001Like nice. You remember when we did the elbow players? Those little booster seats, right? Yeah. You too. Yeah. Those were great. >> That's exactly right. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you, Deon. Okay. Um, can we please get a motion to return from executive session? >> Thank you. Jeff, look at Jeff. >> Does anybody dare to give me a second? Second. Excellent. Um, can uh let's see. I I Let's um >> Well, I think we're gonna we're going to rise for the for the um Yeah, we're going to rise for those presentations, please. 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. >> Mrs. Adita, can you please uh call the role? >> Marian
002need >> here. >> Marian Quinn. Marian Quinn >> here. >> Linda Gaines here. Eileen Snook here. Jeff Hates >> here. >> Jennifer Boyd >> here. Donna Logan >> here. >> Sophia Bonhales >> here. >> Brian Arnold >> here. >> Thank you. Um the reading of the district mission. Our mission is to empower all students to be self-directed lifelong learners who willingly contribute to their community and lead passionate, purposeful lives. Um can I please get a motion for the approval of tonight's agenda? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, all those in favor? I opposed. Absention. Motion passes. Thank you. We're going to move on to the opening of the public uh of the public hearing for the code of conduct. Um, can I please get a motion to open the public hearing? >> So, move.
003>> Thank you. Thank you. Um, there's no real discussion regard this. Uh, I now declare that the uh public hearing is open. If anyone would like to address the board on the code of conduct, now would be the moment. You don't need to have signed up in advance. Okay. Seeing none, may I please get a motion to close the public comment on uh I'm sorry, the public hearing on the code of conduct. >> So move. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um any discussion? Any comments? Seeing none, all those in favor? I >> opposed. Abstain. Motion passes. Thank you. Um correspondence. Does anybody have any correspondence they'd like to share? Okay, seeing none, moving on to board president's remarks. Well, I first of all want to apologize to everyone here and to our friends viewing at
004home. Our previous meeting to this ran late and so we're starting late this evening. Um, I'd like to welcome, this is our first sort of televised public meeting since our new district clerk has joined us, Francesca Sadita. We want to welcome you. Thank you so much. And, um, Brian Arnold, our new member. Yes, he's our board member, is here. We're very happy to have him with us. He was with us at our board retreat, which took place at the beginning of July. um we used the time at the retreat to work on our governance team to analyze a lot of data and to just help prepare for the for the year ahead. So it was a very productive time and I think it was we met earlier this summer than we have in the past
005and I think that was a good idea and we're hoping to continue to do it that way and and was nice to have Brian and we got it all a chance to kind of you know uh rework ourselves as a team. So that was terrific time. Um, and I think that that's what I have for now. So, we're going to move on to superintendent's remarks. >> Hesitant to talk in the mic. >> Okay, I understand. I um just wanted to welcome everybody as uh obviously we're in August now, the school year. I know our kids don't want to hear this, but is right around the corner and uh we still have a lot of uh matters that we're attending to some last minute hiring uh as well as preparing our facilities. is we have quite
006a bit of facilities work that's going on throughout the district uh that is drawing to to closure. But I would say we're on track to start the year uh fully staffed and the building's fully operational and there's a lot of good work that's going on each day on a day-to-day basis to prepare our schools for the welcoming of students and staff in uh under a month now. So um uh with that I'll conclude my remarks. I know uh there is one item I'm going to have Mr. Orchid just speak to in a few minutes here. So I'll have more to share then. Thank you very much. I just want to >> thank you very much. I just want to add to my remarks. I had requested this. This is um we uh the Charlie Johnson
007award. I think many of us are very familiar with this project, but this is a new element of this book and I'd asked for the board to receive copies of this book. It's a compilation. It used to be in a three- ring binder uh by the wall of remembrance, right? all the um all the different uh work that has been done over the years, the newspaper articles, um all manner of wonderful things are in this and I'm just I see that it's come to us now and I'm thrilled. It wasn't in my prepared remarks so I forgot to mention it but I want to thank everybody who brought that together. Um, I think it was Rich Carol that worked so hard to um for many years and Melissa was uh Melissa's on vacation this week,
008but uh Rich and Melissa have worked really hard to pull those materials together. And one thing I would draw your attention to just in it when you have the time are the many letters that Rich has written uh to people who've been involved in the project over the years. And I think what it reflects uh not just Rich's outstanding character, but how there's several people behind the scenes, one of whom is obviously Rich, who've kept this story, uh and and and really breathing life into the story throughout the years, uh that, you know, you've heard me share, you know, could have been let go of many points along the way. Um uh and there was a lot of success early on, but I think it was folks like Rich and there's several others who in
009keeping it going really led to the change in law that that that led to Charlie receiving uh the Medal of Honor. So uh that would not have happened. >> It's in here too, right? That that that's how fresh the book is. So >> that's great. >> So enjoy. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Um, public comment. Mr. Sadia, do we have anyone for public comment? >> We do not. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, reports and discussions. >> So, with that, I'll ask Mr. Orchet uh to come on up to the podium. And as he's getting ready, I'll just remind the board and share with the public that uh a law recently went into effect uh for this school year uh regarding the maximum temperature for school buildings and indoor facilities. And there's a first
010reading of a policy also later on on the agenda. And the spirit of this law requires schools to make accommodations when classroom temperatures reach a certain threshold. Uh at 82 degrees, we have to take measures to uh further cool the classroom if we haven't done so already. At 88 degrees, we actually have to move students from that instructional environment to a different area of the school or make accommodations if the school is is that warm. Uh actually make accommodations for alternative instruction to be provided. So this summer, John has worked closely with Joe Orchid, um, Joe Orchid, Joe Carter, excuse me, John Orchid, Joe Carter, uh, to assess our readiness, um, across each of our buildings. And John's going to summarize that and then if there's any questions, uh, John and I can both answer
011those. >> Sure. >> I'm hesitant to talk to this one. Um I Oh, I saw the green light go on, so you can hear me. Okay. Okay. All right. Um so we, as Dr. Bonante just said, we're in a interesting position heading into this school year. Um, and I think what's important to keep in mind is that the plans that we have in place for September, October when we may be facing some early fall, late fall heat waves um, and then our spring are going to potentially be two very different plans because as we've been working with our facilities department, they have been um, assessing the electrical capacity within the buildings to add more air conditioning and some of them can handle it. Some of them cannot. Um so the plan and some of them
012like overlook it should be a non-issue because of the geothermal heating. So so the plans um that we begin the school year with will probably evolve based on the facilities department's ability to further equip each of the buildings. Um so I I think it's just important to acknowledge that. The other issue is that because some of the buildings have more capacity to handle air conditioners, they're in a much different spot than some of the others. So, we're not at our secondary levels, we're not anticipating this being an issue really at all. We may have to relocate classrooms. Um, at the high school, for example, there there may be a classroom that reaches 88°, but they have enough large air conditioned spaces and are working to identify spots where those classrooms uh could relocate within the
013building so that they could provide instruction. Obviously, it won't be an ideal circumstance, but we're able to keep kids in the building. Um, both middle schools have have enough air conditioners. Uh LMS really only needs four for every single classroom to have an air might be slightly more than four, but I think it's four of the main classrooms still need air conditioners um in areas on the second floor where you may see it rising to 88°. So they'll be in very good place even though they don't have the larger spaces that can accommodate alternative locations. And Union Veil is in a more similar spot to the high school. they have more air conditioned spaces and um and more air conditioned classrooms. When we get down into the elementary level, it's it is again overlook this
014should be a non-issue. Um Beakman has enough air condition spaces. The there may be a couple areas where one of the things we're working with our principles on is I is and and facilities is determining uh the maximum occupancy of classrooms which the average seems to be about 40 and is there an opportunity there to say if a classroom crests 88 degrees can we consolidate kids within the same grade levels and and supporting it with the teachers and the pair professionals collapse a classroom together for the remainder of the day. Again, not a perfect situation, but we're not sending kids home. Um, and something we're trying to be cognizant of is our families where our secondary students would be the ones getting their elementary siblings off of the buses when they pull in. If we're
015committing to keeping our secondary students in school, we're we could potentially be creating a hardship for the families of the elementary students on the other side. So, we're really trying to look at this um from a how how can we keep kids in school with the current infrastructure that we have in in September and October. Hopefully by the time we revisit this in hope is not a strategy, but the the goal is in May and June when heat waves become a possibility again that we're in a better position to have in these buildings that where it could be an issue like Knoxon is potentially our building with the most exposure. Uh it has the fewest number of air conditionings. it's its electrical load may or may not be able to sustain adding a significant more.
016They don't have um an air conditioned cafeteria, but because their enrollment is a little bit lower than some of the others, they can handle collapsing sections together better than some of the other schools. So, like there's that. We're really trying to create um a plan that isn't a burden on our community, keeps kids in class. It's not going to be perfect in terms of an instructional environment, but it's it's better than um having to send them home for half day or or reopen the remote learning um conversation which my colleagues in the county as we've met and discussed this really are everyone is very reticent to reopen the remote instruction door for this because again then it creates other challenges. Some of our families that means kids would be in an airond conditioned house and
017they have no issue connecting to the internet. Other families may not be in an air conditioned environment and we're sending kids from a warm school to a hot home with or without potentially air conditioning. Um, and there's other issues around, you know, there's other issues if we really travel down that road. So, we're trying to be really thoughtful about this. We're trying to be um it's probably an area where we're going to be testing options as we go. Duration of heatwave would factor into our plan. If we're talking about one or two days, it's probably not as big of a deal as if we're looking at three, four, five sustained days. Um the facilities department has been great this summer. They've taken advantage of several of the heat waves and and checked the temperature in
018every classroom throughout the district. um during those those temperature and it's a very specific way just so that we're all clear. It's in the center of the classroom 3T off the ground, not a reflected temp. So you're not shooting a laser off of a desk. You're you're measuring just ambient room temperature 3T off the ground in the center of the room, not in a lighted space. So there can't be light shining directly on it. Um but we've also made some changes. We being facilities have made some changes to as the mitigating strategies that Dr. Bante was was uh sharing before we started. One of them is running the UN events. Typically, they turn off around 6:00 in the afternoon once most of the days are over. The air exchange just stops and stays dormant until
019the morning. Turning those on when the air temp gets cooler and running them through the night so they draw cooler air into the building. Um and and we've seen that lower the temperature in the summer of the classrooms, leaving doors opened in the air conditioned classrooms and leaving the doors open of the non-airconditioned classrooms and having fans to help circulate um the air throughout the building. So, we're we're trying to make sense of something that for a district our size is a really challenging proposition again given that our 11 schools are all in very different different positions. But we're trying to be really thoughtful, intentional about about what our response is should we find ourselves in this position. And the probably the bad news would be it there. Despite all of our best efforts, we
020may still find ourselves in a position where we have to, you know, make some hard decisions about sending a school home for a half day or something along those lines. >> Questions? >> Anybody have any questions? Sophia. >> So, it would be the facilities department. Um, and they have we have purchased as a district, we've purchased the appropriate devices. So what we're also working with our principles on is what's the protocol because there's there's thermostats each classroom is equipped with a thermostat that that's not correct and it might read that might be reading 88 89 90 but that's not actually you know I mean that room is going to be warm don't get me wrong I'm not dismissing the concern there but the protocol would be if a if a teacher is concerned they'll contact
021their main office the head custodian would come up, take a temperature, um, and then they'll work together to respond the well, I mean, we'll be certainly if we know we're heading into a heat wave, we'll be checking temperatures in the morning, but as the day progresses, we'll be monitoring it to some extent, but then if there's certainly a teacher who feels like, "My room's unusually hot." There's other things like you turn off all the lights. You actually close the blinds. You turn off any non-essential electronic devices to really try and keep the temperature from from coming up. So if No, that's more than what you asked, but just sharing some of those other mitigating strategies. Yeah. >> Anybody else have any questions? >> You guys know I can go. We're good. John, do you have
022a sense? I know we both have dabbled in uh the potential impact for this, but uh you mentioned specific schools, but I I think if you could just speak to we often know based on our experience within the schools and the principles are aware that there's particular classrooms in each building that are more likely to rise or cross that threshold as compared to others. Could you just speak to that? Yeah, I mean it's that's exactly right and I think that's part of the other challenge is we're we're not it's unlikely we would find ourselves in a situation where the entire building all of the classrooms in the building are at 88 degrees and even in buildings where we you point to like West Road for example twotory building her first the the you know the
023first floor classrooms of of West Road those temperatures stayed cool all summer. The second floor classrooms that face east and south that get direct sun for the majority of the day, those classrooms are more at risk for for hitting 82 degrees earlier than the rest of the building and then creeping towards 88 um faster. So, so that's part again to to your question, like that's part of of the planning is monitoring at the high school. It's that east and south, second floor, east and south corridor, um, which just get direct sunlight for the majority of the day. In the fall, they'll get a little bit less. In the spring though, as certainly as we start creeping more towards mid June when we're in full, you know, they'll they'll get more sun, but the the that's
024definitely folding into the consideration. >> I had a question. Um I guess two things. One is uh what would be the difference between now and spring? Are there some capital improvements? Is that what we're thinking? Or electrical load improvements? Is is that we're thinking the gift of time type of thing? >> Fair question. It's it's just so there one of the meetings that we had when Joe and I and and Bobby Nelson were sitting down talking about what rooms are air conditioned, what rooms are not. Basically their position was look we could stop all the other work we're doing right now and focus on this but then there's other critical things that we're not that are that we dedicated the summer to doing and we're just not sometime some it requires the carpenter to fit
025the window with the vent. It requires the electrician to ideally you're not just plugging these into the your regular outlets. you're actually wiring them into the circuits so that uh it can bear the load and it's you're not going to start tripping stuff throughout the building. So, so the decision was let's commit to rolling air conditioners into the buildings throughout the course of the school year. Um that they feel like they can handle the purchase of those within their budgets. Kevin, we may have to we may have to look at that. But they they're not bulking at the idea of being able to add some air conditioners um throughout the course of the school year, but they really want to do it right as opposed to just plugging them in. And you know, if two
026of them kick on at the same time and the Prometheium board is running and you've got a bunch of tablets plugged or Chromebooks plugged in charging, >> it'll it's going to they're going to pop. That's that's good clarification. So, we're not necessarily advancing any of the say electrical work that might be in the capital campaign that's coming later on. We're not going to do that this year, but we're going to to the extent that we have electrical capacity, we'll put in more air conditioners. That's kind of what >> correct. Yes, that's accurate. >> Okay. >> Um I just one other question is do most classrooms, particularly south or east facing classroom, second floor classrooms have like excellent blinds? Some blinds do a much better job of blocking sun than other blinds, you know. Um, some
027really reflect, you know, you know, my mother was the hero of shade. She'd run around the house. So, um, >> uh, yeah, I just wonder if that's maybe a wise investment, too. Um, to to upgrade in in strategic places the the shades, you know. I don't know if that's part of what we've looked at. like these aren't >> I would say that these are mediocre when it comes to breaking you know if the sun were beating down it wouldn't necessarily be um helping with that that much a little bit maybe. >> Yeah, it's a great question. I I'm happy to carry that to facilities and and and see if we can get some clarity on that and maybe that's another upgrade that we can look to make. It'll take time to roll through the buildings.
028>> Right. And strate like strategic places, right? >> Correct. Yeah. Right. >> Anybody else have any questions about the heat policy? All right, then. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> And we have that um policy coming up shortly. >> Yes. >> So, that moves us to our new business. Our new business section of the agenda lists several items for individual resolution approval. Documentation concerning these items have been provided to our board members in advance to assure an extensive and thorough review. Item B, trip approval, Syracuse, New York. May I please get a motion? >> Some moved. >> Thank you. Second. Thank you. Um, any discussion? This is a happy trip. Okay. Um, all those in favor? I >> opposed abstensions. Motion passes. Item C, the code of conduct approval. May I please get a motion?
029>> Move. >> Thank you. A second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Um, any discussion on the code of conduct? Just wanted to mention probably the most significant change in the code of conduct language uh this year as compared to last year is the language pertaining to the new cell phone policy. Uh so just as a matter of review, that's the most substantive change in preparation for uh our schools to be cell phone free uh come this fall. >> Okay, great. Um any other any other points anyone would like to make? Okay, seeing none, all those in favor? I opposed. Extension. Motion passes. Arlington Directors and Supervisor Association memorandum of agreement. Um, can I get a motion, please? >> So moved. >> Second. Thank you. Um, any discussion? Any comment? >> Just a quick note of
030thanks to Mark Hicks and his team uh representing the ADSA and Hillary and our team uh representing the district for arriving at a fair settlement for both parties. >> Thank you. All those in favor? I I opposed abstensions. Motion passes. Um 2025 2026 Rick 1 risk operations center authorization. May I please get a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? >> I I opposed abstensions. Motion passes. um we don't need to vote on the next thing but we then have the first reading of the policy related to that the heat temp that we just heard the presentation on. So the next on our next meeting we'll be voting to accept that policy and I think the policy committee would you know if you have any kind of
031edits to that policy this would be the moment to to step to the four but it looked pretty good on first street. Okay, that moves us on to the business consent agenda. Our consent section of the agenda lists several items for approval by a single motion. Documentation concerning these items have been provided to our board members in advance to assure an extensive and thorough review. May I please get a motion on the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. Um any discussion or comments you want to make? >> I have a few. >> Excellent. Go ahead. >> Thanks for your patience and I just want it's a good opportunity to draw the board's attention to a few things uh in a lot in the business consent tonight. So, first
032I just wanted to start with the emergency repair uh or emergency declaration for the water tank at the high school because that's something that hasn't come up over the course of the past year that I've been here and not every board member may be familiar with an emergency declaration. So, I'm actually going to ask Kevin just to provide a little perspective on why we have emergency declarations. Be careful, Kevin. And and um what the nature of this issue was for board. >> Yeah. So, um, the plumbers discovered that the, um, pressure tank, a very large pressure tank, many times larger than what we have in our house, is what survives the water to the high school. And they were uh, it's starting to fail or starting to leak. And they were nervous about that. So,
033they went out and got a quote for how much it cost. are the quote was about $37,000 which triggers a bidding requirement. So any work that would be over $35,000 would require a full bid and uh if we did the full bid process between now and the start of school we wouldn't be able to get that whole process done. So I began to write the emergency uh declaration so that we could exempt ourselves from that process. I also had uh operations and maintenance go out and give several more quotes there. So they got three total quotes on the job. The job will be under 35,000. So it's not absolutely necessary for us to have the emergency uh resolution. But I left it on because we had started that process and I didn't feel comfortable pulling
034it off. Um it's important that we get this work done before school. We didn't want to put the school out of service to make the work better. So we started the process because and we wanted to be compliant with our policies and the law. So, we we we declared it an emergency while we were continuing to investigate to find other uh other vendors to give us quotes and we were able to get it for about 30,000 uh down from 37 and I think and so we have the purchase order in place and they're scheduled to work. It should be done before start but the emergency declaration of an item of emergency is to help us with with >> Thank you very much. Does anybody have any questions for Kevin regarding the water tank, the emergency
035declaration? >> Okay. May just on a couple things. Um uh Kevin, uh and I didn't give you a heads up on this, so I'm sorry that I'm keeping you on. There was a um a change to the the field turf uh at Union Veil Middle School to include drainage. And I'm assuming uh that they just uncovered that we need more drainage because water's an issue on that property. But if there's anything more that you wanted to share related to that. >> No, it's just Yeah, watch out. >> It uh Yeah. So that so drainage is a particular problem on the Veil Farm Union Veil property. There's water that is uh there's a high water table through the entire area and the corner of the track. uh they didn't specifically spell out a very good um
036they didn't spec out specify enough drainage in that area. So we expanded that uh uh through the change order as you see but come through. >> Got it. Thank you. And then under personnel I just wanted to draw the board and again the community's attention to a few appointments. Uh first we uh had a search process for assistant principles at Arlington High School. Uh and we have uh now three uh assistant principles that we were uh are searching for. Uh at the time we started the process it was two. Uh but um regretfully um Mr. Brolia has accepted a position in another district. So his resignation is actually on this evening. Uh and we're going to miss Scott. Um uh and just given the time and the uh the search process that we engaged in,
037we felt it was in our best interest to uh appoint interims uh to each of these roles um so we could find uh the best candidates and give ourselves a little more time to do so uh for the high school assistant principal position. So we're fortunate to have some retirees in the area uh who are willing to come back. Um so uh two of whom were appointing this evening. Uh Mr. Scooj, who was a longtime administrator in the Chap Chapoqua School District, uh just retired in June and wants to come back and support us uh for a bit of time and um a name you may be familiar with, Rich Carroll, uh who also just retired in July. Uh had a big goodbye at graduation and is uh now back at Arlington High School for
038a few months. So, we welcome Rich back and um we had a feeling we were going to see Rich at some point. I didn't think it would be uh on September 1st in a high school office, but um obviously I know Rich is planning to stay attached to the Charlie Johnson project. Um also wanted to mention that our very own Devon Gibbs, who's here this evening, is being appointed this evening as an instructional technology support specialist assistant at Arlington High School. Congratulations to uh Devon. And I want to say uh Miss Mean and I were going through the agenda last week and she said, "Does that mean we're going to lose Devon at our board meetings?" And I said, "And no, we're not going to lose Devon at our board meetings." So, he's still going
039to provide uh support with us here and congratulations uh to you, Devon, with the board's approval. Uh those are the things I wanted to draw the board's attention to. Uh Marian, I didn't know if there was anything else. I don't >> have anything else, but does anybody have any questions items? Oh, has got something. Oh, before you all leave, I need four signatures. So, I have what pieces of paper and each of you there's nine boxes on the back page. So, pick a box and >> make that your box. >> No, no shenanigans. The same box on everyone. Don't do it. Yeah, don't do it now. It'll We'll all get muddled up. Um, we'll do it at the end. Um so if if uh if nobody has any other comments um we will we will
040move on vote >> we will vote um we we already had our motion our second we've had our discussion all those in favor >> I >> opposed abstensions motion passes thank you very much. I look like I'm shuffling cards or something, don't I? It's like too much. Right. >> Page 32. >> Thank you. 32. I've arrived. Excellent. Um, all right then. Uh, future discussion items. I don't think we have any outstanding. If I got that wrong, somebody jump on me here. But um I don't think we have any that uh that we have to discuss today. But does anybody have other ones they'd like to propose at this time? >> None today. I just wanted to make sure the board was aware that um we are in prepar we are preparing for discussion around um
041food insecurity. >> Correct. >> Uh that Jeff had proposed several months ago. So, uh, Mark Hicks and I and actually John, uh, because there's implications on title one and some of how we, uh, create our consolidated application with how we collect information from families that we want to be sure to include, uh, as part of that discussion as well as just everything that we're already doing. So, uh, we expect to have that discussion scheduled in September, um, once we go through the agenda. >> That's great. Thank you for that. Um, all right. So, then moving on. Um, Francis, do we have any other Do we have any um public comment for non-aggenda items? >> No, we do not. >> Okay. Um, so I'm going to skip organization reports, but committee reports if if any I'm
042going to go through them quickly. If you have your first meeting scheduled, I know we've been a little bit on hiatus. Some of you have meetings scheduled already. Um, policy October 8th. >> October 8th. Excellent. Um, audit audit met over the summer. Um, audit. >> Thank you. Advocacy. >> Not. >> Oh, there. >> Not yet. Cheers. Yeah. >> Not yet. It'll be early in September, though. >> Excellent. And the Cathy, >> we're looking at late September. >> Late September. Great. All right. And I know that organization report or organizations does if anybody just wants to say if you have something, I was gonna say jump in. Um, I just wanted to give an update on the Arlington Education Foundation. Um, Rayanne Tommpkins has been the executive director for the last year. She's staying on the
043board, but she's resigning as executive director. Um, there was a a emergency meeting last night to um approve a search committee and that committee was approved and starting next week. So, we're just looking for a new person at this point. >> Okay. Thank you. keep us posted. Um, superintendent closer remarks >> in the report. >> Okay. Um, did anyone have any board reflections they'd like to share? >> Yeah, >> Sophia. >> Um, so the week before last, some of us attended the leadership um event in Albany and I just wanted to share some of the things that I learned because it's good to share >> Yeah. >> the goodness. So there were three sessions that I was very impressed with. One was navigating an uncertain financial future for schools and they shared you know the
044challenges with the current political environment and how it affects school districts and we we heard from financial experts from legal experts and I have to tell you that it is such a hard time really right now what we're going through as individuals as a community school districts but I did feel that we are in very good hands I felt that Everything that was being spoken on stage we have discussed here. We have looked at and I feel like we are in good hands with people who are who are very experienced and they are just making thorough assessments including Kevin >> um on what our options are. So it was it was a moment of pride for me of of course the situation is there. The second one was a panel of exopicio students. So we
045are going to have our first one right I think the next >> September and it was really good to hear about all the schools that have had that persona in their boards for years. It was great to hear their how they have because they had like the superintendent and the students. So it was a nice pairing and um it was just a reminder of the importance of empowering those voices instead of just having them sit there like yeah we do have somebody here. know like empowering the their voices because they have the opportunity to bring the plurality of perspectives of the students that they represent. So I thought that was very good. And then the last one, Dr. Laura Lewis, who is from the Melbourne district, she's retired. She had a session that was so
046inspiring to close the session at the whole um event, the whole um conference. And she emphasized like you cannot be what you cannot see. So being a minority herself and from a country that was in distress when she moved here and how others trusted in her took a risk at her and she just had a phenomenal you know history as a superintendent and then she spoke about this concept of marolds I didn't know these marolds the flowers so she said maragolds are a type of flower that do they don't take away from other flowers they actually protect other flowers and they protect them from pests and they nurture the growth of others. So she said we we should all be marolds but then you have to find who is the marold in your environment or
047teachers like like they're all like the the example and also who are you the marold for. So it was very inspiring. It was very nice. So thank you for the opportunity Marian for bringing us there. Um so I will reflect you know I'm one one thing that I think is particularly lovely about about this board. It's a young board but they're very committed to u professional development and it's very important because we're living in changing times and it's not an intuitive job all the time governance versus management. A lot of people are doers in their life and really here what we are is is um like accountability and overseeing and and that sort of thing. And so I appreciate and I I want to just give a thank you to Franchesca who worked really diligently
048this morning and got many of us registered for our NISSBA convention in October. That's always a very um excellent event. Lots of things, you know, in the vein of what Sophia was saying, always topical, always like the cutting edge of what's going on now. And certainly there's plenty to learn and to hear about. Um so thank you for that sharing. I really appreciate it. And thank you Devon. I think this is your first official this year meeting with us and uh and thank you very much. We're very happy to have you and congratulations on your appointment this evening. Does anybody else have any reflections they'd like to share tonight? Seeing none, may I please get a motion to adjurnn? >> Thank you. No discussion on that. All those in favor? I opposed abstains. Motion passes.
049Meeting adjourned. Seven only.