Policy Committee

001Mr eki here Dr her here Mr Grio here Mr Cher Al United States of America stands indice all right members of the audience seeing none we'll move on all right view policies for first reading electronic devices so um this policy is predicated on the conversations we've been having about the cell phone use and the survey which we reviewed I don't remember what month that was I think it was December or was it was that in January that we discussed that was it January last month we've been talking about we talked about the setup for a while and then in the last meeting we uh reviewed the survey results which were um for the most part pretty supportive um of the existing process that's in place so what we have here is the existing process um

002it outlines you know K to six you should not have your cell phone 78 you should not have your cell phone in both cases the teachers have the authority to employ those if kids have them and they want to use them for a certain reason the teacher can direct that but generally speaking kids shouldn't have their phones out um because they're distracting and I I want to go on the record and say that I don't believe cell phones are the devil I mean you guys know I've been way out in front of limiting social media and engaging active Play Because social media uh is can be really detrimental for kids that's what research says um but it's not a cell cell phone isn't the devil it's what are you doing on it and I think

003there's a real important role for social media uh for kids and I think it's important they learn how to use it correctly or whatever but um generally speaking it shouldn't be during math class so you know this really limits access during the school day academic time at the high school um you know they the cell phones can be collected or left in backpacks but they in essence they shouldn't be out during class unless directed by the teacher to be out the exceptions to that being things like study hall or lunch what we've seen is a dramatic reduction of use of cell phones in those times which I think it's because it's been away so much it's you just seeing a lot less of it which is really great I'll tell you that's what we're aiming

004for so yeah because there's a much higher level of student to student student to adult engagement when you walk around the building now than there was before we started really enforcing that that's I don't have scientific data to back that up but I've got a lot of anecdotal just my own personal experience going through the building um the one thing that I think is probably going to be a hang up for some is we're telling kids not to bring cellphones to the bathroom um I mean shouldn't have your phone out in the bathroom anyway um videoing and everything else but um we all we have a PA system designed where students are starting to get used to uh signing out it directs you to certain bathrooms we have the ability on that P system to

005you know if you're somebody who's uh violated policy you've been out for a number of times or you're always out during period with your buddy down the hall like we have the ability to shut that off so if you signed out your buddy can't sign out uh for a while you're limited until you you return um so it's uh it supports us keeping bathrooms clean accessible workable you know in working fashion um so because as you know I me since I I was principal in 2012 um we had issues with kids smoking in bathrooms in 2012 you it was a different world then um but still we have issues with Vapes and vandalism and things like that um now and we're trying to really aggressively limit that so students have the right to be able

006to use the bathroom during the school day a safe clean bathroom um and so we're really focused on that um I'm thinking as much as I you know I want to make sure parents know that this is the policy so if we do a first reading of this I will send it out again even though we've sent it out on multiple occasions and say hey this is the policy the board reviewed the first time last night if you have questions or concerns email us so what do you think those why do you think the bathro part would be conern because I think the security thing is an issue for some folks that what do I do if God forbid there's an incident you know security incident my child doesn't have their phone on there in

007the bath oh when just away but you would think it would there would be a lot less going to the bathroom yeah class time we obviously we don't we don't want yeah yeah we don't want the other reality is you know because I don't have X-ray vision thankfully like if a student has their cell phone in their pocket I'm never going to know yeah and you know because and we don't do Pat Downs before you use the restroom but you know don't take the cell phone out you don't have a problem you know unless the teacher may say hey leave your cell phone here if you're using the restroom which which could happen and you know I want to make sure that whatever we adopt is a policy that everybody can live with students staff

008parents so I think it's worth approving in this fashion sending it out and seeing what sort of feedback we receive can I ask um in the schools that have an outright ban oh cell phone ban yeah cell phone band where you got to put them in yeah the pouches or whatever are they so does that mean it's they are locked up all day so even in the cafeteria and in study halls depends on the school but yes some high schools have that yeah so I ask because that is in ours where it can be used in the cafeteria of the commons should we consider Banning that yeah my take is no um at the high school level because you know we're preparing kids to move on after we're trying to teach them how to be

009responsible young adults um and you still get to bring your um you know cell phone to work and everything like that kids will have their cell phone if they go off to college nobody's taking your cell phone um and so we're trying to work on responsible use um more so than just pure prohibition of in all places and I think so you know social media does have a lot of positive benefits to it um but doesn't if you didn't have a cell phone in the cafeteria that continues to promote H the one time where there really is human uh unregulated human interaction is now the one time where you finally get to use your phone and what I've seen Adam you know going into the the lunch you know looking in cafeteria Commons at lunch

010is different today than it has been which is a very pleasant surprise to me and I think too the kids at D um they don't have the cell phones out at all at lunch is they matriculate up like they don't find the need for it uh the way that some of our kids have in the past um and by the way we're we're setting a a policy that we could always change if we find that to be an issue um but I I really think it's important to teach kids boundaries and um help them live within those boundaries as they get developmentally older I wouldn't think it's appropriate for a 12 or 13y old so so just so I'm understanding so the the progression here so at the high school beginning at this year it

011was just the start of this year right is when the cell phones were actively being discouraged in the classroom in Earnest across the board yeah okay and then you saw and yeah pretty much improvement in human interaction essentially absolutely um so now what we don't know is when that eighth grader right because we haven't had that yet where they had the ban at lunch in the study halls now they're going to be going to the high school that assumption you're making it's probably not it's G to be well okay I finally get to use my cell phone at the high school now so now we're going to kind of get to see how that Happ where you're being more restrictive to less restrictive um I'm making an educated guess that they won't be binge surfing

012at lunch um when they move into a cafeteria with 10th 11th and 12th graders who are not doing that behavior that's an educated guess more than assumption I'm going to go with I'm G to give myself some credit and go with educated guest rather than assumption now um how many lunch waves are there at the high school three okay there's only three okay so would there be any or do you uh do the uh I guess the AIDS that are there do they do any observations someone who's maybe excessively on the phone because it could be a sign of a uh uh what's it addiction or something not well not an an addiction a um antisocial Behavior I don't know what the modern term is but know what I mean yeah withdrawn right yeah yeah

013our our lunch AIDS um by the way our administrators are often circling through the cafeteria as well too are observant they're asked to pay attention you know there are several hundred kids in there obviously so might they miss something one day yeah several days probably not so if it gets to the degree that you're referencing I think they're more than likely to pick it up report it have a conversation um find out because if even if you were sitting at a if you were sitting alone at a table with 10 people and that's what I would consider it like you're there but you're not there you know yeah that's my concern is that you got at a table but you're not interacting with anyone cuz you're just yeah and like I said you know maybe

014you don't feel like talking to someone and that's fine yeah yeah maybe you texting with your job for after school or something you know one day but uh and I think one day most of our people would be like all right then maybe they'd ask depending on your demeanor or whatever but if it's several days then we're going to ask going to have that conversation um and you know if that's what's going on then I don't know that the ban is going to as not going to discipline you you need some support of some sort right yeah it's more about kind of yeah which we're going to kind of get into in The Bullying thing of the whole support piece of right life so because because I'm just wondering because I don't know if was

015there a a goal statement in here because is the I'm guessing the goal is to have balance in self-control right that's the goal is to have that balance of human interaction and being able to use your phone responsibly well at the high school yeah it doesn't outright state that that's the goal at the high school um it the overall goal of the policy is to ensure that we have an appropriate learning environment we don't speak to the goal of developing appropriate use at the high school but I would say that that is a goal of parents of you know staff uh I'm sure students too want to have a balance because our kids will tell us like I talked to kids doing the whole anxious generation book talk and all that other stuff man I

016wish I knew then what I know now and you know I know it points especially when they talk about being a middle schooler maybe even a freshman that I was more consumed by the Social Media stuff than I am as a senior um and so we have particularly girls um trying to Circle back we were working on this after uh the first book club meeting I had but I know Kevin is working on pulling those girls together to talk to our freshman and then maybe our middle school students because they were very interested in doing that after we read the anxious generation and had the conversation just because I just because I've just been learning kind of like with the iPhone 16 and and Google with the the roll out of their AI Technologies where

017my understanding is the phone is constantly interacting with you listening it can be it yeah it can be I would think a lot of people would even prefer it so now you have a device that is designed to interact with you to continue to keep you engaged and now we don't want you to do that so you know we may you may not have a choice but to restrict right as that technology becomes more Advanced or is it I your brain or whatever like where is the world going it's unbelievable but um but you know I just mean phone based technology yeah and you're bringing up really fair points Adam and I you know like I said this is a policy you'll see on our building policy where we've amended that like a doz times

018the last years like this one you know we can come come back to it if we feel like we need to uh and make adjustments as we feel like we need to you know the last time we wrote this policy we were worried about beepers you know I don't think it's going to be that long before we look at this one again yeah yeah not with all the advanced yeah Jeff can you tell us where um where the structure for this policy yeah so it's a hybrid between what cab had provided and what we're already practicing right now um so they had kind of like the Preamble part which I made mild modifications to but then um all this stuff here the elementary school middle and high school that's what that's what we do you

019know it's what we do I really appreciate having and what we surveyed the people on yeah I really appreciate having this uh in this format policy format so thank you for putting this together so this is only a first reading you know like I said I think what I would do is send that out after uh and you're talking about sending it out to the whole Community the parents yeah so this next one is new legis and I wanted to just I don't want to really belor this but um I went to this training I brought Marlene um and um Dr iene Tracy with with me to this uh this was this is part of their slide deck their original slide deck was 110 slides and we weren't going to do that tonight A lot

020of it doesn't have anything to do with policy so I just kind of uh paired it down to the stuff that was more relevant for this policy but you know I just wanted to give you guys context and rationale here about what we've been doing like um as Adam and an will tell you uh Mike and Carol are probably even tired of hearing about it like how many times the policy has just changed over the years and you'll see some of the context but the basically the reason for bullying laws is is not just like following the letter of the law but to create a safe learning environment um that's emotionally intellectually safe it's a positive learning en environment for every student and adult um there's the definition I'm sorry for this being a little

021wonky but I I just uh had to upload it from Google docs to or from uh PowerPoint to Google and I haven't had the opportunity to fix it but the definition of bullying basically everybody has a different definition of believe all 50 states did um and pre Coline taken right from the de definition one habitually cruel to others weaker than himself and it's that imbalance of power that has always been a staple of bullying post bullying and more recently we've kind of manipulated that a little bit to all mean-spirited behaviors be them once be them 50 times whether there's a imbalance of power or not it doesn't make those situations okay it's just not bullying and what the law sought to do was really focus on um providing a Better Learning environment as opposed to

022um oh boy that is wonky I'm trying to fix it to it won't let me fix it but you know what I'm logged in as me so I can pull it up on PowerPoint we'll do that instead oh shoot computer all right sorry about that this should be much easier to see all right yeah so you know this was the old mentality this Progressive discipline is the way to solve the problem and I always said you know when thinking about disciplinary issues if you know punishment was effective Chester Correctional would be the best school in town and it's not consequences are Effective Education is effective um simple just Progressive discipline isn't enough to change behavior in most cases um so this is the history of the bullying law in Connecticut the first number that 2digit

02302 all the way to 23 that's the year that the law changed so the law has changed in the last 20 years 1 2 3 4 five six S 8 9 10 11 times making it really hard for parents students Educators to follow so is a state law you this is state law yep so um the 23 Connecticut bullying definition unwanted an aggressive behavior among children K12 that involves a real or perceived power IM balance um now that's you know context dependent um and this is where you know professionals determine what where that context is was context defined somewhere um not really it the context is power depend uh Power imbalance is you have to evaluate where the power imbalance comes in and we'll take a little bit of a look at that in the

024um what the uh in the policy too so again the power imbalances about again abuse of power in the school context a lot of this isn't typically what happens if Sparky's being a jerk or mean to another person it's generally not a power imbalance piece um it's mean-spirited and it needs to be resolved and there but it just doesn't necessarily meet the definition of bullying anymore um so what determines here is a power and balance I think is what you're that's a huge change yeah yeah massive massive shift yeah massive shift um is that int was that they realize it's intentional or yeah it was all right um through a lot of Investigation uh because a lot of everybody's time was spent investigating these nuances of you know trying to substantiate a bu bullying claim

025or not um the label of bully made investigation twice as hard because now you know even parents don't want to tell the truth about what's going on um it it it detracted away from the real effort to improve the school culture and change student Behavior you're spending all your time you know chasing uh down investigations and not fixing problems um and so they wanted to make a conscious shift in that direction so they're not most things are not power imbalances there are mistakes that kids make um and so instead of playing Ma wake whack a all with all the changes um many principles like like I said we're spending a lot of time we we are victim of this too and when we talked about this with our administrative team there was like a bit

026of a relief like we can focus on the things that really matter as opposed to filling out a six-page investigation form um so again the focus is really on improving School climate um as opposed that's again I want to reiterate I can't say it enough there are consequences for misbehaving there that should come with education and restorative practices but it's not you're going through this um this investigation report that's just short of you know a um calling in Sherlock Holmes uh and spending those that many hours on it it's it's really about what happened how do we fix it is the the change in Focus uh again the real cure for polic bullying is creating a positive climate hanging up a no bullying sign is that's not fixing you know things uh the term bullying

027gets misappropriated in a lot of cases how do we fix mean-spirited behavior and create a positive climate for everybody a climate of respect that's what the focus is really on and so you'll see some of the things that have to happen as part of this in order to um to create this these definitions are not in the slide deck but they are in the policy that we're going to review so if someone is attempting to physically dominate someone else like someone's bigger than the other person and they're just you know you can have that's now considered mean Spirit you can have an imbalance of power based on size you can be you know if that's if you're just in trying to intimidate and I mean I think that's a more traditional application of bullying yeah

028you know the big bad guy trying but a little guy can have an imbalance of power too you know if you're in a high school situation and you're um you know the captain of the team and you're harassing a a freshman who's maybe three times your size there there can be an imbalance of power there too and so that's what the law seeks to find is there an imbalance of power um so you like sort of start there and then it starts it's bullying starts and ends with inbalance of power um you know but if there is not that imbalance of power but you're still doing things you shouldn't be doing there are consequences and education for that too um but we know already without going through this whole litigated process that it's not bullying

029and we're focusing on fixing the problem as opposed to labeling a bully or not a bully you know which I think is the welcome shift um that a lot of Educators have have said um so these things LA are all defined in our policy um the statutory requirements so um I found this really interesting not later than 2024 which is behind us uh training is made available to School Employees in Seal welcome aboard you know we've been there for uh part of a decade School climate Improvement restorative practices all things we've done tied toal um other identified research evidencebased programs efforts we have to um obviously protect safeguards with IEP 504 plans there's references to furpa as well I have to give an annual report on the number of in incidents of challenging Behavior that's

030um effective July 1 2025 when uh the new PR policy starts um no retaliation for anyone reporting challenging behaviors which is already you know in place um so the meetings held no more than two days after challenging Behavior so for people who are like oh they're throwing out the bullying they're not they're not they're not throwing they're not saying we don't have to investigate this anymore this isn't important fixing the problem is important that's more important than labeling a bully or not a bully is what we're trying to focus on now so um School climate improvement process consists of a continuous cycle of planning evaluating you know action and implementation it's just a cycle so you know we're trying to identify what the issues are we're looking at the data we're um setting a plan

031in place implementing the plan reviewing the data determine adjustments things like and it's just that uh that process that cych goes through so so seccom safe School climate committee for each School shall administer a safe School climate survey to students employees and families we have we've been doing that already every other year um that was required as part of the law um what is clear in this is that they parents receive prior written notice of the content and administration of such survey and have reasonable opportunity to opt students out of the survey um which you know is kind of disappointing you know I I would want survey feedback from all students um but it right now the uh survey had gone through the curriculum committee and is coming to you you know the full board

032again so you'll see it the survey again before we send it out out I think we'll you know we're going to adhere to this even though it's not part of our policy yet it became part of the survey policy that we were doing so we'll send it out once we get a chance to review it and who made that determination that students were people can KN out the law that's in the law yeah so School climate Improvement plan what does that look like effective July 2025 uh each year the committee each school has the committee they'll develop an update is necessary the plan so they're looking at the student survey results recommendations from Members um data uh they um the team is defined in here of who has to be on the team you'll see

033that in the policy so this is then made available to everybody and we have to send it out to the um you know the constituents in the building by December 31st so in the fall each fall they update it Implement review it in the spring then review again in the fall with the new data and feedback and it's just a continuous Improvement cycle hopefully so training requirements again I already touched upon you know um we have to educate our folks in social emotional learning these are things that are already part of what we do so this is easy piece for us funding the law speaks specifically to funding District shall find in its discretion uh allocate sufficient funding to satisfy the requirement so basically I know we just went through the budget process we're already

034doing this we will continue the so the PD money we have allocated it's not like we have to go back and say oh no this we have to add more money for that was already part of what we do so we didn't add anything in the budget for that um we have to adopt and allocate adequate resources we already do and the resources that treasure allocates are you know uh at least on par with what other districts allocate so um this was part of their slideshow that I thought was really important worth sharing as much as this isn't really so much about policy I think it uh speaks to the way that we've tried to tackle um what what we do here uh it's all about relationships um with our staff and students it's about

035setting a positive climate between our students and between our students and staff that is critically important I mean we have hunt literally hundreds of teachers and thousands of students here and we do our very best to try and do that we've been focused on we're always trying to get better recognize we're never perfect um but it's really about relationships and um so this quote that they had in their slideshow I thought was really important School administrators know that Educators who naturally and intentionally create wonderful relationships with their students and their parents or Guardians and build and nurture a positive classroom Community climate are the same Educators who experience the highest academic achievement it is the same group a Ono one correspondence and if I'll challenge any you know anybody to reflect back on their teachers

036who are the most effective if you had a top 10 list nine of them are like this you might have the one who's the kudin but he taught you a lot you know but you probably wouldn't sign up to go back there almost you know it's like nine out of 10 you're going to find this to be the case almost always which may sound familiar right I mean it's what we've been preaching for like I said the better part of a decade you and you look at our achievement it's gone nothing but up um as we focus on these things and that's a real Testament to our staff and to the board for funding that approach we've added mental health stuff so this I thought it was funny that they had this slide after I

037was thinking well that's our Crossroads that they had this kind of same idea with the the driving idea but where it all comes together so these were the two folks who put the presentation on they work very closely the folks that actually joyan F Friberg worked for the State Department of Education for a very long time um and retired and was working with uh Patricia shonne who was a um former superintendent the shore um and they've been working together doing a lot of school climate Consulting so I I wanted to share this with you and I apologize for you know I w't say dragging out the meeting but I know it's you know usually we're just looking at policy here but I thought it was important to have that context when we took the look

038at the policy and um we'll find a way to fix up that uh PowerPoint on the link if you want to go back and take a look at it but um so in essence this is the policy that outlines all those things it's got definition of school climate what constitutes a positive School climate so this is replacing our bullying policy in total the one that we worked on for years yes sir I you know but this is what what do we say the 12th time the law has changed in 10th well we we worked on it that gap between 14 and 19 when we we really sunk our teeth into it and made it very much more user friendly I think than the legislation ever could have been and you know I think it was

039solid um but all the law has changed so now we've got to Pivot I it's totally different yeah so um you know you've got the definitions where do the definitions come from uh statutory definitions over there um you know I did appreciate their reference to uh Team Dating Violence so how about like our um Anonymous reporting and all that that all stays the same okay yeah that all stays the same um we we have something called speak up where uh I think we talked about it in here actually when we had Mike Papa uh come and visit where you can submit Anonymous reports um you can still submit Anonymous bullying reports um it's just filtered differently now I mean it's again I don't want to if I said it once I want to say it

040a thousand times misbehavior is still misbehavior that needs to be addressed is it bullying maybe not probably not uh under the definition it's still wrong and it still needs to be fixed um but again instead of spending all of the time determining if it fits a narrow def of bullying in order to just label people in which you're going to probably end up taking the same steps anyway um now we're focused on how do we just fix it so that the power structure part I think it was even as recent as last year the law had changed where they had added teachers student bullying so is that sort of that still there that's a good question um I I'd want to go back and look at if it speaks specifically I don't recall it speaking

041specifically to CU it did speak specific yes I know I know yeah yeah which was a huge change right yeah um you know either way it again just like um I was saying on the behavior it's misconduct like if it's if it's wrong it's wrong um whether it fits the definition of bul I mean because we like well un need issues and if you identify a teacher as a bully like I mean we we would have a progressive discipline with you know a teaching component to that too yeah up to termination you know um depending on the circumstances again context matters you know uh a teacher doing something really wrong abuse of power with a student once is ific to me you know so um we would handle it accordingly well that's the other thing

042that last year the definition was it could have been a one-time event right and now it still could be okay still it still could be again abuse of power under the context it it still could be so it's not necessarily what was it repeatable yeah yeah it was like it's not it's not necessarily that's cuz that used to be the definition that is no longer the defition it simplifies things let me see if it's got the I know it has the bullying I feel like the purpose is just to diffuse the word bullying yeah well I think I don't disagree with that an yeah I I think it yeah because bullying means different things to different people well there were 50 state definitions of bul and so what is bullying and so they simplify it

043um and get away from focusing on labeling to focusing on fixing problems exactly which is better for everybody students parents you know uh administrators alike it doesn't mean mean that we're not still taking care of bullying right we don't care if the behavior is bullying we're addressing misbehavior we're addressing things that erode positive School climate whether it's bullying or some other Behavior that's not technically meeting the definition of bullying is kind of irrelevant you know it's fixing the the cultural issue educating kids is more important I like this move to when I again when I we mention this to our administrators usually legislative changes mean layering on a lot more paperwork and things that don't necessarily pay dividends this was well received because it allowed us to focus on what really matters more um as

044opposed to the label because at the label you still had to fix the problem it just took a lot longer to get to the label which everybody thought was like a death sentence and would avoid it all costs I going to say I'm not loving this wording of challenging Behavior has a definition but I guess nobody asked me so so the law says we have to adopt this whole cloth like uh the um suspension policy yeah pretty much I mean this is the law around bullying and it it says that you replace your existing you know 5131 911 wow so is this policy comes directly from the state and we don't get to change it even though it has cable letterhead on it I you know I can ask our attorney what sections here yeah

045um would be subject to adjustment or potential adjustment if you'd like me to I can have them review it and say is there anything in here that we can that play with that we're free to play with well I think maybe it would be better just to or do you have a statement from cave saying this is directly from the state I think that's a better starting point than having to pay for pay $300 an hour this against the policy you know we you we we'll reach out to uh that's what I was inwardly grappling and I you know I can like what does cave say I can certainly read the law again you know well interpretation or is it you know is this it like the suspension policy yeah well you're going to see

046in I this I I know follows the letter of the law as does the uh well it says a mandated policy ice one that we're looking at but you can see in the ice one I highlighted a couple of places where um I know that's not written into the law and it felt like a little bit of a liberty I'm going to point out there's a lot of Liberties in that one so op pointed out a couple of places where thought yeah that might be accurate but I don't know if it's necessary for a policy um so this I mean again this is a first reading you guys will have time to review it um but this speaks to I know this speaks well to the various elements of the law um this because I

047I reviewed this closely against the uh presentation that was given grounded in the law and it's step by step but we'll we'll go back to cave and ask them Carol if you make a note of that um thank you sure no so we'll come back to this one next month as well the non-discrimination policy this is for a third reading um I don't have any seconds right now no this is from all as well correct yeah this is the one where I know we updated Robin's information um if you recall we were progressing with a couple of policies that the revision to Title 9 just took totally off the table um so we don't have that one h no the title animals no this one we don't have the non-discrimination oh on paper yeah oh

048no I didn't it hasn't changed since the last one I can make a copy for no so this is going to third reading for implementation yeah and this is one that um Rebecca had reviewed okay we still have a title 9 coordinator even though Title 9 was kind of reverted back to the pretty what year it was that the original version before the final reading final um actually guessing I have it somewhere at home St you can have this yeah that's total legal legal language right oh yeah this is basically the discrimination laws so remind me Jeff that one just had to come into compliance with yeah I forget what was you remember Carol what was missing from that when we updated it the the 521 four months ago yeah I think it was was

049it updating the definitions oh you know what it was it wasn't lining up with the other policy yeah remember we had that question about how come sex discrimination is the only one in this andd the yeah so I think she updated this to include the every legal element yeah right here um and then that last one's kind of a catch all so remember we only had like sexual discrimination or something on there so this is every legal place where you can't discriminate against people status is a veteran Etc so which is like everything yeah you just can't discriminate against people based on St discriminating against people you know these on who they are maybe what they are say who they are but so it's it's basically all protected classes that's what Rebecca updated I was

050looking to see if this if there was like slash something but it's actually a Google Document which is really hard you know I could just drop in the um yeah okay the URL because this is where we have it you know bullying harassment discrimination and you click on it and it's like okay so I can't just put that in there can't just take the uh that will do this one yeah it's not going to be a live link anyway but at least yeah you know parents or whatever it's a little bit clearer than it was anybody have anything else to adding pass right so if you recall when we updated we put our two uh our policies are now one policy for the uh discipline conduct um as such we're resending the old ones taking

051now that we've adopted the new one that covers this otherwise they're redundant and in Conflict so um we have the the to uh what is the number of policy that can you remember that Carol is the new policy is it the name of the new policy too a suspension and exposion toess there that's oh there yeah okay y okay so we kept one of the numbers no this is different 5114 as opposed to 5144 and 5131 those get dropped because we adopted this policy in the last meeting the board okay the last policy we have is not our current policy um this this is um a cave policy for um managing the protection of undocumented students now as I was saying this is all grounded in law um this is consistent with the um information

052we we SE received from the state like I've been kind of bombarded with information in the last few weeks about this and how to handle these situations um this does put together in one document not just the policy but the regulation outlines the practices that are consistent with what the state shared and I had an immigration attorney who was in town send me a bunch of information um which was helpful and it all aligned basically is what I'm saying and so um so because of pler versus doe we can't impede the rights of any students to public education under pler versus do now might that change with this supreme court I don't know but that's current law um so so so here's kind of like what I know we were having a conversation on as

053we were starting up District Personnel should not treat students desparately for district residency determination based on their immigration status um regard they receive all School Services regardless of immigration status um they shall not inquire about immigration status I was asked by somebody with the power school breach could that have been somebody looking for immigration status the answer is no because we don't even ask that um if they were looking for it they'd be barking up the wrong tree so that's been practiced for how long that's that's just been the law so this goes back to 1982 for plyer versus d but they're not asking we we are prohibited from asking since 1982 we don't ask about your immigration status we ask about your residency do you live here right in Cheshire that's what all we

054are really able to ask and all we really care about because if you don't live here you don't go to school here um unless you're homeless then you might have a clean to go school and then there's that's the McKinley Bento act which is federal law and we have to abide by those rules so just to be clear you're saying that we do not collect uh imig legal legal status because of federal law yes because of that decision are you sure because I read that decision I did not get that I have not um I got the part about anyone who does not have legal status can attend school period sure right cannot we can you can't stop them but it didn't say anything about not knowing who they are you can't ask that you

055can't ask yeah we don't ask um right because that's I I'll track that down I'm just wondering I'm just wondering if it's state law or that because I'm sure that's that's not every state does not do that I will track that down to determine if that was a legal uh is there a direct legal reference to that or is that legal advice to avoid discrimination right but I will track that down yeah let me let me ask I was at some conference I'm not sure which one it was that they said that the public schools are not immigration agents so we're not supposed to investigate whether or not somebody legal resident or not IL legal resident we ask for birth certificates we ask if we don't have birth certificates we ask for passports we ask

056because it just seemed like this entire policy hinges on fer V do and fer V do does not speak about it's pler yeah sorry just to be sa was iter what I say Philadelphia Flyers pler pler voo I as far as I can tell it did not speak to the documentation part it just said yeah if you live in town and you have residency here you can attend yeah so if you just revie can be denied public education you cannot be right yeah right but if you just reviewed it I'll I'll defer to you in terms of the exact well I'm not a lawyer right so and I maybe missed maybe someone referenced something some Nuance something because that was the decision from 1982 right maybe there was some revision somewhere yeah so it's a

057fair question I'll look into it to see if that was our direct legal guidance or is it statutorily prohibited right because this is pretty far-reaching and almost depending on where you are could be in Conflict clear yeah clearly you know there's been a lot of discussion about this recently locally um nationally but you know certainly locally as well and I haven't heard of a single District that does ask so it makes me wonder like it it's probably statutory but I I can't definitively cite where so let me find out let me look and see it it could be wrong on that could have just been legal advisement because you know up say years and years yeah a few weeks ago no one really cared so so the case Court reason that illegal aliens and their

058children though not citizens of the United States or Texas are people quote in any ordinary sense of the term and therefore afforded 14th Amendment protections since the state law which was barring them from school severely disadvantaged the children of illegal aliens by denying the right to an education because Texas cannot prove that regulation was needed to serve a compelling State interest the court struck down the law right the right but um you know the the understand the specific question about inquiry about you know alien or uh you know citizenship status um whether that's statutorily prohibited or just strongly legally advised against doing right is it tradition versus yeah uh I forget what what's the uh the term tradition versus practice or um I I figure what it is right you just do something because we've

059always done it doesn't necessarily mean it was right to do sure whatever you know that got a great poster to show you afterward I I assume I assume they were asking for status because they were do demanding tuition fee for illegal yeah well I know you can't charge tuition to People based on their immigration status it says that here in this as well um so this is the the policy on that and um so then we ask if I recall right we ask for uh social security number for American students correct or no we don't we don't have that no we don't keep Security numbers cuz I know that was a concern that people so that so that wasn't in power school then I guess well I guess that's lucky yeah I don't so it's

060just date of birth address I don't know why name any District would need your social number um you know best just not to have it yeah we don't need it guess so yeah all right so like this is um that's so that like I highlighted a couple other places where it was more this is part of the policy that is not a legal requirement um but it's you know it was part of the the cave yeah I was going to ask about that next you know the encourage the increase enhance partnership with Community Based organizations I I don't think this is you know necessarily a bad thing but I don't know that it's it's our role um necess going to say I don't if that's your role to be yeah to be immigration Support Services

061for Families either um having been a former school counselor and principal I know that you know when you have a student and they're asking you for support service that's outside of the school's domain like you know counseling services or whatever well we don't endorse we can provide them information on a variety of you know resources but you know for us to actively try and educate a community is something that I'm a little uneasy with um because first of all I'm not an expert and we are not experts and so wouldn't that also make you an active participant I don't know if that make you an active participant but I'm I'm not an expert like you know if um if a student came to me about criminal defense for something you know I wouldn't be providing

062them all these legal resources like I wouldn't make it the district's job to be responsible providing you know criminal defense information um where is that section that's um a 5113 a at the bottom of the page p is that first page p511 oh it's this one first page so you know I well I I wouldn't say to any of our employees um that hey if you had a student who was very concerned about deportation or something you know and they family was asking about resources to point them in the direction of somebody who knows what the hell they're doing um yeah I would understand that they did why they did that um but to for us to provide resources for those actively facing deportation things like that to to make it our responsibility um it's

063encouraged um but I and I don't have a problem encouraging our people to support their the students in our schools but actually you know um I guess while you're at it the basis for well yeah I'll leave that one we don't have a lot of 9-year-olds who came here on their own you know no no no I the free free Services um I'm guessing that that wouldn't matter that would be which one is that state supported um uh bullet point2 lunch breakfast yeah lunch breakfast yeah I guess that would just be part of the attending school yeah that would fall under that umbrella yeah we're not going to discriminate uh based on their immigration status so you know um again looking at I don't know if it's your job the top part of that paragraph

064as well just Personnel show for the state or non loal local nonprofits immigration law oh this this part yeah oh not refer them not refer them the ice and then refer them to State local nonprofit a list of organization should be complied by a superintendent disseminated on school sites and District website yeah I'd say that whole paragraph yeah not a huge fan of that yeah you know I that puts you in the middle violating and I current revised federal law and we're going to do everything we can to protect kids I would never send a message otherwise but you know for us to play because this this is putting us in the middle right of a yeah Customs issue now again if I wouldn't reprimand somebody who did it either but I don't know that

065I'm going to make it our District's responsibility well well it's not about website reprimanding it's a about how far would ice take it if someone you know was going like this or sneaking kids out the back door or something like that right you let's say or you're referring to whatever are they interfering in a like a federal investigation and those types of crimes are yes pretty serious that's a felony or whatever you know you can't like sneak people out the back door right this isn't going that far but but it's putting on you to put stuff on our website refer people to uh nonprofits who do actively attempt to oh you interfere I don't I don't know that they do or they don't individually okay listen my father would say Humpty Dumpty was P right

066okay were I think if you went to someone else websites it would be pretty obvious I'm not going to blindly allege right cuz I don't know but I I don't think you're think you're crazy than not so yeah it's like that sort of language I was a little uneasy with um you know this is all of this stuff these this made sense to me yeah cuz yeah what is it is this the where you're checking warrants and not allowing people well you know what I I don't want for any child whether they're in um illegal immigrant or somebody who could have their parent could have given birth to them at Orton school I I it doesn't matter having law enforcement come in and forcibly take a student is not good for any kid in that

067room or adult by the way you know I mean if our adults can't handle it I don't think our kids could handle it it's really not appropriate if there's a Judicial warrant for that to occur then we would work together to find a way that is least disruptive to all parties involved do our basically what this administrators have they're aware of that they're they're trained to know the difference between that because wasn't there two types of warrants list judicial and administrative yeah um I can't say that I've ever seen a Judicial versus an administrative or so I think I'll probably ask what's that I said new world yeah I right like they didn't teach you that in superintendent school um or principal school so I think I'll ask um are it's a good good piece

068of advice I'll ask our uh the immigration people that have contacted me if they could show me the difference How will I know and and they say consult your attorney um and frankly you know I I happen to know a couple of immigration attorneys because of the work that we've done with the Korean student Orly Korean uh teacher Exchange program because you call your average school Law Firm they're not going to have a a Cadre of immigration attorneys on hand to answer your questions I mean I'm sure Floyd are I mean attorney could tell me the difference between an administrative and judicial warrant but you know I'd like to see it and maybe if there's an easy way to educate our people about it um so that's the policy the the um the uh so

069these are two different regulations here the regulation is how to enact the policy that's that next part so um they yeah so like this is a history lesson which is fine um I don't know what what my oh there's one of my comments I know it's I mean do is the feeling that we should be work we should be uh working on this pretty quickly because of what's happening it you know what this is one of those things where it kind of does doesn't matter if you adopt it it's out there for the world to see if you don't it's we're following federal and state laws like you know you got to follow the law well some of it is right yeah well we're going to so we can I guess I was asking yeah

070it's not is there something immediately that we need to be tending to I mean I think you could make an argument that there's an imminent but even if the policy isn't there we still have to follow the law I'm asking it in policy because Tim's gonna ask it yeah at the board and and he may if the board determines there a certain level of urgency then they could pass it a single single shot but um well you know see this this uh part two is already making a lot of assumptions yeah says as schools continue to meet their commitment to educating on documented students and lose their protected area status once again they are put in the middle they are assuming that in this I don't think it's an assumption I think that's the reality

071but it's an editorialization but and and it's it conflicts because you're under the law you're providing public education from uh pler voo right so you're not in the middle you're there but you know providing education the other part is yeah I don't want to be in caught in the middle of immigration issues but for me that's editorial like I so like that doesn't help me facilitate the policy at all and therefore I don't know that we need that um so this next part again corresponds with all legal guidance that I've seen so ice rolls up they go to the front of the school contact the district Point person which is me uh upon arrival well there hasn't been a lot of TR I have contact who the principal the principal would know to yes I've

072already directed them call me you know if anybody shows up um and then we would consult with our attorneys but so they know how to do this um and is Adam already astutely pointed out I'm not qualified for Warrant examination because I don't know Squad no I asked if you were I yeah take some time yeah um you have a special certificate for that perhaps yes add that to the and then you should be getting credal special certification providing uh immediate support direction to building administrators receiving I perfect that makes perfect sense to me um Consulting with the superintendent and board approved attorney on matters including not limited to the validity of warrants Etc makes perfect sense Consulting with and updating the superintendent on all matters well if I'm the person doing the stuff then

073yeah it's redundant but it could be a design if you know I'm not available or what excuse me the superintendent staff training uh by legal experts who are updated on immigration enforcement law I I have the first one like from a like an actual virtual training on Wednesday morning so um at that point we figure out you know who needs to be trained by who or what or whatever uh how to follow step steps in Enforcement Officers request to ENT enter includes training school bus drivers custodial staff you know we'll we'll get there um when we have a better sense of what we have to do um offer no your rights presentations to families and students where appropriate engage with families and look for opportunities to provide information and updates related to ice activity address

074family's fears and get ahead of misinformation a huge fan of that so now you you right like I don't know that that's our responsibility like you know what if there's and I I I am so sensitive to children who are here you know because their family was trying to make a better opportunity for them or whatever but but you know making the district responsible for providing presentations on it when I don't know anything about this you know like um I don't have a problem trying to connect them with people who do but so are we supposed to pay immigration attorneys to put on presentations is because our policy says we should I think that's where I was a little uneasy yeah I do want to address family's fears and get ahead of misinformation if any

075exists like yeah we're not we're not um holding you know inviting ice agents every day to sweep lunch I mean if they heard used be setting up roadblocks and raiding buses yeah like right like so like if that's something that's out there and we know that's that's true yeah I would address that misinformation because again this is going to Rattle has rattled a lot of people in our community whether they're they have legal immigration status or not um if they've lived in ches five generations I've heard from families that are like this makes me really UNC I don't want my child caught in the middle of something like this or observing their friend yanked out of class or whatever um and I don't want the kid yanked out of class like I you know I

076don't want them and had a lot of people have different feelings about immigration all over the place so you know I just didn't know that us talk about being put in the middle of it I feel like this puts us squarely in the middle of it um everything else here uh read to me as just good guidance you know don't resist a nice agents questions or requests cooperate with federal agents you know my dad was a federal agent not nice but like you know guys just women just trying to do their job um you can engage them doesn't mean you know again like we're opening the doors um but you have a conversation follow the legal advice um do again these are just this is procedural document you know who did you speak to what

077did you see um follow furo laws follow federal laws again if you have a Judicial warrant you have to follow that um like to me this is uh editorial and again like I I try in my role to be very politically neutral um and this is uh I just feel like some of the things in here are editorial um in that policy I think this is good advice should you know find to be part of our regulations good advice there's there's a the administrative uh although we haven't gotten there the administrative warrant piece yeah it tells the difference yeah between the two yeah yeah but I have never seen them like I don't know if they're does it say administra a warrant on you right like that would make he of a lot easier like

078administrative how do you know warrants are yellow with purple writing on and the other ones are blue with green writing I I could figure that out but like are they nuan differences how do we how do we know and so and it's good to know like it's this I thought all this was appropriate for our um you know regulation oh there's there's a second version sample two yeah oh it seems to be much shorter that we we didn't have oh wait this is yeah and I I was comfortable with sample one I thought it had a lot of detail yeah it had a lot of detail the thing in Sample to that I didn't like um like counselors and mental health support services are to be made available to students who are experiencing stress or

079anxiety period in my mind as a result of the repercussions of the presidential executive order regarding immigration like that again may be accurate but it's you know editorializing in a way that I didn't think was appropriate for the board no so so actually um if you guys are cool with sample one I'll delete sample two as part of what we're looking at our R 511 is regulation so we don't necessarily have any say in that anyway right that where so this policy I I would update the regulation though right this is all policy just you know that's what you guys highlighted I we seem to at least have some agreement does everything in the sample two is everything included in Sample one um yes it's it's written in Greater detail though I would say and

080that's why it's so long and I'm okay with the detail because this isn't something that happens all that often and if you were Consulting it um I think the detail would actually be helpful yeah cuz like uh number three like is a is a summary of like an entire page of procedure in uh sample one and then right down to the point where it gives you the the whole piece about the administrative warrant versus a Judicial warrant I I I just thought the sample one provided greater detail that would be helpful when this is an issue you don't deal with all the time hopefully yeah the only thing sample two number seven schools participating in student exchange visitor program must continue to comply it's common sense but got in the regulation on in part one

081CU I didn't see anything like that part one you're right this is all focused on Customs Enforcement and everything like that um but you're I don't know I don't yeah I don't I don't know if I'm ready to delete sample yet we can always come back to it obviously I mean we this isn't even this could go for a first reading if you wanted it to tonight doesn't have to again I have to follow the law anyway which is pretty much everything that's in the policy can it not go for a first reading but can we get the rest of the board well at the meeting this will be you could be reporting out on this and say you know I would encourage you to take a look at it um and give any feedback

082to Mark or members of the policy committee for me you have all the uh the changes marked um yeah so everything that we talked about or considered I updated on here so you know right down to I think we were talking about dropping this part of it and and then the rest is the regulation stuff which editorial so I guess no what I'm thinking is I would even like people's thoughts on the parts that we're looking to draw it'll show up from the policy if they look like so so well then maybe we should move it to a first reading then it can be posted CU if we don't then it won't be posted it's actually it's posted now so if we if you go on the website you go the policy committee it's there

083for the the whole agenda is there and this will be the agenda okay but it would be easier for them on the linked agenda just to click on it there instead having go to website if you want to do a first reading I like the first reading you know again it's law you got to do this anyway so I like the idea of putting it out there and you know let let the board weigh in on it it won't it won't become policy is that for three months anyway I did the strike through maybe if we just print this just print a copy for the board members we can give you seven copies you can pass them out when we do the policy report and then it's like right there in front of you like

084here's what we're considering we'll take any feedback for the next meeting you have any be perfect it's just easier than ask people go to the website check it or whatever like you know if there's something like this where you have all that information as well just it's it's short enough it's not like the bullying policy where it's many more pages so okay thank you sure all right could I just ask a quick question before we absolutely before we do motions so this flyer here yep this came from y okay should probably read that it's it's a lot of what you see in here it you know it just tells you how to handle it if they come you know um ask the agent if they have a Judicial one any warrant materials um note that

085they may have administrative Wars this is that's why when I say that this policy is consistent with the guidance we've had from the state with what we I mean like I said editorialize a bit more which we have addressed but with what I've had from immigration attorneys with two different law firms that have sent a fair amount of information out on this that's all cons consistent ice comes to the door you don't just let anybody in your building on every day so you have the right to say hey guys you know what can I help you with and in that process you call the superintendent who connects with the attorney and you say you know can I see any warrant they have determine if it's judicial or administrative if it's judicial find a way to

086support and cooperate with that that judicial warrant exactly what it says on the warrant if it's administrative then you don't here's a question so let's say they're monumentally stupid and then they decide to raid a school during the school day and someone pulls out a phone and takes a video of the event is that anything is that who's someone and like what are they doing with the video I don't know I'm assuming would be for personal consumption I don't know is that an act of something or is it just an act of defiance or an act of some places they transparency you know what I mean they tell you to in like a general like if you're being arrested and you recorded a police officer is that the same thing as when if it's Federal

087I don't know just because it's Federal if it's different than regular think you could do it you know it's that kind of TR that kind of speaks to is this a public or private location in a public location you'd have the right to do it you know well you know the argument was that schools aren't public locations during the day because we don't just let anybody wander through the school right you know if you're practices just anybody can come to school grounds during the day outside then that's more of a public place but we don't let people come to the playground in the middle of recess right does that um does that um private protection extend to our school buses we don't let anybody just anybody get on a bus right so it so it

088does extend public location yeah the bus stop that's a public location right right but in order for a bus to be boarded boarded they would have to show the warrant right and the bus driver would have to know well most of our are they required to know like yeah most of our bus drivers have limited uh legal training so they have to talk to Luther about how to yeah I mean I don't know let's let's call it you know whatever theoretical possibility sounds like a problem for that what sounds like a problem for us T better fix it I don't it is a dco issue but CPS issue too so just want to put those issues out there where where is that private speak about you know going back to the whole conversation of of

089you know administrators using their times and ways that support the educational experience for kids me training bus drivers about judicial warrants um I'm not pretty sure that's not supporting most of our students in their academic success but it's me realizing anyway so so we have motions uh for readings so we going to move that to a first reading or not what do you think yeah let's move along okay have a couple more and again it's all the law anyway yeah and do you want to move or shall I um are we doing it all together um we usually separate first readings and third do the first you choing at the big oh okay I'll second you you all right sure um move that uh policy uh 5131 81 electronic devices 5131 911 bullying that's interesting

090that they're the same almost the same number um and uh 51113 undocumented students uh be moved for a first reading second yes all in favor unanimous um let's see uh move that uh policy 0521 non-discrimination be moved for a third reading second favor I'm just assuming we have no discussion on this you know I'm going through yeah okay well didn't we just have yeah we had much discuss discussion yeah right but you know one we going to have to change the name to school climate instead of that's how they yeah okay I'll fix the motion so okay thank you we had needed a motion to resend as well right yes yes um move that uh 5144 discipline and 5131 conduct including appendix um be rescinded um and replace do we have to do a replace

091or well the other one already exists so to be so to be resed second all in favor move to a journ second all in favor we are