001e e e testing 1 two 3 Mike test two3 Brian can you hear me e testing one two it sound good y e e e recording in progress e e e at 6:02 p.m. I'd like to call this meeting to order this is the Anchorage School District board um in our regular meeting on August 6th [Music] and like to start with the Roll Call of the members or I can acknowledge you want me to you want to call the roll or you want me to okay so we have in attendance in the room member Higgins member Jacobs member dony our student representative uh member Park pack pardon me uh myself member hman superintendent Bryant member Wilson member Bellamy and joining us online is member [Music] Wesson I believe okay um at this time I'd like
002to ask our student representative to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all also going to say we were having a lot of audio problems during our work session and a fair amount of it is people not getting the microphone right in their face um I will start interrupting members if they don't have the microphone close uh so that we do get a a good recording for uh our record and for the people that are watching via YouTube um our land acknowledgement I did oh are you ready thank you very much we acknowledge that we gather here today on the traditional lands with den of people
003of the upper Cook Inlet for thousands of years the Denine of people have been and continue to be the stewards of this land ASD is committed to diversity and inclusion and is with honor and respect that we recognize all indigenous people who live and learn in our community thank you um first item on our agenda is the approval of the agenda for tonight entertain a motion to approve it as presented or hear of proposed changes Mr chair I move to approve the agenda as written a second moved and seconded any objection to approval of the agenda member donelly thank you Mr President um several meetings ago the board moved memorandum 146 patriotic activities um to committee and I know that it's scheduled for a governance committee meeting later this month but but I still believe
004that I I haven't received any written suggestions for changes to memorandum 146 um so I think it'd be appropriate to add that as a non-action item tonight so I would move to amend the agenda to add memo 146 patriotic activities to the non-action section of tonight's agenda um I'm going to say that would in essence reverse the action to move it to agenda at or move it to committee at our last meeting um is there a second seeing no no one offering a second I'm going to say that it remains uh in the hands of the governance committee and they will hear it at their regular meeting and take action on it to to send it back to us or not at that time any other comments or questions any other any objections to adoption
005of the agenda as presented seeing none we have adopted the agenda um our first item under Section B is our student representative report Mr P thank you Mr President good evening everyone um I hope you all had a wonderful and restful summer I would like to just say that is great to be back and I'm ready for round two as I get to serve my last term as a student representative um it's an AB absolute privilege to serve with this board in the administration and to get to be able to listen to the testimonies from the public in regards to the student Advisory board our first meeting is set on September 10th of next month and it will be an a meeting from 9:30 to 11:30 and all our meetings will be held in this
006Education Center in the boardroom as per the Amendments we made in our last April student advisor board meeting we are expecting a larger group of student Representatives than last year as we have increased our high school delegation to four delegates per school and middle school to three delegates per school this is to accommodate more voices and also ease the transition of sixth graders into Middle School ensure that they have voice over the summer I have the privilege to represent Alaska with four other Alaskan students at the national Federation of high schools student leadership student Leadership Summit in Indianapolis Alex a quick shout out to the Alaska Student Activities Association and Miss kle Navar for making that trip possible and at that conference we learned key leadership skills discussed educational issues on a national levels and
007proposed solutions for them and I was able to represent Section 8 in the national student advisory Council which includes Alaska Washington Wyoming Montana and Oregon on the team of 16 selected students to help empower the voices of around 12 million students that are served by the National Federation of high schools I also just last week um returned from Washington DC with the Anchorage youth court for a national restorative justice conference and that was with six other ancorage school district students we networked with other organizations and learned how they reenter their juveniles into the community after they offend to promote the overall safety of our communities as well as heal the harms and address the the root issues of our crimes also during a time there we had the the privilege to meet with Senator Sullivan
008and Senator marowski we discussed issues surrounding substance AB youth abuse youth mental health and our justice system particularly I was able to allude to our student Advisory Board um having a potential role in the one pilton kill campaign to raise awareness and strengthen prevention against the fantinel crisis um I look forward to working with my fellow eled officials staff and representatives for another great school year thank you thank you very much any questions of our student representative seeing none uh next is our military report from Colonel Hansen at J bear thank you for coming sir thank you for the invitation so yes my name is uh col we're gonna ask you to get right in the microphone here we go uh thank you for the invitation my name is Colonel Dustin Hansen I'm the 673rd
009airbase Wings Mission support group Commander I'm succeeding Colonel Eric Dunn and uh I look forward to this this school year I look forward to uh working with the students working with the military connected students particularly and their families um I look forward to overc communicating everything that we need to do to make a successful successful school year um students education is everything to me right I'm a father of four as well uh I my stud my kids um are are home instructed so I have a passion for home instructed uh Public Schools Charter Schools private schools uh whatever it takes to get our kids educated um as as as our future uh I have a great team of schooly ason uh with Adele and Holly I plan to work on both uh districts both Anchorage
010and uh there in the valley as well because we have military Eed students up there uh and uh lastly I'll just say that uh I'm privileged to be here so I look forward to again a great future working with you this school year and um I turn it over to oh one more Point uh here on Bas I would just like to advertise to the teachers uh to to let the kids know uh the base exchange is offering gift cards to students that earn A and B grades uh 10 and $20 so I want to turn the volume up on that as one more incentive why getting good grades and academic Excellence is so important I turn over to any [Music] questions any questions from board members oh sorry I saying none we do great
011we oh I'm sorry member Pack Mr Pac for the interest of the students um is the Base Exchange is that open to all students in ASD or just students on base this would be uh students that have base access good question good question uh yes member Wilson I just want to say welcome and thank you for taking the time to come out and and introduce yourself so I appreciate and welcome any time thank you thank you it's a privilege to be here and thank you very much as well um I know that for kids in the military or in military families uh life is different and if there's anything we can do that makes education go better for them please don't hesitate to ask thank you I appreciate your support thank you Board conference and
012committee reports did anyone have anything they wanted to report out other than the written reports seeing done we will move to goal monitoring in section c of our agenda um say good oh okay and that will resume in September so we will not be doing that tonight we we haven't made any progress for the last couple of months here we have to apologize for that um public comment and this is the time we hear from the public we welcome your comments they're very important to the board we have set aside an hour at the beginning of the meeting for those who have signed up to give public comment those not heard during the first hour will be held at the end of the agenda this is an opportunity for Schoolboard members to listen and for
013the members of the public to inform the school board about our views we unlike the assembly we do not engage in discussion during this time all comments are limited to 3 minutes there is a time on the front of the dis that will tell you uh there is a small bell that Chimes when you have 30 seconds remaining speaking time may not be given or shared with other people uh when your name is called please come to the podium please state your name for the record and direct your comments to the chair please understand this is not a time for dialogue the purpose of this uh agenda item is for you the public to inform us the school board about your views if you do have handouts to share with Schoolboard members please give them
014to the executive assistant who is seated right here and she will distribute them to us finally I want to call your attention to the detailed boardroom decorum guidelines and expectations that are available at the door as you enter the boardroom uh please review on our list of speakers on non-action items our first two Folks up are Thomas ID and G heav I are here and can come forward thank you I'm going to ask you to get close to the microphone so we do get a good recording and you have three minutes and the floor is yours thank you good evening I'm grateful to be here representing many parents teachers and community members at moms for Liberty Anchorage who seek to improve education for kids in our community and stand for parental rights this is a
015Grassroots nonpartisan effort by all colors races and Creeds to ensure the safety and success of our children within ASD we support the Patriotic activ activities proposal in committee we look forward to an efficient resolution by the board in support of this proposal with accountability for implementation by the district beginning with adding it to the agenda as soon as possible moms for Liberty Anchorage also supports a vote by the board to prevent the district from keeping secrets about children from their parents and requiring teachers to deceive families in order to keep their jobs the endorsement by the district without a vote of the board to privately obtain information from a student without parental permission is an assault on the family driving a wedge between a child and their legal guardian the very existence of these guidelines
016inviting minor students to keep secrets from their parents harms the parent child relationship which the US Supreme Court has held is constitutionally protected C Killian V Walcott parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children parents are a child's first and most impactful Educators culturally and collectively we recognize that each child is precious and no one advocates for a child as well as their parents we are the experts on our children in the event that evidence shows abuse or neglect ASD staff are required to alert proper authorities parental rights may not be reduced without due process hiding critical information about kids from their parents is outside the district's Authority leveraging teachers livelihoods to adhere to this egregious agenda is unethical and prevents any meaningful education the district might provide the district does
017not have the resources nor capability to stand between a parent and their child nor should it this is an education organization must act accordingly political agendas like gender ideology do not belong in our educational institutions they undermine the success of students and alienate parents from their children in a way that is irrefutably detrimental to the growth and development of students these guidelines create discrimination exclusion and indoctrination the way Dei does which is wholly inappropriate in schools let's return to the basics roughly two-thirds of ASD students cannot read at grade level there are two Sexes zero genders and infinite personalities we are teachers how are teachers expected to educate if administrators refuse to adhere to biological facts and basic grammar definitions it requires a special kind of cognitive dissonance to insist that education is your role
018while educating outcomes remain dismal and children are encouraged to abandon their primary support system with transparency and accountability being a major value of the district it's way past time for the school board to vote in favor of protecting children by partnering with parents instead of convin conniving behind our backs we do not co-parent with a district but thank you very much next we have Marine Crumley in person followed by Michael quinby I'll ask you to be close to the microphone and you have three minutes and the floor is yours thank you and good evening board members my name is Moran Crumley I am part of the Anchorage Community speaking on behalf of my family neighbors teachers and as part and member of moms for Liberty Anchorage I support memorandum 146 ceremonies and observances this proposal
019to include patriotic activities has stalled and I would like to see it advance to a vote from the board I think our students will benefit from the proposed activities instilling pride in our country also provides a sense of unity and inclusiveness through which we all can benefit the recitation of the Pledge of the legance and playing the United States national anthem and the Alaska state flag song are wholesome experiences for our Anchorage school students please consider returning to this proposal and scheduling a vote on this memorandum ceremonies and observances of the Patriotic activities thank you for my opportunity to speak to the board thank you very much Michael Quimby here in the audience thank and if you'll be close to the microphone you have three minutes and the floor is yours all right thank you
020um I just wanted to put a face to the name I've have contacted the school recently regarding the school start times um I've been cont contacting since May of last year once it was voted in but I just wanted to to make known to the school board um the public opposition to the IR uh Elementary School start times as well as the late middle school and high school start times which push activities later um after school employment later and makes it difficult for families um to I I've been contacting directly um since last year in 2018 when the school board first um suggested at earlier start times there was a lot of public involvement a lot of public process um lots of opportunities to be involved in 2023 um in March there was a survey
021and some public involvement but not enough to to Really gauge the public opinion in my in my opinion um so I started a survey recently and in the last two weeks uh on change.org ASC start times in the last two weeks there's been close to three right 288 signatures um in under two weeks um my pool of influence is fairly limited um and I have not publicly promoted it until I guess this meeting right here but i' I'd like to make known that there is a a large part of the population um who are opposed to it and I'd encourage the school board as well as the school district to continue monitoring that as the school year begins I understand school starts next week and the the opportunity change is basically gone before the school
022year starts but that doesn't mean we need to continue with our program if it turns out to have a limited effect or a negative influence on this on the elementary school students or after school programs um in particular we're taking sixth grades of our education system which when I looked at today at the current enrollment was 47% of the students in the school district are Elementary School students and we're T we're removing an hour of sleep from them I understand some students May wake up early but the general guidelines from the American Academy Pediatric tricks as well as um sleep sleep medicine provide 9 to 11 hours of sleep um 9 to 12 in some instances and so I don't think it's appropriate to put Elementary School first we can give high schoolers extra sleep
023without affecting elementary school so negatively if they went second they would get 15 minutes less sleep um if they went last they would get additional sleep U we could also put Middle School first um which would give them 15 minutes less sleep sorry if I quoted some of those wrong but basically the change would be minimal with some slight revisions so please consider that please reach out to the school um generally and ask for Republic input as it continues thank you thank you very much and to check again Thomas side had signed up to be in person I take he's don't see him in the room so that concludes the people we have on the list for public comment that brings us to item e on our uh agenda the consent agenda [Music] and Mr
024President I move to approve the consent agenda as written absent any member pulling an item listed thank you moved and seconded to accept the consent agenda is there any opposition seeing hearing none we have a adopted the consent agenda move to section F student oh pardon because member lessons is not in the room I think we have to do a Voice vote pardon me I believe you are correct I will ask their executive assistant to call the role and we'll do a Voice vote this is to approve the consent agenda member Bellamy yes member Donley yes member lence yes member Higgins member Wilson yes member Jacobs yes president Hollman yes by a vote of 70 we have approved the consent agenda that brings us to section F our action items um the only item we
025have is an action item regards the student hearing would entertain a motion on that Mr President I move to approve the action it am regarding student hearings which involves the reinstatement from an expulsion of the student associated with ASD incident number 136 4357 as discussed in executive session second moved and seconded this is not an item that we discuss in the meeting I will ask our executive assistant to call the oh a member Don point of information or procedure are we allowed to discuss non-identifying information on the merits of this decision the facts that are involved with it I'm going to say that generally we do not just because of the the danger of saying something identifying if we get into a discussion of it at all I'd just like to be able to explain
026my vote um uh based on just the facts not nothing to do with uh identifying I'm going to say if there's no objection from the the rest of the body allow people to do that and just with a the reminder that we should say absolutely nothing about the particulars of of the issue uh Mr chair I think the intent for uh the I mean this is a this information involves a student mhm which is confidential information which is why we have our opportunity in executive session to discuss to share to ask questions and then you make up you decide why you're going to vote I don't know that I've ever during my tenure on the board ever had a student issue hearing issue come before the public for discussion only for a vote the discussion
027should have taken place in the executive session corre that is in keeping with our processes that's my memory as well member Jacobs Mr chair yeah I'll I'll add that uh my understanding regarding executive session and disclosing information as board members are prohibited from disclosing or discussing information that we've obtained in executive session um and that would severely limit our ability to discuss this issue um as most board members I imagine knew nothing or practically nothing uh before executive session so I think that's historically why we have limited discussion and so I would encourage us not to set a precedent here especially given the federal law that's required with us maintaining confidentiality about student info thank you member Donald actually Mr President you and I were here about seven years ago where we did have a
028discussion of a a student hearing aspect without providing identifying information so it has happened before um and I would try my very best to limit the facts you know or the discussion to a a philosophical or non-identifying information I I'm going to say my inclination is still all as long as we don't discuss the particulars of the issue at all it has to be all about you okay thank you um I believe in the Constitutional standard of escalating um seriousness of punishment based on the seriousness of the of the action that's uh being uh punished and in this particular situation under existing board policy there's a minimum and that minimum applies to a wide range of potential misbehavior in this case we are essentially adopting the minimum when I think the range of misbehavior is
029quite Beyond um the least offensive violation and that's why I'm concerned about it and I expressed that concern previously and that's why I'm going to be voting against it today because I believe it doesn't meet the Constitutional standard of a sliding scale of punishment to the seriousness of the crime thank you anyone else wish to make a statement member B me uh thank you I think the um the place to get member Donley's question uh addressed is through policy it's not through a discussion of a student hearing at this time member Don when I raised this as a policy question before the board in the past I was told that there would be opportunity to have more serious punishment reflected than just the minimum that was in the board policy so this is absolutely appropriate
030I mean that argument is just specious any more comments I will ask our executive secretary to call the rooll for a vote member Donley no member Jacobs yes member Bellamy yes member Higgins member lesons yes member Wilson yes president Hollman yes by a vote of 6 to1 we have upheld the administration's motion recommendation that brings us to section g our non-action items are there any that anyone wishes they had pulled back at the beginning of the meeting seeing hearing none uh these will come up as consent agenda or action items at our next meeting in two weeks um believe we do not have any other signups for public comment under Section h y section I is our superintendent update superintendent Brian thank you Mr President uh just a few remarks for the board in the
031community as we gear up for back to school so we are in full swing and very excited to welcome back our students family and staff to our our new 2425 school year I had the opportunity to shake the hands of dozens if not hundreds of incredible families uh teachers uh support staff clerical staff principles and and many many more um as we've started to welcome our community back into our schools um a few thanks thank yous uh first thank you to the Alaska Coalition of bipu Educators uh Lutheran Social Services team D and our many volunteers for a spectacular back to school supply event at Betty Davis East Anchorage high school on Friday we gave away thousands of Supply filled backpacks and uh it really does set our students up for a successful school year
032so many thanks and I know that's not the only event there have been events all over the city um this past weekend and some more coming up so we want to thank all of our partners for doing what you do to host these events because they truly make a difference um everything from haircut to eye exams to you know just telling students they're going to have a great year really goes a long way so thank you uh and then lastly I just want to share that we are uh very well positioned to implement our major changes uh that have been in the works for months so for parents listening to my remarks one thing that you'll notice is our staggered first days of school so let's talk about that for a minute so that means
033that most of our students will begin the first day of school on Thursday August 15th that includes our students in grades 1 through five six and seven and ninth grade students and then with the exception of our kindergarteners the rest of our students will join us on Friday August 16th why are we doing this the the intent behind our August 15th start date is really to get our younger students back into their routines and also to support the transition of our students who are new to middle school and new to high school and as a former n9th grade teacher myself I can personally attest um to the fact that the first few days can be very disorienting for our new nth graders and new to middle school students just because of the change and while
034it won't solve all the issues I really do hope that this transitional day will help them start the year strong and on that note as was mentioned earlier this will be the first year that districtwide all of our sixth graders for the most part will be in our middle school buildings and uh that focus on their transition is a key part of setting that initiative up to success so as you can imag imagine having sixth graders and seventh graders being new to a building can mean a lot of anxious energy so we want to set up those students for Success uh and then on a separate note we are ready to launch our new school start times so our start times for our elementary students will be at 8: a.m. and our high schools will
035begin at 8:45 a.m. and our middle schools will start at 9:30 a.m. I do want parents to note that our middle and high schools will be open uh an hour early to provide some support for parents who work and have other obligations we want to be good partners in this work and uh lastly uh a major thank you to our returning and new bus transportation professionals all signs are looking positive that our bus threats will be fully staffed for the first day of school uh thank you to our bus drivers and our transportation team for doing a lot of work behind the scenes to avoid um what could have been an incident similar to a couple years ago where we were in a a a much different situation uh I I would say that the
0362425 school year is really going to be the moment when ASD tackles one of its most ambitious uh set of changes to date and you know turbulence is a normal part of the change management process but our fundamentals are looking strong we have a great team and we're ready to to get this year going so that concludes my remarks thank you very much soon anyone have questions about the superintendent report seeing No Hands Schoolboard and administration comments I will start at my far left with member Higgins if you have comments none member Jacobs thank you Mr President uh just wanted to Echo Dr Bryan's remarks uh regarding appreciation for the community backpack um event um I know other board members will have comments as well uh but thank you to our communication team um to
037community leaders like um rosin gr wh who um was present and um put a ton of work in with um who's associated with the um Alaska Coalition of bipac Educators um as Tony Riley um I know there were a number of different staff involved and it was during a work day and I couldn't unfortunately get away um but if we move it back to the weekend going forward I'd be happy to participate and um I'm glad it was well attended and we gave away all the backpacks we had available so thank you for that and um just want to thank um all Educators support staff and Professionals for making this school year um successful and um looking forward to supporting as the year goes along thank you member Don thank you Mr President um Mr
038President I'm concerned about the upcoming school year and safety in our schools um traditionally we've had 16 AP officers assigned to the SRO program and they've covered designated to be to our high schools um um at the work session held before this meeting we were advised that there's going to only be 10 officers at the start of this year and even at 16 there was not full coverage of all our high schools for every day um because of the 4-day work weeks of APD even with two officers assigned to a high school there was an a rotating Friday where there were or or Monday where there was no officers present and we in fact did have an incident of a gun come into a school on one of those days where officers weren't there several
039years ago and it was really due to the great work of the school staff that prevented that from being a more serious event um there's no officer specifically assigned to our middle or elementary schools and I thank the administration for um dedicating additional funding uh to employment of three additional security Personnel but as as they explained to us in the work session they are not a substitute for uh police officers um so I'm hoping the assembly hears this concern and I know there's a huge challenge faced by the municipality in recruiting a full contingent of Patrol officers at the same time I remain very concerned about the safety of our schools and the this over 30% decrease in the presence of our SRO in our schools I also wanted to talk about Title 9 UM
040Title 9 was a breakthrough federal law to ensure fairness and and education and particularly a breakthrough law and fairness to women's sports but I wanted to mention another aspect of that and that is um that I had um introduced a resolution last year um to revise existing U District guidelines regarding notification of parents and the board chose to defer action on that resolution to allow new directions from the Federal Department of Education to come out prior to acting on it well those new guidelines have come out now um multiple lawsuits have now um re have prevented the implementation of those guidelines in 26 States um and more States probably to come so we're in a and Alaska is one of the states that those have been frozen in so I believe it's time for us
041to step forward and address our own guidelines the board has never voted on these guidelines regarding parental notification um it's not not something that should be just left to an administrative guideline the differentiate differential between a guideline and a policy is significant the policies are adopted only by the board and an administrative regulation would be based on a policy adopted by the board but these things are neither they are administrative guidelines so they're not even regulations based on policy adopted by the board so this parental notification matter is so significant and so important to families that I believe it deserves a vote of the board and not just to be included in a administrative guideline so I'm hoping the board will revise its prior decision to not consider my proposed uh policy change or policy
042adoption that would overrule some aspects of these guidelines given the fact that the title 9 is now locked up in federal court um finally just regarding the importance of patriotic activities and patriotism in this country um if there's any country as diverse and and with as many ethnic and social economic backgrounds as America I don't know who it is United States but because of our great diversity uh it's even more important than in other nations that we have commonality we have things that hold us together as a nation and as a people and George Washington recognized that and and I think most people recognize how important our customs or traditions and those things hold it together as Americans are um that's why I'm hoping the that's why I made the motion earlier on the agenda
043to re-include consideration of uh 146 regarding p Archy activities and I'm hoping that we can get that back before the board soon as I mentioned earlier I haven't received any written proposed amendments to that uh resolution or that memorandum and it's been before the board for over 16 months now I believe um it's but I just like to say some a quote from George Washington's farewell address to the country in 1796 citizens by birth or choice of a common country that country has a right to concentrate your affections the name of American which belongs to you in your National capacity must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any other appalation derived from the from local discriminations member p no further comments member Wilson yes I I wanted to recognize um our school
044business partners and a couple of the events that took place to help support our families and our our students and our staff um I know several of you mentioned the hugs back to school event which was amazing um I heard I I was not able to attend but as I understand it over 800 backpacks of school supplies were given away um again I want to say thank you to ASD to Alaska Coalition of bipac Educators and L Lutheran Social Services as well as all of the other volunteers and staff that jumped in to help with that I also wanted to recognize the um the clothline project it was the 10th Annual project so 10 years um I I wasn't able to attend this one but I've been there many times in the past at Clark
045Middle School it's amazing um how many close clo and coats and um how many resources are available at that event and as I understand it families were lined up around the entire school um and the first kids that showed up to to get in line um showed up at 6:30 a.m. when the event started at 10: a.m. so um I want to say thank you to Anchorage cops for Community for that coordination um and some of the the major local partners that helped with that as well the Anchorage firefighters local 1264 the Knights of Columbus from Anchorage who gave away 720 coats Matson which is a shipping company New Vision Walmart um all of those efforts helped uh about 1,700 community members 1,700 community members got to um take home clothes and coats and um
046have access to resources I wanted to thank our our very own Steve Brown I know he puts a lot of um a lot of time and effort and um love into that project and officer Jonathan Butler does as well and thank you to our Communications team for the video they created um which is coincidentally on YouTube I was just um accessing that so please take a look at that they do an amazing job uh our I I had the privilege of attending the Fairview block party a few weeks ago and wanted to say thank you to Army National Guard for um the setup that that they had there was we had a lot of local um Fairview kids that got to attend that it was it was pretty cool um and I also had the
047privilege of attending the office Success Academy I really enjoyed that because our um our office um folks our totem uh employees had the opportunity to interact with departments from around the district um I I heard great things about about that as well as I think there's several other um opportunities for for our staff to to have some training before school starts so um thank you to talent management for the the work that they did on the office Success Academy that that was awesome and thank you to all of our business partners that have um put in so much effort to help our our students start the school year off um with all of the supplies they need and and all the of the the love and effort that comes with that so thank you member
048Pam me thank you Mr chair I did ow everything uh member Wilson just said I do want to um thank really thank the staff I mean we had staff family members of Staff we had uh neighbors and cousins and uncles everybody pitched in to make everything work I never want to see another hot dog in my life life but it was an amazing um Gathering and I just want to thank uh everybody for for that our partners are amazing and and I really uh they always come uh they show up for our kids and I I really love that um for you know um I think our next committee meetings are all on August 29th starting at 11:00 with governance uh then I think we we have finance and then Communications so uh that's it
049the the uh uh August 29th and those meetings will be available to you uh online uh with that I really don't um I just want to Welcome All board members back hope you guys got some rest because we're in for an exciting and uh wonderful time with getting schools opened and our kids back to um back to their routines uh lots of in Innovative things going on so I'm excited about the school year so um with that I'll turn it back to you Mr chair member Wesson hi um hopefully can you all hear me I guess I'll take that I can um I wanted to briefly thank the IT team for troubleshooting uh the audio issues that were uh may have plagued the work session um everything came through loud and clear so so I
050appreciate that great job um I also appreciated the chance to briefly review the work session slides I didn't have a chance to attend that meeting but we'll we'll follow up um but it is certainly concerning that um we have a substantial deficit looking uh ahead to FY 26 though I do appreciate that the one-time funds we received from the state uh are appear to be allowing us to decrease the high level of risk that our prior budget decisions um required us to make uh and then the final thought I had is that I would really value updates from the administration uh perhaps as soon as the next board meeting if at all possible about the district's Readiness for the new Freshman Academy course um so what is entailed in that course what does the curriculum
051look like how are teachers being prepared for its implementation and any information uh that can be shared about the career Expo that will be happening this fall that's all I got thank you very much um I would like to say we we have had a fair amount of communication from the community about the change and start times uh we knew it would be a huge disruption and and it is um so far a lot of the community seems to be working with it and of course some people have serious issues and trying to adjust to it and for other people it's fairly simple and everywhere in between we will be look you know we did do it for specific reasons we'll be looking um whether or not our high school students are more aert in
052the morning uh whether or not our attendance changes uh and of course an can call it anecdotal but we're a small enough town that that matters uh about how it affects people's work lives and ability to do all the things they want to do both in school and out of school uh to see if we're really getting the kind of results that we hoped for in making the change um also want wanted to note that that I was in a classroom for 12 years in this District I never felt any pressure to be dishonest with a parent about anything I would hope that no teacher in this District does and if they ever do that they should come to the board uh and register how that came to pass uh there's some difficult conversations to
053be sure I we unfortunately become embroiled in in issues we never want to be I've had to call Child Services I've had to uh talk with non-custodial parents that wanted information we weren't able to give them the these things happen uh and the question that I always have is is does board policy help or does board policy make it even more complicated than it already is and that's that's something that we will be struggling with as we move through to the fall also did want to say to the administration on a staggered start um for a number of years I was back several weeks before uh teaching staff was because I did technology work and there were a number of times where I met with a parent and a child at the school when no
054one else was there because I had keys to everything and they had a child that was just frightened of school wasn't sure they wanted to come to middle school I was in Middle School most of this time and so we just took a walk through the building the you know it's fairly empty the upper classman weren't there there wasn't any there weren't any bells there wasn't any stress they walked around for about 20 or 30 minutes and they were fine and so to some degree the staggered start I think speaks to that that uh especially for kids coming to a new building a bigger building more kids and and all that comes with it that opportunity to have sort of a soft opening uh really does help alleviate stress of of our most critical clients
055which are our kids and I I think it'll be really interesting to see how that works I I know for the schools have been doing a day for ninth graders the feedback is always been very positive about that uh and looking forward to see how that works out and then lastly I just hope we can all remember and again this came from being in the building for weeks before things started uh on non-school days and especially before the school year starts schools are kind of like really boring Office Buildings everybody has a big office that's that part's kind of cool and then the kids show up and the volume level goes l up and the activity level goes way up and the fun level goes way and of course a whole bunch of problems start
056happening also so it all comes as one big package but but that excitement and the excitement kids have uh in getting ready that you know in the events they're talking about where kids wind up early to get backpacks they want new shoes they want a coat they want to get everything ready because they are excited about coming back uh that's the momentum we want to come in with and hopefully sustain as far into the year as we can get um because they do kind of burn out after a little bit and then I'll say the the other beautiful moment is at the end of the year when they realize they won't be seeing their friends every day and they get really sad um it's it's really cute the beginning of the year and the end
057of the year are really cute times and uh we want to make that happen for kids because it is something that they remember for very very long time also so when I came back to sit down there was a gift for me on the front counter a book that parent Revolution I'll take that home and read it and then the board actually has their own small library that I'll put it in so that it's available to everybody else on the board I'm not sure where it came from I haven't looked to see if there's a note yet but thank you very much for that um that wraps up my comments do staff have any comments they would like to make as usual we see no hands I would entertain a motion to moved and seconded
058and we are adjourned