001productive debate and consensus and then action we never get to action we don't if we don't get to the consensus nicely put kelly i think i i'm always struck by when she's given the example about the researcher who came in and it was in his um how did she phrase it in his inability to prove her wrong that was the way she felt most that she knew she was that her in her data was right because she had all the confirmations and he someone was seeking disc confirmations and did not successfully disconfirm it so she actually got stronger truer uh validation of the information from that interaction and i guess that's what we're trying to think about and kelly you sort of express it in a different way is that i like the wheat from
002the chaff analogy because we we can as as as heffernan refers to it as thinking people we can listen with the point of further understanding rather than just saying i'm gonna hear what you have to say and then i'm gonna tell you again why my my point is correct and why yours is not but if you're if you're listening and she said remember she said this is how you you learn these are learned skills practiced habits talents that you develop that there is a way that we actually are getting the truer more foundational information from which to make the decisions from which to act like you say actions when we realize that the the what might seem uh veering off the pathway points of view is really serving the purpose of helping us clear so
003that's really why i like to do it because in school boards we we we are all about the info and we want our our constituents who put us in the chair we want our colleagues we want the staff the teachers and everyone and we certainly want the community to be impressed by our command of the data but uh that in and of itself is a goal is taking your focus off that north star goal is how's that serving kids how do we better serve kids if i just get to prove my point so so that's that's really what it's about i guess it's a little about clarifying uh uh and and giving ourselves permission like i think she even she titles it dare to disagree but for me it was a real eye-opener about um
004that it does sometimes take courage to realize that info gathering uh is uh it comes in many forms and in when it results in clarifying and strengthening and truing up uh the foundation of our decision making it's very very much worth it and the the reason we segue into the working styles kind of report on our homework is because this is where we find out uh where we can use our working styles not as a whoa as me oh no i working style this won't you know interact successfully with working style that it's not the case we always do and as scott as we were saying earlier in the break i think if if you take this little mini questionnaire of the five questions and you ask yourself those questions again two weeks from now
005or a month from now or whatever it might not track exactly because we are people who change depending on what's the situation but in terms of where we are on this day on this date in may in the year of 2021 or a couple days before whenever you did it uh i want to take a little uh tally i'll get old school with paper and pencil and ask you to share with me what the working style questionnaire yielded for you so you knew how to do it your lowest number when you added them all up tells you which of these categories and as i say realize some people find themselves oftentimes tied with more than one category but the lowest number uh ostensibly just for the purposes of today's discussion is going to identify a
006working style that you find yourself in steve would you be able to share what what did the working style scoring grid say that you fell into which category um it said that i was mostly analytical and then no i would tend to agree with that what was the second number what was the second lowest number for you um the second lowest was amiable but um that was the significantly higher score than yeah significant big difference between analytica and amiable very interesting delray would you share what what did the grid tell you analytical then driver analytical and driver okay lee how about you what did the grid yield for you so it was a tie between analytical and driver lots of ties come up in this i've noticed okay and was there a third one that
007was sort of a second place second second lowest number lee amiable amiable okay and nancy what did the grid show for you yeah yeah it takes takes no time just to answer the questions real quick okay uh kelly what did the grid uh seem to think about you today so uh in atypical i'm almost even all across the board interesting or so but but it was a clear 11 for driver 12 for amiable so we were talking about it earlier i thought it was the opposite and i thought analytical was my talk but it's not it's my lowest so it's uh which was just that whole leap and then look kind of an attitude that i have you know just let's just get started we can yeah tweak it as we go kind of an
008attitude yeah interesting okay how about you scott how about you scott so the clear winner was driver for me yeah and then analytical was my next but it was funny they were all grouped analytical expressive and amiable were all within one one number really close really not it's available you that thoroughness you guys uh that for that were analytical came up thoroughness was something that i was a constituent of your sort of working style putting on the brakes instead when the driver wants to jump and put on the gas uh it's helpful because that that's if you put on the brakes and you're about to run into a tree that's a good thing you know kept you from running in the tree you're referring to say and you like data a lot of us like
009the data because it can help you be thorough interesting but then there's uh drivers scott you said you were driver that you're a man of action and i think that's probably pretty big in your job description a lot of action there but but you see the the components of that style about being focused getting the job done being organized timelines and discipline all of that is sounds to me like the categories when you do your superintendent if you're at no matter what instrument for evaluation you're using there are several out there some are scoring grid some are narrative or whatever but if you fight come away from your superintendent evaluation and as scott identified himself as a driver and you say wow our superintendent is really focused on getting the job done and he's very
010strict about obeying timelines when we want something by x date he delivers it he's very disciplined that's a pretty good working style for an effective superintendent so that's not too much of a surprise there okay what about you nancy have you uh come up with any are you still scribbling away there almost almost all right okay while we're doing that we'll go ahead and we'll talk about the amiables because several of you this oftentimes happens we we're never we are not monoliths as individuals nor are we monolithic as a group so we're going to have the components of other working styles in our dominant working style and several of you mentioned about amiables and you know if that style means that you're sensitive you want to really pay attention maybe like kelly you're saying you
011look you know sifting that wheat from the chaff you you want to be inclusive not just for the warm fuzzy sake but because it helps you truly truly understand and build consensus as you said that's a that's a terrific constituent part of being an amiable and the inquiry skills like the joke i mentioned earlier about the old movie mogul who would say for your benefit let me ask you a question you know sometimes questioning when we teach our communications models in the masters in governance program uh one of the things we we build right in is is when you're responding to people oftentimes you need to ask a question in the course of it they come and they i'm the parent and i'm upset about this issue you may need to ask immediately have you
012talked to the principal uh what have you learned so far you know so oftentimes inquiry in uh and notices his inquiry skills inquiring for the purpose of getting relevant information is a big part of being an amiable and then lastly the expressives i haven't heard anybody mention the expressives yet but these are our vision people you know they are the creator what did you say that in the in the other study uh kelly calls it uh ideation or ideation idea strength finders ideators yes straight fighters very simple but these express is very high in creativity love humor which is another way of saying uh they want to connect there's a there's a connectedness when we share a smile or a laugh so humor becomes a big thing and they give themselves to go big picture
013to go think out of the box they're going to say i see that you've given me a hammer and nails and you want me to build this uh box with four sides but i see it as a triangle so let's try the triangle this so our expressives serve a real purpose and of course none of the working styles work no pun intended in isolation because the reason we're doing this little tally is to just kind of take a little bit of a look at how different working styles interface interact work together because they do they must we can't just all be analyticals and we'll see why in a minute so nancy anything you want to share did the grid yield anything about you this is very interesting i'm an analytical driver that's expressive there you
014go it's 14 30 no actually it's the other way around number one is amiable yeah it's your lowest score okay no we all did yeah i know it's it's if the instructions about going for the lowest score sometimes that's a little point that's overlooked so yours were amiable driver and analytical sort of in the going from lowest to higher all 14. she had an eight and three fourteens wow okay very amiable across the board yeah that's the variable all right we'll flip over then and let's look at the chart about how we make the most of those working styles so you are uh based on today's and as i said this could change you could take this little give yourself this test tomorrow and it could be completely different but as we look at it
015now look at how it says if you've got a couple of analyticals talking together they they're saying oh no look for your nearest driver that's a that's a tricky combination priority of task you see how uh where two analyticals might have a bit of of a of a butt heads type dynamic bring in the driver aspect of it and suddenly you get some time frames you get some discipline and you can actually get things done so it's not not too scary as you move across the that's analytical and driver you go to the across on the page under column c amiable you got to be careful that you don't spend it says cut short your social hour and get down to specifics analyticals that's where you can help your amiables you know after you check
016on oh how's the weather oh i did you know glad that the the team won the game last friday night oh boy but then get down to business and then lastly when you analyticals are talking to an expressive it's saying suggesting that you take that vision after you laud it and compliment it then craft some goals in it bring your analytical skills to help the amiable put in a plan of action so that's it let's go down to the next one to be if we go driver drivers and analyticals we talked about before they can organize they can get things done but if you go to drivers and drivers it says get a car with a good set of brakes again there's that budding heads they've got a little bit of tongue-in-cheek humor about driving
017off the cliff they tell us that drivers and amiables uh need to put on that thick skin which we mostly do when we are school board members anyway thick skin is is a prerequisite but the drivers are going to say we're trying to get there we want to get things done whereas the amiable may be saying well you remember the kind the amy both said well i want to be i want to be inclusive have we have we facilitated a channel of communication from every single voice have we got many voices here so be uh you you drivers be aware that your amiables may be wanting you to be more inclusive for the purpose of strengthening your decision making that's the reason and then the last one drivers and expressives uh you know help take
018that vision really look at it how does a vision which is way up to the 30 000 foot level really translate down to where we can get things done with real objectives real measurements real data measurements all right amiables let's go across real quickly on amriables amiables and analyticals uh can start with a amiable conversation but move to the uh the specifics of a project amiables and drivers i'll give you a chance obviously you take this home and read it in in more detail as you wait but it's it it challenges us as to drivers be sure to be specific about deadlines because the amiables may be so accommodating they may say oh whenever you you know whenever you can get that information that's okay when really a timeline and a deadline would be helpful
019so don't be shy about that amiables together oh warm and fuzzy uh might be a good for a coffee a coffee clatch at uh at starbucks but uh do need to really work together if you've got an amiable and an amiable to set those uh concrete directions amiables and expressives they can also go off on wouldn't it be nice if tangent but if they remind themselves to bring structure bring timelines bring plans and objectives bring data to the table then you can still have an effective working relationship finally expressives expressives and analyticals expressives can oftentimes bring layers of compelling attention-grabbing motivating information to an analytical an analytical say well i've got the data it's right here blah blah blah but then here comes your expressive is going to say now how do we couch this
020good data in a way that it will have be compelling and will elicit the response that we need it's like school districts very often when you're going for say a bond measure you have to go with the fact and the feeling you've got to give them the fact that you need that money to modernize uh campuses that are 50 years old but if you have some feeling and the ex and you're expressive says well let's tell them about mrs jones room where when she goes to you know hammer a a a poster into the wall the nail goes right through bring some fact bring some feeling let the expressives have their moment along with the analytical and with the driver drivers are akin to analyticals in that way then amiables and expressives uh they can
021dance well pretty good because they are both praising and reveling in the ability to be creative to express things in a creative way but my f my favorite uh tongue-in-cheek humor is the bottom right square of the whole grid because it says this is what you do when you have two expressives working together it assumes that you've already talked about it you solve world hunger or fill in the world crisis of your you you've already found you know the the the the you've eradicated coven now how are you going to do it so but think think about that as we said this working style uh questionnaire you know every now and then trot it back out give yourself a test again see where you came out see if you came out the same way you
022did on may 29th but i also want to just make very clear to you that what you just saw as we talked our way through the grid combination this one and this one this one and that one etc etc there's no combination that cannot be effective especially when you have what we spend our morning talking about is that shared unity of purpose those goals about serving each and every kid about that so uh fret not if you think oh my my working style oh i'll never be able to work as effectively as i wish it is not a roadblock when you go back to that shared vision and immunity of purpose about working for kids kelly is that a hand up or you just it is i could we just repeat our number ones actually
023i think i have myself scott or drivers nancy amiable and then what were the other ones i'm sorry uh lee you were split between analytical and driver yeah okay and then steve what was yours uh analytical and nancy were aiming okay oh god right that's why so remember back in dr heffernan's um video in her ted talk that she said that for the researcher that she talked about it was the other guy's inability to prove her wrong that made her most secure and confident that she had found right information so that's why we needn't fear uh when we're we're working with other working styles because it's it can be just as valuable and just as validating i'm sorry i always have something to say that reminded me when we were listening to the video that
024this is now standard practice with all uh studies is that they have peer review and i don't believe it was standard practice prior to dr stewart that she was referring to in the video the peer review process yeah all all studies undergo peer review well they should yeah oh it's just pro forma we would we we can hardly we can hardly imagine that there was a time when it wasn't you know like she said about it seemed shocking when she said they were still uh for 25 years they were still uh doing x-rays on on pregnant women you know when you watch an old movie now and you see a pregnant woman smoking or you know going into a bar or something like what's going on there okay working styles analyzed we have we have
025spent just about as much time as i want to spend on that because now for the rest of our time this is i believe and i very much trust will be foundational to a continuing step that this board this governance team this district will embark upon of saying we've got all kinds of policies capital p bp board policy we've got all kinds of lowercase p policies plans and documents that dictate how we run our district we've got bargaining agreements with our teachers union our classified union we've got parent handbooks we've got school site survey reports we've got site plans we've got this and that you have all kinds of info but how can you take what we've talked about today about the unity of purpose role of the board versus the role of the board
026member role of the board versus the role of the staff in the administration how do you take that and make that into yet another document which uh is has become quite quite useful across uh the disciplines is the governance handbook so a lot of governance handbooks flow from protocols which is how we'll end up our discussion and but first we're going to talk about a little bit about the norms about how we actually treat each other and the norms that we agree on and then develop into protocols and and carol the magnificent is taking notes and i have no doubt that there will be a synthesized beginning of of a possible future governance handbook that will come out of this good discussion that we're going to have but let's go back to the workbook and
027let's look at and by the way as you can tell the workbook is a treasure trove of information but it's also many many pages and it is not you know you're the as i said you're the advanced class i'm not going to read read you the page by page because you can do that but i am uh feeling the obligation and the privilege of calling some things to your uh to your attention and the one i want to look at is page 41 about every organization oh bless you god bless you every organization has a culture in my in my work my professional work in the public relations business for many many years when we would be pitching a prospective new client uh we'd be giving them you know you know our ideas about how
028to sell their soap or their widgets or whatever but we would always try to kind of close the deal by saying you know you have public relations whether you want it or not the key is do you want a mad do you want to manage it and they go oh okay i get it but but so what i'm saying is you have a culture you have a culture but the question is are you doing everything you can to make it a positive culture and that's where norms come into play so let's just start again kelly maybe if you wouldn't just since we're after lunch we need to stay active as you said so we don't get a little can you read that first paragraph for us about culture is the positive or negative atmosphere et
029cetera sorry i never heard her say no page 41 sorry yeah i'm sorry first paragraph under norms yes yeah yes please at the bottom right under what are norms uh no under uh the top of the page says okay i'm sorry every organization has a country there you go okay okay uh culture is the positive or negative atmosphere created by the way people in an organization treat each other this means how a board governs is every bit as important as the decisions the board makes in fact the way on board governance affects its ability to come to consensus about the direction for the district its effectiveness in establishing a positive climate that achieves the best from its staff and its credibility as an advocate for the district and for children comments how a board governs
030is every bit as important as a decision the board makes and that's why when uh leave i'm glad you when we first started talking this morning that we had an opportunity to clarify that our work today is the how do we govern we're getting to this the nitty-gritty of the norms of how we we work together so that we can govern this is not about the decisions that you make in the act of governing it's about practicing how to uh to make to how to govern in fact so that's that's what we're doing the second paragraph there steve would you read that second one about the governance team needs to create a framework etc the government's team needs to create a framework within which they can work respectfully and competently with each other and with
031district staff parents students and the community team does this by developing agreeing on and committing to norms and that's you that's the team so when you establish your norms and many uh districts have them and put them in their board packets uh every time you have a meeting that uh it it can be something as uh as simple as uh listen with the intent of understanding things like that an agreed on set of norms does this i love this quote that says um this may be from the one of the covey books i'll look and see uh trust is the result of respect and understanding not agreement trust is the result of respect and understanding not agreement agreement in and of itself just like we said striving we don't want boards to break their arms
032trying to pass themselves on the back side we're always 5-0 we're 5-0 we must be a high-functioning board the trust comes not from the agreement but from the respect and the understanding that you gain during the consensus building process and that's why having the team which is you has this obligation to develop mutually agreed on norms and then living to living them out living them through that it's it's very self-explanatory on the next page if you can turn or scroll where it talks about why norms are important um the the part here that i'll just we won't read these at all but um the that's the second system sentence on the first paragraph that begins the integrity of the district's educational program is dependent upon the responsible and professional matter in which in which each
033board member and the board collectively fulfill their governance roles and responsibilities well we spend a heck of a long time talking about your governance roles and responsibilities but as you back it up it says ladies and gentlemen the district's educational program is dependent upon your work there remember that this oh i'm sorry nancy it's page 42 at the top the the district's educational program is dependent on how you are collectively fulfilling those responsible responsibilities it's not a test it's not a test where i i wake you up in the middle of the night or you know text you say tell me tell me the four areas responsibility okay i set the direction we establish the structure we you know it's because you have children you have students whose needs deserve to be met and that's
034where your responsibility of the framework of agreed upon norms comes into play with that north star question again how does this serve kids it's because the actual work that you do is going to in your back to the district's educational program which is the reason as i say that you gave up your saturday to be sitting here today talking about this so and then the last paragraph there look at or the second one about it says when board members and superintendents work well together climate of trust confidence excellence is created which enables staff members to feel supported and positive etc i won't read the rest of it i mentioned that first part of the sentence because it boldly it doesn't just say when you're working well together you have trust and confidence it says it
035aspirationally says trust confidence and excellence we are not looking for mediocre educational programs we are looking for the best we can actually do for each and every kid so norms play a role there that's another reason norms are important because it literally allows you to legitimately strive for excellence not just okay all right so moving on down the last thing i want to call your attention to on this page is the paragraph that starts with group expectations uh and i do feel like we should do this one altogether scott would you read this paragraph that begins group expectations uh sure group expectations help a group work together to not only address difficult issues in an objective and consistent way but also to confirm what each member will do in the normal course of business to
036help the team succeed the team gains in two ways one way is that the ex one way is that the exercise serves to confirm desired behaviors the second way is that clear group norms provide guidance for orientating future new members to the team and that is the context why your district and a whole bunch of sister districts across the state of california are having discussions just like this because the team the pair relationships in a six-member governance team five-member board is i i've forgotten the number i think it's in the 70s if you just do how many pair relations if you've got a to b a to c a to d a to e et cetera you get it so every time a new com composition of the board comes into being how do you
037say well you know how are we going to you know figure out how to do if you have agreed upon norms when you onboard a new board member it is good for the new board member and good for the process so i encourage those of you scott i know you and i talked about the onboarding process was very key to you when you had your new both your appointees when you brought your new board members on so give yourselves a proverbial pat on the back about that one so i'm going to ask you at your leisure to feel free to read through the subsequent package pages i'll look if you look at pages 44 and 40 i guess it's 45 44 and 45 it's a cookbook it's the recipe for developing norms and as so
038many uh good guiding documents which this workbook is meant to be it helps you out by posing some of the key questions there you see on page 44 about what do you think are the qualities and and these are discussions that uh you can you can ponder on individually as you move forward as you move from developing your norms into developing the protocols that will be foundational to your governance handbook so i have talked about protocols protocols protocols now i want us really to and if you can we're going to do a little exercise now if everybody will scroll or flip to page oh let's see page 51 let's see where it is protocols keep us on track yeah does it say top 30 protocols or let's see yes top 30 protocols to consider that
039is a fairly comprehensive list many school districts will have protocols grouped into categories because you can see some of these go together but we're going to take just a little time to work individually with these protocols and i'm going to ask you just from your point of view your own analytical or driver point of view whatever read through it'll take some time use you have have good old paper and pen handy but i'd like you to identify six protocols you see on this list that you find to be of top priority it'll take some time i'll go quiet so you can work for a good uh six or seven minutes what may i clarify you about the instructions read all 30 identify about six that you feel are top priority and as i said i'll
040go quiet now for the next six minutes so only six yeah that's a very good point if you feel compelled go over six let's call it at least six you yeah now [Music] five minutes you know what i'm gonna go see if i look better in the car this is my new plate yes don't don't be afraid to uh go go over six if you feel like it party priorities i can't say it but i are one we're going to come back together in about a minute and then we're going to be taking some real time to share out so much so we'll wait just a second until uh delray comes back kelly you're confusing me you put on a wrap you took off a wrap what's going on with the temperature there 58. say
041no more [Music] say no more well you know if they say 60 is the new so that make 60 is the new 40 that makes you about 25. that's right i like that i'll go with that i feel better than i did at 25 of course i think i weighed about 80 pounds when i was 25. it was not a pretty picture so did you see that that will smith has decided that he's decided now he wants to get in the best shape of his life which i think he probably was when he was doing that mercy yeah he's in the best shape of anybody in the world how much better shape can he get in and then by the same token there's you know the unbelievably inspirational tiger woods where we're just saying my
042gosh you guys like you to be alive and he's working almost able to walk on his own so you know motivation motivation is there okay ladies and gentlemen we are back so i said many of you uh got got the gist right away that just identifying six is really hard because this is a good list and there is some overlap in some of them but we are going to share now with the always excellent carol taking notes uh we're gonna share what you identified was there anybody who identified only six okay kelly we'll start with you and um remember how uh in the heffernan uh ted talk she said that for uh where was it was it oxford or the phd students or something were being asked to write five statements they could defend so
043i'd like you to identify the number from the list of the protocol that you've said hey this is a priority this is good for us and then if you have anything you'd like to say to illuminate or expand on why you picked it that would be great what i'm not asking you to do folks is to prioritize your six like this if if if one you know if you feel passionately that a particular one is the number one one one one one then say so but at this point we're just gathering the multitude of of protocol uh items that that emerged from your review of them so kelly you're going to now you have the the ability to uh model the behavior for the rest of the group to identify it identify it and then
044speak to it speak to why you identified it okay i have to be honest though i combined 21 and 22 and that's there's going to be a lot of that okay so i have six and a half all right so uh and i only picked six because that's what we were told to do and i'm gonna follow her i followed that you're grew forward okay no no i am not at all but anyway okay number three communication among the governance team members obviously if we're not communicating we're not doing our job we're in a incapable of doing anything else that we're responsible for doing if we cannot communicate um and then number 17 addressing conflict among board members kind of the same thing but just having uh having some protocols or rules around how we're
045going to manage that so that conflict is good and allowed but not it doesn't break down into insult throwing or you know i'm not that i it hasn't been that way but you know what i mean i'm thinking of classes i've taken in the past but you know the conflict is healthy and productive rather than destructive yeah heffernan actually said conflict was a type of thinking yes and then 21 and 22 handling concerns and complaints from the community and from the staff i think the staff is part of the community they are an integral part of the educational community so i think handling complaints uh there needs to be a set protocol of how we address those and um i think at this point we've been kind of winging it and i don't know if
046that's right because what i might respond to a complaint um is different than what steve might respond to a complaint and then we're sending mixed messages or or we're just not sending the right message or we're sending a message when we shouldn't be sending any message other than that we've heard you so i think just making sure we clear clarify that and then i'm speaking with a common voice one of the things that they said amig was uh unity not uniform um so we're not uniform in our or our decisions or our opinions or perspectives but we come together with a unity of voice it's like that whole you know once you make the decision everybody stands behind it even if a year down the road you're going to advocate to change it or two
047months down the road whatever the case we made this decision today we are one voice in supporting that decision because that's the decision that was made um very difficult if you're on the negative side of something that gets approved or the positive side of something that gets disapproved but it's definitely something that will give a certain culture or a certain uh what's the word persona it'll it'll reflect positively upon us if we can speak with a common voice and then 27 managing difficult topics and issues in an atmosphere of mutual respect i think there's kind of a theme here whoops i kind of picked the same one over and over basically but just understanding you know what the respect is like i tend to talk too much no surprise to anybody so learning how to
048step back or step up if you're not a speaker not someone that speaks out and and that um that is something i tell i'm challenged with often because i you know i my if it if it pops into my head it usually falls out my mouth so uh yeah that's true it pops in my head out okay and then number 30 self monitoring because if i find it very difficult to have a perspective on myself without somebody else help to sound things off of or to help and i get i don't think that's unusual or unique to me i think that a lot of people don't really have a good sense of how they are perceived necessarily or whether they're being effective in what they're trying to do and so we have to do we
049have to do the work to analyze did we were we effective with this decision what did it achieve what we wanted it wanted to achieve and without you know researching it and studying it there's no way to know right you have to purposely look for what was the result of that didn't work yeah intentionally individually uh you i like that you you're uh coming back to the refrain that the trust and respect building comes from uh not from uniformity or from agreement it comes from the process of consensus building so very nice for that so all right well kelly kelly i uh drew the short straw and went first uh in this round rob and sharon but to be randomly fair we'll do it now by birth date does anybody have a january birth date
050any of the remaining five years anybody have a february birth date steve steve what did you find just jumping off the page of these protocols all right going in the numerical order that they're listed here uh number 11 board member reports at board meetings um right now it's pretty much just you know free expression whatever's on your mind and i think that you know we could build some some structure some some general guidelines for that and i think there's some room for improvement there um number 13 deliberation and decision making at board meetings sometimes especially if it's a hot topic things can get rather chaotic and they've occasionally gotten a little bit heated um and i think we could stand to improve that process number 17 addressing conflict among board members um similar to what
051kelly was saying you know conflict can be good as long as it doesn't get in the way of what we're there for and sometimes it does so finding a way to to handle the conflict um productively i think would be a good thing number 18 allow a majority vote to set the direction um you know similar to what kelly was saying about speaking with one voice uh you know we're working together as a we you know we vote as an i but then the decision is a we and um i think that's a a good area for us number 19 meeting guidelines for board and other district meetings um as we've said we sometimes kind of take things a little casually get a little sidetracked and i think getting back to the structure would be
052good number 20 uh public comments section of board meetings uh this was actually my number one because ultimately we are there to serve the public whether it's staff members students parents just community members um making sure that we listen to their input i think is absolutely critical and as we discussed earlier we need to do a better job of receiving and not reacting uh my next one number 25 speaking with a common voice um again you know once the voting of the eye is done we need to be a we and move forward uh on common ground and then uh number 27 managing difficult topics issues in an atmosphere of mutual respect we're not all going to agree on things but there's no reason we can't all treat each other with dignity and respect and
053you know ultimately we're all here because we want to do what's best for our students so we need to remember that and you know remember to be role models for the students as well thanks steve you know we've maybe you've heard some horror stories i have about um when when some board members behavior is is uh not anything you would want your students to emulate when you have possibly students in the room in the gallery and if that doesn't open your eyes and make you think wow what what is that fourth grader or that 11th grader what look what they're watching this is what the behavior they're they're observing there's a great james baldwin quote about st kids may not always listen to their par their elders but they will never fail to imitate them
054so that's that's that's really quite something as i mentioned as i mentioned earlier i was actually at a board meeting with my son and there were a whole bunch of other seniors in the room when i saw a board member make a very derogatory comment about another board member um so i remember made the comments no longer on this board but it was very disappointing to see that you know uh the uh we've talked about the the strange pluses and minuses of our meeting virtually so much over the past year uh and there there have been some on both sides but indeed in in my geographic area uh in an approximate sort of central valley school district they now have uh a new uh board because prior to a meeting when they had already gone
055live yeah you heard this story disparaged disparaged parents and community members and yeah they are no longer sitting on that board yeah embarrassing that's right be careful what you say okay steve thank you and thank you for as i said when when we finish our round robin we're going to talk about how you develop a protocol the steps for development protocol so this is why it's good for us to get an idea of uh some for instances of like i said hey so many of you mentioned this one here's steps for developing a protocol how that might look all right so that steve was a february birthday anybody have a march birthday or april or may or is that nancy are you april baby what you got miss anderson well at first i broke them
056down with the idea that we were looking at a new board member coming on and what the most important seven things would be for that interesting perspective very interesting perspective i like it okay so you want me to go over those sure sure okay number one was the orientation of school board candidates and then number two welcoming the new members of the board and then 19 meeting guidelines for board and other district meetings 21 handling concerns complaints from the community that's you know obviously they need to know that right away um 22 handling concerns complaints from staff 23 spokesperson for the government's team they need to know who can speak to the team because i don't i i don't know if everybody even on this board knows who speaks for the team and you know
057if we were to have an emergency pop-up or a big action of some sort a shooting or something who on the board would be able to address the media i don't know if everybody knows that or not okay 23. okay um 29 roll board members in public those are the things i think they need to know right off the bat before they ever step foot in the district publicly uh well it's true there is not um the the public is not required to give us a learning curve when you go as i said you go to bed go to bed of canada you wake up you're a board member that board member that hat is on that board member hat is on and doesn't come off it's like one day i stood in front of
058the school district desk for two hours and nobody said anything to me the next day it was oh my god i'll get him out of a meeting you know it was i was shocked at the difference well you know everybody talks about how they get approached by in the community at the grocery store or the time okay i've been on the board for almost nine years and never once has anybody ever impressed me so if anybody out there is live streaming this listening i am approachable if you see me i'm 411 you can't miss me i couldn't i'm usually through the baseball cap but i'm still here i'm still listening please i would love to i i think it would be the best day as a board member if somebody actually approached me in public
059and said hey i know who you are during their campaigns at the grocery store before i ever knew you well yeah but then i stupidly called you libby [Music] yeah she almost didn't live but i mean you're the only one ever who has ever talked to me in any sort of public forum now that's granted i'm a pretty reclusive person but well kelly i'll tell you but but you see you you by by issuing that great invitation to whatever you know might be coming from this youtube but it's like lee has done what so many folks have done technologically savvy what else can we do by having um virtual office hours that's we're seeing that happen a lot and that's really helps in two ways not only does it send a message just like you
060were sending a message just now but it also uh lets people have some structure like steve says sometimes structure helps communications it brings structure they know oh i want to be mindful of dr lee's time so i'm going to really think through and have my question ready to go or have my concern ready to voice so yeah there's there there's not just one way to uh to be approachable in line at bel air is one way but there are certainly lots of other ways and i have to say i wanted to set up some sort of uh like uh twitter conversations and it kind of got shut down so i'm really glad that dr lee opened the door on this so that i can revisit that approach and look at her she's shaking her head
061the attorneys have told us not to do it they said straight up the zoom thing is it's an office hour that's different than it is that's what i mean some way of getting community input other than public comment at the board meetings i would love to have you know topics of conversation and and do that and because as an individual but not as speaking as a lord sure but we cannot gather information i'm not talking about giving information i'm talking about it and appearing information it's all about yes in fact that's that's really the kind of uh csba is uh obviously questions about social media uh interactions are big but the what it really boils down to is uh and again this is that's that's when you're talking about a twitter account a facebook account
062an ig account that they are should be viewed as a listen and learn tool not not a well let me report on the district tool a listen and learn tool but and and that's what you know online office hours the same thing and we see the heavens to betsy maybe we'll back some of the in person i remember i've had board members in my small rural district because we're a big geographic area that will maybe just say okay i'm going to be i uh i'll be at starbucks on wednesdays after i drop my kid off at the high school i'll be there for from you know eight to nine or something like that so listening and learning it's not not the same as saying well let me bring you up to date on what's going
063on in the district but again that's uh that's that's our responsibility that's that's that's our our responsibility as members of the collective body so all right so what is your name excuse me what is your opinion on answering facebook posts uh uh pretty much like public comment thanks for your input i can see your passion about this that's i'll i'll i'll leave it at that nancy that was a a lovely uh display of you having been on uh on the school board side of the equation for over 20 years having fresh in your mind some very specific ways that newly elected newly joining board members can be helped to be onboarded to the process that's quite quite impressive coming from you who it's been a while since you were on board and yet you remembered
064very specifically wow this is stuff i needed to know right away so very nice very nice okay so that was april anybody with a may birthday yeah that would be good okay go dilray well they're pretty much the same as everybody else um number three communication among governance team members that's quite important um if we don't communicate with one another we're ineffective um and that's very important as as a team deliberation and decision making at a board a meeting what number is that i'm sorry 13 13 um if we can do it in a positive manner at a board meeting that shows effectiveness as well and team working together when mom and dad fight at a board meeting trust me it um disrupts the whole community of center of our center community um it does
065not look kindly up on the board individual board members request information material and action um i actually don't remember why oh i know because yes because i tend to ask for a lot of information from the superintendent and maybe i'm asking for it steve's asking for something slightly different and dr lee is asking for something else and the poor staff is like running around in circles so you're right we've got to be cognizant of our staff and their time we cannot keep on asking to count how many spaces are at each school site parking spaces at each school site example didn't happen but things like that but we had a policy that three of us had to agree before the superintendent put big hours into putting something together and what happened to that i didn't
066know that policy ever existed and i've been you know where that would be is in your bylaws so separate from this meeting you might want to research your bylaws because your policies you know that start like with the 9 000 digits and all that but the bylaws might be something to visit to answer that question nancy at later later time go ahead del ray um the main point on fifth is our staff is busy our superintendent is busy we just need to be cognizant of their time um addressing conflicts among board members uh steve and kelly addressed that i don't have any more to say on that i'm not gonna what they said is just perfect um let me see 21 and 22 i also combined for the same reason as kelly indicated i believe
067that's very important on how to handle concerns and complaints uh board member board opinion versus individual opinion now again why i chose this as important is because more of the communication aspect of answering emails is the most important um we originally from my recall nancy is that the board president would answer the email and speak for the board based on decisions and discussions that were had now recently and i we have never had this topic a conversation since we have a new board but you know people were answering emails individually which is not bad but then it gets to the point of um oh i can't find it right now but um having a consensus and making sure whoever answers that email has the same view or remembers how the vote was or how the
068discussion was and answers that question accordingly just not having their opinion but have the opinion of the board as it was discussed does that make sense and same with email our messages from facebook facebook posts that if you answer make sure you know if you're going to answer it has to be correct as opposed to what you think as an individual if you're going to speak you've got to make sure it's the consensus of the board well and i would say that we don't even respond in a sense that it shows what our perspective is necessarily but just maybe just list the facts this is how the vote went and thank you for your input i think what they were talking about though was like if you get a letter from a parent the president
069says we received your letter all board members have a copy of it we are taking it under consideration thank you and we did that yeah yes and and the reason for that is not just clarity it's not just so you don't have four different sort of versions or interpretations of it but you are getting into the slightly murky water of a serial board meeting a deliberation exactly right that is exactly it well and we know we no longer copy the rest of the board on those responses specifically for that reason the dreaded reply all right it's a hundred percent trust on the part of the rest of the board members that what i'm responding is appropriate so i mean i always copy the superintendent but you know because you and you alone need to copy
070us that you responded in what you said okay yeah just let you guys know that i've responded because if somebody if somebody answers the question from whomever emailed her whatever the communication was uh we need to know what was said so we don't say something totally different right and that just looks like we don't know what the heck we're doing yeah right yeah sometimes it's things that we have not yet voted on so there is no well it could be like as of yet right and that's also where the input thank you we've received we've received it all the board members have received this we appreciate your input right yes but if it's something that's been voted on that's a little bit factual this is what happened period and then at least copy the superintendent
071so he knows that what you said is accurate and it was how it was being yeah it's a it's a question as as as board members we just we can't imagine getting a communication like an over the transom email or something and not acknowledging it we just can't imagine that can't so you must acknowledge i i um i i'm i think our group my district is really blessed that they have we we like you have fought very hard to keep our academics strong but also to keep all kinds of programs that keep kids engaged including arts arts is always one of them and so back in the day back in 2000 2005 when i was first elected they kept saying oh monica yeah she's the music one she's the arts candidate she's the music one
072and so then for a while i would get if there was ever any kind of a ripple that we were going to have to you know have fewer band or choir classes or something like that i would hear about it because you know i was the arts the arts board member you know and but but uh it was not appropriate for me to say when they'd say i can't believe it you know they're cutting out they're not going to as many band competitions this year because they say you know we can't the boosters don't have money for a bus or something then i could say you know i share your passion for arts education in public schools thanks so much for bringing uh your your observations to my attention and i'll make sure that the
073superintendent and the staff are aware as well because we want to acknowledge and they deserve to remember we said lots of times what people need is to know they were heard yeah so did i did i explain i think you did you went through 24 was the last one we had um disagreeing a little bit here i've been known um like on facebook we had a recent decision about setting start times for schools and one of the facebook groups i'm in um people were questioning we did that they were upset about some of the start times so clearly they hadn't watched the board meeting and what my response to them was is speaking only for myself you did say that here's what um here's what i took into consideration um before making the vote uh
074you know we looked at bus schedules we looked at you know trying to beat the law we we were concerned about um you know this detail that detail just to let them know that the things that you're concerned about we did discuss and consider and then i said the ultimately i voted for what i felt was the best thing at that moment well and see now none of us would have gotten that communication so i think it's perfectly appropriate for you to respond no i got i've read it i am on the same group sorry because yes okay so then between the two of you you would have to make a determination yeah i i always check to make sure she hasn't i did it before i died i just stopped i just stopped answering
075even though two of you if there's any like appearance of impropriety as far as brown act and that can be bad but since you guys are working together on it and not you know we're both being very careful because even if it's just the two of us if we like something that the other posted or we respond to it that could be a brown egg violation so we're both checking carefully yeah yeah and that same with next door because i know you're on next door i'm my next door and i see what you write i i have not been on harley at all since christmas i avoid facebook like the player and anyway but see remember we talk go back go back to that little short list of the characteristics of an effective trustee mindfulness
076steve's being very mindful you're being mindful mindfulness confidentiality uh deep learning and preparation commitment and focus so if you're being mine sounds like you're making mindfulness the rule of the day when you're doing that because and then you know steve you if you're referring to action you can you can refer back specifically uh i think the minutes for the x-date board meeting are posted on the website you could take a look that's a good that's a good point and you could watch the recording yeah if you'd like could he or we copy and paste from the minutes sure i think so sure it's probably not that way that's a good idea yeah and the link to the meeting thank you monica and it also and and it gets them in the habit of trusting and
077going to the website yeah they're starting there starting there for starting there i like that yeah that's okay all right cool so what's talking about 24 and then with 24 was 25 speaking with a common voice and that's what i was trying to get at we need to be a common voice when we answer these questions or comments or whatever we got to speak as a common voice and then 27 same as kelly and steve matching different topics issues the same response i have is what they said so those are my 11. good night sometimes when we we're asking for something we're not conscious of the way we're asking for it you can ask for it in a positive way or a negative way and sometimes it looks really negative on the district or sometimes
078it can be positive and i think we need to pay close attention to how we ask for something and what the verbiage is that we use because sometimes it really comes out negative sounding and putting district down when it's not what we're trying to accomplish at all i i know from personal experience my family has communicated to me many times that my tone of voice or the way i phrase something conveys an entirely different message than what i'm trying to right to the point where um you know i've gotten in the habit of if i'm calling a kid in my room to talk about something i start off with don't worry it's nothing bad because they were walking like anxious they were in trouble or something and it's like so i just wanted to make
079sure that you were aware that you know um i'm not going to be able to be there for this thing you know but they thought they were in trouble for some reason so i i know that i sometimes do that where it comes across differently than i intend see steve you're you're absolutely proving the point is of the the three components of communication words voice tonality and body language including facial expression uh words is the least the least impactful uh tone second in body language the most as i know my my husband bless his heart he has the same face whether he is enjoying that first bite of of a dish or whether he hates it i can't tell i can't because he has the same face but but it's just it's um it there
080was a i was told i only met her once but one of the long time i guess she was president of csba they seem to have had a lot of strong women uh presidents of csba over the over the decades uh but her name was maureen demarco and she was attributed with uh openly saying that she would go to her bathroom mirror and practice what she called the benign board face no not not b-o-r-e-d b-o-a-r-d so that when you're in public comment or in deliberation on the thing that your face is not saying something you don't want it to say you have someone comes up a public comment says we don't have enough buses we should double the fleet we should buy them all new we should do it and they should all have you
081know you know fortnight at every seat or something like that and if you the board member are trying to look hmm nodding your way through it what is the public scene oh a board member x wants us to go out and buy a bunch of new buses you know so so don't be shy about like like steve you said you're you're you're prefacing your comments with that's okay you're not in trouble you know you says everything's good but that benign face that shows that you are being alert and attentive and engaged without communicating uh you know yes i think i i'm i'm all for that let me get the superintendent get the checkbook let's go buy the buses you know so practice that benign board face hopefully as i say it won't be the b-o-r-e-d
082face but anyway okay you're good go ahead nas tell right you had said something at the very beginning um you're looking at our body language and we have to remember when we live stream the audience is looking at our body language and they're looking at anybody that's on zoom so that would be lee as well they're looking at all of us as a whole so we have to be mindful of that and this has this has definitely been something that has uh been exponentially changed with coveted virtual meetings that used to be you know i remember the board table you know with the wooden skirt in front of the table i wouldn't mind that you know maybe my purse is open or my briefcase is spilled over like that because they can't see it but
083everything else what can be seen you're right it's words words matter but so does body language and voice tonality so very cool oh we're making progress here okay well somebody either scott or lee is next who's got a june birthday june july august september october going once november december here's it got two times november no no no no okay lee talk to us about this protocol list okay so i prioritize the six um and i did do some combining um and i'll explain you know my rationale you've already heard some of it kind of in some parts of the meeting but number one i put as number 19 meeting guidelines for board and other district meetings um second i put number 20 public comics section of the board meetings and already some of my colleagues
084have already mentioned about that number 27 managing difficult topics issues in an atmosphere of mutual respect number 13 was my fourth one deliberation and decision making at board meetings and these are all connected so that's why i'm just saying them all up front a number uh five for me was um two combined uh number three communication among governing team members and number 17 addressing conflict among among board members and then my last one was number 25 which was speaking with a common voice developing and using key messages and so all of these were as i was looking at this i said wow this you know this is my protocol wish list um as we're here today um in this workshop about effective governance good beginnings really doing transformative work a lot of the things have
085stood out to me um this idea of the responsibility to be a true speaker of your own truth community truth whatever the truth uh we're focusing on um mindfulness around communication being really critical um i think that's something that as someone who's an analytical and driver oriented person protocol uh is is key to me and i because i think it it impacts perception um and something that was in the book that we were looking at was that the public perception of our board and confidence in our work um is built on what they see in the conduct of our meetings um and so you know that's why i'm really sensitive around that topic um today at the start of this meeting um you know some things took place and i'll use this as an example
086of why i think protocol is so important um because it was brought to my attention by others observing um that is that at the beginning we have an agenda so my analytic driver side uh really looks at that agenda and expects an order to happen in the functioning of it um and that's just part of who i am and what i'm used to as being a governing board member in many different board settings um and so we skipped over our item number one which was called order we actually didn't skip it we didn't actually skip it um actually the president did say it but the roll call we skipped um and so we went directly into the flag salute which is item two um and then salmonica our csva representative recommended to us the call
087to order book and she stated that she thought i spoke out of order because the president hadn't called the meeting to order but that's not what took place in my perception and in the actual events um it was we launched into the pledge of allegiance and so i made my community statement which i always make during that item to uh free speech item and so that calling out you know it did make me feel a little uncomfortable um and it all happens you know from maybe a misreception about the order of the agenda and how it should flow um and i think that it's important you know so there's not a perception that a board member speaking out of order in the future that's important um it's important that we just maintain that order that
088protocol and so that's where my my thinking was coming from and i i really do think we do set an example we set a tone the actions we take um you know reflect inclusiveness diversity and equity or they don't um and so for me it's something that i'm super passionate about and just because i love um what the doctor i'm sorry i've been taking all these notes what the doctor mentioned she said um there and dare to disagree you won't commit energy and time to something if you don't care right i mean so that's why yes i think it's important that when we develop our protocols we just keep that in mind you know there's a reason we're all here there's a reason we all keep coming back and i love that we looked at
089our unity of purpose because i think we'll start to see there's a lot more we have in common than different you know especially when we're just keeping it keeping the focus on the students in the community absolutely lee i so value you you shining the light on that because there's i i i receive that because of of exactly what sometimes happens on these uh workshops especially when they're on the weekend especially when uh we're you know we're not you know in the great halls wearing our business suits and such and all that sometimes informality uh takes uh too much of a role in the driver's seat and i've i let i let that happen today and i i appreciate you shining a light on that because that's exactly right because whether it's a one item
090agenda or a 50 item agenda the agenda is not there just as a laundry list of things to talk about it has a structure and a purpose and like just like steve when you were saying that you know sometimes that's where protocols can help us because the structures keep make us more effective so lee i i value that and i receive that exactly in the spirit in which you i know that it was offered i appreciate that but isn't it just saying monica can i just say um that this is something i'm really glad came up because we have never as a board taken roll call in the 10 years that i've been on the board we have never done a roll call it says it right on the agenda carol does it she she
091takes roll call but she doesn't ver it's not an auditory thing um but yes i think that since it's on the agenda we should be doing it so i set that as far as one of my as as the president one of my things i need to focus on so yeah i'm really glad you pointed that out but i did call it to order at 903. so quick question here um something like discussing changing it so that we do the roll hall verbally is that something that we should be adding to a future meeting agenda to discuss changes in how we do things if we want to remove it we would certainly want to have a discussion and talk about it because well there's some changes that i have in mind that i think we
092could do things a little bit better sure and i wasn't sure if it'd be better to put that as an agenda item in the future or we should address that well i mean since we're talking about it i think that we need to have a workshop and develop a governance handbook if we don't already have one or update the governance handbook as one of them develop our own norms i think that's where all of this conversation is leading and um i think that's where that conversation would discuss the whole agenda um the agenda structure i mean all of those things would be right and i think monica you're going to get to that point and i think that's the next phase or evolution this would be to develop that handbook that would have your norms
093starting with some of these prioritized protocols the calendar board calendar and then i i agree this outline or the structure that that has been in place for quite some time and then that all can be part of that governance handbook so then we're on that same page i mean i've seen this thing a hundred times and i i see roll call but you know i really appreciate you calling that outlet you can see how new people which i'll wait for my turn because i didn't have something on top sorry that's one of my protocols i want to talk about yeah you said you've been on many boards and so i respect the fact that you you've got that perspective and i i just i've been to lots of meetings but i just this particular meeting
094we've never done vocal calls so i'll tell you what's interesting about that is that there's this is where it comes in the other p word which is practices a lot of districts they may have their protocols but it becomes their practice to omit something there's a lot of those my district makes more difference now that we're online too yes and well i'm gonna make a specific point about it but for practice for example in my district uh we had uh an expectation expected protocol on public comment and it was the three-minute uh uh limit of time and we never enforced it so it was there a verbal call and response call a roll call that's a practice but it may not be your actual bylaw protocol however scott would be the one who could research
095this but you know last year when the governor gave us all a waiver to so that public bodies could meet virtually i'm not sure but there might have been some specific direction about uh calling the role rather because like if we were in a group and ever we could do a voice vote but many districts i know stopped have stopped doing voice votes at virtual meetings all together and did roll call votes but we always do a world cup yeah so we do when they're when someone's phoning in or zooming in we do do we so you don't work you don't do the voice okay no general consent i try i still try every once in a while like to a turn it's like okay general consensus no gotta have a roll call get consistent
096yes yes yes practices and protocols hopefully join hands uh more often than not but well last but not least i think december birthday and i was if you were late i'm december 29th so i was way at the end i knew i was going to be last night so only one that somewhere unique was the welcoming new board members to the board i always felt like that's a protocol that i but i think i need to bring on like the board president to that meeting would be great too and that's just the practice that i carried on because i knew so when steve kelly came back lee came on i did it on my own gave me the materials we kind of talked but i think someone else because what if i forget something in
097that or you know the materials or it's maybe a board question so that to me was one i mean i honestly didn't know we had an onboarding process so it's meeting with me and yeah i think that that's something we just one of those conversations that we need to have just getting them in with another board member i think it's a great idea yeah terrific terrific chapter two while we're on that just i i know i'm saying that that governance core book has a terrific chapter on onboarding it's a nice nice chapter okay sorry scott the uniqueness too of having three new members come on in the middle of a pandemic was also challenging because it provided harder times to meet and so um and then 13 the liberation decision making at board meetings i
098just think the protocol for that and i think you guys most all of you have stated but just working as a team together with that ultimately common voice uh meeting guidelines for board and other district meetings what number is that i'm sorry number 19 um i think that's good and then when i see this as a rippling effect as our district meetings being conducted when those district employees see the way the board is following a structure it helps ripple down the fact that they'll do the same or similar public comments at board meetings i think we have been all over the board and i think the the the three-minute rule was one we have that on our agenda but i i can't think of a time we've ever followed it and to me if you
099you can't switch practice once you do it so there's no way we really enforce three minutes when we've let people talk forever anyway so i think some of these you got to kind of start fresh and then that's our consistent policy because you can't waver and go i'll give lee 17 minutes but steve you get two i mean you have to be consistent otherwise we're going to get called on that right i think the only time we did board members got recalled and the fact that and the fact that it's on the agenda means that lee knowing she only has three minutes has prepared a three-minute statement and steve knowing that we never enforce it has prepared a 15 minute or didn't prepare at all and just rants for 15 minutes that's not fair to
100lee and so if it's going to be on the agenda then it needs to be enforced and we have never done it along those lines we recently had a parent um who was expressing some concerns and he was the only public comment we had and we we did a lot of back and forth and it was very friendly and you know we got some good ideas and i think it was actually productive however we shouldn't have done that right because we denied others the opportunity to join in the conversation correct so we need to listen and then say thank you yes and then okay i won't be late 21 22 i marked for the same reasons you all did um and then the 24 i marked as and i'm i put it in the we
101in the eye just clarifying what those roles are and i think we talked about that one uh difficult topics and then atmosphere and mutual respect and i wrote next at norms i think arnold wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait so wait a minute what was your last one 24 and then the next is 27. yep and i think i'm keeping score here for that it's really about the norms and i think agreeing to those collective agreements that how we treat each other is is perfect but we don't we don't have those right now i mean and then the last one yeah so self-monitoring governance team effectiveness i like that one i think it's a good opportunity for us as a governance team quarterly or whatever just to sit down
102check in make sure things are going so i like the idea of that checking yeah and csva has a really great survey already in place that we could do i actually we do it online they analyze it and send us back the results is that how it works yes yeah so csba has a survey for self-assessment for governance teams board members self-assessment yeah so we submit it and then they compile the information and shoot it back to us so i think that's something we should advocate for or we should work towards you guys this is this is oh this is exciting because you're doing what we said we were going to try to do today which is you know just clean around look around move things out shine light on areas so we can understand
103if we flex these muscles in this way it's going to get us well positioned better positioned for better deliberations and better actions resulting so i i as this my my notes probably yours do too it looks a little like a giant you know mega millions card when i go through it i never get any of the numbers but i'm always oh look i got one there or one there one there but but uh we we have really gleaned some stuff in the commonality that happens because this is what this is what an hpv you know high performance board is you you've got that unity of purpose thing really rolling along here you're starting to really communicate uh the the you've shared the importance of the common voice you shared the importance of trust and dignity
104and respect and collectives collectively communicating and taking responsibility collectively all of those are the uh from i think it's the lighthouse study a really quite quite impressive study in the field which is cited a lot i certainly quoted a lot but i that these are the characteristics of hpv high performing boards and that's where this this process which is not over today but which is really just sort of beginning for you in this new configuration board that's that's where this prioritization of the protocols happen so now what what if you wanted to develop a protocol so back to your workbook and go back a couple of pages to um page uh two pages up let's see page 49 because you know you you figured out why protocols are important they've helped you build a team
105yes that showed up in several of your choices they empower the team in good times or bad sometimes you really need to rely on that collective voice they as nancy just really helped us get the discussion going they really help you on board new members and doesn't the public deserve that don't they deserve a board member that can of course you're it's you know lifelong learners you betcha you betcha learning about the district about the issues about trends about needs about data yes but you want to get up to speed or something resembling it as soon as possible so protocols really help you on board new members and all of that together gets us back to this question of how are we enhancing student achievement and so it's not just to make you win a
106prize in the roberts rules of order competition for best parliamentary procedures who's the other one there's two of them there's roberts and then there's another one that's quite popular this time but it really really really does help you support student achievement and you know i'll stop singing that song you know that okay let's look at the page about the process for developing a protocol first one deciding what you want to develop look what you just did you just there was such a clear emergence of shared common protocol areas the example they give is staff board communications uh the process for board member site visits how you bring up new ideas etc i won't read the rest of you but step one that's what we just did you did and does it mean that's it written
107in the ink written in stone no you may go back you may be tonight go back and look at this 30 protocol list and say i can't believe i forgot that one that one's very key shoot it over to scott and carol so it can get incorporated into this but you've done step one which is make these determinations about what you want to develop which protocols to do and then the second one is a little more difficult because you've done it was discussing and prioritizing and i have a little bit of a contrarian point of view about prioritizing because generally in our work just like ilcap wants us to do we're supposed to be prioritizing because you know they say you can't i have uh one colleague who always says you know you should never
108tell a constituent or a parent or something that you can't afford to do this or that program because you can do anything you want to you can spend the money on anything you want to you just won't have it for something else you know there's a difference but i feel like to the extent your higher power brain can get you there prioritizing is the goal but sometimes we think they're all priorities you know that you saw that and sometimes you group together 21 and 22. they become sort of joined and merged when you are talking about managing resource flows and budgetary concerns and talking about community input for your lcap preparation of course the priorities must be vertically rank ordered but in terms of protocol i really see it more as whatever sort of graphic
109sort of a wheel a cycle a circle where sometimes we have to just suck it up and say they're all priorities so step two i leave that to you to ponder to agree or disagree with me there but that prioritizing the protocols is important but sometimes we have to just accept that they're all pretty darn important third one clarifying the issue this is where the parts of the protocol development process kind of come in so if we say priority is one identifying the the protocol need and prioritizing it then the next thing is what's the rationale for it i'm going to read this to you because you see it it's important to agree on the problem protocols intended to solve or as we said sometimes how we couch things in our verbiage and our how
110we express things or articulate them in a more positive manner agree on what the protocol is intended to do and here comes the rationale part why it's important and you often helpful to define the parameters of protocol rules and regs that must be followed sometimes protocols uh involve um execution by staff or something like that so if your protocol is to like del rey said um be respectful and mindful of the superintendent and his uh bandwidth whatever language you want which delray kept saying you know be mindful of what other time and such that might that sounds you know kind of nice warm and fuzzy but you might need to put some timelines or specificity to it you might need to say uh part of the rationale for this is that uh special reports to
111the board to to be presented at the board to be prepared in the board packet however you want to describe it need to be requested from the superintendent five business days before or something like that so give thought when you do the ration you know the rationale why it's important but then sometimes you need to clarify and put some guiding principles to it the fourth one identify the situation if necessary from different perspectives it's a topic straight forward minimal diversity step that step is important but i prefer that because you you've committed the time to do all this uh moving idle we do becoming a collective body that this is a lens always good to look through though i i enjoyed the interchange dory and steve as you were talking about sort of the the
112way you in with the intentionality that you brought to just uh reading uh facebook posts of a group that you're in that you you aren't quick trigger mcgraw and just jumping in there and get hitting that reply right away you're looking to say well i want i'm i want to be really mindful because what what might uh other information sources have gotten gotten through to this communication so appreciate that so it's it's it's not for the purpose of stifling or stymieing a colleague it's really more for the idea of understanding that as we said in that beginning quote when you gather more interpretations it literally strengthens it strengthens the outcome strengthens the work that you're doing so that's step four number five write the protocol just like most uh tasks of when you're doing uh
113individual district policies as opposed to those that come down the pike automatically that are you know mandated by changes in law that you get from csba but to the superintendent generally follows this task of writing the protocol but that means somebody's just got to start the process by putting pen to paper initially but that is just the beginning of the process because then each of you in this six-headed creature will be able to weigh in on the protocol that is how i think some some districts when they're doing their superintendent evaluation document uh rather than go back and forth and back and forth maybe one person will draft and the other board members will respond it's a similar workable process it keeps you out of um getting into a serial meeting or email meetings and
114that sort of thing so typically the writing of the protocol starts with the superintendent maybe the follow-up step is if you have a subcommittee of two board members that are charged with then reviewing with the superintendent bringing this up and then the other members of the government's team would weigh in before you actually adopt it because remember you adopt agreed on protocols not like well this is i like this one i like that one you're going to your protocols are going to be broadly adopted by by the collective body all right and then step six agree on and amazingly record the protocol it just becomes a lot more real when you say wow i am committing to not calling scott on the afternoon of the board meeting and saying i forgot to ask you but
115i wanted that discipline report from the data can you pull that together for me and then you remember you know what that is not in sync and respectful of the protocol which i agreed to so it makes us uh it makes you understand the importance of the common agreement of the protocol before you adopt it but when you record it it's there it's there until until you change it can i can i just take a segway from from that specific example how would you see us i mean i know this is something we're going to discuss when we develop the protocols but how would you see us um handling that situation if we email the rest of the board and say hey i'd like to request this information are we in any sort of gray
116area on violating brown act if i'm just saying i'd like to request this information are you guys okay with that or is that board meeting and say that would not work doing it at the board meeting there's no way because i'm i'm looking at the agenda the week before or i'm looking at no something not on the agenda like i want to know what the bus schedule is for all of the district if it's something you're bringing up out of clear blue sky at the meeting you would say i would like scott to bring up this report for me and tell me how many kids are getting on the bus at each stock and then is any other board member willing to request that or want that information to act on i think i i
117think i don't necessarily agree with that i mean i think that there are times throughout the month not necessarily at a board meeting where you need information or you you like to get information so that you have the time to really delve into whatever it is you're you're working on and i don't think waiting for a board meeting is necessary i think emailing all the board members that gets into a risky area perhaps a better approach is simply say hey is this a reasonable request can you guys accommodate this and you need to be willing to say right yes too much right right and you could never do that he's too nice well yeah but what we've done too is a lot of times me and board president the request might go through and now
118if it's the board president she wouldn't be requesting herself but that that's been done too now the night before or the day of is probably not going to be a request that anyone here is going to ask for anyway but it i mean an extensive extensive report um but i think maybe that's the check and balance too that we can end up getting into protocol is because you can't you couldn't email the whole board that because i do i think steve i mean even if you're just saying i want to request this information does anyone else want this information you're not saying what your opinion is you're trying to just respond to you and then based on your the responses you make the decision okay no well it kind of depends on what you're requesting
119to how much and how much well for instance time is a good thing i asked for uh which i knew already existed i asked for the listing of all of our hvac units and their their lifespans and where we were in the cycles of replacing them it was a lot of information it sounds like a huge request i know craig i know he's got it so i requested it um what i neglected to do was say you know it's not an immediate request and so i've gotten better about saying hey sometime in the future i'd like to see this information but i just feel like if we're really i'm sorry monica no kelly no no no no no is it no this is and we're really limiting the board members in their ability to gather
120information by saying we can only request this is the kernel this is the kernel of what we're talking it's we're talking about uh the board member uh preparation and deep learning pre-board meeting so that's let's come back to that as our topic but i think your discussion i'm hearing two components one is perhaps the type or amount of information that might be requested and the other is the timing of the request for the information so if you're if you're going to uh you you want to have at least one other board member join you in saying yes that would be value information that has to do with the type of information you're requesting a report on hvacs or or vans or whatever the issue of timing is a separate one and that could be the
121the protocol about timing and requesting uh staff information is a function of like del rey point about being mindful or or aware of the bandwidth the staff has so but but how this all comes together under the big umbrella kelly i think is the idea of each individual board member sometimes they're quite similar but different people have uh different uh at times of their career their board member career i mean uh may have different information gathering processes they do with the superintendent when i first joined i went this is the old days but i after i got my board packet i had lunch sit down one-on-one lunch with my superintendent i was new i was new we would brown bag it and go through that the whole thing sometimes the cbo would join us at
122parts of it um it that's not a process that i feel uh i i need to continue at this point because my experience has enabled me to get get my information away but but each individual board member scott probably uh is amenable i believe this you prove this and when i ask you about your board communications is that you are ultimately adaptable to how some people want the text some people want the phone calls some people want an email some people won't want this or that so kelly i feel like it's sort of an in the issue of having another board member say yes i would like that info too is separate and apart from the issue of not asking for a report too late yeah right yeah often times mine come after a training
123or you know a week before the board meeting where i need more information so um and like when i first came back on the board i felt like okay i i need to get caught up on some information so i was asking for quite a few things um and you know i just that's our job yeah but you've got to remember you have four others that are asking him to do the same thing and this carol yeah one time carol needs to speak scott we have six requests these are real similar um which ones are most important you know can we get back to the board members and say we'll get you this today this should answer all three of you guys questions this other request we're gonna wait until next week and you know
124that's that's you guys triage process right just because i asked for something doesn't mean i need it now right this second and if i do need it now right this second i will specify that and the other piece would be there there really isn't when you get big things you all get you know like if you ask for the hvac i send that everything you said it does uh i mean now if you call me one day and say hey i see this vendor what does this vendor do i'm probably not going to share that this music whatever i mean there's little there's different types of requests but if if it's a huge programmatic you know shift or something like that then that probably would come through a board meeting but if it's i want
125some gathered information that's there's there's it's hard to disorganize you know the history behind this and why it was done that way and you know if steve hits you with wanting information for the band department dale hits you with wanting information for spinelli and kelly wants information for the junior high school and carol's running the you know 50 mile raceway you think and that's the whole reason why we put that in in the beginning is just to be able to say kelly you're not allowed to ask scott five times a week for a different report and that's what it was being abused is what was happening but it hasn't been and it hasn't been by anybody here no but at that time it was being abused and that's why we had to have something put
126in to say to protect this not because we don't want it but again i really feel like that is the responsibility of the superintendent and to to triage that that and we can come back with timelines and there's no one on here that i wouldn't come back and say hey steve you know working on x y and z i'll have it for you next friday or tuesday or whatever look at this in june you know i don't see i don't at least not at this moment i don't see it but i think under another general understanding that there may be times where if i'm getting able to say things no we need to i need to be able to come back to you guys and say no we need to do this well scott this
127is what i'm saying because because there is a agreement that you play a special role in this governance team in in being the single employee of this this your employer uh that they not only expect from you but they uh uh respect that you will do the triage and that you will do that so that's where there are two other things i want to mention about protocol development before we talk about how what does this mean for center in terms of governance handbook and protocol development as the foundational architecture of governance handbook is that typically your protocols would be adopted in the cons by way of coming to consensus not by way of motion second roll call vote typically because um if if they work if they if they come together in the prioritized way
128and you guys saw the commonality of purpose how often the same numbers percolated to the top of your list here you have a very clear shared vision of what your protocols should be so usually they would be adopted by consensus uh rather than by you know individual you know roll call vote so that's that i would mention has been the typical way and the other thing is they should be and if you have a mechanism to make this happen whether it becomes part of your you know policy review to every 12 months or something like that or it's just a separate thing you put on your governance calendar that you monitor the protocols to see if they need to be modified tweaked eliminated strengthened just like policy that's the same thing we tell you about
129policy development that you you evaluating it after it's out there is the only way you know that it's first of all doing what you expect it to do and it's not having unintended consequences so your protocols deserve deserve the same monitoring evaluation after the fact so we always like to recommend that as you develop your protocols you build into that a mechanism for monitoring them and seeing if they're doing what you wanted them to do so we before we get get uh toward the actual end of our time boy diet today has flown by i want you to look again at a way there's i i hear the unsaid question and a lot of times it's said it's like you know we have so much in our agenda we obviously took this topic the governance
130uh approach and made it a separate meeting as a workshop meeting but there is this type of meeting which a lot of boards do not avail them of called the conversation discussion meeting and it's on that workbook starting on page 53 yeah so just take a second i'll go quiet and look at the types of conversation discussion meetings you might have so these would be special meetings a conversation meeting is an opportunity different from a study session for example your you might call an agenda posted public meeting that was a study session where the superintendent the cbo might go through a budget a budget workshop but this is for other issues and needs to where you really need this forum where you can have conversations and not just motion second vote motion second vote you
131know or i should say report motion second vote so these are the types of meetings you might have they yield incredible bits of enlightenment i mean i think i mean i've obviously learned lots about you guys as individuals in our conversations today and such i rather imagine you've learned something about your colleagues and fellow trustees as well today and the the normal if there is such thing the normal board meeting often is not the best environment for these conversational interactions to take place and one of the the areas where a conversation discussion meeting is about halfway down it says develop a governance handbook so uh i know you're all looking for more saturdays to give up but i think you will i i i'm recommending i'll put this in my follow-up communication that uh you're
132ready after doing this hard work about identifying proto protocol areas to have uh the the second conversation about writing the protocols and and adopting them and making them part and typically it's when that document is done and we can you can it doesn't need to be a 200 page tome you know or something sometimes it can be done in just a few pages and then it becomes something just like the superintendent evaluation where you all sign it adopted june 14th senator j usd board of trustees and you all signed it now that's pretty quick i'm not saying you're going to get it done but but that's my thought but you i i call this your attention because this is one of the best ways for a governance handbook to come into being by not having
133to reinvent the wheel but starting with the architectural foundation of the protocol priorities that you already said so look down just to repeat the top the subhead about rationale it says governance team members recognize the difficulty in finding the balance between one's own beliefs and values interests of constituents the needs of all children the pressures of wanting to work effectively together as a team we call that at csba the balancing act remember back before you were we you were i and you had that luxury i've shared this with many of my conversations with you guys i think that before you joined the board you had the luxury of advocating for an issue a school a teacher a program a topic you had that luxury and then you became part of the board derry i think
134you articulate very well at the beginning of our day it's different it's different when you get at the table and so this this is part of the rationale for a conversation discussion meeting because you want to have that positive environment you want to have norms that make positive environment a must but you can usually do that best in the type of a conversation meeting and it doesn't have to be a six-hour marathon as we pull today but i i do suggest that that become something that you begin to look at on your calendar going into the summer months of how you could take the protocols and and make the form the foundation of a governance uh handbook then at the bottom of page 53 um you see right there it it brings us back to
135the beginning of our discussion when we started out good grief almost six full hours ago we said we were going to talk about unity of purpose we were going to talk about roles and responsibilities and most specifically the difference between the role of the trustee vis-a-vis the role of the board and further specifically the role of the board vis-a-vis the role of the superintendent and his or her team then we talked about the importance of the positive culture we had a ted talk that led us gave us a little courage i hope about understanding that daring to disagree is a worthy goal because uh i how did heford in college she said that conflict sometimes is a way of doing your best thinking we talked about norms how we treat each other we're going to
136you have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders you've got kids at your what are you at 14 schools they expect you to keep the doors open keep the lights on keep you out of legal trouble where you're not spending lots of money you know paying lawyers to get you out of hot water those students each and every not just all are dependent on you to manage the reforce resources that allow you to put conditions in effect that are going to serve them best whatever their needs are meeting them meeting where they are that's exactly what so i don't want you to have to give up too many saturdays or having extra meetings you don't want extra meetings but that is my my strong suggestion is that you consider a conversation meeting where you can
137move ahead with your governor's handbook so that's where i find us today i want to thank you all for for for doing this it's been um really uh interesting for myself and others on the consulting team to have these conversations uh virtually i would ask you each to put out some good vibes to csba my employer so that they will stop teasing and taunting because i keep saying when are we when do we get to go back to districts when do we get to go back and uh they have hinted that they might be allowing 25 of the uh the regular staff go back into the office up there in the sacramento area in mid-june and they've hinted that those of us who travel the state might be able to meet in districts uh maybe
138in the fall so our paths may cross again i certainly scott will have follow-up a a memorandum which i'll send you your attention to share with the board um i will repeat uh my i i have no of financial advantage with the books that i recommended to you i just know they're awfully good call to order in governor's core there's one more that i like to throw in which is by covey not not stephen covey the famous one but by his son actually he's stephen m r covey called the speed of trust uh the importance about trust and how it can uh can color color our uh our conversations and the one that i'll leave you with from speed of trust is this he says the principle is simply this we tend to get what
139we expect both from ourselves and from others when we expect more we tend to get more when we expect less we tend to get less so my friends my colleagues expect more get more give more thank you for your time if there's anything else i can do you all have my email probably even my cell phone number scott the next step is for me to get you the follow-up memorandum and i will be following your progress with baited breath will we get you next time is it a set thing or is it up for grabs uh quite possibly if you yeah if you didn't it would only be a scheduling issue so the point is if we work schedules out in advance it would would not be an issue so we could request you yes
140certainly to certainly i think that consistency thank you very very appreciated thank you all so very much i hope that you uh endure the rest of the doesn't sound like it's been much of a holiday weekend for some monday uh hydrate hydrate hydrate take lots of water and i will look forward to our past crossing again and carol again jean and carol gene and carol big thanks to you for making it happen thank you