001meeting to order. Mrs. Ensky? Yeah, Mr. Ekey? Here. Dr. Harrigan? I know she was here a second ago. Mr. Colower? Here. Mr. Gary Abukwa? Thank you. Uh stand for the pledge, please. We have a flag? We do. All right. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. I have from the audience a letter to read, and I had it open, and I closed it, and now I have to find it again. There it is. Right here. Let me move this over here. All right. Good morning, Policy Committee. As you convene this evening, I respectfully request that you read the following statement into the record on my behalf. Over the past week, our
002school community has experienced a situation that has underscored just how important clarity, reassurance, and consistency are for our students and families. While our district has followed state guidance, and our administrators and staff are aware of appropriate protocols, the absence of a formally adopted board policy leaves a gap, not necessarily in practice, but in assurance. A codified policy serves a different purpose than internal guidance. It communicates clearly and publicly that we are committed to protect the physical safety, emotional well-being, and educational access of all students regardless of circumstance. In moments like this, that reassurance matters deeply, especially for students and families who may feel vulnerable, already feel vulnerable. I understand and respect the perspective that we already do what is right. I agree that our actions have reflected that. However, policy is not only about guiding
003present behavior, but it also establishes a foundation for future boards, ensuring continuity in values, decision-making, and the preservation of a safe and supportive school environment. Given that context, I strongly encourage the committee to consider the development of a formal policy regarding the protection of undocumented students, and to move that work forward for to the full board for review. At a moment at a minimum, taking this step signals to our community that we have done the work to ensure that every student feels safe, supported, and protected, not just in practice, but in principle. Thank you for your consideration and and for your leadership on this important matter. Smith Rosenberg, Chester Board of Education chairwoman. That is the full extent of communication that I have received. So, with that, that is our one item tonight, correct? Correct.
004Um I can pull up the policy if you want. Yeah, I just I was just going through it again. Do you uh Yeah, why don't you pull it up? We can talk about it again. Um you know, just for if anyone is actually uh tuning in, this is something that we started talking about last spring. Um and we have kind of uh been back and forth with on actually adopting a policy. Um I think recent circumstances may it's definitely changed my opinion. But uh Dr. Solon, would you want to Yeah, I know we we had we had the CAB policy that we had edited down a little bit. Right. Um so you know, basically this is uh a not a required policy. This is uh a policy to consider from CAB. Uh you know, I
005had shared just to re um rehash, you know, like you said, Mark, this has been a long time in discussion that, you know, in essence uh not in essence, in reality, uh attorneys have been more inclined uh to encourage districts to really only adopt the legally required policies um more recently. And it does make it easier, obviously, if laws change or whatever, we always have to follow the law first. Um and then policy uh when law isn't really there. Um but this is one to consider that does basically direct us to follow the law. Um and I have shared with parents previously uh you know, really what are the steps that the school system takes if ICE were to come to the doorstep uh at the buildings. Um and actually I've had over the last
006weekend or so um questions about like, what do we do in the community? And it's like, well, as a school system, we really don't have any authority in the community to do anything. Um so um this policy really only addresses school district personnel in the um in the act of really performing their jobs during school days at job at school. Um so we um took a look at the policy and decided to uh strike out one element um that, you know, we didn't think was relevant for the the policy. Um and it really is just uh an overview of how we should manage uh an immigration and customs enforcement issue that arises during the school day. It's pretty straightforward. Mrs. Harrigan? Yeah, I would like to say for the record that I have not gone
007back and forth on this. I have been pro this document um from the beginning. And um not just because of uh current circumstances, but because I think there are a lot of areas where it makes [clears throat] sense for us as a board to allay the fears, not just in this environment, but you know, um all along the way over the years. So, anyways, I'm in favor of moving this on to the full board. Um So, let me ask you this. Should we have a motion and then have discussion, or we just going to have discussion and then just have a motion and vote on it? Yeah, I mean, I mean, from a technical perspective, usually there's a motion and then discussion. However, you know, from our practice for the least a decade I've been
008in the Policy Committee, um we discuss each policy, and then we make a motion at the end to Okay. you know, move it forward or not. So, we've already kind of dove into a little bit of discussion, and which is fine. I mean, it's the same way we've done it for a a decade. This is really a a working group, not as much a formal you know, board meeting. >> Right. I was going to say, Jeff, when it goes to the full board, it will be that way. And we and actually, you know, um and this this policy is a little unorthodox in the sense that we did have a full board conversation on it at our last board meeting. Um because we you you guys felt it was important to uh get feedback from
009the full board. Okay. So, you know, at at that point, I guess we if anybody wanted to make a motion, and then it would go before the full board for consideration. I would make that motion, but um I'd let Matt say his piece if he wanted to say something also. >> [sighs] >> Uh yeah, I mean, it sounds like to me, Mr. Ekey, if recent events have sort of swayed your view on this, I'm probably speaking on this in But I still I still have the view that the state is not requiring this policy. General legal guidance is not adopting things that are not required. And the major benefit of adopting this policy is to assure families that our school system is you know, protecting our students, complying with state and federal law, um and
010that we do have procedures and and and policies at the administration and the and the school level to handle I am certainly sympathetic to assuring families and letting them know how we would handle this. What our views are, how how Jeff and team and principals and school officials would would handle this. Um I don't think that methodology is in a policy. I think Um communications from from Jeff there carry more weight. Um Policies are are buried in a hard-to-find, hard-to-search uh database. Um You know, even I one one thing I was surprised when I was advocating for school modernization was that Support CPS had spent several thousand dollars creating a website and keep all the yard signs directing people to where all of this information was and we had 100,000 views of information on and
011100 unique visitors to the website. So, in in my view us adopting this policy carries a greater downside risk in terms of the liability and if we follow the law because the law has changed and we had had the time to update the policy that that the things that Ms. Rosenburg's email and other members of the board full discussion, thought the benefit of adopting this policy would have are things that we can do and we can ask Roland and team to do without the formal adoption and exposure and liability for doing so. You know, we we can certainly go out there in light of recent events and say, "Hey, just so you know, here's a reminder on how the administration of CPS would would handle this and and I would fully support that." Um effort
012of of awareness and informing the public. Um this this is not a political issue for me in terms of wanting to do this, not wanting to do this. It it is purely a not required guidance is to not adopt more risk, liability, and exposure for something whose upside and benefit we can achieve in other ways with communication directly from the school. Um and and awareness on the website. We can put this on the CPS website. We can put this, you know, the the school policy out there without exposing Um so, that's that's my view on this. I support the spirit of it. I think the mechanism for doing so go without the exposure, liability. Okay. Thank you. Um So I understand and you know, I have and Dr. Harrigan has been on this all all
013along. I have uh gone back and forth with this on, you know, Mr. Colehour that whether we actually need it if if it does open us up to liability. Um but one of my opinions now, I know it didn't happen in our schools, but it's one of those things where, you know, we don't I don't know how many undocumented students we have in school. Um and it was I was always of the opinion why would they ever bother anybody from Cheshire? You know, Sinclair Lewis wrote a book, you know, just I'm just going to steal the title. It can't happen here. Well I you know, obviously it can happen here. Um and I you know, I I understand what you're saying. I just like some of the things that it's the policy specifically spells out
014that um you know, procedures, you know, things that the school will definitely not, you know, when when we're gone and Dr. Solomon's moved on, there you know, there's still going to be something in place that says they can't ask for green cards or citizenship papers or social security numbers. All of that stuff, you know, it's it's a relatively short uh policy and it may not be uh necessary for the law, but I think it's something that is good for uh for us right now. Um and again, this is something that we've been talking about and uh Mr. Grippo, I think echoes your same opinion when when we started discussing this last year and you know I get it. I understand. But I think it's something that that uh that we need to do. So any
015further discussion? I'm happy to make the motion to send this on to the full board for Well, thank you because I was just about to ask you for that, but let's go with it. >> that's a third a third reading and a >> Third reading, yeah. So second, Mark. I'm assuming. Oh, all right. So, that's it. That's good. We're we're good with that. Yeah, I will second that. All right. All in favor? I. Opposed? All right. Two to one. Motion carries. That might be one of the quicker policy meetings we've ever had, which is Well, again, this is something we have been talking about for so long. Right. And not that this policy should take forever, but I can tell you given that I have four nights out this week uh and I'm working some
016jet lag, I'm not complaining. All right. >> So I I will take a moment um and just express uh gratitude for the ability to have these conversations with you guys. I know I've I've had this view and we've had these discussions first reading, second reading, third reading, full board. Um So, I I do appreciate the process. I appreciate the the respect given in in both directions on this topic. Um I don't expect a different outcome on on the full board, but you know, I I will bring those views there as well. So Absolutely. for Eki and and Dr. Harrigan and I will make the motion to adjourn. I'll second. All in favor? All right. See you guys later. >> everybody. Okay, thanks. Thanks, everyone.