001all right well welcome everybody this is the meeting of the equity policy Committee of the Harwood Union Unified School School District School Board um call into order at 708 looks like um so first item of business well just uh we have our agenda we're going to approve minutes um take public comment and then we're going to move into discussion um I move to approve minutes from last meeting uh I don't know if you have to second yeah I don't know either if we do and I'm able I will uh any any objections to the motion all right proving the minutes the minutes are approved uh board members present um I'm the chair of this committee life legeros ducksbury Tori taravella um from Waterberry is that how you pronounce your name Tor really close terabella terabella
002thank you and Mike are you officially part of the committee uh superintendent is ex officio non voting on all committees so yes yes great superintendent chair that's all that's in the board policy wonderful um members of the public I don't see anybody else here so I don't think we have any and this is not a this is not a panel situation right Mike so if there was somebody we'd know we would see them okay so next item of business is public comment and having no members of public present um there will be no comments at the moment so moving into the agenda um the plan here is to sort of talk about the resources from last time um that were on the agenda and I think we could actually just go through them and people
003could highlight what they like Andor just if there's questions that we want to bring up to each other and discuss and then we could start thinking about whether we have some ideas around our draft and or our our our guidelines for the equity policy and then I suspect that we might want to do another round of resources if people have come across some things that they think would be great for other people to look at um and then we can by that point think about where we want to go with the next meeting so does that sound good to everybody all right so thinking about the resources that were in our list from last time um I almost feel like we could start from the bottom of that list and go go up because I
004think the educational quality standards are are a nice foundational piece since that's something that um baring some strange developments looks like it should be put into place and approved in the next little while um and of course we're uh we need to follow those regulations so um why don't with each of these we just kind of start with were there things that jumped out at people in terms of things that you liked about it things you have questions about things you wanted to highlight um for us to keep in mind around the educational quality standards um yes so I think I think just on this document kind of looking at it I think one of the things is when you look at like the vsba equity policy like the example um they have Implement like
005an implementation section A lot of the model policies that we were looking at to and I think one of the districts did it I'm just blanking right now but um we can wait Elizabeth hi I literally was in the calendar today going why do we have no meetings in our calendar like I'm just you know what I'm saying and I had like man put it in my Google so my apologies I just got back from harw Lu cross game so nice oh good how'd they do um they moner doesn't have the strongest team right now so they won perfect yep coolies we were we were starting yeah just starting we were going to go bottom up from the 59 2024 agenda and talk about the resources so I was just about to comment on the
006um e yeah thank you uh and I was just saying that I feel like you know the vsba model policy doesn't have it but I pretty sure another a different one that we were looking at and I'll find it um had under the eqs updates it has like promote critical thinking around history contributions you know it has encourage students people provide welcoming spaces and I feel like that could be a really helpful thing to incorporate into our implementation um in some way especially those little little things but otherwise it was it was very helpful um resource and educational yeah cool was um that piece you were just speaking to is there like a a reference in the eqs draft the language that you just noted is there a place we could find that and not
007it or we talk it's like it's just in more General but it's they have like a couple in the like those cute little like bullet points with the figures like on page two um I know that's like broad but I feel like we could take those statements and narrow if needed kind of thing um MH like the statement of purpose piece am I looking at the same thing I'm looking at the the eqs draft and seeing like page three it's got the statement of purpose which a lot of that is new language I was looking at right up above the eqs updates on page two it has like that picture of like the person with the gears their brain question mark in a circle and all the hands in a circle okay I see in
008the um the what do they call it the uh plain language kind of version yeah yeah so promote critical thinking around history they got the person with the gears encourage students to explore questions about ethnic and social identities of the question mark what yeah and it seems like something that um like I said could be useful to incorporate in some way to like capture the updates um in the implementation section of our policy if we wanted to go that rout T what page are you on I'm sorry I just I opened up the eqs I was looking at the vsba model Equity policy but it sounds like we're looking at the eqs right now yeah so on the you know what hold on can I share screen that would be helpful just to make sure
009we're all looking at the same thing Mike can I share screen okay you should be able to now thanks all right right sorry I'm looking right here these guys because it's kind of hold on if you look at okay theirs was wildly long and Bonkers um going back to this uh sorry so it just seems like something that could fit kind of in implementation cuz like the vsba one has like this section that says like the district will systematically use yeah and and continues on and it seems like since these are the updates we could kind of use some of this language to put into our draft is what I was thinking um so we're looking at the and again apologies for being late the vsba model under the implementation those bullets and commenting on
010those is that what we're doing right now I'm switching between the two uh to be honest yeah sh some ideas um the idea Elizabeth was to work our way through the resources and just comment on what we what was you know good what we had questions about we just talked about starting with the eqs because that's kind of foundation everything um okay I definitely I've got some good notes here as well I guess you can't see it that's interesting it's blurry so I think when others are finished I'll sort of jump in as well yeah go go ahead I think uh um you know like looking at the vsba one and you know some of these are going to be more specific right with the policy and I'm going to defer to our legal councel
011on the phone on this I get a little concerned of statements like you know the school board holds itself in all district and school decision makers faculty and sports staff accountable for building a district y commitment to equity like those statements scare me and I know that we want to make sure that people are truly committed to this and I think you can do that via the policy and the procedures but when I see a statement like that I get scared about people literally coming in and suing us and I just I have to just put that statement out there that felt like a really strong statement that I think we have to be very careful of because if like literally board members are putting themselves out there that you know if people see that
012we have this policy and and we're saying that we're doing you know these certain C certain implementations and people then perceive that we're not doing that you know statement like that just makes me feel like literally personally like legally accountable now and that scares me a bit Could you um so this is in the model policy from vsba yeah I mean did you just have that one up for you or I'm happy to share it yeah looking at have it I have that I kind okay I kind of have like that but then I like added stuff and moved it but I know what you're talking about you're talking yeah about the second sentence sentence right here yeah and and just something like and then I'll comment on the the second state uh I'm sorry
013the third sentence here where it says uh incorporate principles of equity within all policies programs operations practices you know Tori you guys and Danielle have done an unbelievable job I think with um the procedures and the policies and every the policies I should say that you've been working through really making sure to bring the equity lens in and putting the correct placeholders for example but it could be that certain policies you actually don't it doesn't mean that you're not examining them through a lens of equity but when I see this and it says that you're going to incorporate the principles in all right like it should almost it should almost like all applicable exactly I just I think we have to be careful and I know we're not using this meeting for word smithing per
014se but I think this sort of sets us up for developing our own policies that I think we have to we can have big Ambitions here and I think we're going to end up with you know a great policy but I think we have to be very careful with some of this language because this needs we all need to be on the hook for the implementation the accountability of this and we have to be realistic that this language makes sense sir I mean you know one thing about the model policy is that VBA has you know vetted it legally so my friend was the lawyer on that she just actually left okay yeah I was G to have coffee with her next week just to get caught up on that so I was going to
015get her opinion on some of that um but just because their legal council looked at it doesn't mean that is and we all know in the legal world who already knows better than me certainly uh that there couldn't be other interpretations that could open us up to liability yeah something to consider I think we can always yeah yeah we can definitely consider it um double check with ours uh and there might be way just add you know like a a tempering of it or or whatever um but I do think you know for for all the policies that we've been going through how you want with my memory um for the most part like the policy section like in the policy like that upper part is like really like these are our goals and aspirations
016and this is what we are hoping to do with this policy this is the oversight of what we are hoping to accomplish with this policy um whereas like implementation is is I feel like the more risky area of we could be held to why didn't you follow this if that makes sense it does I had similar thoughts where you know when I look at the implementation and I know maybe this would be more in the procedures but there's no indication of frequency you know I just feel like some of that language is vague you know yeah like and that's that's something Danielle and I have been coming across a lot in some of our policies so like we have been adding you know and the superintendent or design will check in and report to the
017board annually or by anual you know every you know twice a year or whatever and we've put in sometime parameters so that's definitely some that we can consider doing with this I think that would be great and you know some of it's around you know the measurement in here too um I'm trying to find specifically need my glasses anyways but yeah I I think we need to to be clearer on the frequency there the other comment ahead was you know there's a lot in here around culturally which I think is fantastic when we're talking about like ethnicity race and so on um where I felt like this was light was I felt like there was not enough on disabilities and poverty in here um which I think is very applicable because in here it's you're
018supposed to also look at you know the demographics and who you're dealing with here in terms of your particular community um and I'm going to share and I know in public here I have a student with disabilities and I've had to really come up to speed and be his Advocate and it's been an interesting process as a parent because you know a lot of the feedback I receive is your son's really lucky that you're so involved and you're his Advocate and when I hear that that scares me because not all parents are going to have the time you know the the the will the knowledge the access to be able to educate themselves to be their child's Advocate and so when I see this I think you know especially when we're looking at the number
019of kids we have on IEPs um I think it's really important that we maybe take a look at this and just make sure we're incorporating in those who have disabilities um and then again through that poverty lens as well I think that there's opportunities to really strengthen that I agree with that definitely um I'm trying to find where oh it was the first bullet point systematically use districtwide and in individual School level data disagre disaggregated by race and all of these uh to inform District decisions um you know my question around the data was has that data been identified and so Dr Mike I think that's kind of a question for you as I'm trying to understand you know know what data exists what data exists that were you know required to capture um and
020just that feels pretty vague to me and it feels like we might want to add some more specifics around that without stepping into the procedures area but that just felt a little vague to me uh probably the best I think I mentioned it the last meeting the best information we would have would be some of our data we collected for the uh federal civil rights data collection it's called the crdc that's something I could pull together probably when school's out we could pull together the summer and take a deeper dive into it and it's probably despar I mean you you obviously have you know the the disability type um data and to a degree you're going to have the poverty data too so it's probably just bringing all those components together of all the different
021groups we've identified in here that we want to make sure Incorporated and cared for in this policy yep absolutely um and I guess last point and then I will stop dominating here is um there's language in here about providing access and I thought that was interesting because again you know thinking through you know these different groups it's one thing to provide access it's another thing to provide support and encouragement and I think that's really important um you know it could be things like Athletics and actually I don't know if everyone saw in in Waterbury from porch Forum there was a really nice note from a senior student who's an athlete and she was advocating around the budgets but she said specifically that Harwood has done a really good job of making Athletics available to to
022most students as in you know those who otherwise perhaps maybe couldn't afford to is sort of how I read in between the lines but just because you've made it afford able doesn't mean that we don't have people who are actually like really advocating for these particular groups and making sure that they're involved and again you know understanding how to participate right it's not like oh well you know we have a way for you to do it it's like actively encouraging that participation or that access such a great Point that's what I have to start yeah I think that last piece comes out in the um the the plain language that uh around the eqs that Tori was pointing to right one of those four kind of icons was providing a welcoming space so often you
023hear this put in terms of belonging right we're going Beyond just like you know inclusion just allowing you to come be part of things but we're actually creating a situation where you can Thrive you know what sorry I'm going to dominate one more time because again this is an observation um that I had again is being a parent of a child with a disability is that um I've worked with some absolutely phenomenal teachers with my son through middle school and now through his freshman year some of them really know how to work with his particular disability which is dyslexia and disg graphia some teachers just are not as capable and it could be that they haven't had the training it could be that their branches don't think that way it could be that they already
024have their hands full you know delivering the class room this is not a criticism my point is actually that some of this accessibility or some of this training maybe we're actually better off having pockets of teachers and administrators who are almost like Specialists who can help to support these individual groups versus sort of and I'm just going to use a broad term here like the peanut butter approach which is we expect all our teachers to be able to provide you know an absolute best learning experience for you know this particular disability because many of these classrooms there's multiple challenges going on at once and my observation is these teachers are doing an absolutely phenomenal job trying to you know maneuver you know between the curriculum the learning styles of this that that's extreme extremely challenging
025and what I found works for us and for our family is really working with the teachers and just getting recommendations where your child has this particular learning style these teachers have been shown that you know they do a really good job with that there could be other teachers that work really well with Advanced students or people who have you know other cultural needs um so I don't know if you guys have perspectives on that you know when I look at this again we have staff we have teachers that have so much on their plates in terms of what they're trying to deliver day in and day out and I'm trying to you know it's like how do you educate them continue to make awareness have the professional development that everyone's getting but how do you
026I mean does it make sense to have Specialists or people who are just a little bit more capable in delivering some of this um that could also provide you know sort of safe spaces or accessible spaces for these groups as well yeah I mean I think that you know my take on that is that there's um it can be a little tricky when we're talking about groups because like as you pointed out before like there's there's a big difference between students with specific learning disabilities and other groups that might be listed in these policies right like by race or poverty or something like that yeah yeah so you know I think some of some of the things you're saying I think I agree with in sort of General ways like there certainly can be times
027when students need to connect with adults that you know maybe share their identity for example as a way I might think about it around something like race right you might have an affinity group um but you know that's always for the purpose ultimately of you know full or belonging right so um you know I think same with disabilities right ultimately we want kids to be in the least restrictive environment want them to be mainstreamed as much as as as possible and practicable so it's not that there's not a place for those sorts of things but just um I think you know a lot of these principles and and I really appreciate the um the tfar statement around this that you know the principles really give this idea of continuous learning right that like nobody's going
028to just achieve and be like I am the expert with you know every student of this type but there like a striving that we're all trying to create like a collective space um because that's the beauty of of public schools right we all come together into in a common space and so students are learning what it's like to belong in with across difference so I think that that's got to be at the core of things and then how students are you know provided specialized support I think is going to look different depending on which of these um Dimensions we're talking about so I just if you want to say more about what you're thinking like I I just I it makes sense and I think again I know that you know perhaps disabilities is is
029slightly different and I and I believe anyway I'm not going to say I know but it appears anyways from being in the schools that certainly there are Educators who have stepped up to provide you know safe spaces for um some of the groups that we're trying to cover in this Equity policy and I say I guess that was being the point right is we can't make every single educator and administrator an expert on all of this and so it's like how do you provide that sort of broad-based Education like you said so it's it's like ingrained in the fabric of of our schools but that you have these Pockets you know that um various different groups know that they can tap into that are perhaps a little bit more specialized in terms of what the
030support that they may require yeah I mean I think one of the complicating things is just like you know the extent to which this umbrella term of equity and when you're talking about all these different groups groups right um you know the extent to which like many of these protections might already be in place in different ways through different policies or federal law and so I think that's a one piece that's a little bit complicated is like not wanting to repeat or be you know totally redundant um with some of the other things that are already out there that are probably have a lot more detail behind them um so you know I'm trying to think like and I think your your perspective you know with your kid and thank you so much for sharing
031that and bringing that openly to the table I he'd be I think he'd be fine with it I mean he's pretty open about that you know so um I just wanted to put that lens in there as well you know that I think that's part of what we're also trying to solve for is making sure those kids feel like they also belong right absolutely totally right so that that's a great example like they might already have some legal protections around you know you have to have an IP and you have to have you know this many meetings and you have to have the goals on the IP and get access to these services and maybe this policy can kind of you know give a nod to that stuff but also like maybe this the the
032value ad here is speaking more to that last piece that you mentioned maybe it's more about what is what does actual belonging look like you know for students with different sorts of disabilities in our schools so I like what you just said that I mean it's it sounds like and I think we had talked in the previous meeting too is an action item for over the summmer is making sure that we do taking an inventory right so one being all the policies that Tori and Danielle and others have been working through right um but two is just getting that full inventory of everything that we're doing that's sort of like encompassing where we're already taking action and things have already been implemented and really tying those back so that we can then do I think
033a gap assessment right to see what else we might need to also put in place absolutely and you know don't want to get too far in the process at the moment but that's part of my thinking about when we're ready to bounce this to some District folks because um I would love to to hear from teachers and students um who are involved in this work and try to understand like what what they think that they need from us um particularly in terms of protections right um there's folks out there that you know without it being written in stone sometimes feel like they're sort of you know taking risks because this the stuff can be you know it can be emotional and it can be tough and you're going to Garner push back um so I
034think that's part of that inventory that you're talking about eye picture is trying to understand like who are the leaders in our district right now who are not only doing amazing things maybe in their classroom but are also you know connecting other Educators to think deeply about these issues and things like that and what do they want to see in writing to feel reassured that the board has their back and I would just add in addition to protection is that advocacy piece right so again you know thinking about those with disability or poverty and making sure that we've got embedded advocates for them encouraging them you you know the help they need the voice they need learning to ask for accommodations being willing to talk about you know wanting to try Athletics or theater or
035something like that where perhaps they haven't had that exposure coming out of their homes at an earlier age um making sure that we've got that advocacy Pie as well absolutely I mean that's another place where people have to stick their necks out a bit right be like pushing on the system it you know if I come from a home where you know Mom and Dad didn't have the money to buy me cleats to be playing soccer and all these kids have been playing since the age of four but they're really interested in trying you know how do they know where to go and the fact that there are resources you know when I was literally just at the game right now we were talking um I was talking to the head of the booster club
036and we were talking about that like getting some aggressive fundraising around our Athletics one because of budget cuts two because I think in the booster covers theater as well so it's Arts it's all extracurricular but how do we do a better job of getting funding from let's say businesses so that we have enough funding so that there's never a financial barrier for anyone who might want to participate and I think that's really absolutely and and you know we know that people are already doing this work and just having it in writing that like something they can point to and be like I'm just not doing this out of the goodness of my heart or because this happens to be my kid involved in this point as you said like not every kid has parents with
037with the time or wherewith all to do that advocacy so I love it um I I would love to to just bringing attention to the the eqs language itself um so this would be the um in in the last agenda the from the ninth this would be the second to last little sub bullet bear there eqs draft changes one above the the one that says plain language um because I I continue to be struck I mean I've seen this draft language for a bit um but like on page three under the statement of of purpose are people able to get there or would it be better for me to share I've got it I've got it cool um I find that you know that all that stuff there that's sort of underlined is is new
038right that's you know track changes sort of thing so you can see they cross out a couple things but um so if you were to kind of like you know cross your eyes and imagine without the underlining stuff this statement of purpose was formerly pretty sparse you know basically said continuous Improvement and attain rigorous standards in high quality programs um and now they've added um you know that paragraph that starts in addition to the non-discriminatory protections so they're kind of reinforcing there's already some things in place and they're talking about General Life or activities of a school and then they have like I think they've expanded that list right and that includes what Elizabeth was referencing around poverty they call it socioeconomic status here housing status um and then that next piece where it says
039these rules further require um this is this part I feel is is a is is a major change and kind of reflected in the plain language stuff that Tori was pointing to um but but it says culturally responsive pedagogy that critically examines and imparts a comprehensive historical and socially conscious understanding of and then it's got that sublist with a c and d um and I just I think that that part is so powerful and I think a lot of times as Elizabeth said like Equity scene is sort of an access thing and so to go beyond that to belonging I think is really important but here we're really seeing you know a lot of curricular and instructional kind of implications around like what we're trying to teach kids about um so understanding around you know
040history and um you know systemic racism and discrimination um and so I just you know and it ends with the strengthening of democracy in the United States and globally so there's like a big Civics component um um so I just think that that part's interesting because you know I think this this part kind of reaches Beyond demographics and you know says that like all students all of our students should be learning this stuff and quite honestly it's very ambitious um but I think you know as we're thinking about our Educators out there that you know some of whom have been doing this for years having something like this in writing and potentially reinforcing our policy I think is is really crucial can that be part of our inventory as well because and I thought I
041was reading something today I mean I I thought we had actually in our um in our supervisory Union already implemented quite a bit of this and and again I mean whatever quite a bit means you know that's personal perspective right you know um but I I would like to better understand how that has already been built into our curriculum today yeah I don't Mike I don't know if you want to comment and that's something we can maybe I can bring shann and Leslie to a meeting and the two of us could uh kind of go over what we're seeing in schools we certainly have a lot of work to do in that area and that's I think one of the intents of T and and some of the work we're doing to uh that I
042think a policy would help us with but but there are some elements we have Incorporated and certainly some practices that I think are good uh it's just that we need to do a lot more work I mean as a parent again I've got a child ending their freshman year another child who's ending uh her her fifth grade year my experience through especially I would say you know again looking especially back over the past four years or so at crossed Brook in my son's curriculum this year I mean I I saw some I see this embedded you know when I was there having teacher conferences literally you know walking through the hallways or looking at the materials they were doing and again I have to help my son with some of the stuff so I'm getting
043firsthand experience looking through and so when I see some of these bullets I'm like I know they're getting you again is it enough I can't answer that question you know we need to Define what enough is but um yes so I think that that invent would be important for us all just to make sure we're all on the same page of what exists that's that's fantastic um and I'll just share that you know my kids are one of my kids is about to leave cross at Brook and they're both there right now and also I've seen I've seen a lot of it um I think it's also sort of you know uneven sometimes it sort depends on the teacher a bit um I've done some professional development even offered some around equity in the past
044in the district and there's certainly some you know folks that are across the Spectrum in terms of their depth of understanding their comfortableness with bringing it into the classroom um and I certainly know of people who are doing you know really powerful work Andor have like a lot of um understanding around this stuff that you know are very care ful and or sometimes worried you know getting pushed back from parents um and not always sure whether they're you know it's fully fully sanctioned and embraced and I think that's a balance that we're going to have to strike you know um in terms of and again that's why I'm saying what is enough because there's going to be some part of the spectrum that's like this should be 100% of our education and then you're going
045to have the other Spectrum in the community that says get this out of the schools right and we need to understand and strike the right balance I think for our communities and do so in a way that is not pitting our community against each other and I mean this is just going to be a really delicate balance right and to try to understand how to do that agreed I I think you know the word balance I I struggle with a little bit um you know I I appreciate the eqs draft language because I feel it's pretty strong and I'm sure you know this this would be you know against the law right now in many states right this this proposal um for draft regulations in Vermont why do you say it would be against the
046law in many states Florida well that's one state but you know you know Mississippi what what of this proposed language would make it illegal um talking about you know the where is it promote critical thinking on the history contributions and viewpoints of many different ethnic and social groups like that would be a no-o I will be completely honest I have friends that are teaching in Mississippi and they have been told to teach their children that the Civil War was purely about economics that's it interesting okay um so and they they do have state Auditors come into their high schools to make sure which is Wild on a lot of levels um and unfortunately they are not the only Southern State going that direction so life could I ask you just to elaborate perhaps on your
047comment around um my choice of words around balance yeah I mean I think that you know it brings to mind you know something like um both sides kind of thing and so you know if there are people in our community who are advocating for you know positions like um the ones Tori was just mentioning which you know are have you know these laws are I don't know a dozen maybe 15 20 States recently have passed those kind of laws around um teaching about Race and History um as well as lgbtq issues um you know I I don't think the policy necessarily needs to take like a middle ground on it I guess I would say which when I hear balance like that's one possibility that comes to mind um you know these these issues are
048contentious and so I I totally agree that the purpose is not to divide our community but it's you know it's likely that there will be some people who aren't happy and to push back and for me the eqs helps us see kind of like Baseline what's you know imminently you know regulation in Vermont anyway and so it gives us you know it gives us backup for our policy to be backup to our Educators and so just to clarify this e e language this has been accept this is drafted as of or has this been accepted this was draft as of May 18th 2023 it's like in the process of being accepted so I believe the State Board of Education has to um approve it twice yeah and I believe they've approved it once okay that's
049that's what that's my I might be mistaken but I not that's my understanding of where they are in the process okay and then the eql so once once they then approve it then it basically we are like mandated then for this to become part of our curriculum so then so then there's no debate I think my comment around balance had more to do with you know some people are going to think that you've gone too far and some people are going to think you haven't gone far enough and I feel like part of our job is board members representing all of our communities and all of our town is trying to make sure that we're finding the common ground as much as we possibly can because you were never going to appease everybody but I
050think using this once this is approved again that's a starting point so there's no debate right you know we can that's great now if we said this is a starting point and we're going to go Way Beyond this that's when I'm going to step in and say we need better balance here because there's always going to be people who are saying you're not doing enough and some people who are saying you're you're going too far but if we already have this you know that that's what I meant by balance okay I I appreciate that clarification and yeah I mean my my personal feelings like the eqs as our kind of baseline or backup however you want to put it is good like I don't feel like we need to you know shoot for the stars
051Beyond it I think it's it's solid and thinking about okay what does this look like in policy how do we reiterate some of it how do we bring it into our cont context to me is like a fine goal for us um yeah I think that you know this gets into kind of like the the weird things about democracy right there's the whole like what what most people want so like we're kind of representing our constituents in that case um but there's also the the question of how we protect the rights of the minority right and so just even you know when you're thinking about school budgets right people are going to point and say wow why are these kids so expensive and things like that and the fact is like Our obligation is to
052every individual student and so um you know I do like that in the model policy that it just mentions I think pretty much all those policy examples say it in one way or another just to be very clear that Equity means providing more resources to some yeah and you guys are used to my measurement statement which is again allocating the money is one thing but making sure they're actually getting like true benefit and that we're measuring you know the intended value creation of you know making those Investments uh into otherwise marginalized uh communities I think is is important so I think that's just the hot button right with you know act 127 which is okay the money is going there but there's no does not seem to be any sort of tracking of how that
053money is literally being spent like on those particular groups and I think that this is me and my soap box I think we can tighten that up and and in our Even in our district because again I mean Thursday is going to be telling U whether this budget passes or not we still have a large percentage of our community who's you know unhappy and I think the more we can do and Dr Mike and team are already doing this they're doing an amazing job having stepped in and just in one year like improved our reporting so much and the community newsletter and everything's like a big step in that direction but I think um it will be important as we you know Express us and socialize and I think this is something we can be
054proud of to go out to the community with our Equity policy is backing it with numbers and showing people that it really makes a difference Mike were you trying to say something earlier uh just that uh it it was just affirming something that was said I think you were affirming that was your understanding of where the model rules and practices are standing yeah um so I mean life I don't know if you want to continue talking about the resources but I kind of started this small draft of the equity policy I kind of like took the vsba one and I took like language that I liked um from other policies and threw them in there and stuff and I did it with in edit mode of the Google Docs so that you guys can see
055what I added um I'm just throwing it out that I do need to skip out a little bit early like in the next 10 15 minutes um I didn't know if you wanted to take a peek at it or not yeah absolutely I was thinking we should talk about the other policies so this would be a great way for you to communicate your thinking yeah okay so if you don't mind I'll share screen please um and I am obviously open to changing this I will actually I'm just going to do this right now and share with you um so that you guys can have edit access to this too just so you know if we want to play around with it um in between meetings and you know just go in and do I when
056when this is not necessarily that we have to do it this way but when Danielle and I mess around with the policies we do it in the suggested mode so that we can go through and like say like I don't really like that and like exit or I like that or you know so and plus so we can keep track of how it changed um between all of us so um so I took the I took this the one from vsba and then there was another section in it from another policy that you know started out with like the district leav equi the foundation of excellence and I really liked that so I kind of just added that in um and combined it with the first stage statement that was the first sentence that was
057with the the Vermont School Board recommendation I also like took a couple other different sentences from other policies that I liked um like this next one the school district is committed to inating inclusive educational opportunities um and same for the one below as well um and then definitions I didn't touch a lot a lot of the policies have the same definitions um and I also just didn't feel educated enough to feel like I needed to add anything that doesn't mean that I'm not open to adding stuff but um can I just ask you a question on the definitions again sort of perspective um you know when I saw especially the definitions around Equity I was like these aren't definitions I it didn't feel like definitions to me it felt more like introductory language sort of
058like level setting but it didn't feel like a formal like definitions and I know a policy is a little different than like a formal legal document um yeah no I feel like I do feel like it could be tightened up a little bit more like even if you see like culturally cultural that one well I mean that one looks more like a definition than educational Equity looks like a definition um so I do think that needs editing I just wasn't prepared to do it to the um but I yeah I agree I think I think it needs to be these more like goals right identify and remove in inequitable pract like that to me feels more like a goal than a definition but I do feel like we need to Define educational Equity um agree
059which um which part did you say sound like a goal Elizabeth identify and remove inequitable practices examining biases and creating inclusion I mean to me that that to me is not a definition that's like an action you're taking you know so right so I yeah I feel like it should almost be like an actual definition of educational equity and then like a separate section of educational Equity goals maybe you know like I mean the way that's written right the definition is at the beginning and then it says working towards these involved so I think it's like is defining the out the outcome of equity and then what the process might look like yeah out Clarity though I think is important yeah did you what did you think about the um Essex Westford definitions let me
060it up I'm stop sharing look at it yeah when you say something like educational Equity occurs when to me that doesn't sound like a definition of what it is maybe I'm I think I think that's a matter of wording I think we could do it I think that could work but it just needs to be word smmi better this I mean that's kind of how I feel about like Equity about these ones about the other ones as well yeah it might just be wording it could be Equity is providing what is needed to support their academic social emotional and career development you know Equity is providing something like that yeah so I'll throw that into the other one just for fun um and I mean like like I said we can definitely we I I
061kind of envisioned what I was doing with my draft um just like let me kind of dump everything I want into this and then we would make it look better and read better um kind of thing that's a great you just yeah just so we have something to to start with um life I'm going to be I'm going to be advocates for just making sure again that we're covering those with disabilities as well as the poverty in here too because it yeah so it does it does in the in the language up at the beginning and in a couple other spots it does say ability and like right here it says ability and then it also says like family economics and then um further down when it like gets into it more it does say
062socioeconomic there we go socioeconomic background so I do think that's in there but I am totally like please I I I think yes the whole goal of the committee is that we like make sure that it is really in there um Mike were you saying something uh you had mentioned the the Essex Westford definition I like that too so I just link that and put it in the comments what they put as a definition oh I just straight up copy and pasted it in here so that we can just yeah well and also if you scroll down to the the bottom I mean they have like four pages yeah of definition right they really have like the first two pages are the thing the the policy where you know they kind of bold some words
063and then down below they have you know four pages where they Define each of those terms yeah I do think theirs is a little unwieldy um like I I I I could be wrong and if we get to this point and we're working and I'm happy to change my mind but I just seeing a policy that's six pages makes [Music] me nervous I feel like it's just doing too much like how much of this is should be procedure like how much of this would be better linked as legal resources you know how much of this would be better linked as you know check out the manual you know like I I mean if you if you look at the four pages of definitions like a lot of those terms um you know may or may
064not appear in our policy but if they are appearing in the front matter I do see why it's a good idea to Define them 100% I do I do think if we use any of these we should definitely take it but you know like use their definitions of the jumping off point I just I I I almost like it's just so unwieldy I'd rather start with a simple one and then like add stuff and instead of start with this one and then try to parse it down but that's just how my brain works on the process so that's I'm right there with you it it feels like this needs to be more you know whether or not it relates to our procedures whether it relates to our curriculum um I think if we start trying
065to bring all these terms into the policies and I'm just going to put on my community hat here I think we could cause a lot of angs that I don't think we need to be bringing to the table right now I'll just be honest um and I think that we can make sure to get a policy that is comprehensive and all-encompassing without bring in all of these terms so maybe maybe it' be helpful um to just take a step back and just think kind of around some design principles for it um because I think what I'm hearing you say Elizabeth is um being thoughtful about terminology in the sense of not in um necessarily um turning some people off and or I don't see that these terms need to be in our policy I mean
066I I think that you know using the language that we just saw in um in the eqs as well as the what's the other one that we were just referring to you know the Vermont School boards Association you know I think we use that language in the policy and yes am I trying to not use language that immediately is going to trigger potentially people in the community yes I'm nodding my head yes I'm doing that because I think that using the language that is already provided by these two other organizations is encompassing it is not excluding these terms but I think it is encompassing you know but there's I mean there's stuff that like they put into their the the Essex Westford School District like they have anti-racist defined because they use that word whereas
067we just don't use that and instead say education that is you know conscious of all these groups and I feel like that's saying the same thing without throwing in a definition a word that needs a definition later you know so um I mean I agree with that to a certain extent also just recognizing that um the eqs uses that term so like I mean I'm just thinking of a a design principle you know I I just kind of jot it down for myself you know be thoughtful about terms that could unnecessarily um use the word trigger Elizabeth anger um generate reflect exive push back you know I mean there's there's certain words like if if genocide in there you could say there's going to be some people who it's going to get their well let's
068use that as an example we need to be talking about genocide we're going to say that we're going to use you know different cultural perspectives in terms of historical events like to me that is a statement that I feel confident we can go out to the community in I think if you start bringing in some of these other more specific terms and that's not to say that those are not terms that are going to be in our curriculum in our training um but I think that there's a way to do it that again is all encompassing without more explicitly using language that I think can set off people in the community that might result in push back and I'll just be honest personally I I think that we I'll just say it again and I
069started this meeting and I started last meeting by saying it you know I'm Amazed by how much hardwood already has in place and I think once we do the inventory I think that it's going to be comprehensive does that mean that we don't have gaps I think we'll have gaps and I think that we'll be able to put procedures and trainings and everything else and Reporting in place for those um I would not support putting anything out there that I think is going to be and I'm going to use a word again like triggering to the community is especially right now where I feel like the community is very worked up about our educational performance our budgets and so that's not to say that I'm not behind this Equity policy but I think it can
070be done in such a way that we can deliver the objectives as required or as as actually as required with the eqs without you know upsetting people yeah without upsetting those people who think we're going too far I mean I will say so far like some straight up doing a control find on the terms that they they included um and I got all the way down to Multicultural so I'm on page two of their definitions and that is the first one that we use in ours um so I just to me the Essex Westford policy feels like that person that thinks they're super smart and is trying to explain things to you in aggressively intellectual terms and then it makes you feel like an idiot that's the vibe I'm getting from their policy and I
071don't like it um I just feel like there's a an easier way of getting the message across than a six page document so I think that you know if we're thinking about other things we want to learn about one possibility would be to do some learning about what the process was to bring that policy because I think that's a good idea yeah I I mean I don't know the full story what I do know is that they have a Dei coordinator there who's a very learned person well respected who worked um with a lot of people in their community and students so um it was a very collaborative process um and you know I think that I I totally agree you know that ultimately thinking about guidelines we want to have something that can be
072um you know that's why I said it's not unnecessarily you know triggering slash causing reflexive push back right we want to be thoughtful um and we want to have something that's understandable to people um so that you know again our advocates in the community can look at it so the teachers understand it so that's going to you know we're going to not want to use a lot of like super heavy academic type language for example technical language um so I to me those are a couple of guiding principles but I do think we you know as a community have to come to terms with the fact that we are I'll say that if we try to write an equity policy that's not going to piss anybody off I say that well I'm just saying it
073but like because because it's tempting right to think like we could just write and we could have like a Kumbaya moment but sorry I mean just to clarify that I'm not saying don't piss anyone off what I'm saying is let's focus on as much Common Ground as possible especially in our current environment where people are extremely worked up about our Harwood unified Union School District right now that's what I'm that was my comment and I think that there's really good precedence that's been set by a number of other school districts that have come out with policy I think that you've got the Vermont School Board Association you got the Esq language I think there's a lot of really good starting points I think you go to the Vermont School Board Association they've had grants out
074there some of these schools have brought people in lots of expense lots of community debate very heated that has gone on I mean I looked into some of this it has gone on for multiple years I think Mont peeler still hasn't even accepted theirs because they've been doing a lot of heavy analysis and I think we need to question I'm going to use my phrase that I used the other day around time box and I think we had set that our desires to have this done by the end of the year for a variety of reasons and that is not to say that we wouldn't want input from the variety of groups that we've already identified we want groups from I'm just expressing my personal perspective here is that I feel strongly about having this
075Equity policy I do not feel like I can support an equity policy that is going to cause a lot of uproar in our community especially given our current environment where I think we need to do more trust building actually with our communities right now um as far as input from the community too I really liked I think it was Washington um had a thing at the end of theirs that said this Coalition will act in an advisory capacity um and any recommendations they make shall be timely shared with the board I liked that paragraph I don't know if we have um a coalition that's willing to partner with us on that level of like letting us know and having it in our policy of like they will let us know if they notice in equity
076within our schools but I I I enjoyed um that addition by are you are you referencing the Essex Westford when they talk about an equity advisory committee I don't know I'm I'm it was Washington Central it was yeah thank you yeah Washington Central like at the very end of their on their last chirra it said they had a coalition but I oh the humanity and Justice Coalition yeah MH um so I like that uh and if we have a similar resource that we can use I I would like to explore possibly having a similar paragraph to that in our policy um but I do need to log off and I'm sorry that I have to go off early uh but I did share with you my really little draft uh if you guys want to
077poke around on it and uh maybe we can you know life if you want to maybe we can kind of look at it more in depth um at the next meeting do we want to talk about a time life before Tory jumps off um do you have a second Tori yeah yeah I can I can hang on for a one more okay um would a Wednesday an off Wednesday from a board meeting work for folks yeah the next one is the fifth right so that would be next literally next Wednesday or the 19th is the Mex meeting the 5th or the 12th sorry the next Schoolboard meeting is the 12th so the next off one would be the 5th is what I have in my calendar me too okay cool I've I've gotten a couple
078of them wrong people more inclined to meet in a week or in three I'd probably be I have a I could be good to meet in a week if that works for everybody else I may be a little late we have our Mad River Valley rotary uh member night talk about the survey will appreciate that what time does that end it's supposed to be 4 to 7 okay so if you want it to start and can join afterwards yeah if you're okay with that yeah that's great are are other folks good with that next Wednesday is fine sorry yeah okay what time on next Wednesday are you trying to jump I feel like Tori keeps trying to jump no I no no no I just was losing the connection so I didn't you hear what
079Mike said was the only problem he's gonna be a little late uh but next you're thinking next Wednesday yeah okay that's fine what time should we do same time sure :30 and I would suggest that we take a look at um I I I would love if other people like to check understanding on this um when we hand it back over to District folks to be able to hand them some draft language as well as some kind of design principles like what we're going for so that as they start to work on it they know like okay we think that we're still fulfilling what you're asking for so maybe next time we can all bring some ideas around the draft language we can mess with the tor's piece um but maybe we can start with
080those broader design principles which the ones from tonight I just had jotted down from our conversation is that piece about I don't have the language right but being thoughtful about terms particularly ones that could unnecessarily make people angry triggered Etc um making it as understandable as possible with as um less jargon as possible and defined when needed so clear definitions when needed so those are just a couple I'm thinking if we have a few bullets like that to provide them with some parameters and then here's our current draft um that I think that would put them in pretty good shape to be able to give us something back in the fall are other does that sound good to other people is a that sounds good come back with edits and come back with some of
081those design principles yeah okay does that sound good and I guess if anybody has like particular other resources that they've come across that they think could be useful to look at um like Elizabeth you were saying you've been looking into a little bit about some of the process pieces with some of the policies like if if you find something that you think would be instructive for us I would say it's probably not what we want to do because I I think again I feel like we set a desired time of trying to complete this fight at the end of the year I think there's a lot of really good preceden that we can borrow from I don't think were in a point or place never mind I I'm not sure how the community would feel
082about us spending money bringing in paid outside resources for like a comprehensive one or two year you know process but that's I I do think that the community groups that we send it out to are probably going to give us some resources to look at as well when and I think that's they come back um so I I I think honestly them coming back to me with resources is going to be much more effective than me attempting a deep dive on this on my own um is kind of my thoughts good point we'll have we'll probably have more homework to do after we yeah get them involved definitely okay all right so we have next meeting we have some ideas for it I'll put together formal agenda any anything else uh my calendar for you
083know my hardwood email but literally the meetings don't show up on my calendar and is that because we keep like re forwarding the zooms or what is well there there's two pieces like I just sent out a calendar invite for next week yes I see that normally Curtis sends out a zoom link I I sent out the link this time because uh he had a finance committee meeting and we couldn't reuse the same link so okay okay and apology for the mixup I actually had in my calendar for today and tomorrow and I was assuming it was Thursday for some reason so my apologies for the mixup problem um Elizabeth before we go I'm just wondering um did were there other model policies or other pieces that you felt it sounds like the Essex Westford
084do you feel like it it's it kind of goes over that line of having some strong language and maybe some dra my opinion right because we're all in a spectrum right you know and so there's going to be some people there are like that doesn't even go far enough and then you know some of the other policies that you I feel like the policies that you shared is just like here's some examples yes that was probably the most comprehensive and probably you know push it a little bit you know here and some of the other runs maybe would be more in the middle and so you know we're all feeling what the community is feeling right now and it's really heartbreaking you know around the school budget and you know our communities are really torn
085right now and so you know my concern here is how do you make this comprehensive but how do you do it in such a way that is not fueling a fire that has already started if you will and there is increased um focus on our schools right now not just by typically it's the parents you know who are sort of focused on what's going on there but I think increasingly more and more people from the community saying what's going on in those schools anyways where is this money going what's going on with test scores and all you know all this other sort of stuff I mean Dr Mike's got his hands full with us um and so part of this can is also capacity right and so I want to make sure that what we
086come up with you know is feasible and we'll be able to better understand that I think once we have like the full inventory of what we already have and where the gaps are so you know my reaction here is just you know is that reaction to what sensing in the community right now and making sure that maybe we take you know end up with a policy that feels a little bit more Middle Ground um but I don't think is neglectful um but maybe is not pushing things as far as perhaps some people would want to and and I totally agree that with that and I think a lot of it is is framing right and so again for me thinking I it's helpful for me to think about you know terms that are unnecessarily triggering
087right like there's ways that you can say things in different ways and you know a lot of this language has been very politicized and so you know sometimes you almost have to create new language potentially and I think you can cover again this policy without getting some into some of this terminology you know I think that's where Tori was going which is we don't need a policy necessarily that again could be publicized right where we're trying to educate the broad P public you know our job is to educate our children right and I think a lot of this terminology is going to be embedded into our curriculum into our training of of our staff and so on um and so I think we should use the appropriate language and definitions necessary for us to have
088a comprehensive policy um and I think tor's point about do you need four pages of definition it it's a lot it's extreme I I did not see that these other policies have that and your point Elizabeth but what you want to do with the policy is to give put kind of the guard rails and the parameters for the administration so we know what that's right do I'd be interested to do you what do you think about the tfar statement uh let me pull it up again and you know I had made the comment before I mean it feels like T far folds under you know this Equity policy essentially um let me just pull it up I have read it I just don't have it open in front of me it's a little confusing because
089there's like a draft at the top and there's a lot of comments but like if you scroll down to the bottom you find where they they come out you know the tfar statement it's it's a statement um what is the question in terms of the tar statement how it relates to this policy and do we borrow and ingrain the tar state into our policy is that your question I think that my my question is right now this is the best representation we have or you know the only sort of you know Equity related um expression from Educators in our district um so so I'm just being totally honest here because it's really the only way I know how to be um we acknowledge racism in our community is still happening I don't know if anyone
090saw the Waterberry front porch Forum um post by Meredith um that's a teammate of my sons that is heartbreaking we know he's a fantastic child and for him to have a racist comment I I didn't see this what was it did it was um you didn't see it anyways it was um why I can't I think of his name tan Tegan who's a fantastic kid and he's a lacrosse player and um he was riding his bike down river Road and and somebody yelled out the window racist slur at him and his mother posted something about on front porch Forum today as I've been reading saying on top of all the Schoolboard stuff um so is racism happening in our community it 100% is happening in our community absolutely when I see something we acknowledge racism
091is in our community is still happening if we mean our community as in our schools then I'm going to say okay then like that's a community that we have been tasked with creating policy for I get concerned when we start making statements like that if we're trying to imply the broader Community because I don't feel like that is our span of what we have been tasked with and again I'm a believer that clearly racism is happening in our broader Community but what I'm saying is we've been toked with my Harwood Harward board is this community and if we want to say that we acknowledge racism is still happening in our schools then you know that I can agree with I don't know if that makes sense but I think these are the things that I
092think personally I want to be careful with because I don't want to come out with statements about like here's who we are as a broader Community because I don't feel like that's my place right I'm not mayor of you know this community or whatever um my job is within you know the walls of our schools that's my personal take and do you think if that was change to racism happening in our schools that that would be something that wouldn't I mean it's still it's would concern this is an equity statement so let me ask a question here like do we need an equity statement I feel like we're being tasked with we have an equity committee who is being tasked with what if our job is to come up with an equity policy then the
093question is what what are we trying to do with this Equity statement is it important for us to have this Equity statement as a preamble to the policy I I mean I think if you look across the range of model policies um yes it's kind of unavoidable at a certain point you're you're going to have to make some statements of principle and give some context right and I have a hard time like this needs to be more comprehensive than we're going to be courageous lifelong Learners who act seek to be anti-racist again I've got a son with learning disabilities I get phone calls and have for the last couple years because you know kids are taunting him in class because he can't read right you know so that's not anti rist but that is you
094know the happening in the classroom so this has to be more comprehensive or the's coming in with poverty and the clothes that he's been wearing all week long because he's got one change of clothes you know it's so what I think that this Equity statement needs to be much more comprehensive and it obviously I mean this is coming from racism you know Coalition or you know through that lens so if we want to look at that as a starting point right that's fine but we're gonna have to edit this so to totally I I think what I'm what I'm just asking you to reflect on a little bit is that um you know for me the policy um it has to be centered on the needs of those who are um being harmed by systemic
095oppressions right and so people are experiencing things um due to their different identities and in some cases those identities are currently marginalized or traditionally underserved so you know even in the eqs you see all this language about history right and some of the stuff that Tor paint posted in there right so like you it's it's hard to get away from that stuff and that Stu has been you know constructed in such a way that some people are going to feel like it's attacking them to just even owledge that you know some people are getting the wrong end of the stick because of their identities and so you know for me the equity policy needs to Center those folks it needs to Center their voices and their needs and so as we go through this process
096however you know time bound it is if we're to do it authentically we're going to want to hear from those folks and so when those folks say like you know if we have kids in our community for example who are experiencing racism who say hey um I I would love for my school to acknowledge that I experience racism in my school or even broadly in the community and therefore our school has an obligation to you know provide a welcoming space for me in school and to try to propagate out some learning that's going to help me in my day-to-day life even when I walk out his St or whatever they ask for is what you know what I'm saying we are if we want to respond to that authentically we're it's going to be unavoidable
097to get in some places where some people are going to perceive that they're being you know attacked or that it's a zero some game and that as we're elevating some of these voices or identities that that we're threatening them we're taking something away and so like I totally hear you like we got to like be strategic about it but um I think that we have to also be ready because the way I think about it is that we have the power and the privilege to be able to say like let's put this in writing so that people who don't necessarily have the power and the privilege that we have are are in a better spot are better protected and that we're putting some more things in place for them to to be successful and to
098thrive and I think you and I are probably in a common place on about 80 % or maybe 90% which is great I mean this is the whole the whole purpose of this is to find the common ground and for us to represent that totally so again I'm just going to restate that I know there's going to be people upset on either ends there's going to be a group that says you're not going far enough and people who are like this is we don't need this this is worthless focus on math reading and whatever else science and I'm not trying to focus on the extremes I'm trying to to focus on the middle and I think that when we use statements like you know our community I think we have to that there's a perfect
099example of where you need a definition by what we mean by Community totally super important because again if if we're saying we're coming up with this Equity statement for our community and it goes beyond the doors of our schools we have to be prepared for feedback from our communities who are saying who are you to tell us what are Community is we're asking you to define the community within the walls and so I think that is probably discussion point and and an alignment around a definition that we just need to align to totally with you and I think that that thinking about how Equity fundamentally caters to those who are marginalized yeah that just kind of like complicates it a little bit you know when you're saying like in the middle not once you know
100what I mean and it's is yeah it's just hard to talk about this stuff with without it feeling divisive or feel like we're putting people in groups because you almost have to to like try to pick it apart before you can bring it back together in the end but there is certainly some people who are not in the middle per se who are on the margins who need to be included this and potentially even prioritized so completely agree and so again when I when I say people who are going to think you're not going far enough I'm not excluding these groups that have been articulated you know very clearly in this eqs you know that's that's clarified right and so I'm thinking more broadly you know our voter bases and people who are starting to
101look on under the hood that that's what I'm saying I'm not saying hey we're just not going to bother with those certain groups that are in the eqs because they're you know over I hope I'm being clear about that um yeah okay again I think we're we're on the same page but I think that that Equity statement needs work should we decide to use that is like a preamble to uh our policy yeah and I I was just using that as an example for the moment because as we know that's you know definitely focus on racial equity which is one part of the bigger puzzle right but I'm just want to anticipate that as we open up the process to um leaders in our district and community members that you know there's going to come
102a point when we're called to say like you know are we willing to like you know take some heat um on behalf of folks and and I would also say that as we're looking for um we should look at exactly who that is and making sure that we get that broad spectrum of of feedback and again I don't mean like The Fringe right I mean but making sure that we're not going after groups who are like you know that's what they do day in day out um but other people I I mean I can I can think of some people in our community who might be able to provide some really good feedback um me too that that may that may not be those particular groups that I think are coming top of mind that
103we want feedback from I I wonder Mike if it may be too soon and not good timing but whether it's next meeting or the one after whether you might be able to bring some folks you know who who might be some of the holders of the the next phase of the process when we're ready to kick something towards somebody who can be involved in some of the conversation you can maybe think a little bit about who that might be and what the timing might look like okay that sounds great I'm sure somebody it's sort of a busy time of year maybe next week but that's all right people are passionate about this I I don't think weable getting one or two people great Elizabeth I really really appreciate you engaging like this is like you
104said how we can find the common ground and how we can like work through you know I think doing this kind of work it's it's really unique and difficult to do in such a public setting that you know that we're being recorded because so much of it for me is like just it's very personal work you know I'm constantly thinking about my own identities and you know so you bringing like um you know your experience as a parent into the conversation tonight like just so appreciate it and I I I totally agree I think we like have huge overlap and then just trying to figure out what's it going to look like in writing in detail that's that's the work we're going to do together and we have such a resource in new life and
105you know obviously the Deep expertise that you are bringing to the table as well and I have no doubt that we're going to be successful in in bringing a policy that we can be really proud of and that our school Community as well as broader Community can be proud of as well thank you and I'm I'm definitely in a you know a learner and shepherding a process you know facilitation mode like um you know I I I have no illusions that I could just you know go lock myself away and write a policy that would be workable like I think that your your idea about we have to find the sweet spot with our community where it's specific enough to make a difference but it's has enough support that we can really have as close
106to a consensus as we can get totally agree and that that's going to take a process so yeah and that's one of my objectives just on the side here is I'm wearing you know representing atics tonight Dr Mike trying getting people try to get them jazzed up for the not quite Independence Day Parade the theme this year is Athletics we had the boys varsity team one States we're lining up our lacrosse boys team to win States our bass fishing boys won too there you go yeah and you know despite all this despite we don't have this huge budget and these great Playing Fields we've got these Scrappy hardworking kids and I'm starting to talk to parents and I was gonna like I want to get our school out there I want our kids our coaches
107like on those floats drumming up enthusiasm about our schools because I want we need this community glued back together again I I it's really been heartbreaking sort of this Feud that's happened around the budget so I'm just putting that out there I don't know where that's going to go but sort of that's my passion right now and the other thing is regardless what happens with budget we're we're going to start getting in front of businesses and ramp up some funding on that side too that's great awesome well sorry we went over time folks really appreciate you hanging in I've learned a lot tonight um and we'll see see you all in a week is that what we planned all right next wedes to it take care