ICSD Board of Education Voting Meeting - Tuesday, January 27, 2026

00127th 2000 order. Uh and we will entertain motions. >> Okay. Um, I move to enter into executive session to discuss negotiations between the Ithaca City School District and Ithaca Teachers Association to discuss the employment history or matters leading to the employment promotion, discipline or removal of confidential non-managerial employees and to discuss the employment history or matters leading to the employment promotion, discipline or removal of members of the Ethical Principle of Democracy Association. >> Second. Before moving on, did you want Oh, Emily is not here. >> I could bring it up. >> Do you want to add another additional thing to executive session? >> I think that that last one covers it. >> It does not. >> Um, yes. Uh, [clears throat] I would like to make the motion to >> We have to read this

002open. uh read it and that just changed the last part. >> Um read the whole thing again. >> No, just the the matters relating to the >> one of those one of those semicolons. >> What what word do you want to add that in the last part? >> It's I mean >> I believe that it's there. >> Uh I am going to once again say is currently not listed as a matter for us to discuss in executive session. Um. >> Oh, was that other >> Oh. Um, >> you just say an employee would help us. We just click. >> Yeah. Is it to add appointment employment appointment was not >> and to discuss the employment history or matters leading to the employment motion discipline or removal of members of the uh of my >> no

003of a >> just say an employee >> of an employee. Thank you. >> Is that okay? >> Yes. >> Is that a friendly amendment? Yeah to Adam to you as well Adam since >> so we're working out some parliamentary details >> uh in real time so uh discussion debate questions hearing none we'll call the question all in favor the motion passes unanimously uh we will do our absolute best to be here uh at 7 o'clock to resume our meeting and we'll see about 8 shortly patience back and continue on with our meeting if I can find my agenda which has disappeared. Uh thank you. >> Fantastic. Um and we'll continue with any uh modifications to the agenda. Hearing none, we'll continue on with the agenda which includes uh public comment period and we have a

004couple folks who are signed up. Uh I will just go ahead and read names and my apologies if I mispronounce. The first person who's scheduled is Pelia. Yes. >> Uh, you can just go right up there. >> Hi everyone, my name is Cornelia. I'm currently a junior at Itha High School. So, Cornell University recently announced it decision to significantly increase its annual voluntary contribution to ITSD. I think that this investment sends a very powerful message about the value of our students and the importance of educational opportunity in our community. Building on this momentum, I urge the board to make an additional quest request to the university by formally asking Cornell to reopen dual enrollment in university courses to high school students. Before I students were able to enroll in Cornell courses through the School of

005Continuing Education. However, recent restrictions on the enrollment of minors have effectively excluded students from these opportunities. The few students who do have the chance must wait until after they've turned 18 to enroll. At the same time, ICS has reduced the number of advanced and specialized courses due to budgeting and staffing constraints. These were the classes that allowed students to deeply explore their academic interests and push themselves beyond the standard high school curriculum. Dual enrollment at Cornell could be the meaningful supplement to these lost opportunities. Additionally, this request is supported by clear precedent. Cornell has already demonstrated that dual enrollment of ITSD is feasible with its former pathway through the school of continuing education, showing that this proposal is not a leap into the unknown. Moreover, peer institutions in the Ivy League have long embraced similar

006models. Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania both offer semester onampus dual enrollment programs for local high school students. These programs have existed for decades and illustrate how universities can meaningfully expand and strengthen their relationships with the surrounding communities. As a junior who will complete my math track at IHS next year, I see an extra sense of urgency with this issue. While my peers in other districts will be taking multivariable calculus and linear algebra classes offered through their schools, I and many of my other friends are missing out on some of our most important coursework at one of the most important points in our educational careers. Opening Cornell courses to ICS students would give motivated students access to the district access to classes that the district simply does not have the capacity to offer while allowing

007them to demonstrate their readiness in a rigorous academic environment. This partnership would be a powerful lowcost way to expand opportunity, foster excellence, and strengthen the relationship between ICSD and Cornell. I urge you to advocate for Cornell to adjust its policy regarding the enrollment of minors in order to reopen dual enrollment with ICSD students. We are ready for these opportunities. We simply need the door to be opened. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Uh next on our list is Meg Burke. I didn't bring any charts this time. I know I'm probably really sad about that. >> Okay. Um I'm Meg Burke, a librarian at Northeast Elementary. I'm here just to acknowledge the great progress our school district will be making with a pending ratification of the ITA contract. The new step and lane structure finally rewards the

008years of service our educators have dedicated to our school and lets everyone plan a future to stay here in ICSD. I'm glad that when we I'm so glad that when we retire from ICSD, this contract allows us to take care of our veteran teachers health in a way that honors how they have spent so many years taking care of our school communities. There are so many positive additions and changes with this contract that I really can't list them all, but my two favorites are personally dear to me. The first is in a little over 3 months as a firsttime mom, I will be able to use 12 weeks of my sick time instead of the former six weeks to spend with my newborn without penalty. I will have the time to heal and bond with

009my child. And even more significant, if I did not have that 12 weeks of acred sick time, I could access the ITA sick bank to be sure I get those crucial 12 weeks. We love our students and we can spend so much time caring for the children of others. It means so much to be allotted the time to love and care for our own children. That brings me to my second favorite piece of this contract and that is raising the cap from only 26 children of IC teachers being allowed to attend ICS ICD schools from other from out of the district to 50 teachers being allowed to send all or any of their children to our schools. I love my school community so much. Um, but realistically I didn't have much hope living out of

010the district of my child ever going to Northeast with the that very long waiting list. I'm so very excited that now my future child will be part of the Northeast W and community that I adore so much. Thank you for working with us in such a new and public way and really listening and progressing with us and making ICSD a place where teachers and their families want to stay. Thank you. >> On the list is uh Jacob Chapman. Hope I >> was going to ask you when I started. My apologies. >> It's a long like Harry. >> My name is Jacob Shapen and I'm here to encourage the ratification of the ITA CBA. I serve as the ITA's PP RNR chair. Ask me later what that stands for because it's too long for right now.

011The short version is the grievance guy. This means that I often have to be Mr. Negative. And today, today I wanted to do some shout outs, but I am aware of the prohibition against names. So, I thought ahead. [laughter] >> Kudos number one, to your chief executive officer for opening the doors to not only my membership, but to the community and made this whole process more democratic for everyone. Kudos. Kudos number two to my membership. That's all I have to say. They're awesome. Uh kudos number three to your chief investigative officer for showing up to every bargaining session and taking our fervor and heightened emotion with grace and applaud. >> Uh kudos number four I'm holding on to until after you vote tonight. >> Blood, sweat, and tears went into disagreements. It has been my

012pleasure to help craft such document. When I started this process, I didn't have the white in my beard. >> The metaphor that the ITA has used throughout this process has been building, flying, and landing an airplane. So, I strongly encouraging you. We've built and flew this airplane together. Please don't crash on the runway. folks who are signed up to speak. That brings us to board responses. >> Adam, yes. >> Yeah, Cornelia, thanks. Thanks for coming. Um, you did a great job with your presentation. So, thanks for that. Um, I think it's a great idea. Obviously, something that's happened in the past. It might be a conversation that we can have um maybe in curriculum maybe in some other committees but um definitely explore that question consider revisiting it. So thanks for bringing it to the

013attention of the board. >> Similarly yes I think we will address this question in curriculum committee. I think it's a good one and I both I hope that in the community also we can both recognize the the voluntary contribution from Cornell and also continue to put pressure on the esteemed uh institution. I'm sure many of you saw the article that Cornell um just received a $371.5 million gift um to support their engineering department which I think puts the 50,000 extra dollar contribution in perspective. So we I both appreciate it and I hope that as a community we continue uh prom Cornell how the many ways both financial and otherwise that they can be supportive of ours. I don't know if my board colleagues were um stating to address it in curriculum. Not that I'm asking

014a question um the dual enrollment, but what I'd like to also recommend. First of all, thank you very much for bringing this to our attention. What I would like to also recommend is that the administrative staff look into like historically what happened >> um why we weren't why we're not why that is not being offered to us at this time. when was it offered previously and all? So that because we just had a curriculum committee meeting this afternoon and another one is a month from now. So to start the investigative work as to that because um soon it's going to be time to start getting classes set for 26 27. >> My schedule's due tomorrow. [laughter] >> Any other board responses? Uh similarly then I'll just echo thank you again. Fantastic. Uh and I will

015uh double down on what Karen is saying. Um while of course there should be a conversation of curriculum, we do not have to wait until curriculum. It can be something that we can get an update on at the next board meeting to at least have some historic perspective of where we're at, how we got there, and then proceed from there. So uh but a lot of issues that come our way. uh trust me that there will be some further investigation about uh how to proceed and whether it's even in our control or not in our control as well but there'll be some investigation. Appreciate it. Uh regarding our other comments this evening, I will wait till that agenda item is uh >> so congratulations committ. If there are no other board responses, we will go

016to our student reps. Good to see everybody. >> Yeah. >> Hi there. >> You guys want to start or should we start? >> You guys. >> Okay. Hi everybody. Well, happy happy snowy week, snowy day, snow. Um, going to go off script for a second. I think as a student student reps as a whole, we'd be in deep support of getting Cornell in classes in like getting students in Cornell classes, getting students engaged as a school that prides ourselves on getting out of the classroom and getting into the community, that's something that I think as board reps, as a community, we'd be really supportive and any way we can help figure that if it's even if it's just making sure students know that this is an option to them, we I think we'd be on

017board for that. Um on script though over regions week we had our parent teacher conferences. We're the only secondary school to do them I believe. Yeah. Uh [clears throat] and we do ours a little bit differently probably from what you know. We sit down with our friend group leader which is again similar to a home room teacher and and and our parents of course and we the students lead that conference and and just in a classroom we sit down um and rather [clears throat] than just like a review of what's been going on of like your report card and whatnot. It's kind of it's a celebration of your semester. it like we have bagels, coffee, and cookies and little snacks and there's people tableabling out in the halls and there's science projects for all the

018parents to come look at. And like on a personal note, I left mine feeling really joyful like going through my accomplishments and my struggles from the semester in a really honest way. And I've just found to be a very beneficial check-in point for the year both both with like my parents there so we can and my FIM group leader who knows me on a very personal level just so we can all see how it's going see what's going on. And again, as we've all seen tonight, the ITA contract is up for ratification today. As a student body who's been involved and following this whole process, we wholly support this contract. I've said this before the board before, but we well and truly love our teachers at LAS. There's a couple in the room tonight. Uh

019we hope to see this contract ratified tonight. We we want our teachers to have a new contract that supports the needs of being a teacher in Ithaca Community. With that, I'll pass it on. >> All right. Um uh Okay. So, we've got some teachers having babies, and that's really, really exciting. Um, we've got our uh gym teacher, Nina, and our social studies teacher, Aurora. And they're both going to be such amazing moms, and I'm so excited. Um, although it does mean that we're gonna miss out on them for a little while, which is a shame. But, >> new contract, make it a little easier. Um uh I'll say um we were talking a little bit about we just had an advisory council meeting which is the body that brings together all of the stakeholder groups

020in LAS students, staff, former staff, former students. Um and we were talking a little bit about PEATS. So some of the PEABATs happened over regions week. Uh, PEBATs for those who don't know are uh stand for performance-based assessment tasks and they're these big and like essays and presentations that we perform to a group of raiders. Um, and it's our replacement for regents. Uh, so it happens in in four main um academic uh areas. Yes. Um, and I guess one of my teachers said something that I thought was pretty interesting. I mean, pebbats, we can complain about them all we want, but um, as she pointed out, there is a big big difference between a kid coming out of of their pebbat presentation and a kid coming out of uh, a standardized test. Um, and that's

021noticeable and and pretty awesome. Um, uh, Friends of LACS is a, um, our sort of coherent alumni network that got together after the 50th reunion, uh, two years ago, and they're the ones who supplied the, um, uh, the bagels and the breakfast at the conferences. They're doing such fabulous work. Um, and coming up in just 2 days, they're doing a desserts and dialogue event on the 29th, uh, from 6:00 to 7:30, um, for at LACS, uh, for anybody in the community who wants to come in and just talk about LACS and the sorts of futures that it holds for students. Uh, and I think I think it's fabulous event. Uh, there's there's food obviously as in the name. Um, and I think it's really sweet. they do a lot of really really wonderful like fundraising

022work for us as well. So a lot of the money that they raise can go towards our trips and um other pursuits. Uh and finally I wanted to say uh relating to the topic one of the things discussed in last meeting um I was looking at the report for the demographic study and I think it would be valuable to get some information from building leaders and teachers in those spaces uh to figure out sort of the uh the reality of the capacity um assertions. Uh, I think like, yeah, I I think it would be it would be valuable to get a little bit of that sort of um, what's the word I'm looking for? Like anecdotal data, I guess. Um, >> we're on groups on the ground kind of stuff. >> Yeah. All right. Thank

023you. >> All right. So, last last time I came to this meeting, I talked about so the Lightning Thief, that's our musical for this year. So, um, we're at currently week four of seven weeks of rehearsal. I know, coming up real quick. Not a whole lot of turnaround time. We just finished act one rehearsal tonight. Um, I wanted to reiterate what Julian was saying a little bit. I re I as well as the other board reps really do support this new contract. I not a whole lot to say that hasn't already been said. So, but also I'll spare you, but I want to show share my support. Um, lastly, I want to inform you all of the sad passing of our school's founder, Dr. Dave Leman. So, he's the founder and the namesake of our

024school. He was the principal of our school for a good 30 years and had ever since been involved in the school. But more than just a principal, he was truly a member of the community. He was like he did everything. I don't know how to explain it better than that. I mean, there's this there's this beautiful vignette on this on like a typical day in the school. And I think Julian had that. You wanted to read it out. Uh I'm sure you >> so I was I was recently in the LACS archive that Cornell holds for us and I in the 1984 first edition of the foot book our version of a handbook. Uh a student [laughter] yeah a a student a student wrote us a vignette on what Dr. Dave Day looked like and

025I thought it'd be a nice piece to share to the board tonight to give you an idea of what this man meant to our school entitled Dr. Dave Layman. Yes, ACS does have a principal, Dr. Dave Layman, who also teaches one class each cycle. What else does he do? Well, a quote typical day, if there ever is such a thing at ACS, might include the following. Dr. Dave arrives at 7 a.m., unlocks the front office, turns on the photocopy machine, fills and plugs in the hot water pot, answers a couple of phone calls from a student, a parent, about being sick and and having to help their aunt move. Then he helps the custodian load all the milk into the cooler. that he checked ex out a basketball for the students to use in the

026gym. Goes over the ten of budget plans with the head of our budget committee. Gives first aid to a student who got heard. Holds a conference with a parent and a student and a family group leader. Shs the ball back in. Makes some phone calls to a different members of C of the central administration. [clears throat] Uh puts the food puts the food on for lish in the kitchen and turns on the oven to warm the hot stuff. Observes a class and provides some written feedback. observes a counseling appointment with the student trying to decide whether to stay in school or not. Helps a staff member break up an argument between a brewing fight with and talks with the students to help them cool down. Serves lunch and washes pots and pans. Takes a tour

027of the building and grounds to see all that all is calm. Stops to chat with some students in the smoking area. It was 1984. [laughter] Returns to the office to interview a prospective new student. Administers first aid to a staff member who just cut his thumb. returns phone calls to the probation department and admit assistant superintendent. Meets with the director of the daycare center about the use of the kitchen and is called is called the office for a phone call from a parent whose daughter has run away from home. Holds a conference with a teacher about plans for a purchase and use of printers for the computers. Checks in with the custodian about a clo about clogged soap dispensers in the men's room. Unlocks the science storage room and stop stops in the dark room

028to watch May filmed. returns to the office to write two brief memos to members of central administration. Calls a parent about tonight's steering committee meetings, then leaves for the secondary principal meeting at the board meeting, remembering to unplug the hot water pot on the way out. Thus, in general, Dr. Dave tries to share his administrative quote power and duties with other staff, students, and parents while serving as a support person to everyone and a school's leazison to the central administration school board, the general public. This made it everything and they have a lot of >> If there was one thing that could have been taken from from our 50th reunion is that this man was a legendary once ina- million leader that truly had a lot of impact on a lot of people. I mean

029you you could still his his legacy still like walks the halls if there's if for lack of a better term. Um >> our school will really miss miss him. That's all from us and ULACS Ethical High School. >> Okay. Um we hope you guys clear your calendars for February 7th because that is our STEM openhouse where a bunch of people um a bunch of the STEM clubs from IHS will be attending and also I think uh SU from Cornell society of women engineers will also be hosting their robot there and hopefully code red will also be running our robot if it works at that time. Um hopefully hopefully. Um but yeah, guys, please come. It's 1 to 4:00 p.m. uh February 7th at the Q gym and it could also be in the trailers. Um

030we'll move around those two spots. Um but also to touch back on the Cornell dual enrollment, I was reading an article on Cornell Chronicle 5 days ago and they said that new initiatives include an effort to offer dual credit courses to qualifying high school students beginning next fall. So hopefully that is a true thing. Um, we'll see. And then also, yeah, please ratify the contract, guys. I think it's [laughter] like all the teachers and all the all the Ithaca High School students to say that we really love our amazing teachers and please ratify it to make their lives even more amazing. Um, yeah. >> Uh, so this weekend we're sending a lot of people to all state band at college. Um, so these last spring uh went auditioned for all state band um at the

031NISMA festival and it's it's in the double digits I think the number that we're sending which is a lot of people to send to all state. Um there's only there's only a few hundred across the entire state that get selected for choir bands and jazz band total. So it's a really big deal. Um the concert will be on Saturday. Uh I'm not sure what time, but that's something you can look up if you just look up uh NISMO all state band times. So uh last week we had our midterms week, our regents week. Uh and student council had uh study booths in the library and so we helped out a lot of students, especially freshman, newer students to uh big standardized exams like that. And that went very well. Um last week we had a

032band game night. Um, so all of the Ithaca bands, the choir, the orchestra, uh, and both the bands came together and had a game night, play a bunch of games. That was really fun. Uh, and then we are still working on the cell phone survey to bring back to you guys. Hopefully that'll be released in the next month. Um, we got to talk about it in some out of out of here meetings. And my last thing for you guys is I know you all know my views on the ITA contracts and I feel like I've talked at you enough, but I just want to say one more time on top of everyone else that I really hope the contract is ratified. Many everyone at IHS feels the same way. Thank you. >> Thank you. >>

033Uh board responses. Um, thank you for the lovely tribute to was really nice to hear. Um, also Julian, I love that you brought up studentled conferences and I want to say actually there are other schools that actually are doing that as well and it's a really great thing and I'm glad you highlighted it and I appreciate hearing how powerful that is for you. So, thank you. >> Other important responses Yeah, the um someone had mentioned, sorry, someone had mentioned about the enrollment study that we did that we talked about last meeting. Emily, thank you. Um we're going to have further discussion around that at a future board meeting and and the tribute to Dr. I was quite wondering students smoking where the inside was corner back in the day. >> There in that same book

034it said there was a little you need to pay a cigarette to a guy a few months ago during class. So they had it was whole system >> some things about LACS we should just not >> see it was the 80s >> 90s as well. >> [laughter] >> Uh before moving on, I will take it as an opportunity. Um it was 30 years ago that I interviewed uh here in the city school district coming from Rochester in a school called school without walls which uh also tried to do and disrupt some sort of standard traditional forms of education that they felt does not reach all students. Uh and I had the great pleasure of interviewing with uh Dave Lang uh who became a dear mentor to my to me. Uh I had the pleasure of

035working with Dr. Dave for seven years went up was the alternative community school working closely as an assistant to the principal a role that he advocated for to make sure that we could uh fully educate students who were being marginalized [clears throat] uh not only as a visionary and as someone who was dedicated to the democratic process even when it became messy um especially when it became messy. Uh I feel honored and privileged that I had the chance to work uh directly with Dr. Dave when Dr. Brown gave me a call to give me the news. Uh give thank you Dr. Brown because you knew what it meant to me and you knew uh I think you asked me to sit down before you gave me the information. Um and my immediate thought was to

036Judy Layman as well as well as the whole Layman family. And uh I know that there will be plans to rightfully uh honor Dr. Dave's legacy not just at Ithaca uh not just at the layman Alternative Community School but as the national and international educational force that he was. >> To all LACS students, thank you for that tribute. Um, and I'm saying to our community personally, uh, I can testify to what a phenomenal educator, uh, and what a caring educator, uh, Dr. Dave was. So, was not planning on sharing that today, but it was time. So, thank you all very much. Um, sometimes pause is necessary before we go on with our agenda. We will continue on with our agenda. The next agenda item is the consent agenda. We will entertain motions. >> I move

037to approve all consent agenda items listed in the consent agenda. Consideration of accounts, personnel, reports, students, and minutes of previous meetings presented. Second move by Adam, second by Jacob. Discussion, questions, debates, conversations. Hearing none, we will call the question. All in favor? All opposed? Abstensions? >> Emily and all set. Trisha. >> Yeah, >> the motion carries. Uh, that brings us to the superintendent reports and Dr. Brown. Yeah, thank you for the opportunity, Professor. And I uh wish to continue like you. I love Dave Layman. And uh you can be a superintendent here, but you're not really superintendent unless Dave Layman co-signer. [clears throat] >> Uh and he people don't know this. The first time I've said it public, I think I told you uh my first week on the job, he spent about two full

038days with me before he gave me his endorsement. And I learned a lot from that, brother. Um, and one of the things I wish to I'm going to quote him to get to what I really wanted to share tonight. He said to me, uh, in that first meeting in that office over there, um, I will cosign you being superintendent here, even though he was on the board, but I'll co-sign you being superintendent here if, uh, you you, uh, if you remember process is always more important than the product. And for the folks who know Dave Blaming, y'all know what he means by that. And [clears throat] uh as I'm thinking about the collective bargaining process we've just gone through and in the back of my mind and my team heard me say it a lot

039the process is going to be most important here. We will get to a product. I've gone through five different contract negotiations with ITA and the product was important for us then, but this time we knew we needed to focus on the process and I I'm I'm with you because I am very happy about not only the process but the product too just by the sheer number of national and state publications that have reached out to us and I know I've I've seen what NICET has covered as far as the process but you're going to be getting a lot of other calls captain because [clears throat] association the national defense assoc association. There are about six other major organizations who want to cover the process. And while we knew what we were doing was novel, I

040didn't know quite how novel it was. And um and folks, why they waited until now before reaching out because they wanted to see if it was going to work. All right. I think people were waiting for the train back to do something like we just did publicly. And what folks have shared with me already is not only did we do it publicly with about 100 plus hours of conversation both online and offline, but it's now up there for everybody to see. So I've been contacted by various universities that are training administrators right now asking if they can use it to train administrators and folks on collective bargaining. I don't know why they're asking if it's up there publicly, but anyway, they're asking [laughter] for permission. And a shout out to our communication team because you

041can go in, you can type in a word and find where we're talking about certain items. All the minutes are there. What we did as far as a process long after we're gone, people are going to talk about what we did. What I hope will be a process that will be used across our state. But for us, it was just part of what we did. We knew we needed to be transparent. We knew we needed to talk about this for everybody to hear. And I'm hearing Dave layman. The process is going to be more important than what we ultimately land on as far as a product. And yeah, but the product is is cool, too. [laughter] Now, I've been here where, and Bob would always remind me of this, too. And I gonna say it

042now because I'm nearing, you know, I won't be a much say there's always more of them than there is of us because I've sat in this seat >> and I've sat in that room where it's me and or Bob or maybe four or five other administrators and there are hundreds of other folks if y'all know what I'm talking about. And because of that process that we've had in the past, typically I when we're presenting a contract to the board, I you know, I'm feel I support this, but it's one-sided and I don't know how mutually beneficial everything is, but it's a collective barging. We agreed on some things. Both sides gave some things, but yeah, this is very supportive of the bargaining unit. This case and this time I'm I feel like this is for

043the first time in my career very mutually beneficial. There were cons some concessions, some disagreements. Both sides gave us some things. But there's some things in this contract that I hope will be ratified that I'm very excited about, very excited about when it comes to management rights. As a person who've been managing school district for 20 plus years, I think I have some credibility when I think about management rights and what's good, what's not, and I have a team with about 120 years of collective management rights experience who would say the same. This is a good contract for management and it's a good contract for our educators. See this contract if ratified puts our educators as far as compensation in the top tier of our region. I've done the formal analysis of the market. So

044anybody who wants to talk about market analyses they won't you won't know more about that than I do with Bob and Kieran or Zach because we've used every chat sheet every artificial intelligence and form that we can think of. We pull all the data we've read contract. We spent our summer reading contracts. So we know what the market is asking for. And I can say with much confidence our contract puts our compensation model at the top tier of our region and our competitor not in the middle not in the median but in the top tier and the ways in which we're going to compensate moving to a step lane system. as a person who's been holding the line here like every superintendent before me for generations now that we're not going to go to step

045lane. I now understand step lane in ways I didn't before and I know that it's mutually beneficial the way we spr and this is where I think our educators and teach because I'm a teacher too and I've been I taught it's been a long time since I've been in a kindergarten classroom and I don't want to go back anytime since I'm a teacher too so I know what it's like when you talk about working conditions and I live with one >> who talks about what it when can I go to the restroom my planning time like I hear that all the time not just when I sit in front of a hundred of y'all telling me you need better working conditions So when we think about working hearing 80 plus proposals around how to increase

046and improve working conditions I'm now more educated and so is our community and the shifts that be made me talked about it tonight other folks have talked about some of the things we made shift towards are mutually beneficial for our entire organization as well. So, if you want to go talk about this contract, I know more about this contract than any other one and so does my team because of the process we've gone through to get it to y'all. And I can now say that the product is one that puts us as one of the most competitive and most attractive school districts. There's a reason why we increase the capital on who can bring their kids here because everybody's going to want to come. >> This is one of the best school districts in not

047only in our state but our nation. And I think this contract represents it and it's a mutually beneficial one and I will say that to anyone and we can afford in the next few months we're going to be talking about the finances. Not only is this contract we can afford this contract we are positioning ourselves as an organization to do some really cool things over the next few years in addition to this contract. And thank you Dr. Bllelock for your leadership of a finance committee. I've never had well Mr. Angley and Mr. Grandy would do this but you did that this summer. you sat with us all summer when you could have gone on vacation with your pencil and an eraser and helped us look at numbers as one of the top economists in the

048world. I appreciate you. And Sean, when I came to you about doing this publicly, you could have said no >> and you said yes. And you sat there at that table with your mama one time [laughter] hearing this. >> So a shout out to the board for engaging in a process that you didn't have to helping us do the work to present a product. And Dave, that's for you, bro. But 16 years later, after those two days of spending time with this young superintendent who didn't know what he was doing at the time, you co-signed me to be at a place where at 16 years in, I can put forth something to our community that I feel like it's not only legacy work, but it's historic and for that I am very proud of and

049I will turn my time over back to the board now for you to talk about it. But I hope that you support me and our teachers in ratifying this this particular agreement. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Brown. Uh I should note that Dr. Brown is legally required to promote the contract and with that being said because I know Dr. Brown it didn't come from that place that's true feelings about how he believes what this work mean what this contract means. So I'm very thankful for you sharing uh in that way that will move us to our agenda item uh and the first the next agenda item is agenda item 11.1 which is the ITA contract ratification. to follow process if it's okay by the board. Uh we should move the agenda item and then

050engage in discussion, debate, conversation. So we will entertain motions. >> I move to ratify and approve memorandum of agreement with the Ithaca Teachers Association. >> Do you want to do rock paper scissors and give >> I will give this one. So moved by Aaron, second by Adam. Discussion, debate, conversation, dialogue, questions. I'll hop in. Uh, I wrote something down because I've been thinking about this for like a very, very long time. Um, and deleted most of it. So, this is what I have left just so I remember. Um, I am excited to vote in favor of this resolution and yet I am doing so with some reservations. On the balance, I'm voting yes because I believe the pay increases for our teachers is incredibly important and very very welld deserved. We have been assured by

051Dr. Brown and his team that we can afford the costs associated with a number of the provisions in this contract. From the financial information that has been provided to the board, it looks like we can. However, I have many unanswered questions about the potential impacts of the reallocation of monies and use of the district's reserves. Therefore, through my role on the board, I am committed as ever to be intentional about the ways in which I contribute to the oversight of this district, continue to clearly monitor its effective revenues and expenses, and work in partnership with the executive team to seek and support innovative strategies for cost savings and revenue increases. Aside from that, I just want to say congratulations to the teachers and to the district and I'm very very excited for you all to

052um to have gotten to this point and thank you for all your work. >> Additional comments, questions, discussion. >> I'll say um I'm an educator. I am really excited about the vast majority of this contract. that raise, that's a kick-ass raise. Um, it is far beyond what's being given across New York State and I think it's really welld deserved. Um, and so I'm very excited for that. Um, as a teacher and as a principal, I was engaged in step-in lane work. I never worked not under a step in lane and I worked to get those for staff and I see the difference like in stability and consistency between not having it and having it. So excited that that's happening. And I'm also just excited about the things for kids, right? like a a longer school

053day that could hopefully happen down the line. There's a lot to celebrate. Um I do want to share like within the last week our legal council reviewed the contract and did find a few areas not connected to the major raises the step in lane that raised certain financial and legal concerns to me. And so I also understand from legal counsel that they are likely very straightforward to address. They could be tweaked according to our attorney within a few sentences. So, for what it's worth, I personally will be voting against the contract in its current form because I'm 100% confident that after one brief bargaining session, these concerns could be addressed and then we could ratify the contract right after. That said, if the contract gets ratified right now, which I think it's going to be,

054then I nonetheless hope that the district and the ITA meet to discuss the language. And because I think it's about to be ratified, I just want to say whether it's now or within a week, which is what I would advocate for, I just want to say congratulations. Um, so much of what Dr. Brown said resonated with me. Um, I'm so proud of the work that the IPA ITA has done and here's to um getting on to the work of educating our children. Any additional board comments, questions, concerns? >> Um, yeah. No, I I I echo uh Jacob's concern about some of the legal stuff. I mean, I'm going to be voting for it. Um, I I thought about, you know, voting against it for the sake of hopefully trying to clean up some stuff that,

055um, down the line could cause serious issues for the district. Um, and I know it's all unintended. So, you know, that there was good intentions behind um, you know, the thing that we that I had concern about um, from both sides. I'm grateful that it was put in the contract. I just think that the way it was written causes some concern. Um, I'm gonna vote for it and I'm gonna hope that, you know, the ITA and Katherine could maybe like sit with the executive team and try to figure out if there's, you know, a way to to eliminate, I guess, some of the the legal concerns um that potentially could cause issues down the road. Um, they don't need to because once it's ratified, it's ratified. But I think in good faith, I you know,

056I I hope that there's an opportunity to do that. Um, and yeah, I'll be voting yes. Yeah, I'll vote yes. >> [laughter] >> But yeah, >> it's been a long process and I just want to thank everyone for this process especially um since the superintendent reports to the board especially with the superintendent that um because um I am one of the board members who attend a TSC proceeds um committee on a monthly basis um whereby by board reps from across the nine schools attend and quite a few people were surprised when we first started the discussion that do you know what you're getting involved in and especially the transparency and publicized like that. So it's um been a good discussion I would say and as as um Dr. Brown just said um the product speaks

057for itself and I'm in support of the administrative team and ITA for coming to this product coming to deliver this product to us. Any other board members? Fantastic. then I will step up on my platform. It's been an honor to serve uh as a school board member for the past 17 years. Uh I ran in large part because of community members and folks like Dr. Dave on being my PhD told me that I needed to do something with it and put it to use beyond writing articles that four or five people would read. And it was an interesting process in that regard. And we've done some things in my time that I have uh that I feel really good about and have a lot of pride around changing the narrative of some conversations, having difficult

058conversations, uh rethinking the ways in which some either delivery and construction takes place or even how we just talk about young. Uh for me, this contract is legacy work. It's historic in a number of ways. I again served seven years in the ITA. So I'm very much aware of what this contract language means. There's a number there's a couple of concerns that have been expressed. Um all those concerns that have been expressed for me are wins for teachers. There's a way in which we know the teaching profession is under attack nationally. uh and finding ways in which to offer additional protections in addition to compensation. offering different avenues for voice and collaboration as we perceive what's moving forward uh is key for me and it's one of the things that when I'm no longer on

059the board that I will absolutely be most proud of is this specific contract and the way in which we went about it. When Dr. Brown and I were having a conversation about a public process. A number of folks, we are both connected in educational spaces. We were told time and time and time again, "Do not do it." Katherine, I'd assume you're and your team heard similar things from some folks and not everyone, right? But there was a pro there was a way in which folks had some reservations about disrupting a negotiation process that has been in place for decades. That disruption from my perspective has proven to be fruitful one because there is an archive of those conversations. If we have debate discussion about what was said, you go back, you click the link, you

060take a look at the transcript, you understand the nuance of the conversations. That for me were extremely thoughtful, extremely detailed and nuanced about how we do things in a way that pays attention to what our teachers are asking for us in a way that we know is in the best interest of young people. That's a lot to say, but for me, I feel proud about legacy work. I feel proud about a contract that is historic and will mark time and educational spaces. As someone who believes in the importance of archives and time, I'm glad that this is one, should it be ratified, that would do that. So for your team and all the time they put in, for the teachers who are here and the teachers who are not here who made work happen, Dr.

061Brown for your team and the central office and other folks who tirelessly worked on weekends when I would call. You tell me I can't talk to you right now. We're having a session to try to work through things. I'm aware of it's more than 100 plus hours of debate, conversation, and rewriting of documents. Uh these contracts don't come along like this without significant amounts of work. And I want to remind folks there's a reason why it's called collective bargaining. And I hope moving forward we continue to focus on the collective and on the collaboration. So if there are no other comments, we were asked the question, all in favor? All opposed? >> Any let's see how it plays out. Any abstensions? The contract is hereby ratified. Congratulations game. At this time we have other items

062on our agenda but we are going to take a one to two minute break. [laughter] Not sure how many folks want to stay in the rooms the remainder something. So, we'll take a one minute break and we'll resume here. >> Hey guys, All right, good folks. Call our meeting back to order. Uh we have a couple more agenda items to get through. Uh the next agenda item is agenda item 11.2, which is the curriculum committee charter. Uh this is a conversation that was had. Um I don't know that it was I didn't see it on today's curriculum committee agenda, so I don't believe it was discussed on today's curriculum meeting, but I know there has been a conversation about the curriculum committee charter program before. And uh I can let folks know why I asked

063for it to be on the agenda, but maybe it's be better to begin with a little back history and and how we got here if that works for you. Jacob is the chair of the curriculum committee, so I'll turn it over to Jacob. >> Yeah, sure. Hi. Um so starting with the curriculum committee, um we our very first meeting was about what should our focus be? We thought that having a vision statement for food was would useful. So we drafted something, got feedback from um all the committee members and then discussed it with Catherine um from the ITA who I believe pulled the teachers. >> You've got a lot on your mind right now. She she pulled the teachers um discussed it with Mary Grover. um old um of [clears throat] old like I believe

064families maybe since then we're talking about the curriculum committee vision the charter >> but then we came back in our last meeting sort of voted on adopting it um the intention behind it was to go well like essentially like at least for me I can only see for myself was based on the in my opinion really spectacular work that Mary's been doing to sort lead to a more in my opinion equitable experience across schools that Katherine's been very supportive of. the idea that as we saw presented this evening um for those of you who weren't here it was a great meeting watch it and we had a couple of amazing um ELA folks from Boon Ninja talk about the way they're approaching curriculum and assessment whereas in the past it might have been for lack

065of a better term like a somewhat scattered model right it's like different things happening depending where you are as a student leading to a more shared and common experience um so that was the idea is that's having a vision statement that then allows us to ask questions like what's working in terms of trying to provide a more equitable experience for students. um what could be better and also I maybe most importantly given our role as a board what as a board can we do to support from a policy angle from a budgetary um so that's the intention behind it like so like I said what you see in front of you is based on feedback from at the very least um the committee Katherine Mary and teachers or families who build out the survey. Is

066there any other context, Mary, that I'm forgetting that would be helpful to share. Okay, >> Trisha, can we pull it up on the screen as well >> so we can all see? I mean, we may already have it. I know it's on this piece of paper, but not everyone in the room has access to it. So um I first became aware of the charter while attending a the tail end of a curriculum committee um in which it was reference and asking uh teachers or I'm not sure who it was but asking >> math math >> yeah math some questions but using the curriculum committee charter at that point it was called uh to frame some of the questions and for me it raised uh two different um for lack of a better word concerns Um

067one uh a committee is not able to act on behalf of the board without full board vote. And so even if we take a look at the policy committee for example, the policy committee will review a policy and then bring it to the full board. If we take a look at the finance committee, they'll take a look at the consent agenda items and then they'll bring it to the full board for a vote. And so part of it is just a process, right? So if a committee comes up with a charter uh that is well within the realm to be done and for that charter to become the official part of the committee's charter, it would need full or majority vote approval. Um secondarily for me, as I was reading it, it does not currently

068read as a charter. It reads as a curriculum statement. And so I wanted clarity on both. one to make sure the board had a chance to ask some questions and participate in the process for a majority vote. And then second for me would be some recommendations of language changes to turn it into charter language as opposed to what I see as one board member a statement about curriculum. And so those are the two items that um for me that were uh of most importance. And just to quickly respond, I was surprised and in retrospect excited when you shared this with me. It was something that I hadn't thought about and we have a pretty sweet board. So I welcome and I assume you committee members do as well um input and feedback from the board.

069So we just want to support the good work that's happened. >> Um we do have a template. Our committees have not used the template for uh charters that's been created. It's something for us to consider moving forward. Uh maybe at the first meeting of a committee and I should also make mention that committees only exist by majority vote of the board. So the board authorizes any committees that we may have and so for this is sort of connected to that same idea as well that committees um make recommendations to the full board and then the board acts on a on a majority. Um, so I don't know which part to address first. If folks have additional questions, comments, their own thoughts, uh, that's where we're that's where we find ourselves. >> Are there other committee

070charters that I can see as an example? >> We do not. The only committee charters that I believe we have se that we have now that are officially been adopted by the board are for our advisory councils and um, advisory committees. So, as an example, to hear what you're saying. One of the ways in which I would think is that the charter of the curriculum committee is to support whatever this may be, right? Or is to work towards this. Um, that's the way in which I think of a charter, but I'm sure other people may think of a charter that I'll share. Thank you. the process. Should we like are we doing a motion and discussing or how how would you like to approach this or is it for me to >> No, it's we've

071been doing it I think is it on as an action item? It is. So to follow with process uh yes we should entertain motions and then continue the conversation. I move to approve. Uh the following curriculum committee charter is presented. Um should I read it or >> Sure. Be in the record. >> Okay. Regardless, the school educators provide students with a consistent shared experience at the ICSD. Students will keep a safe and supportive environment that focuses on learning. Educators will provide students with active engagement in common curriculum and instructional strategies. >> Second. Moved by Adam, seconded by Jacob. Additional discussion, question conversation. Well, I was looking at the um board committees and I I just want to ensure consistency across the board because I I I haven't seen a charter for all of the other

072committees and I'm wondering if why are we doing one now and if we are going to do let us be consistent and get a charter in place for each and every board committee because as a board committee we're supporting the work of the district. So therefore the board cannot have like members on the these committees as a standalone. You have to have district employees as representation to tell us and guide us along. So I am yeah so and for what it was the first agenda item we had. So I think the reason it coming now is because Sean most recently had brought to my attention something that should be brought. I'm wondering about just the language that we're using. Um I didn't when I was present for that discussion um I wasn't thinking of it

073as a charter and I the way that we talked about it was it was more of a I was like vision statement for it which I think is very very different and less >> uh formal >> formal thank you than um than a charter. I don't really purpose personal um I haven't really thought about it at all. So I guess I don't really feel like a charter is all that necessary, but I do very very fervently believe that all of our committees should be on the same page when we start and having agreeing on a kind of vision for how we're going to um work together next year and what issues we want to focus on and the things that we want to think about. Um, I think that I like informally did that by

074meeting with the HR committee and we kind of talked about those things and decided about kind of where we wanted to focus our attention. Um, I would have loved to have kind of more formally like written it out as a vision statement, but I think that that's more of just kind of the committee members are coming together and kind of agreeing, which I think is actually a step forward from where what my experience has been on the board, which has really been like a has felt a little bit like a a lone uh committee chair who like I often don't even know like what is going to be on the agenda until everyone else knows what's going to be on the agenda even if I'm on that committee and in past committees like I've you

075know that deciding what the topics are going to be are don't seem to be like kind of like a group effort you sometimes don't even seem like they have a rhyme or reason or you're you know you talk about something and then you never really come back to it and therefore never make progress because you're jumping around all the time and I think that a kind of vision or mission statement for that year would really help him guide all of the work and I took what you were as that and and see it as that still I guess and I think that it's very clearly guiding the kinds of things that are being talked about in the meeting. So I guess all of that to say I don't think that I I don't think that

076the entire board would necessarily need to agree on just on on a vision statement for how the committee members want to approach the work. We already have those conversations all the time and don't include the rest of the board and maybe like um making it more with a barber was complicated unnecessarily unless you disagree that that's what you were trying to do. >> So chart I think you you first used the word charter um because I I I I called it a division. Maybe it would just be helpful for me to understand the distinction but I thought that was just a synonym. >> I don't think I called it a charter. I think it came to me as being called a charter and I started using that language. >> For what it's worth, it's a

077vision statement. That's what it was called on the document. um the ICSD brick committee vision pigment I I personally am indifferent as to whether it's like if if >> I don't think we can be indifferent. I think as Emily saying they serve two different purposes. >> Yeah. So can can someone help me understand the differences? >> Trisha, I just emailed you a copy of the charter template. Can you click on that email and show it up on the screen [clears throat] >> to give some >> clickation? Then I'll try to answer your question more directly as well as respond to to Emily's comments as as well. >> Do you see it? Did you have it there? >> I have it. I have it. I'm gonna bring it up. >> Jessica got it. >> So, this

078was a template. I did not create this template. I take no uh I would love to own creating this template and I just emailed it to all board members as well. I did not create the template, though I do know it was borrowed from what other districts do when they create committees. Part of the idea is creating a committee charter to help guide the work that the committee is doing for the remainder of the year. So this is an example of what a committee charter could look like by way of priorities, by what the charge of the committee is, which we do not necessarily do and have not done in our district, which we are ironically required to do for special advisory councils, right? It cannot be passed without a charge being clearly articulated in

079the resolution. And so there are some examples of what a charter could look like. If we go back to the idea of a vision statement that may that cause me that causes me equal concern that a committee should not have the sole authority to create a vision statement without approval of majority vote and I'll use this particular one as an example. I as one board member disagree with this vision and so I'd ask the question then where is the opportunity to express disagreement if I think this is headed the district in a direction that I do not support as one board member one board member right but what is then the process to be like I don't support this vision >> go ahead >> I um genuinely like I feel like this question is going

080to sound deep but it's not meant to be. So if other curricula like if other committees do not have a stated vision or charter then I I guess I don't even know what to disagree with right like I don't know what to agree or disagree with. >> Yeah. For me the example would be that other committees which may or may not have a charter are not taking any action without board majority vote. So the finance committee whether it has a vision or not is still looking at things and presenting recommendations to the board. Right? The HR committee is still making recommendations to the board. There's no action that's taken. We have a vision statement that's telling our curriculum leaders that this is the direction we're headed when we as a board have not had that

081conversation, then I have questions about the process. And if we're using the vision saying our vision indicates our vision indicates that we want a consistent and shared experience. If we're asking folks to build curriculum in that way, at what point in time does the board have that conversation about is that the way in which we want to approach our work and it may be. So it's not saying it's not or again majority vote works and then that's the fact we're going down but a committee shouldn't have the ability to decide a vision without majority vote. >> So when you say action you mean the creation of a vision >> because I don't think the committee has taken what I would consider to be action but maybe I'm not understanding. So the meeting and this is

082a very specific thing and my apologies but this is part of the way our democracy gets it is what it is right I attended a meeting and Jacob as the chair you asked our an educational leader curriculum leader how does your work fit within this vision that to me begins to direct the work that's being done that's not simply a vision statement that's saying we're headed down this path I'm expecting you to head down this path please tell me how your work match matches this vision when we as a board have not agreed upon a vision. >> Thank you. Yeah, I think that there's a difference between like a vision for a work plan about like the intentions of like what to pursue versus a decision about like stating a belief system which I which

083I'm hearing now is like different like when I thinking about it from the HR perspective it was about deciding what like making an assessment about what we will see in the district agreement together about what we wanted to pursue and learn more about. Correct. >> Which is different from I hear I hear what you're saying. It's different from saying and we believe that we need to recruit teachers this way and we're going to work towards that. I can say so I I agree with you. I can also say that I don't actually in general I haven't seen that the curriculum committee in the in the time that I'm actually present at the meetings that it's actually doing that that it actually is I took it as if we as it guiding more about the questions

084that were being asked and sought. I hear what you're saying in the way that it's written. If it would give the impression to to executive team members that it was indicating a a system or a direction with which to go then I I mean I I think that in all the work that we do what's and I'm I'm saying this and I I feel bad it's on camera but we have goals and guides that are very distinct to our district and so creating something specific to one committee without really just referring to what we already have in place as a board and as a district does not feel right. What what I and so I I've been in these meetings, but I often miss the top of them because they start at 4:45 and you

085know a lot of us have jobs that conflicts with that start time. So I've missed some of these conversations. But I will say oftentimes the committees that I've been on there's no vision statement. That's that is our guide and then we choose priorities based on the needs of that year while working with admin or whoever else is part of those committees. And so it's the priorities are there, but a vision that that is not aligned with what's already there, it doesn't it doesn't really mesh. And I I I think that, you know, we've talked in in board development sessions about goals and those sorts of things. I think that's a bigger conversation. I think that this and deciding on this right now is premature and and and not really I feel like there's so many

086other things that we can be focusing on rather than these three sentences >> for just a I do want to quickly respond the conversation about the creation of it both in the curriculum committee meeting as well as with Mary and Catherine was very much focused around these goals there is I I would I do want to distinguish between goals and vision the And like those goals are for the entire district and given our very limited scope of work right on an assessment these were our language was built up of culture of excellence equity in in the in particular. So >> push no I this is the part of the conversation right we're having it in public as we rightly should. The first sentence says, "Regardless of school, educators provide students with a consistent and shared

087experience." Which in some regard is hearkened to the fact that some folks may believe that is not currently happening and we are trying to make that happen. That is an action step. That is not a vision. That's saying regardless of school, we're going to do this. We may already do that now anyway, but I'm also aware that there is some feeling among some folks that we're not doing that now and there and that we should be doing that and that may be the want and the will of the board. And so my job is not to stop the want and the will of the board. My job is to say board is this what we want to do and if the majority of the board says yes then we keep it moving and if the

088majority of the board says no then there's a different conversation to be had about what that looks like. So I don't want people to mistake I I hope I'm trying to be clear is that I am focused on the process and then I have a personal as one individual item or individual board member about the direction but for me it's really much more about the process like how do we do this if this is going to if this is going to direct the direction that we're going to have a conversation as a board of course that conversation should begin in committee then the committee says here's our recommendation much like all other committees do, right? Like facilities does not decide what a capital project is. Facilities decide that we should do a capital project, hands

089it to the board and says, "Let's debate y'all. How do we want to go about this?" But it doesn't start moving like it doesn't start doing that without us having a conversation or again a majority vote. >> Yeah, I would just add I mean I guess at the same time there's there's um I mean I I I agree with what you're saying. Um I think the way committees tend to work is that there's a chair of a committee who has a certain philosophy maybe or an ideology or a lens with which they're going to you know um conduct things and then that's where the questions kind of come from. They work with the administration like when I chaired curriculum for a couple of years you know maybe I had certain interests in certain topics and

090I worked with Mary Grover or Lily Talia whoever was there at the time and then brought things to committee and we talked about things. So I think that we also have to acknowledge that there's some like sort of some independence that gets built in based on who's in charge that particular year and I think it's if I think what you're bringing up is a good thing like we should flesh this out because um you know because there is some independence and there is a question and then I think you raised a good question about action steps um and I understand what you're saying about this sort of um like being an influential lens that could shape things and if it's shaping something it becomes an action step and then to that end would we want

091to as a board sort of look at each committee you know uh like have each committee propose what they want the vibe of their committee to be I think the language of um charter you know versus vision statement and all that I think that might be a technicality in this case I don't think anybody was thinking about literally the word charter um but maybe and then to propose that and then have the board vote on those and then have statements for every committee which I know is a lot to ask but maybe that's appropriate given like you know the tone of this conversation have that >> yeah I think Emily said something similar has said something similar for some time right about understanding what each committee's purpose is and why it exists and what it's

092charged to do >> so that part I I I think we're probably much more in agreement around process and I do think moving forward it'd be best for the board to sort of establish whatever that is, whatever that process is. It would just take care of a lot of uncertainty in that regard. It still doesn't get to the some of the things that Emily was talking about, which I appreciate as well. Like as a committee member, I'm not aware what's going to be on the committee the agenda until I get the agenda. And so, Adam, you're right. A lot of or a lot of committee chairs have a lot of autonomy in that regard. And so, that may be another topic for us to discuss as well. Like maybe it's collective agenda setting, right? there.

093There's a number of things that could that should and probably could take place. And so I want to be clear that this is not me critiquing this specific thing. They're just raised the process question for me that we could that we should clarify if we're going to move forward in this way. >> Um I got to say yeah I I just want to highlight while I facilitated and like discussed that like the Jacob Shipper vision statement. So I am I am open to the conversation. I think I would just highlight I think many people have told me my time at the board like to stay within it's not like stay within the lane right but like be aware of like what is the board producing not. So the big thing I do want to highlight

094is all of the language here comes from a conversation with the committee and building upon the work that the team is doing. So, so, so I actually think this might be an instance where the uh I don't know if it's the understanding or it's like the direction like the the instructional leadership team in the district is moving faster than the board in some instance of like what they're doing. And so the intention here just for everyone, you know, who will be voting yes or nay on this is like to just solidify here's what we're seeing happen. We think this is really powerful. the work that is happening with between Mary Catherine and others is like very powerful. So I wanted to highlight that so that our curriculum committee meetings could be supportive of that. So

095that's the intention here and I also for what it's worth I think it's a great and I think you were sort of getting at this Karen but pardon me if I'm missive like I think Karen and Shnie were both getting at this. I love the idea of next year going into the committee structure going hey like let's make sure that as committees we've discussed and had an open conversation about what it is like what our intention is committee and what our goals are hopefully that can be part of the strategic planning which I had the pleasure of reading the thank you great acrony but so in short I like Sean has given really you know I know Sean you have your like specific individual critiques on it and I'm sure I speak for everyone on

096the committee when I say open to others open to us voting yes on this or no or giving feedback so we can sort of come back to it or dropping this as a thing because either way I think as individual committee members will all be able to have questions and no one on the curriculum committee has a a goal of like taking unilateral action because that's not our role. >> Yeah. Um, I'm in favor of dropping this uh because it should have been a discussion item, not necessarily a motion because according to the board committee policy that the committee is recommending and from what I saw when we four of you are on the committee, I don't hear a resounding recommendation for this. So, um, and I want to be consistent across all board committees.

097If we're going to do a document, a vision chart or whatever, use the template for one committee, we are consistently using it across all codes. And since that discussion isn't happening now, if we set a time limit as part of the I don't even think that would really be part of the strategic plan, but but um yeah, just to have some sort of consistency because I've heard um even within the conversation now like polling was polling done and who were pled about this language and all. So yeah, I'm in favor of this not being there's a motion out there. I won't be voting for this to move forward. There should be a discussion about it. >> I think I want to just add one more thing as well while I turn off my alarm so

098it doesn't annoy everyone that committee chairs change every year. And I appreciate this work, Jacob, but like if you think like next year someone else has the committee, I mean this is a lot of work to put into one statement and there is so much other work to get done. So I love the idea of a vision, but I think we should focus more on our broad board goals because every year committee chairs change almost every year. And I think really maybe one of the other things we work on in a board development session is figuring out how to best utilize our time as a board when we're leading committees and have a more general idea so we can focus on what really needs to be done and talk to the admin who are going

099to be in those meetings. So you know with HR it's Zach and curriculum and Mary and really sit down and maybe map out you know we have a board handbook what is the best use of our time because as board members it's limited and we have a lot of work we want to get done. So how do we make sure we're doing this work effectively listening and getting feedback from educators admin students community whomever and really getting the work done. And I think we really probably should spend some time looking our committee structures, considering the turnover every single year in leadership a and what our best practices should be as a board and adding that into our board handbook so we're not rewrite reinventing the wheel as turnover happens because vote happens, people move, people

100change, new ideas come and how do we actually get the work done because there's a lot of work to get done. I completely agree with every single thing that you just said, but I no I [laughter] I'm like yes, we need to go back to the talking about the board goals, talking about them every single year so that we are not just looking at overarching goals for the district, but that we decide as a board what we hope to focus on and prioritize in that year. And I completely agree that by doing that we can have a discussion as an entire board about what we want to p prioritize in these specific areas that we have committees. And I I feel so strongly that we need to be doing that as a full board. I

101really like I think it's really detrimental to the work for the for all of the committees to be working in in silos like this and not communicating as much as we could be. And I think that you're right that if we started from that top and everything was kind of informed and fed by that it would be it would be really effective. And I think that we could actually get more work done. And I also think that it's a really important point that we like turn over every year like the things that we're working on on the HR committee. I'm like I really hope like it's not it's not going to get done this year. Like nothing's going to get done. I sure hope that I can like hand off to whoever is doing it

102next year and say like this is what we've been working on. like assuming that everybody's still agree that this is like a topic of interest like continue it so that at some point you like deliver and finish something. I think that a lot of things like aren't finished. They're just like explored. And I don't mean finished like something that it could be finished by all deciding we don't we don't want to focus on it anymore or whatever it is. But like to be able to help like see it through. With that said, I also hear Karen and [clears throat] completely agree that this was like very much a topic. like I know exactly how I want to vote on this because and meeting a lot sooner if we just to make that vote than to

103talk about this like bigger piece later. So I'm also in support of that now that I've said my piece >> and then I want to piggyback off what you said because um we're not operating as board committees in silos. I disagree with that because it is my responsibility as a board member to make sure that I'm up to date on all of the committees and what's happening. Does that realistically happen? No, it doesn't always happen, but it is my responsibility and thank you to our communication team um for always summarizing all of our work sessions, the committee, the board meetings and all. If I were to miss anything, it is my responsibility to go back and check. So, um and the committee's bringing forth recommendations and and all to the board. So, >> I'm I'm

104gonna show this because for me it's related. I would dare say the board should not adopt a committee structure without that committee be given a charge that receives majority vote. So simply saying I want a cor I want a policy committee. Okay, that's one thing, but what should the policy committee be charged with? Right? And that becomes the vote, not just whether or not we have a policy committee or the HR committee that it's not just that we want an HR committee. What do we expect the charge to be? Those other conversations for me are absolutely essential. I agree right that the how does it then connect back to the larger vision, ideas, mission that the board is trying to accomplish. um those this was being that's what's being raised for me as I was

105thinking about this and again for me it's about process nothing nothing more >> process more process more important product so I I for what it's worth I love this conversation I think that what you just said resonates a lot with me because I do think yeah I mean again this is not the Jacob Shepard mission this is based on the work that's happening from the district administrators but um administrator ators change, board members change, and I even as you're talking when you're like policy committee, I was like, yeah, like I there's so many direct someone, you know, write a policy committee. The charge could be update policies from the 1970s. It could be focus on like the three most important and that is something that I trust inherently every committee chair. And you're right. As

106I think about every committee, my like the curriculum and the thumb, I actually have no idea what the goal is and whether it's a goal that I as an individual board member would support. So I I don't know if I like I don't know do I withdraw the I mean or we can vote it down. Like I have no again I have no vested interest like like other than you had asked that we raise it and so I wanted to I I I'm intrigued with how the conversation is now. I'm just curious for next steps. >> Right. Well, next steps could be of course you can withdraw the motion and we can continue on with the agenda. I I do want to say one last piece. Uh because I know that I have in my

10717 years at one point in time or another I know that I've been responsible for this. Let's not underestimate the influence that both the board and individual board members have engaging with whomever, right? that we it is there is influence that happens from the board, right? Both in terms of pushing towards a particular direction. I think a really good example would be what Emily shared. You know, whatever I choose as chair of the policy committee to put on the agenda or not put on the agenda is influence, right? Like we may never address a particular issue or or policy because I chose as the one chair not to put it on. So that's the part about sort of finding a process that seems one a little bit more collaborative but also recognizing that it needs

108anything that we do needs majority vote. So then what is I don't think I made the motion but I I do think we should withdraw it but I am curious again like then what is the next step to move us in a direction curriculum committee aside or curriculum committee included that gets us where we have a clear stated agreed upon direction for our >> maybe an agenda item I mean to have another conversation where we can come up with some kind of a structure about how to move that forward. or you know seems like it's >> I don't know just >> No, no. I I think that's it. I I think we should all spend a few minutes in our next committee meetings taking a look at that charter. Even if it's writing a sentence,

109the charge of the finance committee is to make sure the district's finances are in order. Right? Do we do we all agree with that? And then we move from there, right? Like I think some sort of statement other than we have a finance committee, right? Like that that's the part longer term. I see it connected to again the RFP for strategic planning. So it may not be something that we address this year but we're cognizant aware of it that and there's a disconnect and we know that at the next reorg meeting that we wouldn't identify we wouldn't approve committees without some sort of >> charter. >> Is it daylight out here? What's >> for the last hour and a half picked up his vote. >> Thank you, Zach. >> So, so my humble recommendation would

110be if we do have would be to withdraw as a voting item. >> I don't think there's any reason to vote it down because we're not there, right? To withdraw as an agenda item and have each committee have a quick conversation, but at least trying to draft a sentence that could be sent to the board so we can figure out where we are. longer term issues. I think we need some development sessions andor time together for that to happen or again it would be part of the RFP >> for what to happen. I'm sorry >> for like deeper conversation. >> Who made the motion? >> I would strongly I hereby >> that was so depressing. And then I second the withdrawal. >> Sure. >> Uh I I want to remind folks before we proceed. I

111said at the reorg meeting that we loosely follow Robert's rule of order. >> So I'm sure there's a parliamentarian here will say that we did not do that rules. >> The person who made the motion comes with thought that but I can second. Right. >> Knock yourself out. More the idea for for me is that we agree with the pro the step moving forward. So if there's a withdrawal, if it's without objection, let's keep it moving and we know it's a conversation we need to be. >> Does that work for everybody? >> Yes. >> Thank you for that conversation. I'm greatly appreciate. >> Y I agree. >> Agenda item 11.3, we are going to have a conversation about accessibility meetings and beyond. >> Yes. So, um, something came to just occurred to me in recent

112meetings and I'm going to speak more loudly because this was the catalyst, but there's so much more to this. So, uh, we don't have microphones in here anymore and I checked with folks and we can't have microphones because of the space, but when we talk about accessibility and when we talk about best practices, we should. Um, and it just it got me thinking about our district. Um, equity and inclusion are not it's it's not possible without accessibility. And the thing is, unless you understand what accessibility is and and how expansive it is, you're not going to recognize it. And something I've been wanting to do in my time on the board and trying to introduce and just it just kind of kickstarts and then something happens and we just never get there is figuring out

113how to really embed accessibility throughout the district. Um, you know, and I think it's really important and something I I I speak to often is that, you know, it's not just about disability. I mean, disability does not discriminate, right? And the intersectionality when we talk about diversity, equity, inclusion in this dis in this district, when you think about intersectionality and race and sexuality and gender and all of the things, socioeconomic factors, and then you add disability on top of it, it just magnifies uh what folks are up against. And so I really have been trying to think about ways where we can embed accessibility into everything we do. And I've been on this board for this is my third term and I just, you know, I haven't gotten there yet. Um, and so I reached

114out to Dan and we had a conversation and we're looking at a few things here. So I'll start with the fact that let's acknowledge that our buildings are aging, right? I remember early on talking about, you know, with Chris when I was a baby board member saying, "Oh, can we get adult changing tables into every bathroom?" And you can't, right? Even though that would be a best practice, it is not fiscally responsible or possible. But what we can do and what I want us to start thinking about and I think that part of there are a few things we're already moving on and then there's some things we can do as a board is that I we need to speaking of committees and councils we need to have an accessibility advisory uh council and I

115can work in some uh a resolution to to set that forth for our next meeting and and we can vote on I just want people to think about it now because I what we need to help in this in the disability community it's the phrase nothing about us without us right we need to have voices in our committee meetings so we're not working in a vacuum and I can't attend every meeting but there are other people there are students there are caregivers there are teachers who understand these needs and understand that when we're in a facilities meetings there's considerations we should be making curriculum there are consider considerations. Literally everything we do in this district, we should be thinking about accessibility, but unless you live in that world, you're not going to recognize it. Um,

116and so that's something that I I want to start working on and getting that committee going. But some exciting things that we have already is that uh building condition surveys we're going to start implementing in those really assessing accessibility and instead of just ADA compliance right Americans with disability acts compliance is just the bare minimum uh Dr. Tech is going to look into uh American National Standards Institute and looking what we could do that can go beyond just compliance looking at different standards looking at what is fiscally feasible considering that all of our buildings are aging. What can we do as we're aging? What can we do in capital improvement projects? You know, there are things we're doing now. We have 3D printers where we can print signage that also has braille. you know, how

117can we embed this in everything that we do? So, the capital projects are something to consider, but and I some of our student reps aren't here, but there's been interest from them. Some other things to think about is as a district really starting to raise community awareness, as a district, thinking about what we're doing in our spaces. Uh, a really good example I'd like to use is Culp. You know, I've been to so many events there as both a board member and and a a parent in this community, and we just don't think about what we're doing there. Those seats aren't made for larger bodies. There aren't many accessible spaces. Julian, I'm making a note and we'll get to you. I just want to finish because if I stop, my own ADHD brain will not

118be able to function. So, culp is not it's not a great accessible space, right? But what can we do since we can't just redo culp to make it accessible, right? Can we make sure that when we have events there, you're not blocking the accessible spaces up front. You're not blocking ways to access. Can we look into having a reservation system for people who need those spaces so people aren't just like sitting next to each other taking up the what three spaces that you can use if you have a larger body or the couple of spaces you can use where you can place your wheelchair. Um I've had this conversation in meetings before. We've talked about doing some expensive analysis of of parking lots. Okay, listen. We don't want to have to spend all of our

119money as a district to do analysis. What if we looked to doing community awareness, letting caregivers know like, hey, you know what? When you're at pickup and drop off and you're blocking the accessible disabled spaces, you are stopping someone from being able to get to where they need to go. You are making parents literally show up. And I I'm one of those parents. I sometimes have to show up places 40 minutes early so I can get my kid inside safely. Right? We need to look and and help educate our community to treat each other better. And I I say this in a time where like when I was thinking about talking about this tonight and everything going on in the world and how it just like do I even want to talk about accessibility at

120this meeting with our country just on fire? And I do because these little acts that we can do to make things more accessible, they allow people like me to be able to speak up more, other caregivers to be able to speak up and go to protest and do other things. So when you're feeling helpless and you wish you could be at a protest, I want you to think, hey, I can do some small little things that can just make our community better to free up the mental space and mental load to help individuals just live better lives. And that's a form of protest and radical support in and of itself. And so I'm hoping that that makes sense. I'm really excited about this. I'm excited about working with facilities to start looking at this and

121and trying to really embed these practices into what we do as a board. You know, Sean's talking about legacy. I want this to be some of the legacy work that I do. I just can't do it myself. That's why I want to help bring in the voices. So, >> any Julian, you had your hand up. >> Yeah. Um, >> I don't know if I'm allowed to take that. [laughter] >> Keep talking to me to stop it, but when when >> uh Oh, this this is a conversation that the student board reps actually got into a couple months back. Um, this Judah specifically was the one kind of leading the charge on that. I'm not sure if it ever made its way to you. Uh, no, he was putting together some just a little report on

122what actually like the day-to-day experience of is what it's like in IHS specifically if you need accessible anything. And then I I can't find the paper for the report now, but I do remember the general conclusion was that it is very bare minimum. compliance is there, but it's you say it's not what it could be. It is like, yes, SADA accessible. Yes, you can get in, but let's say you you have to get to a math class all the all the way down the side of the building and you're in a wheelchair, you get you have one door that you can really use. That's not good. So same similarly at uh LAS we're a smaller building so we don't have all the major things but there are more we things we can do recently our

123previous capital project we we had ramps that made our amphitheater accessible made our parking lot more accessible every but our elevator goes out of service relatively regularly and not all of our doors are like are fully like have have the push button whatnot so there is much more we can do. So, and if I can find that report, I'll try to re-up it to you guys, but Judah also has >> No. And Judah and I are overdue to meet. I've done >> I have very little free time. >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. If I can add, I have seen somebody having to be wheeled in their wheelchair through the snow all the way around the entire parking lot and soccer field to a door downstairs so that they could get to their class. And I

124because the wheelch the sorry the elevator keeps breaking down and I think that's like that as you were saying that was a very powerful and move moving speech that you made about the little things that we can do to make somebody's life better and obviously like fixing an elevator is uh no >> easy matter [clears throat] uh but if just that one thing that affects people every day is >> I'm in full support of a advisory council um and more importantly as we've been talking about just the other day at the climate action plan advisory council um equally so it's not just the discussion but the action items right what are some things that we can start doing immediately uh you've identified a number I'm sure uh between other groups uh we'll be able to

125identify some things and so um we can work together to that resolution that so it has a charge going back to our last conversation and try to start identifying various things that we can start doing and more importantly for me uh maybe a continued conversation about actually naming it and raising it um far more often in our meetings right because we know this is not the most accessible space itself right so we have to have some um we have to have some other conversations system. So, it's okay with the board. I'll work with Well, Erin, you can also just send it to me or we can work together about drafting some language. >> Yeah. >> The resolution and continue the conversation. >> Yeah. >> And maybe it's something that every other agenda, you know, that

126there's a another conversation or an update or report out or something. So again, so it's for me part of it and I know this is also an ableless perspective where it's visible on the agenda or you know or audible on the agenda where we hear it on a regular basis. So it's not just this conversation, but we keep constraints to it. The way to do it is the forefront of right is to keep it on the forefronts of our lives. That okay by other board members >> and we're going to add like um documents to accessibility, everything accessibility, not only physical spaces, but >> Well, that's a very good point. So yeah, and I didn't get to that because ADHD. Um, it's not just wheelchair accessible, right? It's documents. It's um I know that our

127communications team works very hard, you know, it's it's it's teaching teachers to always have alt text on images, so their screen readers. It's keeping in mind sensory issues like those lights went on and my body went in, right? It's understanding sensory needs. It's understanding uh deaf and heart hearing. You know, there's a spectrum of of what accessible means. And I think so often we just think of wheelchairs. It's so much more than that. And that'll be something that goes into the charge and into the work that we do. >> I I I really appreciate the idea of um you know, getting input from from people that are experiencing it. Like that that story right there, you know, highlights what their true pain points are, right? No offense to architects, but like you guys look at

128like what's code, you know, and then you address a building on like, hey, here the code efficiencies. The reality is like where could we best use our time and energy and money, you know, to like to be the most effective. So, I really like the idea of getting community input input from the students. The elevator companies are a criminal enterprise. >> No, it's a it's a monopoly and it's like >> it's a significant problem. No, it's a huge problem because it is a monopoly and it's like a couple of companies and it's like a port for a phone where like if you don't have the port that fits, you can't have the other company come fix it. >> So, it's it's a problem. I'm sure I'm sure the district is doing their best, but that's

129>> Yeah, we have strict BJ. >> Yeah. >> I think we're due for a little bit of signage too >> in a lot of places. >> Sorry. So please >> I should ask like uh in our capacity still would it be useful for us to bring forward some information talk to some people? I I can think of several people just off top of my head who I know would have immediate actionable ideas who work with this dayto-day. >> Yep. And and this is going to be a place again where we will try to create a structure uh at the board level that helps support this work as well. So that'll be part of the idea behind an advisory. Awesome. I saw one hand someone's going to speak. So, >> I appreciated what you said, Erin.

130I was curious because you had referenced committee or meetings. Are there any sort of like immediate recommendations or either board meetings or >> I didn't think about it. It's just it's tough because the space that we're in doesn't allow again for microphones, right? And it's this thing where I don't know the the immediate recommendation I would actually just say to everybody is that disability is not a bad word. You know, special education is not a bad thing. Um I just I would recommend to all board members to look up universal divine for living and learning. Okay? And and just start thinking about that and the work that we do. I'm not going to point out specifics for each thing, but it's it's just, you know, starting to educate yourselves and I can start sharing some

131things um for us to just think differently about how we're going about what we're doing >> and to connect it to a conversation we just had last week about and ask for the PTA to come speak to us. That's a conversation we have to return to in terms of who are we going to put either put on an agenda um if no matter how we move there but that would also include for me something like SEPTA as well uh community uh collaborators and partners who are involved this work. So we have to have that conversation about how >> right even the um whatever feedback we get from the students knowing that um tetrate tech and our facilities um admin person that we when we do building an evaluation they go out to principles they go

132out to staff to just get feedback so to that it's not just coming to the board but incorporating everyone involved. All right. So, we will follow up. It'll be on an agenda. Maybe the next hopefully the next agenda for some additional conversation and then we'll work from there. >> Thank you all greatly for that. The last agenda item we have for this evening is agenda item 11.4. It's the type of tech contract for the uh showers, the toilet, and the bleacher problem that we've been discussing for quite some time. You all don't need to present anything unless you have questions. [laughter] Yeah. No, I saw that they got computers out. >> No, no, no, no. And I I only say that because we've been discussing this at multiple finance and facility committee meetings and two

133full board meetings as well. So, this is more of a formality of approving the documents to go out as opposed to additional conversations about what we're going to do. We've already had those conversations, right? So if folks have conversations or questions, there's not an attempt to try to stop that. Just saying that this is something we discuss, folks may know most recently and had a whole conversation about pool area, the locker rooms, bathroom accessibility, you name it, bleachers. >> Um, so that's what this document is. >> I'll pull up my spreadsheet. I just have a question. >> Yes, please. >> You did want to talk a lot about >> No, I didn't. I talk a lot about bathroom. >> Yeah. >> I move to approve amendment to tetrate tech agreement for a project at Ithaca

134High School as presented. >> Second move by chairman, second by Adams. Discussion, debate, dialogue, questions. >> Thank you for all your Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. So, >> uh, hold on. We're not done yet. We'll call the question. All in favor? >> That is unanimous. Thank you for all your knowledge. >> Uh that is the last agenda item for this evening. Uh we will have a full agenda for the next number of meetings as we move uh forward. So thank you all for everybody. We will close this meeting. Have a good evening.