001Hello. Thank you. Quite all right. Uh hello. Uh welcome to the January 6, policy work session. We will open the meeting. Uh we have a packed agenda. Trying to get through as much as we can in the hour that we have and we will begin with public comment. Is there a public comment? >> Yes. >> Hello. How you doing? Hi, good evening. Um, I'm Nancy Brun. I teach kindergarten here at Caroline and here at ICSD. And um, just wanted to give the update about um, the request to have the policy committee or look at the policy about the entrance age for kindergarten. um just that I was at a um workshop with a large handful of other kindergarten teachers and there is a strong interest um to talk about it. So I just wanted to
002let you know that whenever I know you have a pack agenda when you get to it um folks would like to share their lived experience in addition to looking at the research together and figuring out what's best for our kids. >> Thank you. >> Fantastic. Well, might as well stay here, Nancy, for a little bit so we can tell you a little bit about the update that happened on our end. We don't have movements, but we have had some conversations. Emily, if you uh since you originated the conversation with our legal counsel, if you want to uh speak to what we were looking at discussing, by all means, please go. >> Um, yes, I rack my brain now. I think that uh the answer the short answer is yes. We as a district have the
003opportunity or the flexibility to be able to explore moving the date backwards earlier. Um, with that said, the news that I found a little challenging that I certainly would love to hear um, explore with you all as well to help us kind of think about this more broadly is that the uh, it is not just a um, the December date is not just for kindergarten. is also for entry into just Kay into the public prek program which means that um if we move the date back say to September for the entrance into kindergarten that means that students who would have uh grad or would turn five between September and the December date that is set by the state. Are we followed so far? I know that's like confusing. Those students would not be eligible to
004participate in that last year of prek because prek's date is that you need to you cannot be five. You cannot turn five before that December date of the last year of like so you basically like those four year olds if they turned five sometime between they didn't get into kindergarten because they weren't five yet at say September 1st but did turn five before the December 1st cutoff that which is the state's cuto off then those students wouldn't be eligible for prek in their entire their final year of four to five and so wouldn't just and before when we were talking about it. I was thinking about, okay, we really just need to figure out like where those students can go in those like three months that we're missing. But what we're realizing now is all
005of those students as it sits right now would not be eligible for any state prek program for that entire year. So a student that turned five say in October didn't meet our new say kindergarten cuto off date would be kind of without options for prek at least uh publicly supported prek for that entire year. Um, so in my head, especially because I'm familiar with a lot of the research and as I'm sure you've heard me say, like I love the idea of having a conversation, but that like immediately gave me pause and it feels like before we would even for me personally have a conversation about whether it's developmentally appropriate, more appropriate to move it back. That's like a a much bigger uh challenge to me that that is really brought on by the state.
006Like it's really challenging because the state has that cut off date where again coming back to the conversation we had before of like how do we talk to the community about there would have to be a big community buyin to basically supplement the needed funding in order to support that or you know we would need the community to buy in into having that be an okay choice that it would be that the developmental support and appropriateness of students being a little bit older when they start kindergarten that it would that that's important enough that we would kind of cause this or it would result in this loss. >> So when you say prek has the December 1st state, you mean state funding for prek or federal funding or >> state funding the state law. >>
007Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. So it's like stop like for kindergarten it's like when you can start for prek it's like when you have to stop almost and so it's a moving this >> and so the problem is that those dates are aligned. So if we moved one out of alignment we're just creating >> a challenge that we would have to decide as a community if we felt was like worth it or if there were other solutions to remedying it. >> Yeah. >> And there may be a solution but that was the thing to sort of it's a jigsaw puzzle right. So yeah, >> one date has a cascading effect on the other dates. So and not just around prek >> and three and four year olds and what that date is, but then also community partners
008and what their dates are for enrollment as well and how would we as a community including TST Boseies and component districts. So it I think I left that conversation think wanting to think more and want more information. Um but it was a hiccup like oh right like it's right there's one changing one date implicate or has implications for changing um the other dates and for our policy it's both you know entrance age and prek enrollment. So it' be looking at those two policies in conjunction with each other in addition to a possible even if it's a one-mon gap or a three-month gap, what are we doing the students? And I think as I left that conversation as well, we were told that we would not be able to educate those students like it that there'd
009be a year there's a possibility of a year loss. And I was like, oh, so they couldn't do another year. I was like because I think I asked that, could they do another year of prek or like what would that look like? um at least what we uh at that and it wasn't a long conversation we can come back to with all board members as well but it seemed a little bit more complicated um with our first goround of conversations that >> fair way to say >> yeah yeah >> yeah I mean I think you know there's like cities all across the country who are doing innovative things like all of California has their you know transitional kindergarten program the whole year before you know so there are things but I think it would it'll
010be a longer kind of process proess of really kind of like exploration about options and um taking into account the like real you know we haven't even talked about the things about like what is the result of bringing students in earlier than they may be ready and what the you know costs are related to special education services and other things that might um that are known to have increase because of that. So we it's it's just very complicated and I think that both of the questions are really important and I think at this point >> because there's so many things on our docket I I would love to like for us to work in partnership with with you all to kind of think about like what would the next steps even be and how would
011we think about um pursuing them, >> right? And that makes me think that internally to, you know, to our district like, you know, and with community partners and all that, but like what we could do internally makes me think about um we had talked about with the curriculum committee doing like a listening circle for early childhood. Okay. And maybe that is a good place to start because um rather than policy because maybe the solution lies within something other than the policy of the starting age but how we support students who are at different developmental levels and what the impacts are when we're pushing kids too fast and just have that bigger picture >> around that first and then let that conversation lead. >> Yeah. I think that's a good way to approach it. And I
012probably have a different perspective than most board members. And not to come um anywhere near what our experts are telling as well, but I have long said that I struggle with the fact that we think just because folks are a particular age that somehow they have a particular academic skill set. And the fact that we group folks even by third grade or fourth grade has never made a lot of sense to me. same point in time my my father graduated at 17 as a late December baby because at that point in time the cututo off date was January 1, right? And so he's long talked about his experiences being a year behind his classmates graduating high school at 17. So I also understand the implications of that long term, right? So um I think it's
013a rich conversation, one that we have to engage. We know it's having an impact on our babies and our educators are telling this. So what wherever space it has a conversation, let's keep it going and see what we can do and and we'll keep exploring. We'll have some more conversations about the legal ramifications and or what law says about prek entrance, about K entrance and and um keep proceeding from there. But but do know we we're engaged in the conversations. We're following up as much as as we can. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Nancy. appreciate it for continuing to bring it our way and I'll try to put something in writing that captures some of that we have or will work to put something any other public comment phenomenal thank you very much
014uh the approval of the minutes if it's okay with Emily I'm going to see if we can't postpone to the next session I did not have a chance to take a look at the minutes and N's not here as well so we can put that on for the uh February agenda that would be great and that brings us right to our discussion items. Uh the first agenda item is policy 5601, school lunch policy. Um I should say that we came to this policy by way of looking at policies that should be, for lack of a better word, deleted. The last time this policy was reviewed and or updated was 1979. And just sort of as part of our regular review, we put up a policy for deletion, which is policy uh uh 561-P and that
015was the procedures for school lunch, specifically identifying Bon and Dwick Middle School. Um we that part we know is outdated and we are hesitant to delete policy 5601 school lunches thinking that there may be something of value that's there or that we may want to say something and have it in policy for families to go to or for caregivers. And so thank you for spending some time with us. Uh appreciate it. I know it's a long day. Um, but I don't know that we had much of a plan or just we wanted to hear a little bit more about would a policy be helpful, what should we consider looking at the language that's there. We weren't sure that it was the most upto-date and so that's sort of where we found ourselves and we asked
016Dan to reach out. So, thank you. Appreciate that. I think the whole point of this policy is it says the words offer versus serve and what that means under the National School Lunch Program and in the 70s it was more common and in the 80s a child was given a hamburger, mashed potatoes and a milk and that was lunch. They weren't given a choice. So now when I go to uh click a box on my SED annual renewal which I do have an audit this year they come and they look for us doing offer versus this policy. So it really so we you know we offer two entre fruits and vegetables. So I think that's why the policy is needed because the annual renewal every year we have to cross that box off. >> So
017um I would just update it. We also have the national school lunch and breakfast program now. So I would update it to say lunch and breakfast participation in the program and that we follow all USDA regulations and we still follow offer versus serve but it's in every building. I don't know why they just picked out certain buildings in the seven weeks, but >> so I think that pol the policy meets there just for the s >> and I'm seeing now you just sent some sample language that could >> classify those. Um I was wondering what office versus serve meant. So my quick Google search uh thank you for explaining it's much better and uh I agree well not I agree I'm appreciative of also including breakfast and lunch right the change of language is probably
018very important for us as well >> right >> is there anything else that you would ask the board to consider or think that we should consider no >> in terms of this policy >> no >> I have a followup question but let me see if you have any so this is different so thank you we're going to use this we'll put it together. We'll rewrite the policy using this language. Uh we'll send it back to Trisha to put it on for a February meeting to then go to the board. Right? It's not going to change our practice. This is more just getting our policy aligned with our practice. So, we're in no real hurry, but we do want to update a 40 something year old policy. um our student reps had a conversation with the
019board around or a comment around serving sides and so didn't know if you were and and we don't have to answer this today if you're not in a position we can do it some other point in time but uh it did raise some questions amongst the board like oh I'm wondering what does that mean and what are we hearing and how are we finding things so um if you are in a position now to answer >> yeah so under our national school lunch regulations and breakfast regulations we have have to do nutritionals. So, we have to do sodium, saturated fat, calories. So, the USDA has guidelines per grade level on the amount of calories, the saturated fat, sodium. But now this year, as of January 1st, is also sugars. So, yes, it's um based on
020guidelines for the schools that are less. So, example, hot dog is a hot dog. A hamburger is a hamburg. So you can't really cut portion sizes size of that. But at elementary level they get less of the chicken. The chicken tender they get one. It's a 2 oz meat meat alternative. It is meat. And at secondary level they get two. And that's bas basically on calorie saturated fat. And sodium is the big thing. >> Yeah. So yeah, and they can have all the fruits and vegetables they want in either grade level and we don't look into account of that because the nutritional values of those are so high, the sodium is so low and the calories low. So it's the main entries that we have to really watch. >> And no, please go ahead. Uh
021do you I know that you've like started introducing uh much more variety in the options that are available you know uh like you said like a hamburger is a hamburger you know they're going to have what they have in them. Um is there like effort to like choose and select alternative options that are kind of lower in those macro elements but larger in portion size if that makes sense. Um, so the menus are based on what we usually do, a meat and a vegan or a vegetarian trip. Um, it's all based on what the USDA considers a meat alternate. >> Okay? >> So, your portion size of tofu is is a larger portion than one chicken tender because tofu takes more calories and more nutrients to get the protein up there to the 2 oz
022feed meat ultimate. Um that's at the elementary level. At the secondary level, we give 3 oz to 4 oz and meat alternate to get the calories. So it's it's a it's a full science in itself and it changes with the USDA regulations. And as you know, I read today that the new dietary guidelines are coming out and there'll be more changes. >> Yeah. So, >> so I think first it's great for us to realize I think sometimes um in any community but members of our community feel like you know for lack of a better word we're arbitrarily >> defining what the serving size is as opposed to being specified by federal law in this situation right that the USDA tells us in essence what we can and cannot do when we file that. Um that
023is just a general question for me because this is helpful. Um, on average, uh, how many meals are, um, presented per day? >> Oh, we're doing approximately 3,000 lunches and 1,600 breakfast right now. We're up way up in the breakfast. And we're up in lunches, about 100 lunches a day, but breakfast, we're up at least 300 breakfastes. So roughly about 4,500 meals every day is coming from >> uh ICSD food service. >> Yes. >> I think that's that's an important data part for people to know as well. I have a similar conversation when I talk to students at IC campus like we're making 10,000 meals a day, right? Let's put this in context,000 in the produce that comes in because we're doing a a regular fruit and the vegetables produce truck takes at least four
024to five hours to unload. >> Um sometimes we try to get a separate load for the high school because that's at least a th000 to $2,000 bill for the high school per we send it all out and that's a $6,000 bill. >> Just some produce. It's wonderful that they're eating it lettuce. That's my amazing logistical work that you and your team do. Thank you for doing it. >> Thank you. >> Uh I think I'm good. It gives me an answer to the question for the students that we could bring at the next board meeting about portion size. There may be some other conversations we have in terms of um if we're providing lunch, whether folks are able to do for they want a larger portion. Do they have access or they pay for a larger
025portion or a second portion? Uh that's something for us to know as well. Um and the language for the policy looks good to me, but we'll still put it on. >> I just one or two other questions. One was in do like I was trying to do some background research to make sure that I knew what we were even asking you and one of the things that kept coming up was the local school wellness policy requirement. Um, so I was wondering if we needed to put or want to explore putting that in our policy, setting that expectation that there is one created within the district. Um, and I also was struggling to find it. >> It is in there, Katie. I don't even know. It should be on our website. >> It's It's in there.
026So, yeah, we have to every year I have to report that, too. And then they come, they look at it, actually. So, and Carrie Burke and I are setting up a meeting to have a local policy meeting this year. We have a group who didn't do it last year. The year before we meet discuss policy. >> Okay. Is it is it like a a PDF kind of thing that's a bit or is it kind of a different policy? >> Okay. I will >> uh tell me the name again that you're >> a local school wellness policy. >> It may be under just wellness policies. And I don't think that's been updated. >> Yeah, >> but that came into play in 2007 and they were all in 2007. I think it was updated here in 2015.
027>> Okay. >> All right. I will check again. >> Can you be able to locate that so that way you get a chance? >> Yeah. Um, and I was just curious about the opportunities for innovation that are like granted through the federal policies. Like if we do like do we like take advantage of those? >> We did get the award for innovation um that was just it was award we put it on our Facebook page and it was for our new entre. So they actually chose the Bombay um potato aloo that we have and it went to national requisition this year. where we were supposed to have three staff members and I selected my pups to go to Las Vegas to get the award with the federal shutdown and all federal guidelines that was all
028shut down so we got a trophy. Very cool. >> Awesome. >> Okay. Thanks for sharing. I I did not know. Uh are you I don't even know you're more do you know about the like school b my school box accounts and stuff. Do you have Yes. >> You manage that as well? We It's under our funds, but it's managed by a company with our point of service. >> Okay. >> Is there questions on it? >> Well, I was just looking at another policy because it was conducted and so I was curious if if our policy was updated or out of date. >> Um, it said that it permits students to charge schools on a credit card to pay back later. So, yes, that was the case until we went free and now we're on universal
029meals. Um, it also permits teachers, staff, any any of those money on a credit card online and put it into the my books. >> Okay. Um, >> I would keep that because New York State right now we're universal meals under New York State >> and what's going at the federal level. Yeah. I just >> So that's the policy just for a year or two. >> Okay. And this may not have been fact, but when that was brought to the board a while back, the concern was that sometimes students were expressing that they were told that they could not buy food because their account was depleted. >> Right? >> So the idea was no, you get the food and then worry about >> happen afterwards. So again, I'm not sure that that's exactly what was taking
030place, but that was the that was the conversation behind changing that that >> around that time. we started to cover all the negatives >> when we were having that conversation. >> Um, so the uh food service budget just covered all the negative balances and it didn't we weren't recouping that. But then at the same time we we also received free uh breakfast lunch for all students. >> Yeah, that's what was kind of confusing. And then our website says that students have access to second meals for purchase. Is that that's also the >> Oh, that's the USDA guidelines. they the first meal is free. We allow them fruits and vegetables because that's not considered a full meal. >> Um so if they get the second entree and all the fruits and vegetables they have they can
031pay. >> Okay, cool. >> So some people do have money on their kids accounts mainly at the high school level. >> Yeah. >> Great. A food service fund balance was covering the negatives. Is that correct? >> Legally. Oh, my bad. Okay. Oh, man. >> There aren't any negatives anymore, Dan. >> All right. All right. Good way to phrase it. >> The policy is uh perform wellness is 5405. >> 5405. >> Uh >> I just I'm was looking for like the actual loss policy of the website. So, put it on. Cool. Thank you. >> Fantastic. Fantastic. Um, I believe that answers all the questions, right? We're good. Beth, thank you very much. We'll keep you posted. Um, I don't know that we'll need you to attend as this makes its way through. >> Um, but we
032may have some questions that we may send you via email. That's okay. >> Thank you greatly. Thank you to your team as well. >> Yes. >> Thanks. Thanks. >> Uh, we will keep moving. uh to policies. Uh agenda item 4.2, policy 2245, student exeicial members. Uh I did see an email exchange between two board members. I have not had a chance to read it. So uh if there's things in there that you want to speak to, Emily, please feel free. And I know we have some other information as well. Uh you can you can cover whatever was on the agenda for >> uh I don't have anything on the agenda other than looking at the survey results and hearing back from our student reps but I know they also were asked some information for us
033as well. >> Okay. Um in thinking about uh or we spoke about last time about providing a little bit more direction and thinking about the areas with which uh the board can be making some decisions versus um or at least some like barriers with which we can then explore within. Um so I know that we talked about doing that last time so I some things together. Um I did two things I guess I should have we should have about um one was like me providing my uh opinions about the different buckets about what I like just trying to start a conversation. So, we could go over each of the different buckets um generally what they are or I can share specifically about what I was thinking and or and this would probably be much more
034helpful if we had how quickly is it is it possible. >> Yeah, maybe I'll send this to you really quick. >> On the screen, >> Emily, is it what you sent? Because I have a hard copy in front of me. You want some copies? >> The job description. I have the job description and I have what you had read. Do you want >> Sure. If you're gonna go with the copy. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Um, yeah, I did these like pretty quickly, so look forward to lots of conversation about it and certainly none of that is set set in stone, but I think the job description specifically, I would love to get your thoughts on and and members of the committee and others um to really think about uh I know that Maline,
035who's unable to be here, had taken a look at it um and had some ideas about areas where we could be even more explicit about things. Um, and so having a conversation both about that, about like how we can be more explicit about the roles and mind you again this is kind of like following the line of like what how I was imagining creating the policy which other members of the committee could completely disagree with as as may you all. So just keep that in mind. Um, but there's both the like, you know, how explicit are we about things and then also me wanting to be mindful of not being overly explicit about things and really thinking about the ways in which we can communicate the kind of outcomes that we hope to see collectively
036um from student reps and student official members. And then kind of looking backwards about how we can how we may need to set a little bit of the parameters but also how we may set um kind of like the onus back on to those who are interested in the position in in coming up with those ideas instead of us doing that for you. Um so an example of that is um uh I was thinking about how student reps become like get get elected to the position and was thinking about um how we could empower reps to think more about um like what the role means and how to ensure that for example all students were being reached or as many students as possible that enough voices were being elevated things like had. And so instead
037of saying you need to, you know, have, you know, three listening circles a year and visit this many classrooms, blah blah blah, and being very like specific about it, instead saying, is there a way to make the um, for example, the uh, the election period a little bit more thoughtful where somebody needs to write up a proposal to present to the student body, and I know that LACS does this, you know, is already doing a little bit more of this than IHS, but in both ways about thinking about aligning that with the actual mission of how we're all bringing that we want the super rep's role to be. Um, so instead of just like, you know, this is a like childish example, but like instead of like I'm gonna get you and all the water
038fountains or whatever it is that I think the student body wants, more about like how am I going to um act in this role? Like how am I going to reach? What are the strategies that I think I could use in order to better do that? What are the best communication channels that I'd love to introduce? You know what I mean? instead of like us like I'm fix. Um so instead of elaborating we can just kind of everybody can take a few minutes to take a look at it. Um we can actually Oh >> two or just one. I thought I had one in red. >> We're good. That that might be just the you might be I both do and don't like writing 2026 on papers, but that's fine. So, you know, as I
039think about this, I feel like this might get really hard to review this. The job description itself may be a little bit like take some time and look at it and really think about it. Why don't I tell you a little bit about the buckets that I was thinking about because those could be the like, oh my god, I did this or let's think about why this would or would not work. um and maybe go from there. I don't know. Um so the first kind of bucket that we had identified the the committee in a separate meeting, you had been talking about like defining the role. Um and so the first piece that uh I was thinking about defining it both as a kind of like collective value ad and an individual value ad. Um,
040and so the collective was like about helping to build more collaborative inclusive structure among the student body that serves to elevate all voices to help the board better understand student experience um, and help students better understand like what's happening at the board and district level. um generally summarized individual thinking about leadership leadership skills, public speaking skills, um building knowledge around like political um policy and governance processes, things like that. So I was kind of trying to build everything around the pursuit of those things which we can at will. Um the next section was like uh thinking about how that work would actually get done. Um and so uh and this is what so the black is what um were kind of like the notes that we originally um had in our separate meeting. The red
041notes are the ones of like me adding and kind of brainstorming about what we would specify in each area. Um so I just talk about the first blet bullet about the fighting uh roles. The second one about what information do we want them bringing? That's where I was thinking about the great work that the webs are already doing about bringing general news. Um, talking about learning and engagement highlights. I thought I feel like that is a big piece to me that there's so many like smaller amazing things that are happening in the schools that I would love to see that kind of like expanded upon. Um, I know that we hear a lot about like competitions that big groups are going to or the robotics clubs and the ones that we that we love to
042hear about but are kind of like the bigger flashier ones and to make sure that we're also hearing about kind of like smaller projects, even class projects that students are doing that are really exciting. Um, so was just kind of brainstorming some pieces around that. Um, and then bringing formal and implorable student body survey results or feedback or things that you're can each one of these. There's only a few more. The the next one was that we talked a lot about number of reps, number of exeicios. Just my idea. I was thinking that we could that it could be valuable to have one exofficial member at the full school board me from each school and then one student rep that would be um uh that would be assigned to a committee and that all of
043those reps and exeicios basically would be working as a team to come back talk about all of the things that had been heard both at the committees and at the full board meeting and work together about the approach to both share that information back with students and collect information. Um, part of the but first of all, I think that I feel like student reps are missing out on a lot by not attending any of the committee meetings because we do so much to kind of work there. Um, and I also thought that was one way to kind of break it down and maybe would help facilitate students getting feedback from the student body if it was like I'm in charge of facilities and I really want to understand about how you feel about X Y
044and Z or you know I've been sitting with the curriculum committee and these are the things that they've been really interested in like I want to collect information about that. Um, and elections I talked about a few minutes ago about just thinking somehow it seems like again LAS is like doing a lot of this but really thinking about um when talking about a platform about the platform really being about reaching those initial goals that we talked about about really reaching all students and making sure that this is like a collaborative process. Um, I also think that advisory roles I think that I was convinced by hearing from student reps that it's really great to have a teacher at least at IHS that's kind of helping with the kind of like day-to-day weekly kind of planning.
045I al also think that it would be invaluable to have a board member um provide a different source of kind of like advisories or training um from kind of inside that actually knows about the work that's being done this way so that you can also learn a lot more about like the actual processes of doing this work. I'm sure I can imagine that some of the board members are going to say, "Oh my god, we have so much work already to do." I understand that there's a million ways that we could do that if the board was interested, having one person assigned or having someone from each committee working with just like the one or two students that were on that committee. Um, that's it. Those were those were big focus. So, if there was
046any like one or two pieces or areas that folks would maybe want to chat about to make it more manageable. >> The number of reps next to that was an interesting I hadn't thought of that. um having the exacities on the board and then the reps. So you're saying the reps would just be on the committees, not come to full board meetings. >> They would part their full participation would be at the committees like I think having the reps be but but yes there would be the two folks that would be actually participating in the board meetings. With that said, I did make a note that like, you know, if for example the policy committee when we take uh you know a policy back to the full board, which we'd have to do with every
047policy, it would make sense for the policy committee board reps to then come for those conversations. Um so there would certainly be opportunities to do that, but it would be every time. >> Okay. As then there would be different elections for um each of these roles. There would be an election for accessory board members and an election for student reps. I that would be so like I don't have strong feelings about that. I guess I feel like is not I think that everyone in my head again I would love to see that every student rep exe officio I kind of see them as all the same and playing just different roles but all trying to meet the same like vision and mission of the role and so I would love to see them still making
048that same pitch about how they would use that opportunity to meet those but I don't I don't know yet >> how many and how many committees do we have on the board okay so I would more than that uh there's There's five and right now there's usually six and then there's also two advisory houses. Uh >> right now we've we've combined finance facilities which has not been the case for >> sustainable >> right and there's audit committee as well >> right so for like regular ones right now but the committee I don't think we would have like >> I would welcome >> but not as their own job maybe >> yeah not um and I think there's a number so thank you for that those questions as well another possibility again trying to just think
049through all this who could be um rotating right that folks may be able to rotate roles that would provide more complexity because the idea is that people are actually involved in the work as I understand it the the main goal which I think I agree with is having seven additional people at the table while the board is engaging in conversations does not necessarily seem to be in keeping with the spirit of the new legislation which is to have a active student participant um and so trying to find a way to make that manageable Right. So, one official exe official member at the table for each meeting is much more manageable as a group of 11 as opposed to of 16. >> Yeah. Which creates a little bit. So, I think that's probably part of where
050I think you were trying to go with that. Um, but yeah, there and that the the committees change year to year. Last year there were six, this year there are five. And a couple of advisory councils which we already have students on, but they weren't voted on. um just far away. >> Okay. I Yeah, I think I agree with what Dr. Bradwell um said about maybe rotating. So, I was saying maybe that we could have um like one rep from each school be on a committee, but then you know every week we rotate through um the reps the reps could defi decide amongst themselves who they wanted to go to the full board meeting as the one expio that week. Um and that way we wouldn't have to have separate elections either. We like elect
051reps and those reps decide among themselves or rotate um on a schedule talk. Point of clarification for us to figure out do we have to by legislation are we required to identify who the exeicio rep is? And I'm I'm not asking for an answer tonight. I'm saying that's something for us to make sure that we don't have to approve or if we're approving all of them and then we need to create the own our structure that's something but I know at times we have to put names forward as well. So I'd like to be sure what that process is that was really the thing about um running and campaigning. Uh I think at LCS obviously it's a little bit easier for them to have like old school meetings and talk about proposals, but for IHS
052we um we get to put out I think a 100word uh uh campaign statement and then you can do as much advertising as you want. So like last last campaign cycle I on my Instagram posted like all my um all the things I wanted to do. I posted videos about how I was going to do them and that was sort of how we campaigned because that's easier way to reach most of the school but I do understand how that would obviously there are kids that don't have Instagram don't have phones and then we can't reach them and so I think and I said this at the last policy committee meeting I think that we wanted to have some sort of um assembly style thing or some way to reach all the students in an equitable
053way at the high school. And maybe if it's not um maybe if it's not a inerson assembly, each c each candidate could film a video and then play that for their class or whatever. Uh so I think there are ways to do it at IHS, but I'm not sure if an assembly is really feasible. uh it's just such a logistical really is it's a logistical nightmare for um everyone involved and I don't know we exactly have time for it in our schedule at the end of the year um right before finals and everything so that's something to think about for IHS >> there may be a way to merge that assembly with the next policy about student voter registration re-registration but >> and then I had a slideshow um on our findings from the the
054survey and then Jing I think have sees looks like you have the there >> um she couldn't be here tonight but that's the slide shows um their arrange is there a way we get them on there or do you have one >> yes All right. So, slide. So, we had 328 responses to this form, which is pretty low for the high school. Um, if you remember, the cell phone survey had 8 to 900ish. Um, but the purpose of this was to summarize student input to guide a new fair representative collections. So like I said, total response page for 28 students. Um lower participation from seniors, which is generally expected in the surveys. Um it is actually a good thing that uh freshman and sophomore made up more of the survey because obviously they're going to
055be your longer most affected by this policy. Um so that's kind of just a breakdown of u the representation. Next slide. So in this in this slides show we're just gonna go kind of go through all the questions on the survey and um how that was distributed. So uh this this was the question was how much do you know about student board repress on a5 scale. Um and key points we had here was that the average knowledge is in the low to middle range across all grades and upper grades are somewhat more but not really dramatically. And so you'll you'll notice that the top of that graph is actually at 2.5. So the top of that is in the middle. Um and almost everyone except juniors is below uh average. So that's that was one
056of the things that we had talked about as um a group of board reps was that we wanted more education. And this is something that I've been saying since I started running in u the end of my freshman year was that it didn't it didn't seem like people knew what was happening. it seemed like people knew how the elections worked or what we even did. And I think that's still the case and clearly it is. So education is going to be a big part of um or I think that we would like it to be a big part of the policy going forward. Next slide. So this question was how should student board reps be elected next year? Um and clear majority was that um people like a whole student body vote. I think the
057issue at IHS um with a vote through student government which is the second um second part second uh second most chosen answer was that we don't our student government is kind of loose and so what we had before was that our student government would have uh two or three representatives from every social studies class but we found that uh often times that would result in people that didn't really want to be there that sort of volunteered because they thought they would like it and they leave and then now we can't have as many members and we would end up with committees of like 20 people when we should have had 100. And so what we've done this year is we've opened up opened it up to just anyone can come. But I think the problem
058with that is that it's not fully representative. We have way more ninth graders than we do seniors. I think we only have like two seniors in the council. And so it's not I don't think it would be truly representative to have a vote for student government to appoint these. I think obviously a whole student body vote is >> Judah before you want to just Yeah. >> Thank you for that that tidbit. Um what does students and this is not connected to what we're talking about so this is maybe a question for another time as well. Um but what do students believe is the purpose of student government? Like what do they see them as? >> Yeah. So, well, student government really what we do at the high school is um we do a lot of
059spirit. So, what we've been doing recently, um we're working on a gratitude chain right now where everyone's going to write down something they're great before and um slip of paper and then we'll tie them together and hang up around the school. Um we handle some of the festivals. Uh we help plan field day. >> Um so, it's mostly that sort of stuff. Um we've actually we're actually we've been having conversations about this in the council um talking about h getting more power or like having sort of a different role in the school as more of a governmental um representative body. But I think in general people see us as um a like a spirit club. Uh and then also we fund clubs. So student council has a lot of money. We do fundraising. That's like
060our big thing. We always have some sort of fundraiser going. Uh, and then when clubs need money, they basically can apply to us for like grants and then the whole council votes on it and usually we give money to club. So we give money to rock climbing club to buy new harnesses. We give money to uh the environmental club for like snacks or something. I don't know. We we give money to a lot of clubs and that's our biggest thing. >> Yeah. And the next slide is uh for election by grade. Um so again a clear majority prefers a vote from the whole student body and yeah support for appointment based methods is low in all grades. So no one really wants appointments from um administration or the board of education. Uh the next slide
061is just a graph representing that. Um and then uh the next slide is on term length and how many board reps we should have. So um most students favor small team three to four which is what we have right now and that seemed to work uh really well. As a student board rep it's like three to four is like kind of the perfect number because it's not too much to um to communicate with them. I can just send them a text or I see them in the hallway. I have classes most of them. Um, and it's not hard to like plan stuff outside of school to talk about things because it's not too many people. But I think having a group of three or four rather than just one is important because we all have
062different ideas. Every time we talk about stuff, we all have different ideas um that we bounce off each other. And I think that's really helpful for me. And then how long should a term be? Most people prefer a one school year term. And I think that's going to work best because of um the nature of high school where we're all going to graduate. So if I wanted to serve a two-year term, but I'm a senior, then I I couldn't. That's going to mess everything up. So um four reps serving one-year terms with the option of reelection. Um and then uh next slide. So then mentors uh opinions are really mixed. So some students like the idea of the mentorship and they think that it could help board reps. Um but others worry that it could
063limit student independence. Um when voicing concerns that um yeah when voicing concerns I I personally don't think that it it would limit student independence. Um I mean we meet with Miss Arnold all the time and she's administrator and I think that students have somewhat have the same sort of view about that. But as as a rep, I I've never really felt limited uh by or I don't think I'd be I'd feel limited by board mentor. >> So before you move on from there, so this is an interesting slide for me for a couple of reasons. Um one, uh if folks haven't been board reps, I'm not sure they would know if a board member mentor would be helpful or not. Does that make sense? Right. So um and then two um the idea about student
064independence is interesting because again the legislation is actually that you become a member of the board. >> Yeah. >> Right. So it's almost like saying how do all of us keep our independence at board members. And so this notion of you be you know sort of unduly influenced by your board member mentor when you're a member of the board and simultaneously I so I just want to I'm I'm saying out loud so I can also understand and from my perspective that makes sense right they may be conflicting like the idea necessarily isn't student independence the idea is that you're part of a governance team. >> Yeah. And how do we make those things work? >> Yeah. It's actually not that much. Like there's a full there's over 70%. >> It sounds like they have some
065concerns, but I would say the the opinions are largely in favor of having a >> mess. Yep. >> Yeah. I I'm pretty neutral to it. Um I think that Miss Arnold and I think that Miss Tan um give me a good amount of guidance and I I I'd like to hear your answers to this. I don't I really just don't know um what more information I would get from a board mentor. Not that I'm opposed to one, but I just I'm curious what I would get out of one. >> Yeah. >> So, the way in which I'll answer that is the example that we just had with uh Beth who joined us from food service. So, students who have very strong feelings about portion size and then we learn that it's a federal mandate that
066dictates portion size, right? And so I see it at times there's things like students may believe that this is the purview of the board and you may learn that in fact either it is purview of the board and we have some leeway in that or we're following a state or federal local mandate. And so maybe rather than us spending time telling the board that they're not doing the right thing, we can spend more time trying to find a solution that we're all in agreement about but we're forced to do. So that's sort of how I would see it. It'd be sort of an information sharing and a little bit of clarifying. It be it would eliminate one step of the process. So, we wouldn't be at a board meeting. We'd be having that conversation. Yeah.
067>> But we I've had a couple of examples in my 16 17 years in the board where I wish a student rep would have called me or called a board member prior to a meeting so we could have had a conversation. Like, yeah, >> some of this we could have been three steps down further ahead of the game if that were if that were the case. >> Yeah. I I would love to actually I'm I'm kind of surprised to hear you say that and would love to turn the question around on you a little bit. I on the question of like it makes me wonder like well why why did you decide you wanted to be a student rep? Because to me any uh any opportunity like this a big part of that would be
068being the an individual growth opportunities that I would have to be able to you know go off after high school understanding the policy development process which most high school students start don't learn about about collabor how governance structures work how I mean there's like an enormous amount of things that that you learn about by doing this work that I have certainly used in like every job that I've like it's been applied in all of them and I've worked in kind of in the policy space and I you would understand state policy making you would understand local policy making reading and interpreting policies and then now I'm just thinking about like this uh well really the committee and and there's just like there's an endless amount and when I think about it would be like going
069to a new job and like being like well I don't really need a boss because I'll just kind to do my stuff and not learn from them where I think that like having a mentor and somebody who could kind of show me the ropes about how things work behind the scenes would be >> invaluable. Um, >> so what's the surprise to think about? >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, it I mean that makes me think even more about like the application process and who and I'm not talking about you specifically. It's a third question, but you know why why are choose why are people choosing to be reps? And there is this big collective piece about wanting to do better for um for the broader student body, but we also know and have heard from reps over
070the years certainly that like there is a big component of this just like being in student government and other things that it's a resume builder. It's a it helps you get to college and all of these other pieces. And so I think that the more opportunity to to kind of learn from people in leadership and in those roles will be. >> And to answer your question, I think that I um I I wanted this role because I wanted to like you said it it's a collective thing. I wanted to um you know make the district better for the student body. Um I think somewhat it was about learning. Um but I think my experience is that I have felt like I I was learning enough on my own. But hearing you say all the things
071now and list them out, I realize that there probably is a lot of things that I'm not that I am missing out on. And hearing you say that, I think I actually um for mentor now. So >> I'm mindful of time. We have a committee meeting starting in three minutes, but I also don't want to cut off your presentation. So let you finish and then we'll see where we're at. >> So following the student view, the repro. So um this is just how students see it. Um, so they see it as representing the student body to the board of ed, bringing forward concerns and ideas from students, including marginalized groups, and making sure student experiences uh and needs informed decisions. >> So I think that was pretty expected. Um, I don't know what you're going
072to get that. So next slide. >> Well, one again, just go back real quick. For me, the third button bullet should be the way in which again the legislation is intended. The third button bullet is the most important. >> Yeah. >> Right. That student experience informs decision making. >> Yeah. >> And I always say that it's interesting you talk about you know bringing forward concerns but also bringing forward commendations. >> Yeah. >> Right. So it's not just what's going wrong. It's hey this is actually going really well. Can we get more of this as well? So but thank we have a couple more slides. >> Uh this concerns about I think this is just concerns uh about elections. So >> common concerns were worried that elections became a popularity contest. And I think this again
073is something that uh we mitigated with more education and um uh like I said like the videos or presentations or whatever um based on policy more than popularity. Uh and then also concern that port of vet or admin could control heavily influence student rest and we talked about this. Um and then policy safeguards to consider based on these um clear eligibility criteria and application process that emphasize policy over popularity. Um so this is having policies um instead of just running fun. Um and then transparent campaign rules promote issue based campaigning. And this is something that could be expanded upon. Uh and then explicit language guaranteeing student reps the ability to express student views even when they differ from admin or sort of edge. Uh and then basic policy direction. This is just um what we
074think the policy should be. This is sort of my um my version of what Scorp had. Um so election methods student wide student vote or schoolwide student vote. um four student reps one year terms um optional mentorship and training um with protection of independent student voices uh outreach and support to ensure candidates and voters include marginalized and less visible student groups. Uh so this is support and reaching clubs. Uh I know that I and of the other student reps have sometimes had trouble finding um finding voices that we don't hear often and so it's getting more support from administration could be helpful for that and then clear explanation to the whole student body what reps do and why participation matters. So just more education on that and then secondarily next slide um communication clarity. So
075consider requiring assemblies and class visits at the start of each year and then allowing time for classes assemblies or surveys throughout the year to gather student feedback >> and then that's it. >> So do we have a copy of this board members? I I think I've given the survey. Yes. >> So I'll I'll take a look at it. So Judah, thank you very much. Do you mind if we send this to all board members? >> Absolutely. That's part of our conversation. I think there's additional conversation to be had. We'll ask Emily to send or ask Trisha to send the draft of a the job description as a talking point for all board reps who weren't here today and we'll continue the conversation. Um the one thing that um I feel the one thing that stands
076out to me is this um uh continual notion about sort of student independence, student voice, which I greatly appreciate. And you'd know I said and ironically all board members feel like they should be able to express opinions even when they differ from their colleagues as well. So as an individual member it'd be a similar process like how do we all maintain our own independence and make this happen. So I think there's ways in which we can merge a lot of these ideas together and try to find some things. I said at the beginning it's going to be a slow process. I hope you're beginning to understand how how slow it is. We will put it on for the February agenda. We'll also talk about expanding the time for our policy committee to make sure we
077have a little bit more time to get some things done as well. Um, but we'll follow up via writing to to you. Thank you for being here and thank you for sharing. >> Sorry, just before we close out, can I ask two quick questions? >> I got three other policies to try to speak to, but go ahead. >> Thank you. Um, one piece is this is the second time in a row to no one's fault you guys are in school that like we've had one of you here um for these conversations. It would be really helpful if we could like if you guys could do a little bit of this like conversation and work before so that even if one person comes I would love to like hear everybody's feedback about these kind of general
078buckets um and we can email that as well if it's helpful okay and then if you guys kind of facilitate that I think it would just help us keep the conversation moving a little bit quicker um and the only other question that I have is we we are hearing a lot of feedback from from our current student reps and we all it would be a really great opportunity to also hear from groups that already may feel like marginalized from participating and from ever having like participated in an election or and I don't really know exactly how to identify those groups and I don't want to make assumptions about who they are but I'm wondering if there's any opportunity maybe through Dr. around student advisory group or some other group where we could get feedback from
079folks that that aren't already in this position about what would make them more inclined to participate or what interests them about the role. >> Yeah, let's reach out to Dr. Brown and Mr. Arnold and see what we can do with that latter part try to figure that part out. So, uh thank you all greatly very much. I realize we're three minutes over time. Two quick things, not to rush it, not to lose point of it, but our next uh agenda. Our next policy was student voter registration and pre-registration. We had a conversation about the last clause. Uh Emily and I had a conversation with legal counsel. I think we can write um something that uh legal will approve of and addresses people's concerns. They were shared by many. We'll get that to you, Trisha. We
080won't put that on for the 13th, but we may put it on for the 27th so we don't have to wait till the next policy committee. I'll work with Emily to do that and capture the notes. We are nowhere near ready to begin talking about naming a facility and dedication of spaces. That's going to require some conversation with the policy committee to do outside of this. Um, we did have a conversation with our legal counsel about the protection and privacy of student records. It may require a change on our part in terms of language that some of the dates and deadlines are set by federal uh expectation. I don't know if I want to call mandate or law, but we will clarify that and we'll work with communication on that as well. Um and then
081uh lastly, I want to make sure that we put these if it's okay with Emily. Uh we did a first reading in our December meeting for the deletion of policy 5311 damage to property. Uh policy 5250 student activities and policy 5601-P the procedure for school lunch. Um I'd like to bring those back up at a meeting without waiting for our next policy committee or second reading and deletion from there. And we will follow up with the um with the school lunch. And then lastly, Trisha, I know this is a lot. That's probably why we got recording. Yes. Uh for the February meeting, can we put on policy 5405? Uh this is the policy that was referenced by Emily. The problem is we have two policies that are listed as 5405. One says Ithaca City School
082District wellness policy from 2006. The other one says student wellness from 2017. I think we need to clarify, reumber, delete, explore, whatever it may be. But take a look at those two policies. There are two that have the number 5405 that agenda. I think we have more than enough work to do. We'll follow up via email. Judah will follow up to you and the other board members via email as well. Thank you for the work, for the data, for the presentation and I look forward to being able to coales this within the next month or so. I'm going to focus on before so part of it as well. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. We'll bring the follow committee to a close. Thank you all.