ICSD Board of Education Meeting - Tuesday, February 9, 2021 (via Zoom)

001back everyone we are we are back from executive session uh back with our regular public portion of our voting meeting uh our agenda is a bit different tonight because we have a special special presentation by fourth graders from beverly j martin and northeast but um just first of all as far as i know folks we have no modification to the agenda uh as it currently is in front of us this evening correct no modifications if not speak now but i think we're good for the rest of the meeting so we will according to agenda go directly to a presentation from beverly j martin and northeast fourth graders and i'm very much looking forward to hearing what they have to say tonight hi rob um i don't see steven anderson on the on the chat or

002under me nicole any insights that you may have have any personal insights but i do see that dr ash the principal of bjm is on the call so she might have some insight thank you nicole and thank you dr rush please um here's what i know i texted stephen a moment ago to say hey are you on the zoom yet and he said no but you know we're all waiting the four fourth graders are probably pretty nervous so i know they're trying i don't know if there's an issue for getting on but they're they're hoping to be on we will gladly give them a few minutes and they shouldn't be nervous and i shouldn't tell anyone not to be nervous so um but we look right because they're nine because they're nine doctors do you

003want to um give any uh background information or maybe even uh have some young people start without uh the leader of the classroom and or miss talking i know you've been talking with miss danielson as well um here's what mr anderson just texted me my screen says we're waiting for the host to start the meeting so somehow he hasn't been let in yet he must have the wrong link we um oh you know what he gave me the link for the wrong thing i'll tell him yeah let me tell him and then i can i'm happy to set a little bit of stage for you guys okay um go to the wait a minute we're gonna get somewhere i can feel it i just emailed mr anderson the direct link yeah i am also calling

004him hey stephen okay i just spoke with him and he's going to look for the the change link um sorry so a little bit of context the fourth grade um curriculum out of engage new york is a look at early american history and includes both study of the ho nashoni and then also a study of the early colonies and what would be known as the colonial period now over the years they've continued to use this book that's called if you lived in colonial america and i you hear the tone of my voice when i say that title um it's a it's a pretty whitewashed look at colonial america um it even says that it's updated but when you look at it you find no people of color no indigenous people um no one except really

005white little boys and girls in drawings doing little colonial american jobs and so while they try to examine what life might have been back in those days um over the years our students with very good support and direction from their teachers have learned to ask questions to unpack what is going on in this text and i know mr anderson and i have had the conversation that said should we just get rid of the text altogether or should we continue to use it as something that is such an obvious opportunity to critique it um and without such an obvious opportunity to critique it and a far far better text might they actually lose that opportunity for criticality versus just gaining the content that they might gain that they'll learn again later in seventh grade so it's

006an interesting debate and his students um uh our fourth and fifth grade students luke but our fourth graders um unpack this kind of thinking regularly and these guys decided to take action and i think what he wants to present is some of the action that his students took so let's hope that he's about to be on and that some of his students they wrote letters to unto the scholastic who publishes the book i'll also say that those of you who are aware that we're the district is using goldie mohammed's historical literacy as a framework for looking at our literacy this um process that they went through as a great example of it looking at their own personal identities figuring out what knowledge they needed using the skills to read write unpack speak and think and

007then using a critical lens in order to make sense of what it is that they're learning so it looks like steven's here so go for it stephen or whoever hi everyone thanks for being patient and staying with me i had the wrong link and sent the wrong link to my family so i just sent them the correct link and hoping that they are close by to a computer we i think susan set the set the stage for us and uh i wanted to welcome in some of my fourth grade students because tonight we're here to honor the words and the actions of our young people and fourth graders from beverly j martin in northeast they're presenting letters that they wrote to the board of education and to scholastics in response to a book we've been

008reading in our class called if you lived in colonial times and this this project was important because the text is recommended by new york state it's recommended as an anchor text to the social studies and english language arts curriculum and when teachers all across new york state teach their students about colonial america they use this text and this project is it's important to me personally because i'm i'm aligned with the district mission to to raise young people that are anti-racist and to and to question and to think critically of the information that they consume even if that information or even if those opinions are from are from their teachers and i imagine that someday these young people will walk into a classroom and they'll be handed a text like this and they won't be given

009the space or the opportunity to to question it and to think critically so i think i think we have to give them those tools now and then lastly i just want young people to know that they have a voice and to feel empowered to use it and to know that their voice is strong enough to to affect change so these these brave fourth graders that are here tonight they're going to take a risk they're going to share with you their work of their critical reading of this text and and at the ends we welcome your questions and your feedback so i have uh let me see who i have with me we have an order and i hope that all of those students are here um ruthie ruth needed epi if you're here you're up

010first all right let's try a different order emma are you here dear board of education if you lived in colonial times is not honest it's a book that white colonial history because the only people mentioned in this book are white anna mcgovern only includes a few sentences about native americans and they're all negative this is what kids are learning they are learning nasty and brutal things for example the book says it was easy for an indian to walk across a bridge an indian was used to it why is this what anna mcgovern is sharing with us about native americans i think that she should have included that native built cool longhouses and had many important contributions i think this is important for all young people because they should be aware of the issues around them

011if you are anime covering what would you say about the about colonial times if i was going to say something i would say something that was true and positive about native people sincerely emma thanks emma uh looks like ruthie's here but has not been made a co-host so if ruth can uh can get the right to unmute herself i think she would love to share her letter as well is ruthie logged in under a name other than ruthie it's lee humphries i'm sorry you ready there you go there you are okay there you go dear board of education i believe that the book if you lived in colonial times is is a dishonest book it lacks mirrors for my black classmates and it whitewashes american history i don't agree that that this book should mean

012the hands of fourth graders who may not know american or colonial history i think that if you want us fourth graders to read a book about colonial history it should be an honest book about our past not one that shows only eight mentions of native americans which they call indians and one three sentence paragraph and one three cent and one three sentence paragraph paragraph about black slaves in an 80 page book the author quotes some people did not want to come they were black slaves from africa to be bought or sold this is the only mention of african americans in the entire book the book also says that mail carriers must carry a gun in case of an unfriendly indian bear or wolf comparing them with animals and implying that they would need to hurt

013native americans or worse this is a stereotype of native americans i strongly believe that you should change the book into an honest book about colonial times that is safe to put in the hands of kids like me thank you for listening to this letter and i hope you changed the book that is mandatory to study in fourth grade thank you ruth all right we're entirely out of order now so i'm just gonna take a chance and hope that the next name i call is the student who's with us now uh daniel yazdani daniel are you with us uh maybe maybe it's under miriam oh daniel's a co-host perfect okay dear scholastics hi my name is daniel and i am writing to you because there's a book called if you live in colonial times this book

014is dishonest and racist and tells nothing about black and brown people i would like you to remove this book from schools i don't recommend this book because this book is dangerous because it whitewashes american history it doesn't even call native americans native americans it calls them indians this book got updated once since 1964 and only changed the pictures not any of the offensive writing also on the timeline it says that in in 1492 christopher columbus discovered america instead it should say he found america because native americans were already on the land furthermore this book only tells three sentences about african slaves it says some people were not glad to come these people came from africa they were sold as slaves they'll never see their homes again come on just that another reason this book is

015dishonest is because it says on page 65 sometimes the mail was never delivered the person you hired mine might be killed by some indians come on the europeans were the one that stole their land and attacked them you know some people who are learning about colonialism might believe the lies in this book this book does not give mirrors to our black classmates so either remove it or at least give more voices to the blacks to the stories of black people please take some of my suggestions sincerely daniel yazdani thank you daniel ah sofia atkinroad if you're here okay um hello my name is i don't think you're on yet there you go all right okay hello my name is sophia i'm in fourth grade i go to bjn and i'm mad i'm going to talk

016about today i'm going to be talking about replacing a book or changing it so it doesn't oh my god so it doesn't tell so many lies the book is called asciolitic colonial times by ann mcguffin illustrated by june eternal i have three complaints about this book my first complaint is that i am looking and reading this book and i see no images or mentions of dark skinned people my second complaint is on the cover of this book it says new and updated but in 60 years all they do is changed illustrations my third complaint is that they mention people from africa only three times in an 80 page book they need to mention them more those are my three complaints but i still have one more thing it is not a complaint it is a

017site called colonial williamsburg it talks about colonial people of all colors that is why you should you should add this to the list of things that you should show to teachers that is also why i said stop showing this book to people or change it or show the website colony once and maybe get a good idea from it and put it into the book thank you for listening sincerely sofia eckhart road dad you're muted thanks emma what would i do without you you've been keeping me accountable this whole year um claire monroe are you here says she's uh assigned to a breakout room she can hear and see the meeting though so she's been assigned to a breakout room what we can do is is throw it to lily and come back to clara lilly

018fortenberry are you here um dear scholastic means hi i'm writing t because of the book if you lived in gloomy times it is dishonest great and bad you do not imagine native americans or black people very much i'm very disappointed that you think we can learn from this book we are supposed to learn about all history not just white people i want you to rewrite the book and this is what i want to see do not call native americans indian and mention them more there are many examples in the book of dishonest treatment of black and brown people for instance on page 66 the author writes the mailman kept his gun loaded there might be a hungry bear or a wolf nearby or an unfriendly indian that is just cruel rude to me it is

019cruel of rude and mean because you are teaching children to compare native americans to animals and they are wild and that white europeans are better than native american but that is not true it doesn't matter what you look like whether you have white skinned brown skin or even black skin we are all the same thinking of killing an innocent person so what if they try to scare you what should they ever do to you [Music] thank you lily you guys are really brave and i'm proud of you uh we have two more readers clara is telling me that claire is telling me she is not a cause so she can't unmute or turn her camera and so if we could make clara monroe there she is hi clara hi wait okay okay here's scholastic i

020think the book if you lived in colonial times is dishonest and inaccurate my friends and i are disappointed because this is not really what happened in american history to african americans even though your claim is new and updated you do not change the words at all from the last edition of the book do you actually know what happened this book whitewashes american history i don't think it's fair that you're giving people this book when it's not entirely true it is unfair to the reader unfortunately the people from colonial times especially non-white people in the book there are a total of 80 pages and only three sentences about people of color i think that you should take this book back from all schools until you change it to make it more accurate and more appropriate for

021example on page 57 it says it was easy for an indian to walk across the long bridge an indian was used to it it's wrong to call native americans indians this is offensive to their culture also on page 66 it says from the text the mail carrier kept a gun loaded in case there was an unfriendly indian bear or wolf why did he say that in my opinion i think this is very important that you add more accurate information about people of color please make these changes in your next edition thank you yours truly clara claire amazing thank you last reader maya mack you're waiting to be made a co-host as well um yeah okay um dear board of education my name is maya mack and i'm a fourth grader at northeast and i would

022like to have a discussion about the book if you lived in colonial times the book says new and updated it hasn't truly been updated throughout 57 years of being published all the publisher did was change the illustrations and leave the words alone no one really needs good pictures what they need is the truth on the back of the book it says this book tells you what it was like to live in new england colonies however the only thing the book tells it is what it might it is what it might have been like for white people and what it does tell you about how the navy how the native americans lived is dishonest in addition the treatment of slavery is also dishonest out of 80 pages ann mcgovern writes only three sentences about african slavery

023nothing more the book treats native americans like they were cruel and should be feared and avoided at all costs for example on page 66 it says he kept his gun loaded for there might be a hungry wolf or a bear or possibly an unfriendly indian calling an indian unfriendly just because he slash she is trying to protect his slasher homeland is a really negative stereotype that's extremely one-sided in summary i would like i would like you to stop painting this book out to schools it whitewashes history and is an embarrassment to the world sincerely mymac that's the kind of flair we needed to end on maya uh and then that's that's the work from our young people that's the work that young people around the district are engaged in and we're sending our letters to

024scholastics the publisher as well the students mentioned that this book was was published about 60 years ago advertises as being new and updated but only the illustrations have been changed thank you stephen great job uh fourth graders emma thanks for giving giving stephen all the help he needs uh we all need help and steven knows but uh maya sophia clara lillian and danielle uh thank you very much and others that i can't see right now but we also any any questions from the board any comments yeah i have a comment let me turn my camera on um so i i'm very appreciative i feel like i've really been educated this uh this evening so by sharing this with us it's made me feel like i want to take some action too you know i would

025like to write to scholastic um i would like to uh you know they they sell these books i think anybody who's bought this book should get a refund um and i think they should stop selling these books and in addition i think that this book should be taken off the recommended list from the new york state education department and that's something that i would like to write to them about and i think it would be really great if you sent all your letters to them so that they can know exactly what is so terribly wrong with this book and putting it and recommending that it be put into the hands of fourth graders your writing is powerful and convincing and i really appreciate you sharing it with us this is and i think i just

026like to echo what maurizio does i agree completely i really enjoyed hearing your takes on these books which really truly do sound terrible and i think it's important to bring these issues up i think it's i surprised that new york state is just i guess what bringing the books into the classroom and not and now analyzing them in a current viewpoint i'd be happy to put this on our legislative advocacy agenda because we meet once a month if we can help uh take it another step because we sometimes have opportunities within that committee to bring these issues um forward to other other folks in the state i'll echo my colleagues uh mr anderson um powerful example of teaching to emma ruth daniel sophia claire lily clara and maya um your courage is uh amazing um

027that sort of um insight um and reading a book and then talking about what you find to be wrong with it is extremely extremely powerful um yeah you've all given me inspiration for the day so thank you tremendously for talking to us and as long as um miss ann reichland said please send your letters to the board as well i would love to read a copy of all the letters that were sent so thank you again thank you thank you i just want to of course echo what everyone else has said and add my own special thanks to our amazing fourth graders for um keeping it real we call this as old people speaking truth to power this is what you're doing it's really good to see you starting out such a young age and

028um tell the adults on the call listening this is what we mean by giving our young people voice and choice this is what project-based learning is like this is what an anti-marginalization piece of curriculum like this is what culturally responsive teaching looks like i just heard a pretty um infuriating or i read a pretty infuriating message from a dear friend of mine who's younger and indigenous and she just graduated from the high school or actually she graduated from lacs she was asking the community if they knew of any alternative educational mechanisms because the israelite city school district failed her so often they're her education again she is an indigenous person and i've been trying to tell her that you know the young people coming out even in first grade are trying to correct all of

029the mistakes that she encountered but you know we thank you for your work it's also important to realize that you know this is years too late but with your work hopefully we can accelerate these transitions so we can truly have a multicultural plural pluralistic education that treats everybody's histories fairly thank you hi everyone uh clara emma lillian maya ruthie sophia um thank you for your courage and bravery there are about 200 people on this call and it's amazing to hear your voices um thank you mr anderson for encouraging our students to to read and to ask critical questions when we're in elementary school we tend to read things we remember dates and timelines but to actually think about historians and asking pushing them to think about the history that they're teaching all of you um

030is something that i was not doing in fourth grade so the level of self-advocacy and agency that you all have shown tonight has definitely moved me and i was fighting back tears because all of your words were so powerful so thank you so much i i want to also thank you um i can't take credit for this one of my colleagues recently said to a group of youth leaders you know we so often say youth leadership youth leadership but you're leaders now youth has nothing to do with it you speaking up today is one of the first steps you take in leadership and it's so amazing to hear everything you had to say today and um i feel like this is one of many steps you're going to take being leaders in your communities and

031here in icsd so thank you so much for speaking tonight hello folks um i'm so impressed with everything you delivered and it's often said people don't remember what you say but they remember how you make them feel and everything you shared this evening made me feel one empowered and also very proud of the message you delivered your ability to share critical thinking and challenge you know the way things were and the way things have been shared and as elders said speak truth to power is impressive and it's going to resonate with everyone who's actually on this call and i want to truly thank you thanks chris everyone any any other comments right now for mr anderson and his great students if not mr anderson thank you thank you for uh coming tonight thank you for

032volunteering to step up and share what your students are experiencing in the classroom our best our best meetings are always when we hear from other students and what is happening in the classroom i've said that many times and i'm saying again tonight so mr anderson uh really appreciate your work and um and we're gonna let the the kids go mr anderson you can stay on if you want but i i you know you don't have to sit in front of a computer anymore today if you don't have to so uh but thank you anything else mr anderson before you go i just wanted to thank you all for for giving the space to these young people to uh to share their voice thank you to lily thank you to dr brown thank you to the

033board of education excellent thank you we'll let uh we'll move on to uh the rest of our agenda and next is public comment period and um and sean if you want to just uh walk us through that bear with me folks i apologize i'm trying to locate uh the list of names i believe up first on our list is petula mcbean [Music] let's just go back all right we can always come back um and again i offer my apologies for any mispronunciations please do correct us so we can make sure we have it correct in the record up next is wait my name is michael thomas and i'm here speaking for my mom that's that's not in the best health condition tonight and she wanted to say some of you may know me from the

034ihs basketball program youth sports or youth advocate program i come before you today as a district employee a mother and as long-standing member of the ithaca community to speak to the leadership in icsd i would like to commend the board for their commitment to project-based learning and anti-racist work and for constantly putting the well-being of our young people before all over the past decade we have seen on some rent table progress not only in our graduation rate but in the overall quality of education which reaches beyond the walls of our classrooms icsd embodies exactly what our children need to succeed in life a strong foundation in social emotional learning dedication to new technologies and unbelievable support system for students and staff and teaching our children to understand one another's culture and love and respect for

035each other this the global pandemic has taken a toll on us all and in many ways our young people have been hit the hardest as their lives were were uprooted they looked to us for guidance and answers although controversial our current leadership made the bold and wise decision for families to have the option to keep their children in school five days a week filters were replaced ppe was purchased and much time was spent mapping out classrooms so that our students could safely return the reopening of schools was a success under the current icfd leadership and for that i am so grateful last year and the beginning month of the pandemic it seemed like things could not get any worse and then the murderer george floyd was televised for all to see his ultimate death unfortunately

036was the only beginning of the unmasking of countless other murders and unfair treatment of unarmed black people in our country although events like these have always existed in the dark corners of society hidden and tucked away this time was different this time witnessed everyone including our children and young people we must not ignore the disease of racism our children deserve better than that as a mother a caregiver a caregiver and a member of the community i speak for the vast majority when i say anti-racist work is not just a a nicety it is a necessity let's keep up the momentum going i know our current leader will lead us in the right direction i would like to end by saying there has been so much unnecessary unnecessary what necessarily over this past year children and

037young people need consistency and security now more than ever before our current icsd leadership has taken on the right path over the past 10 years and i look forward to the future as we come out of the worst of times and enter into a new age of innovation cultureness cultural awareness acceptance and limitless possibilities thank you for your time sincerely mj let me thank you for um also the courage to read that um thank you for sharing as well uh greatly appreciate it um and uh when we're that close we'll try to make sure that we give people a little bit extra time to finish even though our policy says three minutes so thank you patula mcbean and thank you um mj thomas um i was beginning by trying to say if i mispronounced a

038name please um correct me up next is karina lochenhal yes that's correct and i hope you can hear me now i am here today to amplify the voices of two stakeholders in the district who do not feel comfortable speaking out in person i'm honored to share these statements on their behalf the first statement is from a teacher quote teachers were asked to form a re-opening committee over the summer they worked many hours and came up with a plan that would cohort students minimizing the need to quarantine due to exposure 24 hours before it was due dr brown said he did not like their plan and told them what he wanted them to say why even have these committees if you don't want to use their feedback other than to put the blame on them end

039quote the second statement i was asked to read is from a fellow parent quote i am a parent of two children at ithaca high school i am also a parent of color it is very important that the legitimate concerns about the transparency of the process that took place after mr ainslie received the 200-page document not be derailed by allegations of discrimination and racism i believe that much good has been done in the district but we must have accountability and must make sure that our district leaders and the board adhere to the highest standards of ethical conduct it is not enough and it is condescending to describe the very serious allegations of workplace misconduct and abuse of public resources as simply a personal matter to restore the confidence of the parents and other stakeholders there must

040be a comprehensive investigation by an independent third party and a commitment to release a very thorough and detailed report of the investigation end quote after sharing these voices i would like to add a statement of my own in the remaining time speaking as the parent of two children in the district i am concerned about the new language on the board of education website indicating that i quote the board cannot permit public discussions involving individual district personnel or students end quote this may be appropriate with respect to individual teachers and lower level administrators however i hope that this argument will not be used to stifle discussions about the recent allegations of professional misconduct against the superintendent the board hires and evaluates the superintendent so board meetings should be the place to raise questions about his or

041her leadership in a pandemic the decisions of the superintendent not only affect the future of our children's education but impact the physical health and safety of teachers students and the community at large the stakes are high and dr brown will not be able to serve as an effective leader until confidence is restored through transparency a willingness to answer hard questions and an independent third party investigation thank you so much thank you um up next is liz quadrazi i'm going to tell you every time shawn quadrosie good italian name um my sincere apologies i keep making the mistake i apologize someday you're going to get it and i'll i will buy you a coffee um i wanted to um i wanted to speak today to address something that happened at the last board meeting and i

042actually wanted to speak to emma zaynen um emma you were so brave to speak up in a public setting last week unfortunately it's not the first or last time that someone will use their position or power to try to talk down to you with the intent of quieting you every female identifying person in this room can remember the first time it happened to them i'm so sorry it happened to you publicly by someone who should be a model and a mentor you are strong you are smart and you deserve to have your voice heard don't let anyone make you think otherwise thank you liz up next is catherine um sanera you got my italian name right sean um okay so we can't start video i would like to speak tonight in support of our student

043board representatives who spoke at the january 26th meeting about how the events of the past month have impacted students as many of you know i've been teaching in the district for many years over those years i've seen a number of well-meaning curricular initiatives begin and end and embraced a number of flashy slogans i've tried with all of my professional integrity integrity to help all students achieve their dreams to lead with love and to engage educate and empower most importantly though i have internalized the understanding that at the end of the day the subjects we teach matter much less than the relationships we build and that the way that we communicate with our students makes the difference in whether they leave our schools empowered at that last meeting i witnessed a group of high school students

044do everything that we have taught them to do these students are engaged they volunteer their time to come to these meetings to speak to the student experience in the icsd they have been invited by all of you to help you understand how to support them in the larger student body that they represent they are educated they are articulate they do their homework they understand how to investigate and ask critical questions and they demonstrate an ability to amplify one another when those questions go unanswered they are empowered in part this is because of their place on the that their place on the board gives them a platform but they are also empowered enough to ask very tough uncomfortable questions as they did two weeks ago questions that many of the adults in our community are too

045afraid to ask themselves my concern is with the response that these students received at that meeting i watched as our engaged educated and empowered students questions went unanswered not once not twice but three times i watched as our students repeatedly requested answers to their questions and were completely ignored only once an adult insisted that the meeting not conclude without acknowledging the students questions were their concerns even addressed once they were addressed that response served one purpose to disempower emma was told directly that her question had already been answered in a statement to the local newspaper she was directly criticized for getting her information from social media she was told that her question was not one that would be answered and she and her colleagues were publicly shamed for asking their questions in the first place

046if i engage with students in my classroom the way some members of the board engaged with their students in this classroom i would expect to be reprimanded and i would deserve it it is the responsibility of every adult in this district to engage educate and empower every student even when they are asking questions that we don't like when they are seeking answers that we don't want to give and even when we would rather they be a little less empowered i did not come here tonight seeking a response however i do believe that adam grace alex and emma owed here thank you catherine up next is amy bacon good evening i'm amy bacon i am a parent employee and taxpayer i am here tonight reading on behalf of another icsd stakeholder our community is paying attention

047to how icsd board of education members have been conducting themselves recently it's clear that many personal friendships have developed between board members and administrators these friendships have made it hard for the community to feel confident that this board can fulfill its obligations in a responsible and impartial manner although allegations are unproven at this time it is an all too common situation for a person in a position of power to abuse and manipulate that power as elected officials it's important for each of you to acknowledge that people are complex and can be capable of doing good work while also being capable of harm in fact these things often go hand in hand countless members of our community have their own deeply personal and traumatic experiences and the board's response to this situation has huge implications for

048each and every person who has ever suffered on the losing end of power dynamics board members have a responsibility to consider your impact and how your responses may ripple in ways that you have not considered as a district we say we want our kids to deeply explore complicated nuanced issues especially as they relate to marginalized disenfranchised people if this is something we want our kids to learn where is the role modeling from this board and this administration whether or not there is any truth to the allegations this board and administration have clearly been engaging in behaviors that are problematic like the refusal to respectfully engage with students who are asking hard questions the very same students who you claim to empower and who you encourage to tackle difficult nuanced issues during the recent united way

049event dr brown himself said that love means having hard conversations and calling out blind spots so we're calling out your blind spots board members this community needs to feel confident that you are capable of setting aside your friendships to do your job with the integrity and impartiality that our children and community deserve thank you for listening thank you amy up next is kelly evans okay um i am also speaking on behalf of another icsd stakeholder we teach our children to take responsibility for their actions we teach them that their actions have consequences we should expect the same from our school leaders watching the events of dr brown's resignation and then unresignation has demonstrated how deeply flawed our board of education and school administration has become instead of taking the opportunity to answer the taxpayers and

050students questions openly and honestly you have chosen to guest slight intimidate and at times mock us the board of education is acting as if dr brown's choice to leave icsd in the middle of a pandemic with two weeks notice after serious allegations were made about him and other members of the board of education and high level administrators conduct and then change his mind is normal behavior it is not it has broken our trust in him and in you you must answer to this you must restore trust and faith if we are to move forward you cannot repeat that this is a personal matter it is not we do not want details of anyone's family life we want explanations and accountability for the statements regarding dr brown lily talcott kate reed robert ainsley and sean eversley

051bradwell's misuse of power in their positions we need explanations other than the resignation wasn't in writing to move forward you cannot assume that changing board of education meeting public comment rules will silence this need for answers this will not go away the public will not tire of this issue we teach our children that when they make mistakes they must own their part accept the consequences and ask for forgiveness it's time to stop avoiding the elephant in the room until this is done we cannot heal we cannot move forward it is your duty as our board of education our leaders to start doing the right thing please demonstrate to our children what strong leadership looks like thank you kelly up next is melanie mcmurray can you hear me now yes we can thank you sorry i

052was having trouble getting myself unmuted and thank you for the very large clock so i can keep track of my time i actually tonight i'll start by introducing myself i'm the parent of a fourth grader at cuga heights and a sixth grader at boynton middle school but tonight i wanted to read a portion of a letter that was submitted to the board on january 30th signed by 120 community members parents teachers and staff in the district i know this letter was received by the members of the board and publicized in an article today in the ithaca voice but i still wanted to read a portion of it into the record here i'll start reading the letter now as icsd community members we would like to confirm that the board of education of the icsd conducted

053an appropriate independent neutral and diligent review of the workplace related claims raised in the urgent appeal for new york state education department intervention for accountability justice and fairness in the matter of brown brown and the board of education ithaca city school district dated january 5th 2021 which we'll refer to as the appeal the board has stated that it has thoroughly reviewed the appeal and found many of the claims to be without merit and others to be outside the purview of school district business there is a material difference between a review and an investigation we respectfully request that the board of education provide more transparency about the methods and processes that they used in conducting their thorough review and we request increased transparency regarding the board of education's decision-making process and the specific grounds on which

054each claim was deemed either meritless or outside the purview of icsd business we understand that personnel issues frequently are and should remain confidential if the board of education cites confidentiality in declining to provide the specific grounds on which the claims were either deemed without merit or outside their purview we request information about how the investigative process was conducted we aim to ensure that the stated thorough review did in fact include an actual investigation conducted in accordance with best practices the letter continues but as you can see i'm running out of time and i think the essence of what we are requesting is captured by what i've read into the record so thank you for your time thank you melanie um and up next is kelly boyco my apologies for mispronouncing the name nope um you

055are fine um yes my name is kelly boyco i am a mother of three students at icsd each receiving a different mode of instruction it's a way i have i've wanted dwight who's in eighth grade and she's doing the hybrid model one in sixth grade at dewitt who is fully remote and one at northeast who's in person so we've got all the perspectives um so first of all i'm concerned about the educational impact and inequality of the learning methods the district is currently using and i'm wondering how the district is preparing for what could be a majority of students who begin the 2021-2022 school year below grade level and i understand the district plans to continue offering a hybrid model i think this is a good idea especially since some students are thriving in the

056virtual setting but i want to be clear that the current format is not working virtual students need a dedicated teacher for virtual instruction to be successful please continue to solicit direct feedback from the teachers about how to do this better finally teachers are burning out what is the district doing and planning to do to retain high quality teachers and administrators who are in this situation who are burning out and since i have more time i'm going to reiterate i'd like to know how you will be handling unequal learning experiences and would like you to consult with and take the advice of teachers in regards to remote and hybrid learning thank you kelly at this point in time if there are other people who would wish to speak please feel free to reach out to emily

057tracy or to trisha beresford um we do have uh additional time we set a time of a half hour for a public comment so um or please feel free to use the race hand feature and in the interim while i wait um folks can also use the let's talk feature a number of community members have been writing letters to the board please continue to do so and feel free to reach out to us directly so emily or trisha any additional sean i don't see anyone uh using the raised hand feature and i'm checking the chat right now no messages to me yet sean all right mr ainsley back to you sir very good sean thanks everyone uh student reps you're up your opportunity um yeah so as many of you know last week was the

058end of the semester during our discussion with the high school admin yesterday we received clarification on the situation with the push deadline for grading and if some of the changes being implemented like the covid safety nets um the great grading committee is also resuming tomorrow and we're looking forward to discussions on finding the balance between helping students in need while also holding students accountable um as some of you know we also did a short survey asking for teacher and student responses grace is going to be talking a little more in detail about that a little later but one thing that we found interesting in our survey to teachers was on whether teachers were receiving uh excused absences for uh recovery due to a vaccine um personally i've heard around the community that the second dose

059especially may take time to recover from so we were wondering if like teachers have their have to use their own sick days on these recovery um days or if they if these like absences are excused i would love clarification on this topic and um just like the policy surrounding it so we'll also discuss some of the other issues and responses that came up in both the teacher and survey and teacher and student surveys as well lastly at ihs the english department brought the black lives matter movement to their classrooms informed about what the school has been doing to implement more diverse curriculums and giving students the first to start questions about anti-racism using students clearly felt appreciative for the steps undertaken in our english department but wondered what was happening outside of that one question

060that came up quite often was why do we have so few bypoc teachers there seems to be a push for icsd as a district to do more in terms of hiring and rethinking attendance grading policies and incorporating relevant black history into curriculums well we know there are some efforts being made in this direction obviously we've seen that today with our student speakers people are still wondering how the district is measuring progress and what else is going on outside of classrooms on a district level to acknowledge this long overdue issue as mentioned above we send out a quick open-ended survey to students asking what questions concerns and thoughts they would like to share with the ihs admins the board of education and their teachers i'm keeping in mind to not frame the questions we kept the

061questions as open-ended as possible for students to freely share whatever is on their mind we received 54 responses in about 24 hours students were able to voice their concerns as well as their compliments we would like to note that many students express gratitude and appreciation towards their teachers for all their effort they are putting in teaching this year um so as student representatives to the board it is important to convey the thoughts and feelings of the students one important topic that came up was the lack of a public response from the board to these recent allegations we would like to read some direct testimonials and quotations from students that reply to the survey about this subject so the board of education and the public can better understand how this situation is impacting students at ithaca

062high school i also noticed that there are quite a few eye check students here so i'm sure that they can all agree with some of these statements so one student states quote i'm concerned that the situation concerning dr brown is not being treated with a seriousness that it requires how am i as a student supposed to feel safe secure and supported in my school when the superintendent is abusing his power another statement quote allegations are just allegations this was said at the last board meeting when discussing dr brown's return to the district and the questioning of why the allegations against him are not looking are not being looked further into this does not send a good message to children families and other adults they say they should not concern the district however these serious allegations

063being ignored is a terrible role model for all in the district another statement quote do something about dr brown he has not addressed any of the allegations against him and he is in no state to lead icsd especially the students he is supposed to be representing summarized taken directly from the icsd website our district aims to promote a culture of love specifically values of being trusting committed honest and selfless many students are feeling a lack of all of these values between the superintendent board of education and the students including the message the leaders of our education and school community are sending to us by not addressing and taking accountability of these serious allegations since these allegations have emerged the students and the public have received little to no direct communication from the district on this

064topic this has led to widespread confusion and concern from many groups within our district especially students as seen in the quotes that grace just read while we the student reps have been fortunate enough to gain information directly from the board in private conversations on this topic the rest of the community has not um from our understanding the majority of the public's knowledge has come from local news articles and word of mouth while we understand that legal statements from individual board members have been made public on this matter they are not easily accessible by the public as such the community is still very much in the dark on the board's handling of the situation i am sure that creating a common understanding of the situation is crucial to all of us in the community and i

065think it would be beneficial for the community to hear directly and clearly from the board of education so we would like to request a statement of some sort whether a letter or email addressed to the whether a letter or email addressed to the icsd community about the board's positions and actions uh in regard to the situation anything else board responses i'll i'll start um i guess that was a awkward silence and such great comments from everyone and i know it takes a lot to say them all um even for adults it's hard to speak there's a lot of people here in fact when i look at that number it's hard for me to speak um i i thank you for sharing i really um uh alexander actually your question really stuck out for me about

066the side effects from the um vaccine and how we're handling that i hadn't even thought about that i know i know it can hit people really hard um and i'm gonna leave my colleagues to talk about some other stuff because there's um a lot to unpack here but thank you for speaking out as always um i'm going to speak um and i actually want to first speak to kelly thank you for sharing with about your experience and navigating the three different um educational experiences during this pandemic time with your kids um i am going to refrain from response specifically because i could not do justice but i'm hoping that um you know i plan on reaching out to our administrators and reaching back up to you and following up on this so we can give

067you a response for planning for the future um this is not an excuse but an understanding of we're trying to navigate a lot of this situation my situation and hopefully improve as we go so please um understand and work with us as we keep moving forward as far as your kids experience as with their education um emma i actually you know the comments and i do believe um that you were very brave in reaching out to us and asking the questions you asked and i'm going to i never tried to speak for my fellow board members but i'm going to speak that in no way shape or form was anyone trying to intentionally silent anyone or skirt answering your questions um as we navigate this difficult time and try to respect situations and also do

068things in a manner that is in the best interest of all parties it's difficult and i don't honestly have the words to speak to it um respect privacy respect legal matters and also address all the questions that everybody wants us to answer in a public forum i feel comfortable doing that and just being true truthfully i understand at this point um i moving forward we will communicate with the public in a manner that i hope addresses things but it will be handled in a way that respects everyone i would like to um also um answer questions that i can openly answer at this point um and i'd like to just address a couple of of um remarks first first to emma when you asked about um what is being done to hire teachers of color

069i have served i think except for one year on the human resources committee of the school board since i was elected 10 years ago and from day one attracting and retaining a diverse set of teachers who can be role models for all students and advocates for all students has been a number one priority of this administration and everyone i know on the board and one of the steps that we took for many years actually was to have basically a dedicated individual within the human resources office who was doing specific recruitment um and retainment of um of teachers of color and um [Music] with with some success um not enough success one of the one of the advantages that our district has is that we're a relatively fluid district where people move in and out for

070various reasons which means there are usually openings and having served on many hiring committees um i can say that in in each and every opening that has been a consideration um our currently that very important position is being filled very very competently and successfully by uh gledira velazquez sims who's um who had actually exceptional um success in hiring a large group of of diverse teachers relatively large for our district unfortunately the health situations and safety situations this year might have prevented a number of faculty new faculty from being visible a number of students from not being able to see faculty but um that will continue to be an issue of priority going forward um and for kelly boyco who talked about not only unequal learning experiences and teacher burnout um yes there are unequal learning

071experiences we are along with every other school district in the country our experiencing unprecedented times um i think i my husband and i have talked with teachers who have said i don't know how much longer i can do this we've talked with teachers who've said we can do it for this year we're assuming that this is temporary [Music] people are starting to get vaccinated and that is a good thing um vaccinations are not available for the vast majority of the people in our buildings and that is people under 18. i mean they haven't even developed those vaccines yet and that is a concern for me as a parent and a grandparent if certain mutations occur i haven't yet met anyone any teacher in this district or any student in this district really who isn't doing

072the best that they can i teachers are doing the best they can [Music] those who show up in the buildings to support each other students who haven't burned out who continue to be engaged like the fourth graders we saw tonight like all of the students who have spoken to the board and presented it's a i mean to me it's a model of resiliency and hope [Music] as a lifelong educator who no longer directly educates married to an educator who has taught in person taught remotely and yesterday started teaching a hybrid model at ithaca college which is probably the most challenging um i i don't know that i don't know that there's any way that we can make a wave a magic wand and make every single classroom and every single teacher and every single student

073come out with the same result um but we'll try thank you uh hi it's moira lang um so i'm not gonna speak to some of the things that my fellow board members have spoken to quite uh um i do want to uh mention the fact that um yesterday was yesterday uh dr eversley bradwell and i met with the student reps and their advisor barbara bergman and uh last week nicole fave met with the student reps and barbara bergman and i felt like we had some good conversations and as uh adam referenced and you know the the student reps were made aware of some developments uh that the uh the the public at large is probably not aware of um so uh as was mentioned and quoted from the board of education did receive a letter

074that was signed by 120 members of the community the response to that letter was sent to the person whose email had uh had forwarded the letter to us and so an important um issue that was mentioned in the letter is that um since that letter was delivered to us last week as a matter of fact i believe it was on uh saturday that the board of education has now been served with a petition brought in the new york state education department which is naming the board of education two individual board members dr brown and another administrator of the district as respondents uh the petition raises allegations similar to those set forth in the letter that we received signed by 120 members of the community so the response of the board of education um we are

075by law we are responding to the petition we have responded to the petition brought in the state education department uh the proceedings before the commissioner are are public and the responses of the board in education and dr brown will be available to members of the public and in fact um the board's responses can be accessed by requesting them from the district clerk so in terms of any of the allegations that are that are addressed in our response to the petition to the state board of education we will not be speaking about them until the commissioner makes a ruling and that will be a public document i'll follow up with a couple of those things um i'm going to come back to what um my colleague maura lang just said in a minute um i'm trying

076to take notes to make sure there's a thorough response and not go too long as well uh to my board colleague aaron 45 seconds of zoom silence actually isn't that awkward um anyone who's taking online classes know that there's upwards of a minute sometimes of students just sort of staring at each other and i tell my students you know sometimes i let it go to two minutes just to make sure we have time of reflection but i understand um this virtual world that we're in has changed the game um the first comment i heard tonight was uh thanking the district for the anti-racist work that has been done and for the leadership to guide that anti-racist work i want to thank patula mcbean and mj thomas for um that statement um i think are the

077fourth graders that we heard from today in mr anderson's class um were a powerful testimony to that anti-racist work and i'm very much looking forward to how we push that work forward knowing that it's also going to bring around some conflict and some disagreements and that's exactly why we engage in that work i also heard comments about you know the reopening the school and the hybrid model the mode of instruction um from where i sit that work is extremely complicated and what i mean by that is as a college faculty member i'm currently engaged in a high flex model of teaching in person and online at the same time not my preferred mode of teaching extremely challenging to my own pedagogy and way of teaching and also recognizing that a global health pandemic has made

078it where i don't have much option and as we navigate these options as a school district sometimes some of these decisions are outside of our control we know that a number of our young people need to be in school for their caregivers and parents to access employment and we know that there is extreme difficulty in doing a virtual instruction um and to the question about what are we going to do when there is a loss of a school year i would say respectfully that's not a question that we are facing as a district that is a question we are facing as a state and as a nation and anyone who reads educational research is talking about that as well right the coven the lost covert year we're going to struggle with that and we look

079forward to community input that help us try to solve that that issue um policy 1400 which helps monitor or and or probably the very wrong way of saying it my apologies um the way in which to sort of um help us engage with public comment um it's not changing the comment rules in fact that policy was passed in 2013. it's a rule that we'll look at again a policy that we'll look at because i think sometimes the language isn't the most appropriate but i do want to make mention that every single elected body has stipulations about how the public engaged during voting meetings and that's from common council to tompkins county legislature to the town of lansing you name it there is some sort of process to which to have that um and so i

080understand that and that yes it does apply to the superintendent even while a public figure and as i have said to him on a number of occasions a public servant still an employee of the district and so that may be something that folks may not want to hear but that's the reality that we do not discuss personnel matters of employees in public accountability and transparency you heard from moira lang say that at this point in time we are responding to the petition again folks should reach out to the board clerk if they want to see what those responses are we will wait to hear from the commissioner's um public decision that will be made available to all folks before we engage any further in the details of the specifics but the documents are out there

081and i appreciate um our student rep adam saying that they're not easily accessible but i also want to remind folks that this is a very complicated issue and also includes um young folks and so we made them as easily accessible as possible and that's by contacting the board clerk it also those documents also include the board's approach to the review so the commissioner will make a decision make a determination about how if the board operated was appropriate or not um and so we will find that out um along with our community we have complete faith in what we have done let me my apologies i have complete faith in what i've done and what we have done and i look for the board commissioners review as well um i know there's been some conversations about

082personal friendships again this is part of the petition so i don't want to speak too much about it um i also do want to say that for more than 25 years i've been as committed as i can be to this community and particular to education i'm a former icsd teacher for eight years i did my dissertation specifically on the ithaca city school district and then ran for the board because my mentors in the community told me i should try to help make a difference i remain committed to that very goal under any circumstance that my primary focus is on the young people of this community um the student or the conversation about resignation of dr brown i know dr brown will be talking about this shortly there will be a public event coming up i'll

083leave that for dr brown to speak about momentarily um the silencing of our student reps i think that's um an important conversation for us to have uh it's not the first time that this is um arisen um i think that the while we had a productive conversation with our student reps also realize that there's a larger conversation to be had about how student voices are both heard and a part of the deliberations of the board so i agree that we have work to do there and i look forward to engage in that work um i will say um and i said to our student reps yesterday i remain um extremely impressed by uh not just their voice but their assessment of situations having been a 20-year faculty member i began by having to teach students

084how to engage in social justice work and we had find pretty clearly that we have a number of fourth graders and high school students who know how to engage this work already so um thank you continue to push us we'll have deep and difficult conversations uh two more and then my apologies we'll leave it alone um yes there is a significant focus on the increase of by faculty i was one of the people who helped lead a committee 20 years ago so talk about time loops that we go in these cycles um the work of glidera is pretty amazing and i know that we've had some um outside training particularly to focus on hiring committees of how to work on implicit bias and we will continue to do so um lastly i greatly appreciate what

085i heard student reps say today as well as yesterday is about black lives matter week and pushing it outside of what many people expect to be simply english classes or social studies classes that this same amount of work of anti-racism should be part of our science classes part of our theater classes part of all parts of our curriculum and i look forward to helping and learning with the community about how best to make that happen so we will continue to be available um we will continue to answer questions when and where we can um and i will put out to my board colleagues it probably means that we should consider hosting something that dr brown is considered hosting coming up soon and we'll make the community aware of that um as soon as we possibly

086can so apologies for the long response but i wanted to make sure i addressed uh what was asked of us um hello everyone this is eldridge a lot of good things have been said a lot of good comments from the students and the faculty and folks reading for themselves and on behalf of others and uh i'm going to try not to repeat anything that has already been said and be more direct especially to our poor young people alex adam emma and grace the we on the board have different let's say specialties we have different training we have different um careers and some of those careers allow us to address things more simply than others i think everybody who's paid attention for last uh 30 years of my input in this community knows my uh my

087background is a legal background so let me be as a sync as a sink to the four of you as i can the issues that were raised in the allegations and then the subsequent documents the petition and now the appeal uh to to the state education department they cross at some of the most intimate and personal and complex privacy issues that you can address that anybody can address first of all we have items involving vulnerable young children we have items and allegations about professional misconduct and we have allegations that of a deeply personal nature let me explain you as simply as i can without going into great detail if any of you continue to law school you'll find this out yourselves because someone who's introduced these complex matters into the public sphere they have in

088effect abrogated their privacy rights regarding that information by putting it out there publicly i think we have a community i think where you all might be misunderstanding our responsibility as board members because one party has done that the privacy rights to respond to these intimate things don't necessarily rely in us they don't rely they don't somehow magically become part of our bailiwick as board members because somebody else has thrown that piece of information into the public square the privacy rights regarding the response and some very critical issues still vest in the other party enviro and you know who that party is it's not our purview to necessarily throw that information back out into the public square and response so we have taken our time we have consulted with the folks who professionally um are responsible

089for making sure the board does not run over any important tripwires in this regard and although our board president may have tried to articulate it in the best way he can like i said we have different skills on this board so we have deep privacy concerns on one hand please understand that even if we wanted to respond directly to some of these deeply personal professional matters we just can't but we can't in the timing and can't in the manner that you all expect us to has nothing to do with friendships there's nothing to do with some of the other things being mentioned and i'm sorry if you came across as disrespect but please hear what i'm saying i actually can't imagine any more any more information that somebody would be asking us to respond about

090that is as personal as what's been asked about right that is as private as what's been asked about especially when it comes to the educational experience of minors that's not your right to understand that it's not your right to get that information so that's my response regarding the privacy issue the only other thing i want to address is i think sean said it but this ban is repeating this district has worked incredibly hard especially since not especially since but since i joined the board in 2009 and we hired dr brown our priorities have been to uh make the curriculum more culturally responsive and to diversify the people who we put in front of young people part of the problem that we realized in doing this heavy lifting after we got professionals in to focus just

091on that is that our educational partners if a college cortland other educational uh facilities that means colleges and uh and universities that produce educational professionals are running very thin they're just not a lot of people to begin with which is which is not an excuse but it's meant that we have to tighten up our game so that when we get in front of people we can actually present a good case of why somebody should come here as opposed to another place and this is the hard part that we all have to come to terms with i've been told directly by some of these incredibly bright people that we have bought to the table and they're not willing to be ethical saviors they're not willing to save the race by coming to ithaca when they have

092the option to go to brooklyn they have the option to go to arlington virginia and they have the option to go to other places where the pressure is not on them as young professionals to fix ithaca's racism so i say that to everyone on this call i say that to every student i say that to every parent i say that to every member of the community do some hard looking in the mirror do some hard looking about where you are regarding your own cultural responsiveness we're on your own white privilege regarding your own sensibilities that recently recently been brought to the floor for all of us to see about the nature of white supremacy you think that we're going to do this as well as nine people with two professionals three professionals and we can

093include dr brown an administrative office i'm laying this at the feet of our entire community we need to all step our game up if we want to be able to compete with these other uh sites of diversity when we're trying to acquire young talent thank you thank you any other board members that have not spoken their wish too i think it's just me rob um a lot has been said uh from the community as well as my fellow board members um i like to echo dr bradwell um in terms of sitting in awkward silence i think sometimes we all need time to digest what we've heard and it's okay to sit with that i want to thank the tula and mj for reading their letter comments about the work that we've done giving our anti-racist

094curriculum marginalization in response to the parent that talked about the hybrid model um i can completely empathize with your feelings about how it's going and thinking about the future and what that means when we talk about engagement when we talk about success when we look at our students progress reports report cards like what what does this mean right now and what will it mean next year i'm hoping that our officer of evaluate our chief officer of evaluations um lin will be able to be present at our next meeting or in two meetings to talk about this data uh we typically do an equity report card i'm hoping this year we will also have an equity report card and be able to look at those numbers as well as compare that to student experiences regarding how

095our students are doing how they're feeling and what changes we can we can implement in terms of what is icsd doing to recruit black and brown teachers as pat and dr bratwell um pointed out we do have a hr committee and um ladera has been doing an amazing job into eldrid's point i do think that it's important for us to take a step back and reflect on what are black and brown people's experiences not in ithaca new york but in upstate new york my sister is a teacher she teaches in harlem she works she lives in queens but she teaches in harlem and she would never move upstate um given the stories that i've shared with her given the story she hears from friends that live in syracuse or rochester given what some of our

096students experiences are in our school district i think those are heavy complicated conversations that we have to have because a job is great but belonging and feeling valued and worthy is more important um so it's not always about the money but it's about the culture um and i also want to i would like to talk to eldrit's point in terms of we all have different skills when we think about the nine people on the board we all bring something different some of us are better skilled at having complicated conversations or leaning into that discomfort while others are better at looking at financial documents reading through policies so asking for a bit of compassion and grace in that arena as moira pointed out i did meet with the students last week and we'll publicly apologize for

097you all feeling as if we were invalidating you as if you were invisible um that doesn't feel good uh regardless of what our intentions were um the impact is still real so um my apologies for contributing to being complicit in that silence um something that someone said this evening that has stuck with me um tonight is to change your mind in a pandemic is is not normal behavior um as i think about normal the word normal i question if any of us have felt any resemblance of normality living in covet living and a pandemic um we're not living in normal times when i think about not just dr brown but when i think about lily or mary dan bob our executive team they have been working around the clock since the district has shut down

098since we shut down in person in march and and i say that to speak to the level of commitment of our executive team um so when the question arose last week i believe emma brought it up asking the board what what we felt about that and what i i can only speak for myself um what i thought was not just dr brown but any human has the right to change their mind in a time where we're all working over capacity we are single parenting co-parenting doing so many things that once any leader whether we're talking about a good leader a leader in training will have those dark moments where they ask themselves am i doing the best that i can should i step aside and let somebody else move in am i doing what's best

099for my kids when i think about our amazing teachers and our support staff a lot of what they're doing is putting our children other people's children before their own so i personally believe a human has the right to change their mind and to say maybe this is not what i want because right now i find that we're all doggy paddling through life and trying to figure out what is right and what is right and a pandemic so i guess me personally i had compassion for how the community felt that it was bizarre but i also had a lot of compassion for dr brown and the fact that he's possibly trying to find himself i'm 36 and i'm still trying to find myself and i don't know and he's going to speak to that later but

100my own personal reaction to that was i was happy that he was staying when we think about all the work that he has done in the past 10 years when i think about the amazing students that read from their hearts from what they believed to be true that is the kind of work that was not happening 10 years ago when i think about the fact that we have inclusive classrooms with children of diverse needs there are plenty of classrooms across the state that still have special education classrooms where students don't feel like they belong when i think about how much support staff we have in our classrooms compared to other districts and i know that we have teachers who need more help i understand that but i also know that our administration team has done

101their best with the budget that we have to support our teachers and to ask for what they need so i'm happy that we have a leader who has decided to stay because there's still so much work to do um 40 of our black and brown kids are failing one or more courses at ihs compared to eight percent of white students though that is what i want to spend my time talking about figuring out giving students as well as our teachers and support staff what they need i would not like to spend my time talking about parents differences in co-parenting as a divorced parent i know that divorce is hard i know coming up with a custody agreement is hard so i have no desire to to comment on that because it is it is not

102my place um so i've said a lot and thank you for the time thank you nicole um did everyone have a chance to speak um adam you're raising your hand i guess um i would like to just clarify uh one thing when when myself and the other uh student reps when when we are asking for the board to um to respond to the situation what we are asking for is not for exposing any private or personal details or anything like that we are asking for the board to clarify to the community what the board has done to reach the conclusion that um that the that these allegations could be dismissed um as in the process by which the matter was investigated by the board and um who the people who were the people doing the

103investigating we're not asking for any um personal or private details that would infringe on people's privacy we're just asking for a little transparency into the process adam let me try to respond i can appreciate that question um i oftentimes want to remind people that ithaca is made up of multiple communities so folks in the community that i spend my time with are not asking that question they're asking about how can we get more than 40 of our black and brown kids who are failing one class to do something different the response that we're giving to the question that you're asking about the process by which the board came to the conclusion are included in the documents that folks can receive we will speak and you can folks can make their own determinations upon receiving those

104documents about what they believe the process was and the petition to the commissioner asked explicitly to make a judgment about the process that the board used so we will know from the commissioner whether we followed a process that was just that was fair and that was in the best interest of the young people of the ithaca city school district and until we received that decision it's in the board's best interest not to speak much further on it i realize that is a complicated response for the community for other communities within our community who may want more information but that's the unfortunate reality in which we find ourselves at this point thanks adam thanks sean once again um i will only follow up uh we welcome um the opportunity for the state education department and the

105commencement office to look into everything that we have done uh regarding the allegations you know i certainly for emma and others at the last last meeting i think uh certainly for for my part um you know it's it's as others have said uh some speak better than others in public but for me i think you really just saw the sheer frustration of um of not being able to answer questions directly i am not complicated we are not complicated we followed by the book and we know what we did but we could not share that and and unable to verbalize and able to explain we are not allowed to we are not allowed to discuss in public anything any items that we discuss in exact session certainly items relate related to young children in the district

106and certainly items related to employees i certainly echo um comments of other board members but what um what this latest petition to the state department of education is an opportunity for others to see what we saw and see the evidence that we saw and as we went through our process so i am more than more than i'm not going to say please but i am going to say that it's a a welcome uh process to go through we as a board did everything that we could to ensure that we we addressed all the allegations and um and we look forward to the community uh those who wish to can certainly look through it uh but going through the board clerk to get the documentation it is extensive and um and i think you know we

107uh we will uh have an opportunity to hear from dr brown uh regarding um what dr brown is feeling and thinking uh regarding the direction of the district and moving forward which is always a opportunity to uh to come together and and work together so we'll um look forward to that and we have a few uh a few items to get to and i think we'll then we'll get to the school district business but we're going to go on to uh consent agenda um and i think uh unless any other board members as anything else that they wish to share right now but uh we uh i will only uh finish with my comments and saying that uh we we always look forward to uh the interaction with our student representatives from ethical high and

108in the past was lacs as well it is valued and we encourage that engagement and and we look forward to further engagement with our student reps from both schools and eventually getting back to a normal uh board meeting where there can be more interaction and habits more or organic and so we look forward to that so let's go on to the consent agenda and we have some items that we need to approve and then we're going to get an update on capital projects and some other items so consent agenda please i'll move the consent agenda thank you can we get a second second by chris and there's a few items there and anything special chris or others that we need to address i don't see anything special or noteworthy very good chris so uh trisha

109if you please if there are no other questions regarding consent we'll go ahead and call the role rob ainsley yes erin croyle yes sean eversley bradwell yes eldridge harris yes nicola fave yes moira lange yes chris malcolm yes ann reichlen yes pat wesley yes pretty good thanks everyone and dr brown uh more than ever thank you for the opportunity mr ainsley to share uh it's been alluded to quite a few times already tonight i just wanted one item just to update folks and announce to the community we've sent an email out it's on our social feeds as well we are going to be having uh hosting a series of community conversations on february 21st and 28th those are sunday evenings both beginning at seven o'clock uh the first one on the 21st will focus in

110on mental health and well-being we were bringing in some of our community leaders when it comes to mental health and well-being who will be a part of a panel discussion uh myself miss talcott miss kerry brook will be on that panel as well sharing where we are as an organization what we can do to support that in our young people and adults the 28th will be focused on public health and infection control so we'll be talking about where we are currently with the uh in administers pandemic what we're doing in our schools what we can do differently what we can do better also on the 21st uh we will be having a community conversation with just me and this is a board meeting the board has much work to do and you need to get

111to a board that board conversation but on this one on the 21st at 8 o'clock in a community dialogue um thank you meryl phillips who's the executive director at the village at ithaca for volunteering to be the facilitator of that q a dialogue but yeah it does a lot on my heart i'm looking forward to sharing about where our schools are apparently and where i see them going in the future everything from the different modalities to our plans for the summer to our plans for the fall to budget there's much work for us to do much work for us to do but i i you know and i'm also looking forward to answering other questions and also sharing some things again on my heart and my mind and you know the word you know this

112notion of a culture of love has been referenced a lot um tonight and folks have gone so far even speak to their individual principles and i've already said a culture of love is not a lot of fast it's messy it's uncomfortable it is not the default if i could i i'm talking right to my students our students right now um there are two principles i wish to talk about with you um two in the two are forgiveness and commitment yes i um humbly am coming to you in our community asking for forgiveness because there are two for two reasons for two reasons one um yeah i changed my mind you know the folks who know me the folks who actually reach out and call and talk to me or pick up the phone and ask

113a question they've known i've been talking about it for 10 years for 10 years i said at the 10-year mark i was going to be in a very reflective mode about what to do d.o next and i'm you know and i kept that commitment to myself to be reflective of what i would do at the end of 10 years serving this amazing community that i love and committed to and i would say you know the death of my mother actually accelerated that commitment and that reflection and commitment to thinking about what to do next and when doing that yes i was and i was always committed to the young people here always for 24 hours a day seven days a week for the last decade even on snow days most most importantly on snow days

114i've been committed to the young people in this community and when thinking about what to do next i thought yes we could serve the young people in this community i would still live here and we could do similar things like you heard at the beginning of this meeting at an international level because you know through my travels the last decade i'm realizing that what we do here the conversations we're having about anti-racism it's not happening everywhere how do we scale that to every place and yes i was presented with an opportunity to do that everywhere but as i was reminded by somebody somebody on this call and i got a lot of feedback after making that announcement i was struggling but i knew i thought i could serve not only the young people here but

115all over the world by doing something different doing something different but i was reminded by somebody on this call that's not who you be and again reflecting on the lessons i've learned for a long long time for my elders it's much more important to think about who you be be than what you do so yes i'm asking for forgiveness for changing my mind but i'm also trying to model for you a lesson because you're all going to be faced with a similar situation about what do i do or am i going to be committed to who i be and who i be as a community servant i've been raised to serve a community and i've committed to serve this community and yes i know what comes with serving communities particularly in public goals like the

116one i served in you have to give up a whole lot of privileges including the right to your privacy and i was also told by my mama you know when you serve communities when you serve in this way in an authentic way and when you're about justice work which i have committed my life to being about because she inspired me to take her place when she was gone when you knew about justice work when you're doing justice work folks will yeah you will experience some successes and some achievement but you also must be prepared for the resistance which can come in many forms and we've had those conversations about the work we've done around justice work and it's come in many forms including rumors gossips gossip and character assassination and if you think about all

117the folks who've been a part of justice work and there's some historians on this line think of one who has been about been about justice work who hasn't had that happen to jim too so yes i'm prepared for the resistance but never question my commitment that's another lesson for folks if you ever wonder about someone's commitment just ask them about it because i can tell you how much commitment i have to young people in this community and to my community that i serve and i live and yet i'm fired up now to serve hopefully god willing for another decade because now i realize that to be a community servant means you serve like i'm serving right now and it comes with all the privileges you must give up all the controversies and the achievements like

118today when i had when we had those young people speaking about anti-racism and speaking about how they how certain cultures weren't showing up in our text that's a small win that comes along with all the resistance so you know on that at that session on the 21st i'm looking forward to talking a lot about all of this most importantly talking about the future of our schools and love because there are many other characteristics i want to talk about too and how it's playing out in our community so i'm asking for your forgiveness for one change in my mind because i know that can be disruptive but i'm also asking for your forgiveness because i underestimated how i would have to give up that right to making personal and professional decisions that were mine without giving

119major explanation for it so yes i hope this is some explanation for why i changed my mind it was not about some new contract from the board it was not about some offer being rescinded no it's about my commitment in one to do this work in the midst of a pandemic in the midst of all the social unrest because i'm committed to justice and on the 21st we're going to go deeper into all of that and if folks have questions about anything else just call me and you will get an answer thank you miss anthony for the opportunity i'm looking forward to more dialogue thanks dr brown we look forward to the 21st and uh we do uh moving on we do have an opportunity to catch up on capital projects we do need to

120um do a temperature check on where we were in phase one uh phase one b in phase two uh but uh lots have been done and there's much more to do but uh opportunity tonight just to get an update on where we finished up from the fall and then moving forward um what building near you will there be a construction project as we head into the spring in the summer of 2021 um so amanda chris others please hi everyone this is amanda verba i'm the chief operations officer for the district and i've invited my very very um smart colleague chris glaubitz from tetra tech architecture firm who has been serving as the leader architect for this project um and been working with the district through the visioning and then the design development and then the

121construction development and and then moving forward into the project itself um chris will be doing most of the presentation this evening i'll be here um to answer any district specific questions um we think this is really smart because it is budget season and you'll be seeing a lot of me and so it's really nice to be able to share the air um with someone who is doing this every day and um uh you know and and to pass it over to somebody who really has the expertise around um how how we're doing um in terms of the first part of phase one i'm sure you've seen a lot of activity on a number of our campuses and then phase one the second part of it that's coming up this summer so chris um shared his

122screen and i'm gonna let him sort of walk us through where we are today thanks i amanda want to start with saying tetra tech is still very excited for the opportunity to help our communities schools and help support the great work that we saw examples of tonight uh by by helping the facilities be able to support all that so with that um go through uh fairly quickly we have a lot of work going on um through the pandemic one of the things that we've been able to do is is uh keep pushing through some capital project work so hopefully when we all are back in person in schools uh the facilities are ready for that um so this is an image that you've seen uh before on the left we have sort of planning uh

123design an approval on construction right so as projects progress they move sort of from the left to the right so this just is a summary of all the projects we've got going on right now i'm gonna start at the right uh phase one which was the first uh the first large chunk of capital project work some of that is done some of that is yet to do this coming summer as it was scheduled and i'll get it a little bit more in detail in that in a minute um we have actually next week over over the break we're going to be getting a smaller project done in boynton where we're going to replace those gymnasium bleachers like we did at dewitt last year that's coming up in construction right behind that we've got a big

124project at uh the ithaca high school roof replacement uh keeping keeping those facilities um and that infrastructure updated so that's gonna happen this coming summer and the summer of 2022 i'll show you some some brief phasing on that in a moment we have what we're calling phase two which is the next large chunk of capital project work uh we're in the sort of final stages of the design phase of that we'll be getting that into the state for the review to tee that up for construction starting uh in the summer of 2022. so that one's still uh you know a good year and a half out before we're going to start seeing things happening there as well we have some hvac work at boynton and dewitt middle schools there's been a lot of discussion about

125you know the temperature fluctuations and you know things improvements that can be made there so that um so that the heating can be more efficient and and provide a better temperature control in those buildings uh we're also finishing that up and that'll go to the state soon and we hope to start construction um on some of those improvements uh probably late in the summer into the fall that's work that can happen um as on second shift as school is occurring uh back in the planning phases we also have a facilities evaluation where um a few months ago we we went through and did a more uh broad assessment of the facilities um and that's that's to help inform the future phases like phase three which is we're you know just starting to think about it's

126kind of a very high level overview of the capital projects uh to dive into phase one which is the the first chunk of work so obviously we've gotten a few things done the carolina septic system is in transportation all that paving that's done if you've been out there you'll see the buses are now on the pavement as opposed to the gravel south hill roof got done this past summer uh when you start to see some things in red highlight that's those are things that have been scheduled to to be happening this coming summer so a little bit of flooring work and boynton um in the middle school there elementary schools we got a number of them done this past summer and fall um you know the covid year has affected manufacturing and supply chains so

127if you're in these buildings you will you will know that some of the parts and pieces um were delayed but uh for the most part uh bell sherman and the annex egm enfield um those improvements to the security entrances are pretty much in place this coming summer we've scheduled similar kinds of improvements at keegan heights fall creek and northeast so those will be those will be starting up as school gets out uh moving to the the athletic realm we got a lot of work done over at the stadium at maresco stadium there's a little bit to finish up uh as far as paving we ran out of you know warm enough weather uh to get all paving done so when when the thaw hits us sometime maybe soon uh we'll finish up some work there

128and uh do the the piece of work on the varsity baseball field to improve the the drainage out there because we played it out there in march you know it's a mess so um improvements there as well as uh kind of normalizing that that outfield fence line as well uh getting into it high school so areas b and j if you've been over there you know those are pretty much uh put together um and ready to go we're waiting on a few furniture pieces uh to arrive still as well the crossover between g and and the closure of the courtyard over at the cj crossover um those are mostly done we're getting a few door hardware struggly bits to happen uh the pool is ongoing um i'm showing you being done but it's uh there's

129still some work to be done in there um and area k uh there's significant renovation in york hall that we've talked about that's scheduled to start this coming summer there to transform that space uh so just a one more quick slide on the high school roof the summer of 2021 this coming summer um there are a number of areas a and b as well as j g h and k that will be re-roofed a lot of work uh going on the campus there and then summer of 2022 finishing up the rest of the of the building that has the same vintage of roofing so that's uh that's overview any questions or comments on that chris just uh just clarification regarding the stadium um apparently we are approved for sports to start and there will be

130some outdoor sports this uh this spring um stadium uh the turf itself ready to go um and certainly usable for practices gym classes games etc the synthetic turf is in and complete the coating on the track needs to be done in the spring once we have appropriate atmospheric conditions temperature outside to to apply that material so the track um right now you'll see it's just asphalt and that will remain until um until we get the right weather conditions there is also a little bit of asphalt uh paving to do to finish up in some of the walkways chris sorry rob [Music] two questions that does that mean that the track um will not be available at all this academic year that is correct and you may have mentioned this and i apologize if you did

131um i know we talked about it in facilities committee um but any update on the pool and where we're headed sure i should revise my answer i just gave you if the academic year ends in june we we may have that uh that coding down maybe in may um uh yeah as far as the pool goes we um have been doing some more investigation with regard to a a failure of some of the material to remain bonded to the wall and had a consultant out to look at it we are in the process of receiving some testing that's still pending pull tests some some analysis on the materials to try to figure out why the deep end wall uh there was there were some issues there to be sure that you know we address it

132when we when we reapply that material to get that done i understand the contractors are working on the pool deck area and uh working on getting on that tile uh starting to be put in place while we're waiting for um confirming some of the things within the pool shell itself anything anything else right now from anyone um probably phil just a second amanda we uh we will be getting an update on where we are as far as the financing goes with uh where we are with what we've done and what's on the books and where you know in the planning stages and then um what uh you know and all that process frankly uh will be updated soon i believe i recommend that's right and um rob for the public remember that there is a

133very robust area of our website for the capital project that um every month our um construction management firm which is campus construction puts together quite a large um resource document for us that rob to your point tracks the funding of the project and shows the budget to date um based off of the expenditure to date based off of the budget that we thought right and so um also two um elements of the budget for the project such as like the bids that come in that's all public as well and so we can share that in any results as they roll in we try to post that information onto the website so that again the public can track with you know full transparency um what we're using that um the funding that we receive through debt

134service for and um just to remind folks remember we didn't we don't borrow all of the money right this money um that was approved through um the voters approval we were approved to spend up to 120 million dollars over a course of time we borrow in um in segments or in portions of it as needed to cover the cost for a particular moment of that um of that project so uh that's also very public and those will all be board actions and on consideration of accounts whenever we do that so um rob yes we will be doing that i don't know if it's this month in finance we're pretty full on the agenda for finance this month we actually have the boces programs that will be um presenting their budget as well as i want

135to say it's either technology or special education and i apologize for i should have sorted that out prior to um unmuting but one of those two programs will be presenting in february and then we'll have some time in march to go through the the numbers for the capital project specifically well thanks amanda it's uh ongoing process and we did just want to give folks an update that indeed uh staging areas at ithaca high have come down but there will be staging areas going back up again and not only this kahai but across the district so this will be an ongoing process over the number of years but the uh we look forward to um the final final at ithaca high at least the the welcome center et cetera when or in other spots that have

136been newly renovated to get a walk through and certainly welcome the public to take a little walk around this guy sometimes too uh when you're out with a dog or just out trying to get away from a computer for a little bit uh take a walk around at the high it's um you know it's coming getting closer to being um pretty fully renovated so we look forward to that and uh and and your local elementary school as well uh there's work going on at every elementary school through this process and certainly the middle schools as well so um thanks chris we will uh well i think we'll see you thursday uh correct there we go so uh look forward to that amanda the same thing and uh and on to uh one policy uh tonight

137and then we can pretty much wrap up uh this meeting today thanks rob i'll speak to policy 8240 which is our policy that sort of um helps to talk about our parking and traffic on campuses i will also say um in this public meeting that most likely on our next policy agenda will include policy 1400 which includes public participation at board meetings we'll be reviewing that i want to make sure that that's on the record for uh this evening this policy 8240 is an important policy for us to realize the um some of the great concerns that many of us have had not just myself who's a policy buff but anyone about the school district and some of the policies that we are um that we have the last time this policy was um adopted

138was 1976 so it gives us some indication that it is outdated um and as we're working our way through from the zero the hundreds series to the 9000 series we find ourselves currently in the 8 000 series before we've reviewed all policies at the school district and will continue to revise policies um as uh we need to to meet the needs and the times of our school district the district uh traffic and parking policy um we had um been talking about for some time i want to thank amanda verba in particular for leading the worker on this policy i know there was significant outreach to school building leaders as well as the central administration team and amanda without stealing too much your thunder the goal was to try to write a policy that was reflective

139of um a practice of love the previous policy was very punitive in the way in which it was discussed so how about i stop for a second amanda if you're willing to talk about some of the guiding principles and then what we came up with and then we will go from there does that work absolutely um so you know there's a i think one of the things that we shared a policy committee right is that oftentimes policy um whether whether it's good or not reflects itself in tradition and some traditions we do want to carry forward and some traditions we really need to analyze to say um have we outgrown them and is the spirit of who we are as a district not represented in what this tradition of this policy um originally was and

140this is a tradition that we're willing to let go um there were uh the policy from 1976 um definitely had a lot of uh regulatory language now this is all based in law so we don't want to lose the fact that there are laws that we must follow and then we want to keep people safe we want to keep our pedestrian traffic safe we want to keep our vehicular traffic safe we want to be able to have traffic flow in and out of our buildings all of our buildings instructional and non-instructional but we also don't want to create so many rules and regulations that it feels as if this policy is rooted in um punitive measures if not followed when it comes to even just a parking space right so we understand there will be

141punitive measures if you pass a school bus with a red light that will have to stay in the policy we will have to call someone or we'll have to report you for that that is law and that is due to safety but a punitive measure about such something like getting a parking sticker on your car in a bright neon color that says this is not yours you are not to use this it's not something that we wanted to continue and so if you notice the language of this is trying to balance that idea of having the sense of of following what is safe right and what is what is by law but also trying to make and remind people that these spaces are community centers and we can define that community as broadly as we

142want because truly depending on the day and the time and the moment that is the community center of many many areas of our region and so we want to feel welcoming we want to feel inclusive we want to have people feel like our campuses are welcoming them to them and so we try to sort of again walk that that line um by outlining safety measures but also making sure that people knew that they they were welcome to join us and um we worked a lot on some new language around traffic flow and drop-offs and pickups um we're gonna rely on some environmental changes after the policy is done so you'll notice that the policy will have um items that might say you know follow the signs or we're going to have visitor spaces that means

143that we also then have to change the environment right we might be eliminating spots with numbers and increasing the number of spots with visitor signs right or um with no signage whatsoever that prohibits someone else from from parking there so um i hope that that that uh sort of gave an overview of the spirit of the policy amanda thank you that's great um a couple things i just want to highlight before we open for conversation again this is a first reading the process for board policy change is to have two readings a first reading it goes back to policy committee takes a look at it comes back to the board for a second reading and adoption um one it's a reminder to the community that are still on the call that our committee meetings are

144where the majority of the conversations happen um where the the work takes place and so we invite community members to join all of our committee meetings um particularly to have your voice heard it's easier to participate and engage back and forth during our committee meetings and we simply do the business of voting or voting yay or nay at the board buildings um in particular in this policy we had a number of community members write in and talk to us about language that we ended up using in the actual version that people see here it's also important to note that this policy for example in 1976 was completely rooted in forms not just of being restrictive language but forms of sexism it presumed the superintendent was um male so it kept saying his his his his

145that was the pronoun that was used throughout the policy so part of our reason for reviewing policies is to remove language that may be as again our fourth graders identified um offensive prohibitive marginalizing etc um and as you so eloquently said amanda it has an impact not just on how we practice but on the actual facilities so if we write a policy that is inclusive um it may mean that we have to change um the design the painting on our um parking lots right the signage that is before how do we invite community members how do we create visitor spaces so i think all that is um extremely important for folks to know including writing a policy that is flexible but at the silp at the same point in time provides some direction so with

146that being said the policies before folks it's a first reading i don't there's any questions from board members or before i do that um pat or moira or ann who is a um a policy member without being on the policy committee any other additions that you would ask before or add before we kick it off to our board members uh nothing to add for me sean um it's a it's a pretty a pretty big overhaul from what we've had for a long time and we spend a lot of time talking about what it's like to write a comprehensive policy for 14 different properties and to do it um in in the fairest and um uh most sensible way um so at this point i think we're we're really looking for comment input and additional pairs

147of eyes if i can ask a question um so in the context of bjm and thinking about the parking lot that they have that i'm not 100 sure but i think that they shared with giac when thinking about the designations for visitors one what is that what does that look like um secondly thinking about the the fire hydrant that is in front of the building i know from personal experience and other parents that because of the signage there from eight to ten you're allowed to um leave your car to take your child in but it also asks that there's one adult in the car um obviously all of us are not living in a two-parent household or two adults and even those who are in a two adult household one parent usually goes to work

148while the other parent drops the kid off so i know that's probably has a lot to do with city regulations but i'm wondering if it if we should at least engage in a conversation around like the fact that the policy is pretty classist in terms of i've gotten 75 tickets from picking up my son um and not being able to find a parking spot because it's mostly two-hour parking because it's um downtown and it impacts our families we know about the demographics and receiving a 75 ticket is a lot of money for some people so i'm just wondering how we're thinking about bjm specifically nicola amanda respond to this because we've been having this conversation it's not just bjam fall creek is also within the city um south hill has some pretty significant parking issues

149as well not to say other school buildings do not right but um so yes uh parking around bjm is primarily dictated by the city uh the parking lot is ithaca city school district property um so we own that parking lot as well as the walkway that goes through there so there was a lot of conversation about what takes place in front of bjm are there ways in which we can partner with the city to create some expanded notions of temporary parking to make sure that there's spaces for folks to be able to walk their children in and out of school our daughter went to bjm so i know exactly what you're talking about right dropping off and picking up it's a problem and so i'm amanda we had some of these conversations um and i

150know that you've looked into it as well that's right nicole you brought up a really great um part that i left out right so when i should have mentioned not just the environmental shifts but also the community partnerships um around a lot of our buildings bjm specifically i know that um dr ash we have talked so many times specifically about safety with bus drop off and a bus arms the stop sign being out lights on and traffic still flowing past it as if that was absolutely not happening and so there are safety issues there um not just parking issues it's a it's both are true at the same time right um the the parking lot itself i that is one where i know that oftentimes community members might use that and we try to capture

151some language around how we can still be supportive of community members but mindful of that we have an operation with children and families and community members of our own that we need to really be sort of thinking about drop off pick up and like sort of the that book end of those days right how important that is so we tried to capture that language we also tried to capture some language around if for example a car is left there or a vehicle's left there or a camper is left there right for however long how do we not take spots away from our staff our families to be able to have that there we will need to continue to reach out to the city um and to a couple of the towns and villages depending on

152where our schools are located uh because this is this is something i think i'll consider that the environment plus right because um i mean i've i've had i've had contractors walk to the you know park their car with their lights on to check on a safety issue with a security door and get ticketed uh right and so we hear it all the time from folks that are doing like the work in schools family members that are that are um you know a student forgot their lunch and they run in because they just wanted that extra hug and then they come back out and they get a ticket on their car and we unfortunately um we don't have any purview with that but we can strengthen relationships right we can create opportunities to for dialogue to

153try to change that system as well so i think that this will be sort of that motive not just the motivation but the impetus right so that's like we've done the work here how can you help us what can you do to partner with us and we can definitely work with the community to make that happen as much as we can right additional questions from our board colleagues about the policy we will continue to engage these questions we'll continue to reach out to the city to try to find some solutions and some partnerships and encourage folks to join us for our next board policy meeting where we try to finalize policy 8240 and bring it back to you for a second reading and adoption so if no more other questions from our board colleagues uh

154rob i believe we may be able to uh call the vote for our first reading he did uh he didn't move at childcare i did not i moved policy 8240 for a first reading at this time second second by pat glad i could uh help out a little bit at the end um but i really appreciate the policy committee wrapping up the evening with a policy on traffic so there's uh but it it is one of many items that we are responsible for so uh we look forward to a vote uh trisha a few please sure rob ainsley rob ainsley yes aaron croyle shawn eversley bradwell yes eldrid harris nicole lafave yes moira lang yes chris malcolm yes ann reichland yes pat wazilow yes thanks pat for wrapping that up and thanks everyone um dr

155brown anything else for you tonight before we let folks go home i think we all said thank you very good doc brown well um uh coming dates of importance well i think uh certainly the 21st and we have our various work sessions as sean says we invite the community to come to our work sessions tune in for a bit or all uh every tuesday there's a work session on something certainly as we get into budget finance um that is where the work is done basically for all our everything that we vote on everything we discuss in a public session is discussed in a work session at some point so feel free to tune in um while we work through the rest of the covid winter into uh springtime but uh let's um let's wrap it

156up tonight and we'll see everybody soon and thanks everyone