001a little bit more I want you to have um thank you you're welcome yep that's fine if that makes sense ready okay I will call the meeting to order it's agenda daytime and location we're properly announced thank you for coming tonight uh we will start off with the approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of June 19 2023 is there a motion to approve d Katie is their second so Mr Chris Amy oh okay uh any corrections discussion all those in favor please say aye aye opposed motion carries then we have the um purple we have donations and no donations okay then that takes us into payment of the bills is there a motion to approve for the month of June the amount of 988 317.33 Chuck is there second Chris any questions favor
002please say aye aye opposed OSHA carries and the cash summary um I just wanted to thank Patty she's not here to she has a grand her grandson is having a birthday party at the baseball diamond so um but just a a little nice little um increase in our budget if you look at Transportation Aid on the financial summary here uh remember we took some of our extra resources and paid off a couple bosses by doing that our transportation aid went up and um it was actually 200 000 and we had budgeted so we'll be using that in some other areas that will help us with some storm sewers and stuff the next year so we ended up a year even stronger than we thought we were going to which is always a nice surprise so
003thank you Patty even when she's not here she's helping us and public comments I don't have anything Gary we'll let you speak okay referendum discussion okay so everybody has the enclosure here um next month I'm trying to uh two weeks ago they have the the kind of the digital walkthrough and it's spray it is good for a reason so I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about the design we're doing the walk through and getting to see some of the design pieces Chuck Arena you want to talk about some of your thoughts as you look at this um it's really cool we're all very everybody on the review team or we all thought it was really nicely done I don't know what else to say it's going along quite well I
004I some of this stuff was where they're going how we're able to to do this in a fiscally responsible way but have it look the way it does has been fantastic Bray has been great Partners um I think we're finding ways to put money more accounts um and things that will make our school uh look special and look like a place when kids come in feel professional um what we're we're making Common Sense moves on and that's the piece that's really cool next month I've asked parade that will actually have a video of what it's going to be like to walk in and walk down the hallway so I'm hoping next month we'll have a quick little 30 second 45 second video that then we can share on the website so uh you get to
005see three still pictures this month next month I'm hoping for something a little bit more true sightings and what I really like about it is you know attempted the whole school and it's not it doesn't hold a piecemeal there's continuity with all the colors and I thought they did it yeah you're going to hear about how there's different colors for different areas and how they come together in some areas people way smarter than me that came up with some of those things but it really brings it together so so with the common sense approach we talked about um I asked Mike to to come today because this conversation started about a month ago um and I I shared with in front of you uh budget uh preliminary budget analysis so um as we've been going
006through this we have planned and and what we told the group of us are doing let's try to do everything we can with the allocation that we have the 29.9 million and when as we were going through this process we got a little over our budget we were I one time I think we were two million dollars over so Mike and I took some time in June and we're trying to find where places we could save money where's the money we can do this let's make sure we do the things that are common sense what are some things we can do um ourselves and and every time we get to another part we really talk about what makes the most sense here and and having Mike on our team and just you know who know
007he's a licensed like uh electrician uh he's just good in a lot of areas he asked me he's like you know what he's like what are we getting for the air handling units if we replace for a million dollars we're replacing air handling units in the Middle School what are we getting he's like right now air handling units back then were Motors and chefs right what kind of improvement is a million dollars giving us so we went into a meeting two weeks ago and asked that question and their answer was well you're getting individual room um exchanges instead of game room and a couple other things and from that discussion we also asked and Michael about to kick this over to you um the the other thing we're looking at is as we put a
008new addition on the new edition has a rooftop right so because we need the new caffeinasium to be air conditioned and then we need a rooftop unit over the business lab so that needs air conditioning and then there needs to be a replacement of the old one that was in some other areas I think Mike just asked what are we doing why why do we keep doing these little banded here Band-Aid ear banded here is your way we can do differently and what you have here is a few hours of discussion and then a lot of hours of could we instead of doing this Patchwork put a rooftop here do this could we actually get an opportunity where we could put air conditioning in half of our campus and keep their handling units the way
009they are in the middle school and by doing that get half of to our goal of being air conditioned or at least temperature controlled and make the next half a more logical step so Mike I I wanted to kind of Kick It Off from there because I know you usually man a few words but uh um what did I miss in that I mean I think you explained it great you know you know like like you said I I just questioned why we're replacing um you know a million or a million and a half dollars worth of air handlers down in the Middle School area um you know that yes there the equipment is but it's good and it's inexpensive to fix when it goes out and you know because prior to immediately talking to
010a couple of members you know I said you know we're we're going to spend a million million and a half dollars to fix something that isn't broken and when it when you walk away and we say we're done with the referendum we're not going to have anything other than we've had prior to that I mean so and Mike is right you know you're going to add this spot here and that spot there and then you're talking about all of them have to add this Rook Handler here and and you know tighten all you know do some typing from here to there and and basically you know rigging the stuff to work you know when maybe we can move These funds to maybe finally get something that is done for once you know instead of spending
011money down there and like I said not having an air conditioning and doing it basically uh you know not believe today we should do it to make it work and then when we're done with the referendum we're going to have a bunch of passwords and then it's going to be when's the next referendum and you know like I had said previously noticed my second referendum and we've been talking about East since 2014 and quite honestly since 2014 and you really don't have any more AC than we had in 2014 normally extra AC we have is Jim stuff and that's because broke and we had to get new stuff in the middle of the year that's the only reason we have an AC there by the way we wouldn't have any more AC today than we
012did in 2015. Mike is it fair to say that if if we do that second after we add air Vision high school for completing what what started capability for cooling but they didn't actually put Cooling in rights that are on this and were put in that have the that is all you have to do is smoke opportunity to have these right at that time you know I don't wanna I want you to understand too that by you know blowing the the original route that would be the same thing that they're going to do down here too um you know they would put new Air Handlers in and they would and they would be AC capable once you've got received but you know I'm just I'm still in for staying the way we are moving our
013money into this area because you know like I said once this referendum is over when's the next one you know then you got what 10 15 year old equipment that was AC ready 15 years ago so we put in AC writing equipment and we never know we have we have AC ready equipment right here that is you know five eight years older so I feel like my understanding my recollection from back then was it doesn't cost really more to have it AC ready correct we had to replace whatever the problem was correct so we bought stuff that was AC ready instead of buying stuff that wasn't because it was basically the same price I think so it wasn't that we are we want to do this but we don't have money now it was if
014we want to do it or it makes sense to have it if it's going to cost us the same thing it probably cost you more than not buy some piece so that's so it's a good prep back down but it was the right Common Sense extension back then and now we're just able to fulfill and if that's where we want to spend money and and just for clarity we're not looking for approval retirement so this is an action we're looking kind of like a blessing like yes this makes sense to continue moving down this road but I think after a discussion reading Chuck and us felt like this was a bigger discussion than just the two of them and that's why we're bringing it here um and in you know the the last part that's
015up here is uh I brought back the question because we did ask this question to the staff of our community um way back when when we did that and we asked them you know would you support air conditioning if it cost you 25 for every 100 000 worth of property so if say you have a 300 000 home it's going to cost you seventy five dollars more a year uh we had you know was it 40 55 said yes another 12 said you know but I'm undecided and really 32 percent said no so the difference between this conversation is we're not asking for another 75 we get to do this with what we what we proposed in that first question so um but I wanted to make sure we pulled this out to show there
016was support to do this we just found a different way to do it that didn't cost somebody twenty five dollars per 100 000. it's air conditioned to what it is you know there is there isn't going to be any more air condition that if the air conditioning that is already there right now but instead more substantial than in high school or is it like are we is this change changing to the elementary middle school or not as air conditioned as it would have been in the old way like in the original no but the high school did August all this all the new stuff going in if you go back to what the proposal wants to change the air handlers and the rooftops in Middle School Elementary the pipes are going to be sticking out
017the side of it you're not getting any more AC on this before they're also 99. does it help um like just in case there'd be another pandemic qualities um we don't we aren't running I I guess I'm not gonna I don't know I wouldn't know how to answer that I mean the only thing that I could say is I'm not sure you know like I said you're going to what we have right now you're not going to keep anything different than in these things filter in there or something the thing that the thing that connected it when Mike when Mike asked he's like you know what I know this is 60 stuff but if something goes down I can replace a motor and it's back up on it you know like it's it's almost like
018the difference between working on a 1960s car compared to a car right now and and is there still going to be air exchange are we still going to meet code are we going to still do those other things yes um but you know the thing I did want to say that you kind of spurred a thought on it and I had a question what about summer school well this part of the building is air conditioned now we can look at what does that mean for summer school maybe summer school needs to come upwards air conditioning so so there are some other conveniences that would come from this um and to me it seems like we're getting a bigger bang for a buck for Less it is really and it and I would never even have
019thought of it if it wasn't for my consumer to install but when it comes down to um Mike and I aren't elected you guys are so do you get to say hey continue going down this road or uh now you know stay here with the original budget the other thing I want to say about the original budget when the group came through this is our first discussion on HVAC through this process and everything is our Architects come through and they just do their best guess so this was really our first time to really put some horsepower behind it um and I'm proud of the work of the team to get to this I know the people from Fredrickson you know they kept saying you know what this part of the district is screaming for for
020air conditioning um and they came back really quick to even for less money they're saving money and saying this was a really Common Sense way so they got excited about how they've been doing have this conversation in our survey questions and create Better Learning environments so I think those are benefits you know my thing I had a conversation today too a little bit about some other things you know if you plan on opportunities but you couldn't you couldn't assuming that we're going to fix the drainage issues and stuff like that but I think we all know where this place okay so do I think that we are going to have a fully um you know get rid of our moisture problems and like I said I know that coffee has come a long ways in
021my life tremendously with the little it's all wasted if you just finally maybe put something together that is done I think the community would you know um infection with Gina that brought up too we came back in 15 we had the fit me um changing now there isn't new events around that system 59 Edition s once you get down here like I said you guys choose to order three to get the air conditioned to the so I don't think we'll I think we'll save enough ability that's a point we should have a board membership knows maybe you don't know but it looks like we're gonna have carpeting through almost the entire school and uh my balloon to it's come a long way and uh we're very I think happy about me about some of the
022things that have been chosen um and I hope and I think it's the way to go nowadays we looked at a lot of different options but choice and it's a great point that that when you can control your air temperature to the extent that you can it'll be beneficial especially on those moisture days where you can take the moisture out of the air with a AC unit so yeah I guess I would have to the input from you guys to the way you think you should go well I still have questions on this what we're talking about original Network um because I'm wondering if we don't need to spend the 1.5 which thank you very much for pointing that out but yeah thank you then we were already happy with not having air conditioning can
023we spend the 1.5 or the 1.4 on something else then step like the whole fact Road and whatever else like the other things that we had to cut that more people would be affected by that might be safer whatever whatever category you want to put it I mean we have a lot of things that we cut out of what we wanted to do and if we can get by with what we currently have in HVAC why wouldn't we use that money on some of these other things So the plan that we have um and then as we bring It Forward um is the road is going to be part of the plan right now and actually I think one of the things that we're going to be doing that's a bonus on top of all
024the things that we had hoped for we're going to be able to to find I think the one thing that is still out there that looks like it's going to be able to be afforded is the classroom Link in the high school the road is on and now recently we're going to be doing the storm sewer over so right now all the things that we thought would cost us 34 million we're finding ways to do it for 21. and it's It's a combination of two things we went to a referendum at the opportune time and we're not spending a lot of money right now and the FED keeps doing us a favor by Jack and Ninja Turtles so um those type things are going on when we get to the points of going out because
025you have to remember it goes to live bid um and and when we have these planned and all these other things it's going to go out to our um out to the the different contractors but we're feeling like we can do this for the between so I we could find somewhere else to go with that but I'm not sure we would have to do that all right then talking about Carpeting and mold and whatever is there going to be carpeting in the elementary middle school or is that all being up here because if they don't have air conditioning if they're going to have a problem with Carpeting and mold and because it's not temperature control yes because that's where we always have the problem with water coming up through the doors I with the antibacterial
026and carpeting that's out there I don't have those same concerns with that I mean we're talking about polyester and rubber and all those other things I I don't see that as the air conditioning to me the mold thing isn't something I feel strongly about I think something might felt strongly about yeah I guess it's just kind of a probably me being a little old school and um you know do I wish I could have a hundred percent of the building at least or under AC control absolutely I just you know if we could find the money to do that too right away let's do it um I just well you found this money so find it for it do you know I think the areas and the other part of the school that are extremely
027high moisture been chosen for cooking stuff would handle that is that right it did not come into our platform there is some yeah so there is some that uh not everything is flooring some of it we're doing epoxy um for that so yeah yeah and you know we have a problem back there and we're actually you know we're hoping to fix some of that and I agree with Mike still we're in a lawyer right it's going to be wet here but I'm really hoping we can actually break ground on that this fall and start to move some things with the storm Seward to finish up some of the work that um was started in the last referendum that I think is going to get more water out of here too so I feel like we're
028you know I think we've said there's a lot of things going to on sexy things um when you see our parking lot and storm sewers and you start looking at the millions that are going into plumbing and electrical and things like that there's a there's a lot of those things I feel comfortable that they're being fixed through this and um I I feel like the things we wanted to accomplish in this can get accomplished and as you know when we haven't gone out to bed yet we have we have chunks of money that are there just for a contingencies I'm dating and things like that so we're being very smart and we're fortunate to be with a team that know what they're doing with this and know what we want to do collectively and maybe
029between Randy and Chuck Mike myself Susan um Sandy you know everyone else do this I've been pretty clear on what we wanted to accomplish well I mean if we're going to get all the stuff we thought we wanted why not if they're if it comes up that we can't I think we need to evaluate that and that's called value engineering what happens is if we go to bid and it's more than we thought then these are other conversations we'll have to talk about so I would say that there may be something we would want more than yes and that would be my only otherwise something sure it sounds great I feel like a mid-sendix [Laughter] and you know when we get to this we're going to have you know it it's it's so like okay
030this part this part this part when you start seeing the budget and all the things that we're doing um none of that is really concrete on how much it's going to cost until we figure out who a contract is how much they say we will still have more very difficult conversations to come this is just uh anybody else have any other thoughts or is this still Wonder like sort of the same thing if you like if the community sees it put an AC and that was something but if it's within the you know yeah one of the first questions we had was we brought this up was was just that what was the random questionnaire and how will people responding to that because I didn't remember even that somebody brought this up and so like
031the support was there but he just children further on it it surprises me a little bit because I would have said this before it wasn't there for any of the things except the difference we were counting all of the undecided we're older there's more support if there wasn't a sport I don't even think it really happened right yeah this was a resounding no back then I think that they would be different right but because we saw this for like one it's still not we said in the question the remainder of the building and we're still not accomplished in that goal so we're closer should it yep okay so this doesn't mean we get air conditioning which means we're going to plan a budget going forward with this and um next month uh Nate is going
032to be coming with kind of an update of where all this is so you'll get even more in depth we'll spending more time on it okay thank you everyone thanks Mike thank you Michael thank you it'll be really interesting to see there's a lot there's not a there's not a section that's not getting touched you know and this is a big project for one campus to get all of this so we'll see you know like I said we're not done with tough conversations yet alrighty thank you uh building reports I'm going to start it off today our second session is from the school is going to be completed about children and 50 students doing well I've seen a lot of applications it's exciting um I'll be checking over for Julie Miller within the district for
033the Jumpstart program um as you can take the province through the 10. um just looking forward again to meeting all of our new friends and getting to know them you'll see summer work so we've had different groups of teachers at all the levels are coming new coaches uh Sandy and I have for 250 matching 250. summer and yeah so it's been that's very exciting our money is staying local we're working with Eugenics uh Paul golden if you know him we're finding some ways really helped us design what we wanted and other fantastic to work with so hopeful we may have some of our kids making our own furniture another man so moving on the strong culture um so they have been coming in and sometimes very close sometimes in person um phone call I'm just
034getting to know the weather and um but talking about something that they're proud of me um and along with that we're building leadership team suits I'm just sitting down to look at our spoken fluency and I'm just supporting the building leaders work now the leadership together that we're focusing on a construction one circular strategy that the teachers this is towards our goal s administrative treatment instructional approaches so we met years as well as the instructions ways there at that time high school is already working on it s community service day for September and it all is working on incorporating as a part of that plan so really excited and finally our strong Community as you probably have seen enough and getting ready to do the performance by Birdy yeah any questions thank you committee reports
035we had administrative and support staff committing that Matt's not here so we met and uh we have some things that we need to do later for approval and talk a little bit about compensation for administrator there was we are yeah okay look at that he's trying to spend it on that yeah so we got both those things here yeah we'll be talking about later look at that great job Mike that's fine yeah administrative contracts is there more proof Katie is there a second Rini uh any questions or discussion all those in favor please say aye a post motion carries thanks for staying with us guys thank you we're loving it and we love our new team too so we just keep going it's fantastic uh support staff handbook is there a motion to approve Chuck
036is there second Amy any questions or discussion like like there's a sort of weird wording in there on the moving violation stuff but I think there's just a free visit next year I don't think we need to do anything but I'm gonna forget so I just want to put this out there okay and we'll do that we'll have to do it in the policy first to get to the handbook it's about moving violation and justification okay we'll make the note and all right okay any other questions or discussion on Staffing a book all those in favor please say aye all right a post motion carries uh teacher handbook is there a motion to approve so we'll Chuck is there a second Chris Amy Amy sorry any questions on the teacher handbook all those in favor
037please say aye opposed motion carries and we have a second reading on here for the policies 8600 8800 and 8802 is there a motion to approve certain property if we would like to discuss them separately should we do that before there's a motion Scott yeah well so I just so the two of them was like the transportation one and then there was the 8800 that I have a question about and then oh there was vote so it got separated like the religious one and the Patriotic one I took Transportation I'm fine with the Patriots okay um so that this at the first green paragraph but yeah so this one is the one where I've got but concerned and then my suggestion to participants a little lower but so where it says staff are expected to
038avoid circumstances where the staff members depression religious views to be recently construed as an endorsement or approval of Massachusetts I know I brought this up last time we talked really briefly about it but then there were other things the whole thing right but and and I think it's fine for us to say like that doesn't mean that we would have gone after that High School approach that was the whole principle but I don't think that that's what that says I think what that says is that if a citizen wanted to complain is that one of our coaches was allowing students to come out and pray with him that we would have a problem with him and so uncomfortable with that wording but I think one of the ways that we could fix it is a
039little bit further to the student part so where it says that's good so where says students are not prohibited by this policy um or any guideline that comes from each policy from engaging free individual and voluntary exercise or expression I think if we said students may have staff or staff and students anytime so students there that I think then says we are not beneficials right so I think we could leave that other paragraph and just add staff and students to this part that would concerned does that make sense distance yeah so I have staff at the beginning so so my version of that paragraph says staff and students are not prohibited by this policy or any guidelines promulgated pursuant to this policy so we gave them the three individual and voluntary exercise or extraction of
040the staff members and or students related however such exerciser expression may be limited to lunch periods or other non-instructional time periods on staff and or students are free to associate for on an individual basis in a manner that does not disrupt the education now I'm not a policy expert but I know when it gets to this there's different rules for students instead feel like in this one there's a staff section and there's a student section and I feel like that's the reason man if we if we want to make a change and I would say we should probably just um and we probably need to have it go back to Neola and check and see us how this will disrupts the fluent policy and all those other things so it seems like the first paragraph
041that it's saying that the staff cannot like towards their opinion on the students opposed to the second paragraph is more you have a right to do it alone you know your beliefs are doesn't talk about the you know promoting that onto the students yeah I mean they are different because of the roles of those two demons right I just think the first paragraph that deals with staff makes it sound like you're not allowed to have anything to do with prayer in or out of a school that the school might be like so after a football game right still it seems like if there's Life School event right but if a Coach is enforcing the students to come out there but has a prayer session after a bunch of students come up here institutional and should
042be but I don't think it is like I think that that paragraph does say that that would that could be a problem if anybody saw that as endorsements and these are your policies choose I can tell you that I think this is trying to thread the needle between free speech and what a district can ask a staff member and what they can ask a student to do so um I'm sure you could give this to three lawyers and they will all agree to disagree on what I said and that's why I would pay them so much money to give us more confusion so I'm fine however we want to do it however we want to do these things but I wouldn't want to touch anything with this but that would be okay for Meola because
043of this and and how this is we know we know we're under microscope in a lot of different areas this is another place where even this conversation can open us up to oh I see it this way and and some of those as you say our choices are to either second reading improve it or just say no and then we go back to the drawing boards and accountable to the process to get there because because we have their coverage so being part of Neola we have their insurance and all those other things so there's all kinds of protective rights with Neola there's there's so many things that they all feel comfortable and then they'll be like well you can still do it but if something happens to this you're not going to get coverage from
044us right Kim I mean that's that's part of the Neola I don't like that we're subject to that I understand that I just don't like the fact that Viola can dictate essentially that's what they're doing what they want us to have based on what their mindset is but we had an individual School District level might not agree with it but we're really compelled to agree with it if we want their protections that's how I see it I'm not sure but don't want to go back and talk to them and I mean we've done this they usually work with us with what we're trying to say we want to learn in a certain way yeah if we don't like the way that they're saying it they work with us come up with something that we can
045all agree on um I guess I I guess I don't really see it huge problem because if you think about you wouldn't want somebody teaching what you don't want them to teach or impose their views on fancy teacher but I don't want to stop them from being able to say a prayer right and I don't think that that does say that in that one though the Supreme Court thing was about but that's what I mean I think that's okay I'm reading it as maybe a religion that I would not want a prayer well I mean I think that's also effective right like so right so that that would be protected but it's not that might be more of a force I don't see that they're being forced or not forced it's just saying that you
046can't um put this on to other people as a teacher you can't say you have to come and pray and you're not playing well yeah you absolutely but but I think we need to go I was supposed to say cancel that I thought it was okay until you hit it too discussion doesn't need the board right now no no yeah you know we will keep you next time I don't know does anybody have any like I think the word the word expected to avoid or those words might be what is making it sound like you can't okay just expected to avoid circumstances I think it's almost every choir concert I go to which I love is you know there are often at Christmas time Christian songs that are some so like I feel like they
047would be expected to avoid these things that's the way that's written that's that's what it makes it sound fun well the next paragraph says nothing in this policy prohibits teaching about various religious and religious practices in a manner consistent with an adapted District course curriculum instruction may include discussions of religious holidays and customs in a manner related to curriculum does not give the appearance of endorsement of one religion over the other services I I know this doesn't get into Christmas songs because it was part of the things we talked with future so right so when somebody who's very committed atheist has their kids in the store but they're saying Christmas on they will say your promising says you can't endure Center I think that's going to happen [Music] and it does say that in the
048studio yeah I think the students are pretty well covered in this policy and what they worry about a staff who want to express their own religious people who think it seems like the schools that goes I do see anything but there's things can come in like some pictures Muslim right to their prayers right make some people uncomfortable but like if we're saying it's completely freedom of speech religion like this do you think that the second sentence helps support the staff members three exercise four religious school is that enough it's like this policy and then stopping exercising there well the thing is that the freedom of speech if we're paying somebody you know they don't have freedom of speech okay so what this is trying to cross that line and what happened with that coach is
049the the coach you know the this came down when the kneeling thing happened in the NFL and all these other sports by rights if you are if you are working for us you should be doing the things that are part of our policy so this isn't protecting people our staff's freedom of speech but it has to protect the students that's why I think it's divided interception where we can't tell students what to say but if a staff member wants to go and say uh incredible things that puts our district at risk they don't have freedom of speech they when it's in their hand drive they won't be working so that's those are the differentiations of this and uh and that's what this is trying to do we're not trying to take freedoms away from people
050when we treat people like professionals but that's that is something with this is um a staff member can't come in and just we're uninsured that they want they have some expectations that they need to have so that would be why I'm okay with that you haven't read the Supreme Court decision the biggest the thing I'll give you the synopsis coach after a game went and kneeled at the 50 yard line District said you're one of our employees you can't do this and fired up Supreme Court now threading like I said this is threading the needle this is some some said you know what yes he was a coach but the game was done so he can do that because it's his time before he goes and reconnects with the player so so the lawyers they're
051putting this together are trying to more clearly Define what's our staff time and what is their time and that doesn't make a lot of sense we'll then try to create policy over stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense and that's why you know and students weren't being forced to do that or penalized for nothing but some were getting and they were it was part of a tradition and wanted to participate okay for the students I have to pray with them and so there's more clarity but now we're threatening with stuff like this and I and that's where that says that somewhere down here that in this policy or in this section but outside of that do whatever you want says that about the students but it does say that about the slap I thought
052that is I think that second paragraph is basically saying that you can teach about about your peripheral right and have part of that but that doesn't talk to them forever and I think the stuff in green is restrictions on freedom of speech but then that last paragraph their students are not prohibited private right here as the public employees that section the last sentence nothing in this policy or adaptation child sure to prohibit or interfere with any staff members free exercise of their religious means and circumstances not covered by the spouse so they can do what they want when they're not on our on our time we don't want them doing what they want we want them to lower your paying them while they're leaving the Christmas concert so after the theme foreign that they're not
053that this is going to prohibit them to do well with uh complaints from somebody in the community promoting Christianity but if we sing about Santa Claus that wouldn't cover that because that's not religious so they sing those two so we could say that there's a variety there we're covering them but I'm saying how how is that what that just that scenario how is that not allowing why is that making us stop a problem because it says that the staff aren't allowed to do things that may Express one religion over and out the statement says staff members aggression of religious views could be reasonable but true that's an environment of the school it says nothing this policy prohibits teaching about it but then it says later that you can't do anything that might be considered fortunate
054for awesome I feel like we do though and I and I know in the lawyer ease view that isn't what this is because that was uh at least we asked the most religious sentences we always sing Christmas songs so I somebody wants to to go and lawyer up and say it does and it doesn't then you know I I don't know I I'm not dying I understand where you're coming from but I don't know what's going to be better and be more clear either what's the process we send it back and we'll meet with them and then we'll do a first reading and second reading so I mean it's I mean I wouldn't want to give up the schools right to say this is what you're allowed to do when you are working for us
055I do not want to change any of that to say they do whatever they want from ahead I think we as an employer we need to have that control right and I'm not arguing that we've said that but wouldn't that change that if we change if we start adding staff here yeah we were to add the word status if it says students and staff are not prohibited by this policy everything above it is then so there would have to be adjusted it couldn't be we can't just put the word in staff students and staff because of how this is I mean if we want to go back to Richard and say how old how can we make show us how we can continue to have our Christmas program the way it is um we always
056try to defend the teacher we always try to stay straight to your dad even though there's really clear to us you can talk about history but it is never going to be objective to reforms just for my experience it's not an act of worship like it's like exactly education perfect so what do you want to do you want to make a motion for uh is there a motion to approve these balancing understand what Katie's getting at but I'm just wondering if it's are we really gaining anything by going back to Meola to get Fair information are we are we going to get what we what you're trying to achieve or I don't know worth the aggravation with the articulation that you know what can confirm for us that are we are not I think this
057is just about a person's purpose or any of that stuff I mean I think limiting sort of the questions and I'm obviously like interpreting what I'm reading here but I absolutely I mean I don't think that the board has the phone and last step either right so like even which I'm uncomfortable in with it and everybody else is comfortable with it right right like I guess I would make the motion that we approach the other two policies separate from this one and then right so Katie's making a motion to approve policy 8 600 and 8802 is there a second Chuck any uh questions or discussion all those in favor please say aye opposed motion carries uh that leaves um policy 8800 is there a motion to approve the Neola changes to I'll make a motion
058enter a second I don't think I can second my own motion I would it's like is there a second you you know we should probably vote on it either way if we're gonna if we're gonna vote it down then vote it down I would my suggestion would be go through the process have a discussion and then we'll do a roll call vote and see if it passes or not and I mean that's that happens a lot more in other districts in our so maybe it'll be a good practice on how to do something when there's different discussions and we're talking about religion when's a good time to practice and sell it so that would be my suggestion but uh this is your meeting so what happens if it doesn't but we still have to do
059something with this policy or leave it as is we can all vote we can vote yes or no on it and then at that point it stays as it currently is until it is Revisited at what I report then I will second is that correct him all right so we have a first and second on 8800 ads uh with the changes that Neola has proposed oh my goodness well we don't approve it then stays as is yep but until we do something about it but isn't that policy already included in another policy and the change wants to separate them but how could it say about this it's been a little awkward because it's got religion and patriotism together and how fast we don't get back to this even even if we don't vote on it
060it's going to stay in sense so let's take a vote why any other discussions we're going to do this by uh hand raising all those in favor raise your hand although suppose raise your hand okay it fails and now we will do whatever's next whatever Tim told us to do next okay great promotion that they they write it clear so that we can have you met a lawyer like something just made changes or asked questions yeah changing isn't it's there's a lot of pre-work that goes into how we want to do it this one is new because this was something they're trying to get out to schools because it's a recent Supreme Court um you know and uh yeah so as you see that's why they keep tweaking the language and doing nothing so all
061right next on the list is renewal of the existing line of credit and um this is something that we do on the regular is there a motion to continue this for our temporary borrowing is there a second so Chris any questions or discussion the nice thing is we haven't needed to use it but we still like to have it all those in favor please say aye opposed motion carries uh we need to designate our official depository uh this is one two uh to Summit a formerly Commerce statement okay and Collins okay is there a motion to approve those as our official depository so move Chuck is there a second Katie any questions or discussion all those in favor please say aye opposed motion carries uh we do have a staff resignation is there a motion
062to approve uh with thanks for his two years of service um Dave Piper's resignation which looks like this presentation or resignation to a fortune so yeah so it's just the community director yeah teacher but then he teach you no now as of right now we're trying to we're trying to get something covered so it may happen but this would be the community correct part of it she had what does he teach someone who's been teaching a couple classes yeah so he wouldn't do that anymore we don't have that right now we're trying to figure out how to cover those things the football club subject of that salary yep yep this is their second oh second Amy any questions or discussion we'd still be doing the training center with the team um as a football coach
063yes but uh not as the work in the women's Staffing will look differently coming forward and we'll we'll have some things next month okay the other questions or discussion all right a post motion carries um new stat Middle School teacher Catherine Hughes is there a motion to approve Katie is there a second Chris any questions or discussion all those in favor please say aye opposed motion carries we have new salaried staff Janet Anderson Weimer Weimer anyone know for uh student services Athletics Administrative Assistant I think it's fine um nothing on 18 placeholder there nope and then notification of co-curricular coaches and advisors for 23-24 any questions or discussion on those I think number 20 is the one we need to really talk about notification of the high school football assistant coach yeah and um academic
064standards for 2023-24 this is something like this we have to have on the agenda once a year to let everybody know what we're teaching any questions on that and we need to establish the times of the annual meeting and the budget hearing we have established that Monday October 23rd 2023 is the board meeting or the annual meeting generally we do the budget hearing at 6 15 and the meeting starts at 6 30. is there a motion to put those times any questions or discussion all those in favor please say aye opposed promotion carries and informational okay um I just uh since our last meeting the state budget uh especially around schools has passed and as you know one of the things we've been talking about for many years here is as a district we are
065one of the lowest purpuitable allocation um districts along with uh some of our friends in this area and the state budgets helped us with that area so although not all districts have a positive outcome from the state's budget our continual fullness with how we are was rewarded and going into next year was one of the reasons we were able to do the four and a half percent of base for teachers than four um and we'll keep us going there so was that that worked out favorably for Random Lake which it's nice to have some things go our way and this year so it was great I'm talking about things going our way part of the state budget they're making a big deal out of some money that they're putting in for reading mandates and talk
066about schools need to know the importance phonics and politicians start telling schools uh what to do usually they're not right but in this one they are but we're ahead of them and we've been doing this already for a few years so we're hoping this means a little extra money for us for things we've already been doing um and uh we're just again happy to say yep that makes sense but we've made sense a few years ago that's why we've been doing interested so another kind of Kudo to Elementary and all the things that they're doing in that area uh excited I don't know how many buses in the state have Wi-Fi but starting next year every one of our buses will have Wi-Fi in the buses so now we can do our homework on the
067bus or other things so you know um so it'll be interesting but I'm bigger and they'll mostly do homework I think it's gonna be homework that's that's exactly how I look look at that um so or Roblox which seems to be a big thing lately I don't know if you have teenagers or pre-teens oh it's it's crazy so uh with that I did put in here we did uh get uh the the safe roads to school um which working with our village and working with the scoring Economic Development Corporation we're tying that Grant into another thing that the village is doing as they're looking for it so this is just this is the symbiotic relationship that you should have where one Grant compliments another thing that the village is doing um we have the notification
068letter that we have in the package more to come from there and the last that we have on here is um Gary had a very nice editorial about uh concern um of a parent of ours around some quick using and we thought this was a really good opportunity to just share what our kids were doing and how we were trying to share the words of you know how to share be respectful be kind be empathetic and be a hero so that's what they saw this is what they saw yeah so one of the things we really wanted to do when this concern came out is none of our parents even the person that wrote uh the editorial had seen this so we gathered everything we put it out there yesterday in Facebook and a little
069explanation that um really these are words and things we want all of our kids to do and talk about being kind and like others and all that other good stuff and there's a really nice conversation I taught on Facebook I've gotten some private messages from some parents that they appreciated knowing what was actually out there because um sometimes not knowing is even scary than knowing when it was out there and uh I feel good about where we're at with this um the one thing that I think as a district we're in a time where people are highly sensitive to this right now um the only thing I ask in situations like this is if there's a concern there's many people along the chain that can go and talk about this the individual that in that
070tutorial that suggested they should reach out to me never himself reached out to me so um I am always I have a door open door policy I was working with a couple parents this morning we have a concern please have him come see me I I enjoy these conversations and um you know what I'm smarter this morning because I got to work with a couple of our parents that had a had a question and we came to a really nice result and it didn't have anything to do with this was something different so door's always open please um and uh know this is something that um that the kids like I actually observed this this is something that it's a curriculum that is trying to get um get pushed through the Department of Education trying
071to show that it does well for uh for everybody and uh they were going to be coming later on in July I put it on hold until this discussion and I guess again not an approval yes or no but just uh yes sir review give me a consensus if you're okay with them coming back for another session or if we prefer to just say no we're good and uh well from there I forget which country they were going to work with next I think it was here some good questions that I think were answered but yeah I thought Facebook was overly positive so I think things like just strength or things that are Dei I see our CRT all that stuff is triggering so that he wrote the letter right I think that I mean
072it sounds to me like some of the information from the letter is covering that from this lesson right before nice website yeah their website and I think um you know we've all heard about some of the stuff that's happened with sort of gender identity stuff in the schools or um considered CRT but things like fishing or string or white kids being told that they hold apologies and stuff like that when you think there are things that are dangerous so um I think it's good that he's paying attention right I think vigilance is probably I think that's too bad too bad and I guess I don't know anything about this group um it does make me a little uncomfortable some of like some of these types of organizations that are really focused on DDI I think
073you end up with a political agenda that doesn't necessarily but I'd like to like maybe by the way yes and I think we have to be careful I mean you're in education I can give you a wall of three letter efforts hell I even call them tlas just because it's funny because you interacting in a TLA right um so you know CRT is a three-letter acronym Dei PLC ACP um PBIS that's how we talk and if you're not in the lingo I can see how [Music] de-i-c-r-t you said for another one SEL um you know it's a different vernacular that schools use when you hear scl it's really about helping kids their social and emotional learning are there some organizations out there that put a political slant on it they're trying to push their narrative
074yes um but are there really really good organizations out there that understand that and try to keep it at a very even Keel I would say the same thing for Dei now CRT is a political narrative being pushed that's that's a three-letter acronym that is pushing a very particular way I think we have to be careful throwing these around in together because there was legislation not too long ago that wanted to get rid of things that are really good for kids and to me Dei have done right is just the Golden Rule it's it's it's treating others the way you want to be treated you don't get a book published when you say the Golden Rule anymore you have to come up with things and talk about mlss and RTI and things that are the
075same it's part of the education piece and I guess I invite anyone to always ask what is this about and you are the front line to ask those things um but in some ways when it was asked and then I went back and I checked out what the article had said about their concerns and it was really um it wasn't about a political sense it was trying to have showed the need to have maybe kind um for part of their process so it wasn't about a political scent it was about showing the need to help kids see that it's infinity times so we're gonna have to have these discussions and and you know and and Rebecca Susan and I are on the front line um and sometimes things slip by and you know I said
076this uh said this earlier um there's a lot of good people just trying to do good things for kids that are viewed uh negatively because we have that slant I listened to Sean Hannity I hear the things that is said about public education and there's a lot of people in our community that think that those things are happening here I'd be lying if I said that there aren't public schools in this nation that are pushing a narrative but that's not true I yeah we are we're trying to do things we know who our community is and it's always K to see if we made a misstep or we didn't see something but um if everything that's good for kids is looked at suspiciously it's going to make it really really hard to educate students and
077you know it's it's it's the world that we're in with us and it it's it's tough but that's why we need to be able to to talk and and be able anytime we hear this this is what we're doing this is why we're doing and if we don't like it then we stop doing it and we find something else but um the message of telling kids to be kind is a message that we're going to continue to say to our kids because um those are the things that we think are important um kindness and I'm trying to go back to Mindful and the things that we've been doing um from here just around our PBIS stuff we've been having these themes for as long as Sammy and Susan and I have been here and now
078Rebecca is going to do the same so so this first before they came in there was a clinician slip yeah no parents had to approve whether their child could be a part of the assembly or an inspection uh they came in uh and the parents were told about this coming in and um we're in the the reason this group came in is part of their education uh Department of Ed is is they want to see it being done in front of kids they want to see kids doing this putting capes on and being superheroes to talk about being kind so we informed the parents that this was going to happen trying to make sure they knew that this was out there so basically disinforming them that visitors were coming and they were getting to be
079a part of this sounds like a like a pilot program very much this is a new these this organization started in the last few months I I met them through my work at the state um and this is going to be a very expensive curriculum someday when they kind of work it out and they were looking for places to try it out and see how kids like it when they do it and I'm like you know what this date Rams care with kids doing it and the report from up there is every everybody wants him to come back they had fun and they want to be a superhero and learn about another dimensionless if whomever had a had a concern that should have triggered the concern at that time and and I'm going to take
080a little responsibility here it was busy it didn't come out till the night before it could have come out a week earlier and and some of those other things so it did come out it could have come out sooner you know so just uh you know be 100 transparent with those things and yeah so yeah but they knew about it before instead of our current climate and our precautions and we want to make you know want to be aware of what their kids are learning in school is there a way to just have a little more transparency would it be long or I've made it's definitely like more work to like show the reason or a link to the present expectation to the parents before and where do you stop you know I mean I
081mean right now I can tell you um no time in history had we had curriculum out as much as we do with what we're doing with schoology with being able to report cards um our parents see most assignments if not all assignments they get to see that and it's because we're not hiding it from anybody if to say we're going to get this out there every time there's something new is going to be really hard when we have a teacher oh I want to try something new or I'm going to try this the the other side of it is if you have a concern the first person you talk to is the teacher right like hey tell me a little bit more about this what is going on here if that doesn't alleviate your anxiety
082Then you talk to the building principle like can you help understand this and if that doesn't work then you come to me and then if you find out that we're doing something that you don't feel very good about then come to the board you're the next group into there so um I I said in my post yesterday on Facebook we try to be as transparent and when this came up the first thing we did is through an open and showed everybody what it was and then when they looked at it they're like oh this isn't scary uh thank you for sharing thank you for being transparent let's keep going and if there's something else in the future we'll do the same and share everything we can with them I know you've said in the past
083that you know the one thing that you want to do is stay out of the press so that's always my number one goal yeah and I failed just but it's all right because I mean having a conversations that's worth doing right and maybe that's like if something else would happen if there'd be one of the books that you hear about or whatever in the library right maybe it's like paying enough attention just to bring that right there's no way like we can't it's my experience it's more about your reaction when you find something right like if you find something we have a thousand people doing all kinds of things every day and people are going to make mistakes where people aren't going to read the next layer and stuff that's going to happen it's more
084about how you respond to those mistakes than trying to be mistake free when learning itself is about making mistakes and learning from those mistakes so what about you responded well to this and it was nice to be able to share it and I'm grateful we have a platform s thank you to Haley for working on a Sunday and getting it out and I think she's even Fargo and she did that so um it's great to have a good team that when things like this happen we can still hear it all so thank you okay any other questions motion to a church Rainey is there a second Chris all those in favor please say aye