School Board Business Meeting (3-25-20)

001okay good afternoon everyone and welcome to our first electronic meeting of the Norfolk school board we'll go ahead and get started with the certification process every public body shall give notice of the time date and location of its meeting other than special emergency or continued meetings at least three working day in advance by placing such notice on its official government web placing such notice in prominent public location which notices are regularly posted and placing such notice at the office of the clerk of the body or in the case of a public body that has no clerk at the office of the chief administrator reasonable notice under the circumstances of special emergency or continued meeting shall be given contemporaneously with the notice provided to the members of the policy body conducting the meeting miss Tanner has

002today's meeting been properly certified yes madam chair on March 18 2020 notice was provided for fooling all criteria VA Code chapter 37 right thank you Miss Tanner I dually call this meeting to order we will now proceed with our roll call miss Tanner please call the roll but same here Jamison here Blanton yeah miss yeah Martin here Jordan here Gabriel here before we begin I would like to ask the participants to just bear with our process here this is our first meeting conducted in this manner and I know that several of us went through some test runs if something does come up I'm gonna ask for your flexibility so we can troubleshoot the issue for those watching I ask for your patience as well thank you very much mrs. Tanner and our communications department and

003IT department for all of your assistance in helping us come together and allow this business meeting to take place we have two meetings to business items on today's agenda both items require a vote and for the purposes of the minutes I'd like to state the following items number 1 today's meeting is being held by electronic communicate and means do it to section 2.2 that's three 7:08 Code of Virginia's Freedom of Information Act number two the nature of emergency requiring holding this meeting by electronic communication is the worldwide corona virus pandemic emergency and the resulting declaration of emergency by the President of the United States the governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia the Mayor of the City of Norfolk and the Norfolk City Council and number three the type of electronic communication means utilized for this

004meeting is the video conferencing technology provided by the Xoom corporation okay let me just enlarge the screen okay so dr. birdsong thank you for all of the work that has been conducted by yourself and your leadership team and especially the teachers and staff leadership is very critical during a time like this and how you to organize and assess the staff as well as implement a plan for providing the nutritious meals and the educational learning materials as well as keeping parents and community members informed is very commendable the work is just beginning and I understand that I gave you my full support as a United City with the mayor and the City Council and our board and staff members together we will chart a new way to educate and engage with our students and families and

005for our families and staff we are experiencing this together as a mother of four and as a physician working on the frontlines I understand your concerns I am resolved that our school division we are strong resilient and committed to overcoming the corona virus dr. birdsong before I begin the process for the resolutions would you like to share a few words to our NPS staff students and families please thank you good afternoon dr. Gabriel mr. Clanton members of the school board and our community stakeholders what a difference a few weeks make on March the four of March the 4th we will focus on budget Russians relative to important financial decisions such as compensation for valued employees and security staff or our elementary schools we had no way of knowing that 13 days later we would be

006dealing with the closure of Virginia schools because of a pandemic known as Kovac 19 suddenly the long-range big picture importance of shaping a budget for the fiscal year was not what was immediately on our horizon oh man what seemed like a moment we were faced with how to provide educational services to almost 30,000 students some of whom do not have access to the Internet and how to ensure that many of our children continue to be provided with healthy food throughout the day I am extremely proud to share that I led a workforce that is innovative adaptable and absolutely totally dedicated to the children of Norfolk public schools I can't say enough about the responsiveness of the staff of the Department of curriculum and instruction who worked tirelessly to the bill at the school to business

007learning in place plans which are a real substance for our students in my book they are truly truly rockstars then there were the building principals who are like generals of their schools making sure everyone was in record time manning their battle stations the ingenuity of our teachers it's beyond compare they took the learning in place plans to build by the cni team and made them their own and they continued to stay connected with their students through email classdojo Google classroom and the good old fashioned telephone and I certainly would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the outstanding work of the school nutrition staff they are truly our everyday heroes who make sure that our families who need food services are served and serve with genuine compassion and care they do so with a smile on

008their faces and they don't ever ever complain about supporting our children and community through this challenging time and now we face a new challenge two days ago the governor ordered the schools to close for the remainder of the academic year I will admit the challenge is enormous but this is a workforce that will not be phased we won't be phased I understand that our families have many questions at this time related to important issues such as graduations the awarding of verified credits and standard credits for example some of these decisions will be guided by the Virginia Department of Education other decisions will be made by a local school administrations and school board I asked our families to be patient with us there are many many logistical issues involved with ensuring that continuity and learning takes

009place during a crisis of this magnitude ours are decisions that demand strategic and equitable thinking and we will take some time it will take some time but it will not be in excessive amount of time we will continue to communicate with you regarding important decisions as soon as we possibly can finally this afternoon we're here for another important purpose and that is to renew our discussion regarding the budget for the next fiscal year with the goal of school board adoption city council is expecting to receive our expenditure plan by April 1st to begin its deliberations our 350 point 1 million dollar operating budget is what will drive progress in our school division next year well it has not had the urgency that our pandemic planning has had in recent weeks we all know just how

010important it really is again you have a for you my proposed budget for the 2020 2021 school year and I appreciate your efforts to work towards finalization so thank you thank you very much okay so as I shared before we have two items on today's agenda that will require a vote and I put together a process so that week everyone can have the opportunity to speak so please wait to be acknowledged before speaking once a motion is on the floor each member wishing to speak we'll have three minutes once all members wishing to speak have spoken if more time is needed two minute response will be offered and when the clerk calls for your vote only answer with a yay or a nay no additional time so the resolution item 1.04 resolution on the pandemic

011emergency is there a motion on the floor for this proposed resolution madam chair I move that we adopt the resolution of the see of the school board of the city of norfolk a resolution regarding temporary changes in certain deadlines and to modify public meeting and public hearing practices and procedures to address continuity of operations associated with the pandemic disaster I think the motion oh thank you mr. Clinton and miss Camden State state that again I second the motion okay miss Clinton miss Camden has seconded the motion is there further discussion yes okay mr. Jordan please go ahead and start us off can we have Attorney cloud just walk us through the motion and its meaning and impact absolutely mr. cloud would you mind walking us through this resolution and sharing why it is important for

012the board to take action on it today it's intended generally just to stake to the public the board's process you know on going weeks as the emergency continues and may or may not get worse section 1 it has to do with a general statement that that matters before the board are considered continued unless the board actually acts on them and that would include matters that the failure to act may might be otherwise treated by statute as an approval or affirmation the idea behind that is that as a depending on how the current situations changes and what other orders the month the governor may issue that there may be matters currently that are before the board I will come before the board during the emergency that the board will not be able to act upon because

013it cannot produce a quorum in the your case for members in one place and so it's treating those as continued including any matters that that might otherwise be treated as the board having acted by doing nothing I think of a statute directly related to school boards but to give you an example from other other contexts community service boards have to enter into contracts with the state every year and those contracts have to be approved by the local City Council and there is a statute that says if the council doesn't approve it by a certain date I think it's something like September first then the contract is considered approved it's to stave off those possible statutes that might cause the board's inaction to be treated as approval that's the purpose of this first paragraph the second

014paragraph is essentially just repeating what the law is with regard to to meetings by as a statute says electronic communication means and in other words meetings that are held without a quorum of the board being in any one physical place and you have the need for that is obvious currently to have four members of the board together in one place would actually probably require I don't know ten or twelve people to be together because of the need for technological Stan's the clerk me other members but that says nothing more than what the Virginia Code already says and and of course for any given meeting that we plan in the future to do by electronic communication means in in each one has to be decided on a case-by-case basis by the board with the advice of

015counsel and in saying that that is almost a direct quote from the state attorney general's opinion that was issued within the past couple of days section three is is meant to address situations where public hearings might be necessary and to provide the possibility of public comment to be done electronically section four is just encouraging it doesn't require citizens to the extent that there may be in the pending weeks and months situations where we do hold regular meetings perhaps not with all the board there but with a quorum that citizens continue even there considering even then to to email their public comments in lieu of actually attending the board meeting for those meetings that are actually held with a quorum being present in one place and then finally section five indicates that the resolution will be

016in effect from and after its adoption during the various declarations of emergency that have been made or any that may be made in the future are for six months the six months provision is taken by analogy from a Virginia Code statute that actually applies to local government not school board's it's meant to be simply an outside limit however it's worth pointing out to the board and the public that of course the revision the resolution could be revised amended or repealed at any given time in the coming weeks as situations change as the virus as the pandemic increases our lessons and as the governor may issue further executive orders on top of the three he is already issued yep beginning on I think it was March 12 and I'm happy to answer specific questions about okay

017all right miss bhasin I see well hold on one second first hold on a second miss Bhasin mr. Clinton yeah I just wanted to clarify this is directed to mr. cloud the resolution is in response to the opinion that was issued back from the Attorney General in response to the letter that he had received from I think a couple state delegates regarding the operations of local government correct I took the Attorney General's opinion into consideration in drafting the resolution yes all right thank you okay so in the first section so I'm a little confused maybe my interpretation of the Attorney General's opinion but I thought that the meetings had to be limited to the emergency or anything that is impacted by the emergency well the first section is not addressing meetings at all it's addressing

018matters that may be coming up in the future and saying that they are continued right but if it is not directly related to the emergency or areas that are impacted directly by the emergency can you can you maybe you just need to restate like if it's a matter like the budget for instance I know there are some questions well at least I had a question about how the the budget if the budget is an item that can be discussed this you know through these means the budget is required to be passed by April 1st right and so my my interpretation of the FOIA would mean that it needs to be passed by April 1st and therefore that would justify it coming under the exception for these meetings my electronic communication means because otherwise you will

019have violated the statute okay unless four of you are able to come together and come to the school administration for a meeting which the three others could then call in pursuant to the other provisions within FOIA that allow that sort of meeting okay and then in regard to the public comments so the public comments there isn't a requirement that they also be made public according to FOIA or what what do you know or what I'm sorry I said what is your understanding of that my understanding is that the statute requires in a meeting that is held entirely by electronic communication means that the public have access to the meeting mm-hmm and I think what we're doing provides that okay and then but the public comments that we're asking as stated in this resolution is that

020these be submitted to the school board clerk whereas normally you know they're publicly stated you know in in a meeting so we don't have any requirement to make them public in this you mean make the comments of individuals available to all members of the public yes but I would say there is no harm on it and if it's technologically possible I would say do it that work could take I'm assuming those are being received by email that those could then be posted so all members of the public can see the comments of many individuals okay we can also attach those comments to the minutes as well we can attach them early on so the members of the public can see them and then we can also attach them to the minutes I mean I would

021suggest just putting some them in board Doc's with the agenda and everything as a part of the whole package and it is a totally different thing it's your official record and if they weren't participating in the meeting I would have an issue with that okay all right I'm looking anybody else has any other comments okay hold on miss camp Singh why don't we just are we when we put the the emails that that we've been getting and thank you Miss Tanner for getting this to us so quickly some of them had to do with the budget but almost all of them had with other things so do we attach just the ones that addressed the budget successful that's the only item that we're allowed to discuss today because of the need to get the budget

022sent to the city or did we just post all of them even if they regard other things I mean I don't care either way but I just wondered how that goes we just post what's on the agenda I don't think there'd be any legal issue with posting them all okay that's fine just wondering I I would say that emails that are in reference to the budget it are attached to this discussion if they are emails that are outside of the budget then they are outside of the budget and they don't necessarily become attached to this meeting of record well now just to clarify when I said about posting them I see no harm in posting them however they are not things that you can currently discuss as part of this special meeting that's being held

023by electronic means those are limited to what you've advertised you the resolution and the budget okay thank you very much mr. Jordan I see your hand up thank you yeah I just like to attorney Kot if you can help explain in under normal circumstances where we have a work session and a business meeting and we're gathered together with appropriate number of members present constitute a quorum you know we conduct our business the way we do this this resolution I think I have a better understanding of what it allows for this particular meeting but can you explain how this resolution impacts our I'll just say our regular operations we try to conduct business electronically so for example we know during our business meetings we often will start off with a closed session and deal with personnel

024matters or student support matters we didn't come out in to a public meeting and take action accordingly does this resolution have any impact on that process or what would be the process for us going forward in trying to handle that type of business well for closed sessions they would whether electronic or not you would do in the usual fashion there'd have to be a motion of course it would have to meet the legal requirements etc then the session itself is of course closed to the public anyway and then coming out again you would have to end publicly publicly certify now what you can you know what you can address in these any future meetings that are done by electronic means absent you some further emergency orders we may see in the future will be governed

025by those provisions either of the governor's order and our FOIA which the the essential provision in the FOIA is that the purpose of the meeting is to address the emergency I and I think that in your context you then we would be talking about things that one way or the other have to be done as part of the process of addressing the emergency certain things you all have to do that are unique to school boards such as personnel matters I think that they could be addressed through such meetings by electronic means and in those meetings you know you may well want to have an executive session which would be entered into in the usual fashion and I don't know how you know technologically that would have to be some way to then during the session

026to eliminate access by the public and but and in general with regard to whatever you plan to do in the future to the extent you're going to do it in this fashion all all those have to be addressed on a case-by-case basis you know with with the advice of of your council which is essentially what the AG said so outside of the budget which we're dealing with today because of the requirement to submit a budget to the local governing body by what other examples do we have or that you are aware of or maybe anybody else in the meeting in the meeting is aware of that requires us to take action so that we we have the resolution and a way to deal with things over a six-month period versus having the resolution deal with

027this specific meeting and and the budget the resolution you could pass a new resolution with each meeting if you want regardless of whether you have a resolution or not you would still have to address for each such meeting the questions related to the ability to do so under 2.2 - 3708 point to the kind of matters that I'm thinking of are things that simply cannot wait because only the school board can do them only school boards can hire terminate take other types of actions in the personnel realm except for the only thing that I can remember off the top of my head that the General Assembly has authorized you to delegate to the superintendent and the school board has so delegated it is that superintendent by board policy has been given the authority to transfer

028people amongst positions so long as their salaries are not changed but in general that's the only thing I can think of where the superintendent has actually been delegated authority to take personnel action now student matters I don't know that you well we'll have to see what comes up and win but off the top of my head I think that probably most of those can be postponed I'm thinking of the typical Disciplinary student disciplinary agenda you know docket matter so that you have and beyond that I think I guess you know once your budget goes to the council the council will and then potentially he'll it will be returned to you all and again you may be facing further action with a deadline that I it would meet the requirements for a meeting held by purely

029electronic means yes mister Clinton so that poses back to mr. Jordan because I went here to look because it was interesting what you were asking about other situations I don't you don't like to have it brought up a lot of times but you are the BSB a president and the dsba attorney Miss Elizabeth Ewing on the 17th issued an opinion out from the SBA to all of the School Board Association members and one of those things was about electronic meetings fully in this capacity and being able to conduct our our our items here I'm a conduct business so I'm I mean I'm opposed it back to you do you have any other situations or guidance that you may have heard from across the state that could be hopeful well to you to your question there

030have been a lot of inquiries from school boards across the division across the Commonwealth in which was one of the reasons to my understanding that the vsba provided that guidance to to local school boards so that each school board would be able to consult with their attorney in order to take action based upon their process I want to make sure that I'm clear I'm not my what I'm trying to get clarity around is how we do business under the environment that we currently exist under the state of emergency and how the resolution impacts that so where I was going to comment a moment ago was before your question was does it make more sense for us to have this resolution apply to this meeting and in the budget and then have a resolution as needed

031for additional action that we are taking and the reason I say that is if today we know that it if the advice we're getting today is because the budget requires specific actions per the twenty generals recommendation of return and attorney clouds recommendation this falls within that category I don't I know I was asking because I was trying to figure out if there's anything else that we knew of that would fall for us as a school board what attorney Kot was described they may be the scenario for the Community Services Board so if there was nothing else that we knew of I was just going to suggest that we would consider amending the resolution to have at least specific to this meeting and the budget and then as we decide what our processes are going to

032be moving forward to deal with the regular operations of the as far as where the school board is concerned we would come back with a resolution specific to that so madam chair took mr. Jordans response there I don't think well today will be done with the budget I know that you somebody's been a lot longer but we're going to send this budget over to Council for their review by April 1st and awaiting any response if there's any changes from the budget and then this war would have to discuss those but then I know we had a situation maybe it was last year where we had to make some adjustments and amounts and where we need to make some cuts so I would not be in support of eliminating it to today because I don't think

033that we're done with the budget until we actually are done with the budget and when we actually carry something back from counselors to you know we've received some guidance in regards to you know funding sources and so forth here so I don't think that we're just dealing with the budget today and I'd like the aspect of being able we know that at least at June 30th we'll be dealing with the budget right and mr. Quinn I I hear you I was just thinking that there too separate actions that this resolution regular business from the budget item not saying no I'm saying this resolution has released to the budget speaks to the requirement of school boards to submit to the local governing body a budget proposal by April 1st then after the local government takes action

034and goes through all of this public hearing and processes and makes a determination of what it wants to allocate back to the school board then the school board has a requirement then to pass a budget by a certain date to me those are two separate two separate they both involve the budget and two separate items that are that are governing what we're required to do okay okay okay does anybody else have any additional comments I'm scrolling through here no okay miss tanner can you please call the roll the theme I cam sent Plantin all right Martin all right warden nay a drew the motion passes thank you very much okay next item on the agenda is the resolution the superintendent's proposed budget or the fiscal year 2022 2021 I'll just open this by stating that

035the board began this budget process early in November and we've had many meetings we've had two public hearings we have received comments through email phone call and in person from various stakeholders we thank all of the stakeholders for the feedback that we've received dr. birdsong and her team have prepared a proposed budget that we must approve and share with the city by April 1st as been previously mentioned is there a motion on the floor to approve the proposed budget Adam chair I move that we approve hold on approve the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2021 okay hold on Miss Smith did you have a question are you experiencing a technical difficulty no uh-huh I'd like to do we have to wait for it to be approved to hold discussion I'd like to have a

036discussion where he's putting the motion on the floor and we're gonna have us in and then we'll have discussion okay okay so mr. Klein has proposed a motion could do you mind just repeating that because there were some interruptions not a problem okay madam chair I move that we approve the superintendent's proposed budget for fiscal year 2020 2021 okay thank you is there a second I'll second miss Martin miss Martin miss Martin seconds the motion okay I'm gonna call on member who has their up for comment Miss Smith so doing the two presentations that we had the one had Remy high school and then the one following that a couple of weeks ago we were not afforded ample opportunity to have an open discussion about the budget and concerns that we have so there are

037two areas of concern that I have that I like taking into consideration I'd like to propose for approval a part of the approval and that's adding a curriculum specialist to the STEM Academy where they will have one for the lower grades as well as one to help develop the curriculum for the higher grade and then to have a grant writer for us to begin to obtain and secure grants on behalf of the school board so then the grant writer position is something that we had discussed last year and we keep pushing that back further hey thank you very much Miss Smith other comments on the budget yeah okay hold on I heard somebody say okay Tania miss bhasin I agree you know what miss Smith said and as I shared at the last meeting or

038attempted to share we did not as she said you know have an ample time to discuss the budget and all the questions that have been raised as well as some suggestions for other allit for other resources in lieu of you know school security resource officers for instance I had submitted questions on March 3rd and on March 10th again with some unanswered questions that I was hoping that we could have discussion about those some of my comments were related to adding school counselors a school psychologist beyond what the Esso cues were allowing to go beyond that as we heard at the at the last meeting anecdotally we have people on the front lines do you wear many hats and the mental and behavioral health of our students is a concern for many and I think we

039need greater supports in that area through school counselors as school social workers and school psychologists so I would like to see greater emphasis to support being placed there I also there questions raised about targeted increases were teachers and other teaching positions and I would like you know continued you know this is a continuation of questions that we've raised already but some clarifications there as to what can be done and if there's any analysis that can be can be looked at to it's more specifically target increases to particular teachers and teacher groups or in staff categories that may need to be examined and so you know I I right now as I've stated before cannot support this budget without having the data to inform the decisions being made here so you know I would like greater

040clarity there okay thank you very much others wishing to speak on the motion on the floor for the budget let's see yes mr. Jordan I just have a point of information for right now we didn't start with a presentation by dr. birdsong so I just want to make sure I'm clear the the mode not to approve here mr. Jordan let me see if mr. Jordan I'm sorry for interrupting but I okay hold on a second everybody let me let me conversation to miss Tanner because I think we're all hearing the same issues with mr. Jordans audio mr. green can you restate what she said because we're having issues hearing you yeah one I was gonna say let me reset my connection to see if that will help my can you hear me now okay we

041can't I can yes can everybody give hands up okay so I was I had a point of information that was one to get some clarity on the motion that we currently are discussing is that the the chin from February 19th or is that the any adjustments that had been made based upon the items that one one of the items we have under the content area is adjustments due to the General Assemblies amendments give the superintendent opportunity to present so I just want to make sure I'm clear are we dealing with February 19th or that have there been other adjustments in the superintendent's proposal since that time okay so what we have prepared on board Docs and I'm going to let dr. Bert's on speak to this what we have on board Docs is what we

042are voting on dr. birdsong yes thank you for that point of clarification as you know or you may not know the General Assembly approved 1.9 increase and within the budget I wanted to demonstrate to you what we were going to do with that or what we propose to do with that increase which is extremely conservative so I've asked if you want to refer to the PowerPoint presentation much as this is not new information but I do want to give our budget director an opportunity to clarify how we plan or how we propose to use that additional 1.9 from the General Assembly so I'm going to turn it over to miss now so that she can provide that information to you thank you miss town please proceed yes thank you Karen you want to pull up

043the presentation yes just one second [Music] okay which slide no it's the other one the one that says watch 25th adjustments to superintendents proposed operating budget it's not that's the one okay good afternoon dr. Gabriel mr. Clanton dr. person and members of the school board the superintendent proposed budget for 2021 was based on the governor's introduced budget today we'll share with you the changes to the submitted this proposed budget basic amendments adopted by the General Assembly dr. Virgil share you proposed budget on February 19th at March 4th since Assembly has adopted a budget that increases our projected state revenue by 1.9 million we're going to receive this fine details the areas where the state funding baseline has changed from the governor's introduced the water journals and we adopted as a few programs there is no

044change between what the governor introduced what materials when we adopted under the incentive programs the General Assembly approved provide a two percent salary increase effective 2021 that's an increase of two and a half million the General Assembly also eliminated the games of skills which is a reduction of 1.1 million and that there was a slight reduction in BPI funding this the total net increase in incentive programs of 900,000 the next one is the caracal categorical programs no change Norfolk public schools receive $20,000 to provide homebound services to our special education students the last one is the lhari funded program the General Assembly changed the supplement allotted for people among who what if not to the infrastructure and operations critical fine this allows this revenue here allows us 10% of money on occurring and the 30%

045on non-recurring cause under revenue Norfolk public schools is projected to receive an increase of 1 million base station hundred seventy-five dollars and 27 cents per pupil so overall the net increase in the state revenue between what the governor introduced and what the General Assembly adopted is 1.9 next caring I didn't wear slide is she on okay next slide I like this slide shows the expected increase in revenue for 2020 100 it's 40 billion or 4.2 percent over this year that's a total budget of 336 point 2 million to 350 point 2 million increased by 11 million or 5.6 percent over the prior year this is by far the biggest increase in state funding that I have ever seen anyway with regards to the city funding 2021 marks the second year of the revenue sharing agreement

046between the city and the school the projected increase for 2021 is 3 million which was a 2.3 percent gain over the time here now for the federal and other revenues we are projecting that they will remain the same in 2021 next slide as presented in past meetings dr. ferzaan built er 2021 budget around four priorities compensation more resources for school safety and security and building maintenance this slide serves as a reminder of the programmatic plans for the next fiscal year next slide in my earlier slide I shared that Norfolk public schools is expected to receive an additional 1.9 million they adopted by the General Assembly in the proposed budget he was able to introduce new initiatives because four and a half million projected savings from replacing of solid nutrition to address this initiatives we are

047the estimated savings of four and a half million we reduce two points by one point nine million estate money even the uncertainty and economic impact of it 19 will have on a financial future next a public schools must submit to City Council a budget by April 1st so today request that the school board adopt the following budgets for 2021 which the gallery code of four hundred twenty nine point the breakdown is as following operating fine three hundred fifty point two million again that is based on the amendments adopted by the General Assembly school nutrition two hundred point two million grant forty two the million CIP seventeen point 1 million again the total month for all funds that we are asking the school board 429 million four hundred thirty seven thousand eight hundred eighty-five this concludes

048my presentation thank you thank you very much missed out dr. birdsong hold on one side Tanner is there a way to come back off of the screen with the presentation so that I can eat all of the members again yes are you ready to switch it now okay okay all right Miss Smith oh I don't understand comparatively speaking how the 1.9 what what are we doing different from the initial presentation or in addition to the initial presentation that we received with this 1.9 million I'm having difficulty following that okay dr. birdsong yes so basically as a result of getting this additional money we want to be funding we want to be extremely conservative because we don't know what tax revenues from the city what that's going to look like what next year so instead of

049dedicating this additional funding to additional positions or initiatives the safest thing to do would be to apply it towards rebasing our salaries and benefits as well as our attrition savings okay oh that's the strategy we'd like to employ other comments or questions and I cannot see Miss bhasin nope okay I see all right any comments any other comments or questions miss Martin I just want to respond to Smith's comment about a grant writer and just remind everyone we did just have a discussion where we were you know we have this clerk in a discussion on do we combine the grant writer responsibilities with the clerk position and I think at the time we think we ended up saying no but then we didn't move forward as a great writer if I'm if I'm remembering correctly

050so I think that you know maybe that could be a topic in the future because we still have that clerk position that is available and from I haven't heard anything so I'm assuming we haven't gotten any any applications you know or reasonable applications on that so just wanted to put that out there and if I may if I recall correctly I think it was posted but however I do think that having a grant writer is a wonderful idea just based upon the number of positions that we have and in order to and of course I've talked to my budget director she's assured me that of course based on the information that we have now we don't have any concerns about the budget but it would be nice to have a person on staff who has

051dedicated to nothing but writing grants right and I would just add also that the position of the grant writer has been a very long discussion I don't sure dr. Burke song if you can recall miss Tanner and some of the very first board meetings that we had almost seven years ago we were talking about having a dedicated grant writer full time so again I leave it to dr. birdsong if if that is a recommendation that you can in companies within the budget then you know we can have that further discussion at that point mr. jordan thank mr. Lighton the miss messini I can't hear you Rodney unmute I have four minutes I like for the board to consider mints to the to the proposed motion yes okay you want to order and I was being

052generous in there but I haven't had an opportunity to enter the discussion before not a member mr. Jordans already spoken okay mr. Clinton all right appreciate it thank you I just wanted to say that I also agreed with Miss Smith around the grant writer and if dr. birdsong can find it within the structure that we already have to be able to fund that particular position I will be in full support of that I also when we look at the the other items that mr. Celine brought up and mr. Jordan now talking about four amendments I just like to point out that we are all and I think we're all aware because we're all in this room that we're we're dealing with that unprecedented time and we've got jobs and things that you have to do

053and particularly with this budget I know that you know there could always be more more discussion more time we could continue to talk about things but there has to be action at some particular point and that's why we're having this meeting today and that we have an April 1st deadline that we've got to meet and so I I know I've hurt mr. Jordan haven't heard amendments but I just caution what I do here amendments that we have to turn this thing in and what six days our administration building is closed for all accounts and staffers scattered all over the place so we also have to send a a balanced budget but I also understand when we look at this 1.9 million dollars we also have to look at the fact of what's going on in

054our city right now MEAC was cancelled right now hotels aren't being filled restaurants are closed sales tax is not coming in which brings caution for me that we send over a balanced budget to City Council but we don't know what that budgets gonna look like when it comes back to us and so before making any alterations to a budget I would really ask my colleagues to consider the time when we come back and either April or May to look at after it's what City Council has based out to us as to what they can afford then we begin to look at the budget and being able to look at an opportunity layer to make amendments and changes because that's what we're gonna have to do weather night we're gonna have meat cuts we're gonna have

055to add additional money so that's just my opinion on that one I appreciate the budget but just so we can take action and just be reasonable about thinking about amendments and changes considering that we don't know what the future has in store for us even 60 days from now thank you ma'am sure Kim mr. Clinton mr. Jordan yes I agree wholeheartedly with mr. Quinn's points about the uncertainty of the times I don't know of any other process right now to have items considered other than the put forward amendments I think that's the the process if the you know there's support for the amendments I understand you know board can vote those amendments recommendations down I just think that if we're gonna send this over to the council for consideration that this would be the time

056for us to do that and as much as I can I'm trying to make recommendations that not cause significant major adjustments to the budget although I acknowledged that that would be a part of the process okay so that's the first at a time okay so so first I like to going back to the topic of the grant writer I would I like to make the motion that we do include the position of a grant writer in the in the proposed budget I think that in light of what may be occurring with the federal government's stimulus that may flow into the state stimulus I think having that grant writer position in place and budget it now at least be included in the budget is is an important position as has been stated earlier so I think

057it should be included in the budget if for some reason we come back later and still prioritize it then so be it but I think we're gonna need somebody to help support different opportunities that may flow to us as a result of the stimulus so my first motion is to have the grant writer position included in the proposed budget okay is there a second to the motion I second that motion okay miss Bhasin it makes the second to the motion is there discussion on the the amendment to the motion mister Clinton all right think about chair I will go forward and support this particular amendment because of the simple fact that the superintendent has said that essentially it would could potentially be budget neutral it won't make any significant changes and we could find it

058within potentially leave funds that we already have there it is something that's needed when we've talked about it for a while so I will be in I will support this particular amendment okay dr. birdsong which you could deem on speaking to this what would this be budget neutral well certainly any position that we add it won't necessarily be budget neutral but we're in the process of reviewing positions at this I'm working with my budget director to do that and I do believe that perhaps some positions that haven't been filled in quite some time and those that could possibly be eliminated certainly included in the budget and I'd also like to stay to in our admissions relative to the sim Academy I think this Smith makes a very good point about adding a second position for

059the STEM Academy we that program needs a lot of support and certainly having someone to focus on the elementary piece and another individual to focus on the secondary piece would be quite beneficial so I would definitely support that in whatever position I needed to eliminate of course being very thoughtful about that I would certainly want to support that mm-hmm miss Campton curriculum specialist not similar I might only and I was very much in favor of that but I I know I remember it would be a fully certified and experienced stem teacher that we would not be putting anyone in the STEM Academy that's called a specialist in anything unless they are actually a specialist in stem that seems to be one of the problems that we have there we do not have enough people that

060are certified and trained and experienced and and planning and delivering stem lessons so I would certainly support it based on the fact that when we do the job description it's very clear that we expect people that are certified in stem doesn't mean we can't doing some internal promotions if we're going to spend well if we had a summer training them but let's please not hire anyone else in there as a specialist and they have stem certification as to the grant writer everyone knows that I last year I didn't haven't had to do it so far this year my feelings about continuing to add additional positions to central office until we have everything else void staff but if we're leaving the positions in and reading and math specialists if they're staying in all of our schools

061all of our elementary schools then I would it without any cuts to them then I would I guess I could go with the grant writer we had him in the past basically they just gave you a grant and you write it yourself so I wasn't quite sure how help well yeah I mean the merit I'm one that was that we did I mean I wrote that with the north side and the Granby people all they did was ask us and we did it ourselves it's all we're not expecting everyone to do that so I'm not really certainly I'm with okay seem to be clear we are first looking at central office positions and it is I will not be taking away support from buildings all right that's my thing because that's what kept happening before

062and so that was our buildings are still not completely staff to the extent they need to be to give the children the academic support thank you mr. Tao and I have already had that conversation about where the priorities would be yeah I know now seeing that in your budget very much okay again this taught this discussion is related to the amendment to the motion on the floor miss beseen well I just want to be sure we're talking about the amendment for the grant writer that's right we're right that's right can we focus on one and then at a time and then that's well the only amendment on the floor is to add a grant writer a full-time grant writer position to the proposed budget right I just want to be clear because we also started

063talking about the instructional specialist I apologize yeah I'm sorry she which I supporter I just want to be sure that we're at the point I was trying to make and I'm sorry miss messini was that I didn't want a grants rider if we could not get additional trained certified stem people at STEM Academy no was what we were reducing between the two but I apologize for getting a soft track mm-hmm okay all right any other comments okay I'll just say that the discussion for a great rider has been a longtime discussion and dr. birdsong as long as you feel that this is something that you could manage within your existing budget as a support mechanism our building staff I will support it I would like to see a job description that goes along with the

064grants rider position so I can have a better understanding as to what their duties and expectations will be if we are going to be approving something like this so I'd like to go ahead and take a roll call on the amendment to the budget for here should have a full time grants rider position and see I am s'n based on what dr. birdsong has promised yes Clanton Smith hi Martin hi Jordan all right Gabriel hi okay all right that's the first one what is the second one so I was using the printed document that we received at February 19th also from dr. birdsong and it's on page 164 was where the [Music] additional security officer positions were being recommended and so I would like to move that we add two additional security officer positions one

065for Norview high school in one for great yes I second that motion okay all right I'm gonna it's been seen okay mrs. Camden I you know I whatever security we need I'm totally supportive of I just want to be sure that we are distinguishing between the security coordinator type attrition and the elementary schools and the security officer so it would be a different color tonight which would follow our send the job sorry and the new job description that we are writing for the elementary coordinators which is already in your proposed budget but we make sure that we are clarifying the difference between the roles of a security officer and a secondary school in that security coordinator in an element's helpful mr. Clanton can you help me with this I'm sorry mr. Jordan if if is

066if it's helpful I will say to security resource officers we can discuss that later yes and so to your to your appointment camps in because I'm recommending positions at the high school level I was trying to respect your your view and to say that there would be an additional curity resource officer for Norview an additional security resource officer for brandy thank you thank you for your clarification vacation please because we have school resource officers and then we have school security officers currently so is this a new position new job description are you talking to me no what let me tell you what my intent is my intent is to provide additional security support to the two high schools that have the largest enrollment that tends to be offset my other high school so I originally

067I was just trying to say security officer and was leaving it up to the administration to make that determination then I was trying to provide some distinction in in response to miss Carson but if it's appropriate to say security officers for the secondary level as well thank you all right dr. Burton and I'd like to add to that I would like an opportunity to review what we have at this time because what happens on mr. Jordan typically there should be a review conducted at each at the end of each academic year going forward into the next year and it could be that you other secondary schools may not be in need of the number of security officers that they have at this time and then we can transfer the existing allocations to those two schools

068but this I have to be honest we haven't done that review today you know in March we have not done that review so I would say we need those two additional positions yes ma'am and what what I was basing it from earlier in our discussion case mr. Jordan not is difficult Pascal had the same mr. Jordan you're you're not coming across fluid he's freezing difficulty maybe we need to send him a text so he knows what's happening while he's getting well he's getting back on are there any other points of discussion with regards to this Miss Smith your your a mute its Dean here I'm here you're on mute it's Matthew yeah okay do I need to make the amendment to add the additional instructional specialist to the STEM Academy hold on Miss Smith I

069appreciate your comment but let's just keep all the discussion matters related to the amendment the amendment to the motion that Minister Jordan has brought up regarding the two additional regards this is Clark because Carlos still on I've lost his photo yeah he must have stopped the video or let me you did it's there connections that pop them off so they're gonna have a pop back or one oh so we just wait for them to come back okay enemy texts in the limo he spoke he you've already already knew is that it [Music] hey Ronnie's back in okay now we're still missing cross yeah Aaron this is the you're here to do the background music okay it's a good song reached out to mr. Clinton but we have Rodney back if you wanted an assistant Joey

070she would be discussing without throw us yeah we're gonna wait we're gonna hold on a second Mia let me see if I can't call him so I'll be right back while we're waiting for mr. Clinton oops we lost another one he's coming back were you able to contact and he didn't respond [Music] oh he's back we just need Chris tasting okay all right are we good Carlos all right and there's Chris okay so is there any further discussion on the amendment with the security guards you review high school and Granby high school I did have one question before we move into that one why Norview in Granby I mean I'm sorry I got I think I got cut off when I was explaining my rationale we it was I think we had received an allocation

071chart that showed that there were currently equal amounts that each high school I think the number was four but from comments that we've had from the public and from at least in visits that I've had in conversations with parents and others at those two schools because the enrollments there are so high and the way the design of the school is that an additional one for Norview and an additional security for Granby high school was the basis for my for my recommendation okay any further discussion just a quick clarification from dr. birdsong so dr. birdsong is your recommendation that we go ahead and add them now or that we wait and see if you are going to be reallocating the way your staff goes because I'm not certainly in favor of more support at these two

072high schools but is what were you on this well again typically a review would be conducted at the end of the year along with discipline data and but I do agree just you know face value every school I mean I don't know why we would have the same number at every school and so I would like to further review that and again the existing allocation may be able to support that just be transferring an allocation from one school to the next mm-hmm okay um miss miss Martin are you raising your hand for a comment no okay all right miss Tanner if you could uh please call me Miss Amendment yes I see I camps in still with tight a little bit confused but I lanten hi Martin I Jordan Gabriel nay okay the third minute

073in the capital improvement budget we have appreciate dr. birdsongs recommendation around the significant request for for maintenance I would like to move that we also include in our capital improvement requests four million dollars to support design and construction for Booker T Washington High School to align with the Booker T Washington educational and facility planning study that will have underway okay thank you is there a second I second mean miss beseen second I was on mute okay is there further discussion on this item just so I understand so the you'd like to put four million dollars before we have the results of the feasibility study yes okay all right mr. Clinton all right so madam chair i hearing this first time hear anything around four million dollars mr. jordan myself both sit on the Facilities Committee

074I mean and understand the stresses and challenges she hasn't had sees ability study or anything done with it since 1974 however back to my original statement regarding uncertainty even in the next sixty days regarding budgets and also looking at that we do have a feasibility study that this board voted on to include in the budget which is included in the budget turn now to ask for dollars to be associated with the building when we don't know what the program will be needed any kind of putting the cart before the so with that madam chair I move to postpone this discussion until May after we receive budget return once I get mr. burden I need to ask a clarifying question to mr. Clinton so we have a moment on the floor there's a second and then

075you are moving to the discussion until May do I have to have a second for that yes is there a for the item that has been brought up by mr. Clinton to postpone this discussion until may I see your hand up miss miss camps in but I just have to make sure that we're following our orders I see your hand is there a second to the motion that mr. Clinton has brought up in order to postpone the Booker T Washington item I'll it back okay miss Martin okay this has been moved and seconded so mr. Clinton can I proceed with miss Hampson's she had her hand up for discussion yeah other words we're doing discussion regarding my motion to postpone Oh so then we take this item up for discussion and then we vote on

076this motion and then we come back to mr. Jordans okay okay all right so is there discussion on the floor regarding mr. Clanton's motion to postpone this discussion until May until further discussion has been had regarding the feasibility mr. I'm asking for the postponement in May once we've received the budget back from City Council as the maker of the original amendment that is now being recommended for postponement may I comment to what mr. Clanton has raised yes and but but hold on one second because miss Campton did have her hand up and I want to make sure that I get to her miss camps is your comment in response to the motion that was made by mr. Clinton or the motion that was made by mr. Jordan kind of both but I guess right now

077directly to mr. Clanton's motion okay then I'm gonna let you speak and then I'm gonna let mr. Jordan speak go ahead well I have a concern about the four million dollars being dropped at the last minute who are doing the vote to add another four million dollars to what is the balanced budget concern that certainly we all want to see something done at Booker T but I thought I thought like mr. Clanton did I thought we were waiting for the feasibility study which is a logical sequence rather than just jumping in and putting this down until we have that so I think something this is something we need to do we have a few schools we need to do it for but we need to get the feasibility study done first so that would be

078why I would certainly I would support postponing rather than just saying no all right thank you ms camps and mr. Jordan yes so just for clarity on a couple of point so on when we were preparing for our work session on March 4th I sent a memo to the board and the dr. birdsong recommending this at the time so this is the the idea behind the funds for Liberty Washington is not not new I have raised this previously the intent is is on the operating budget it is correct that we are putting forward our goal is to put forward a balanced budget for the operating budget my understanding of the capital improvement budget is that we are submitting requests that includes maintenance based upon the work that we've done with Walker strategies and the facilities

079conditions index and that we have the I believe the bus replacements maybe in that as well but I'm what I'm suggesting is is that it's part of new school construction that we're simply asking the City Council to begin to set funds aside to support design and construction of a new Booker T Washington High School so all i'm recommending is that if the council were to approve this then they would begin to set funds aside to support design and construction of that school the results of the facilities would of the educational specifications would still take place but what my amendment in motion is intended to do is to already have funds set aside so that once the educational specifications process is done we don't find ourselves waiting another budget cycle or another two budget cycles trying

080to then get funds set aside to be able to act upon what the recommendations are so all this is intended to do it doesn't have any impact on bouncing the budget at all all this is asking that the school board requests that the City Council begins setting funds aside so when the recommendations come back from the study activity that we would have money available to then move down the path of implementing the recommendations that come up all right mr. Kane and then Miss cancel yeah I am I'd like to remind my colleagues if you go back with me here maybe a couple months when we had this heated discussion about a casino in Norfolk I'm see council had pretty much made a decision and announced it that the sell of the land for ten million

081dollars would be split equally five million for Booker T Washington High School and five million for Maury high school and that's in spite of the long list of facility issues that we have and things that we needed to take care of a capital improvement with other schools even in our current capital improvement budget with almost being seventeen million dollars all of our schools are left off there is a designated amount that council has already spoken and said five million dollars is going to Booker T Washington i school and so I think the funds have already been identified but I don't think and believe at this particular point they need to be identified further in this budget when we have twenty thousand dollars for the feasibility study some I have a difference of opinion I don't

082believe that we put the cart before the horse in the respect that we need to ensure that we have the academic program and understanding what that will look like for the future Booker T wash in high school I can't see going to council and saying that we need an additional funds for Booker T Washington high school when we have not clearly identified how we're going to spend those funds to ensure that Booker T Washington high school is going to go further and it's going to be a great draw in this new academic program so my two arguments there is that there have been funds that have already been identified from counsel for Booker T Washington high school that could be that are just coming over for facility which could be placed towards that new school

083or be set aside for that in addition to some of the improvements that need to take place there I'm asking for a postponement because I believe that we need to see what the budget looks like in our current academic our current economic times and to see what council sends back to us I believe that you asked for what you want to ask for but there's a laundry list of other schools so of course being one of them that also represented Ward 3 and super Ward 7 that I can't see asking for additional dollars and when we can't meet all the other alright what I'd like to do is miss camp seen you didn't have your end up and then I'd like to go ahead and call the roll then I just wanted to ask dr.

084birdsong how this would oh right we're voting on the postponement or on doing it okay we're voting on the postponement okay discussion until May okay I'd still like to just ask just a real brief response dr. birdsong how does this impact the budget because I know what mr. jordan was saying but if we're adding it to this budget then it has impacts but well I think what mr. jordan was trying to say it's not going to impact the operating budget but it will impact the request for CIP I'm thinking you are asking instead of us asking for 17 million it would be 17 plus 4 right so the the 17 million as I understand it includes funds for maintenance and things bus replaces what I'm asking for right that 4 million would go into a

085school construction fund so it would be over and above the budget so we're asking for an in so what you're asking for is an increase of 4 million dollars in the proposed budget that we're sending to the city IP yeah yeah but an increase of that budget anyway not as not less because we have schools that are floating away that is correct that's what he's asking for okay all right thank you okay miss tanner so let's just restate what we are getting ready to take a vote on we are taking a vote on the motions put on the floor by mr. Clinton seconded by Miss Martin to postpone the discussion of any additional funds dedicated to Booker T Washington high school construction until at least May until further information has been received from the City

086Council regarding their budget mr. Clint I just want to make sure that I have stated this correctly okay you know please call for the vote the same day tamson yes Clanton no Martin hi Gabriel I mean yes Gabe room no I think need to get mr. Jordan mr. Joe is going to come back to him this way I list it Jordan hey Gabe room all right so this motion now passes for delayed discussion the the Booker T Washington item added never again what we're doing right now is we're postponing the discussion until at least May with regard to any funding for capital improvement for Booker T Washington's that are already in a proposed budget regarding CIP or maintenance that dr. birdsong has in her proposed budget it merely postponing the discussion okay so procedurally let

087me step back for a second and mister clinton now that we have voted and it has passed what as far as the amendment put on the floor by mr. jordan do we now have to take a vote on his amendment no mr. Jordans amendment now is nolan boy this superseded that so I can only now be at mr. Jordans fourth amendment that is correct okay mr. Jordan your fourth amendment yes so my fourth amendment ties to what we just discussed and have been discussing I know there's well let me just put the limit out there I like to make the motion that we include the position of a chief diversity equity and inclusion officer in the in the budget on page 203 of the February 19th proposal I recognize that there's a we forum we

088had a chief position that I know doctor birdsong rightfully in her restructuring of the organization is phasing out a division chief but what I'm recommending is that we retain that allocation staffing allocation and devoted to a chief diversity equity and inclusion officer who could provide support for the board's priorities dr. birdsongs focus on equity and to help us as a school division to give support to our equity policy and other assessments innovation recommendations to help us with our goals around diversity equity and inclusion is there a second for the motion back mid second okay before I turn the floor over for any discussion dr. birdsong I'd like to start with first I'm I'm not sure if this has been discussed before between the two of you and no it hasn't but it has been discussed

089with members of the team I do see it as a valued position I'm not certain that I would have it as a chief level position but I do think it would be a value especially since we adopted a equity policy I believe it was probably four or five years ago and we've not been able to address a lot of the issues that have resulted because of that policy so I certainly would not be in opposition of that position but I would want to evaluate at what level that position would be in terms of a chief level deputy level senior director I'd want to give that some more thought but certainly they could be a value within the administration and again in looking at that as I conduct a review of central office positions again it

090would not be positions that impact the school building I would like an opportunity to further review that I see the value in that position mm-hmm thank you dr. birdsong Miss Smith just like I had that such a position of this will definitely add value to our district as a whole and I wholeheartedly support this okay thank you Miss Kempson I do think we need the position I mean however I also the first of all that cost my mind is why does it have to be a chief the problem that we've had in central office is we keep creating these chief deputy whatever it positions at very high salaries and a person doesn't need we don't need to keep jumping up and keep pushing up these positions that cost so much money I'm not quite sure

091why you would need a chief position we traditionally have operations and we have academics because they're so all-encompassing this position would be kind of across all those but it doesn't need to get a Chiefs level mm-hmm maybe a direct report to the superintendent look miss Bhasin yeah I do support this position and you know i would i would argue otherwise because I do think that equity needs to be central to every aspect of the work that we do as a division and and so you know I I wholeheartedly also support this position and it was raised it raised it was raised when we began our budget priority discussions in November so it's been out there as something that I think the board or board members have desired to see in this budget okay mr. Clinton

092oh I go back to the point because I was sitting at thinking dr. strong but you raised it because we've had an equity policy for this district for almost five years and so the question that I have is why now why not four or five years ago to have this position right now I totally know Hartley's Portman mr. Jordan you know you and I are pretty much on the same thing phrase that when it comes to these disposition and in need in the district but it kind of goes back to one of these things again it back to the you know I don't know chief level and I agree with mr. Thompson in respect of we have been very focused on reducing you know these unnecessary I guess in some respect of higher paid salaried

093positions and making sure that more funds are back in the schoolhouse but I believe it this dust and a strong message that we're going to be serious about this and I think that we've had as a board a discussion and another venue to talk about why we would need this and how this could help I think we should leave it up to the superintendent to identify where that would be in their wheelhouse I believe that that's the most appropriate manner and so my question being goes back doing necessarily need to amend the budget or is this really just a priority that we direct the superintendent to identify with what's already been established within the budget as she's going through and reevaluate in certain positions all right and and and let me let me jump in

094here for a second so the board's role is to govern our role is to allow the superintendent to make these assessments and to share her expertise with how she believes administrate staff should be allocated duties etc I think that while I would support the essence of a position with this type of focus on equity and inclusion and diversity however I don't feel that it is appropriate for the board to tell the superintendent that this is a you know chiefs level position our role as the board is to say we value equity we want to see a budget that reflects items that will support equity in the division that will support inclusion and then we hold the superintendent accountable to that I don't think that this amendment is is appropriate for a board to be making

095and so I could not support it so let me get to questions that are brought up mr. Jordan Kassim is camps in so I couldn't wait I was just gonna respond to questions I thought were directed at me but I can wait for others if they have questions salsa well I'll say my mine wasn't a question I was just going to respond to some of the comments that were just made as to why now and but I don't know mr. Jordans the measure of the motion wanted to respond to that I'll defer to you but if I didn't later I have creeping John yeah so thank you so number one I agree with dr. Gabriel in terms of the role of the board in governing I debated with myself about whether to push this at

096this time let's just at this time in terms of what my intent was so a couple of things one the question in terms of why now this is not the first time that I've advocated for such a position really what struck me in terms of bringing this for the board for consideration during this Koecher as we've been dealing with the corona corona virus what I believe I have witnessed both in terms of access to computers the differences that we have in terms of curriculum offerings at our schools at the last work session we had at least the work session we had at Granby you may recall the position came up about the Advanced Placement course that was being placed at one school and we kind of had some discussion around whether or not we were

097offering advanced placement opportunities at all of our schools so I think misses Kempson suggestion that that the position be a direct report to the superintendent was really what I had in mind I have no problem whatsoever in terms of dr. birdsong determining what the official title is whether it's chief secular director or senior director whatever may be the real intent for me was was to make sure that we included in this budget funding to support this diversity equity and inclusion officer if at such time we come back later and find that that position is filled through existing funds or whether or not it is supported through the proposal that goes over to the City Council I thought this was the appropriate time to try to make sure that the position was funded in our in

098our proposal okay miss Camden oh well mr. Jordan thank you very much that was that was the point oh and we've asked for other positions but we haven't labeled what level they would be in the superintendent I know we'll be doing a lot of reorganization just like any other new superintendent does so as long long as I know that she has the the authority to go ahead and organize it the way she wants certainly thank you and if I may just one one final comment remembering your mic this time yes I've working on it in the different sessions that I've been in where we've had chief equity officers or innovation officers appear and in some of the research that's come out of then we can add trusts and other organizations the reason why it's been

099recommended that this type of position be at the station level or direct report to the superintendent level is so that we can ensure that the importance and significance of the of the work funnels throughout the entire organization what's been said is if it gets relegated down to a position that's not deemed having authority then it doesn't carry the full weight and merit that it needs in order for decisions to be made so that was also part of my rationale okay thanks mister planning I don't care I agree I've read a lot of the same studies mr. jordan is a men regarding the level however I still believe based on our governance structure it's inappropriate for us to direct and tell the superintendent what level it would be I think that's something that we can do

100in discussion so I just like to have mr. Jordan to restate what his motion is if he is making any changes to illusion they had or contained the same before look okay I would like to clarify the men that we include in our proposal the position of diversity equity and inclusion officer I second that motion oh no we already notes I'm taking notes dr. burns on I just have to come back to you again because while I support the spirit of what mr. Jordan is conveying I am still concerned about how this goes below the line with regards to positions within within your your purview and I just need to you know understand you know from you is this something that I know you said you've talked about it and your executive leadership team if

101I heard you correctly earlier is this something that you know you're prepared to do or is this something that you know you need to have further thought on and then come back to the board based on you know our goals our priorities our accountability plan I'm certainly prepared to move forward with this position again I'm not prepared to discuss at what level that position will be okay the essence of the role of the person I full I wholeheartedly support okay all right then let's go ahead and call for a roll call on this for the position of equity diversity and inclusion I damson Glanton hi hi Martin hi Jordan hi a bro hi excellent alright so those were the four amendments and now I have Miss Smith one amendment I'd like to make an amendment

102to add the instructional specialist and additional instructional specialist to the STEM Academy second okay I'm sorry who made the second okay second minutes camp soon okay so the motion on the floor is to add an additional instructional specialist you want us do you want it to be the stem certified specialist Miss Smith yeah okay stenum certified specialist okay - Southside STEM Academy and that has been seconded by Ms camp sin' before we get into this well no we didn't did we identify the first one that way we know I trusted dr. birdsong is going to hire the appropriate people to put in that position that we don't have to specify it to that extent because in the first one we did not do that thank you okay so the the proposed budget that dr. birdsong

103has put forth is to add a dr. Berg song it was an instructional specialist with a focus on stem at the south side STEM Academy it will be a person certified in the stem area okay going back to your motion adding that second instructional specialist right okay all right yeah that's my first one right I understand dr. birdsong first of all let me just give you an opportunity to come I know we kind of delved into this conversation a little earlier but now we're dedicated to this amendment again I support this position 100% again this is something that my team and I had already discussed and so having someone focus at the elementary level a staff member and then another staff member that could dedicate their time and commitment to secondary would be ideal so

104I certainly would support having another full-time staff member to serve in that capacity okay any further discussion all right well I think that this is a worth worthwhile item to definitely consider as we want the STEM program at the Southside STEM Academy to be stellar and to be on target for being exceptional so let me go ahead and call the roll then miss tanner C hi hi Jordan all right Gabriel aye motion passes madam chair mr. Clinton based on your original statement regarding timing three minutes for the board member and I think that we have exhausted our time with debate and discussion and I like to call the question thank you very much I agree I think everybody has had an opportunity for further discussion so what we have right now on the floor always

105a budget with a the superintendent's proposed budget there is an appropriate second we have three amendments that have passed the first amendment includes a full time grant writer the second amendment is for additional staff security for Norview in Granby high school and the third amendment is for an instructional specialist for the Southside STEM Academy the fourth amendment did not pass because it has been postponed for further discussion yeah but we did the chief diversity didn't we yeah but that's not an amendment I'm my correction that's not an amendment to the budget it's more of a director oh you know I'm sorry right right right you're right I yes no I was my head we actually do have the fourth amendment because I mean the one by Miss Smith so we have four amendments that have

106been approved to the budget miss Tanner if you could please call the roll the scene nay damson Clanton I Smith I don't understand what we're doing you know all that was just me let me restate what we're doing right now you have a motion on the floor this is the this is the original motion the proposed superintendent's budget there was a second within the discussion we had four amendments that Pat and that will be attached to the original motion data before the grant writer the inclusion equity and diversity specialist the security guards for Norview and Granby and the instruction specialist for the Southside STEM Academy what we are voting on right now is the motion amended that what we are voting on now is the motion with the four amendments that's what we're now and

107it was the motion and it is it was through the discussion the lengthy discussion almost an hour and a half that we've that we came to these amendments so that is what you are casting your vote for right and I'm dr. Gabriel can i interject a comment here real quick so when we started off this discussion I mean it was just suddenly decided that we were cutting off discussion or regarding amendments I started off the discussion with some commentary around possibly reducing the number of elementary school resource officers in support of and I cited the the lengthy email questions on on March 3rd and March 10th which includes a lot of different items that I would like to be considered I didn't put it in an amendment form but I certainly think that you know

108there are questions around especially behavioral a board-certified behavioral specialist the current budget allows for five that says that we will get five I would like to know if they're board certified and if they're not I would like to recommend that we include that at least two of them be board certified behavior analysts support our special education students I don't I'm not following why there's this arbitrary arbitrary moment where we're cutting off the ability to make an amendment now if I may because I'm the one that stated it the chair has the ability to decide on discussion in the very beginning she outlined three minutes for each board member and with two minutes of rebuttal we had clearly exhausted beyond that and when you made your initial comments there was nothing to preclude you of a

109scene from making amendments at that time we are now in the middle vote and so I would raised in safe Kelowna border that the the things that you're bringing up now are not in order but I do say that they'd have relevance and I would as a board member myself personally like to take them out of consideration when we come back in May with revised budget but at this particular point they're not in order all right miss tanner we were at miss smith for the vote yes Miss Smith I don't agree with what we're doing right now but I do this is just crazy but I do support the amendment that have been agreed upon in this budget while it stated that the amendments or concerns that mr. Singh has to have been addressed she

110wasn't given the opportunity to address them so it's like we can't we can all right let me look we can't do some things and not do others we didn't we didn't stick to the time frame at all but it seems like when we want to cut it off then we want to stick to the time frame I'm going to go ahead and vote YES though for this this budget Martin hi Jordan I Gabriel I the budget is with the amendments okay all right well I will have to say that we actually I thought that our discussion was very good and for those who put forth their statements directed as amendments I believe that we discussed them we had good discussion about that and we came to conclusion through appropriate procedure what I would like to

111say is that with regarding to the budget I know that we started the process early in November and that we've had several meetings that have come across to that and I know that we are probably going to be experiencing some changes as it comes back to us from the city and I'm prepared to be very flexible as it pertains to what the city is going to be able to contribute to the budget in order for us to fulfill all of the items that we want to for our students what I would like to say to everybody is that we are meeting electronically the are folks with an agenda planning dr. birdsong mr. Clanton miss Tanner mr. cloud to try to reorganize our schedule with regards to board meetings I know that we have allocated the

1121st and 3rd Wednesdays for board meetings however in light of all that is happening with regards to students having to do education from home I want to work with dr. birdsong so that she can maximize her ability to provide the support that she needs to the building level providers and so the board essentially would only need to meet if we are to be doing actionable items or if there is extreme discussion that needs to take place for advisement of the superintendent she is communicating to us through emails through telephone calls and I certainly appreciate that so at this point in time we have loaded on the two items on our resolution on our agenda the resolution for the pandemic emergency and the superintendent's proposed budget we will be sending the budget over to City Council

113with the four amendments and that officially adjourns our meeting thank you very much thank you