001Okay. Anybody else coming forward? The last chance. Okay. I call this meeting to order at 4:45. Um this is just an acknowledgement of the meeting status that we read every every meeting um about you know the zoom and in person members of the public may directly address the board by attending in-person meetings and submitting a public comment card. The board will not take public comment through the online platform and does not guarantee online streaming should that platform malfunction for any reason. Members of the public are encouraged to share their thoughts and concerns with our board president Maddie Cloud at mcloudpk12.org if they're not able to attend in person. So we uh we have comments from the public on close session items which I know you're all aware of. And so we have six but I
002do we always read the board president language on public comment. Usually we do it later um because we don't usually have public comment for close session. So for today I'm going to read it just so that you guys are aware of everything and then um and then we'll we'll proceed. You'll have um you'll each have three the full three minutes. We don't have to divide it up. Okay. Under government code section 54954.3A, members of the public have the right to address the governing board on any items of interest providing it relates to the subject matter jurisdiction of the school district. While government code allows speakers to criticize the district's policies, procedures, programs, services, and/or employees, the district does have a have a specific policy, board policy 1312.1 specific to complaints against employees. Um, if the
003comment is about something that is not on the agenda, it will be heard only during the public comment on non-aggendaized items period. Once that part of the meeting is over, comments will only be taken on agenda items during the discussion of those items. The board values public comments and although we cannot take action or discuss items not on the agenda, we listen carefully and appreciate input from the public. Public comments are subject to a three minute per person limit or a 20 minute uh limit per subject matter. Commenters may not see their time to others. Uh, additionally, a public speaker can be cut off for exceeding the allotted time or for willfully causing an actual disruption to the meeting and preventing the board from completing the business of the district. Before cutting a person off
004or removing someone, the board will give at least one clear warning. If you are cut off or warned last time, please consider that your warning. You can also submit your input by writing, by email or other means to the superintendent, board members or other designated staff members. All right, let us begin. Marquita Lee. Oh, yeah, sure. I don't know how that it keeps going to the top. Okay. uh Hazel Cassiss Evans and uh Kayn Dich is really loving and kind and she's like like a really good principal and she helps us when we're in need and overall emotions and emojis wanted to hear you. Should I start over? Principal Hail is really kind and loving. She she helps us when we're in need and um Grant's really lucky to have her as our principal. She's
005just overall a really good principal. he stands up for us. Um when Oh, I want her to be our principal again cuz she's very like a very kind person. Um and I just love her. Thank you so much. That was the best public comment I've heard in years. Uh, Kim Bowman. Sorry. I know it happens. All right. So, I think I can read it without my glasses. My font is so big. This is not AI. This comes from here. And if I could just ask you guys to also listen from here. Um, my name is Kim Bowman. and I've been an educator for about 32 years and the last 20 plus years I've had the privilege and the honor to teach at Grant Elementary School. Grant has always been a very very special place. I
006actually applied for a job at Grant School with the hope that my own two daughters would be lucky enough to attend Grant School because we lived out of the area and they were lucky. Um, it has a a a very long-held reputation for high achievement and for academic rigor, very involved parents, and of course, a stellar staff. As a staff, we have endured many stormy seas. We have had more principles than I care to remember. Some were stronger than others. Some were more committed than others. Some left quickly. Others wanted to stay, but were involuntarily transferred to another school. For all of these years, there seems to have been an assumption that our staff could remain afloat, that we could steer the ship on our own. And now we are tired of sailing without direction.
007Excuse all the sailing analogies. There is not one employee at Grant School, to my knowledge, certificated or classified, that does not want Amy Hail to sail our ship. She has literally been a breath of fresh air. No principal, in my opinion, has been such a dedicated and natural shamrock. She completely fit into our culture and no one could work any harder. During the last seven months, she was the ideal captain to our ship. And yet, she has been put through the ringer. Did she jump overboard? Did she abandon ship? No. In fact, she showed up to open house, praised us for our amazing work, greeted us with bagels the next morning. Who does that? This is a story that illustrates Amy Hail's true character. I fear that this decision will not be good for our
008school. Why would we onboard someone new when we were already thriving? I am sure that the new hire is a delightful person. But she does not have the proven experience that Amy now holds. She's from a small charter school with a staff of six teachers, multi-age classrooms, and around a 100 students. Her school has declining enrollment and declining test scores. But here we are. We have spent hours now giving you feedback, writing you letters. 30 seconds. What? 30 seconds. Yes. Shoot. Attending meetings and we still don't feel heard. I'm going to skip. Um, sadly, this process and this decision is having a ripple effect because we do not feel valued anymore. We feel discounted. We feel disregarded. We don't feel trust with you. and we don't feel that our students and our families are the
009first priority. So, I'm standing before you tonight and I'm just imploring the district, cabinet, and school board to please review the fidelity of the in the interview process and to consider the candidate with the most proven experience and to do what's right for our community, families, and teachers. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. Kim King, I have to admit, um, it's felt rather difficult to communicate between the school board, the district office. I've learned a lot the past few weeks about the system and your role as a board. I hope that there's some reflection from the district office and the board on the major pitfalls that have occurred during this year this year and in this process. Big missteps like miscommunication to the public about sbatical leave and not defining leadership roles and responsibility during that
010leave down to the small things like not including a meeting location for a community input event prior to the principal hire or sending out an expired Zoom link for a community town hall. In all honesty, these actions make it feels like feel like you ask for our input but don't really want to hear it. And ultimately, we saw the consequence of that when a new principle that seems quite far from what the community voiced was selected. We may disagree on that, but please reflect and be honest about the missteps that were taken. I don't know how much opportunity there is to discuss this evening within the board before certifying this hire, but I urge you to ask the district office how much vetting was done on this new principal compared to Amy who has been
011there for seven months. Was the new hires direct supervisor at her previous two schools contacted? How much of her Waldorf background will be incorporated into Grant? Was she asked about declining test scores and enrollment at her two previous schools? These are serious questions because the number one thing the grant community asked for was stability. Please do you d do your due diligence so we are not back here next year. If you do end up certifying the candidate, I'll ask for a commitment. This hire feels foreign and not suited for grants. So we will need your help. I'm requesting that every board member from each district, not just our own, visits our campa camp campus monthly. come to drop off and make sure our new principal is there, welcoming each student by name, standing up at
012lunch and engaging with our students, leading them in a best assembly. Please check in on the Grant community and this new relationship that will have to be built. Maybe if there was more of your presence this past year, you could have seen how positive it had been at Grant. And if the board decides to question the suitability of the hire, I'll commend you because I know that's not an easy decision. But I do believe it's the right decision. Community input was ignored. This is not the right candidate for grant. You have had you have the opportunity to open the position again and consider the input of the community. It's a brave decision, but you've been placed in your seat by the same community that is reaching out to you to hear our voice. Thank you.
013Ray Ford. Thank you. Um I also uh of course I'm here to support uh Principal Hail. You've all heard the reasons why our staff, our parents, our students all want you to do your jobs and oversee the staff of the district and and do not accept the recommendation to hire this new principal from outside the district. um part of the system. This is part of the system. The system is not just the district staff recommends something and you rubber stamp it. Your job as elected officials is to listen to the community, parents, teachers, voters, citizens, and make the right decision. And right now, frankly, because of how poorly this process has let out, you don't have much credibility. Um Mr. Sutter spoke at our town hall and said he didn't know why the newspapers reported
014that uh Superintendent Harris was on a unpaid leave even though it's still up on your website on the superintendent's page. It's still there and you you sent out a press release. It was Google it. It's on education matters websites. It's all over the place. It was publicized everywhere. That's why we think he was out on unpaid leave. Um, Miss Cloud, you contend that you don't know how many emails you got for and against this situation. That is either dereliction of duty because as a representative of the community, you should be counting those. You should be judging where the community lies on this issue. How many for, how many against. If if you didn't do that, you're not doing your job. If you did do that and you just refuse to say and say that you
015didn't count, you're lying to us. So, you guys have a lot of work to do. to gain back the trust and credibility with this community. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. Sarah, good evening. Thank you for having us tonight. Um, exactly one year ago today, well, you know, basically 12 months ago, we were begging and pleading and sending emails and going to meetings with Jason Sutter and showing up and being present and begging not to hire the interim principal and the district did it anyway. We felt completely unheard. There was petitions. We were told not to circulate the position petitions. We were told to take the petitions down and we just it's so silly to have to make a petition to be heard and that's how unheard we felt. We felt like it was a slap
016in the face and we were so clear that an overwhelming majority of our community wanted the decision to go a different way. I'm wondering if any or all of you previously knew that Miss Mack was unemployed essentially for next year. In March, her school was posting that they were hiring a new principal for the upcoming school year. So, I want to know why she wasn't employed there next year and whose decision that was. Um, Grant's been dealing with bullying issues, especially in the sixth grade. Um, I'm not sure if all the other schools are dealing with that in sixth grade, but the school that she used to be in charge of only had six students. So, I mean, there's so many complexities that you need to learn with experience and having six students in an
017entire sixth grade is not in any way going to be applicable to the issues that she'll be facing at Grant. Um myself and others have been trying to meet up with coffee, have a phone chat, get a response email with um every board member and I know that multiple of the board members here have not responded to any of your stakeholders. Um, that's pretty crummy and in no way does that promote the trust that Lann stated in the email that was sent out Friday evening that they want to rebuild the trust with grant and simply ignoring your constituents since I know I personally been spending emails since November and I know many other people in our community have been and to re receive zero response. What's the point? What is the point of meeting with
018Jason Sutter and going to these meetings when we feel so unheard again? Um, it breaks my heart to see the teachers distraught about having to retrain another principal again over and over again. Like we already put so much on our teachers shoulders and then they also have two brand new office staff. So the beginning of the year is just going to be really challenging and it's not fair to put more and more and more on the teacher shoulders. The fact that Matthew Harris made this monumental decision while never stepping foot on the c campus is ludicrous. Um, countless times he told the public he was unpaid when that's categorically false. How are you supposed to trust anything going forward? I know that you support the superintendent and make the decisions as you should. Like that's
019the point of the board. You're not supposed to make every decision yourself and but at some point you need to trust your staff, but at some point you need to like listen to us. We're begging you. We felt so unheard a year ago and again it feels like a slap in the face. I think it really needs your the decision needs to be reconsidered. We no longer have a trusted person in the district and that's unfortunate. Thank you. Now, Marquita, thanks. I'm going to adjust this. Okay. All right. Hello again, cabinet and board members. My name is Marquita. Surprised. And I am a pedal resident and a grant parent. Again, you've seen me before. I acknowledge that decision-m is an imperfect process. That being said, per the California School Boards Association website, I quote, "The
020role of the school board is to ensure that school districts are responsive to the values, beliefs, and priorities of their communities." Another great quote that I saw was to fulfill these responsibilities, boards must have maximum autonomy and flexibility." End quote. We understand the belief that many of you many of you have that not ratifying the superintendent's recommendation for Grant's principal today would give the public the impression that you do not have confidence in Mr. Harris. I'm here to say that given our community's experience with the interim principal, excuse me, the interim principal these last seven months, my exasperating experience as a member of the hiring committee for this said position and Mr. Harris's absence from our community due to his point his status as a 0.2 FTE, we do not think you would be demonstrating
021a vote of no confidence. you would instead be demonstrating the role the CSBA has explicitly stated to be responsive to the values, beliefs, and priorities of our community. I think our community is reasonable and willing to collaborate and willing and wholeheartedly understand that a reconsider of reconsideration of the process may not lead to a different outcome. But I think that given some of the information that has been shared with you all provides an opportunity to truly pause, listen, and then respond to our comm our community. Our teachers and staff estimate a total, and this is not to call out ages or anything, but they total a total of 440 years of experience. So let's say we take that in half because we can't assume everyone obviously supports our interim principal. That's 220 years of experience.
022Let's say let's say you look at the number at our town halls. You're very gracious and held two town halls for us and saw the outcome that the outpouring of support not only in person but also on Zoom in our second session that Amanda and Tony stayed at. There's people here. There's children here. There's students as well. It's hard not to go hard for Amy Hail, but I want you to hear us going hard for taking a pause to truly get all the information you have yet to be given to make a truly informed decision. Thank you. Thank you all. I know that this is very emotional for everybody and we really do appreciate that. We're going to um adjourn to close session. We'll be back at 6:00. Um you're welcome to stay. You can
023leave and come back whatever you'd like. We will have the decision at that time.