001you volunteering oh yeah no problem I'm a notorious pen Thief yes we're g to we'll just get finish something up so I here sit here and talk to my man here should be there do corre did you we I have to come back I was so confused looking at this agenda we'll go ahead and get started um are we on yes are we ready yes okay good all right so welcome everybody um sorry we're starting like but I had heard that there was some traffic in the necklace issues the um going on so um welcome um my name is Stephanie crille for those of you I don't think there's anybody really new come on in have a seat yeah just pick pick a seat any seat no up here no no girl no girl you're
002you're invited guest you're up here right in the middle J yeah so yeah so the um everybody does everybody have in front of them um an agenda okay it's going to be real simple and um real informal today the um so kind of just before we go um we don't really need to approve the agenda but if we um is if anybody has anything else that they want but this is going to be real simple to start with is you know we haven't met you know um since February of 20122 and so um we're all getting back together and getting the gang back together and the people sitting here most of you were actually looking around like half of us were on the original committee and the other half are people that were um are
003standing in for people that were on the original committee based on um their in participation in this so what I thought we would do is um just take a minute to just go around the room and if everybody just introduce themselves and what your role is um either in the School District or as a community partner um and if you have any specific thing you want to add about um why you are why you were on the title N9 committee you know um to get started so um I'll go ahead and start so just um so Stephanie crel I am um a board member and I am the chair of this committee the um and have been the chair of this committee this is my third year you know doing that um I've been on
004this committee since it's since its Inception in 200 19 I when I started I was the parent rep you know for that so I've been with been with this group you know from the very beginning and um of course you know the inclusion and um um is is one of my big things and so that's why I like the the title n concept you know so that we get um and I'm also a former student athlete you know in high school um and in college so you know Athletics is important to me as well so that's me so how about if we start with Leslie down there I'm Leslie Cohen I too was an original member of the committee uh I am the parent of two transgender adults and have been um active in advocating
005for the rights of transgender folks and particularly transgender children uh I've worked with a lot of families in new Handover Pender Brunswick uh seeing what these kids are going through and their school experiences see the negative um effects that this has had on their mental health um and fully aware of the suicide risk I we we've lost more than one and I don't know if people really realize that um in New Hanover schools we've and since I've been involved the last four years um we've lost a couple of students to suicide because they were trans and um were not able to handle the bullying and and things that were going on um so I'm very passionate about these issues uh and this was I um started working on those issues a couple of years before
006this committee was formed and I think I had a little um influence on that coming to fruition thank you I'm De le I'm the principal of Murray Middle School um and this work is important you know the work we do in the schools is important all day every day and in doing that work it's important that we ensure that we are treating all human beings children and adults fairly and equitably through that work thank you I'm Kell Lewis I'm the athletic director for the school system as well as driver ed coordinator and I guess by what I just said being the athletic director is why I'm sitting here on this committee and you're valuable yes okay I'm Christy tennis Brown I'm currently the principal at Anderson Elementary School um and I formerly was an assistant
007principal and athletic director at hogri high school um so I believe that's why I'm at this table um just due to the broad experiences I've had in new count schools thank you hi I'm Leah Bressler I am the title n investigator for New Hanover County schools and I am here today um in that capacity so I well tell us some of your background because I was very impressed when I heard your background um I have been a a school teacher I am certified um to teach um K through 12 in EC and also k6 in regular education um I've studied in uh practice law for for many years um in private practice um some of my work included uh school systems as clients and I came most recently from private spe sector working in employee
008relations um and doing investigation work for them and I'm excited to be here and use the breadth and combination of my experience in Title 9 to to help new han County students thank you good morning my name is John Henry I am the Title Nine coordinator I came to new han County in November of 2020 as the investigator and I worked for jell you all remember jell uh then when jell left I fleeted up to be the coordinator and I took that job in July of 2023 so here I am my name is Veronica Edge I'm the supervisor of Secondary School counseling and Student Records in of County Schools um I find it very valuable as a 19 year um school counselor that we make sure that all students get the support they need to
009be successful grades K through 12 so I'm just happy to be in the room greetings my name is Malcolm Johnson I'm here as a chief Equity diversity inclusion officer for n County schools and I'm here for Just A variation of what everyone has said and will say good afternoon everybody my name is Terrell Nicholson I am the director of title n and clear compliance at UNCW I'm actually very new to this position position I started here on January the 2nd I came here from East Carolina University working in our office for Equity diversity as a title my equal opportunity compliance specialist as well as an investigator before that and prior to that I practiced law for 10 years mostly um criminal defense but as well as some civil matters um I went into law because
010I wanted to make sure that people all laws uh policies and procedures were being followed equitably and and fairly to all people and so that actually drove the work uh specifically going into higher education so I'm happy to be here as a community partner obviously uh UNCW um has ownership of uh DC Virgo and um which is students are feeding in from new Handover County schools and will ultimately go back into new Handover County schools once they finish their time there so I'm here as a wonderful hopefully Community partner thank you for being here appreciate you I'm Amanda Piner I'm prevention educator over at RCC of coastal Horizon's Community partner um and we're just here to support the schools and in turn support the youth in our school systems I'm Janie daa I work with
011Amanda at Coast Horizons RCC I'm the rape prevention education coordinator um short it's called RP it's a program that is Grant funded so I've LED that for about six years and a lot of that has worked with school programming and being a part of this committee so yeah and both of you did the um shifting boundaries program so that of our signature um and bring and bringing in the bystanders so that is um important for those of us who here didn't didn't know that but thank you for that I'm Jen Geller executive director of HR I work very closely with Dr Barnes and he wasn't able to be here today so um that's why I wasn't sure if I was coming just to hang out or coming here and need to see the table so
012happy to be here um and uh look forward to just learning more usually I watch from my office but I'm glad to be here so I am Pat Bradford New H County Board of Education I am here because I have just been appointed by our chairman to be on this committee okay so um thank you all for taking that time sometimes it's you know it's easier to you to have the dialogue if you kind of know where everybody's coming from a little bit so in front of you too with your agenda there are the meeting minutes from our last meeting um which was February the 21st 2022 um quite some time ago so I don't know if if you guys had had a chance to look at those on assembly or if you want to
013just take a minute just to glance through those um one of the things that all of our committees you know are supposed to do is you know keep a group memory or keep minutes um we haven't had a chance to approve these minutes because we haven't had a meeting um in quite some time and we can we'll explain where that why that is so if you want to just take a minute to glance through the those I'd appreciate it they're not there it's not long Madam chair Yeah question up at the top it says present in person and at least you and then it comes down it says participating by zoom and at least you is that a typo is that two different meetings um I don't see what you're talking about I'm sorry first
014page yeah present in person the top then after the welcome present in person also participating in Zoom the um is it two meetings there was not two meetings so that might have just been that that is probably wrong we we met together and I didn't pick that up thank you oh no no no wait a minute you know what I think we all participated in Zoom um at that point we weren't meeting so um the participating in person J Jerel and Kim was here um our our pre previous um admin you know support so now we have and we should have let yeah this is um Pat kadetsky who is our admin support she replaced Kim Joy um no one can replace Kim but Pat is Pat is the new um support for us so
015we appreciate you Pat thank you and Anita baggie just you know she is our you know Communications Technology support which we need so that we can hear each other yeah and the people who are listening can hear so yeah all all of us participated in Zoom that was a 2022 was kind of in that transition in kind of time but you can see we really didn't talk too much the biggest thing we talked about was the um student survey that we had done you know just about you five months earlier than that so I would just like to um make a motion that we accept these minutes you know as presented um second thank you um all in favor say I I okay all right so um the next thing on our agenda is um
016we have it says right here that we have an update from our title9 coordinator and then so um John Henry is going to go ahead and do that and then um we also are going to squeeze in there um an update from our um athletic director okay so that you you guys can kind of tag team that okay okay thanks John awesome thank you Mr appreciate everybody taking time out of today to to come here I'm going to give you a little update from our last meeting in August of 2020 a lot has been happening in the title 9 world so I just want to bring you up the speed on on what that is first is we've already discussed that our whole office has turned over so dr's left I'm the coordinator Le is
017the investigator and Pat is our administrator support and our paralal stats 2021 through 2022 we had a total of 225 Title 9 reports that's either through 360 or through telephone or just uh verbally to us I'm sorry 2021 to 2022 225 2022 to 2023 256 and this year starting August 1st until January 31st of 2024 we've had 70 rep s so it's fell off a little bit this year but uh this thing abs and flows I mean before Christmas we were we were manageable but ever since Christmas it's been on fire so we we've been it's starting to increase so that 70 doesn't really have me too concerned but I think we're probably going to end up getting more in there so that's our stats for for the last two years um Federal Regulations are
018going to change so as all of you probably know Title 9 regulations change with whoever's in the white house so when President Obama came aboard he had a certain regulations that um didn't really have too much due process when President Trump came in he went the complete opposite way he had a lot of due process in there and now when pres President Biden took office almost three and a half years ago he proposed some regulations which are still in the works right now so they've taken almost three and a half years to get through the whole sausage making process and predicted to be published well they were supposed to be in in the fall of 2023 and then it was the spring of 24 and now we're looking at the summer of 2024 and of
019course we have an election coming up too so who knows what's going to happen with that so right now we're still operating on President Trump's rules um through the Department of Education so those rule the the new Biden rules and again it's it's a lot of speculation out there but big changes are going to be one is the data standard and I don't know if everyone's familiar with the data standard but one of the definitions of sexual harassment under Title 9 is that it's got to be unwelcome conduct that's so severe pervasive and objectively offensive that effectively D with students uh access to our educational programs so right now the way that reads is all three so in order to prove that we have to prove all three of those severe pervasive and objectively offensive
020the proposed rule change is going to change that and words on meaning to an or and if that goes through if that's if that's what comes out on the other end then we only need to prove one of those things so that's going to change the practice a little bit and of course that will change our our policy rules uh 1725 and 1726 are new hen County policies that govern Title 9 but those would have to change with that so the data standard may be changing uh two I use the word jurisdiction which is probably a bad word to use but President Biden has has proposed broadening the scope of our jurisdiction so basically if something happens off campus between our students that's fair game for us to do Title 9 right now it's kind
021of limited to they have to be participa in one of our programs or they have to be on school property to do something like that but it's going to broaden the aperture is going to broaden and it's going to be um there's going to be a lot more cases that are going to come in because of of where it happened so if it's outside the campus or outside one of our programs there's a chance that we may be applying Title 9 to it and then the final one yes ma'am to that point too um the North Carolina School boards Association um at our last two legal conferences this has come up and it's under debate a lot on what like and you guys are familiar with that as principles with social media you know if
022it happens if it's off off campus um can we actually enforce things on campus and the overall um what we've been told is is that if it is um if it impacts what's going on on campus then that kind of stuff has to be considered so you know you're right spot on on that so just wanted to say that no yeah it's it's going to open up it's going to yeah it's going to open up and then the final thing again this is all um proposed and it's just scuttlebut that we're hearing through the grapevine about what might be approved or not but it's the U the whole uh transgender issue so right now uh when President Biden took over his first day of office published two executive orders and he basically tasks his Department
023of Education to look hey take a look at all the rules and come back to me with some proposed changes and that's what they did and one of the things that he was looking at was telai school district cannot discriminate on the basis of sex three-letter word sex but what he's proposing is that that three-letter word sex not only includes your your gender male female it includes your sexual orientation and your gender identity so he's going to open up up the the definition of sexual harassment the key word being sex to include all that other all those other things so that's going to open it up big all right so that again those are the proposed changes that we're hearing through the gra line that that going to come out we'll see in a couple
024months what actually is is going to become regulation and again like I said that regulation is going to force us to change or modify our policies as they exist now so that's that parental Bill rights so North Carolina actually let me let me go towards the athletic side of it here so North Carolina published a law that requires school districts to make sports teams according to the to the gender so boys teams will be boys men's or male teams girls women or female teams and if a person identifies as a female then that's they cannot play on the boy team that's North Carolina law right now the way it stands and then we follow in Trace with policy and I forget the policy number but that's polic 3620 okay so we follow in Trace with
025the policy so obviously with what I just what I informed you about with President Biden's thing that that may be changing or at least heading towards a a collision course because you got North Carolina saying one thing and you may have the feds saying something else and it's going to it's going to collide somewhere along the way we just don't want to be the first first one to be part be in that line so that's out there parental Bill of Rights as you all know that parental Bill of Rights came in effect in August 12th or 15th of 2023 they passed the law and they said man make this effective the next day so it came in so as far as the title 9 overlap is is with uh pronoun use and change of your
026name when I say change your name not the actual legal change of your name name but change of your name inside the the school district so there's a couple things that the North Carolina law requires us as a school district to do first is that we have to notify the parents of the students request of either pronoun change or name change before we do anything so we got to notify mom and dad that the student has requested to change the pronouns or use preferred pronouns or to change the name that's one piece the other piece is there's there's two items that we're we're required to do at least one of those or we can do both of them number one is that we have to encourage the student to discuss this with their mom and
027dad and two facilitate a discussion between Mom and Dad and the student so that's North Carolina LW we have to do one of those or both of those and so so that's out there um then we come up to the facilities I know uh in 2022 we did a whole um assessment or consultation we hired a firm to consult on how we were doing in adhering to Title 9 and they came up with some ideas or they said we're doing good except for a couple of Playing Fields I think Kelly this might be a good way to to segue to you to to talk about that okay yeah sure one thing I will to piggy bag on what Mr Henry said about the High School Athletic Association they did have a transgender policy um but
028then when as you know the state is kind of now wanting to take over High School athletics and so General legislature now said says that um The High School Association cannot have that policy so it's uh reproductive gender at Birth is all that is allowed in the public schools but like m j said the federal Will trump uh the state um and then to his point we did a voluntary we did not receive a OCR complaint on any of our Athletics this was a voluntary review that we did of all our high schools and middle schools um and we hired a third party uh and she came up and spent a week with us and I went with her to every every for site every athletic site we toured everything that we had uh and
029overall we were in very very good shape uh because the only uh main discrepancies we found where there could be a complaint uh was the softball baseball and softball differences between New Hanover and hogard as you know new hover baseball plays on Buck Hardy field which uh the Sharks keep up so we know what that looks like uh new han softball played over at a Godwin over by the port and if you've been by there you know what that looks like uh and then hogard baseball and hogard softball are right beside each other and there were definitely some uh inconsistencies there uh so we had our 95% uh construction document meeting uh last week um uh to start this project and we have our pre-bid meeting uh over at hogard next week uh because the
030bid is getting ready to go out for the improvements to hogard softball and Godwin over there on Shipyard um and that's all of our other facilities our middle school facilities there were little things that we had to do and um but that is where we were and um when Jerel all this Mr Lewis I will tell you was not me that that was Jerel um we made that he made that presentation before the school board and then um this is this is where we are and that project will they will start in may we're going through this season softball's getting ready to start Wednesday so at the end of softball season in May those fields that's when that will start so it'll start in May and uh to be released to us hopefully by February
0311 of 25 those all those improvements will be done yeah and I apologize for not um writing down the date that we had the board presentation but it is um I can find that out of here interested so you could go back and listen if you want to do that CU he they laid it all out for us and then the last done yes sir thank you Kelly the last uh bit was the training and so the training obviously is continuous all the time so first of all you know within my office we need to be trained up and you know so we get that annual training but we train the beginning teachers we have the in the summer we we train all the faculty we chain the coaches and all the administrators uh any
032chance that we get to get in front of some folks we do it and with the changes coming down we're going to do it again so training's out there um and with that M Grable that's that's it unless anyone has any questions about any stuff that we talked about okay so I'm going to kind of like add just a tad bit more onto that the um thank you for that report because that it one of the reasons that um we have not met is number one because we've been waiting diligently for the um um Biden administration's rules and regulations to come out and they kept saying they were coming out and then the comment period you know went on and on and and that's not negative it's just been longer than anticipated so that was
033there but I did want to um just go back a little bit for those of you who were not part of the committee before is that um we had the when the committee was first started the we had set forth um the the chairman of the board was Lisa Eep and she had set forth um some goals number one was we have to make sure that we have policies in place you know that um our policies were um not in place well they were there but they weren't you know comprehensive enough so that is when we started our um affiliation with the ncsba policy updating um service so that that's their job is they're charged with um keeping school districts updated on on all kinds of stuff they followed this in the legislature so then
034we we needed policies and in order to do that we needed a title 9 coordinator because we had we had a Title Nine coordinator but didn't have all the trainings that the policy said that we should have so we got we hired jell jell came on um and so then we set up the committee and um Miss Eep invited you know anybody in the community that had any interest at all you know from our Community Partners to the people in the district parents you know community members so that we could get a well-rounded you know input on on what was being um happening and so well the impetus for all that was for you know um our sexual misconduct you know lawsuit so that is what started the whole thing the um so we had
035we put to put in place you know three different committees you know um education how we're going to educate ourself on what Title Nine is a lot of people think it's just sports but it's actually academics it's Sports it's harassment it's bullying um and it's taken on like a whole new life so that 50 years ago was not the same as what we're dealing with now um and then training what kind of trainings do we need and who can provide that training and that's where a lot of our Community Partners came in and we are so appreciative of the efforts that they brought forth for us um and then the the third was to get Community Partners you know to help us with that training so um we we've kind of met you know all
036of not kind of we have you know we've and to put good solid training programs in place and so you had mentioned that but I wanted to just read if you don't mind what you had said in in your report to us that um the title n office provides presentations discussions scenario training um for our principles for our assistant principles for our beginning teachers our parently aison our social workers our counselors our coaches our custodians our bus drivers everybody you know everybody is a stakeholder with this everybody has the obligation to report something that just doesn't seem right and then that's where we turn it over you know to the title9 coordinator and his um investigators that in order to dis discern if this is legitimate Title 9 concern or if it's not um and
037just because and you said this very eloquently before just because it's not Title 9 doesn't mean we still don't have an issue somewhere and so that is up to you to decide and get to the right people like maybe to HR or to the principal so it it's a Well oiled machine and I kind of look at it a lot of you guys were young did you ever have spirographs you know you have the one wheel in there you put your pencil in and then you got all the other things and you start turning your wheel and the other Wheels start turning so that is what how I kind of see our title n department is that the investigation is just the tip of the iceberg everything I mean the report is just the tip
038of the iceberg so I wanted everyone to know that we um are following through you know with all the things that our committee was designed to do um our case load has gone up but I think it's because people Now understand more what this means and they have an Avenue for reporting and that's what we found in our title line survey was that some people were more familiar with the reporting process than others so that's where we knew how we had to beef up our training so I just wanted everyone to you know those of you were here before you know kind of know that those of you who are principles have been following along and you your your training belt is getting is getting heavy you know um with all the new stuff that
039you have so I did want to just make sure we were there so back in the fall um I had and this this had derell and I had talked about that a lot um um Stephanie Walker was was the a previous you know board member with me and then last year it was Melissa Mason with me um and we had talked with um John when he was you the interum you know Title 9 so is is the way is this board committee the best way that we can manage Title 9 Title 9 you know issues within our district and we and at at the time um at one point back in February we had even had discussions with our EDI committee on is this a like a subset of EDI and before we even got
040to that discussion um that's when um Dr Smith was our chief EDI officer and then she retired so we didn't have a chance you know to even Explore that merge so um and so what I I wanted to bring so I waited for you know two years so we trying to get some you know title n oh wait a minute you know stop we didn't even finish going around there yes we did I'm looking right at you I told you I was going to ask you something and and I'm like wait wait a minute I skipped it completely so my thoughts from bringing us all together was I just wanted us to uh I wanted to throw two things out but that is just two things I'm throwing out it should not stop any of
041our discussion you know um please feel free to just be open with with what um your concerns are what your you know your Pros your cons and and we'll jot all those down but do we need a board committee the board committee being where a board member runs the committee and uses the subject matter expert as a support um for that or do we look at perhaps having an advisory committee um which is a board member could be on it but it would be managed within the school district kind of like um for those of you who are in the school district um like our curriculum committee or our calendar committee or our AIG committee um or our students with um special needs committee um so we have those kind of advisories so I just
042wanted to kind of see what you all thought about that um and the idea being if we had advisory if this was an advisory committee then we would make we the committee would make a would make a report to the whole entire board at some regular frequency you know quarterly at the end of every semester annually whatever the committee kind of thought was the best thing so that um um Colonel Henry and his Department in conjunction with other applicable departments like HR you know could do the work because we can't hear half of what they do because it's you know fura protected um so we can't hear that so it's better for you it might be better for us to um just receive information but with that so I'm looking right you know um at
043Mr Nicholson so at UNCW could you you kind of describe what you what your structure looks like you know for I'm sure you're a title N9 Department of one or two you know kind of like what we are or maybe not but could you talk us through that yes as best you can for like being on board for two days yeah only being on for a little over a month at this point um so technically in our office so we do have a director position myself um there is an assist asso assistant director um and two investigators and an admin specialist so essentially um but we also go under a dual investigator model so even though we have two investigators we may link up with um some of the ER investigators from HR as well
044as uh we may pull from faculty staff as well in in terms of that in terms of structuring how we update our board of directors um to my understanding I will generally give am responsible for giving a presentation at least once a semester to our Board of directors um and also providing not just update but potentially training to the board of directors so that they are also aware of kind of what's going on in Title 9 and they are also have have that kind of training because obviously under Title 9 anyone involved in the process should have any title n Personnel essentially should have the proper title n training um so they get that directly from us um so that's essentially kind of how our structure works okay do someone from your Board of Trustees
045your board of directors are they on your they're not really you don't really have a committee is that what I'm hearing no no there's no committee we are an actual office within HR so we're a sub subdivision of HR at this point that's kind of what we are right now okay all right thank you that that just offers a little bit more perspective to this group as we're talking so um the you want to just go around the rim you want to start over here again Leslie or you want to start over here miss Bradford I'm just listen okay Jennifer you want to give us a role yeah no I mean I think you know different models you know based on I think what intended outcomes are you know what would be the goal um
046you know in this for um or in this with this structure or is there a better way to meet the same goals I think a lot of what we've all talked about today so um okay so I guess I'm I'm Jing down the words that came to my mind I just heard was intended goals you know so we would need to decide what what we wanted any kind of committe to do no matter who would be leading that committe so thank you that's really quick um if we do just if we shift from the board committee model to The Advisory model wouldn't that shift who sits on the committee uh for example if this is advisor committee would we want to be sure that we have a representative from all like District departments yeah and
047that's so so that open it up I'm just saying so to consider are we going to open up or we want to reconsider who sits on and that would be something that our group either this group or if we decide whatever kind of group we decide might be the leadership yeah I mean that's obvious because that's what our our um policy 2230 which is board committees it outlines that pretty specifically you know that you um you solicit members member the appropriate membership you know through our Universal application um making sure that we have um all the PE all the stakeholders that should be at the table are there for decision- making you know purposes um yeah so that that's key okay go ahead J um I think the I mean the reason why this committee
048started was because there was a reaction and they needed that committee they needed that policy change so I would think what is the goal of the committee is it going to be like preventative and education and like kind of that continued present thought or is it going to be reactive all the time and then I that might help give us the project and the outcomes right yeah so thanks for bringing that up because we were clearly reactive you know that we probably would have just kept on going on going on like we were with you know an untrained you know title n person who basically was you know acting as our athletic director you know so we we were coming at it from the sports perspective and not all the rest of their perspectives so
049that is a very good point yeah well and it's a perfect time because the policy has or the title 9 has checked off those yes projects so now like what is the goal here yep I would say the same thing as Janie and have that kind of um I would just add like I know that we also serve on the student um Health advisory committee the Sha committee for new han County schools and one thing I really appreciate about that is the voices that get to come to the table we are able to bring in lots of Community Partners so many representatives from different schools so there's uh there's even been a student voice there so that might offer up some opportunity for um different Minds to be at the table as well yeah and
050so that is another prime example sha is one of our um advisory teams that one board member sits on as just you know a participatory member and we have parents we have all of you guys you know um to to do so that is a Perfect Analogy so thanks for bringing that up yeah well did ow to everything everybody said but also just a reflective practice of what worked what didn't work and how we can make it better number one for our students and our community the um you I mean you you kind of weighed in but the um the any thoughts on just from an organizational point of view what might come to mind well I I will I'll will start off by saying you know one of the phrases I always like to
051say is that title 9 is too costly to get wrong and it's just one of those areas that you do not want to slack off on any type of situation I being a title n coordinator and certainly sympathize with my fellow title n coordinator and and and those C- laborers and doing the work you want to make sure that you are not always reactive and you want to have some uh structure set in place to be able to kind of address issues and to be able to think ahead and title n again is one of those areas where it's always subject to change um because you know as um Mr Henry stated you're literally talking about something that depending on who wins a presidential election you're talking about updating taking away changing doing all these
052things to the policy and you want to make sure you have a structure that is in place that can constantly one be aware of these changes but then two also have that training and understanding of how to update policies and and how you want to do you're going to want to do those things so I'll just kind of leave that as it's just a general type of um kind of thought in terms of making sure that you do have a structure that is able to meet those needs and to understand kind of um the ever evolving world that is title line yeah so flexibility but yeah and and understanding of what our law what the law actually is and then we have to make our policies match that um Malcolm did you want to add
053anything in there other than what you had said before only thing additionally um yes supporting the idea of the The Advisory um but just being intentional about making sure that we are able to look at the legislative and have a lot of discourse around the implications and that's from all aspects of our school district so that's why I was speaking to earlier about who we're going to have at the table um and making sure we can have that conversation then serve as that preventative model to push out information I think that will serve as well yeah yeah that's I completely agree with it let's we got to get out of reactive you know um and also to that point when you um when you were rattling off the numbers you know to us that it
054looks like our numbers are kind of going up on reports but to me the beauty the beauty if there is that's not the right word but um is that people are feeling more comfortable in reporting and we are able to handle issues much lower you know much closer to the source before we have to have a huge complaint or a lawsuit or OCR complaint you know it allows us to you know get in there and skim off the folks that um and the behaviors that we don't want so did you want to add anything or uh just we just figure out what our what our goals are and at the end of the day we want to make sure the students are comfortable and safe at school that's that's the bottom line and just being
055in the job for well in both jobs for a year or two you know we we we Sol a lot of these things at the principal level principal parent level a lot of it is just getting the parents in into the school and having them talk explain the rights and how the process works um and I found that as very beneficial educating both the principles and the parents we usually end that you know we slap the table it's like okay everything's cool and I don't want to say we avoid the tit line process but we don't have to go through it we can handle it locally at the school which I think at the end of the day is the best place to to solve it and I would also like to just add in
056there on when you said make sure that students feel comfortable and safe at school but we also want to make sure that our staff is comfortable and safe at school because they can you know violate each other you know as adults or you know um adults on students you know so we've got all kinds of permutations so it's all of us you know and and a parent you know shouldn't have to feel like something's happening you know even though we don't cover parents but you know we we do have an Avenue in for community members and everybody to support yes ma'am um a question for John you said when you started that since Christmas it's been on fire so the uptick is on fire so why yeah I'm sorry what's the why you I don't
057know P I don't know cuz it EVs and flows you know sometimes some weeks or maybe a month will it'll be manageable and in the last couple weeks it just the phone just doesn't stop ringing I don't know why that is or not all the way through the month of January then into February yeah pretty much January's been very busy for us we're before Christmas and maybe it was the holiday I don't know I don't I don't know what drives it it just from the holiday it's up and down question possibly to that point is that up Tick um to what extent would you say that some of these cases you're dealing with have anything to do with social media or oh a lot of them do and so what I would say to that
058and that was my assumption these kids were at home for holidays for a long time that's what we figured engaging in very unstructured time on social media yeah and that just lends itself to problems yeah de come on a board and they can they can explain the E and flow of you know student behaviors and breaks and the weather get warm and spring break and you know there's all those sort of seasonal um es and flows throughout the year um you know I think you know not too far apart from that you know at the end of the day we're all just people right so same thing for our employees too they're going through the holidays themselves and experiencing what they are in their lives and um I think we see a lot of that
059in this field of you know kind of ups and downs seasonally Leah you want to add um I think that in terms of just the idea of the the committee and and I think keeping it focused would be a a great great idea and then um also this the area that I see um Coming ahead with with us is going to largely live a lot I believe in policy committee as well so it it might Bode for um I think a lot of the changes that that Colonel Henry was speaking on will end up going through policy committee so you you could end up with double meetings um addressing a lot of the same subject area in the next several months coming up because it's going to be a very policy heavy sign when that
060fin comes out yeah and and that's how we got these policies updated when Jerel got here you know it went through the the policy committee so we've got not only you know you guys as our experts but we've got the ncsba you know leading us um in what they're finding out from the state legislature and the the federal people so yeah the and that's kind of like a given you it has to come through that so would there be an opportunity for a type of like subcommittee like for the policy committee to like focus on the focus in or does that that doesn't exist well we could I mean you can't ever Sayid overlap but um just be like normal policy committee protocol is um the subject matter experts which would be school system people
061um would bring to the attention of the policy committee chair or the superintendent that we need to discuss this policy and so we we might not need a whole subcommittee on that because you guys would have already done the work and say this is what we're hearing this is what we're seeing this is what we recommend um but yeah but the um but it's that's what policy committee that's how it's supposed to work but that's a good thought yeah CHR um I just I agree you know we figuring out what needs to happen and who needs to be at the table um we've got some really helpful folks here I've I believe I might have been at the table at that very first meeting and it was very reactive it's come a long way and
062we've got a lot of really smart people with great communication helping us out as we kind of process through these um so I can see the progress we've made the resources we've gained um so I think it's important to continue that work and if it needs to be at that lower level I mean I think it's as long as we continue the work yes and but what is the goal and I wouldn't want to call your work at a lower level it's just a different level not not at a committee level an advisory ADV because all the work is you know is his work is not the um so yeah not at all I still got to salute he's a colonel after all so yeah yeah but not for moving it from a committee yeah
063that as long as we continue to work with the right people in the room and with the updates you know that come along with that so um Kelly do you want to add anything more not necessarily I mean I thought part of the original question was to determine whether it wanted to be a committee or an advisory committee well looking at your board policy between the two basically the only difference is is somebody from the board is not the chair the work is the same the people are the same everything's the same it looks like the only thing that's different is nhcs staff is chair and board sits on it right so the work is is not going to change and you know no by no means did anybody consider you Mr 262 you know
064relev we know the the importance of of the work so none of that is going to change no matter what you decide to do with your original question of a board standing committee or an advis yeah and and board committees just so you'll know they're kind of formed because there's an issue that we need to either keep elevated you know to get work make sure that the work is getting done but the and the advisories are they're within they're internal they're doing their jobs that we hired them for and Advising the board these are kinds of things that we might need to elevate again so um and then that doesn't mean that you can't if it's not a board committee we can't form like you know to Malcolm's point an ad hoc committee that say
065oh wow we we're we're straying off somewhere you know that we may need to have another focus group or something but yeah thank you for that point Kelly because that's really basically the only difference on who runs it you know um I like to have things run as close to the to the source as possible so that the people who were doing the work you know like principles you know um they know what's going on their building and then they know where to get help but Diana yeah I mean I I agree I think that what is important is the goal and continue work working towards that goal with the right people at the table and the right perspectives at the table I would want because I do think there's something being said for the
066fact that board members are elected officials and are you know your job is to represent your constituents through you know an unbiased lens so having that voice at the table is important um but regardless you know whether or not you are chairing the committee I I think is doesn't necessarily impact the work right and we may not be able to even impact the work as much as a internal person can impact the work because we're not you know we're not supposed to direct the work but right lesli oh boy this is all G and having been here from the beginning um one of the things that really has bothered me about the fact that this committee has not met is that we had stated goals that we have not that have just apparently been abandoned
067um we did the survey um one survey is not really complete data we know where we stood at that one point in time we're doing a lot of great work a lot of great education a lot all of these things have been implemented we have no idea if this has changed the experience of our students bless you or we may have an idea but we don't have any data yeah um the thing to me you know we had the reactive goal but there was a real proactive goal with the original Committee of making our students feel safe or not making them feel safe providing a safe environment there's the difference between feeling safe and being safe um we want them to feel safe and we want them to be safe I'm not convinced that we
068have met that goal um some of that is out of our hands because the the state has tied them unfortunately um but I know a lot of parents and a lot of families are really fearful and feeling helpless and I feel like we need those voices to come into whatever kind of committee it is and we need um a a diverse set of ideas of how to address things and how to um with our hands tied in the way that they may be at the state level or the federal level at any given time to still do what's best for these students and when we're presented with challenges to figure out okay we've got to follow the law but we also have to make sure that these kids um wake up tomorrow and you know
069are able to have an education without you know having all of these other things interfere which is ultimately what this is about so I don't know what the answer is in terms of which committee I want to be a part of that process and I want to see it done effectively so being outside the school system I don't really understand in a day-to-day manner how the function is going to be different um so I would say just you know let's just get the work done well and you you raised a really good point lesle when you said that you know of other people who don't feel like it's happening so do you have any insight you know for um for this committee and however it lands on how we get people to report their concerns
070because you know the school district and the board is only as good as the Intel that they're getting right so if you anybody has any thoughts on how we can do that I mean no matter what setup we come up with you know we're going to need to make sure that um I mean our are our reporting Avenues not clear enough um people still are don't aren't comfortable with doing it for whatever reasons so did you have any insight on that or does anybody have any insight on that I I think we need to do the survey again we need to see what's changed and we need to look at it um in a couple of ways we need to look at it just you know the raw numbers of this many people from this
071group at this age have these feelings but also follow you know we did the survey three it was November of 2021 okay so the kids who were middle school then what is their experience now that they're they're starting high school and are things do they feel like things and I mean we should be able to see that pretty so I'll I'll I'll jot that down as possibly one of our goals you know to discuss with that so um one thing just to yeah and I'm we are all still wrapping our head around parent Bill of Rights very much so might need to be taken into consideration because I know that there are some um caveats to survey students with there are a ton yes yes so that is so we're kind of hamstrung on some
072of that kind of stuff so we would need to and again um kind of like what um um col honey was talking about we're very subjective with um the who's in charge who's the president but where our school boards are also you know change as well so we have to work through all those kinds of things as well cuz some of the things that um we put in policy are not law and some of the things we put in policy are law you know so I'm not saying you know right or wrong but that is what you know boards do so okay well this anybody anything else you know um for the good of the cause you that so all right so I guess what um I really wasn't expecting you know um any sort
073of decision on that but I I guess what I I do want to ask is how do you think think we go about making um do we want to make a recommendation to the entire board that you know either we want to keep it exactly like it is you know board board runs it and board you know manages it all or if we want to um give it a try with internally um I don't want to say anything to the board that is not representative of what we are but I also too um if we're going to go forward then I want to be um I agree with Mr Johnson is that we do need to open up the um the application process so that if there are people that we are missing at this
074table and there are a bunch that um are not here with us today like student support I mean you're from student support services but um you know Julie vnum you know or Lisa brener you know to represent that um our SRO aren't here um we invited them we do have new principal so yay thank you for stepping up for that um we do have since we met before our counselors um our lead counselors were broken into Elementary and secondary so we probably do need we can't discount that this is happening in elementary school um because it is you know um it's happening you know all around um then we did have family life people but um when I scheduled the meeting the wellness champ meeting was also today so Family Life can't be here which
075is you know a bummer you know for me um the what clinic in and of itself you know um was not they were invited um Amy Fe from the Carousel Center um with that and then we did have someone from you um cap F Community College you know as another higher education um group um and a safe place to go you know she was one of our um one of our partner a safe place I think they kind of shortened their name a little bit the um and then our director of safety so n PTA Council so you know they're not here so there there are some people that that um we did have a lot of people because we had a lot of stakeholders you know represented there so um I'm not one for
076having a meeting just to have a meeting you know we we definitely have to decide but going forward I think that the board is going to need to decide and I would love your input on how best we go forward with the group so that we can get the right people to establish the goal you know and um to um Dr Edge looking right out you my good friend here his name I can't remember um that we look at the reflective practices you know what the and you had said you don't think we're doing anything when maybe you just haven't heard that we're doing something so that is if if you're saying as a Committee Member well it's because we haven't met for two years let me let me clarify that that we're not doing
077anything as a committee we gather data right and then that was it so which it was all unfortunate because you know we had you know we had Co you know in there we had you know lot of turnover we had all kinds of stuff you know muddling our muddling our Waters so um I would like to you know at our next board meeting just you know give a report you know on what we discussed and I have all the key points that we had here so um if we have a recommendation I'm happy to take it if we don't have a recommendation I'm happy to say that as well and then our board you know ultimately no matter what we say the board ultimately decides U Miss Bradford did you have anything you wanted to
078add now that we've gone all the way around no that you pretty much summed it up um based on the couple of meetings in the last six months that we've had I think that the intention of the board is to keep it um I'm not sure sure that the chairman would have appointed me here um it wasn't it wasn't on the list that I had turned in to request um so he wanted to um you know have have the group come back together and do what your original goals were so um I don't know how the board would vote but just Bas based on what they've said I think they like the idea that it's this kind of committee yes so um and I haven't had that ation with our board chair so I would
079need to have that as well one thing that I do distinctly remember the beginning when I first brought this up in October was that our board wanted to make sure that we had regular updates um on that so the um quarterly updates end of the semester updates annual updates you know the board can decide you know what kind of updates they want um so we want to always make sure that John Henry has plenty of work to do so yeah so that's um and so I I will bring back then if no if we have an overwhelming desire to do one versus the other I will mention that to the board if we don't really have an overwhelming desire other than we want the work to continue and we we would like to be a
080part of that then I'm happy to do that I'll I'll bullet out our points and I'll talk to them about it and then um we can we can decide and then we will obviously we'll have to put out the Universal application to make sure that everybody you know within the district and within the community has the opportunity to um to be on the committee and then we just got to kind of figure out you know how to um you know how to get that I don't know how many applications we would get but to make sure that we yes sir so I just have a question just because my ignorance of yeah Board of Education we want you so no you're on the team yeah in terms of the difference between the the two options
081which one if if there is one would actually keep this as a heightened issue with the board itself the board that's what I was thinking after you said that because you have more cases you had 256 last year and already seven this year we're on fire we've got a change of DPI this year possibly we have a change of President this year so that seems to me that it is heightened awareness so it seems to me like now's the better time to keep it the way it is than it is to not downgrade it but I serve on the curriculum as an adviser and we only meet four times a year um and our accomplishments so far haven't been all that you know magnified we did change a couple of policies just recently but that
082was just a reactive thing so to me it seems like if you want if you want to keep it top of Mind awareness kick it back up like this bring back use you use the universal application um that we work so darn hard to create and get the stakeholders and um and do it that way and lesie I you know I am I'm advocating that we have a new committee within the school district for student safety and I would think that you would want to make application for that because what you said comes under student safety um as well as this but you know as long as we have board members that want to lead committees um and put in the work that direct input to the board is valuable sometimes the board says well
083I don't really care what you said we're going to go over here but the goal is that you know the board committee comes to the board and says this is what happened and they take that advice as somewhat expert advice and move forward so it's just my opinion um I've only been here an hour and 10 minutes so it might fix the reaction thought if we come in because it started on reaction but if we stick it to the board and it stick to this board committee meeting and go with the goal of preventative then we won't go back to reactive right yeah and so um yeah so this is one of those kind of things that um Miss Bradford and I do disagree on is that to me the the level of work resides
084in the school system because the board doesn't do the work and to have a regular update you know we can we can still keep it elevated like if you come in quarterly and go look at this then we're like okay then we need Dr F we need you to change that so it really is just kind of you know and a matter of opinion I think the I don't think the work is going to be is going away and the with the amount of training that we're doing and the visits that you do you guys can attest you know you you are working and all three of you sitting right there um are are doing that and you know Mr Johnson you know doing you know invest not investigations but just you know being on
085there and our counselors they're seeing you know what's happening so um it really is kind of six of one half dozen of the other I don't think it's going to lose its importance I want the work to be done I want that the committee to be managed at the lowest level possible and then to update us but you know I can't speak for the whole group so if anybody um if if you want to mle that over you know send me an email you know let me you know if if something comes to you then our next board meeting isn't you know until March the 12th so we got a month um I do need to turn my stuff in you know um I'll turn it in to be on the agenda anyway so that
086we can hear a report you know at our um agenda review meeting we can discuss it at our regular meeting so um this wasn't meant to kind of like put anybody on the spot it was just you know to get us get our our minds you know flowing we got some really good ideas on things that I think will happen no matter how the committee is managed you know the um and you know Kelly's point was very well taken it's just a matter of who has the responsibility for it the um so it's it's not going to go away I mean I'm not advocating at all for taking it off of our off of our radar it's just a matter of which column does it go in where is it most effectively managed and so
087you know we'll just put that to the whole board and see what they think but you know your input has been great you know on that I appreciate that you we've got a month you know so if you've got anything else that you want to share you know please feel free to send me an email call me up um you know if you don't have my number you I'll give it to you the um so yeah the if we don't have anything else we do not have to sit here till 5:00 and we can all go home in in the pouring down rain but um I just thank you so much for being here and for your your continued interest in helping make sure and I love this making sure that our schools are comfortable
088and safe um for our staff and our students because that's what we're here for because we can't learn you know if we're not feeling safe and we can't teach if we're not feeling safe and we can't provide all the other thousands of services that our that our staff employees you know provide for us so thank you very much appreciate your time the one thing that I say pardon me is when are we meeting again yeah I mean well right now we're we're not going to meet again okay um until I make the report to the board because I don't think that we should start Gathering more people if we don't know how we're going to be managed and one of the things people are going to want to know is when are we going to
089meet you know is it going to be every Monday you know at 3:00 or is it going to be you know or does the team need to do that a lot of people will will make their decision on can they even come so a meeting will be forthcoming okay but um I would would posture not at least until April so that we have time for the board to hear our input and make that decision on how we want that to be managed does that make sense or is that is that acceptable that does make sense I just am so scared that it's going to be two years no so but and and anything you want to to to send let's just get that on no matter who manages it either me as the title 9
090committee chair or um colon Henry you know we one of us will keep the the major the main file the um both of us will probably keep whatever the file is but if it's a board committee we won't get to know anything more than um you know than if it's an advisory committee because you it's just a lot of it is private and so we're not allowed to talk about you know like what happened and all that kind of stuff but we but we having regular updates on how many trainings we've had and you know how many um visits we've had or how many what programs that our Community Partners luckily we have you guys through sha so we're going to get a lot of that anyway you know no matter what and you guys
091will you know will probably end up being on two committees but with it you know the same perspective but just a different group does that make sense is that okay um so I'm curious um about the whole privacy you know obviously that's super important um how how much information can the title n Department share in terms of um the severity of a of cases or you know I think probably more the wave tops the statistics here's how many um sexual asss we dealt with last semester here's how many touchings or you know stuff like that so never any names or of personal information or anything like that probably not even we won't know the school yeah we won't know the school I mean sometimes when you when you tell the story you know it's like
092I wouldn't even go that way either oh we did a case you know let's leave the names out of it blah blah blah blah right I wouldn't even go there figure out so I would just I would stay way but we know but in terms of um you know sexual assaults at the high school level Middle School level yeah I think that your answer the answer is probably in the stats yeah one of the other some of the other stats that you had you know shared with or you didn't share was like um the number of cases that happened off school grounds um number of cases that reported that were in inconclusive or unsubstantiated number of cases that had the interactive um process brief um the number of cases that where a formal complaint was
093filed you know versus you know um did we just hear about it and we we managed it so those are the kinds of things that you know you can tell us on it on the helicopter level but um yeah so let me ask a question then is ethics 360 a formal complaint system no well it's a reporting system but you got to use you got to be careful when you use word formal complaints that's that's more like calling I think that too is explaining that entire probably what we talked about this morning yeah so that word formal complaint that's that's a title n term which is it's a very strong term so if a parent or student decides to do a formal complaint that kicks in the whole title line to process so when you
094say is that 360 form informal Reporting System repor syst it's a reporting system yes sir and you and then maybe you can just give a little touch of um when it becomes a title 9 reporting case then there are certain timelines that we have to do versus a regular case you can just get in there and I don't say regular non-title n formal complaints so could you just give us like just a quickie on that one yes ma'am so we get a report and you guys know this you know but others might not we get a report and it's it could be could be sexual harassment so that triggers us to do what's called the interactive process brief we have 72 hours to at least offer that to Mom and Dad so that's what we
095do I you know I get a a sexual harassment or something that could be sexual harassment he go out and give the the ipb to Mom and Dad and she goes out and gives the ipv the ipv is basically what rights the parents have under Title Nine and one of two of two big rights are one the right to support of services which is how we solve a lot of the reports we saw them at the principal level uh just getting Mom and Dad in there and hey I just I just want this the respondent to leave my my student alone okay got we'll separate in the class and we're good to go so that's that's one um right the second right is to a right to a formal complaint and that's where Mom and
096Dad decide you know what I'm writing out a complaint and I'm submitting this formal complaint that's going to kick off a review process by me which I can dismiss that if certain things happen or I accept it and I turn Leah loose and she goes and finds out all the things and then the whole due process thing starts where both parties get to see all the evidence both parties get to ask questions of of each other and other Witnesses and that whole process is is going to take anywhere between four to 6 months to to accomplish so depending on depending on facts of the case and yeah what's going on and there's a lot of off ramps there too Kelly that that you know there's an informal resolution that we can do that the board
097allowed us to do uh sometimes I'll go out and we'll give the ipb and you know there's no deadline on a formal complaint but Mom and Dad we just don't hear from them again you know and all right so no formal complaints made doesn't mean it's going away it's just we're going to kick it back to the principal and the principal's going to handle it like they handle any other misconduct so yeah hopefully that answer I mean there's a whole process to it it's it's pretty blanky the whole tline process when it goes out and you know some of the numbers I had there I mean I've been here since 2020 and cases that that have gone the distance gone the whole way with a formal complt is very small so we we start with
098250 reports and at the end other end of the of the pipe the formal complaint actually done probably count them on my finger yeah so we like so let's say 2021 22 formal complaint filed 11 um 22 23 formal complaint filed four um 23 24 formal complaint filed zero you know so um and then maybe one of the other things that you know we could say is number of cases resolved you know closed you know so that we do show that we we have made progress you know and that kind of stuff but yeah and so from what we understand that um K through 12 is a lot more paperwork you know paper reporting and K12 I mean um higher education it's more we're talking you know we're having those kind of things but you
099know we're doing a lot more interviewing and that kind of so it's a little bit different it's a it's a more lengthy process but um nonetheless you know and and there additional things that are just more required on higher education level you can be a little more lenient in some ways on K through 12 just because you are dealing with with students but with like babies young but essentially you go into our Our Land you're having required hearings live hearings as opposed to something that's not not required for kt2 so then you're you're definitely making it more of almost IL legal trial so to speak and that's just where the law the law is written right yeah so that get to you know some of the things okay well you know all in favor of
100saying goodbye you know or or AOA until we meet again I okay thank you again for coming and have have a good week