001thank you everybody for your patience i got out of work late and everybody was waiting on me so that being said we are getting started with our executive session or our um live session this evening thank you for the agenda is everybody in and ready to join fabulous we'll call our meeting to order madam secretary roll call everyone is present thank you the live stream has started yes okay please join us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you tonight our discussion item is the district 2 school board member selection and before we get started with that i wanted just to review how we got
002to where we are today and i did mention most of this yesterday but for those who were not in attendance yesterday i just wanted to review you one once again so we're all on the same page on friday august 22nd 2021 carmel clay schools announced the retirement of our district 2 school board member pam niles with an effective date of september 13 2021. following that announcement carmel clay school board of trustees began the process to appoint a new board member to fill the remainder of the term for the district 2 vacancy which is until december 31st of 2022 and as required by statute the board does need to fill this position within 30 days of the effective date of the vacancy with that in mind cc has posted the application for the district 2 school
003board vacancy to the district website on august the 27th and district 2 residents were invited to to submit an application if they were interested and that was open through midnight this september 12th of 2021 on monday september 20th the school board met an executive session to review the applications and select four applicants to move forward to the public comment portion the public interview portion please forgive me of the application process last evening monday october 4th the school board held a special session to interview these final four candidates tonight the board anticipates on appointing a district 2 board member we will finish the appointment process on tuesday october the 12th at a school board workshop and at that point we will swear in the new board member carmel clay school board wants to thank our caramel
004community for their engagement and willingness to serve the students staff and families of carmel we received several applications and we were impressed with the all the number of qualified candidates that had applied selecting the final four candidates for the public interview process was a very difficult decision with so many highly qualified candidates if you were not able to watch last evening it is available for you to watch each of the candidates did a phenomenal job sharing their background and their interest and their skill set with us this is what makes this evening a very difficult evening because we have to decide of those four who will best fit and be able to serve our caramel community at this time those who we interviewed last evening were jennifer nelson williams jonathan shapiro nikki mcnally and vakata
005tatikanda so that is our background and we are going to continue to have discussion so does anybody want to begin with their thoughts of last evening mr kirschner thank you laila first i'd like to thank pam niles again for her service to our district and community from the classroom to the boardroom pam impacted thousands of students and families making carmel clay schools and carmel a better place as i was working on my thoughts for this evening i remembered that when pam had something that needed to be said that she would write out those remarks and share those thoughts with the board especially the few times where she was in the minority for the most part during our service together we all agreed as a board the few times in the six and a half years
006that we did not agree on a particular issue we always had civil discussion knew that what we were doing was what we thought was best for the students and families of carmel schools and moved forward as one second i'd like to thank dr bearsford and the rest of the administrative team for all that you have done for our district over the last 18 months we have been in uncharted waters and you have guided our ship through some difficult times always putting students at the center of every decision i am proud of how our district navigated the challenges of covid and is dealing with the current political climate we always have and always will put students first third teachers food service maintenance and bus drivers thank you for all you do as well you are the
007point of contact with our students each and every day you do your jobs because you love what you do we as a district community and the board are thankful for each one of you while we're able to increase compensation for the next two years you still are not financially compensated enough for what we ask you to do which is to prepare the next generation for a world that does not yet exist fourth to our community we may not all agree on every issue but hopefully we all can agree that carmel clay schools are one of our community's greatest assets and responsibilities please know that the board is always interested in public comment and working collaboratively collaboratively with our community to make ccs the best that it can be for our students families employees and taxpayers
008we as the board miss having the public in this public meeting room with us we look forward to the day that students parents and community members will be at our meetings in person and not just seeing us on a screen but we also have a responsibility to our students families and employees and taxpayers to keep the district working for our community fifth thank you to all the applicants that applied to fill the current vacancy on our board we as a board were impressed with the number of applicants the great skills that they could bring and the willingness to serve their community on this board it was not easy to narrow the field down to the four finalists and sixth thank you to our four finalists for applying and answering our questions yesterday the decision that
009we are making this evening is not an easy one as i have thought about what the four of you have in common it is that all of you value service to your community it is in your dna you value public schools and your past service to ccs in our community is what made you stand out in our decision to make you a finalist that was clear in your applications and your answers yesterday for the three of you that are not appointed tonight please stay involved in ccs and share your experience with our schools i like to share that my son reminded me when i ran a second time for this board after losing the first election that i said i enjoyed meeting a lot of great people but that i would never run again and
010then two years later i ran again we never know what the future will bring but for me two years after i ran and lost it turned out to be the right time it was the second time that afforded me the honor and the privilege to be elected and serve this district when we started the process of filling the vacancy after pam's retirement we had no idea who would apply or how many great candidates we would have but i said to my fellow board members that we will probably know most of the best candidates i personally did not expect and was surprised that i already knew three of the four finalists before meeting them last evening the decision this evening is not who mike kirschner would vote for at the ballot box based upon my personal
011beliefs the tough decision that this board needs to make this evening is who would be the best school board member at this time the four finalists all have skills that would make them great board members and i encourage all of you that if you are not selected tonight that does not mean that your community does not need you to serve you all have a lot to offer ccs and please continue to stay involved in our district venkata i had the privilege of meeting you when you ran against pam almost three years ago i enjoyed meeting you then and thank you for all that you do for our community your community includes ccs but is bigger than carmel indiana and the indian community i am impressed by your desire and dedication to help others around the
012world nikki we as a district really owe you and need to thank you for everything that you have done for our district from volunteering in the classroom to making sure that we have the funding to make our schools as safe as possible you truly live two of our ccs guiding principles a safe non-threatening learning environment is essential and students academic social emotional and physical needs must be addressed jonathan you are the one finalist that i had not met before last evening but we have had one degree of separation since you moved to indiana i too married a hoosier and moved to indiana my wife and i like you and like many other families moved to carmel fred's schools you have dedicated your life to working with youth and your experiences would make you a great
013board member jennifer our past had not crossed in the past but it was our past had crossed in the past but it was not until we volunteered together at porch fest your application and your answers last night that i was able to learn about you in more detail i had the privilege of knowing your father and like all the other finalists i know community service is in your dna as i said about when i was elected to the board the timing was right i think the timing is right for you to serve your community as a member of this board mike that sounds like a motion are you ready to make a motion yes leila i am happy to make a motion that we appoint jennifer nelson williams to fill the open carmel clay school
014board position for district 2. um there's a motion on the table do i have a second second thank you discussion um i'd like to say a few words louise so i was really um honored to participate in the interviews yesterday i did not know any of the candidates personally so i really tried to take time to think about what was shared during the interview process yesterday i know it was only 20 minutes but um you know i would have liked to have heard more specific examples of things some of the candidates have done in terms of how they have navigated specific challenges in their roles or as a community member but we didn't have you know an exhaustive amount of time so i can say uh with fincott i really really appreciated his commitment to
015understanding people of varying backgrounds perspectives i think he brings innovation and a technology expertise that we could always glean from in our district i also really appreciated what jonathan brings with his experience with the i believe it's the simon foundation and having worked with after care programs with students i also appreciated what nikki has brought i know i've learned a little bit about that the safety referendum and how passionate she is about making sure our children are safe and she's put in the time and work for that and so i tremendously like respect that and jennifer i really have a deep appreciation of her commitment to our school district through the children that she's had in the school district and her countless hours in the classroom and her leadership experience and starting an awesome organization
016like women for change like so impressed and i can honestly say like i could work with either of these four candidates and so at the end of the day we are making a decision that's best for the kids and so it's a team decision and i look forward to hearing additional input from you too i am not ready to go ahead okay thank you um i think that this is definitely an interesting situation i think that when you apply for a job usually decisions are made behind the scenes and you're notified of that decision i think when you run for school board a decision is made in a voting booth and it's behind the scenes and people kind of get to pick and this is a very different opportunity that we have as for board
017members to kind of pick that final that final person i did want to speak a little bit about each of the candidates jonathan your commitment to education and the whole child approach i really admire i admire how you put um that social emotional aspect into children's life and lives and you have for a very long time um vincata i appreciate how you continue to support our teachers and spend your time working with the carmel education foundation that is such a valuable partnership with carmel clay schools and we are truly thankful for the people who kind of spend their time there nikki i your dedication to carmel clay schools in the past and through all the kinds of different things through parenting i'm so thankful for your voice that you have and for jennifer i really
018appreciate the fact that you bring together people who think differently that you talk about respecting backgrounds and respecting different ideals and values and that you know to bring them all to the table to kind of find that common interest i'm so thankful for people who came and you know put their name out there it's very very difficult it's very difficult to put yourself in the public view for scrutiny and then also to have a group of people who don't know you to kind of judge to see you know how you'll be and that's extremely hard so i appreciate the fact and kind of to echo previous sentiments please don't stop doing that please don't stop putting yourself and being that servant leadership because that's you know not only what carmel clay schools need but that's
019what we as a community and as a society we need people who are willing to put themselves before others and kind of bring themselves to the plate so thank you and i want to thank my fellow board members i think each of you have shared thoughts that resonate with me about each of our candidates i found this process to be extremely difficult it was easier to pick a superintendent than it was and that it is to to pick a board member it's a very difficult position to be in for us to deliberate in public and i like i thought everybody did a phenomenal job during the board interviews and and deciding it's just a tough it's tough and i really appreciate the comments that each of you made about each of our candidates there were
020such phenomenal strengths from each one from their personal brand to their community experience to their work with equity for children and for women and it's we would not go wrong with any of the candidates and well thank you for your work and effort in working with us to get to this point does anybody else have any comments they'd like to make okay well then we have a motion on the table that has been seconded and we're finished with discussion so all those in favor of appointing jennifer nelson williams to the district 2 board seat signify by saying i i any opposed motion carries unanimous four to zero welcome to the board jennifer moving forward we will have board orientation similar to how we've had orientation for new board members when they've been voted in during
021the regular election cycle we will bring jennifer in she'll meet with dr bearsford and only two or actually one board member so probably be myself or katie or even louise which i think would be great since you are one of our newer board members and you've been learning a lot this past year and you might have some interesting perspectives to share with jennifer as well is there any other discussion or questions anything else we'd like to share this evening i just want to wrap with a thank you to each candidate incredibly hard and thank you to you laila too you know in preparing for this whole process you've led us and i really appreciate that and also dr bearsford just making sure we were set up for success to make a fair and equitable uh
022decision and to have all the pieces that we need to have in play to make this process as seamless for candidates as possible so thank you so much thank you mike i that reminds me i feel like i would be remiss i said six sets of thank yous and i did not thank each one of you individually for what you've done you know each and every day for um four point year four plus years one plus years twelve plus years um your dedication to this community um is beyond reproach um and it is an honor and a privilege to serve with you so thank you well thank you mike and what i'd like to share i guess with the community since people are watching i feel very fortunate that we work together as a team
023and while we might not always see eye to eye we do work together as a team and when we walk out of this board room we are a team and that is so important and i appreciate the way we work together i love that we have different perspectives in different views and can really bring different experiences to the board to help us provide a very balanced approach for our students and staff so kudos to you thank you and guess katie well i think i should just say ditto you guys pretty much cover it all but i'm so thankful for you guys i'm so thankful for the people who are watching and supporting of the board in the district thank you so much for everything that you're doing and um there's great things to come we're
024excited this is a you know new a new phase for the ward in the district and we welcome jennifer and you know we'll see where we go next fantastic well that being said i will take a motion to adjourn our meeting thank you katie second second thank you louise all those in favor aye meeting adjourned you