NHCS Board of Ed. Work Session Meeting | March 14, 2025

001do we still have um M Mason yes sir do we still have since we're talking about this after the call AUD do we e SLE not like obviously we have young lady in I'm going to call this work session to order um Miss buoy will you please call the rooll good afternoon Melissa Mason here jie barnhard here Pat Bradford I am here Judy Justice Dr Tim Merrick here David Perry here and Pete wildor I am pres thank you all right if we can all stand for the foot um Dr M could you leave that Al to of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay all right I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda so Luke second

002all right any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed that passes 6 to0 we're going to start off with um this is these are all items well two of the three items are things that were sent forward for us to discuss um from a previous meeting and so just kind of bringing some more conversation um in regards to call to audience there had been um several different components to it um but I kind of wanted us to be able to just kind of discuss our thoughts on um the grouping situation if there are multiple speakers in one grouping and um speak to the movement of the call to audience to the end so if we want to start with the grouping and then we can move to the

003um moving it to the end uh does anybody have any commentary on the grouping of like speakers so if it's a group of speakers from oh okay yes you got there you are okay does anybody want to speak to that for that against that if not we can just move on to the Mr I just wanted to I I know that sometimes you know one group can dominate the call audience selections so uh one of my alternate ideas was to um for when when when members of the community sign up that um we could give a preference to anybody who hasn't spoken in the last couple of meetings and put them on the front of the list and and then anybody who has spoken in the last two months uh they could be on a

004secondary list assuming there's still space left and the lottery could go from there I don't know what other people thought about that Bradford can we find out how that would work I mean semantically is that even possible I mean I got this one need and you correct me if I'm wrong okay logistically that's possible what we would then have to do is spend the time combing through the last several meetings to see if someone's name is a repeat so I think that I mean we do a lottery now so if we have over 25 a lottery fairly picks them so that nobody gets chosen above or the other I think um we certainly can do that it would take extra amount of just logistical work for us to do I guess my question my question

005would be um over the past let's say five months have we had more than the people to fit into the lottery where it would be an issue that one I will ask immedi to answer so um we've only needed the lottery for the last couple months and only people at the lottery initially allow people to sign and right so over the last year how many times we popped over the the 20 the last couple months Mr wbore um couple things that that come to mind one is we already have that you know that we say that we're going to ask them to do that but it's you know it's an honor thing at that point you know if you have a group of 12 people then you know hopefully instead of having 12 spots you

006share that the other thing I I I I keep going back to and it's something that we don't need to discuss now uh for time but is the fact that you know at one point we had a sign up at the door we continue to have slots where somebody signs up I'm going to be there that day I think we had three or four last time that don't show up so I would almost be at a point where I'm not saying we have to do it all in person but why don't we have maybe 50/50 you know if we have 25 spots say 13 of them be online 12 of them be here because then you have people that actually show up instead of have you know you know we have somebody somebody else may

007have wanted a spot not always but somebody may have wanted that spot but they don't get that spot because somebody beat them to the in in the random drawing but still you know they don't show up sometimes so I mean we want to hear from folks we can't hear from them if they don't show up uh Dr mer well B and I met the very first time uh when we signed up uh at 4:00 and I know that a lot of us here before we were board members did show up to to to speak um to ask 12 people or 15 people to show up an hour early is asking a lot out of our public um I I do agree we had like three people which is really unusual and typically I say around

008one person that doesn't show up I don't think that warrants change but that's just you know one opinion um I want to just also remind of the history and who am I to talk about history I'm the I'm the newest person around but I do know that there used to be I think 30 slots right and there it just seems there's a constant whittling down and I want to just bring it back to the board's attention that I don't think we want to you know keep our public from being able to speak with us and so I would hate to cut it down or make it more restrictive than it already is thank you misson um when we were looking over the call to audience previously the policy states about an hour public comment and

009so the dation of slot came from that of making sure that we're being an alignment with our policy versus um more more lack ofical so I did want to speak to that for a moment um I do like the idea of being able to hear from different voices I also agree with my colleagues I do like the idea of the lottery online because it allows for people to not have to show up um an hour or two before a meeting just to see an opportunity to speak kind of gives that Clarity um and helps us prepare as well I think as board members we get to see what the talking points are going to be about and who's signed up um for what's on the mind of public discussion so I I like the idea

010from my colleague to the right of if there's a way to kind of give an opportunity for different speakers that's wonderful but I also understand that if we just keep it as a lottery I think it's fair Miss Justice and oh yeah I've been through the whole thing I I started with nobody he had with people to show up and say something um and then sadly the sexual assault situation came to light and suddenly we were packed every night then Co happened and we were packed constantly but it seems like it has reached the equilibrium where it's working and I really don't see any reason at this point to change it that's my point of view from having seen all kinds of different permutations all kinds of different reasons people wanted to speak everybody at

011this table was on that was at that call to the A I think except you but everybody up here that's on the board now that's where I originally saw them um no that's it wasn't ins you know what I mean um so you know it's an important part of what we do in fact we used to let them speak for three minutes but it became so popular that we had to cut it down two um I I like the three minutes but then it it stayed within the hour so but as it is now seems to be working and I know that when we do have that when we do have a lower number we have bumped it up to the 3 minutes before so um Miss Bradford and Mr um I think this was

012probably my concern and I don't want to little it down I want to increase it I want to allow more new people to come and talk and um I have seen um people passing out prepared speeches to other people to say and I'm just trying to get a more variety of voices instead of the same voice every single meeting for 40% or more of our our call to audience I have heard and still am hearing from people who don't like the intimidation that goes on in the audience um last meeting was really bad um it keeps people from coming when the people in the audience are are speaking out against a speaker or against a board member it's it's it's just totally unacceptable and there's an intimidation Factor about this this call to audience that

013I'd like to see change and that was my idea in if we group some people that always come with the same topic and there's 10 of them and we've only got 20 slots or there's eight of them we've only got 20 slots and if if no one else signs up but it would take a while to change that it'd be a curve people would have to feel like it's a wealth in the environment and they feel physically safe in this room and I know there's some people didn't feel physically safe last meeting um and we don't need to go back to that it was that way when I wasn't on the board you were afraid when you were in this room so I I want to open up to more people to hear from voices

014that we don't hear from um and that's not adding more time it's one hour it's way more than anyone else does um we are more generous than any other governmental body in the region um don't see any reason to to I mean if we've got a 4-Hour meter we're giving 25% of our meeting to call the audience I think that's that's more than adequate um but I just want to consider if there's another way to do that group thing uh Mr per and and just besides my other idea um there have been some cases and like you we mentioned maybe three or four from our last meeting where they they didn't show up um but and often we haven't gone the whole hour and there may have been if we just keep the list open

015least either online or or the other list that we have at the door and we still have time we should let the next people on the list speak if they are here do we still do alternates J yeah um we used to also see people would see time which sometimes we clean up the concern she has about everybody scattered talking about one subject um I thought that that was extremely Fair because from week to week things change in this town city little city um and it also gave us more of a chance to hear from week to week what was important to the audience and I'm Sorry Miss Bradford that you feel that people feel scared and intimidated but I mean I sit up on that boorder when I knew there were people with firearms

016in this audience staring at me and calling me uh luckily they then they started bring the sheriffs after that went on for a while so I know but this is part of public life um and we do have to protect ourselves and I'm sorry people out there in the audience feel that way but these people are passionate about I may not be but they have something they're passionate about we didn't try to uh restrict people during covid and believe me that went on for almost two years so you know this is our job to listen to people if people in the audience that's going to vary from person to person about how much I guess you could say they perceive danger or lack of I can Al also say in the six years or more

017that I've been up here or up there uh in one form or another I people have been basically pretty darn even though it gets scary pretty darn respectful we haven't had problems we've had to remove a couple people we had those wonderful proud boys which were being cheered on by people in the a audience that was by the way a joke I don't think they were that wonderful but we allowed that and it and it got out of hand at one point but that I don't even know if that was them so much as the person running the meeting um so you know this is part of what we do we are here for the public and we are making decisions for the public so they're going to be part of what we do there's

018no way around it um before I go to other board members um to our attorneys as far as seating time I remember that that that has come up in the past is that and I'm looking at policy but I'm not seeing anything on it do you have any thoughts recommendations legality to or whatever in as it pertains not legality as it pertains to poliy you are you talking about one speaker saying hey I'm seating time to another yes uh I I think you can say no to that and here's the reason why you haven't denied any person their equal opportunity to speak by doing that in fact what you're doing is is preventing someone from going over otherwise you think if you give everybody three minutes and 11 people sign up right and 10 of

019them one person wants to drone on for 33 minutes they'd be able to do that and it would have the effect of stopping everyone else from getting an opportunity to speak um you know and it without it treats people un unequally and I I don't believe that's a problem and I think you know we briefly we talked the statute does allow you to group together people I'm not saying it might or might not be a good policy whether it is or not is up to you but you do have that option under the statute just like we have in our existing policy of of having people who are all there to talk about the same topic um asking them to designate a spokesperson and if I might just to complete that thought looking at policy

0202310 um it says if an unusually large number of people request to speak a majority of the board may decide to request the designation of a spok person spokesperson for each group of persons supporting or opposing the same positions so we do have that capability um I do understand what Miss Redford is saying as well um but we do have the the capability to do that do all the online register for the last year so I just emailed that to all okay I has emailed you folks a list of how many registrants registered online for the last year um Dr May first respond to uh what nor is saying is that yeah I can see where you know we don't want one person to sit up here and talk for half an hour but you

021know we could easily say that you can seed your time for one person you know each person two minutes goes by really fast we've all done it we've all gotten up there and we had a lot that we wanted to say we had to try to make it fast so we could get it all in and sometimes the public wants to be able to get into a little bit more nuanced you know messaging and so if one person was seated and they got double the times when they could speak a little bit more thoroughly I don't see I think we want to we want to encourage the public to interact with us we don't want to say hey how can we keep them from doing this and as far as the intimidation goes it comes

022from us as well we can't intimidate the public and you know we do have sheriffs here and if we don't and why do we have that so I I do think we we've got that under control if we need to instruct them more or make more specific requests of them I think we do that I haven't seen the intimidation I'm sorry that I missed it uh because I would speak to it if I saw it thank you madam chair I just want to reiterate I think that as we are conducting business that making sure that we maintain order and it's the job of our chairperson to do that is important as well as I don't want to see anybody in the audience be intimidated or threatened or anything like that and so that would violate

023our standards of expectation as as being part of the public body and leing um I think we start splitting hairs if we start allowing certain seed times and not seeding times because called audience we do not have the capability to speak back to our individuals it's not a dialogue unfortunately and when you're when you're able to sit down with people and have a back and forth dialogue you get better results as far as where you want to come to so I um I do I just want to point that out if we're going to start allowing potential seed time or not seed time then how much is too much or how much is too little to do that um and potentially preferential treatment to some people getting extra time and other I I don't like

024that idea um but I agree that we need to communicate with our public however I do think that having open dialogue and conversation is a better way to do that because we're able to engage back and forth rather than just sit and listen um so that's for uh Mr wior well and i' I've seen you know the seting time here I was not the chair at the time but um it was M it was it did not work well I'm going see you and then well I'm see and you and then came just you know it was more of a headache to try to keep up with who seated whom and how much time did you have and and honestly at the end of the day less people were able to speak because we ended

025up spending time the chair at that time ended up spending time trying to figure out who had seated to who and who we had people calling in and saying well I'm not actually there but I'm going to se my time to so and so uh you know and somebody would get a phone call and and so you well so and so says he wants to see the so and so you know I think we need to go back to you know who's here and you know whether we do two minutes or three minutes but I think once we start trying to say well I'm going to share my time to you and and well but I only have 30s seconds left so you know my 30 seconds add to some you know forance buo over

026here trying to juggle all the the uh the times uh I mean I think 2 minutes or 3 minutes I mean I think we need to be very clear that you know if we have less than 20 folks you know but if if we end up spending three or four minutes out of our 60 minutes trying to figure out seed time um I think that becomes you know exactly what we don't want to do we want to hear from our folks so uh I think as Miss Justice said I think maybe leaving it as it is is the best uh idea at this time uh missord is there any appetite besides me that wants to maybe consider going back to the alternates because that seemed to work if people didn't show up there was a

027list of people who may or may not be here but they knew that they could be an alternate and they would bring them into the meeting um I don't know why we stopped doing it um maybe maybe the people aren't signing up out there but I know if I go down to the County Commission meeting I can sign up on the spot um but then they don't have hardly anybody that comes to speak um so is there any appetite besides me that would would consider the alternate I mean that way we have more options and we don't you know and and we're doing a good job of of allowing them to come in late and still get their spot that's not being abused as far as I can tell but I just want more people

028to have the opportunity um do we Recall why we took always okay Miss Justice know Dr Who wants to talk to you okay you guys really reminded me of why we did basically stop having seating time especially um when they started talking about extending it and people yeah so yeah it did turn into a big mess at first it was good that's what I guess I have fond memories of the times when people were polite and weren't dominating and they literally started playing games with it though you're right so yeah that is not yeah I had the F memories in time doesn't unfortunately things change yeah Dr bars a lot of guys have a lot of you folks have mentioned about the complexity of called to audience how restrictive it is to be able to

029have a dialogue with the people I want to remind everyone that that is not the only way for the public to address address or or access the board abely so I wonder if you wouldn't want to in your little Spiel in the beginning remind everyone of the board member email address my now that I have a work phone number and my cell number are public my email are published as well I we want to encourage as much feedback as possible not only at 2 minutes at a certain time during the month so I would think that the more we can offer opportunities to say hey we can dialogue this we actually obviously track everyone's email who signs up for call audience we can provide you that list as board members and you can email those

030people individually if you so choose um we added a place where people could put more of a lengthier comment into their um submission but I I do think that we need to remind everybody this isn't the only way to access us either good point ORD I would move that we go back to allowing the AL whether we do it like it used to be done online saying well you didn't get picked but you're listed as an alternate so show up and possibly or stay with the the the obviously the extra number out of the doors not seeming to work maybe because they don't know do you have a specific number or just preting Okay so there's a motion to add that in alternates and we have a second is there any discussion on that Dr

031Mar um for clarity I like the idea I'm thinking maybe if we still want to allow people to come and sign up at the door the alternates would like we have 20 that we allow the 21st person would become the 26th person because we have to make room for those five at the door that's just a a thought thank you just for discussion purposes I think that it needs to be a clear section as far as the time allotment stands if everybody's here 25 with transition time takes up that hour so there just how the notation needs to be done I don't care however it looks if it's highlighted or just say clearly alternate sign up of um first conf first Ser or if it's online that this reference had spoken to that's fine I

032just I want there to make sure a clear delineation because if we say 26 and then time is up at 25 uh that individual does not need to be upset that so I I just want to make sure however we denote it I'm in favor of this I just want to make sure that this is you you're not guaranteed a spot you are given a spot if the hour Mr well and I I I would agree with my colleague way around the table there I think that I I would rather see it be imp person because again you know you might be an alternate then you say well but I'm an alternate so I'm not going to even show up because I probably won't be able to speak I'd rather have somebody that's actually here

033be it but I think the other thing we need to if we're going to do something like that again which I think is a good idea we need to delineate that you know are we going to say okay you're you know we called your name you're not here then we're going to go to an alternate or are we going to give them two or three opportunities to speak you know so you were one of the top 20 we called your name twice you were not here then so we went to an alternate you know then then you show up you know what are you know what we going to do in that scenario so I think you know I would say if your name is called you're not here then we go to the office

034you know and you had an opportunity you you weren't here I'm sorry but that that would be my my uh recommendation mford and I would amend to go to 20 + 5 the door plus five online Okay Plus what Pete just said okay so any further discussion wait that was an amend no just yeah I because you hadn't repeated it so I can amend my own motion can I not Robert R thank you all right so we have a motion to um add the plus five and plus five alternates um but not I don't think you should notified over number 26 you're listed as an alternate show up but that's on the door right correct that's on the door okay so out five the motion on the table is to add back five alternates to

035the signup list list in person all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed that passes 7 to zero so moving on to the next part of call to audience there was discussion at the meeting to move call to audience to the end of the agenda so I am going to open up the floor to anybody who wants to speak for or against that Miss Justice not a good idea not fair to the constituents um I know that we have more of a set time situation now there have been people discussing about dinner you know people go home and eat dinner people can actually come here first and then go home and eat dinner uh I've been I don't I'm just trying to since 2018 uh we used to have it after um

036later in the meeting what we're discussing now possibly changing it to and what would happen was something would go on and so the meeting would start stretching out and people would be waiting and waiting and waiting and so by the end of the evening a lot of them would leave and not only that I was on a board that actually did that intentionally because they did not want to listen to the people especially when the sexual sexual assault situation came to life and they were they intentionally actually it had been at the beginning of the meeting they actually moved it to the end to try to keep people from coming and talking so um it's working out well the way it is now and I don't and having done it both ways I see no

037reason not why to change something if it's working uh our attorneys would like to speak this is not legal advice I just wanted to provide you made me the question about before after one of my one of the towns that I worked for moved theirs and um they had moved it to the front and ended up moving it back to the back again because people complained hey and it was just the concern that somebody raised a minute ago that stuff happens during the meeting that we'd like to get a chance to comment on um and and you know for that reason we wanted it at the back but there is that other concern that you've got that M Justice just raised that you know our meetings are running long that is a little bit of

038an inconvenience to people so I think that was the the other alternative reason and I will tell you that town NASA has very short meetings unlike us so uh M Bradford um I still would like I can remember sitting here in my chair with 20 feet on either side of me waiting till 11:00 to speak I can remember when call the audience was at the end um and I just playing around it you know and I I just would like to try it because I think it it it possibly could turn out more people it might not work but I just would like to see it tried I would definitely want it to be before the close session and we are doing a darn good job which I will remind people came out of a

039committee um to stick to the four hours the time slot um and we're doing a darn good job of of that we really are and so it's pretty predictable now when call the audience is going to be and it didn't used to be at all even when it was up in the in the beginning but you can pretty much predict and and so you can predict what time we're going to get out of here unless there's some kind of you know crisis um so anyway I'm in the mood to try it if I'm if I'm a minority I'm fine but I I am in the mood to try it Mr W one thing I would like to say um again my own personal opinion not you know not anybody else but I think Miss Justice

040was on the board when I was on the board at at this point where we had it some of it at the beginning some of it at the end worst idea in the world um totally all that does is that forces people well I'm I'm really going to talk about this but I'm going to talk about this but I'm really going to talk about this so I can get in that first slot so uh please do not true whatever we end up with tonight do not do that do not split uh Dr mer um just a Counterpoint uh what our attorney was saying um there's absolutely a benefit to be able to say I've listened to the whole board uh meeting and now I want to comment on it but my concern is that we

041are supposed to be listening to our public we're supposed to be taking what they say and and and and and mull it over and and reason it and ask you know oh may I hadn't looked at it that way and a lot of the stuff we talk about in the meeting we vote on and so if we move the call to audience till the end we've already voted on it and they're like well there's nothing to say now you know uh I was hoping that you'd listen to me because I was really hoping that you'd hear that the public cares enough to sway your vote so I think we owe it to them to hear them before we vote that's my opinion Mr per not not not always the case but in this case I

042concur the um I think we need to listen to our people before we vote I mean could I see I thought of your idea that you think it's a disaster and we've proven it's a disaster so let's not do it I mean you could say anything that's not in the agenda talk about later but if it's on the agenda talk about it beforehand but you know it's probably going to end up being a logistical nightmare so I would just stay with what we got sure thank you mam chair I I appreciate on this dialogue from many of my colleagues couple things I definitely agree that um C audience needs to be before close session I think but when we're looking at the business of the board I think that we could be more productive working

043together um with the called audience at the end uh again before close session so this is not I'm not saying the the meeting but I go back and forth with this personally um what was brought up earlier was that there are multiple ways to communicate with us as board members so a two-minute speech of saying persu there's so many other people that will prior to making at least I do prior to making decisions we have our staff we have our admin we have other people in the community that we're constantly getting input from emails that we've heard from phone calls there's a lot that goes on prior to decisions being made um and so I I don't know how much sway is too much and that with looking at the concepts of called to audience

044many times it's not even dealing with the agenda items and there's nothing wrong with that everybody is absolutely entitled and welcome to share their opinion about anything that is going on in the school system um but as far as the effectiveness of us working together for the business of the board I do think that there would be some Merit for us to come in work together to do the business of the board which is what we're here to do um and then continue to listen in addition to the other things that we're doing I know many of us um um myself included go to schools we visit with people we get to go to the performances we go to these things and engage in our community in multiple ways we were at of breakfast just

045the other just the other week of so it's it's not the only thing that we hear from the public and it's I like I said I could go either direction if it does get moved absolutely needs to be before the close session but looking how other governing bodies operate the call to audience the public comment is at the end of the meeting so I think there's something to be said for that we have streamlined efficiency we have a streamline the effectiveness of Us coming together as the body of the board I want to continue in that direction and so I I'm not really torn too much in either direction but I don't think it's a bad idea and I haven't had a chance to speak so I'm going to I'm going to say my piece

046um I can't I am definitely hearing you know that there's there are definite benefits and negatives but my continual push is to keep it where it is um for the for some of the same reasons that some of my colleagues have mentioned and that is to make sure that people know that we're listening um that they're giving their feedback um yes we do have the opportunity to communicate with various individuals within the district um and outside like parents and and the like um because we do get emails we do get emails we do have these various events for sure um but uh keeping keeping in mind that not everyone is able to come to those events and speak to us and yes they could email but maybe they want to face the face um so

047I for leaving it as is myself um Miss Justice yes uh this this discussion has brought up something um this point of view that the public is communicating with us and wants to hear certain things and they give us feedback and then we come to meetings I've had feedback about Call of the audience from the public they like it the way it is and they are afraid that it will be moved back um in fact M barnhard just reminded me of the fact that I've had more than one I probably had probably half a dozen people say we like it the way it is and it makes them feel like they've got more of a um input to what our final decisions will be when they come up before and yeah there's going to be

048all kinds of and that's the whole point all kinds of variety things a lot of them don't even have to do with topics we're talking about that night but from the people out there coming up to me now knowing that we were going to talk about this during this meeting today they have repeatedly said they like it the way it is they they in fact it took a lot to get there because Pete knows this we went through all kinds of different ways of doing it yeah any other commentary all right let's continue on with the new and Har County Schools employee per performance bonus plan committee a mouthful Mr Perry This was something that you brought forward um and I think that we moved this we wanted to talk about this ask any and

049all questions that we had about it um and so I'm going to give I'll direct but um I don't know if there's anything you would like to to say or add about your uh committee plan yeah so I believe this is was the second version that uh initial version I sent to you of the second week of December has been revised a little bit and but it's pretty much remain the same for the last couple of months um the uh I do uh everybody kind of knows what it's for and what it's about but just the stress this is a committee and its job is to develop a plan and a plan that this um this entire board will have to approve so we don't make any decisions we make recommendations so um the I

050think it's an important thing that we there are all there's a lot of reasons to say this will never happen but it will definitely not happen if we don't go through this process and I think it would be a worthy goal to attain and I'd like to see that we can get started on this thing because the employ our employees are the lifeblood of the school system and what makes it go and if you got any questions I'm here to answer them Mr will well uh you know I'd like to thank you for bringing it forward it's a great idea um I do have some reservations my reservations uh are the same ones I've had recommended committee staff uh is great but I think it ends well before it needs to I think we need

051to have some of the folks with the their you know their feet on the ground uh as it were boots on the ground uh as I had recommended before I think we need to have teachers uh teacher assistants bus drivers principes those kind of people and you know we we have several of those we could bring forth you know teacher of the year what a perfect example that would be a great person to have uh as a permanent member of this committee I I do see underc it says we're going to bring people in we'll talk to them a little bit we'll send them back out I mean I think that needs to be part of the the you know the go ongoing committee because they're the people that are in there and the other

052thing is I think that this might be a really great committee I I totally believe because anything we can do to help um you know bring forth more monies for our all our staff I think is it's exceptional um but I do think that we need to maybe put it underneath the uh you know under the wings or the umbrella of the finance committee so that you know since it is finance we're talking about money for for the staff um you know and I think that might be a good place to you know to have it and then you know basically it would just give us another well another place for for it to go is basically the finance committee we could review it and then bring it to the full board as as an

053idea just a thought on that I think that might be good or HR is HR obviously we're talking about some kind of a um you know way to measure uh different people cuz that's one of the biggest I think that'd be and and way ahead you know way ahead of myself on this one or you yourself on this one but obviously we have to measure a bus driver versus a teacher versus a administrator that's that's going to be a problematic thing to do um you know you know be able to say well you this kind of money you need to go this way and then of course we have to find the money which is a huge uh conern um but I really would like to see it you know at least the recommended committee

054staff be expanded to have you know like I say some of those key folks teachers teacher assistants and stuff since we're talking about them as well as all these other folks I just want to and thank you I just wanted to refer you to section B- five or other staff so I I'm definitely encouraged I just wanted I don't know who all those people should be so I was kind of hoping that we could get together kind of for a okay uh initial kind of organizational meeting and we could discuss like who would be great so I okay thank sir um I just don't know who all those people are as far as being under Finance I think I think it needs to be an independent committee ad hoc committee um because it is definitely

055has a financial component but there a lot of the like you mentioned a lot of the bulk of the work has to do with evaluating uh the performance um so it doesn't neatly fit in uh in on the finance I think it's it's multidisciplinary so Dr mer I like the idea if for no other reason is to have our Educators and staff understand that we care and we're trying to find a way to support them and tell them that we care that their their work is invaluable I I do know this is a big task this is not an easy thing I mean how we how we even determine the metrics is difficult like you said down only because there's different types of Staff in different jobs but even one educator to the next if

056we're talking about a title one school versus uh you know a different type of school we can't just use a grading system because that wouldn't be fair doesn't mean we shouldn't do it and I and you know his a board that really wants to work we talked about it pat brought it up last time about how many committees we're on we work hard we care so I'm I'm I'm supportive of it the devil's in the details uh finding the funding that's that's even that's even more difficult but I really appreciate the fact appreciate the fact that you want to do this and I'm for for that reason I I don't know if it's appropriate but I I I wonder if Miss vnam would want to weigh in on on how you see this working with

057different teachers and maybe you're not the right person here but probably not but um I'm happy to to add in um I think I think there's a lot to unpack and and I agree a committee of well-rounded staff members would be very appropriate but I don't know if anybody else wants to add anything in oh yeah Miss Justice I hope you understand where I'm coming from I've been doing this over 30 years and I'm within the school itself within the classroom within the hallways within the cafeteria on those buses this isn't a competition and we have so many excellent people to actually be fair would be impossible because we have so many wonderful people it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of energy and we don't have money anyway um in

058theory it might feel good to people that haven't been embedded in the schools on the level day in and day out down on the ground we collaborate that is what's so wonderful about teaching that is the best outcome you can possibly get is when you're together like this and to try to judge one person's way of collaborating over another and the different kids that we get and how you measure growth the state can't even do it they pull their hair out trying to figure out how to do it I think was it this year they pulled back I think in fact I'm trying to remember uh because they realized that so I mean in theory to some people that might feel good we're rewarding our best teachers but we have so many good teachers it

059it's sort of like trying to pick your favorite child and I'm not going to do that um so you're going to see where I'm coming from it's a good thought from somebody out there that's been in the business World education is not the business world it's a far cry from it I've done both and I love the fact that we do work collaboratively and I don't think that this is going to necessarily be as good an idea as you think think it would be when you get down to the nitty-gritty about what really goes on in our schools and the many many teachers that aren't given the Kudos they deserve because they're too busy working and doing their jobs and supporting each other uh Mr par quickly yeah I just want to respond I think

060that is why this we need this committee because in order how to to determine performance fairly it there's going to be a lot of work to it because you know the accusation is you know oh it's just it's just it's not going to be a fair process it's going to you know we the kid the teacher with the uh with a lot of the learning disabled kids is going to have a not going to get the bonuses while the the you know the teacher would the a a students are always going to get them it shouldn't work like that it should be based off student growth and things like that and we have to determine those metrics so I am with you on that that we can't go that route um and that's why it

061does take a lot of we need our employees buy on in on this if we're going to do this and we need them to make this their own and I think we should hear from them and uh and I think it will and I also think that and this by no means should this be a replacement you know it's I've been quite clear in my proposal this is not a replacement for you know increasing their wages their base wages nor should it be taken as a chunk out of it this is over and above and beyond something that we can offer our employees that no other school district in this state can do which will give us a competitive advantage in recruiting and developing and retaining the highest quality sty and Dr barns if you

062could or did you want to say anything with I just have one question I know we're coming up on time I apologize but I I hear I hear the discussion and I love the discussion um has there been buyin for the financial component with our County I I don't and I I don't know if that's appropriate Madam chair to to ask that question but that is that's my hesitation to this whole thing is if we don't have the financial support of our County to do this then I don't and I mean I I if I might um if I remember correctly this is not an immediate we're doing this now this would be a discussion and I think then there could be that conversation with Commissioners I don't think that this is the plan for

063this year's budget at all because that would be foolish to do at this point in time but I think that this is for the future as far as as that goes so the conversation could be had at some point um Dr bres so try group everything together M Justice and and Mr Willer board Mr America I think you guys made very good points one is the devil's always going to be in the details in something like this the second thing is the goal to not make this a divisive the divisive thing amongst the staff is critical as well but I think the point that Miss Justice and Mr wildermore made the buckets of money are as big as they are if we want to put forth an initiative like that it only comes when we

064deepen our bucket what I don't want to do is Rob Peter to pay Paul and have us do one thing instead of another or we want to pay everybody 10% more so we lose 10% of our people which isn't necessarily a safe thing to do either but I think you guys have all referenced those things specifically in that this would be an initiative at it on not in place of what we're already doing so I just those are good points that I wanted to highlight and then um I'm going to have us at um we're coming close on time I'm going to let Miss gradford speak because she hasn't have opportunity and I'm glad I followed him because I agree with what he just said and with what Miss barnhard said and what J said

065on the face of it I love this idea timing could not Hest um staff is maxed out we're maxed out the budget's maxed out um and I'm not being mean but there are some board members who don't come to all of our meetings now how can we add another committee we have you put 10 staff members in every meeting and they have jobs when you do that calendar it's going to be real tell but I don't I just think it's a great idea and I want I want to get everybody as much money as we can but we know how stressed the county is right now we know where we are in this delicate balance with the budget I just think the timing is not good to try and bring on something else especially without

066Runing past the county to bring on something else that would dip into the local funds there's only so much of it to go around so I just I think the timing's off okay and that is the time that we have aot can I make a motion to extend for one minute so I can just make one final comment a second second okay any discussion I think we're going to have one more I like to have a time to so then need more than one more than one minute five minutes five minutes so you'd like to make a motion they extend for five minutes okay and second all right all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed passes 7 to zero Mr Perry yeah um I have talking talked to some of our

067commissioners specifically Mr uh James Le and and all of them uh well not all of them but at least three or four of them and so in general in in theory they like this idea and but they're not going to commit to any funds based off a four page proposal you know I mean we need to have a comprehensive Plan before they're going to you know agree to us so if we don't do this we're never going to get it and this is just going to take time again we're probably not this is probably going to take a Year's wor worth of work up for our committee meeting to just to to get a master plan together if not longer so but so the sooner we get started yeah this is not for this budget

068year maybe not even for the next one but we got to get going at some point otherwise it's never going to happen Mr like you want me to put her on the spot on pleas but is as far as I remember there's not a clearcut you know comparison ofan to a assistant principal to we we don't have nothing like that basically to be able to compare contct fol right now is there well I I think it's a it's a many headed what I think I would like to start with is asking Miss skeller to track down the salary study that was done a couple of years ago and get copies of that for everyone the board that may impact on on our our thinking can I say my other thing quickly I forgot thank you

069um I also want to remind everybody that supporting our staff is not only a financial burden it's also the way we interact with them the way we make policy the way we treat them the way we interact and listen to their feedback and I think for a lot of people if we can't impact on how much they make we can impact on how they feel about their job now I'm done thank you here it Go all right um moving on to oh has it he went he went has it been minut I took over didn't I got one minute we got one minute while you're one minute Dr Merck close us out one minute yeah I'll make it real quick I I can't remember what the um discussion was when I'm hearing uh Mr Perry's

070ideas uh the first thing that comes to my mind is why does it have to come from the county or the endowment or our budget Why Can't This come from the business Community this is the Pepsi award uh the you know this is I remember someone saying something that we couldn't do that like there was some legal concern about that but could we as a board committee uh talk to the public and try to connect you know collect funds to to to to fund this thing right from a business committee if we could ask the attorneys to speak on that well that's yeah I'm looking at them I have the law pulled up now um oh good that pertains to I I I think there's a lot of latitude if you have that money there's

071um let me read this it's 115 c-3 2.1 talks about salary of the teachers and I I looked down and I think it was me find it again um sorry I was quick I didn't say he'd be quick yeah it covers it covers I think there's latitude if you were able to find that money the local board would have the election of how to how to spend it night that's the law it's in there um I just want to put that in there doesn't necessarily have to come from us that's all I'm done all right we have we have hit our time what's your point of inquiry sir oh um it's point just discussion is is the plan for this still have a vote at at some future point no um today is the deadline

072for agenda item so I can um believe so that's what I have on my calendar it is today yes today I like to make a motion that we for our next regular meeting do I hear a seconds I'll second that okay um any further discussion the second paragraph of all right all those in favor of adding this to the next agenda which would be the regular meeting signify by saying I I I any opposed no no okay that passes did you vote please okay so that passes 5 to2 so we we will put this on um the no it can go right to the um the April meeting all right um the next item I um I wanted to add we've had a lot of conversations about all of the obligations that we have as

073board members um and we have a lot we have some amazing opportunities to be able to go into schools we have amazing events that we can go to we also have the duties as board members that we are obliged to do as well so what I wanted to do is kind of give us a visual the teacher and me wanted to give a visual of when if we were looking at a month when every single committee meets are you writing no I'm finding someone who writes meater than me to do that oh look at you that's no no I'm sorry not for nothing Julie did this for me Julie stood up she's like I got this Julie knows but that way you can focus on the conversation I appreciate that thank you put on yes

074ma'am directly directly directly on there so so what we're gonna do is we're gonna I'm gonna list the committee and you tell when that meeting meets and the duration of it just kind of so we can have an idea of that you don't have to write the duration but you can put just when it is so we're going to start um I went on and grabbed the list of all of the Committees all 19 of them um 19 19 19 committees that's a lot so Finance Miss Bradford um we're generally around the 27th and we meet for an hour and a half so the 27th Finance if you could just write Finance on the 27th all right well she said you don't have to I mean said no go ahead do 1.5 go ahead M

075you do 1.5 oh look at that it's up there too leave room for multip there's some on that are not on there there are some that are not on there that all right moving on legislative we just had that Wednesday Wednesday yep leave space or turn on task force that was before that one yep but we'll get there hang ones listen quit jumping ahead yes ma'am one of them in go get some fun all right policy Tuesday me second Tuesday of the month and yes we got it done in 2 hours and 10 minutes last time yeah you were amazing we um soac hey Jessie said it at like an hour and 15 one time right yeah I've done it in in 35 that's right we I've done it in 35 okay moving on so

076we have the next one is safety and that's broken out down into three separate categories which I don't know how consistently everybody's been meeting or if anybody's been meeting um and so I'm going to kind of put a pin in that one unless you have you met yeah oh okay uh well that's by monthly but we I guess I'll be meeting again on the this is just like pre to pretend if if we were to have every single one of our committee meetings in one month what would it look like okay all right so that would be the day after our meeting which would be a Wednesday are you talking about sha no nope which one are you talking about this is safety mental health mental health so there's three parts of the Safety Committee

077three different yes okay safety 2 Hour 2 hours hours just put it on on Wednesday any Wednesday a Wednesday um then we have the oh my gosh so we have mental health we have the building and grounds which we haven't met yet but do you recall when we met the last time I think I have the list it's it's like quarterly I know who's on them we it was last time it was a zoom call for about an hour an hour and a half and it was let's say on a Thursday for 1.5 safety building it would be building building safety grounds which one of those am I on because we have you're on the other the third one so we have building who's on the third one with me that's discipline the one sitting

078next to you we haven't met so when you met before with Mr Manis how often and well not how often when how long did it take you to meet about an hour okay so we'll put a another saf yeah we had a lot of homework just covering being there really um Title Nine four Monday fourth Monday and it is how long uh 1 hour okay AES um I was part of that for a hot minute and that is Sorry Miss vnum knows it's a second um and that's typically for one hour 1 hour calendar committee we haven't met yet and I don't know no we adoped a 2-year calendar right so if we when you had calendar committee when did it meet I have never met with the calendar committee because when they did the

079calendar last twoe stent so that our we'd be completely exed out there were two meetings that were two hours a piece and they happened probably on Wednesdays so Wednesday I disagree I thought it was Monday okay I was on that committee so okay Monday two hours calendar CTE oh that is a cord but when it happens Wednesday in the middle of the day at 11:30 or 12:30 if I remember for how long about 2 hours maybe an hour I'm looking at my counterpart that hasn't come um C two was fine curriculum it is but we haven't met yet um it's a couple hours uh quarterly and I I would propose a change to the curriculum committee to make it different well we we can talk about that in a minute but yeah um so put

080it on a Tuesday for two hours yeah it was in the four o' range so everybody could come educator of the Year oh my gosh lots of times oh my gosh we we've had uh one one meeting so far but then we'll have several other meetings then we'll have interview to read okay so how long is Educator of the Year meeting and well it matters like the initial meeting was like an hour and a half but then we had when we do the interviews that's two days in a row it's two solid days yeah two solid full days it's unbelievable but you know that's only two times put it two we'll put we'll do three um and we'll do it do it on Friday did Friday Friday the 14th P day P day we'll do

081it on P in theory this looked different to me but it's working out okay I guess uh gifted advisory is Monday at six for an hour what's it just got um I have head start on here but I know we're not really doing that so I'm going to kind of put a hold put a pin in that one um sha nope that's me nope sha and mental health the safety committee is different those are two different things that's the health advisor yes so you were thinking of Shaq when you said that okay I think so okay um two hours I don't now I'm confus okay it's not fair so you so that was initially supposed to be that one okay sha is the first Wednesday right yes of the month of the month very good

082yeah first Wednesday of the month yeah see how confusing we're getting there's so many um sustainability um I'm working on getting that together so we have not established a specific date as of yet but we can say Friday for the moment um and we'll say 1.5 sure I don't forget student scholarship for future teachers that's very important that one is yeah good call um but that's everybody still have to meet true uh turn around task force around task force is as now an hour and a half on a w the Wednesday of the second week yep parks and garden parks and garden Tuesday morning for an hour uh the first tues of the month right same day okay soil and water that is a whopping three-hour meeting on the first Wednesday of the month sometimes

083we run over the firstes for 1 hour three hours three there's a lot to talk about I enjoy it a lot it is very entertaining I love the guys there shout out to Matt and Evan and Frank and also Drew she'll be great right um and then do Legion Stadium not yet Soil and Water just did that one just did that one Legion is the next one Legion is quarterly I think and it's usually about 2 hours two hours on a Thursday improve conservation in our area and advocate for change and then the last one was the future teacher scholarships and that's the whole board we haven't done that yet but that is typically a full day if I remember correctly you got CTE yes did did you mention I didn't have capital and bond

084on there oh we have more than 20 then capital and bond there more two so I didn't putut okay future teachers go with the 18th and and just stay all day um and then not even the board meeting not even up there right you're right and the agenda review yes correct and budget Capital Capital One rest my think your's coming across I think it is I think it is5 thank you uh Bond we haven't met yet who's been un Bond before no one James Bond I ATT 10 them Bond Jam never listen sir we have not ever met I've never heard of it before either so bond has not met yet I mean I I was on it for four years now bond is initiated when we have a all right I no CU I

085don't know when or how long and okay so if we're looking that's just our committee obligations right there in one month if every committee met in one month that's our obligations and 10 staff members at each meeting for some of them so not just our obligations good call not just our obligations our staff and our superintendent obligations what are they supposed to do their jobs and planning that goes into prepping for the correct yes in addition to um do you have a black one that you could do like do you want another do you want another chart paper that you can well just to add to the regular meeting and the agenda review and a budget meeting Town Halls Town H there's a town hall right R so okay so the the whole point of

086all of this is to really just show us how much we're doing about a month ago I was invited by ncsba to participate in a zoom call with chairs across the state and the question actually came up how many committees do you have um there weren't like a ton of people that answered but the ones that did answer said we don't have any committees we have four committees uh Finance policy uh safety I believe and something related to academics that was it they had either none or four we have over 20 so my goal today is to try to see if we can combine some if we can look at what we're doing because we do need to be out in the schools we all want to be out in the schools this doesn't include

087like we've said our regular meeting our agenda review our budget meetings our visits to schools the events that happen during the day and in the evenings and afternoons and so all of that is a lot um and we want to make sure that we're in the places that we need to be as well so that we're having the conversations with our principles we're having the conversations with our teachers were were places that we that we are actually in the district and give our superintendent and our staff the opportunity to be able to do the same because they need to do that too part of the climate survey that results that happened last year were that the staff was not visible we were not visible in the schools and I think it's absolutely imperative that we

088make that more of a priority than every single committee which they let me just be clear they all have value but the question is is there a way for us to reduce combine size down because over 20 committees is excessive now some of them we can't obviously because some of them are with outside agencies um or outside parties and so those we need to leave alone but when it comes to the ones that we are responsible for I think that we really need to take a look at how do we what do we need to keep what do we need to kind of combine what do we need to reduce or eliminate all together and so that's kind of how I wanted to start the conversation is to have that Visual and say okay now

089what do um i s you had your hand up well I've been doodling around with this for a while and so I'm going to make a motion to combine and I would be welcoming to somebody if I wanted amend it to make it for a period of time to see how it works let try things so but to you know for 12 to 16 months let's combine the finance Bond and capital into one committee meeting looking at the um the Committees and the write ups they all need to be Rewritten because they're left years um but it says the minimum of two board members so that we take on the board BS from capital and bond so we have to tweak that language a little bit but that is my motion so that that meeting

090that's meeting would would have all the elements of what we need to accomplish together so I don't have to call you and say hey here's what we did what do you think about this so I that would be as the chair of that finance committee and Ashley and I've talked about it Barnes and I've talked about it we just think it's a good idea to do the combination um and do we have a second to that awesome um and to kind of speak to that I've attended the finance and I've attended the capital outlay and obviously we haven't had a bond but there's been repetition between those which means that there's repetition for Dr Barnes to do there's repetition for Miss Sutton to do and if we have it in one particular meeting and not

091over the course of 2 three four five uh that that that might help um so there's a motion to combine those three um discussion I have two a two part comment one is that you know we do need to get uh we do need to start working on the bond that that's something we have to do right away and the finance committee is pretty busy already you know for instance meeting with the County Commissioners which is something new that you've taken on which I think is fantastic um the question is can we get it all done or does that committee need to meet for longer and more often because I I question whether or not we can get it all done um I I hope that we can the other part of my comment is

092is I wonder how many of our committees are actually in in a sense in competition with the district I think that this board may have gotten overzealous with the amount of work it did because of a lack of communication or trust at the district level and so you know things have changed I'm glad to say and you know maybe do we need to be doing all the things that the board does and can we seed some of this to the district okay uh M Justice um I'm glad Mr mer brought this up because when I started in 2018 these committees weren't there or half of them I would say and it's um just sort of people I I can remember a couple people wning like the safety committees and I'm just using that as an

093example I didn't even know we had the bond committee u a lot of what was going on now with the finance they had it all under one committee that all the all the members uh attended and it was very it was a very different environment of course this was pre pandemic and a lot of the craziness that's gone on so it it's a lot less strifeful or whatever you want to call this that's developed over the last couple years with our finances but yeah a lot of these committees have been added in the last six or seven years and it's probably for exactly the reason you said because there wasn't a good communication and there wasn't a lot of trust so board members were creating things or people in the community were creating things and

094asking us to come in order for them to feel like that we were knowing what was happening as opposed to um having it go through leadership within the school district itself on the professional level Miss burnhard um I I agree with my colleagues of just understanding that there is a defining role we're in the government's role um and you guys are the ones our staff is are ones doing the work and so I do appreciate um being informed of the work because as we are advocating um both at the county level I know a few of us were just in a meeting with some Commissioners and sharing just the where we're coming from and how we're going to do it and the ROI that we're going to see on it so I think there's value

095ad for us to be included in some of these but I I like the suggestion um there is a lot of overlap and I don't say that in a bad way but I think when you have the same group of people really knowledgeable about something they're are going to be able to help inform a good decision to the for the recommendation of the consider so I do like um the marriage of those three Committees of Finance Capital uh and bond because there's going to be a lot of overlap and the feedback when you are talking about projects or talking about different areas of investment um that we're currently doing having a core group of people to take that ownership and understand helps explain as we have questions right I think Miss to miss Mason I

096can come talk about different areas with different people so the I like um Mr Perry I I like the idea as well I just wanted to get some clarification is the proposal here that how many you said there are two people on these committees now would you open it up to like five or all the entire board what are you what are your thoughts did you want to provide any Clarity for that okay what did you want to say I I would think it would go to policy and policy would kind of mle over a redefinition and if I could I was actually going to speak to something like that if um just to make sure I want to check with the attorneys if we have a committee of more than three members that constitutes

097a quorum correct and that means that they can take action without the presence of the entire board is that true I um I looked at the question earlier this week of what an official body is open meetings law and the F body the and this is I know this is not the interpretation that a lot of town attorneys would give you but it is it includes just def to include a committee and this is the school of government with a Committee created like that so if you had a majority of the elected board here yeah I think they can take action they have a for now here's one of the funny things about it you could have a situation where you could have a majority of the elected board and let you f is it

098finance committee that has the the staff members on it yes okay um Finance committee's got staff members on it right let's say there are four board members elected board members and then six staffers on it you could have all four board the elected staff show up and not have the six staffers and you wouldn't have a quarum um because you don't have a majority of the of defined by the statute the the the I mean you don't have a quarum of that committee but at the same time theoretically you could have a quorum of the board the board so oo it it's probably I think to be that creates a mess correct because this is an Advisory board or not Advisory Board an advisory committee um I would hesitate to put more than three people

099on that um that's just my thought process one to maintain that transparency and honesty um we have a community that we want to trust us and so if there are four of us there and we take action that's not hearing all the voices and so I think I would be hesitant to put more than three people on there sorry I would I would concur I think sure then Mak it very clear this is advis board uh the other thing I was going to say was you know as Dr mer my colleague way over there has mentioned um I think that you know the finance committee I mean the bond committee is obviously going to be important 100% but I think the finance committee has already got the the establishment of a lot of the business

100people from the community here so I mean what a great you know instead of Reinventing a wheel and saying okay let's start from scratch and with the bond committee and trying to get you know some of these business people around the table we have that so why not you know and I I agree again with my colleague over there because he's he's on point with this also that right now the finance committee is very busy absolutely once the budget is passed finance committee becomes a lot less you know so what a great time to just go ahead and gear up towards a Von I mean so I mean that to me it just makes a lot of sense that's why I say Miss Bradford I would point out in one month and one day we

101will have a budget go Dr Str Dr give him some blood pressure medication I don't need blood pressure medicine I've got Ashley she's the one that needs for her I would I hadn't really thought it through so I I turned to my list and I started thinking and we don't want to out number any one group of the other and we work really hard to get a synergetic kind of group just yeah um and you know as a couple of us were in the County Commission yesterday you know one County Commissioner in particular is is is seeing the praise of what the interaction that he's having with us so that part's really good um and I wouldn't want to outnumber them and make them feel overwhelmed um and and we're still short one county commissioner

102at this point and maybe maybe one would come back so the committee's a manageable size and we work really hard on that and we have non- voting members um on that and we have voting members um so yeah I would go with the free thing and and leave that up to you to figure that out my other question I guess would be you said temporary what kind of time frame were you thinking 12 months to 16 months again I'm going to try it and see if you like it if it doesn't work then no 12 or 16 oh um okay this is April 16 okay all right um so that I think provided some clarity so the motion on the table is to combine Finance Bond and capital uh for a term of 16 months

103with three members of the board um this will need to go to policy oh good I um this will need to go to policy because it will need to be adjusted um any further discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed passes 7 to zero woohoo we just we just downsized by two committees guys we just downsized all right and I want to keep this discussion flowing are there any other committees or adjustments that people have ideas for to make to various committees may may we just go through the list Sur we surely can so we did finance and capital and B anybody has a computer that list all have to be updated all right so moving on to legislative are there any well we're just just going to

104go through and then I can I was going to make a motion if we get a 5 minute break I'll second oh yeah there yeah we can take a five minute break yes um all right come back in 5 minutes that would be 229s I'm I'm about to just send you agenda item because the DPI letter are you e e e in session here um so we wanted to continue talking about the next one is um legislative we do not have an enormous amount of time we do have a close session but I do want to give this about 15 more minutes um and if we need further discussion I feel like we can add that um at at possibly the agenda review if we don't have too much going on um so as far

105as legislative are there any changes or thoughts that we have with legislative committee Miss yes miss barard you know when I I was um given the chairmanship position for the legislative committee when it first got on it was brand new to it and so one of the I think most valuable things that has come from the committee has been the development of the legislative agenda um that was uh we for first adopted ours a few months ago by the whole board and I think that that has helped given us a common message whenever we go and talk about advocacy um there's lots of really great ideas that can be done with legislative um one of the ideas though that came to Committee just this past week was to host a networking event and Dr Mars

106informed us he had already arranged that so um I you know as far as the work of the committee um I think having a common message that we're bringing District the staff together to make sure that we're on the same page as far as what advocacy looks like but I think the biggest thing coming out of legislative that has been fruitful has been the legislative agenda so there's lots of different ideas coming from the committee I mean we had a discussion this last week of whether or not we want to expand the committee and include members of the community um that was not a voted on issue that was just a discussion topic point of do we want to be in charge of Hosting events kind of thing so there was a lot of just

107um conversations as to the direction of it but um I'm willing to hear from board members but I I feel like there's a lot that we could come from this or we could either limit the scope of it to say do we want a sole purpose and then it come be brought for the whole Board of any legislative topics to consider because all of us are Liaisons to elected officials it is not one person's job to do it it's all of our jobs to do it we are all elected to do the job and the work um of advocacy and so that's where my thought is right now uh Dr Merck um pertaining to advocacy specifically yes I do I think that is part of the board's responsibility to have a vision um but building

108on what I was saying earlier um a lot of the work that's being done in our committees is is a little bit of overreach actually that our job is oversight our job is governance and policy and that we're we have a lot of policies because of that lack of trust and that lack of communication and in contextualizing in this whole all of this is do we start to have our committees really just being oversight and do we even need a committee for oversight if we can get reports to our board meetings which is something that uh Mr Perry had recommended around Title 9 you know a lot of our committees that might be the actual job just to check in with the district hey how you guys doing are we is there anything that you're

109missing that we need to remind you of right be in in in keeping with our vision so we're really at a you Reflection Point here where what is our role as a as a board and I think that as we look at downscaling these committees checking in with the district and finding out where we are maybe even getting in the way with that can I offer a suggestion um Can can Mr wior speak you are you are Mr w my way unless we speak once in a while I let you speak um I was legislative committee I think that it is a needed committee I think we need to you know and I understand what my colle was saying over there first off I want to make I want to stress that I think that

110um we we mentioned several times that we don't trust the uh Administration and that's not my in my opinion I think that be very clarify that uh currently we do have a good a lot of faith in our uh central office um but again I think that this is one that reaching out you know I the dollars but uh I know it was in the millions of dollars that were brought uh back uh last year by members of the legislative committee and others uh to help and support our students so uh going to uh and but I totally agree that we you know there's seven of us seven of us need to uh do that and continue to do that and go talk to to folks and and and share and uh the great things

111that are going on in new hen County Schools but also the needs that we continue to have um but I I do think that there is a lot of value I voted for the legislative committee originally when it came out and I think it has been very fruitful for our students and our staff Justice um I just want to reemphasize what both M Barnhart and Mr W wildermore has said there's seven of us here and and all of us should be advocating with every elected official that has any bearing on our work that we do not you know legislative uh County Commissioners uh oh my gosh you can even talk to the city council members because in many ways some things that we do have we know we we can work together on so although

112the legislative committee is powerful if you use it in a certain way each one of us is powerful I know from when I came in in 2018 certain people were not literally allowed to talk about the legislature just because of the party the party they were on and that was sad because this our public schools are in Dire Straits right now and they were in Dire Straits in 2018 um and we need to recognize that every seven of us and always put first what we're here for which is to support our public schools and advocate for them so the committee does that but individually we need to be doing that constantly um Mr Perry I can definitely see uh the need for the legislative committee when it comes to funding and Appropriations we certainly need

113the money and uh there are probably also some um you know some interactions like uh Miss Barn had has had recently uh uh with the attorney General and I think I'm not sure if you're still in the middle of crafting that DPI letter but uh there are certainly some things there but also though you know I I am fearful to some extent of too much asking for too much legislation from the state when it comes to other things I mean I want us to remain autonomous as our school district I don't want in a general assembly or a legislature try to micromanage our school districts we are the elected representatives of our community we're going to hear from our teachers and our students and our parents and I I sometimes I really feel the general

114assembly is trying to micromanage us especially with some recent legislation that they did when we revolving around multiple absences and still getting passing grades um which just seems bewildering to me Mr W let's keep it on but um I think if we could limited to you know the financial component I think that might be as far as us getting funding I think those relationships are healthy because we do need that missart after feedback from my colleagues Miss Mason i' would like to offer an amendment to this committee and so direct policy to reflect this that the legislative committee would meet once a year compiling our staff's need to create a legislative agenda um that is approved before the whole board second all right any further discussion Dr Merck I would like to commend that further

115to go along with what my colleague has said and and have it be about financial stuff and not anything that's around that's political in nature um is there a second for that Amendment I'll second okay discussion on the amendment Mr boardin see my hold on that's going to make a mess list uh Mr Perry in regards to the to to the amendment um the uh what I'm not really sure what you meant by all the political stuff um what what uh what I mean is is that uh I I am for our our state creating General guidelines and guid poost what I don't want is I want us to them to be able to give us the flexibility to V school district and as a seven elected members he fit so um so I don't

116know what you and sometimes that's going to might be political so I I would probably like offer an amendment to the amendment just can't you can't make an amendment to the no you cannot amend the amend so I I would probably as as currently phrased I would be against it Bradford okay um this is to add a culation that the legislative only focuses on financial comp Go Go Financial Financial Miss Mason Miss Barnhart no Miss Bradford no Miss Justice I'm still not quite sure what's going on oh only focusing on finance Financial advocacy I say yeah okay Dr Merrick yes Mr Mr Perry uh no and Mr wior minute uh no okay that Amendment fails 5-2 going back to the original um I'd like to offer another amendment oh my Lord Mr will um I

117would just ask my colleague whether she would say she said once a month once a year I would like to see it something may come up so at least twice a year okay second yeah okay any discussion on that Amendment Miss Justice yeah it sounds like a good idea because you're exactly right okay any further my only point of clarity so still with the scope of the goal to being creating the legislative agenda for the the amendment is is twice rather than so the amendment is to make it twice so I'm going to I'm going to call this one all those in favor of meeting the legislative committee meeting only twice a year signify by saying I I any opposed that passes 7 to Zer moving back to the original motion which is to have

118a legislative the focus to be on the legislative agenda compile Co coordinating with staff to compile and create the legislative agenda for the district that would be the focus and that would need to be updated in policy as well okay they yeah all right all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed that passes 7 to0 um looking at time um we do have a closed session and I want to make sure that we have enough time for that closed session so I am going to um postpone this discussion postpone this discussion until the agenda that any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed passes 7 to zero let me get my whole script out I cannot got to have the whole Spiel okay I will

119entertain a motion to Pro to uh go into close session pursuant to General statute 14331 18.11 C for the following purposes to prevent the disclosure of information is privileged or confidential pursuant to General statute 115 c-42 and not considered a public record within the meaning of chapter 132 of the general statutes to prevent the disclosure of Student Records rendered confidential under the family education rights to consult with an attorney in order to preserve the attorney client privilege between the attorney and the board and to consider the qualifications competence performance character Fitness conditions of appointment or conditions of initial employment of an individual employed or considered for employment with the school system or to hear or investigate a complaint charge or grievance by or against any individual employee I'll second it he did all right all

120those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed we are in close [Applause] session e e e and open I will entertain a motion to adjourn all those in favor signified by saying I I any opposed passes no seven to zero we are a jour e