wanted um the 10 857 with 60 percent um voters of the 40 um so our goal was to at least reach the 9048 49 um vote for the bond issue and we actually exceeded that in our overall results the measurable objectives and the evaluation of our of our overall communication plan for the bond issue so these

044are the objectives that we outlined in our communication plan as we were putting together what the steps were going to be in all the activities that we've shared with you throughout this process um so the first one is to develop a bond proposal that the majority of the voters can support I said by 60 or better was the goal and we exceeded that to utilize research to drive our communication plan we utilize that if you think about the survey and how we adjust adjusted our communication strategy based on the survey results to create an awareness amongst all of our voters which resulted in a success um to inform the community of key points securing those 9049 yes votes which of course we actually exceeded that we ended up with 9800 and some yes votes um

045build the knowledge of our staff so staff could be um information providers about the bond issue we actually are assessing that on our staff survey we're asking them their level of knowledge with the bond issue and we're also assessing the overall communication efforts of the bond issue on our parents survey as well um to just really measure each of these objectives and see where we're at and then to secure 30 percent minimum voter turnout with a goal of 40 and of course as you all know we ended up at the 33.42 what worked um and we talked about this a lot as a as a team the engagement process I think the thing that made the informational piece of the bond campaign um people not as active in it was the engagement process that we

046did leading up to developing what projects had to be in the proposal and I think we got better engagement from our community at in the fall if you remember the community forums and some of the things that we did as they were providing that feedback on what specific projects were included we didn't make any major changes through that engagement process because basically what we heard is that it's the right proposal and what we found in our formal survey which is almost scary how accurate that survey was which generally does not happen um was that it was indeed the right proposal so I think that engagement process was a really effective part of of the overall success of this campaign um the overall communication strategy I think adjusting that um to add more of the direct

047mail pieces and the social media pieces because we weren't getting people to the face-to-face events was something that was very helpful and we're going to measure that in the post bond survey the repetition of the message um I I think one of the things that I have to mention about why I think one of the things that went really well was we had an amazing vote for group that worked really hard the leadership of that committee was absolutely outstanding and they did a lot of different things like the Billboards and the text messaging and they really adjusted their strategy for how to reach out for the vote for that wasn't in place the other thing that I think was really good for them is that that vote for political action committee has been in place

048since the early 90s so they just there's just a group of community volunteers that keep up the paperwork every year they file the reports and so when they were ready to start they had the seed money from the political action committee from the 2018 bond issue and I think that that was really important um and then the other thing and you all know um I was really nervous about a special election um I think this special election worked for us um it's not as large of a voter turnout as a November election a general election would be but it's higher than a primary election um and I think it worked and I think the more you do special elections when you become a Millard or some of the other school districts that have done multiple

049ones of those it just becomes a habit and people understand it we have to do a lot of communication about what does a special election look like Lessons Learned on I think one of the biggest ones is that the informational campaign that we did doesn't need to repeat the engagement process and we all those neighborhood presentations that we did that we just didn't get people at I don't think I think expecting to get people to come out and take another night away from their family when they already knew what the proposal was and had already said what they wanted changed or how they supported the proposal I think that that so I think that that's something in the future um that we'll consider of if we do an engagement process like we did with this

050one maybe we don't need to do all that face-to-face up front um the more social and Direct Mail was also a lesson learned and we kind of shifted and added Direct Mail pieces on as we went through this process um based on some of the feed that back we were getting in the fact that we didn't have a large turnout in the in person um and then also I think a lesson learned is that a special election is a learning process you know I think people didn't understand okay May 9th is the election day where do I vote you know that no it's like a three-week process of being able to vote so that information so I think it's definitely a learning process um and the more school districts have special elections the more familiar

051their voters become with that process next steps on with the whole communication effort we're going to evaluate the communication efforts so we've got it on the staff survey we've got it on the parent survey we're also putting out a community survey over social media we did that with the 2018 bond issue we got about 1500 survey responses back um that just kind of measured what was effective in terms of our communication that'll give us great feedback for any future Bond issues as well as future communication plans um now we're going into the mode I always say that the day after you win an election the next election starts so now we're in the mode of planning on the informational campaign the communication plan for what's happening with the bond issues I think it's really important

052when voters say that they're going to support a bond issue that we keep them informed on we are doing what we said we were going to do and what you voted on um so that'll be the next phase of the whole communication and then we're also going to our our cute little kindergartners that applied for the bond Squad in 2018 are now in middle school so we're going to re-upt our bond Squad anyone that wants to stay is going to be able to stay but we're going to also add some new faces to our bond Squad and start that for the 2023 election so let's talk about the most important thing voting results um historical voter turnout I just wanted to start with that that green line was the only other special election it was

05323.7 voter turnout all the way up to 2023 which was this election which was a 33 voter turnout um I think the yellow line that goes through there you'll see is the primary elections um so you can see the the special election actually has a better voter turnout than most primary elections the one um that has the really high voter turnout 37 percent was a presidential I think it was actually the Trump election for the presidential the primary for the Trump election um and then the blue line of course is our our general elections which of course would be the best place um always because of the voter turnout this is the historical perspective of bond issues in our school district um adding on to the very bottom there uh 33 voter turnout we had

0549854 which is better than what we had hoped for for vote for um and we won by 66.42 um I think there's a couple big takeaways from this um you know of course the general elections are a better turnout but the fact that it was a special election is better than a primary election um voter turnout I think the fact that we have um 9 800 vote fours if you look down the column and of course some of that is growth but there was only one other year and that was a general election that we actually had more people supporting um the bond issue than what we had this year these are the ballots that were returned in the timeline there were 486 ballots and these are not the official official results Emily's supposed to

055be getting me though she's given us the total she's certified the amount but she's getting me the breakdown by day because there were some ballots that came in after she had ran the report and sent me these numbers so I wanted you to have a visual of what happened how did people support this across the district so each of the green lines represents the precincts in our district um so those are all the precincts and I know the numbers are really small but you can see the um the schools that feed into that particular Precinct I think it's really important to note that white line that goes through there is 50 we carried absolutely every single Precinct in our entire School District not one place in our district did voters say they did not support

056this bond issue the two lowest ones which were 54 percent those are actually actually it's the neighborhood that I live in um and that is the Lakewood Villages area that's very split between Bellevue and Papillion La Vista I mean on my street the majority of the children do not go to Papillion Lavista Community Schools they walk up the street and go to the Bell elementary school that's right up the street and so I don't think that that's super surprising um that that's the lowest area just because of the complexity of that particular neighborhood um Golden Hills neighborhood I just wanted to point out that's precinct number 23. that was a Precinct that for years and years and years we struggled carrying that Precinct and that Precinct actually we had pretty good voter turnout and we

057had a support in that neighborhood this is the precinct turnout so the 33 that's the total um turnout that we had across the district so you can see it range from precincts this is a little distorted because the 33 percent is based on total voters in our school district and how many actually turned in a ballot um these the percentages of the Bars by Precinct are based on the total number of Voters in that Precinct so for example precinct number 46 which is Portal the majority of that Precinct does not live in the Papillion La Vista schools so the overall Precinct of course is is significantly lower so what does that data tell us well we carried every Precinct we carried the precincts from the range of 76 percent support to 54 which was that

058Lakewood villages we had 10 precincts that hit over 70 support and I named the schools that those precincts came from we had a lot of vote fours the largest number of vote Force came from the Tara Heights area the portal area which each had over a thousand on vote force in their neighborhoods Trumbull Park and Hickory Hill um the highest voter turnout was that um which I judged at 40 or higher because 33 was what we were at average so anything over 40 I thought was a really high voter turnout and you can see the schools that um carried those I think the most important conclusion really is that we had widespread support of this bond issue um conclusions would be um we should be very proud to be in our school district I I

059do a lot of research on bond issues and watch National Trends and to carry a bond issue at 66 percent we didn't get to 67 but 66 percent um is is amazing um and it's the largest bond issue that the school district has done so not only is it one of the largest supports that we've had but it is the largest bond issue that we've had and then that 33 um voter turnout I think the the most important things is that it's a statement from our community about our public schools and I say that all the time about Bond issues and all the research shows is that Bond issues aren't just about the projects Bond issues are people's ability to vote about what they think about your public schools um and the fact that we

060had 66 of our community vote strongly for our Public Schools really says a lot about the efforts and the leadership that you as a school board and Dr rickley is our superintendent provide us questions uh thank you for uh the overview a couple one random question do we know how many votes came in after the deadline as far as the information goes like I I mail in one I don't know but I'm thinking that will be on her final report that she's going to send me I talked to her I talked to Emily this afternoon she's been amazing um and I know this was one of her first major special elections and she's just been amazing to work with she's going to send me a report of each day in the ballot so I I'm

061it might be on there interesting fact though if you look at the website there's a difference in numbers the total votes and the total votes cast and that difference is because there were three people that voted both for and against and there were 18 ballots that were submitted that were not voted they were not completed they were mailed in signed and they forgot to mark either for or against on the election so that number I have but I don't know how many came in after the date just interested how many mailed it in too late and didn't get our messaging it would be it would be an interesting fact I hope that's on this report perfect and then you're talking about the percentage 66 percent and Dr Wrigley I want to ask you this just

062for no reason Westside also had a bond that day what was their percentage uh I believe it was a smaller Bond and 63 percent I do love my brothers and sisters in west side and I want to give them congratulations but the competitive part of me says go Papillion La Vista so there's thanks uh yeah I want to thank the community 66 is very strong and I think it shows that the majority or two-thirds of the of the voters were looking at this as an investment in the students the school district and the community as a whole again the better schools and public schools that you can have in this community better the community as a whole is and the better outcomes for the students to then come back to those communities and provide services

063and start their families and and uh you know just like a number of us have done as graduates of this District so I want to thank the community for their support and their trust in US of of giving us this uh go ahead and now the hard work begins is uh putting the money to use and and building out everything that we promise and I'm looking forward to helping helping that process as well so thanks for you and the team of everything that you've done over the last I think 18 months ago was our first meeting on it so it's been a while yep thanks you hit on something that's key for me and that is the continued communication as we move forward with these projects because we owe it to those not only who

064supported the spawn but those who didn't to say that we are doing the right thing that we're following through with the promise that we made with the projects that we said we would be doing and making sure that the community is aware as each one of those projects is coming to fruition so I really appreciate that continued communication and how important that is as we move forward because that's what's going to set success for this school district for Bond issues in the future is how we always follow through communicate and stick to the plan so thank you no I just want to say again thank you to the the community for those that maybe didn't know or don't know bonds are the way we can do big things we we don't have the annual budget

065to build a new elementary school or to expand or renovate buildings that's what the bonds are for are for a significant investment in in our buildings or in our technology that we can't do the annual budget is 85 percent of that budget goes to to staff uh in our and Educators so again I'm glad that your informational campaign was successful I think people in those neighborhoods that are now going to be impacted I think they realize some of their sister schools that were impacted in the 2018 Bond and what a difference it made in those schools that they they definitely supported and wanted those opportunities and expansions for their own kids so it was not surprising to me to see such large turnout in those areas where the older elementaries that you know do need

066help so so again huge support 66 percent I was wrong I was I had 65 on my card but uh got busted so I'd rather be over than uh than under so again the to the community building grounds and finance has already started doing some planning we've got some agenda items on this evening to get to work that's that's you've put the Trust In us and now it's time for us to execute the plane if I may and I want to interrupt the board but in addition to some of the other individuals that I thanked we never did actually call out by name the vote for committee members that was for a very specific reason they don't work for the Olympus Community Schools they're not employees they're certainly not on the payroll they are as

067Ms eiman described them people that love our schools that love our communities and want to support it they step forward they donated their time and without their support this doesn't happen uh Jim and Jill Frederick we had Brandon and Kim eyman we had Brian and Missy stolley and we had Kami kamie Jessup and her husband they did wonderful things and just wanted to publicly thank them for everything they've done and I also want to thank Ms Hyman this doesn't happen without a whole bunch of people board community staff volunteers about this was always miss Simon's vision and in fact I overruled around some things I wish I wouldn't have such as let's go back to the face-to-face stuff the face-to-face stuff word so let's let's go back to the well until the well is dry

068well uh that was one of the Lessons Learned I'm not sure the face-to-face Service as well this time but we still got the win bottom line this doesn't happen without mizaiman and her team's leadership and I just want to offer you a heartfelt thank you and on behalf of the community we're gonna do some cool stuff thank you yes thank you very much and thank you to the community who uh who voted so um really appreciate it any other any other questions or comments all right thank you Ms Anna all right uh continuing on section four uh B the bcdm contract for 2023 Bond work sorry good oh you guys yeah absolutely sorry about that should we do it like they do in elementary stand up and like to go around your chair yeah all

069right sorry uh Mr Richards thank you Mr Bailey um well it's time to move forward and we're extremely excited on the business services side to to start these projects and and get our classrooms up to a standard and continue to address growth within the district um and one of our partners for many many years in this district has been bcdm Architects uh you know state law allows you to partner and have a relationship with an architect because they understand the importance of that continued relationship if you so choose to have it without having to go out to a competitive bid or anything like that for an architect Services of course we know the fees that bcdm charges us as uh you know below the normal rate that you would be charged by an architect so

070we do appreciate that as well but with that being said we do have a fee rate attached to the agenda item tonight for your review this is very similar to the 2018 fees they haven't increased I do have Mr Pat Carson here tonight from bcdm that has worked with the district for a number of those years and and he's available to answer any questions you might have on this fee schedule as well but we wanted to start the discussion tonight of continuing that relationship with bcdm on this new project list and then hopefully in June we can have an approval of that relationship and then we'll get to work with some designs and things of that nature for the different projects that we have for this Bond with that I'd take any questions or comments

071can you explain a little bit about the the total lump sum fee like what can you just inform me on that sure Pat would you mind coming up I think it's better coming from him but I could give you my explanation I didn't want to assume but uh so is your question what's included in that yeah sure so when you think about it's pretty simple to know what an architect does and so this fee not only covers the cost of what an architect does interior design Structural Engineering civil engineering landscape architecture mechanical engineering electrical engineering and food service design it's really all of the professionals who would be involved in designing the facility all under one fee as opposed to having a different contract with all those different companies so bcdm is really architecture and

072engineer or interior design but we partner with other companies to provide those Services all as one package to the district does that answer your question yeah so with that whole lump you're basically like paying out the people right yeah the same way a general contractors is going to hire a plumber and a drywaller Etc we're going to hire all of the specialty designers to be underneath us also I would add on their partner throughout the whole steps of the construction process so they're helping they're part of the team when with the Construction overseeing Construction a lot of times yeah generally about 25 percent of an architect's fee is actually takes place during construction so about 75 percent of it is pulling together what you might think about the drawings and the specs but the last

07325 percent is staying with it to Mr Richard's Point all the way through Construction you paid this up front and then like further down the road we'll pay another or no no these fees are paid along the way as services are rendered so this this just gives you an idea what it's going to cost uh as we move forward for example you know we're just finishing up some 2018 to bond projects this summer and right get some final Billings from bcdm on that that is included in your church today yeah we don't we pay as we go okay they'll spread out over four years or however long it takes to build the projects out okay Mr Richards did did I hear you say that the fee structure has not changed since the last time we

074went through this process that's correct I I just I think that's noteworthy bcdm has been a wonderful partner predates me and um I suspect a partnership will go on long after me but uh in this inflationary environment and this job market to be able to deliver the same quality of service that you always have and to not frankly jack up the prices I think speaking from the taxpayer perspective that's much appreciated and really appreciate you holding the line on that path thank you part of the reason is you guys are a good group to work with so it's easy it's easy to do it when you like working with the people you're with I think that was probably with Doug Lewis but now that you're about me he rethought that a little bit but um

075I would point out too just on the fee schedule uh you know having that partnership with bcdm who's developed that template for the new elementary schools that we build that saves us you know three percent architecture engineering fees by doing that any other comments or questions uh no questions uh just a general comment I appreciate I am Pat you've been to a number of our buildings rounds and finance meetings seems like every time we need them in our committee meetings to go through any projects that we're uh looking at uh for the bond the previous Bond you know he's always been available in there to answer questions and help us along the way and and give us the input on on his side so uh as far as on the finance committee for the last

076couple years I've been on it he's been he's been great to work with thank you thank you thank you very much all right item C uh under section four softball and baseball field leases with city parks back to you Mr Richards yes now the fun part comes as we get moving forward with these projects um we've been talking to the cities for uh several months on the best way to proceed with improvements of the fields and we've appreciated that partnership for a long time in this District to to not have to build your own baseball and softball field and have that partnership with the city is just a great thing it saves taxpayers money because we don't have to have dual facilities for both the district building them and then city building their own we

077can we have a good relationship and sharing those facilities across the board not only on baseball and softball but thank you for the partnership with the city of Papillion and the City of La Vista you know what you'll see in this packet that each City kind of preferred a different type of agreement in our local agreement or a lease pretty much does the same thing on our end as far as what we're able to do as a school district and that's invest a substantial amount of dollars into their facilities where we're going to be able to take control of those facilities for the most part and do the things that we need to do for our students with a limited partnership from their end um like I said they've kind of secluded these fields for

078us in the past for just our students in the Legion Baseball use or the club softball use over at uh city park so that's been a big commitment right off the bat before we even started talking about the lease and the interlocal agreements I think it's also um this would be much more costly for us if we had to build those facilities and try to find the land by the land and the infrastructure for the parking lots and all the things that in the utilities that needs to go into these type of facilities so that's important that we point that out as well on our end you know a 25-year agreement was critical that we get that much if we're going to put that much money into it both cities were good with that and

079working with us and having that 25-year commitment you know I think from there in they just want a commitment from us that we're going to take care of the facility that you know they understand that turf fields last about 10 to 12 years they're getting more use out of them now with these turf fields with the products they're developing through engineering and that that stuff that type of thing to where they're lasting longer so we're anticipating about a 12-year use out of those 10 to 12 years you're going to get for sure so you'll see in lavistas they'd like to see there's a little clause in there they want to make sure we replace the terrific the 12 year marker or so so that it lasts the full 25 years so that was their concern

080of course we're going to do that for safety reasons for our student athletes that play on that field tonight we just bring this for discussion and for any comments or suggestions that you may have within the lease or interlocal agreement documents and then we'll bring it back ready to roll in June for your consideration for approval um I just have a comment oh sorry good um I just have a comment to bring the agenda was presented to us on Friday just reading over it obviously being at the last building grounds and finance meeting when we were talking about the priority list Brian and I if the bond passes and if it does not pass well I'm all for this obviously come from a big Sports family I just wanted to um reading this it looks

081like we're prioritizing this first over Safety and Security which I know isn't the case obviously because you have so thrilled this with the attorneys so I just wanted to point that out there that we did talk about Safety and Security which we were prioritizing in the meeting because just reading this it looks like oh so now they're doing the softball and baseball fields first you know what I mean yeah I'm glad you brought that up but it it's something to understand a little bit so when we do designs for Safety and Security and the Elementary classrooms they're going to be high priorities of course but that's going to take a little longer design time with bcdm this is a project that we thought the baseball side that maybe we can get going right off the

082bat in the fall because it's limited design they've done a number of these fields there's a there's a cycle of involved here where the baseball team plays through the end of July and then is offer until next spring then we have a chance to to do a project and this is one that's easy design easy quick bid that we could get right off the ground the other ones are not going to be that way so I'm glad you brought that up for us to talk about with the community to let them know that most of the projects probably won't see a in the dirt the project kickoffs until the spring of 2024 because right now bcdm will be going through all the design work on the kickoff projects that are determined to start first in

083the spring at 24 which we've got a lot of them on the list right now and then you've got to go out we got to get a construction company we've got to go out for bid all those things take a lot of time whereas the baseball and softball are a little bit easier and and we can get going right out with the bat yeah thanks for bringing that in Brittany that's a good point one I appreciate that question is holtmeyer one of the other factors to consider besides the extensiveness that's involved in a building renovation to make sure that safety is a priority priority think front entryway think double entrances think infrastructure that's going to be required with rewiring some of the buildings and doing the hardware software that's needed to do the things that

084we've talked about but the other factor that we consider is minimizing the impact of construction on learning and if we go in first thing in August for example and start knocking down walls right in the heart of instruction we try to do the summer we do try to do as much as we can during the summer months but the fact of the matter is sometimes it just isn't possible but we don't want to go and start knocking down walls and creating a really disruptive learning environment right when kids are trying to get back into Rhythm and routine so it's one more reason why this project probably makes sense but at the end of the day the prioritization products of projects rest with the board including yourself and we have to have the the contract signed

085to even do any projects getting that going through here in June yeah and then I just want to call it because you said the American Legion also uses um at least the fricky field I the Assumption on my side is that when we take these over we will also continue to let our Legion team play absolutely you know there are students and they're builders for our programs as well and uh we've been involved in a number of meetings with the legion as well and they've had a lot of say and and what they'd like to see at the parks so it's been it's been good conversations with them as well thanks great any other comments okay thank you very much Mr thank you all right uh the next item is uh procedure for policy 6405.

086um Missouri before you begin we've got a couple of uh comments for items on the agenda so please remember I'm gonna call your name and come up to the podium and give your name and address and you'll have three minutes to speak the first is Melissa helsell foreign I would like to bring to the board's attention a few issues that I have noticed with procedure 6405. this procedure outlines the complaint process for controversial educational materials in this procedure it states a prayer and our Guardian may fill out a request for Recon reconsideration of educational material form however there's no form on the website or in this section the only thing resembling a form is embedded in the site page there's no downloadable or fillable document or online form to fill out it seems like this

087could be made easier and more accessible by having a digital document or website form um in this procedure outline it also states that when a complaint is filed the assistant superintendent can put together a committee of one teacher one administrator to parents or Guardians and the school librarian however there's no verbiage in this part of the procedure for steps that will be taken to ensure that the selected committee is an unbiased committee also as the procedure States in section B and as Dr rickley has pointed out um a parent or Guardian can request their child not be exposed to certain materials but for example if a parent has made arrangements with a library that their child is not allowed to check out certain books what ensures them that their child will not be able to

088read that book while visiting the library I didn't find any current verbiage that addresses this issue and I would like to see it be considered as well um the last item I have is just a question after a complaint is submitted and the material has been reviewed does the assistant superintendent's decision affect the district or just the school in which the complaint came from this might be another thing to consider clarifying in the future just to keep all the schools you know on the same level in light of the many controversial topics circulating through our schools around the country transparency and open dialogue between the schools and parents is more important than ever making changes and adjustments to policies and procedures to fit the needs of today are something we need to consider though our

089views may be different or our ultimate goals are the same we want our district to be something we're proud of and a safe place for our kids to grow and flourish um rather than fighting against each other I love to see us come together and find ways to work with each other finding ways to bridge the gap between the schools and parents and making communication easier and as transparent as possible is I think a really good place to start so thank you for your time I look forward to the presentation thanks all right thank you all right uh second up for uh procedures 6405 is uh Ms Tiffany Carter um those can be passed to everybody okay we don't pass them out during the meeting we'll we can pick them up after the meeting okay

090I will I guess I'll have to change what I say a little bit because I gave it to you so you can hopefully you'll remember what it is my name is Tiffany Carter I live in Omaha Nebraska so the sheet that I have for you since you're not able to grab it actually has a QR code on it for a Google my map of pillion La Vista schools I've been doing research for over a year and a half now on the school book library library school books I've been here before and spoken to you about my concerns last time I gave you an actual document that talked about the stance of American College of Pediatricians so I'm just going to quote that really quick here children's stuff children suffer many negative effects due to Modern

091society's exposure to an acceptance of pornography these negative effects include mental disturbance and unrest for the young school-aged child including acting out in violent Behavior because of its harmfulness to Children pornography must never be used as a tool to teach children human sexuality and I have a list of there's only eight books here but I have many more that I could show you basically with this Google my map when you when you scan the QR code it'll show every school in the district you can select your school the one I had pulled up in preparation to show you was the papilliona Vista High School which with my findings of searching the library catalogs there are several books that are harmful have harmful content to minors including the one that was read not too long ago

092all boys aren't blue basically this is a tool for you to see that there is a concern but there are books in the schools that need to be removed and that's why I'm here today because of talking about the policy there's a lot of parents that I've talked to the con the frustration is there isn't transparency like we just heard it's hard to find the form online how do you go about all these things and there are parents who are trying to to follow the steps in policy in order to get things changed and and get their concerns heard but I think it's a really good step here that you're talking about it today because we really need to understand what it it is that is expected so that parents who do have issues with

093these can make and address those so my challenge to you is that you will take that and actually look at the resources that I have for you I've done all the work for you I've done all the research hours and hours looking at the different books in the school libraries I've put them in easy to to see maps and I've also there's a link to an actual spreadsheet that has the entire list of over 200 books I want to say it's like 256 or something on this list that I've searched in the schools and I have a number count of every single one that's in each school that you can look for because this really is an issue and I would really appreciate it as a parent even not from this District but you guys

094have a chance to show other districts like this is why we want to go to this District if you're going to stand for integrity and righteousness there will be people who will want to come to your District because they know it's a safe District all right thank you all right Miss Siri hey good evening so um tonight I'm going to visit with you about the procedure and process that is directly outlined in board policy 6405. we had been talking about the process that the district has used for several years to reevaluate curriculum materials in cabinet as well as a subcommittee and we thought it might be helpful to do a presentation for our community to create some transparency and also since we have multiple books right now that have been submitted for review so the

095first thing just to kind of capture what I just said is the reason for the presentation I think it's also good to point out that the this policy is part of the six thousands which is part of teaching and learning those policies are up for review starting in June for evaluation so we thought it was also very Timely um the second thing is this policy not only serves questions about library books but obviously about curriculum content in courses or classrooms across our district and so even though the board policy is very specific and outlines the process the process does look just slightly different for a library book versus direct curriculum content that's part of the guaranteed Bible so we're going to talk a little bit about that and then also like I had mentioned earlier

096we currently have nine library books with forms completed on them and the complainant has been communicated with but I thought it would be good for everybody to Kindle the process because it does take time to do this so that everyone kind of understands the stages so what you see here in front of you is actually a screenshot of the board policy that is found on our district website I don't expect you to be able to read that but you can find it under our policies at 6405 under instruction um at the at this board policy the continuation of it is the procedure that outlines the steps that are necessary to have a reconsideration of a curriculum content component and then at the end of it is the form that can be filled out by a

097patron or parent and submitted to to start this process so what I've captured here for you on this slide is what the form ask that's attached to the board policy you can see at the top the first part is just general information specifically if it's a book what's the author and the title if it's curriculum material as a resource guide what's who's the publisher is a hard bound paperback or non-print non-print could be things like an activity or a media Source such as a video or another piece particularly perhaps from a textbook source as well so you could have audio the contact information of the person who's making the request and the school in which the content has been tied to and then you'll see there are six questions that the complainant is asked to

098complete in order to help understand what the concern is and also to capture what their request is with the particular material that they're asking to be reconsidered so the procedure I broke into three parts here again this is a screenshot um but I think it's easiest if we talk about what do the steps actually look like in action uh and then what does the procedure say so to kind of give you an idea of what this looks like so this is part one of our procedure and that dark black line it's multiple pages so that's actually where the page break is so that's what that represents above the procedures the policy that I just shared with you so we just recently completed the full process for a library book and that's the first time that

099that's had that that has happened we've used this procedure and board policy multiple times but we've never had to do the full process for a library book so I also thought that was important as we talk about this process so you can see um to the right against a smaller picture of what I just showed you those are the procedures but then to the left what does it actually look like for a library book and so you'll see that once we receive a form that's been filled out with a request to review a particular book or curriculum content component I always reach out to the complainant and acknowledge that we receive the form I think that's really important so that they know that we have it and we've started the process um the forms then

100um at that point I also communicate next steps interestingly enough for the library books the first time we had one submitted for a library book was this school year and there were actually multiple ones submitted by the same individual which is totally fine but we've never had multiple ones come in at a time so I reached back out to that individual and said because each of these need to be addressed individually so that they're not compared or also yet a non-biased evaluation how would you like them to be reviewed and it was recommended and I think it's really wise that we just take them in the order in which they were received so now I'm keeping track of the date and the time stamp and that tells us after one book's been through what the

101next book is to start the process um I also communicate with cabinet and the American Civic subcommittee that we're running a process on something particular as well as the building Administration where the items from in this case because it's library books that also included the Librarians so that they knew that we had a book under review at that point I begin to get multiple copies of the book for the committee um purchasing those getting those ordered trying to figure out what's the least amount of wait time that we're going to have for that or if we can possibly obviously we pull up the copies we have but if there are other copies that we can access we also tap those resources as well so we collect those so that they're ready to be distributed this

102is part two of the procedure so this is Step G this is actually where Library excuse me books start in the process and I'll talk about what happens with the previous steps in a minute but at this point our procedure is very explicit that a committee is formed and it outlines who serves on the committee so for each building that has the book a teacher is identified an administrator to parents and the school librarian as well as a central office director to actually lead the process um the second part there you see it tells specifically what the task or what the duties uh of the committee is as they move through the process and so what does that look like um in real time so to speak is obviously after we secured copies of the

103book we formed the committee members were selected I reached out to the buildings in which the book um was at and asked that principal to uh invite a parent to see if they would be willing to participate in a book review so each administrator did that and then we also asked a teacher a librarian and one of the central office directors after the first meeting was set up I actually started the meeting I explained the task I presented them with copies of the board policy answered any of their questions we also gave them copies of the form that the complaint had completed and in this particular situation that individual also submitted some other documentation which was good and so we provided them with that as well and then I removed myself from the committee meeting

104because the committee is going to make a recommendation to me and at that point the director took over the process um at that time then the committee decided a time that they would meet um once they had had an opportunity to read the entire book they also needed time to review the complaintant's request there was a request on the form as you saw earlier in the questions like what would they like to have happen and they also needed time to reflect and answer three questions so these are the questions that the committee centered their conversation around and these are three questions that have just been adapted from good curriculum adoption processes so the first question is always about does it have value or does it have a purpose so in its entirety does this book

105have value for the students of plcs the second question is in its entirety does this book fit within our community and then the third question is in its entirety is this book appropriate for the age levels who have access to it so those were the three questions that they were going to send her their conversation and summary around um an additional piece was after they um had time to read the book they came back for their second formal meeting at that time the committee was provided some additional information one of which was a copy of policy 6401 this is your board policy that is very explicit for Library selection it includes not only how books are selected but how the collection is maintained and the deselection process again we are very fortunate that we have

106trained Professionals in our school librarians that are Educators that have gone to school to do this work but this very much outlines the process that they utilize as well as the resources they use to evaluate reviews and so on um so they were given a copy of that in case there were questions of what does this look like they were also given some circulation information on that particular book how many times it had been checked out how many copies were there in the district and also how many copies were found in other Metro districts and other buildings to kind of give them a point of reference um so that information was shared with them and then they were given an opportunity to discuss and collaborate and they write up a summary um centered around those

107three questions and um the complainants request to have the book removed at that point um the leader from the committee then so the director reached out to me and said we are complete we have a summary for you written up from the committee I met with that individual and they talked through the results and how the committee reached their decision um so if you look over to the right you'll see this is the committee's responses it's just a summary sheet but just to kind of give you an idea of what it looked like the committee answered that first question does the does this book have value for plcs students they answered that question and then they also cited specific examples of why they felt that it did and then they did that same thing for

108the second question the third question um during this entire process uh I was I tried to be in good communication with the complaintant to let them know where they where we were in the process I reached out and said the committee's been formed they've met they're going to try to get everything read in two weeks and then I will let you know and so on after they reached their um summary and we we met to go through it then I made my decision and I emailed in writing back to the complainant explaining the decision that was made and I also attached the summary so that they could see the process and um kind of the collaboration between the members of the committee and what their thinking was at that time I also communicated the final

109decision to the superintendent Dr Wrigley as well as the building administrators where the book lived and the Librarians so that they knew where we were in the process that takes us to part three um which this is the last part of the procedure that's outlined and this is if the complainant would like to appeal um the decision and so it's very explicit um and so that's the last part of the process and the complaintant has the right to do that and they have to formally do it in writing to the superintendent and they can also appeal that component to the board if they wish to do so I think a couple of things that's good to note is the amount of time for the entire process is really dependent upon several things you know the

110availability of the book uh if we're getting multiple copies if we have to order them sometimes that can be or if we're trying to get them from other libraries also the size of the book um and the availability of the committee scheduling meetings with them and also realizing that we're asking them to read the book and all of the materials supplied by the complainant to make sure that they're have a good understanding of the concern so it really also centers around the schedule of the committee I would say you know best case scenario was probably this last one it's about three weeks it was a easier novel I would say an easy read at the committee got really lucky in that they found a day to meet right away if they wouldn't have been able

111to meet that day the next date for them to meet I believe was a week and a half so that would have delayed our process I'd say worst case scenario like you get something like War and Peace it could be 90 days depending upon the availability of the committee and the actual piece that they're reviewing um the committee also um which this is something I'm going to add to the process we didn't really ask them to provide feedback on the process but they did and it was very helpful and informative and so that's a piece we're going to keep um so what would um they recommend they really felt like it was important that it be communicated to um complainants when they're completing the form that they're very explicit in their own words what their

112concern is copying and pasting something from a website they felt was difficult for them as a committee to understand how the concern applied directly to Papillion Lavista Community Schools and they wanted to make sure that they honored that so that's like an example of something that they provided um so that that's a piece that I think moving forward would be very beneficial so how does this process look different for a library book compared to a guaranteed and viable curriculum piece uh I think it's important to note that it's really different when a student doesn't have a choice as to whether or not they can engage in the content a library book obviously it's an option for a student the student may or may not choose to do so but when you're sitting in an 11th

113grade English language arts classroom in a particular novel is part of the guaranteed Bible curriculum the student really doesn't have a choice and so that makes it different right out of the gate also most books that are in our guaranteed in viable curriculum during the toolbox process we always try to adopt an alternate book so that if a parent has a concern for their child and they fill this out um we can right away say this is how do you feel about this book it would reach the same learning targets but different content or different so on so that we make sure that that student continues to get to move through that curriculum towards those learning targets um I also think that a big difference is when we have something that's happened in a classroom

114or part of a curriculum we have to investigate right out of the gate because it's really important that we understand the teacher's intent um with using that what learning targets it's matching towards and also the delivery of instruction how is it delivered we've just found I I personally have found this is super important because understanding the whole purpose sometimes it's a miscommunication or a misunderstanding and there are instances we want to teach kids to think for themselves we don't want to teach them how to think and teaching kids to be critical thinkers sometimes you have to use material that can be seen as controversial because you're trying to get them to evaluate it for themselves and so it's really important that we know the why and and how that was communicated so that we can

115help that parent navigate for their own child um that is why in the board policy if you look at the procedure it typically starts with the building principle because reaching to the building principal or the teacher for clarification we think is super important and at that time if the parent still has a concern um the principal can provide the form to them and get that started for them right away library books are a little bit different because they've already gone through your board policy of 6401 and that procedure was followed in the selection of that material by our Librarians that are trained to select books for kids um so at that point it really is at the district level and so that's why we jumped right to step G to form the committee there was

116no need to go to the building principle and so on at that point so that that's kind of a little different component to a library book as opposed to curriculum content that's directly in the classroom the other thing that I thought might be important reminders is with library books our parents can always see what their students have checked out for them that's in the app it's specifically identified in the app so they can see what books their their children are reading or checking out specific titles that a parent wishes that their child doesn't have access to or they're worried about the child reading it in the library that's a communication that can be shared with the building principal and the Librarians we do have ways to make note of that and also make it so

117that when a child's checking out a book or student I should say is checking out a book that that pops up as a notice that the parent wishes that they do not have access and then the third piece is obviously you know parents have access to search our library collection through the Fallout site you can just put in follow it and then you can select your school district and see access to the collection in the different buildings or they can also access that through access that through their school's website so that's a little bit about the process not only with the procedure that's outlined with the board policy but what it kind of looks like in action questions or things that I can answer for you um thank you for going through that uh being

118the first time I've got a library book I think it's interesting to see on our side what that uh what the policy we have in place what is the what does it actually mean for them the people that have to go buy the policy um and I know we're going to talk about the policies next month on any potential changes and I'm you know I think it's good timing because we're going through it we'll have any suggestions hopefully feedback on on how to change that maybe some timelines or whatever the changes are but I think it's also important for the board you know putting the policies in place to understand the resources that it does take then to enforce those policies so you're talking about for this one book how many pages was the book

119oh I should have a couple hundred it wasn't a small one right 100 yeah it was a relatively moderate novel novel you know how many hours for the committee and yourself that have all went I don't know that's something we regret we kind of wish we wouldn't have documented it because now that we have multiple copy is we recognize that and of course you know it also the committee we wish like the parents and stuff we would have asked them too because it would be easier for us to gauge and that would be something that would be nice to communicate to the complaintant we didn't do that we are getting ready to start the second book on the list I'm actually going to communicate to that individual that filled out that request tomorrow because we

120just got the books in um and so we'll form that committee and get started and I am going to ask if they will keep track of their time just so I have an estimate to know a reasonable amount of time because I think that's also a question I'm going to get from parents is they choose to participate on the committee or not yeah okay appreciate it um how did the principal select the parents um you know that would be so I just simply asked that they reach out to a parent that they felt would be good and willing to do it and also one that they had a relationship with that they could tell them what it was about and make sure to offer them the opportunity if they didn't want to do it there

121was no pressure okay so the principles really determined that and what book what was the summary what book was that so this process will be ran over any book that this book was sold I'm sorry sold oh Soul sorry you may have mentioned this and I I appreciate Miss holtmeyer's question the very first book that was referenced was sold the second book uh and the Order of preference was determined by the complaint and his missery second book was not all boys are blue um sold uh if you mention this my apologies but I believe the committee's recommendation was to keep it on the shelves is that accurate they all agreed and could you and I know you put up the sample sheet and I don't know if the text was legible to people in the

122audience but can you provide maybe just a few high-level summary points of what came from this because I this is a really important point I think for our board and our community it is not our intention to do a board report in a formal setting like this every time a book is referred uh that's not something we've done in the past if the board wants to do it that way uh we'll certainly do it that way but that's not our intention we did think however given that this is a high profile topic for board members and our community members that not only walking the board in the community through the process might lead to some transparency and certainly answer some questions but it's a good segue and as Mr madler pointed out the 6000 series

123which we'll be contemplating in the month of June so just wanted to be clear about kind of why are we doing this now but again miss Siri if you could uh please humor me a little bit what are some of the comments I'll just pull out a couple from each of the questions so you can see there this is the first question which is in its entirety does this book have value to plcs students and the very first first bullet um one Committee Member cited seeing firsthand the effects of human trafficking when serving in the United States on Military deployment to Afghanistan students reading a work of high literary equality creates for them a conceptualization a very real world problems in the world both far and near and so there are several examples like that

124where they denoted why they thought it was um had value the second question was in its entirety does the fit does the book fit within our community I apologize again the committee members unanimously agreed that the book does fit within the community the first bullet while sex trafficking and the books takes place more than half a world away this is a problem in our own backyard I-80 the College World Series in fact this book provides a bridge to our own current events a bridge to life lessons especially between parents and their children reading the book um and then the last question was in its entirety is this book appropriate for the age level and this says um while easy to read this book is of high text complexity because of its difficult content maturity needed

125of the reader to digest this books this makes the book wholly appropriate for high school students again the purpose of this book is not to entertain and it is certainly not to sexualize its readers no reasonable person or student would realize that sexualized by this reading about rape it is a rape scene in the book upon the young teenager who is the main character in the book so and then the last part their summary was without full explanation the committee found it difficult to understand the patrons citing of sexualization as a possible effect of the book remaining on our high school library shelves this committee discussed how no reasonable student while and after reading the book in its entirety would develop a sexualized mindset more information would be needed in detail from the complainant so

126yeah thanks for going over there I think that's where it's I mean it's incredibly important that context matters you know taking a paragraph or two or sentence or two out of a novel and and saying that that book should not be in our libraries I think the process that we have to make sure that you're taking it into account with the entirety of the message that that author is trying to get across or the entire book um is important I um so I thank the committee for for reading it all and and spending all the time and putting the thought and effort into it and taking everything into consideration not just a difficult paragraph or two um I know like how people always say you pick the worst sentence out of the book you pick

127the worst paragraph As book but like from the gentleman who read the all boys aren't blue I had sent Mr madler at the book looks on it and it's not just a paragraph and I know that's not the book that we're discussing but that's not just a paragraph like it's throughout the whole entire book so for one children probably shouldn't be reading that but how do we know about these parents like if they're biased like how do they I know the principal picks them but like how do we know where they stand on situations they're not I don't think I gotta be honest they're not picked for how they stand on a situation they're picking because they're parents of students that have access to the book so there are Community representing our families that are

128sending their kids to that particular School so if a book were to ever come up at a child's school from a parent who's come up here and expressed their concerns that they're not for such books would you pick that parent to go over a book group to do a book review I I would not not pick that parent if that's what you're asking um again I think that's also why we shared what parents can do to make I mean ultimately parents have a right to pick and parent their children that's not the role of the district we are very much aware of that and so that's why I complement this board for having a very well defined procedure in place um but they are literally representing parents and they are parents because they have students

129in that building where that material is available the parents know what book it was or they just get picked and said we have a book to review we have a book to review so they had no idea that it was sold that was coming up so they didn't have a chance agreed to be on the committee okay thanks I just wanted to ask that Miss holtmeyer I think you're bringing up a question I think that's probably on a lot of people's minds and I think Ms Siri did a good job of explaining it but we don't administer a screener for example to determine if and I'm not trying to sound Flip It I I think it's a very real question I I truly believe that we don't check to see if you're a Democrat or

130a Republican or an independent we don't ask if you're more left-leaning in your ideologies or right-leaning we ask parents and and you ask an important question are they biased and my answer is yes all of us have biases all of us have certain ideological leanings based on our background based on our jobs based on our upbringing based on our faith based on a variety of factors so I think it would be Folly for us to assume that we could get anybody that doesn't have a bias we all have them right I think the other thing we have to be very real about is the practicality of this process if we start getting 10 20 40 100 books we're going to overwhelm our ability to keep up with it but more importantly we're going to overwhelm

131the parents who are willing to do this we're asking them to volunteer potentially a huge volume of their time and again if we have multiple books being referred at once we're either going to have to really start recruiting a whole lot of parents we're going to keep going back to the well and asking those same parents over and over and at some point they're going to tap out and say I didn't sign up for this I have a life I have kids I have family I can't just spend my time reading books so an important question it's certainly one we can continue a conversation on but I think we have to be very realistic about the practicalities of how we select our parents and how heavily we lean on those parents I I do think

132to also because I don't know if I said this or if I did I apologize but now we're getting ready to start our second book that will be a different committee so they will be different parents different teachers and so on I think that's important because I will be honest I am reading all of these as the leader of curriculum in this district and I will tell you I caught myself comparing one to the other and I realized if if the book is going to have a true evaluation and follow the procedure you need different people each time because it was very hard to read the second book and not compare it to sold and and whether or not that impacts the decision I it's supposed to be an evaluation of that book not the

133previous book or not the book to come um so they will be different members and then I also think just it's good to know too um I believe the additional documents that was submitted for the first book came from book looks there were lines missing in what was shared in between that content as well um and so that was caught by one of the committee members too so again the policy is very explicit in that the material is reviewed on the whole on its entirety um and and so I think that validated why that's important too this is for the removal of the book like essentially at the end whether they want to remove it or not correct if that's what the complaintant requested and that was the request for for sold okay um but

134yeah it could be that they just request that their child especially with um activity or something specific in the curriculum they might say I don't want my child to read this book um and and that's why I said we off we have an alternate available for that when the book this is before I was on the board obviously but when that something happened in our town how did that get removed like what was the whole process of that so that we didn't remove that book um necessarily and that did not come through as a complaint um it was not a parent submitting this form I would like to thank the parents for the work they did in evaluating this and I think from the summary they did their job they took their time they were

135thoughtful in their responses and I appreciate the work that they did to do that if you could have a biased group that was the other side you don't know that the two parents come on might not be biased in the direction that you prefer we have to hope that the process works so that there's neutrality and people look at it with an open mind and consider all of the aspects of the material and how it answers those three questions and I think this group did that and I appreciate their time thank you yes and again I think this is an important process we've used it before like I said not not for a library book we've never ran it completely through for a library book this was a first for that piece to run the

136entire process but uh it is it is important because um you know we want to provide the best we can for our students and we want um you know we're very explicit and purposeful in the way we serve kids and um there's nothing wrong with um people having different perceptions and Views that's why you have your process thank you so much for going over the policy and the procedures today I think it is speaks to the transparency piece of it even though all of this information is available out on our website it's good that we're having this open conversation I want to thank everybody that served on that committee whether they were a parent or a teacher or a librarian or some other person because these kinds of of topics are things that we need

137people willing to take their time to do their due diligence to read all of the material not just excerpts that might be provided but all of the material be thoughtful in their responses back and these responses look incredibly thoughtful to me so I appreciate you walking through it I appreciate us seeing the results of this first episode that we've done now and I also appreciate that people that served on the committee wanted to provide feedback about the process as well because as we all know all policies and all procedures have the opportunity to be adjusted as we go along as people participate in the activity and bring back feedback that might make that an even stronger policy a stronger procedure so I just want to thank everybody for that and and the time that they

138obviously put into their responses I have one quick question I think you briefly mentioned the timeline to do this have you spoken to the complainant because I know he put in a number of books um that it's probably going to take longer than what we had originally hoped based on the first time going through this process I haven't yet I like I said we just moved to the second book and I just we just literally got the books today and I didn't know how long it would take so my intent was to reach out tomorrow and say we're starting the second book um but yes I've had another individual that submitted books and I did communicate that we had received it and it was going on a list um and so on so yeah I

139did share with the the first individual that we were evaluating um the cycle and it might take a while because we had numerous yeah definitely something that was initially definitely something we need to yeah adjust in that that policy enough procedure to since now we've seen that it's going to take a while with multiple books coming in okay thank you very much any other comments questions uh sorry one other questions that just popped up for the people that have submitted the complaints have the books that they are asking for the review of do they have children in the schools where they can access those books um they are patrons I would tell you that um so community members they do not have children in the schools in which these materials thanks does that make it

140a difference if like a patron does it and without a child in the district because they pay taxes too um sorry do you want to do that again on um does it matter if a patron submits it versus a versus a parent with a child in school because those people essentially are paying you know taxes in this District so they can have it I don't think that's why it matters I think it matters because your board policy is very explicit in how a parent's request for their child yes is is different so yes I would say it does make a difference because if a parent is requesting specifically for their child your board policy is very explicit in what they can choose for their child they cannot choose for other children so in that regard

141yes it would matter to know if they were a parent directly of a child being impacted or if they were submitting it as a patron but they have a right to submit it didn't you say in this and maybe I heard it wrong that this is for parents or patrons to fill out yes that's what I just said okay yes but if you're a parent and you fill it out if you've read the board policy right it's very explicit how IT addresses a parent of Their Own Child versus a patron but either one can fill it out essentially correct okay yes thank you all right or Patron right at the top yeah okay any other comments questions all right thank you very much we will move to item e policy 5000 review before we get

142to that we had one other um comment for item on the agenda I'll call up Mr Ralph Tate again please I know this meeting is running along tonight hopefully it won't be too long so again good evening my name is still Ralph Tate and I still live in Papillion so tonight culminates the review and comment period for the 5000 series policies although I applaud the board's Express desire to seek feedback from the community according to the published minutes from this meeting none of my comments were accepted nor did the school district provide any feedback as to why nor provide an opportunity for conversation unlike the 6405. no email no text no phone calls no opportunity to exercise that open two-way communication it shouldn't surprise me since I didn't receive any responses from my comments on

143the 4000 series either but it does seem to call into question what exactly do you as the board mean when you say you want open two-way Communications with the community I'm a little bit at a loss a comment I did submit that I think necessary to mention was in regard to policy 5208 which specifically addresses Title IX which states in part it's the policy of the school district that no person shall on the basis of sex be excluded from participation and be denied the benefits of or be subject to discrimination than under any of the school districts programs or activities the policy then goes on to Define terms such as actual knowledge complainant formal complaint consent and sexual harassment ironically what isn't defined in the policy is what is meant by the term sex we

144have a Supreme Court Justice who doesn't know what the definition of a woman is because she's not a biologist so I thought maybe you'd get a biology teacher to help out but it's clear from the text of the Title IX law that sex means biology biological sex male and female for example Title IX allows schools in some districts to change from being an institution which admits only students of one sex to being an institution which admits students of both sexes Title IX says nothing about sexual orientation or gender identity so why is it difficult for you as the school board to do the same for Millennia this has never been an issue and until recently having this conversation would have never needed to happen that time has passed and we need to be clear about

145what we mean as you review the series of policies I requested you permit us as Citizens parents and grandparents to engage with you in that open two-way communication that you have so clearly espoused but are having a difficult time actually demonstrating we have a mutual responsibility to ensure all students not only feel safe but are safe from sexual harassment wherever they might be the relationships between students and parents is one that can only be built on trust but that trust has been severely shaken over the past several years it will only be restored when that promised open two-way communication is not only an aspiration but also a reality so next month the 6 000 series policies are up for review I believe that I and several others will be making comments for consideration on those

146policies as well and I look forward to hearing back from you on those comments any questions thank you for your time all right thank you Dr Settles thank you I would invite of Dr Myers and Dr Steele and just give a shout out while they're coming up to the subcommittee thank you for the time that you took to go through this as well as these two individuals pretty much from the time we pass the fifth month we start looking for the next year and paying attention to recommendations that are coming forth so just so that we're making sure that we can be as thorough as possible take it away Dr Steele and I are here to visit about the 5000 series which is up for discussion in a nutshell the updates we are suggesting come

147really in three types of categorical changes the first one is more grammatical in nature organization um trying to remove some redundancy um the second suggestion of change is around updates to align with changes in the law and the third being a new policy for your review as well so to go ahead and Jump Right In the majority of the changes are more procedural in nature and the very first one is to visit with you about is policy 5001 which is enrollment the changes in this policy are the majority of the the suggestions made to and visited with subcommittee about has to do with removing language from policy 5101 and the language that we're taking a look at relates to in-district transfers and option enrollment procedures and because those are more enrollment in nature our suggestion

148is to place them instead in 5001 it just makes more sense for for families to take a look there for information all under that enrollment policy um so taking a look at policy 5101 you could see then the removal of that language from the procedures um in order to not create that redundancy in both um those uh policies so you'll there's a lot of rent there um but it's it's really just to move from one to the other in policy 5102 we just wanted to clarify some language that seemed a bit clunky uh when when reading it and and just to kind of give you an example of the very little bit of change in that this policy relates to discontinuation of enrollment and specifically it relates to kiddos who perhaps start kindergarten a parent

149chooses to enroll their child in kindergarten and then on occasion we do have a family that says you know what maybe um maybe we'll just wait till next year and and give our child one more year and that does happen um very very infrequently but it is to just clarify that six years of age is compulsory age in the state of Nebraska and so there was a little bit of reference to seven years of age in there that created just some misunderstandings so we took that this suggestion is to take that piece out in 5103 very simply this was as Dr Dr Meyer said this is one of these that we're just bringing into Conformity with State Statute um the it's it's regarding census and uh it requires the superintendent uh to submit a report

150on the census for students in the district between 5 and 18 years of age instead of 5 and 21. so um so we're changing it from 21 to 18. in 5203 there were some procedural changes only there was a reference to bullying in the harassment section both of those terms harassment and bullying are terms of Art and so we don't want to get those get those confused and so we we changed that there's a reference in the uh in the policy to that refers to gender we changed the term to sex to align with the district's non-discrimination language and also to align with court president on that and then finally there was there's a section in there dealing with um cyber bullying the type of bullying that occurs possibly off campus but that can have

151a definite effect on the learning environment at at school we removed the the language that says material and substantial disruption that's to align with a recent U.S Supreme Court case called manahoy versus BL in that case the the Court held that the the terms material and substantial disruption that those are terms of Art and and that is a very high threshold to prove and the Court held in manahoe that in cases of harassment or bullying even though it occurs off school grounds um that they that it doesn't have to be proven that it was a material and substantial disruption to the educational process in order for it to be actionable by school officials in in terms of holding kids accountable off-campus online bullying can be very detrimental to the learning environment and impactful so so

152that's why that language was removed just to align with that Court precedent um moving down to 5206 that's Dating Violence um there were just some change some some removal of some references to board policies that no longer exist that have been eliminated over time and so uh and so that was updated as well um in 5301 student conduct vandalism and disruption this was updated in the activities code of conduct to reflect the appeals process if a student has been found to violate the activities code of conduct it provides it for the appeal process to appeal a decision of the activities director and then the principal that incidentally mirrors the appeals process that's found in our district complaint procedure in policy 2102 in 5302 there was just a grammatical uh change to add the word the

153for the purpose of this portion of the policy instead of just for purpose of this portion of the policy so we just added the word the policy 5501 is pertains to Student Records there's a bit of redundancy with this policy with policy 1202 which is records retention and so we just removed some of the language to make it consistent with current practices with Nebraska schedules 10 and 24 and again with policy 1202. then policy 5601 just some updates there that are to bring consistent with current law and some revisions there over time finally moving to uh we're next moving to 5602 this is school Wellness the changes in recommended in this policy reflect the work of the district Wellness committee Mr Lotus is the board representative on on that committee these recommendations reflect guidelines that

154have been articulated by the Nebraska Department of Education they're also intended to make the policy a little bit more robust and to expand on some of the statements that are that are in it it adds a every three-year process for reviewing our district wellness policy and nutrition requirements and so forth and so that will be part of the process as well everything that's been suggested are things that really the district has already been doing when it comes to Nutri and wellness so the committee worked hard on that and we appreciate their their input policy 5606 report of abuse and neglect this policy has been updated actually it's procedural changes only through collaboration with police DHHS our school social workers and Dr Deb Anderson helped lead the charge to update some of our practices in the

155area of reporting child abuse and neglect and so just some slight changes on really some different means of providing the information necessary to DHHS and then finally policy 5609 this is the new policy that is for your consideration this is a policy that um has been adopted by multiple school districts and one that is very much been a discussion with our School nurses and across our student services directors also in other school districts but this policy pertains to opioid overdose and prevention and response and it is to allow permit School nurses and trained staff to administer administer naloxone which is typically known by the brand name Narcan to individuals displaying symptoms of an opioid overdose it is not a policy that creates a duty on the school district's part what it does however is create

156that availability of Narcan currently this is something that our sros do have emergency responders also have however in the event that a an Emergency responder is not available then it would allow us to have Narcan on hand there is currently a standing order with DHHS in that regard and it is something that we would store in our health offices for use in those emergent situations oh and with that we would be happy to answer any questions that we can could you help clarify how we are I think Title IX explains it serving every student no matter their race or religion or sexual orientation and how we are meeting the needs of every student without marginalizing one over another well that's a a commitment that that um we make as a district and we make sure

157that it's placed prominently um in in Publications across the district um whether it's our student handbooks whether it's you know the the the information we give to prospective job applicants it's something that that we put in writing and are very committed to not just in in the written sense but in terms of how we do business we try to be very inclusive um for for all individuals who are part of our community of Learners um it's reflected in our hiring practices it's reflected in in the commitment that we have in our schools to respect to teaching or to respect one another I think also it's uh reflected in in our in the responsiveness of our buildings when there are instances of of disrespect that we have a very responsive process found in our articulated in

158our procedure in board policy 2102 where we try to be very responsive if if times that uh that we fall short or we have issues of disrespect in our buildings so it's it's reflected in a whole host of of ways not just in our policies not just in writing but in how we do business on a day-to-day basis I believe thank you I want to make sure our parents understand that all of our children mean the world to us and we will do what we are here to do and educate them thank you any other comments all right thank you very much I appreciate it all right moving to section five future board calendar uh May 24th just a couple days from now is the last day of school May 29th the offices will be

159closed for Memorial Day and our next Board of Education meeting will be on June 12th here in the central office at 6 pm seeing no further business before this board at this time I shall adjourn it at 8 15 pm