001[Music] n [Music] a [Music] n [Music] he [Music] he [Music] I promise I made it myself I made it myself okay standing there for thank you we are super chatty uh good evening everyone uh this is our November 16th regular business meeting of the class board of education calling into order uh Mr Treasurer please call the rooll president Adair present Miss beckerly present Mr Brown here Mr Cole I'm here Dr Pierce present Mr Ragland here and vice president Reyes here you have a quum Madam president thank you uh so much will you all please stand and join me in the pledge I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands Nation indivisible withy and justice for all okay all right board members um on this evening
002agenda we do not have any public comment on agenda items we have a trifecta we have reports from all of our direct reports this evening um we have several items on board matters to discuss then we have items in our consent agenda uh we will have public we have one uh public comment this evening on non-agenda item and then we have executive session and then we will adjourn a motion to approve the agenda there's a motion there's a motion in a second are there any questions comments or additions to the agenda okay hearing no hearing no objections the agenda is now adopted feel like I'm really quiet am I quiet today no they'll tell me in the back if I'm too quiet okay all right uh we're going to go ahead and just turn it
003over to our superintendent for her report good evening good evening uh thank you president Adair uh to start my report tonight I would like to welcome a guest from the city of Columbus Maria cantrail she is a transportation engineer at the Department of Public Service she was appointed to spearhead the city's Vision zero initiative to eliminate fatal and serious injury traffic crashes in Columbus Vision zero is a collaborative effort supported by mayor gther and the city council and consists of the Department of Public Service department of safety department of neighborhoods and Columbus Public Health as well as other stakeholders groups including city of Columbus Columbus City Schools Kota The Mid Ohio Regional Planning Commission Ohio health and Nationwide as practitioners and transportation users we've always cared about Transportation safety so what makes Vision zero different
004Maria's presentation would focus on how Vision zero is a fundamental shift in the mindsets to prioritize protecting human life over all other goals of the transportation system so that all Transportation users including pedestrians cyclists Transit users and motor motorists um arrive at their destination safely so now turn it over to Maria cantrail all right hi everybody thank you so very much for having me here today I'm just going to pull up a couple other notes because your system is a little new to me um I'm really excited to be here to explain Vision zero to you and to let you a little know a little bit about what we've been going what we've been doing what's been going on and how we've been collaborating with Columbus schools so you know I've had a lovely introduction
005but really what is Vision zero it's it's simply put we're trying to eliminate these worst crashes on our streets here in Columbus these are our fatal and serious injury crashes so it's a little bit different than what we've been doing in the past we've always cared about Transportation safety but the difference is that we're really focusing on these worst crashes not the property damage only crashes not the Ding and Dent crashes but truly the crashes that um affect people's lives and we want to make sure everybody makes it home at the end of the day safely now there is an urgency to what we are doing every year our fatal crashes increase by more than 10% I mean this year in 2021 these statistics are worse than ever um we've already had 68 fatal crashes
006in Columbus this year this is just Columbus streets it is not including freeways because we don't have authority in our jurisdiction to control how those streets are designed and and regulated that's controlled by the state but you know every year these crashes are worse it's and it's it's often more pedestrians um getting killed every year as well so as we mentioned in my introduction this is a collaborative effort I work for the Department of Public Service and um I sit at the department of of Public Service leading that role but this is truly a collaborative effort with our safety folks and our health department and schools being involved as well among uh the other members that Dr Dixon mentioned uh in my uh introduction we spent much of 2020 Gathering data and looking at where
007these worse crashes were happening we worked with the stakeholders we worked with residents we worked with activists from the bicycle and pedestrian Community we worked with the folks at safe routs to school as well um our executive committee asked us to develop an initial two-year action plan with the intent to have a future installment after we learn from these first couple of years while we're going through a pandemic and some you know interesting times we're going to reup after that but let's see what we can do in this next two years so I'm going to tell you a little bit about how we got to our plan and um some of the strategies we have in that we first started like I said looking at where these worst crashes were happening we know that in
008Columbus 65% of these fatal and serious injury crashes happen on just 10% of our streets and they tend to be multi-lane highways roadways arterials and they tend with those multi- Lanes to have higher speeds so um at the end of the this presentation our website will be up again but you can see all of this information on our website at columbus.gov visionz we have maps of where all these fatal and serious injury crashes are occurring um so that would be the red dots on the map the blue dots are the serious injury crashes but we also wanted to know where are most vulnerable Road users are people walking biking um where they're less protected when they're moving around by the protection of a vehicle of a the frame of a car or a truck where
009those crashes were happening so those are also on this map but you can kind of naturally Connect the Dots here with your eye and that is how we developed our high Injury Network remember we said we're looking at those worst crashes the high Injury Network um tends to be like I said Broad Street High Street uh Refugee Road Livingston Avenue Sullivan Avenue so we're definitely focusing on the high Injury Network but in addition to that oops we're also looking and taking in equity factors in our communities of Interest so there are seven Equity factors that we are incorporating including race income um access to a vehicle uh people with disabilities uh households that have a high percentage of or or areas that have a high percentage of children and higher densities of Aging population and
010English Second Language and the reason we want to focus on that as well is because we know the communities in of Interest may have different needs about how and where and you know their needs for getting around so focusing on both that those communities of interest and that high Injury Network when we take action so we put the action plan together and and developing it overall of 2020 we kind of came into four um action strategy goal areas we have plan and build Safe Streets for all users we're going to promote a culture of safety we're going to identify and commit resources we're we're going to do it better by enhancing processes and collaboration we want to have these goals are all smart goals they are specific measurable achievable realistic and times sensitive in this
011two-year action plan and uh you should have all received a copy of our action plan it's also available on our website but all these strategies are specifically listed on pages 27 and 28 but I'm definitely going to highlight a few certainly with Planning and Building Safe Streets for all users you know after after two years of kind of talking about Vision zero and presenting to people the two main things in that infrastructure that we really want to focus on are safe speeds and better access for our most vulnerable Road users the pedestrians and cyclists and actually motorcyclists too because they are very vulnerable without that protection of the car around them so we know that if you're a vulnerable Road user if you are struck by a car at 25 or 20 m M an
012hour you have a 90% chance of surviving that crash St statistically proven you double that speed to 40 miles an hour and I would venture to say most people probably drive around 40 m an hour if you are a vulnerable Road user hit at 40 mes an hour you only have a 10% chance of surviving that crash speed is something a driver can control we want to talk to our drivers to get them to think about their behaviors um we also want to change the way we design our streets to influence how people will drive on those streets so with that we also know that we have certain risk factors on our existing streets um this is a graphic that's also available in our action plan but factors like unprotected Crossings for pedestrians long distances
013between signals no Street lighting fast-moving traffic wide streets and lack of separated space for like bike Lanes or sometimes in some cases no sidewalks those are definitely risk factors that we look at in our infrastructure and what can we do about that well when we design roads we can change what we incorporate in them uh fewer Lanes of vehicular traffic in each Direction tend to slow speeding cars down um adding Islands to protect and make crosswalks safer and more clear are also tactics that we can use to slow down traffic separated bike Lanes narrowing just sort of how wide a street feels so it doesn't feel like a Runway you think about it a lot of these roads that have four or five Lanes on them that many lanes are needed maybe a couple hours
014in the morning and a couple hours in the afternoon particularly pre pandemic when everybody was driving in at those same times but now you know most of the day it just feels like a freeway and it doesn't need to be that way for most of the day we also know that notice that on a street like this with less Lanes even if a pedestrian chooses not to cross right at the crosswalk instead of trying to cross two lanes in one way and two lanes in another so four lanes of moving vehicular traffic only having to cross one in each Direction really reduces their risk so we're thinking about all that stuff when we design New Roads but also even when we go to resurface roads are there improvements we can make in that sense as
015well but beyond just our infrastructure we're going to be promoting a culture of safety we are in the process of developing a multilingual Communications campaign you're going to start seeing more information about Vision zero on social media we're doing a statistical survey to see how people respond and react to messaging and and we're going to really be targeting how how we think about speeding and distracted driving and a lot of those driver behaviors that can where people can make a big difference we also know with the strategies for promoting a culture of safety uh we have other partners that are helping us as well Kota is starting to do some pedestrian pedestrian safety messaging on their bus routes um and again with that messaging we know that 25 15 to 25y year olds typically comprise
016of a third of all of the Fatal and serious injury crashes they're the drivers in those but they're also the victims so even if it's a pedestrian it's about a third of those people that are killed or seriously injured are in that uh young adult age group so that's part of the group that we're going to be targeting with our messaging but then beyond that in our promoting a culture of safety oh sorry I glazed over that image for you but there you go ages 15 to 25 are the drivers in a third of all these worst crashes but we are working in our strategies with the school district to help with that promoting a culture of safety um one of the strategies that Columbus schools has committed to is to include annual traffic safety
017curricula for all grade levels so um right now they're looking at what all those options could be this might be a toolkit or option for teachers to select from but there are many resources currently under exploration in investigation to get to the students of all ages building on what we already do with safe routes to school which goes up from k through eight but also you know look talking to high school students and you know so this could go anywhere from looking both ways to how you cross the street to how to be a good passenger um so we're in the process of exploring that currently then beyond that the other strategies we're working on is to enhance processes and collaboration so some of those goals include uh investigating all of our fatal crash sites
018so right now we go we look at all of them we look to see is there something we could have done or changed is a stop sign blocked by a tree branch is um there's something weird configured with the road and we look to make changes there we're also in and we do do have over 20 strategies and I'm just highlighting a few but we're looking to change legislation too and making distracted driving a primary offense in the state of Ohio Ohio is one of four states that does not have that law currently uh it's currently House Bill 283 and it's in our criminal justice committee at the House of Representatives and it's in process currently and we're optimistic to make that change and then again um working with Columbus schools we're Columbus schools is
019collaborating with our Department of Public Service division of traffic management and and also police to look at how can we create a checklist to optimize school bus stop locations So currently uh Columbus leaders Columbus City Schools leadership is looking to see what are some best practices that some other leading Pupil Transportation web um schools are doing and trying to come up with a checklist and we're going to review that again with the police and the Department of Public Service to see if there's an optimized way to kind of look at you know where we put in new bus stops and are there some that we might want to improve in the future I have so much I could share with you and I only have 20 minutes today so I'm very excited to tell you
020all about Vision zero I will leave business cards here if any of you would like to talk to me further um but you can go to our website there's tons of information on there you can see where we've already done work get a copy of the action plan see more data on where these crashes are happening who is most effective um and beyond that so like I said um columbus.gov visionz is the website to check out and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have yes sir um oh no it's okay I'll direct the questions uh we'll go to board member Cole and then if you do have a question let me know thank you madam president thank you so much Miss Cantrell for giving us this uh presentation today um I definitely
021I definitely uh love the idea of uh Traffic Safety um specifically when we've had uh a number of accidents over several years um that have taken the lives of some of our children the most recent that I can recall occurred on just off of one of the streets I live on or live off of excuse me MCN Road um but with that first and foremost is there any conversation around integrating young students into this program as ambassadors as folks who can actually spread this kind of uh information amongst their peers and others in the community we have currently something that's going on with you know uh our lgbtq and inclusion uh movement in the district that is involving students in giving service hours I'd love to see if we could give service hours to some
022of our high school students who be eligible is that possible absolutely I'm so glad you brought this up and suggested it we do have as part of that multilingual Communications education outreach program an ambassador program that we are going to be setting up and it has come up as the idea of well what about having some young younger students and children participating in that as well those people have not yet been identified um you know we can still plan that out and collaborate with you to look at who you might want to include with that but I love that idea so again um I'll make sure you have my contact information um so we can follow up on that yeah Madam superintendent I think it would be awesome for us to integrate our particularly our
023high school students um since we've got that K through 8 covered and I know we've been doing this for years might I add um last question is uh around uh the in the investment in infrastructure for safety uh I heard you talk about the multi-lane roads those types of things um my big concern is areas of the city that do not have sidewalks areas of the city that don't have guard rails where not only we're having children you know pedestrians we're also having adult pedestrians who are catching the Cota as our kids are also catching um our our Transportation uh what has been the conversation around looking at sectors of the city that don't have guard rails sidewalks otherwise safe or safer pathways certainly like I said we have a high Injury Network so that's
024where we want to focus our efforts because we know that's where these worst crashes are happening we know there are going to be a lot of crashes that happen that are property damage only crashes and we're not focusing on those but certainly first and foremost the investments will need to be on that high Injury Network there are particularly I would say more on the outskirts of Columbus the high Injury Network is where there might not be sidewalks most of the urban core streets even if there arterials do already have sidewalks but um I know like mnon doesn't have sidewalks yet or a shared use path right so that it's a little wider to accommodate bicyclist and pedestrians so we're definitely using that high inury Network um information to help prioritize where some of those investments
025will occur I'm also excited with the new Transportation bill that just was signed by the feds because um secret the transportation Secretary State Buddha judge he he when he ran for president he worked and had a vision zero plat as part of his platform so they are looking for cities that are already incorporating these principles to help attain future funding so I'm excited about that so I do think that we are going to be pursuing more funding and looking at um the high Injury Network for some of those infrastructure Investments I'm not sure where you mean about the guardrail missing but I am happy to continue the conversation offline to get more of a sense of where you mean that because I do have a background in guard around myself as well from the state
026level so certainly uh you know we are looking to see you know where are people trying to cross is that where we need to be adding a crosswalk uh you know looking to see where these behaviors are happening and where these worst crashes are happening on that high Injury Network you very kindly I look forward to working with you yeah you right we're going to go to vice president Rey and Becker Len Pierce thank you thank you very much for your uh presentation I also had the concern of sidewalks um especially around uh schools so you know uh just off the top of my head I'm thinking about Valley View uh there's portions of Valley View that have if you're coming if you're going west but not if you're coming east from Wilson where Valley
027View we actually we have an elementary in a middle school there's portions well I won't go through the whole list but uh my concern would be predominantly especially around around some of our walking neighborhoods as we're looking at our facilities master plan and looking at where our schools would be it would great it would be great to bring you in um as we say okay this might be the area as we think about making Investments this is truly the area we should all come together to ensure that those guard rails are there um to the um comment about mcen as you're looking at those um also a school area that's a very large street that encourages high speeds of va um high speeds for vehicles uh especially around schools I see that also around Livingston
028Valley View you can go from Wilson to Hay at 60 miles an hour and there's not a single bump to stop you I think uh you know and it's supposed to be 35 and then 20 when you get to the school zone Zone same thing for MCN some of living sting as I drive around the city around our schools I um and you all are looking at safe um streets I think that's something that we might want to consider whether it's a speed bump adding a stop in the middle so encourages people to stop going 60 mes hour at some point you're going to have to slow down um I don't know if that's something you are looking at in your plan we already have had a relation ship with the safe routes to school
029districtwide school traffic school traffic plan so um we definitely have an ongoing conversation with the individuals that um already are looking at that I know that school travel plan is supposed to be getting an update here pretty shortly so I know um we have uh regular conversation with them so that's generally what we have been looking at as far as sidewalk investment or other um pedestrian safety accommodations so whether it's bump outs or an added crosswalk we did just recently with the vision zero plan look at where painted crosswalks were recommended and I think there were over 60 that were installed this summer just adding more visibility to where those Crossings should happen around schools so we we are looking at it and then I mean just like in safe neighborhoods I mean because I
030can I can also say my old neighborhood of Francisco Road between uh Reed and Kenny Road that's another uh you know NASCAR waiting to happen so um and and there's not necessarily a school there but it's a neighborhood that has Walkers going to our school so that's I guess I want to make sure I advocate for those neighborhoods um that have those long streets that people take advantage of um the the other concern I have um is the school zones traffic uh lights um I see many people speeding through those when their traffic lights are on I understand that is uh they are monitored by the city uh implemented and and um installed by the city um and as you as you look at your plans um you know some areas are very short by
031the time again I'm going to be talk about the places where you magnen living thing if you're going 55 miles an hour 60 M an hour by time you get to that light that's flashing what I've experienced and seen is people tend not to stop and go down to 20 they may go down to 40 so I don't know the solution is as you're looking at um safe areas and of course you not going to be concerned about the schools community centers um where we have elderly coming to community centers those are also um um things that I hope I didn't see in the presentation but I'm assuming you're probably looking at but just want to make sure I highlight that great yeah there's not a specific strategy in this particular action plan addressing the
032location and length of the the school zones um but we do have active conversations with the Department of Public Service and the school transportation people to look at where their specific concerns uh I believe they're quarterly that they they do meet and discuss those um but if there's any specific ones that you want to email me about and we can take an additional look at those oh I can do that thank you sure we remember beckerly no I'm good I just wanted to know if sidewalks were part of the mix and it sounds like they are sure yeah Dr Pierce thank you so much for your presentation um we definitely appreciate it um so my question goes to the sustainability I think it's great that you came and gave the presentation you engaged us with
033our questions but I'm more interested in what is is your plan to keep this level of communication going with our board our board members and those students that will be named as ambassadors do you all have a timeline do you all have um have you talked about what that structure would look like which one of our board committees it might be feasible for you to come in and and speak with on a quarterly basis what's sustainability of of this project in the communication after today invite me you know I'm happy to talk about this um I'm very passionate about the subject matter like I said our our multilingual communication campaign it's we've got a million dollars of funding for that so we are just getting it started um trying to look at you know where
034we're going to be most effective in our messaging um so you know we have opportunities to work with uh Columbus School staff to see you know here's here's the messaging we're going to be sending out and sharing it with you so if if there're for the ongoing conversations I would be the point of contact I you know I plan to continue to be here um I I believe that this Vision zero movement is not merely a two-year plan it is the start of a movement that needs to be going indefinitely so the current plan we have is to go for two years and then I got to by then have another plan ready too so um that's that's the goal that I'm I'm aware of so I appreciate that and I appreciate your honesty so
035um president of Dar and colle I would respectfully like to request that we think about what committees we could connect her to so we are continuing to communicate and I don't know if that might be a public engagement as board member beckerly um myself and vice president Rees are working on to figure out how best to connect to sustain the conversation and to really get some work going because it sounds like um the safety of our students the safety of our families on not just our streets as pedest pans but as bike riders and as drivers is something that we need to to take a lead and a stand on I do have something to so that goes along actually Dr pis that's a that's a good point and something that we have a discussion
036about just uh later on in the agenda that could tie in as well um we'll go to Dr we'll go to uh M uh bmer Brown then B reg and then back to beckerly um hi good evening thank you for being here and uh thank you for this initiative um and for what's been done so far uh main thing I wanted to say is that this looks very promising uh we on behalf of our students um can't do it by ourselves uh and the city can't do it either without our cooperation and uh this is something for the benefit of all of our children and uh getting together uh cooperating communicating uh is is great uh with the you know addition of the uh issues that uh my colleague uh Dr Pierce mentioned um about
037the future and keeping this going uh it sounds very promising and I just encourage uh every everybody to continue to participate um the other uh point and and uh uh respectfully to my colleague um I'm not sure um that this requires or even uh should have a board Committee involved these are matters that I think are best left at the administrative level I think that uh our security folks and others involved in this um can handle it well obviously we're never precluded from providing input but that's just my thoughts on on that matter I'll leave that to you you know yeah that's not really a question to you thank you thank you brown board member Raglin uh thank you thank you Miss Cantrell for uh your report this evening my question uh is is around
038enforcement uh I see that the police are a part of uh the initiative as partners um this initiative is going to occur over two years um and that implies that we'll start seeing maybe some positive outcomes you know uh that tangible outcomes after that point but there are immediate needs clearly based on the data that you've shown that we've had an increase in um in in fatal crashes um we're already over 68 for 2021 uh where we had 58 last year we've got another month and a half uh left of 2021 um have you or has your team spoken with uh the police department about enforcement of the current traffic laws that we have on the books now um and I I speak specifically around um some of the things that are required for us
039to get uh officers to enforce around our school safety zones I believe it was uh board member Reyes that uh spoke about them earlier but we have to go through several Hoops in order to get officers inside school safety zones just to monitor traffic when we've had demonstrated um Speeders that are flying through our school safety zones uh have we seen a decrease in the number of traffic tickets that have been written over the years uh particularly in 2020 and 2021 and is enforcement of the law a part of the immediate strategy to see if we can't quell some of these fatal incidents from happening because there is a culture that says okay used to be able to speed through you know this street but you can no longer do it because there's a cop
040there yeah that's a a very good subject matter that has a lot of opinions around it when it comes to Vision zero so like I said this is a national and Global movement and some of the conversations around enforcement have been that enforcement is only as good as long as it's there and as soon soon as it leaves the problem is still there and so for vision zero we're sort of looking at a higher level on what will really influence permanently changes to how people use our roads that said we did work with Columbus Police there's a traffic Bureau that's the group that we worked with when we developed this plan and they fully supported all of our initiatives but we don't have a strategy specifically tied to them for enforcing specific roads they do
041already look at crash data to direct where they do their enforcement so that's something that they had already done um we were also sensitive because we know right now we're short on police staff there's only so many resources they have so um it wasn't one of the initial strategies that we utilized as far as we're going to write so many more tickets with this Vision zero action plan I know that also statistically like on a I'm not certain about the local local level but also but Statewide and nationally enforcement is down over the last couple years we know it um some of that had to do with pandemic reasons so I I do think that does seem to have an effect I think less traffic and higher speeds and potentially less enforcement has probably played
042into these increase in numbers that we've seen in 2020 and in 2021 during the pandemic I think there will be ongoing conversations with the police about enforcement and they're open to support like if we had a specific place that we wanted them to to look at they will they did on Livingston Avenue um and we are there's been a lot of attention on that Corridor lately um as far as what infrastructure improvements we can do in addition to the enforcement but I will say that's going to be an ongoing conversation so um you know they are support like for the school bus stop locations we want them to be involved in the conversation about you know how to optimize how we we're going to create a checklist and and are there some things that they
043might consider and look at that we didn't think of so they're participating they're not necessarily leading a specific enforcement um strategy at this time though than thank you for that it's it's very interesting and it goes to your culture of safety uh discussion for for me um because I think when when you know that there's a likelihood that there's an officer that will pull you over and give you a ticket for speeding uh you kind of know where those sections are I take East East Broad Street for instance I can go 60 Down East Broad Street but as soon as I cross Nelson Road I automatically hit the brakes right I mean that's like lit you know it's it's but that's it's ingrained in me that you you know as soon as you cross Nelson
044Road unless you want a ticket um you had better slow down and that is a culture shift that has been you know drilled into me over a lifetime but um those are things that are ingrained in people because you know that there are consequences for the things that you do and I think that there's there's a way that we may be able to quell some of that if we are um you know at least mindful um about how we how we enforce the laws that we do have on the books so um thank you so much for this report I'm I'm very excited uh about what could become of all of this and glad that you all have Incorporated the district uh in partnership in working with this so that that concludes my questions and
045comments Madam president thank you back to Pro beckerly um just just picking up on what Dr Pier said um I agree that we should work into our public engagement schedule um um touching base and getting updated on Vision zero but I think just to be clear that would just be a periodic updating of what's going on just to keep it in our calendar so we keep tra tabs and we're communicating but the day-to- day I think there's plenty of opportunity for collaboration I don't want anyone to think that we're going to be like waiting to create a committee and then decide what to do please you know Dr Dixon and Company and um Miss canell find ways to collaborate and you know whatever we can do I think we all want to see these streets
046be safer Brown very briefly um as uh Mr Ragin was talking um reminded me of uh when I went to elementary school and uh the use of uh surveillance pardon me yeah um but cilian to help students cross streets and all of those kinds of things and those can be at school sites or in the neighborhoods um I don't want to get into any potential labor issues but at the same time um you know those kinds of jobs don't necessarily require peace officer training and uh there may be an opportunity to engage uh many people in the Community to come help with with those duties uh and I think you know the committee or everybody should consider it I don't think that's being done anywhere anymore and and maybe there's an opportunity with ambassadors to
047help recruit or or look into that type of um involvement but also that culture shift right so part of that culture shift we talked about I I don't want people to slow down because they don't want to get a ticket I want people to slow down because they want to be safer for the other people around them and that's the idea of that culture shift so starting from the youth to talk to their family and friends I know when I grew up I was taught to wear a seat belt and if my parents didn't wear one I would I give them a hard time and so we want to sort of with the students help build that up as part of our culture shift and also talk to the you know the adults as well
048but I think there's a lot that can be done here a lot of opportunity um I just want to highlight a few things I I can't stress upon enough I I know you're only in a two-year plan but like you said this is a longterm this has got to be a long-term Vision to fix it and again we're in a long-term Vision too for this District so as much as we can collaborate on this when you especially when you're talking about infrastructure um and and Roads and and you know arterial you know it's is so important that we are we stay connected on that um I don't know if you're working with Department of uh Health on this but I in in terms of curriculum and the student ambassadors um I just happened to meet
049uh Anna Piper who works with the health education program she's a health education program planner with Columbus Public Health I know right okay great so she's um I I had a great conversation with her but since you know she might be someone to Loop in on this like student side since she works with schools and students um as part of her of her uh what she does and the last thing I want to say you know I I know you mentioned Kota and that's that's great um I don't know if if maybe this is more of a a question to be answered later um how are school buses you know being included in that I we actually have a larger Transportation operation than Kota does so you know I don't know if we have little
050signs or something that we're putting on buses to to help promote this culture of safety especially as our kids exit the buses uh and become Walkers um so you know I think that there's definitely a lot of collaboration uh that that can be done on the administra side as well as you know board side and thinking about long-term Vision so thank you so much for being here today and we know that this will not be the last this is a very important project for our entire community and we really appreciate you coming I'm so appreciative to be here I'll leave some business cards right here if anybody wants to reach me personally after this I thank you for your time and and look forward to working with you in the future thank you and we'll
051turn it back to Dr Dixon for the remainder of her report thank you so now I would like to provide a few important updates um to the board um first our star with Columbus promise um so last Wednesday I and some of the board members um president Adair Mr Ragin M beckerle we all join our city leaders and Mr Cole thank you call um join our city uh city leaders community and business partners and an amazing group of students to announce an incredible initiative that I know will open so many doors for future Columbus City school graduates the Columbus promise this new initiative will provide free tuition for CCS graduates to attend Columbus State Community College and continue their education After High School they'll also have access to mentors scholarships for their books and other
052academic resources to set them up for Success whether they decide to use that degree as a launching point to further their education or into the workforce we're making a promise to our students that they will have the Knowledge and Skills to make an immediate impact I want our students to understand that a college education is a real and attainable goal it's especially when you remove one of its biggest hurdles tuition the Columbus promise is modeled after National promise programs with a local Vision to creating new college and career opportunities for CCS students graduating seniors can attend Columbus State full or part-time enrolled in a 2year degree or certificate program there is no minimum high school GPA required for eligibility however students must maintain a 2.0 GPA to remain eligible to keep their Columbus promise scholarship
053in addition to tuition and fee assistance Columbus promise Scholars will receive additional funds for transportation books and other living expenses the Columbus promise expands on EX existing programs to help students go to college I know I K has long administered a college scholarship program in Columbus City Schools however this will expand their ability to serve more students including those with lower grade point averages DACA and undocumented students part-time students and students who Miss eligibility for federal pale program on D our next board me U meeting on December 6 we will have a presentation from uh the Columbus promise team including um city council president um Shannon Harden so if we have any um questions we can definitely um direct those questions to the team when they present at the next board meeting so the um
054the Columbus promise is a true collaboration among our Civic community and business partners As Leaders of this bold initiative Columbus City Schools the city of Columbus I know I can and Colum State each play an important role in the success of the program we have been working together for many months behind the scenes planning the details and development of the program and we are committed to continuing that collaboration in the months and years ahead to ensure our students are supported and that they benefit from this new opportunity the application opened just yesterday November 15th all students in Columbus City Schools class of 2022 are able to submit their Columbus promise application by visiting cbus promise.com to become a college a Columbus promise scholar students must do three things be a 2022 Columbus City school graduate
055complete the free application for federal student aid otherwise known as FASA and complete the Columbus State Community College application for admission school counselors will be working closely with our partners from an no can to help families complete their FASA and fill out the applications we also have information available available on a CCS website including a fact sheet and a OnDemand video of the virtual family engagement session about the Columbus promise that was held last week so we know the reality is that all students may not attend a 4-year University but we want students to understand College again is real and attainable is a real and attainable goal the columus promise presents a historic opportunity for columus City school students and families this initiative is a promise and commitment from our city leaders and partners that
056create a new Pathway to higher education for students the education and experiences they gain at Columbus State will open countless doors in emerging career Fields next we have Wellness week resources for almost the past two years the stresses and uncertainties that have come with the coid 19 pandemic have weighed heavily on all of us balancing our roles as Educators with our family responsibilities have pulled us in so many directions the transitions between remote and in-person learning were difficult for students they went months without seeing the faces of people that they saw nearly every day that coupled with not knowing if and when things will return to normal is a lot for a child even if they don't talk about it it's not something that we can ignore as adults in their lives there are some
057these are some of the main reasons we as a district made the decision to announce Wellness week for the entirety of next week's Thanksgiving holidays I've heard our teachers staff and families and I felt like it was the right time to hit the to hit the pause button for a moment our entire CCS family has done a remarkable job accelerating learning and closing gaps we noticed early on but at what expense districts Across the Nation are stretched thin and Reporting burnout in all areas and I don't want that for CCS next week our focus is on recharging self-care and thinking of ways to improve our overall health and wellness I recently had a chance to sit down with Dr Sarah bod for upcoming episode of our new inside CCS podcast and we talked about being
058in intentional with mental health support in the district Dr bod's team at Nationwide Children's Hospital has been at the Forefront of this work and with her continued partnership Columbus City Schools could very well wind up being the model for other school system implementing Total Wellness initiatives when I announced Wellness week the wellness week a few weeks ago I'm sure that there were a lot of people excited about the idea of no school or extra vacation days while the majority of the District operation will be closed Monday and Tuesday we're still consider a asynchronous learning days for our students we want students to use these two days to take more ownership of their learning and that doesn't have to be in front of a computer or doing worksheets all day our academic team has been hard
059at work to identify and create Community exploration experiences like free tickets to the Columbus Zoo Kai and the Columbus art museum they've even created Virtual Field Trips through groups like Franklin Park Conservatory and liown learning doesn't have to be limited to a classroom that road trip or photo album they create in their iPhone is an example of an outside outside out of the box learning we want to see and hear about for teachers we're not expecting you to scramble to create a 10-page learning package for students to take home on Friday challenge them to find something they're excited and passionate about and tell them to be prepared to show when they return to class on the 29th maybe this is their chance to make up missed assignments or do that extra credit you shared a
060few days ago we want you to be able to focus on you next week you more uh than deserve it so tomorrow we'll be sharing our Wellness week online Hub that includes a complete list of academic resources for students families and staff and everyone should keep an eye on your emails our website and our social media Pages we want to make sure we were able to provide memorable and meaningful learning experiences the entire family could enjoy as well as take some of the pressures off our teachers I think I can speak for all of us when I say we've learned a lot during the pandemic one of the most important is that our overall health and wellness are essential that's what our Wellness week decision is about to prioritize the mental well-being of our community
061so we can come back ready to meet all of the challenges in front of us head on one important aspect of Health and Wellness is the availability of the coid 19 vaccine for both adults and children I'm excited to say that tonight we are partnering with Nationwide Children's Hospital and Columbus Public Health to provide dedicated vaccine clinics for our students ages 5 through 11 at every CCS Elementary School in December and January our Health Partners have committed to offering every family the opportunity to have their child receive the vaccine during the school day at their child's school first dose shots of the vaccine will be administered during the week of December 13th through the 17th and the second dose will be offered during the week of January 3rd through the 7th we are actually starting
062the elementary site clinics this week with opportunities for students at Livingston and mher Elementary School schools on Thursday November 18th to have their child received a coid 19 vaccine parents must complete and return the coid 19 consent form no ler than December 7th consent forms can be completed electronically on our website or by paper copy and return to the school nurse once the students receive the vaccination they will be observed in a designated waiting area for 15 minutes before they're permitted to return to their classroom parents are not required to be present when a vaccine is administered if parents want to be present they will have the opportunity to schedule an appointment after school hours with an outside health agency providing the vaccine Nationwide children hospital and Columbus Public Schools continue to offer vaccines for
063ages five and older at outside clinics for those families who wish to get it sooner our I appreciate the partnership the continued partnership with Nationwide Children's Hospital and Columbus Public Health as we prioritize the health and well-being of our students we know that this is a big undertaking but we believe it is the right approach to get as many students vaccinated as possible for all of our families listening tonight now now is the time to get your children vaccinated to protect them from the co 19 virus and finally I remind the board that we're in the thick of the facilities master plan process our team have been working to engage as many stakeholders as possible during the considered phase of the process including a special meeting with Board of Education members last week this interactive
064phase has asked participants to consider the educational and extracurricular programming grade level configurations and the optimal use of existing facilities through a simulation activity please watch this brief video to learn more about the consider phase engagements and hear from those who participated in the simulation so over the P past couple of weeks we've wrapped up the formal Community engagement for Phase 5 of the facility master plan so phase five is consider and considers really just thinking about all the potential options there are um thinking about academic spaces for the district and how things should could and I would say especially should look different going forward I am a parent of a fifth grader at AO Kenwood French immersion I also have a 10th grader who also attended um AO Kenwood and Dominion if we're building
065new buildings how do we make sure that the infrastructure is there for that um are we building pools and stadiums are we making Mak sure that there's science labs you know all of these things connect to other areas of the city like Ohio State and chem abstract um you know all of the businesses that are here could really be key players in the future of how our students learn you know we certainly want to always have as much representation as we can get but we just weren't hearing that student voice in the public meetings and so we made a very intentional pivot to get out to our schools and make sure that we do have that student voice uh really leading the way for this facility master plan I think um this simulation thing was
066a great idea because um we need like the actual students thoughts when it comes to making those big decisions that will eventually affect these students I think some schools that needed to be combined were K and I think eastmore I believe both schools I remember are Lottery schools so combining those two could like have a great facility Like A system that could help the students a lot and it's interesting because it could be like the second and for Hy kind of as of today I think we've hit about a dozen of our school sites uh We've made the commitment that over the next couple of weeks we're going to make sure we touch every single one of our middle school and high schools um at this point we've we've engaged with over 200 students this
067District specifically is very spread out there's a lot of students in different parts of the district that go to private school and other types of school but the reason they're going to private school is because they feel like the public school near them doesn't have the things that well the parents feel like they don't have the opportunities they wish to get their kids to have and I feel like if we um balance it out and add equal opportunities to each schools then more students would go to the district looking at how really complex it is um it's it's really easy to say oh cross this off and build this here but when you're speaking to people who have been in that space and have personal inter interactions with those students and teachers you you start
068to see how um how big of a a decision and the weight that it could be I hope everybody understands the significance of public schools um and the vibrancy of our of our city and so I think everybody has a has a role to fill and a voice um that should be heard in terms of what those schools look like because this really is um a long-term plan I think it is needed because it could just genuinely influence our future generation and just make things [Music] better so thank you so that concludes my report for tonight questions for the superintendent uh he Dr Pon beckerly um Dr Dixon thank you so much for your report um I just have a couple of maybe questions in one comment in terms of the coid uh vaccine clinic
069I've received a number of um calls emails messages from nurses indicating that they were not aware that that was um going to transpire or happen and so I think the comment in that regard is when we have these initiatives um is there a way that we can ensure that our team um whether it's staff or Administration are very clear that here's what's coming before the community gets it so they're not feeling like they're not in the loop for communication yeah if you can tell it send that name to me because that decision was made by student services Personnel so um I need to to know that if that's if that indeed is what happened I can send the names to you um the next to our questions so I've also received a number of uh
070emails from families related to it these computers computers that have broken um there are some schools that are assessing fees for students to get rep placement computers are we being proactive to make sure that our students are going to have the technology that they need for the wellness week if their teachers are giving work and they need those computers is there a way that we can take away the fee that some schools are charging for students is there a way that we can ensure that all of our students get the technology at no cost well I would say that all of our students are provided a device and if a student does not have a device we need to talk to their school principal to see why they do not have a device um regarding
071fees and all of that I have to come back to the board with a recommendation of our next steps regarding that if there are fees that are associated I would bring an update to the board but right now all students should have access we've been saying that since the very beginning we've given um Chromebooks to every family when even when families requested M multiple Chrome books we gave Chromebooks to um each family in the household we've had some students who um for some reason their Chromebooks were damaged or needed repaired and we have exchanged those Chromebooks with new Chromebooks so if there's um specific family please send me those names or and a principal name and we'll make sure that is corrected but every student should have a device um not just for next week
072they should have a device right now very true so I'll send you the name of that school and principal that is assessing fees for students and then the last question question is when we look at the executive summary that will come with our um monitoring reports can we include um the percentage or the number of students that are participating in the Columbus promise program as a part of just that high level summary that we'll get that executive summary you mean the students when once they graduate that they're going to um Columbus State as part of the Columbus promise yes so you know maybe it's the number of eligible students and the students that actually make it through the door and and go so we will probably get in this upcoming if I'm thinking about the
073timeline right so we will probably get one data set that says here's the eligible pool of students um here's how many completed the FASA completed what Columbus State requires um that could potentially go through the door and then at the end of that 2023 academic then you would say here's here's our matriculation rate and how many actually went into the program so if we could get some form of that data and again not in the uh presentation that you provide for us but in the executive summary that we would read prior to coming to the meeting yes thank you beckerly okay um I love the video I love the student voices um they're going to lead the way every time but um I just wanted to ask and and request I think that um it's
074great that we're going to have every middle school and high school um but again you know how many at each student you know how many kids because I I I think that I keep getting back to this idea that this is a whole Community thing and we should have every kid's voice and we should integrate it into the curriculum somehow so I'm just going to reiterate that as a on my wish list um a little less on my wish list and something that I think is more imperative is the teachers principles and staff um I don't know if that's in the works but I would love for them to be doing this as part of their professional development or a staff meeting or something I think we need to be intentional about hearing from those
075people in terms of how they feel about the consider phase and also and and so I I haven't heard much about that and I'm I'm just going to reiterate that again that I think we need to be intentional about getting their voices and and not just even I don't see why we can't get all of their voices yeah so the opportunity has been provided for all voices um and so now we're taking it to them because some people have for whatever reason no I mean they have not come out but we um um we're asking them to take some time to um add it to their schedules U we're not making it mandatory that they do so so but we are asking asking whom uh teach principls M the principles to add if we want
076all of them then we have to do it for example during the lunch period if they're willing to um possibly give up a St one of their staff meetings um yeah so that question has been posed to um our building principles as an an uh uh option but they've not been told they need to do it we've we've encouraged them to but we've not said it's mandatory that you take a staff meeting and do it for this um and do is participate in the simulation but we've made um you know there are paper I mean there are different ways that you can get your staff involved so you don't have to so they can be involved by taking those paper copies home and working on and and getting it back so there's um multiple iterations
077that we've been flexible um um with providing some different ways that you can capture that data and again as Alex has stated you know they've been getting the classroom and getting to more students but so we've been talking about it I've been talking about it when I go visit the buildings and you know you know asking people if they want to participate and get some excitement around it um yeah I guess I I guess what I worry about sometimes CU I know and and this is a theme all the time you know well nobody ever asked us what we thought you know so I guess guess and if a building opts not to do it or a principal opts not to do it is there some way we can make sure that everyone knows that
078we were try you know we really made an effort to get everybody involved because I just feel like it's that important and I'm not entirely clear is it some sort of a contract thing where we can't tell the principal I think no one's saying it's not important I think the principal's believe is important staff members believe is important but I I I think and I could be surmising is it just to Lisa's thought that when you if it's a staff meeting you have to give up something to prioritize and so as we are pushing um the things that you know you know as to being a teacher you know those board those staff meetings already have agenda months ahead right yeah so you just got to you know just kind of prioritize and um so
079I don't want anyone to think that our principles are stopping implementation or teachers are not stopping implementation I think that you know we just keep keep saying hey we really want you to participate here are some different options um and just keep saying it to um to our team members well I guess um you know I totally agree with that because and I know that the the push back is always oh one more thing one more thing one more thing I can't they can't give me one more thing to do I'm going to explode so I I guess I guess it's a frustration though because I don't know how we as a board get the message out this is different this is really really important this is you know like and and we tried with
080our you know engagement sessions and we know I mean let's be honest they've been a lot of good discussion but not a lot of participation and um I just feel like there should be a way to um I don't know if it's board members sending videos to to Regions you know or I think you know staff or how we you know how do we get over this hurdle of making sure well even today I met with I had my monthly meeting with area superintendent and I said to them I said hey just keep encouraging your principles to you know find the time um to fit in their schedules and and really get people involved in participating and then we have some different ways you can do it so you don't have to necessarily have to
081have all your staff and doing the and and doing the simulation as you did as a board you know they have the paper copies now that we talked about so I think just them and I just stated that to them today just to keep informing their um teams to find the time because it's important that we find the time and that we as a organization is not saying to our um principles that they are not prioritized and or our teachers are not and I don't think that's it at all um is that that time is just so precious that we're just trying to fit a lot of things in so maybe over the um when we come back I tell them to do another push but we just had this conversation today with the are
082superintendent so they can um keep pushing it that um we get people to be involved and also we have some teachers that are saying to Alex and the team hey come to my class I would like this so that's the that's the best way organic yes yes CU you're having students so that's how that happened there was teachers are saying hey come to my class I would love to see my students be a part of this project um and that's what he was saying too that's going to happen in some more for the next when it's talking about going to each classroom just getting students um excited if the adults don't have the time because of other priorities getting those students specifically those elementary students and some middle cuz they are going to be living
083in these buildings right so really in their engagement and their input about the future of these buildings that they will live in I think is um is not live in but spend so much time in is is is really important well and and maybe this is just a another thought and a different way to look at at it um can we have some sort of documentation about what schools what buildings who participated so that we can say well we talked to this many students in this many buildings in this many regions and um you know this many uh staffs did it during professional development or these many custodians or however so we have some um data that says we really did take in everybody's thoughts like maybe we can do it that way I think
084that's great I believe we actually have that information we just need to share it all right so then maybe if you could just share it with us that would be great okay we're gonna go on and said okay board member Ragin then board member Cole no that that that last idea was that that was my idea I think we should we should publicize you know um 80% of CA has participated in the facilities master plan I mean make it a make it a competition you know because we want them all to be involved uh and if we highlight um you know who's who's responding who's doing what I mean we celebrate um those teachers that and those principes that stay for the uh the programs that we have for the community I mean there's there's
085always staff members in in those meetings as well and we um we always try to highlight the fact that we do have staff members that are you know from the building that have stayed and then some that do come from other buildings I think it would be a fun way uh to get increased participation if we can you know if we've got that information let's just let's have some fun with it reg and you know and let's go by region and let's you know um get one of our partners to you know provide a pizza party for the school that has the highest percentage of participation in the facilities master plan process I think there's a good way for us to get a bit more Buy in because I I I do uh I believe
086that the Outreach has occurred Uh I that that's one thing that I am confident in um we've done a really good job of letting people know when these things were going to occur uh when we didn't feel like we were getting the returns the administration shifted uh and tried you know several different iterations um and so I I you know I think to your point to your point board member beckerly uh there's a way that we could have a little fun and uh and get and get more folks involved and have some uh have some prizes at the end of it and see if we can't get uh more Buy in um particularly on on this part of the process because we know on the tail end uh if we don't get the participation that
087we want um you know people are there's going to be some that are going to feel like they were left out and so um you know you might want to incentivize the behavior that we want to see that's that's my uh thank you short observation Cole uh thank you so much uh just very quickly I think that there's a wonderful opportunity if isn't being utilized to incorporate tbts teacher based teams to me they would be a critical uh subset of Personnel in a on a building forb building basis that would have conversation and input Direct on this type of piece here that we're doing on this initiative so maybe tbts can discuss ways in which to integrate this process into the school building curriculum and as much as you know I like kids as much
088as I like pizza from time to time um and I'm not discouraging it um let's let's make this extra credit let's let's give some students the real currency your grade let's see how we can supplement ment your grade with this type of opportunity um I want as many of our youngsters to get as close to if not all of the points that you know they're required to receive throughout the year and if this is another opportunity in which we can integrate this into a classroom activity around spatial something math I don't I don't know yeah um geometry yeah to me this is this is a wonderful opportunity to you know gift our kids additional opportunity for their currency for their job yeah you're right and that's why they're going out to those Elementary in middle
089schools to capture those students because it's we want the student voice and even if we don't get as many adults as we want getting those students is powerful because again as I stated they're the ones that going to have to you know live in these buildings and um getting them to get excited even you know think about elementary students students and getting some of their artwork getting artwork today for the building that'll open in 5 years can you see how powerful that is and you walk in that building and say that was my artwork in the first grade now the building open so you know we'll keep working with our adults to find that time I think all of our adults care about the future of our facilities I just really think that we have
090a staff that's really fatigue you know we have a lot of initiative so I don't want um you know don't think they don't care I think people are just fatigued and we're trying to get the excitement from our students but we would keep working to your point we would keep working at getting um our adults involved because we do need our adults involved but we've had so many initiatives think about all the initiatives that we have been pushing um and our adults have been leading those initiatives I think just one more thing to your points they're just fatigue but getting the students excitement is one that we have to keep pushing excit of our students um uh that's just my thoughts but thank you I thank you if I can just close very quickly I
091promise um there's no doubt in in my mind as as in yours that all of us in many different ways are fatigued we are um and I'm tired of a lot of things outside of Co and all of that right Community violence you know alternative things that we tend to focus our mind and emotions on that in the greater scheme of our development have nothing to do with the cost of coffee and canari period okay um so I'm of the mindset that if our children are engaged enough in this process and I've been there with them when I watched them bring creativity when I watched them adapt to a situation and adapt data in front of them to a situation where they are involved um when they've shown how they want to see global empathy
092just in the use of space let alone curriculum and all of these other things how they've shown that to each other um to me that that's motivation that's motivation enough to see my kid doing it um I'm I'm tired too I've got a senior who I'm trying to make sure this guy finishes top of his top as top as he can be in his class and it's hard work right but we got to do it and the ultimate piece about this is again closing the belief Gap so I'm really challenging all of our staff I know our collect our our Collective bargain and classified employees has stepped up and engaged in this process right you opened the floor for that didn't you oh yes okay they participated right okay then it's Inc coming of everybody
093to get engaged and close the belief Gap in what you want want to see this District be that's it otherwise you're on the menu when it's time to design the menu this now is the time otherwise you're on the menu so I'm hoping everybody hears that and I hope I agitate them enough in just that comment to get engaged get excited about this and let's work forward to designing a district that we want to see so I apologize but I'm just when it talks when when when folks get to talking to me about tired excuses are tools of the incompetent utilize to build monuments of nothingness those who utilize them are seldom successful and I am tired of people thinking that my school district is seldom successful and I've seen a lot of kids make
094it some of y'all who graduated from this this school district are doing it handling your business so let's take it to the next level no more excuses let's get it thank you so I completely 100% agree with what he just said and we cannot make any excuses this is a priority this has been a priority without this without participation without active Community involvement we cannot create the portrait we cannot it's time for our community to realize that we are about change and pushing this District forward and we have to do that for our kids we have to look at the environment we're in yeah we are all tired look at what's going down at the State House look what look at the attacks on public education people want to see our kids fail we can't
095we can't let that happen so we got to push through being tired and we all need to come to the table cuz this is what I know in this District we have people that love our kids that support our kids that want our students to be successful every day and every day you come and you give 100% in our classrooms on our buses in our lunchrooms in our nurses stations in our admin buildings you do and your voices matter our kids matter our families matter our community matter matters and we all have to be on the same page as we go and you heard the students this is going to be one of the hardest decisions we make as a community and we have to make it or we fail our students so I'm sorry
096too about getting a little but you know we are all tired so please come participate thank you to all those that have thank you to all the staff our staff have been amazing our staff have been amazing pushing trying new things being adaptable using those portrait skills throughout this whole process to try to get people uh to to engage and and you know look at the video that was our communication team that was an amazing video to tell our story so you know you know yeah I'm right there with you board member Cole I apologize for being a little bit strong on that I'm tired too okay any other questions or any other pieces of the report I no ma'am do you it's it's a request it's not a question um next board meeting I
097would love to have um some sort of data and discussion about um Safety and Security because you provided some data to us that you know suggested that our you know the the incidences are flat and I just would think what worth talking about and making sure we understand that yes thank you we we actually have a a discussion about that later in the agenda oh okay I guess I didn't know that okay all right we'll uh go ahead and move into the auditor's report hello Mr hello president there vice president Reyes members of the board the audit and accountability committee met excuse me October 28th and the following is an executive summary of that meeting uh section one was committee operations auditor Smith presented the proposed calendar year 2022 calendar of meetings and calendar of
098activities to the committee the calendar of activities is a document listing the actions and responsibilities the frequency of reporting to the committee and the owner of the action or responsibility the sections of that that document are committee operations internal audit risk management legal and ethical ethical compliance and external engagements section two the office of internal audit report we introduced a new member to our staff the senior information systems consultant position has been filled by SAA yurami he came to uh the district with extensive it experience and started with our office on October 25th our second item uh deals with Consulting engagements thanks to management for reaching out to us for both of these engagements the first one is transportation oia has uh executed an engagement letter with the deputy superintendent of operations to perform certain
099Consulting Services related to bus driver attendance and the office of transportation's use of Information Systems software and data to manage and monitor transportations operations the second Consulting engagement has oia uh has had preliminary discussions with the Department of communications and engagement leadership regarding a potential engagement related to call center activities additional discussions are needed and will likely occur in the next few months to Define potential engagement objectives the third item was the office of internal audit Charter discussion auditor Smith presented a proposed oia Charter with minimal changes to ensure compliance with the Institute of internal Auditors guidance this helps oia comply with our governing standards which requires periodic review of the charter and periodic presentation to the committee and the last item under internal audit report is the internal audit activity and dashboard the dashboard
100was presented and this included the status of the fiscal year 22 audit plan the status of current management followup activities on previously made recommendations and other activities of oia as of September 30th the final item in section three is risk management and treasure bahor provided the presentation on departmental risk assessment and reorganization of the treasurer's office this concludes the oia report and I'd be glad to take any questions if anybody has any thank you any questions from the uh internal before we get that uh co-chairs anything you'd like to say before we go to questions Qui I just wanted to thank um Treasurer bahor because he um presented a really um thoughtful presentation and explained how his reorganization is structured and um it was really um well thought out and uh helped us get a
101handle on where the risks are aren and it was really well done so thank you for member Brown thank you um just a few few questions um first um you know it's a good report and it's you know short and direct and all those good kinds of things um on the transportation Consulting Services um I'm not quite sure what that is and who is the Deputy superintendent of operations that there's a contract with um we're talking about yes Dr James Dr James All right so is this um a separate agreement is there compensation um I'm not quite sure I understand it's just a Consulting Arrangement and okay management when we do Consulting Services they request us to do certain things okay and that's why we have an engagement letter to document all that to make
102sure we're on the same page so they review it sign it and provide that to us okay that's that's helpful thank you sure uh the second is on the charter um I believe that uh typically our committee Charters come to the board at some point for adoption uh am I wrong on that this was the you're not wrong but it's something different yes this this was the charter for the office itself not the committee okay so the the committee Charter um has has come to the it's coming to the board this is the charter for the office itself well thank you yes sir thank you both and for clarifying certainly good job um I I appreciate the fact that we are doing more of those preventative proactive relationships and you are doing more of that
103uh Consulting um so um thank you for that and that direction that the office has kind of uh leaned into a little bit I think that that's only going to benefit the organization um so so Kudos on that pass that long to M Smith I think she might be listening okay thank you so much sure we will now turn it to the treasurer hello treasurers good evening uh thank you president Daren board members um this is my monthly financial report for October uh we went through this at the fac meeting back last week on the 10th in October revenues and expenditures continued to run under plan for the month and and increase the under plan variance year-to date um and this is uh I'll say somewhat uh if not entirely distorted by that new school
104funding plan that we have that changed our state aid amount as well as the uh expenditure amount for the deductions so the real takeaway this month is not so much the volume or the the magnitude of the variances but the fact that uh for the month of November um I will incorporate the November 5year forecast data that you're going to adopt tonight and you heard a presentation last meeting on the forecast I will incorporate that November forecast as the basis for the spending plan the monthly spending plan and then we'll really see how how we're doing relative to that significant change in both revenues and expenditures um uh and then then in the future these variances will be against that November forecast to get us right up to date with what we think the future
105will hold um we still have high hopes that we'll hear from the high Department of Education on what that uh uh Fair school funding plan looks like when it's finally uh turned into code for them you know their computer systems to make the calculations and and produce the reports for us and that should hopefully uh happen uh sometime in um in in December so uh I went on to review with the committee just some other variances you know all other sources here um uh uh this this is the overall picture for our major sources of of Revenue and you can see here that uh state aid uh leads the way in terms of being under planned and then our other uh categories of Revenue or other sources net out to about 2.8 million above plan
106those will remain pretty much unchanged uh going forward so they're not they're not significant uh necessarily noteworthy at this point in time I reviewed with the committee again taking that quarterly analysis look kind of updating where we are on that we're going to you know look at this obviously at the end of September and the end of December to see about those variances to see if they work themselves out and maybe a quarterly view what might be more appropriate in terms of discussing variances but just to we're working our way into this particular analysis uh on the expenditure side again 83 million below plan year-to date you can see that the that the leader here is charter schools because they are non-existent um Personnel uh we were much closer in fact this month we were
107a bit over plan uh that's more a function of just the plan than our Behavior but uh again um we'll be looking at those quarterly variances and and I will show you that um uh these are all the the other uh category of expenditures um and these these net themselves out um to about 2.7 million above plan in these categories but when you look at I added this to the for the committee a quarterly look at our expenditures and because we're now running at uh 85% not there's no Behavior change but that model that funding model changed our percentage breakdown at 85% in Personnel the behavior of personnel overwhelms all the other categories so as I pull this together on total expenditures it it really didn't show me much but I I showed it to
108the committee and said what I need to do is is perhaps break out non-personnel away from personnel and see if those variances show some quarterly behavior that we would want to want to look at but but right now um with this new funding model and the way it has impacted the the breakdown of our expenditures um Personnel just is is overwhelming when it comes in terms of our Behavior against plan so um that's how I ended the report uh for the committee um again the variances are primarily due to the plan we'll see a completely you know better picture in in November um the committee uh also heard uh quarterly reviews uh our Esra funds heard an update on that we brought uh a report uh let's see there were one two three four five
109reports on what we call Enterprise funds uh it did include an update on Athletics which really isn't an Enterprise fund but uh board member Brown wanted to hear about the inflows and outflows and activities in our athletic funds but we did hear from food service and latki and Adult Ed and uh an update on wcbe and some of the envisioning work that they're doing um this will be a quarterly review we'll hear again from the Enterprise funds in uh in February uh Esser I think is back up to back up to bat in March of next year um so we did hear those reviews and then similar to what board member beckerly mentioned that I presented at Ana I went through a quick update on my reorganization but most importantly introduced my leadership team uh
110to the committee uh and had them uh give them the opportunity to put a put a a name with a face or a face with a name I don't know which way you do that but uh that's what we did there um and so that that concludes my report both on the monthly financial report and a little overview of what the committee uh went through back on the 10th and uh I'm open for questions or comments thank you thank you uh finance committee chairs any comments uh no I think uh we got a very robust presentation to say the least um but one that was well worth it um I think it's important that we continue to uh not only continue these types of updates but also the treasur and I have had conversation about
111you know um the conversation around tax abatement and giving us a bit more update on you know where those tax abatements are retiring and you know what those possible impacts are moving forward positively or negatively on us I just think that it's incumbent of us to keep each other informed and also uh the general public as well any questions Brown I think that the report was great um I I appre appreciate the work the committee continues to do and that uh Stan continues to do and I'm very much looking forward to another presentation on the five-year forecast later on this evening you'll just get to vote on it board member Brown you've already heard my presentation I'd be glad to redo that if you'd like me to to do that I I think I have
112it memorized uh all right when we get to the report yes I heard that as a resounding no I don't know whether that's good or bad but I got you I got your attention that's for sure this means you were very thorough you are very thorough your work on that was very impressive thank you thank you treasure ofor uh for you and your team's continued work um you know one of the reasons we can do the things that we want to do in the future is because you've really helped make make us uh fiscally sound and your Conservative Strategies and how we budget um you know have really led the way and you really are a leader in the state um in this space and so we are very lucky to have you here with
113us so appreciate can I make one other comment um there is a bill that's sitting in a senate committee right now House Bill 126 and um I testified last week in oppos I to that bill this is the third year in a row I've testified against similar legislation um and I just want to let you know that that um I don't know whether or not I'll win this fight or not but um my request of the committee was to kill this bill um quite honestly I'm not interested in compromising although we may have to compromise but my stance was that this legislation is bad for us it's bad for Boards of education and it is a solution looking for a problem I probably won't get my way but I I I could not stand before
114the committee and not make a very emphatic statement and make and and I said to them my ask of you is to kill this bill don't know that I'll get there I don't know I'll get what I want but I think that's really what should happen here but um it's it it's just an example of a continued effort that that I work and Eric Dr Rous you know helps me a lot in keeping up to date on those bills and activities and writing testimony but it was it just really important to have a say at that Committee Against this piece of legislation and I don't know what else to do to try and convince um members of the general assembly that this this particular piece is of legislation is just just not not needed I
115did an interview today with a Columbus Dispatch um reporter on that and tried to emphasize the ramifications of of of this bill some of the perhaps undiscussed and unforeseen um impact but um I don't it's just it's un it's it's U unsettling it's disturbing it's disappointing um but we we continue to to to fight the fight if you will so I just wanted you know that that was one other activity that I thought was pretty significant in the last week it's having some other hearings this week don't know where it's headed but we uh through Eric's work and and Misty goes Misty went with us too she I think that was her first time to witness me actually going off book in person um because I did not read my testimony and I I'm sure
116everybody was a little bit worried about where I might go but um it's it's a collaborative effort to fight things like this on behalf not only for us as as Columbus schools but uh speaking uh on behalf of of of all the the districts in the state where it has a negative if some piece of legislation has a negative impact on us all so um I think they I guess there's a difference between being heard and being listened to so I think I was probably heard let's see if I was listened to so I just want to give you an update on that thank you yeah and it's and uh the treasure did receive some praise uh on that I was sent um you know a not along with some photos um and you know
117I think it just goes to underscore exactly what we were talking about a little bit earlier in our continued fight um you know with what's going on down at the state house um you know we are fighting on multiple fronts um and so I'm proud that we can do that as the largest District in the state um really having an impact and and being that voice uh for for all the students that look like a majority of our students across the state and you know Stan is definitely an advocate for public education and has been so his entire career um so thank you for that those efforts on behalf of all the students in all the districts in Ohio no problem thanks okay we are talking more about things going on at a Statewide in
118fact we're going to move into our board matters uh and we have several items to discuss so board M before we get into discussion we are having discussion I will try to monitor time uh so let's be thoughtful in the way that we uh have our comments and I'm not going to I'm not going to go back to people five times because we have Carol shaking her head uh because we have um we have four really important things to talk about and it is discussion so I'm going to monitor time and maybe move us along uh if I need to okay so the first uh we are going to talk about is item 7.1 um the Ohio School Board Association update I'm going to turn it over to uh Dr Pierce who is our um
119is our trustee and served as a delegate in the recent uh delegate assembly for us as well as uh are you the incoming president have you been sworn yet for our central region so we're president-elect president-elect our central region so thanks so much uh president Adair one uh want to um thank uh Treasurer boric for the work that he did and going to give that testimony the Ohio School Board Association Along with our other colleagues uh and Boards throughout the state appreciated that testimony um again his service shows the leverage and the importance that we have as a school district being led by a great Treasurer that um understands the issues and understands the numbers that goes along with those issues and so um it was really great that he was able to give that
120testimony and again to put us at the center of a critical State conversation that needs to be had around House Bill 126 um in keeping with that our Ohio School Board Association has um not only covered some ground on the state level but also on the national level um so first things first 1st in September um based upon a letter that was sent from the National School Board Association um to President Biden to bring awareness uh and safety to school boards and districts that were experiencing disruption our Ohio School Board Association U shortly thereafter took a vote and has in in a affirmative way um in essence uh will move to terminate their relationship with the na National School Board Association um again when we move to discussion colleagues please uh know that that decision
121is important because our district does a lot of work with the national Schoolboard Association and so terminating that relationship um from our Ohio Schoolboard Association in means that we have to consider how we will maintain our relationship with the national Schoolboard Association and how we will do that so that's one of the first items that I wanted to make sure that I brought to to our attention as um we move into this discussion the second item then moves us to the capital uh conference and trade show that was held November 7th through 9th at the greater Convention Center during the conference uh we all uh including administrators board members uh participated in a diversity of professional development sessions that delivered practical solutions to help school districts governance teams improve student learning and achievement I want
122to give a huge thank you to our current and past board members administrators and staff who facilitated sessions um again these sessions provided practical ideas and really renewed individuals commitment to help them accomplish the critical work ahead it was great to see it sit in sessions that were moderated by our own board president along with our superintendent to participate and engage and also to have our treasure and team weighing in and bringing expertise to the front on again these critical state issues a Kudos goes out to our Fort Hayes and academic dance Ensemble that were represented in the student achievement Fair um the fort hay arts and academic Dance Program created a documentary about the making of a performance during a global pandemic um and so in that process it featured our students and their
123return to in person dance rehearsal while following social distancing guidelines and highlighted the unique perspective and emotional journeys of our students so a big thank you to miss Gabrielle stuer um our high school dance educator and her students for their excellent achievement and outstanding representation also want to thank our Columbus City Schools downtown high school for providing hand and arm massages and manicures during the relaxation stations um their services show the range of courses career offerings as well as the professionalism and outstanding service of our students and staff so thank you so much to them um when we moved into the business portion um that occurred again I served as Delegate for this meeting it's important to note that the current constitution of the Ohio school Board Association provides that the osba Board of Trustees
124shall include one representative from each of the six member districts in Ohio with the largest pupil enrollment so because we are the largest District we are guarantee that one representative On The Board of Trustees the Board of Trustees is the official governing board for osba it has General charge over the Affairs the funds and the property of the associ ation it's a very important body and osba believes that it is vital to have the active participation of Ohio's largest districts now this is important for two reasons firstly it's important because we need to appoint our U member for the 2022 school year with the caveat that me being elected as president-elect we may actually be in a position where we have two Representatives that are serving but it also becomes important because later on there
125I will discuss an amendment that was brought to the floor to take away that seat from the six largest districts so um in addition to that one of the key action items that uh we kind of engaged in during the conference was the delegate meeting during the delegate meeting we were presented with the legislative platform and the legislative platform committee worked on that platform there were several recommendations to the osba legislative platform these um amendments related to students and learning curriculum drug addiction preent prevention the sale and Lease of real property and categorical parody one Amendment to the legislative platform that failed to receive the required 23 favorable vote was um related to racism Equity specifically adding ual orientation and gender identity as a recognized marginalized identity I would like to recommend that prior to
126the 2022 osba Capitol conference our board under the direction of Dr blue and our superintendent Dr Dixon work to craft language and pass an amendment that we can then propose to osa's legislative platform committee to add sexual orientation as well as gender identity and disability level or disability as recognized marginalized identities in the osba legislative platform again we have the expertise in our district to lead this kind of charge and I think under the direction again of Dr blue um superintendent Dixon that we can craft that language that really sets um a precedent and atone for the importance of embracing and ensuring that all of our students have what they need to be successful another area that I recommend our board began to take a lead on relates to the equal representation resolution that was
127presented by the Cambridge City School District this resolution called for the osba Constitution to be amended to remove the provision that osa's Board of Trustees shall include the one representative from each of the six member districts in Ohio with the largest pupil enrollment there was lengthy discussion around this um Amendment and um in essence after the discussion the president called the question and the discussion was postponed indefinitely um I predict that this uh resolution will come back to the floor and therefore I recommend that our board moves to strengthen coalitions with other large and urban districts such as akan Warrenville Cleveland East Cleveland Dayton Tangi so the larger districts throughout the state of Ohio to leverage the value expertise and resources that large urban districts bring to osba again I think our district has the
128expertise to lead this charge and we should definitely do that last but not least the capital conference also welcome and affirm the election of our new State president Christina bardwick and Regional presidents inclusive of affirming my election as President elect for our Central re thank you for that um um update and uh highlighting some important issues I would like to open the floor to discussion on any points uh that Dr Pierce just mentioned but probably in particular the ones that she was asking around uh what type of action and response the board should do in the future we'll start with board member Brown thank you thank you and and first I want to thank uh Dr Paris for her involvement with osba um and her uh getting involved in some of these issues at the
129same time uh I've had uh more than 20 years of involvement with osba I'm been a school board member for more than 20 years and I I thinking back I guess I uh have uh had experience with them 40 years ago um and many things have never changed and it's very unfortunate and I see them as U ineffective in a number of areas where they have conflicting interests among school districts many of those like the issue um that was uh presented about the six largest districts U are simply rural versus Urban and that has tension has been there uh forever and as a result many things just don't happen or they stay out there's also the tension and has been for many years of those school districts on the guarantee versus those on the cap
130and some of the uh result is that they uh simply don't get involved in any of those kinds of things I don't know uh but I I just want to put it out for people's thought thoughts um whether it makes sense to consider um the large school districts the urban districts um getting together and focusing primarily on the kind of things that we need um and and the things that we can do together effectively uh just as osba withdrew from nsba um and I don't know entirely the issues there um I've had a little bit of conversation with the nsba past president uh Charlie Wilson who's our friend from Worthington and uh I don't have a handle on it the other thing um that I'd mention um is that I suspect um that because we
131and many other districts similarly situated throughout Ohio Pennsylvania and the other states um what will likely happen if it doesn't get corrected quickly by nsba and I don't think it it can or will be that nsba is going to begin initiating uh direct School District participation and uh they need it to survive and uh some school districts um may want to have that kind of involvement uh you know I I commend Dr Pierce on uh staying on top of these issues but uh when we're dealing with folks around the state that are unwilling to recognize sexual orientation as a protected class or to recognize uh other you know BAS basic fundamental Civil Right issues um the past president of the osba um we were part of putting him out because of his views um so
132I I really think we should consider all of that thank you thank you for member Cole thank you so much Madam president um I I to first of all congratulations Dr Pierce um always ex glad that you're in that space um I'll start with this kind of foundational thought uh I believe that Chances Make Champions Chances Make Champions um we have the unique opportunity here and let me provide a little context to to some of the votes because I was there for that delegate meeting um the overwhelming energy in the room uh to incorporate you know these protected classes was there it was was present in the room it really was there was a small contingency that had an issue with gender identity as you know being included in that language so if there was
133anything left out you know um and and maybe even to our shagrin it was the gender identity piece where they just seemed to be a very moderate tone in the room that did not feel all that comfortable with it I guess yes but at the end of the day what it did show me was that one we had the ability within this organization within this body this family to disagree but do it with Civility and that's how it was carried out it was it was carried out with civility it was carried out understanding the concerns of kids on either side of it of course the progressive side of it made it its strong vehement argument but and that did not go onard and again was was supported but it was not uncivil um two was
134in conversations I had with board members from rural communities particularly around CRT critical race Theory um and their concerns and their districts about that and how to understand it how to engage it um there were you know work sessions throughout that uh throughout the conference that in some ways addressed that uh from the standpoint of at least how do we think cohesively how do we think in best interest for students I think the energy is there I think the willingness is there to at least hear each other I definitely agree with what uh ER what board member Brown said about the rural versus Urban I I I definitely see that Dynamic plan out um but where I think that it would be irresponsible on our part to not take a leadership role and considering what
135their concerns are you don't you don't become tribal and then continue to exclude people and then that then that creates a smoldering crisis and soon eventually a forest fire right what you do is you engage those brothers and sisters and listen to what their issues are and interest ly when you do you find out the vast majority of what their concerns are when you remove the veneer this imposed idea of race and all this other stuff you find that oh you want Broadband too oh oh you you want clinics in your schools too oh you you want stronger curriculum that's more industry align too oh okay then how do we make that work together let legislatively again we have a unique opportunity to take a leadership role in the legislative space not just for our
136benefit but for everybody's benefit the least of those who are served and protected benefit all I think Ross perau said it best when I was a kid in high school when Black Folk or anybody else got you know the flu or excuse me when white folks have the flu black folks have pneumonia poor communities communities of of distress I won't even limit it to race I'll limit it to communities of distress have pneumonia when other communities are catching a cold here's another opportunity for us to take a leadership role in that space and collaborate with these communities to make our school districts better and Ohio better period I don't think that becoming Tri and walking away is the way to do it I disagree and I shared this with Will Schwarz and a few other
137folks I didn't get a chance to catch Rick but I'm very clear that the way they dealt with this the way that osba decided to walk away from nsba at the at the detriment in my mind of school districts like ours across the country Florida day County Chicago Columbus Detroit all these big school districts have relationships with Cub Council of urban Boards of education and have done considerable work in that space to spread bre best practice to grow each other and support each other and fight for urban education and public education Countrywide it's a disservice the way they did it but I still think that what we do is forgive figure out how we move forward and continue to deepen and enrich our connections in this space with those organizations FRN is another one where
138we've done considerable work organizationally as nsba marching and storming Capitol Hill and not the way that we saw on uh January 6 but actually going in there having Rich conversation and I don't go there and just talk to my designated Democrat you know incumbent in in on Capitol Hill I don't just go there and run after Joyce batty I don't I go there and I talk to everybody I go there and I cross the aisle confidently and build relationships with the Republicans as well and show them how we do things in Columbus we understand the value of partnership we understand the value of Civility we understand the value of a rich strong Community where everybody doesn't agree with everything but one thing we do agree on is that we want the best for our city
139and our Collective and our children's lives are at stake in the balance so at the end of the day I don't agree at all with us stepping away from osba it would be it would be irresponsible on our part it would it would be irresponsible I think we have the chance to be Champions and not Chumps not Chumps I'm sorry I never ran away from a fight I just never did you know and I'm it's not bravado it's not machismo it's not any of that it's my heartfelt sentiment that it is my dog on duty on this board to fight like hell for our children our staff and our system of public education in this country it is the only thing halfway holding this nation together it really is so thank you um I apologize
140but I say that we move forward with them and you know we we build and enrich our relationships with urban and rural we can do that we've got all those students in the district okay thank you for those thoughts I'm going to spend just a little bit more time on this and we'll to that's okay board member beckerly oh um with complete respect board member Cole I am much more inclined to say we should um part ways and I think it's not so much that it's reactionary to what I mean certainly there's a straw that breaks the camel's back but I it's my impression and Eric has completely validated it that there have been other instances long before this where our interests were not being advocated for by the Ohio school boards Association um and
141it has occurred to me now that I you know in the past few years that I've been focusing more closely that I think we urbans are leaving a lot of political capital on the table by not joining forces and being a voice of one and it one of the thoughts that I've had is that it would be really cool if we created a big a of school boards that occasionally looped in with your big eight but we also kind of addressed it at a governance level and you know found ways to really have a stronger voice because I think of and maybe even this is a good example of um Stan testifying like maybe we have a a big eight presence that's you know Stan and he's got seven others behind them and or maybe
142we the board goes as well as like I just feel like there's a lot of political Capital that we leave on the table that if the if all the urbans were United that's just a plain old lot of votes you know so all of a sudden you know Statewide issues have a little bit of a different feel and so I I just think that's really important to consider and I want to thank uh Dr Pierce because while I have no doubt she was civil because she always is that had to be those had to be some tough sessions um so um thanks for hanging in there and advocating for us Raglin uh congratulations Dr Pierce and uh thank you for your service there uh I just want to caution uh my colleagues against making again
143long-term decisions in the midst of national culture [Music] um I'm an old church boy this two shall pass and when you make decisions that generally interrupt uh the flow of things while all of this static is going on around you you have a tendency to maybe make a short-term decision that makes you feel good but a long-term decision that negatively impacts the district as a whole and by product its students there are a lot of national issues that we've got to work through as a country uh there are a lot of state issues that we've got to work through City issues that we've got to work through and taking our ball and going home um doesn't necessarily solve the problem you do a greater service to our students by standing in there engaging uh being
144open to listening organizing and being impactful in areas where you can and uh as opposed to in the midst of all of this forming another organization uh and then having to go through the creation of the infrastructure for that organization and then putting the bones around I mean all of that energy that you will spend in starting something new could be used in dialogue in organization with the organization that we're in right now and we might not necessarily have some all agreements on uh I understand exactly where you're coming from with a with a rural um versus Urban um type of environment that is Ohio we've got to understand uh the big eight if you just take that by counties that that's eight counties there's 80 other counties in this state and a part of
145the challenge that I think urban areas are having in the state is that many of us that are in governance in urban areas have never lived in a rural setting and so we don't necessarily have in understanding of how they form their thought process how they have uh like-mindedness amongst other rural areas and how they interpret what is happening here because like likewise they've never lived in a city I had the pleasure of going to school in Wood County and in uh those years that I spent in Wood County were a stark contrast from anything that you will ever witness in Franklin County but it gave me an opportunity to really have some empathy for those that had never seen a little black kid coming from Columbus with a mouth and no fear who could
146that have been right and and I learned a lot and there were significant challenges there as you all are facing with with osba and and the whole conversation around the National School Board Association but I just want to caution you that when you make longterm decisions uh you know the National Fire will subside and even any issues that we may have that are opposing views right now they can all be worked out and so I would just I would just hope we've got a we've got a very unique opportunity where one of our own is now in leadership I think it would be shortsighted of us to not allow for Dr Pierce to continue you rising in that organization the way that she has already started rising and see the type of impact that she
147is going to make with her leadership and so um you know think about those things as as you go about making your decision thank you madam President we we are going to so this is the beginning of a conversation right so this is not the end um I think we have to f figure out the best place to continue the conversation whether that be at board meetings or put it in policy an advocacy committee but you know I think that you all have valid points I mean we don't have an answer that wasn't the point of today it was just to kind of get where everyone is because in the public none we can't all have a conversation all of us together because that's not we have to be in a meeting so this was
148the start of a conversation you know I will say that sometimes it's best to fight inside sometimes it's best to fight on the outside sometimes it's best to fight with your friends and some times it's best to fight by yourself and so all of these are very strategic choices that we have to make um I don't know the answer I think that you know I think we can figure that out um maybe it's a hybrid and that's kind of one of our favorite words a hybrid approach to the problem to figure out what's in the best interest of us I mean I do I said it earlier I do believe you know as the largest District we have the opportunity not only represent our students but those across the state who might not have representation
149that that looks like them and appreciates them and I think to Bor Ragan's point it's it's it's very accurate this idea of what is you know diversity inclusion and Equity it crosses all dimensions of diversity not just race that is only one layer of who we are as people this Urban rural divide is real and understanding um who and how and our values associated with that is a really critical piece of diversity and that is why we have to be able to talk about it um in all sorts of in all sorts of levels so this is the beginning of a conversation I too want to thank Dr Pierce um she was texting me a little bit during it um and I uh and and thank you bmer Cole for being there I was unable
150to stand with them um you know it was civil but it was hard and and it was in some of those votes I mean that's the way that it works it was like what it was 72.5 yeah and they needed 75% to add so again it isn't like it's a small it's like a minority but it's the way that it it is right so to board member Cole's point I mean a majority more than a majority of the organizations in the state supported uh you know our lgbtq students um and issues around racism and it is a small minority uh that you know were able to put up enough to to defeat those things so we will continue this conversation I do want to move on we have another very important topic I know but
151I have a question okay what's one that didn't talk uh so uh there was a couple of of um questions that you asked about the board whether we wanted to support or not is there any way we can get that in writing definitely so that we can as we consider I'm a visual person also um and uh just two points uh I truly believe leadership matters we have an opportunity to lead not only with Dr Pierce's uh appointment but as a largest District um and uh it also with everything going on it does not negate us from working with the big eight we've worked with the big eight already since I've been here absolutely since people have been here so it does not negate Us in uh it doesn't have to be a subgroup uh
152you know but we can continue to work and bring those coalitions together where we necessary thank you for the opportunity you're welcome we're going to go ahead and move to item 7.2 uh so we're going to have a discussion about the uh manifestation of the emotional trauma on our students and so how that emotional trauma is coming out uh in our district and this I want to remind you for members this is a board discussion this is not an administrative discussion um so this is because we know community members have been coming to us asking questions the superintendent staff and team you know they have strategies in place and and she's going to provide information about those but this is really about the board talking about this as a community uh concern and ways that
153we can um really figure out what is our next step as a board um and in particular how we uh kind of address this within our new building creating a board engagement strategy um so I don't think it it's a surprise uh not only here in our school district but actually in a lot of school district across the country we are seeing an increase uh in in in incidents that um really stem from the emotional trauma that our students just went through I think we uh didn't know to fully understand or appreciate what that would look like we thought let's get them all here and it's going to be okay um and so you know we certainly thought about that and we've added more supports and you guys know that because Dr Dixon has told
154us but you know I don't think we fully appreciated what it would do um maybe to those learning environments so that's what I want to discuss this is an open discussion again we are not solving anything at this moment this is a board level discussion um so we are not uh here to really discuss uh unless it's tied somehow to our work um you know what's happening at East High School or you know you know this is about the district as a whole and kind of our level we're going to get additional information to come about strategies and what's going on in our buildings but again I felt it was important to have this discussion um because it it is something going on and not just you know in our not just our district this
155is actually a nationwide problem right now um with students uh and how this trauma is kind of manifesting so I'm just going to open the floor I know several of you have received you know emails or questions from the community um these are things Dr Pierce kind of touched on it a little bit IND directly with uh questions about just safety and General um but what is it we can do as a board how do we what are what can our steps be especially you know we've been just having a whole discussion about like our our Collective power what Partners do we need what how do we come out in the community and and and talk to the community about these issues to really understand what's going on so that we can you know do
156our board work in a better way so that's kind of you know open it's just an open discussion I just want to kind of set the guard rails around where where this discussion is going so um does anyone have any thoughts or opinions about that that they would like to start the discussion um I saw Brown then Pierce then Raglin then Reyes I better write that down I will forget uh just briefly um I've seen you know from my perspective and I am not um a parent of young children anymore um my reference is in part my three grandsons um and they experience but also what I've seen of other family members other friends and and their kids um I think that discussion and approach needs to begin with getting some solid Professional Medical and
157psychological uh input so know the extent to which this is real um we're bombard started with the media and and the the parent emails and a lot of other things and I don't know uh how real and what the extent of psychological trauma because of the pandemic um and I think we need to start there as a Baseline and and and understand that and it's not for us to figure it out it's it's really to hear from uh the experts and the professionals and to some extent I suspect that uh our Administration may also benefit from that information uh that's the you know that's really the primary thing that I I wanted to say um certainly um you know mental illness mental health issues uh are incredibly important and we're doing better than Society has
158ever done um and we continue to improve but there's still um a ways to go and uh yes it is important for the schools to do what we can um to focus on this to to do the best we can to improve the conditions for our students and for our staff uh but uh I want I think we need to understand it better before we just run off in different directions thank you for those thoughts I have Dr Pierce next um so I've had the um great responsibility to serve as a school mom um an additional Mentor uh source of support for um more than several of our students that have been experiencing trauma um and unfortunately that that trauma can play out in depression or anxiety and even attempts to to take their lives
159and um what I would like us to do and I've spoken at at length with Dr Dixon about this is to ensure that we're creating processes within our system to ensure that when a student is exhibiting um emotional unwellness that we are pinpointing resources in their neighborhood counselors in their neighborhood um that they can go to that the family can have access to um Health Care Providers opportunities and options for relaxation for refresh for refreshing um I think it's great for us to to to put together activities and and field trips for our students but we can't assume that going to coai takes all that anxiety away right because our students once you leave coai you walk right back into the fire of that environment right whether that environment is your home whether that environment
160is your neighborhood we have to I think in in real meaningful ways begin to partner with um other governance boards around the city with other providers around the city and I think our engagement strategy will provide a great opportunity for that and I would challenge us in our engagement strategy as opposed to um starting the conversation in terms of our FMP process or or what we may need from someone that we start the conversation with what are you trying to accomplish this year and how can we help you right and so I I would venture to think that within the city everybody is thinking about how can we make sure that our students are well everybody wants to achieve that and I think if we enter into that conversation with how can we we we
161have these students and Dr Dixon has said this several times in her report they're living in these buildings I mean that's that's so right right the other day I was sitting on a panel and the students asked me you know why did you get all of these degrees and I said because school was my safe space that was my space that I knew like I could thrive I my voice was heard um I could be the nerd and it was okay school was my safe space right and so for many of our students they are living in our building school is their safe space and so I think we have to in real meaningful ways think about those processes um how can we ensure that we're connecting our families to resources but also think about
162how we can partner with governance um with providers and meaningful ways to to ensure the wellness of our students thank you for those thoughts um I think it was Reyes then Ragin or was it reg and Reyes Reyes we'll go with Reyes okay uh just to add on what Dr Pierce stated um as we talk about engaging or getting information and how the board can gather information as a as a person that works in the uh nonprofit space space um and has experienced and seen um when we talk about connecting people to resources the lack of resources and holding those organizations that say they have resources accountable for delivering what they say they're supposed to be delivering um and uh in the organization where I um and from we've seen a like 36% increase in
163social emotional Behavior suicidal ideation um uh domestic violence child abuse um these are things that may have been present prior to coid but they definitely have been highlighted and I will say the uniquness of providing those professionals that are children our staff whoever's going through these situations can talk to makes a whole difference right so when we reach out to these um organizations that say um we have counselors we have X we have y uh and we looked at marginalized Refugee asy um uh uh not English speaker um and you have to work through an interpreter uh where you don't feel safe perhaps because the person that you're talking to may not look like you uh a person that may not have the cultural sensitivity of knowing um that you left your uh your country
164and Trauma and what happened in your quest to get to the US and the bullying that you may be experiencing as the result of that I think it's very difficult and those are things that we've been discussing um with with these advocacy groups with these um organizations and even the organizations that we are working that are taking um individuals that are in the state um are experiencing that increase and they're experiencing the fact that we need more social workers we need more people in those fields we need more people with that sensitiv uh sensitivity training and we've talked about how do we get others that maybe don't have the social work degree but maybe can work effectively in the social emotional and behavioral space trained right so that and also once we're trained um how
165do we take care of those folks right so we just had a training U called compassion fatigue by um social workers at um Mount Carmel to talk to our social workers and our case managers about all these things we're hearing you know they can take a toll if if they if they're not taking a toll on you then you're probably not in the right position so you're hearing these things from our children you're hearing these from their staff so I think it's very important as uh for us to as we uh maybe go out research who these nonprofit um organizations are Community Partners um uh all these Outlets that some of us know and don't know where our children and our parents and our staff are reaching out to for assistance what is it that
166we can do to provide um those Outlets but we need to know where they're going we need to know what are they experiencing what are what is lacking uh in what they are going and going back to what Dr Pierce is saying then going after those governance groups that Supply funding to ensure that that funding is out there because we can't do it alone um uh but I think it is essential for us to go out and find out who those Community Partners are are that are working in that space and then we also need to go out and talk to those nonprofit groups that are working in that space and find out to the best of the ability that they can share what are those things that they're hearing I don't know if we
167if we do that right I mean we all day every day since as long as I've been here we talk about a lot of our kids go to St Vincent's right so are we getting data back whatever data can be released on what do those interventions that they're doing that can can be supplemented by what we're doing um uh one of the models that I've seen um in the in the years that I've been here from St Vincent is they now include the family in the counseling session in the interventions so um what if our model included our adults our teachers our social workers are you know all those folks that have um um that you know we talk about wraparound services for clients what are the wraparound services for our children who we've already
168uh brought into those nonprofit groups because they need a little bit more than what we they're just getting at school so th those are like some of the points that I think um we as a board can go out maybe get some information gather some information um you know with our partners with the people people that we know in the in the um uh spaces that we work I think there's an opportunity uh as Dr Speer stated to uh build on our strategy create a strategy on how we're getting that feedback whether it's us working with the district in releasing um a survey whether um whether it's us going out there actually Hearing in those spaces going back to that model where we invite these Partners these Community groups uh and do maybe some roundt
169will put everything out in the wall and together come up with those strategies because if we don't come up with them together then it's just us again pushing those strategies and what we think is the right thing uh versus what we we know the churches are working with our kids we know that they've got ideas and programs that they're working with we know that there's nonprofit organizations we know that there's some of our young people are creating nonprofit groups that are providing that social and emotion assistance to the the peers that they just were in school with maybe two or three years ago so that's my uh two sense thank you uh thank you those are important thoughts and again you know I think what's hard in this space and kind of where you were
170going Ramona is also everything you say is important just you know deciding what then is board work and what then is work so good points oh Raglin and then uh B Cole um we're anticipating over $291 million in sr3 funds coming to the district um three categories under the allowable expenditures uh that are relevant to this conversation the preparedness and response efforts to prevent prepare for in respond to coid 19 the second category is activities to address unique needs of lowincome students students with disabilities English Learners racial and ethnic minorities students experiencing homelessness and Foster Youth and then third and finally Mental Health Services and supports um 20% of that 291 million is supposed to go directly to learning uh that leaves 80% to do specific things where we can gather that data ourselves that
171uh vice president Reyes was was talking about I think one of the things that the board could do is empower the superintendent to identify uh a collective of agencies that can come into our buildings and assess our students comprehensively literally pay for it have it done ourselves so that the data set is not a collection of what other entities are doing but we use the controlled environment that we have within our buildings to get the data that we need to then start forming some of these Solutions with our Community Partners after we have the data there's no one else in the city that can get access to 47,000 students every single day you know for five days a week um you know like we can and so if we identify those partners with the capacity
172and then direct those resources into them have them get with our teams have them get with our our school leaders and and our administrators that have been you know working on this and then let's get the data from our children that that we feel is going to best be able to allow us to drive some solutions to them we've got the resources there that we're anticipating the resources and thank you Dr moer wherever you are for for all of your standing work but we're anticipating those resources uh that's what we can do as a board is just Empower Dr Dixon to say okay we want a comprehensive assessment of all of our children who's best equipped to help us get there uh and then literally pay for it and then bring our partners in and
173say okay we've got this data here help us uh in in in doing what we can do that's a good way to use the the funding that the feds are giving us we've already identified a problem um they've sent us money and said okay here's what you got to do with it um it's just a thought for me but uh you know I I'd like for us and and I had I had this discussion with Dr Dixon before and you know we didn't know what we were getting as far as resources were concerned but we you know it would be nice if if from day one of the school year we had started assessing students understanding that we're coming back into a very new age um but that's still something that it's not too late
174uh for us to do and so um I think I think Ramona is right um I I just think that we've got a controlled environment and we can we could probably do it better than everybody else so let's see if we can't start at home thank you madam president thank you for those comments uh board member Cole thank you madam president um thank you colleagues for you know all of all of the rich feedback that you have provided um I think you guys have expressed in uh very functional ways operative ways in which we can you know engage this Wellness initiative um I'm going to look at it a different way um I'll take a stab at being vulnerable um I've lost three people this year one most recently was my nextdoor neighbor I moved
175into my home on the far East Side about 11 years ago from living in the west side in Westgate and we got to know this family who lived next door to me um his wife passed away from cancer he would call me over help get her out of bed I picked her up got her out of bed bed probably about 2 weeks ago he passed away I went into his home and saw him laid out passed away my oldest daughter I have three children my oldest daughter her mother passed away in September you know um somebody I've known since I was 19 years old you know um I want to say November before that last year very close friend of mine from high school who I would drive up almost every weekend to be with
176him while he was fighting cancer and died I say these things to say this you know um we have to watch what we put out into the atmosphere as we Face our traumas and our fears one of my favorite favorite musical artist a guy named krs1 knowledge Reigns Supreme over everyone he said as an MC you will study verbal magic but watch what you say cuz you'll Attract it control your subconscious magnet from pulling in Havoc who am I the MC that speaks to me at this very moment for this reason I have two words for you love and peace love and peace and I can't tell you how much that has been revelational to me particularly at an age where you are looking at you know the sunset of Youth and looking at the
177Sunrise of older age and midlife where there's still that I still got it I still got them hands I still got them feet too but at the same same time I've learned the value of loving others and finding Comfort dstress encouragement growth development in that space why don't we encourage that that's one of the most basic things we can do just by show of hands when you lost somebody what did you seek who did you seek was it somebody that loved you yeah I don't care if it was me studying for my masters and I felt overwhelmed and tired I would get in bed with my son he was probably eight years old at the time and I would just get in bed with him and listen to him breathe and go to sleep and
178wake up refreshed and ready to rock hug my wife whatever it took I think that showing creating a culture of love in our organization I had a conversation with someone over the weekend about administrators and folks in our buildings who feel underappreciated and overwhelmed who feel disrespected and I've heard that this is where we miss this is where the Gap opens and we miss opportunity when we don't own love when we're not accountable for it I think the violence that we see in our young people is because in some way shap form a fashion we've indulged it Michael what are you talking about we got security we got programs what you mean Mr Cole what I mean is is when we're purporting this this the maladies of our mindset when we so focused on trauma
179when we so focused on oh the world is collapsing what am I going to do what do you expect people to do while out but what if we hold them accountable for loving their neighbor what if we hold them organizationally as a culture accountable for their behavior and I'm not speaking anecdotally I've done it in a classroom as a teacher who was a sub this wasn't my class these were my kids but I left every one of my classrooms like why ain't you my teacher Mr Cole I'm not all that I'm not I'm not that popular less than a dollar man but listen we got to give love in a way that encourages we got to give love in a way that empathizes we got to give love and encourage the most basic emotion we
180have it goes to the very limic system of our brain love Fight or Flight I've been good at two love and fight you know but I'm learning the value of what what it means to really hear where somebody's heart is and then really figure that out so that I'm a solution to you in a real way tyus Smiley said we are who we are because of who loved us I live by that I can't sit here and lead in the way I'm required to without loving folks in the process whoever they are even if they hate me peace peace and it's not just so much of conflict between people that I'm talking about peace I'm talking about peace of your own mind we got to teach our kids how to guard their minds but it
181starts with how we treat each other it really does so I'm encouraging the superintendent and all of us who have the power all of us who are listening right now who have the ability to shape our own narrative in our own environments by the spirit and the energy we bring to the room my wife said to me all the time especially when I'm on my grumpy old dad Michael you have to be responsible for the energy you bring into the room you know what you're right you were right so my thing is is let's continue to encourage a culture where there's love with empathy and encouragement but there's also a disciplined and accountable you don't make relationships work I'll say this in closing you don't make relationships work when you ain't accountable in a relationship
182so if I love my classmates I'm not bringing a gat to school I'm not bringing a gun to the to the classroom if I love my community and my neighbors this is not how I'm going to behave and this is our expectation that you're not GNA do that if you're so upset and so enraged about what happened to whoever it happened to who got shot who got hit by a car you know who didn't get prom I don't know but if you if your only recourse is to come and tear up your own Community or let other folk run up in here and tear it up then what's wrong with you love and peace let's love our let's love each other we disagree all the time on a lot of different things but damn if
183I don't love this guy and I really mean that I really mean that it's this is how we forgive and not make things personal this is how we forgive and release ourselves loose ourselves of offenses CU somebody said something in social media or because somebody said something to her and he said something to him and it came back to me and now I got now I'm in a sense of pride and I'm defending that and not my wise mind so let's teach let's let's let's grow love in this community I'll say this last story very quick it it needs to be a very quick story is I watched this documentary the other day on Netflix um it was about these hippies who did a love in in a city in monter I think it was
184Monteray or something like that in the 60s and the whole Community was turned up because these people were coming and descending upon their community and they thought it was going to be all this unrest but what it turned out being and they had the police there everything what it turned out being was a Love Fest where they included the police in it and the police received them there was no incident think of that kind of power how it could resonate here so love and peace thank you beckerly okay I don't know how to yes yes yes I don't know 100 times yes um and I think that everyone nailed all of it everyone's right uh and I think that one way we should be giving ourselves a p on the back is that to some
185extent we've started down this PL path by making the whole child one of our strategic priorities right and the question is how what does that look like and how do we own our role in facilitating superintendent and her Administration in promoting it and recognizing that by us making the whole child our strategic priority we're saying we have to get the partner the community involved and we have to provide the wraparound services and we basically as a board are saying we're going to lead the way and I don't know how many of you all have been in meetings but I'm so tired of being in a meeting where someone says to me well let me know how we can help who put me in charge you know but you know I think that we made a
186bold move there so I think that's one thing to keep in mind the other thing I want to keep in mind is that they were traumatized before our kids were already traumatized and this is a moment in time where we have all the money that James just shared with us to do the foundational things to address that trauma that's just been heaped upon okay already was there and it's just there way worse um so I think that um that that's a silver lining I guess I mean I'm excited about that you know the same way I was kind of excited about we were forced to get everybody Chromebooks right Silver Linings you know um I think um whoever said might have been you um Eric we have to empower the superintendent we have to empower
187the superintendent and then we have to monitor the whole out the the heck out of sorry I almost said it um out of how our whole child is improving and so we have to have really good data for that it's going to be a combination probably of Panorama surveys mental health check-ins and we have um Dr bod now in our Corner um helping us with that we've got these facilities that we can design in order to facilitate that really intentionally on all fronts on you know clinics on making sure the clinics to whoever said it's the parents too somebody said it's the parents too clinics that serve everybody grown-ups and kids which oh by the way you know uh can also help serve our own grownups and bring down healthcare costs but that's a footnote
188to this conversation um and I think that there are people in this community who know how to do this and know how to Galvanize those forces and we have we have some of it happening now we had it the the youth collaborative at Windsor that's a model for bringing everybody together and they decide how to solve their problem in their particular school so it's not this top down but it's it's a very structured approach and we're trying we're I think we're standing the that model up in a couple of other schools but my understanding and now I'm going to use terms that I have no business un using but it's a combination of establishing communities of practice and a collective impact model to monitor them so I think it's huge CommunityWide LIF but I think
189what we're saying is um we want to and it may be that on this front we partner with children's hospital and fccs and maybe I don't even know exactly who the other partners would be to help convene this effort um but I do think there are people already in our city that have ideas about how to do this well I mean and it ties into everything it ties into um Columbus promise because we're going to be delivering kids that are able to succeed at that it ties into the portrait I mean so it does come back into um academics as well but we can't and and so we as a board need to a Empower but then hold accountable how are you going to spend this money who are we collaborating with how are we
190going to monitor it and we have to and it could be I I'm going to get a little teary here no and so for example and I I know I'm talking a lot but um one one small way would be to say you know and and I've had these conversations and I get push back from our Comm our staff sometimes um what does it take to make an an entire building socially um trauma informed and restorative justice right and then I I think that we're almost damned by not having a big enough Vision to say okay I need six social workers I need this I need that I need this we're like well I guess I could do it with one and a half social workers for three years and then I'd move that social
191work like we have a scarcity mindset and maybe that's what we do as a board now I'm really running away with it sorry but maybe what we do as a board is we really work hard to get rid of that scarcity mindset that oh we'll have to make do with less or we'll only do a little bit here and you know so those are all of my thoughts well maybe some of them I'm sure I have more um but anyway disseration tomorrow yeah yeah again thank you for this discussion obviously again still a beginning we are uh standing up and and uh we'll have more reports on what the board engagement strategy looks like and if and how this fits in you know this is something obviously you know some of some of the other
192board members mentioned you know I I have a daughter in the district and so something that you know I it is impacting it's impacting academics it's impacting her classmates it's impacting her teachers um just what's going on so I think there was some really great discussion um I agree with a lot of it and I I just wanted to add because I do agree with all a lot of it um I really think our students are really fundamental in this answer about what we do um I think that especially what's going on I'm not sure a group of grown-ups or who they perceive as grown-ups out of touch coming down and telling them something is actually going to have impact so it is really fundamental about how do we get our students and listen to
193them and figure out you know it's their solution just like b m Cole said it's their Community it's their school it's their um it's you know it's it belongs to them and they are loved in that space and we need to do better of tell telling them so um but you know how I think that might be the only thing I mean I think it was touched on but for me the only thing I would add into this is is that and then you know going back to what bman beckerly said about what does the board do I think it is about monitoring and it is about creating that vision and what Raglin said it's about making sure we're funding it in the right way um and really from the top demonstrating that we want
194this culture shift like board member Cole was saying and then looking at the data and finding the data what board member Brown was saying and working with Community Partners and really understanding what vice president Reyes was saying so I think it is all these pieces um and so we're just again at the beginning of this and and we've we've built it in but I think it's important to take a moment I know AJ who's on the line right now is probably beside himself because we've just spent the last like hour just talking but we haven't done it in a long time and I I felt like theard work it is as part of the goals and guard rails it's all there um but work a Bo work a moment to pause and uh let everyone
195kind of share some thoughts because again we don't get to do this as as seven unless we're in public and that's the right thing I'm not but I just want to give everyone time so thank you we will continue those discussions and um see how maybe this impacts some of that engagement strategy going forward as well I thought it was good for for the three that are working on that to hear all right we're going to go ahead and move in I'm going to kind of bring set what just a brief observation um having served on this board and others um I really want to commend I'm impressed I I you know really enjoy working with all of you and and this board the culture has changed here in a huge way for the better
196and the kind of discussion that we've had is good for all of us good for the district and it demonstrates Ates civil conversation among people who don't necessarily agree and uh this board um has come a long way and I'm not saying this group of people but from where this board was um you know I know both Ramona and Michael have you know longer service on this board uh and and I haven't directly talked with either of them about it but I'd be surprised if you didn't see kind of difference and and being able to have these kinds of conversations so thank you thank you for that thought I'm going to go ahead and take 7.3 and 7.4 kind of together I mean we'll talk about them separately but together um so board members you
197have this is going back now to our uh monitoring conversations and some things so I know AJ is on the line I'm not sure if he's uh available to pop on but we um we've been given uh copies of the board monitoring Cal calendar and the board implementation timeline um to discuss this evening this is kind of like a first reading but not I mean we we want to get some feedback on this answer questions and then we'll bring it back for adoption at the next meeting um I'm gonna actually ask board member beckerly because she's actually studying this with uh with a with AJ she's one of the do you have a title are you like a fellow or I forget which you no I'm a traine a trainee okay um so she's actually
198done uh some thought work around this already um in in our materials if you look on the board dock system is no we didn't do any these they have in their packet was okay so if it's in your packet too uh the calendar um just maybe one uh maybe uh board if you could just explain maybe what the two documents are for in general and then um taking a look at them and the timelines that are put there there um and in answering any board questions um we do we do have to make some adjustments already we saw in a little a few little updates um already that we've caught just like pre meeting standing right here at the table um so we know that but I just want to make sure everyone feels comfortable
199you understand what's in the document this is really our our accountability going forward um and how the community is going to hold us accountable so um go ahead I keep talking but I really want board member beckerly to do it so go ahead okay um let's look at the board implementation timeline first because there's two things there there's a monitoring calendar and a board imit implementation timeline and Eric it looks to me like you're looking at the monitoring calendar okay but we want to look at the implementation time okay good um well because it it's easy to get confused um and um this is by way of of uh throwing AJ under the bus right at the outset um what I learned in training is that the board is supposed to be tracking its activity
200in accordance with this implementation timeline and I don't think we've been doing that um so uh I don't know if AJ's going to weigh in about me saying that but either way if you go to November 2021 and and the reason is that this whole timeline lays out A to Z going from you know early training in student outcomes focused governance all the way to you're up and running and you don't really need a coach anymore at all and so it's a process that takes years as you can see because he goes It goes through a couple of years um and so I think part of what's happened is we haven't um we haven't been monitoring oursel and our progress the way we probably should have been all along and and you know and there's
201there's all kinds of explanations for that um the uh uh Co we have abundance of explanations you know competing portrait of a graduate the superintendent's design team and then our own goals and you know there was all sorts of reasons so we are where we are no excuses we told the superintendent earlier it's it's our fault right we got to own responsibility for not doing what we said right well and and I think it's and and all of this is a process too I was just building it we've been building it but we've been building it at a fairly slow pace we've been kind of along and doing it and then like you know cuz we kind of had our aha moment back July 31st right and it's now wherever we are November 16th so
202I think that um what's good about tonight and looking at this calendar is we're going to I think pick up the pace because I think we're all much more committed and on board um so that's all just by way of we're where we are now and let's move forward um so I think it's less about looking at the nitty-gritty of this implementation calendar because I think we need to fix it I think AJ and the superintendent's team um are going to go back and uh uh recalibrate this I guess is the thing to say but just let's just for example let's look at what was in November um the first thing was board adopts new committee structure based on the keep delete modify okay so that was supposed to happen and we haven't scheduled it
203yet it would be the continuation of the conversation we had in those two-day trainings um next thing is workshop alignance on board operating procedures I think there are a team of people like me who have been reaching out to board members in the past week or so to start that conversation on a one in-one basis and that will be the beginning of that process um conduct a practice goal monitoring session we have to get that I guess that's scheduled for December okay um invest at least 25% of the board's monthly minutes okay so so we're not ready to quite do that yet cuz we haven't finished our our monitoring practicing um now what's not here which needs to be here is um adopt the board um monitoring calendar or the the monitoring calendar which is
204the other item on tonight's agenda so this is all going to be revised but going forward I would suggest and hope that everyone agrees that this should be a standing agenda item what have we done what haven't we done where are we going it might be a short one if there's nothing to update it might be a long one or it might be we have to revise or we can even decide within these things because there's some separate things there's a if if we're following the whole scheme of student outcomes Focus government some of it could be about revising our operation manual some is about uh uh addressing the agenda even maybe more so than we already have although we've started down that process um because there's a whole agenda process if you're following all
205of the sofg pro program um another part is um policy diet What policies do we need another part is the committee diet we started down that path we didn't finish it so we can decide within this framework what our priorities are and where we want that to fit on the calendar so I guess I would hope that we can all study this calendar just to get a sense of How It's structured um the other thing that um I don't know if it's here um the student outcomes Focus governance manual we've got gotten that in a hard copy in folders when we've done our training um maybe we can send an electronic copy as well if we haven't already Misty but that ex is the source from which all this stuff flows and I don't know
206that we spend a lot of time with that certainly in the past nine months or so what's really good is there's a schedule there's training schedule for the team and so that's a wonderful thing that's on our calendar um anything else about the calendar other than than that it exists and we need to understand it better BR very briefly um I certainly understand and appreciate uh and agree with the comments about um you know we're not keeping on this schedule precisely um I think we also have to keep in mind things happen and with the you know pandemic wasn't predictable a lot of things aren't and we have to be prepared uh both to to you know have this plan and toep with it to the extent we can but we willing to recalibrate um
207as we need to um you know for example you mentioned the new committee structure uh to take effect January 1 we still got time to do that prior to January 1 or January 4th when we meet um so I think it you know it's not necessarily cast in stone and we have to have uh some measure of flexibility thanks uh vice president Rees and that's where my comment comes I mean Rome wasn't building the day um like when I was on uh what I understood when we adopted our last governance model we not me not me actually was already there when I got here I mean that took them five years okay it took them from realizing what is the policy know were they were going to utilize uh and then every goal was like
208okay so this is what the goal is this is the interpretation by the superintendent what is it really going to how's the presentation how do we evaluate it I mean all that work it's not just about writing it it I mean there's going to be a lot of work as we get into this to say well yeah that wasn't quite the report that we were looking for or oh really that really doesn't monitor I mean we just had a whole conversation you had similar but different opinions from Seven board members on the same topic so now we have a superintendent that's going to present on a topic and um we can sit here and say that you understand where we're going to come from what's the information that we need but I bet you $1,000
209right now that you're going to you're going to present us all these things and there there's still going to be stuff missing that we're going to need to make a decision now so that we can give you busy work you know as we look through this is what is it the information that we need to make a decision to support whatever you're asking for cuz cuz the goal is here's the information and I need X from you and then I can't give you X unless you giving me what I think I need in order to give you the yes the no the go ahead and Etc um I also don't believe we've sat here and talked about you're you're giving us this timeline it's like what is our what are our meetings going to look
210like are you know I know there's been discussion as I look at this are we having one meeting a month two meetings a month what is the structure we just spend a very good robust um and a couple uh years back we had as a Bo board had made a um a a decision because we do know there's a lot of decisions that have to be made throughout the year that's why you have two board meetings we had talked about one meeting would be board work and the next and you could also add whatever the administration needed to be passed or needed to be approved and the second meeting was the monitoring report so we even as far as I know we have not had those discussions of you know AJ that's what the coaches
211are doing right uh and we're getting ready to talk about in December right and I know AJ and what I'm just saying is like uh we're we're talking about we're going really slow because we we're there's still a lot to do you got seven members we're meeting we're doing work work is having to be done um you know so I just want to make sure as you know we are listening to AJ a you know we've all talked about to AJ at the end of the day this is how we want to do we're taking the information he's given us that is wonderful and aligned and then we have to interpret as the largest District in the in the state how are we going to move forward and how uh what does it mean and
212how do we meet and and how do we interpret and and bring data and and how do we give uh the superintendent what she needs at the same time making sure that we're doing our work so that that's my two senses as far as um I just I we just got this now now it's like I'm just freaking out a little bit when you say well now we're going to vote it on the next in the next meeting when I still feel there's there's pieces missing to to the puzzle for me well so again it's true this is an this is part of the AJ's uh not AJ's the process he's developed right um it is it is flexible I mean it isn't like uh you know something really bad happens but it is a
213guide like for us to make sure that we are doing what we said we were going to be working on so the very valuable comments Vice presid is let's go to board member Cole uh thank you so much Madam president um I I like the categorical approach East column you know representing a certain category of our work I appreciate that you alluded to something interestingly about that I kind of align mentally to the idea of embedding you use the word practicing um I think that we can figure out even more ways to integrate this methodology this platform as an applied experience in every meeting you know I I think that we just need to intentionally develop applied opportunities for us to to just make use of this platform so it's not something it's something that
214we're planning as we go in in in practice um I like to think I'd like to take a just a longer look at this to see for sure you know where where there may be gaps in my mind but I I am along the mindset of you know my colleagues here that um you know there's still some things that you know we kind of need to fill in the gaps but that comes with patiently going along with this experience in a way that uh allows for this to be a living document where we go we learn from what works and we discard what what doesn't um do you want to talk about the other document board oh I'm sorry Dr Pierce had a question um well the the question I guess yeah this is a
215discussion point for us so we've moved forward with our goals and guard rails and have yet to really establish our academic committee if 50% of our work is to focus on those guards and guard rails and really the academic achievement and success of our students I do think we should have a sense of urgency around establishing our academic committee um the one other thought I was going to say is I think that I I must have given the impression that this would was you know we had to stick to this CH calendar and I think what we need to have is is some sense of where we're heading and making decisions intentionally as opposed to just not doing something and not being aware that we're prioritizing one or the other so I think no nobody
216expects this to be etched in stone this is a living document that we adjust based on how we're progressing and what we decide we want to work on first um we can switch to the second one in a way there's a little bit less to say about this other than it it too needs to be um modified I don't know AJ are you there you want to weigh in a little bit on this or I can he is here I know I see him I'm just I mean I see can you hear me yes we can can hear you can hear you oh there he is good evening so one thing I wanted to add into the conversation is that um especially since you all are moving forward with saying at your next meeting here's
217the path where we want to go to the extent that anyone needs time to sit down and have a one-on-one happy to make time uh myself or one of our coaches who's been working with you over these past few months to uh walk through the document with you talk through what any elements are that these are all things that we've discussed um but we've discussed them over the course of a year and so uh people can be forgiven if um you haven't retained every single microscopic detail um but if you want that support just let us know and we'll make arrangements to have uh myself for one of the coaches support you one other thing that I do want to highlight is when when we created the first version of this it was born out
218of the feedback from you all and what you all said you wanted to accomplish and that's reflected at the very beginning the document where it identifies the objectives those were drawn uh directly from you all in conversation uh during our public meetings um and so the intention of the entire document is to support you in that when we originally came up with it we had a timeline that timeline has since been extended out um in delayed delayed delayed and so I had carved out a tremendous amount of time for my schedule to directly support you um as things have dragged on I've allocated less time to you all and more time to others um to offset that that's why you've seen us bringing in more and more uh coaches from uh from other school districts
219throughout the council I would certainly join um the comment that I heard Carol mentioned earlier that I think you all would benefit from having more support from additional coaches who are going to be able to constantly devote the time that you all need and so just know that that is available um it's already part of the agreement that we sent you all earlier so there's nothing special or new to do uh but all that to say just whatever support you all need to feel successful and ready to proceed um in this work we're happy to make sure you have I'm wondering if we should just say now yes we want more support like let's just not like put it off we'll take it I mean I think the one-on ones would be really helpful and
220and I and I want to just say um do is I'll have my team proactively reach out to each board member um I'll just proactively reach out to you all and then if you want the time then you can schedule it with them um with us and if you don't need the time then um uh then we'll focus it elsewhere um but with that um with that request from you all we'll go ahead and just proactively proceed thank you AJ um I think yeah it it may seem like we're going really slow but in retrospect when we look at it we've been talking about this for two years start the conversation about changing to a portrait of a graduate and all the information gathering and where we're going and how we're doing it um two
221years in the midst of Co is not is it's really like two weeks it feels like to me uh so I would say that you know um to give ourselves a little bit of break and um appreciate um AJ's patience with us uh especially during this time and knowing for well that there's other organizations similar to us that need assistance but uh I mean we're pretty far I I just I just would don't want us to go too fast that um Dr Dixon doesn't get what she needs and then um and then we don't uh continue to monitor our Effectiveness in our work so um I just want to say kudos to to the work I I don't think we should um downplay what we have done up to this point not saying that you
222did I'm just I don't know I'm M at AJ but I think it goes back to you know all the stuff that we've been doing I mean not only this portrait FMP right Co I mean we've done tremendous work passing out Chromebooks you know yes we've been doing a lot and advocacy work we've been doing you know and and so you know what St and the stay house and the stuff that Carolyn's been doing we've been doing a lot so um um yeah I just don't want to forget about that so yeah we need to make some modifications yes this work is so important we don't want to lose it so I know where Carol is thinking I don't want to lose the momentum and I agree I don't want us to lose the momentum
223um and I think I applaud AJ for continuing to provide us some additional U because he is we're working out with his schedule with Misty so he's going to be coming to um work with our cabinet team I'm very happy um and then some um governance or some other pieces with some individual Chiefs so we already have those things kind of um scheduled um working with him so that we can really you know have that culture of student outcome governance um so it's important that you guys of course we as a team but the cabinet team has to really understand this framework too um and we just don't want to to lose that or go so fast that people you know um don't don't know what's happening yeah and I think that um I I
224agree with everything and and that's what I said there's been a you know a whole bunch of things going on the one thing that I would say though is that um it's really important that we are treating this as a priority and communicating that clearly and I'm not and that's where I think we're we're kind of primed to kind of pivot into a different phase of this work um and and that's you know I didn't want that to get lost I guess um AJ could you uh address the calendar a little bit just in terms of what work needs to be done because we it was still on our agenda yeah so the next critical piece um regarding the calendar is that you all want to declare affirmatively what which of our goals do we
225want to Monitor and during which month um for really for the next four years that you all want that scripted out well in advance it provides proves you with certainty that things aren't falling through the cracks because you know exactly when they're going to be addressed it provides the administration with clarity about when they have to have things prepared so they have plenty of opportunity to put together the best and most accurate information and reporting for you that monitoring report uh that monitoring calendar uh however needs to have a few key characteristics so one characteristic of that is you need to monitor all of your goals that seems pretty forward and the rough drive that you see accomplishes at but what actually is more important than that it's not enough to monitor your goals you
226really want to try to monitor each of your goals three to four times per year what you really want to know as a board is are we making progress through the year our circumstances for our students are are the things that we want our students to know and be able to do actually improving throughout the year monitoring things one time per year clearly doesn't accomplish that and so you uh in the next version of this we'll be able to come back to you with um something that shows at least three to four times per year for each of your goals as well as um we can try to fill in some of the other um areas um and so there's a little bit more work to be done here what what is also wonderful about
227the format that your Administration has chosen is there's plenty of space for other to clarify what are the other things that the board has to attend to throughout a calendar year throughout a school year as well so for example one of the other things that have us add into here is we know over the next four years exactly when elections are going to be and so we can backwards map from elections and schedule training specifically for the community so that anyone who's even contemplating running reach out to community leaders parent leaders you know teacher leaders you folks who are retiring um and invite them into training around you what does it look like to really provide great governance over a school system um and so those are the types of things that you want to
228add into the calendar as well just so that you're building this complete ecosystem of how do we serve children in a really great way in this community and how do we bring the community into that conversation so those are the types of things that you should expect to see in the next iteration again uh as the superintendent mentioned you know carving out time to visit with her visit with their team um and then visit with team members individually as requested uh to make sure they have the support they need to provide you all the support you need thank you you have a question from Dr Pierce yes um so thank you for uh assisting us to this point so um myself uh doc myself you and Dr Dixon had uh meetings regarding the academic committee
229months ago and one of the the key questions that you posed during that meeting is what is the board required to do legally we went through that list we gave you that list and none of those items are on either of these timelines so so for me as I look at it I'm I'm confused I'm sitting here saying I gave up my time we've had these meetings we had our administrative team lay out legally what we're supposed to do and it failed to make either of these documents one of the columns describes uh statutory obligations or um and that's exactly where the things will go expect that in the next version of the document I said this one um isn't complete it's a rough draft um but the next version not only will it have
230all of your goals plugged into it which it doesn't have right now um but then addition there's space on there specifically carved out for statutory uh obligations which to be clear is not a ton of things there are not a lot of things that are statutorily required that the board and the board alone must attend to there are many things in statute that the district must do um but whether those are accomplished by the district or the board is a matter of policy um most functions you all wind up delegating a few functions you reserve to yourself um and so there'll be a little bit of gray that needs to be sorted out where it's optional is this something the board will own or something the board delegates the things that are clearly the responsibility
231of the board and that are non-delegable those will be on there populated on there automatically with recommendations uh for myself and your management team but there will be a little bit of discussion that needs to happen to clarify a few gray area matters well I think that's key and critical as we think about the next step regarding our committee structure we need to have that information built in so we can advance that conversation about keep and um what was the question keep uh modify modify yeah that informs that conversation absolutely okay are there any other questions uh for AJ or about these two documents that we will get um different versions of for you to look at um I just wanted to give a little bit of a teaser so in addition to what AJ
232said about each goal will be monitored three times a year Well four times a year three of the inter rooms at least and one of the annual targets um we should also expect to be doing quarterly self-evaluations of our time and that's not in this calendar either but it will be when we revise it so that one of the things we'll be doing is monitoring so check it I oh maybe that's us I thought that's the leadership I thought I don't know but anyway it will find its way in there and um I I think that we probably will not see create new goals and approve new goals at the end of each year because I think the idea is we're going to stick with these goals for five years so um maybe but you
233may have to modify targets maybe I I don't know I just think we need to be clear on what that means and what that doesn't mean so board members as you're reviewing these documents a little bit closer can you make sure you please send U Misty which I know you will but I'm just saying it Misty any additional questions comments format issues things that are missing so that we can get a draft as soon as uh possible not to be rushed but as soon as possible so everyone can look at it again Brown yes um if we could get copies of the documents um in in word um format rather than PDFs um that would be helpful to be able to put our thoughts and comments and and Mark things M shaking her head yeah
234the documents are provided to you as live Google documents and so the um when Carol say these were living documents she was quite serious all these are live Google Documents um um Misty should be able to share the link with you so obviously you won't have editing access to the main document but you can from there uh save it as a Word document and edit Lo edit it locally if you want the benefit of having having it Be Live Google Documents is that as the board makes modifications there's always one central place the same link will always be the same link to go to to see what is the current live version of the document but at any time you'll also be able to go to that document and download a version for your local
235um you know playing with thank you everyone thank you AJ Okay we're going to go ahead and move into our consent agenda on tonight's consent agenda consists of items 9.1 to 23.7 are there any items that a board M like to remove from consent agenda okay seeing none is there a motion to approve the consent agenda motion by Cole second by Pierce there any items anyone like to discuss on this consent agenda this evening Brown thank you uh just a few briefly and it's uh I guess very much same topic that I've raised uh at many meetings uh both 15.1 as an example uh there were two bids only uh neither of those are lead vendors LED vendors and it's certainly one that could have been and uh I think it it just means that
236our subcommittee uh needs to actually get at this uh and figure out uh how we can better uh recruit into the field of people uh those LED qualified vendors that uh we should be considering secondly um similar uh but but a little bit different on 19.2 this is where there's a recommendation to engage uh a person to hear expulsion here expence um I understand that there are not a huge number of people qualified to do this work but there are certainly um many more than one and um I don't know much about this particular person I know that she's served us in Columbus schools for a long time I know that she's a retired administrative law judge who was with uh Sur uh but you know I I having one person only doesn't provide a
237whole lot of diversity and it's an example of other areas in which we can take a look we've got hearing officers for other kinds of matters there's a lot of underemployed lawyers and there's a lot of retired folks that might be uh well suited for those kinds of things thanks thank you for those comments uh uh Cole uh thank you madam president um you sorry if we're sorry normally I read them but if you're can you say what it is before talking about it like the number and then read it thank you yeah um mine is uh around 19.2 somebody can go to it's resolution to point boy board designated preside and expulsion hearings is what board member Brown just brought up correct um I had questions around this uh resolution as well uh specifically
238relative to um what do we see as you know the overall impact of this position is it meant to be supplemented to us um there was language in the resolution that talked about decisions being Final on the part of this role um I I just want to get an idea of you know where are we going with this position and is just something that typically has been LED in another you know another role I know that in other school district districts um disciplinary issues have largely been dealt with as a design of a deputy superintendent or something like that is it the same type of thing and again um along the lines of you know board member Brown is this something how how does this what what is the overall impact of this role intended
239to be you want uh James Barnes to address this yes yes yes uh board member call the this is a position an appointment that's been in place since 2009 so it's it's one that uh the the board has two options the board can hear expulsion of hearings or it can designate in AOE to hear those exposion hearings historically the board has appointed a design and Marcy show has been that designate um historically also there well of course there weren't any expulsion hearings last year uh during the pandemic in immediate prior years uh there were only one or two each year there have not been any scheduled in exposion appeal hearing scheduled this year although there is anticipated that there will be that there will be one coming up so it's not a newly created position
240the resolution is is basically notice to the notice to the district or or I'm sorry to the board that she will serve in the role and capacity of design need for these for this specific is issue solely for expulsion appeal hearings thank you so much are there any additional questions on this since uh we have our General councel on the big TV and the assumption that she's doing a good job okay there's no more questions on this one thank you so much uh other items to discuss okay please call the All Miss beckerle yes Mr Brown yes Mr Cole yes Dr pierce with the exception of 22.2 22.3 22.4 of which I'm abstaining yes Mr Ragin yes vice president Reyes yes president adir yes with the exception of 18.1 from which I abstain motion carried
241thank you all right right we have one speaker this evening uh to provide public comment um we have Rashida Angus to talk with us about school safety violence and bullying action requested she would like the board to re-evaluate and establish protective measures to assist parents with filing criminal charges for physical assaults and she is participating on um okay we're trying to contact her right now so we will just give that a moment much later than she probably anticipated so we might just see if we can get her if not we'll make sure she can provide her testimony to us in writing um as we're waiting board members the next item on the agenda is the executive session I can already anticipate someone asking me for a short break so yes we will take a short
242break before actually starting executive session you don't need to ask just take 10 minutes and make sure you're in the room 10 minutes after we go into I don't think you meant someone Brown and I would have been right there with you you just always ask first oh here we go president the speaker's on the line thank you so much you have three you have three minutes to address the board you may begin okay yes my name is Rashida um I know they probably provided my information for you already I was woke up out of my sleep so apologize for the delay um the issue regarding School bullying School violence and they're not being a police liaison inside of the school to deal with issues like this so my son was attacked at East High
243School he was jumped it was across the street from the school and we found out that there would be no discipline for the student who attacked him and because it occurred across the street and that this policy changed in approximately 2005 when I was a child it was in effect it makes perfect sense to be in effect and as relationship regarding discipline for things that happen regardless of in or out of school as long as they are happening on the way home that that person would be disciplined for those actions that's insane to expect someone to return to school the next day after being assaulted regardless of during school hours or across the streets from the school into that same and hostile environment to receive learning and education and no one be disciplined for those
244actions I mean that is literally completely insane and I would love to know who changed that law and who is going to be advocating a relationship with Columbus Police to reestablishing that relationship but if there's someone in those schools to even Advocate criminal charges on parents if you AR these children these criminals who may be attacking our children and bullying them from within the school system these are children who share the same school system the same team teachers you cannot turn a blind eye to this now I know that there were some changes this past June in dealing with the relationship with Columbus Police when the $1.3 million contract was cut and they did not return now they have 19 SRO officers that were contracted out under current policy and none for East High School
245a school that is very violent there's been an increase in concern on carjacking feedings and the increase in violence alone that Columbus City Schools and the Columbus Police have said that they want that presence in the schools I don't know what happened and why parents decided all of a suddenly last year that they were going to Riot on this issue and what not I did see the reference to but I think that we really need to revisit reestablishing a relationship with Columbus Police Police leaon resource officers within our school system systems to advocate for us regarding violence and criminalistic behavior in our school systems I'm asking the board to reconsider their decision to protect our children because that's what we pay you to do i y my my time thank you so miss uh thank
246you so much Miss Angus for addressing the board we we can certainly uh you know examine that board policy um around discipline um we do appreciate you taking the time sorry for the late hour thank you for uh sharing your thoughts and and concerns with us we appreciate it okay the next thing we have is to go into executive session vice president Reyes I move that the Board of Education recess into executive session per section 12122 G1 of the Ohio revised code to consider the appointment employment or compensation of public employees and per section 12122 G3 of the how revised code to confir with the attorney for the public body concerning disputes involving the public body that are subject of pending or imminent Court action second thank you please call the roll Mr Brown yes
247Mr Cole yes Dr Pierce yes Mr Ragin yes vice president Reyes yes president Adair yes Miss beckerly yes motion carried thank you we will now adjourn to Executive session uh for the members of the team who are not sticking around thank you for joining us this is we haven't had a late meeting in a long time it's fun to shake it up a little bit maybe I don't know um we will come back obviously to public session to adjourn the meeting it will not be televised however thank you all board members 10 minutes