MSAD #51 School Board Meeting October 3, 2022

001and I don't have my computer okay welcome to the msad 51 school board meeting for Monday October 3rd 2022 I'll call the meeting to order and we have all nine plus two members here tonight um and so we'll move right into recognition as our first item so Corey is here to do that thank you for the invitation and I will just speak for a minute and then turn it over to um those that can sort of outline what's been going on so as you may remember one of our school goals at Mabel Wilson is to focus on the social emotional well-being of our students and um the description for that is to help our students feel a sense of connectedness and one way that we are doing that this year is to schedule mostly monthly

002assemblies for our entire School and that is no small feat with the number of students and staff that we have and our Allied Arts teachers have actually graciously taken the lead on organizing that and planning that and working out all of those details so I'm going to introduce all four that are here tonight but there are more behind the scenes and then I think one of them is going to come up and just just say a few words so first is Amber Wagner you want to give a little wave she is our library at Tech and then we have Don Lane who is one of our school counselors we have Jen Caton who's one of our music teachers and then Daniela Tatro who is one of our PE teachers and they have been working for

003a very long time on organizing our First Assembly which is coming right up so Daniella would you like to come up and hi I'm Daniella Tatro thank you for having all of us and Corey thank you for recognizing us um long story short Jen Caton was actually the um the masterminds behind the assembly planning probably about a decade ago maybe nine years ago it began she felt like it was a very important it was a vital part of our school to bring everybody together because it was just growing to be too large so it was nice to have that sense of community and to bring all the kids together to see one another and to see all the teachers and we've been building on that ever since Jen and Dawn brought me on board when

004I started here four years ago and now finally this year Corey initiated have allowing us to have school-wide assemblies every single month so we're planning to do that on the long one long Wednesday every month and because our our size is so big we're going to be splitting into separate assemblies and mixing the classes up so that kids can see one another and we have themes for every month set so we'll be bringing different classrooms in and different kids to run the assembly with themes in mind and we're so excited to have this opportunity and to bring the school together we think it's as I said earlier it's so important because we are such a large community so we're so grateful and really excited for this opportunity so thank you all right thank you very

005much um I think we're all in favor of getting people together for assemblies again that's great I actually think we should Outlaw Zoom meetings sort of takes away the humanity out of everything so that's great there is one little thing that I wanted to uh say for recognition I think is wicked cool I saw that Mark ginsenius that was a student here once upon a time was uh is involved in the algorithm team that is uh doing stuff for NASA and is involved in uh I don't know trying to reroute asteroids or that sort of thing that's pretty cool okay so moving down the line here approval of minutes for the September 19th meeting and there was uh one small edit um on page two specifically regarding events being scheduled on Jesus holidays I think

006that's supposed to say Jewish holidays um any other amendments before we Move Along okay is there a motion a motion to approve the minutes of September 19th 2022 as presented thank you Vanessa I think this should be as amended amended thank you is there a second thanks Leanne further discussion all in favor all opposed and abstentions Mike and Christina and Jared or staining okay all right so um before we get to public comment um I was I wanted to move well have Jeff talk a little bit about there's been a lot of concern recently from people on a couple of topics um especially around policy JB and clarification of guidelines around that so prior to getting the public comment I was hoping that Jeff could take us through the recent history of that and what

007we're trying to accomplish currently in policy and then Jared can also weigh in if you would like being a chair of the policy committee so Jeff please yep thank you Jason um so we've had a policy in our district since 2017 um and we've had we had a lot of people involved in creating this policy in 2017 including myself and it is transgender students policy JB and this policy has been a policy that obviously we have referenced since its addition to our policy manual and it's it's been a good policy for the most part um there however at the beginning of this school year um basically the first week or two of school I got numerous concerns and questions that were raised either to me directly or through some of our administrators in the district

008about policy JB and exactly how is it supposed to be implemented and so one of the things that I talk with um started talking with members of the board about involved in the policy committee was seeking to provide some clarity also talk with a leadership team about this and finding some clarity around policy JB and filling in some gaps of things that we didn't anticipate when we developed this policy I also checked in with our attorney which is um drama to Woodson and we use a law firm there and checked on the implementation of JB and exactly what its intent is specifically around the the requesting or asking students what their pronouns are whether it's verbally or in writing our attorney at Drummond Woodson was very clear that policy JB is a disc is a

009disclosure policy it is not a solicitation policy in other words we should not be asking students to say their preferred pronouns or requesting it it is something that students should be able to disclose come to staff and our policy is very clear that there was a process for that students are supported through a plan a meeting with the administrator and the parents the student counselor and any other applicable staff involved in any sort of plan to help support students who are transgender or might be transitioning in that direction so our legal counsel made that very clear and so it was brought to my attention that there have been violations of policy JB and our legal counsel confirmed that we need to make sure that we clean up those pieces of JB and make some clarity

010so I drafted some guidelines which were sent to legal counsel for review legal counsel has probably reviewed these guidelines three times now at least maybe four and some of the points that were made to us by our Law Firm around student privacy and rights that students who are inadvertently pressured in public to disclose preferred pronouns or names is a violation of FERPA as well which is a federal law so making students uncomfortable as another situation that I've also received feedback in is that not everybody wants to talk about or disclose their pronouns or feels that it's an appropriate conversation within a classroom so and the other piece that I think is very important is addressing where do parents fall into this and I've heard issues around safety and that students don't feel safe with parents

011our policy is clear in JB that parents are involved in our procedures unless there is a legitimate and genuine safety issue which we obviously have mandated reporting laws that we have to take into effect but these uh guidelines which again have just gone through policy for the very first time today there's a lot of work for the policy committee to look at get more feedback but it does help our staff navigate these issues with students that come up and make sure that we're in compliance with our policy and that we're not inadvertently violating anybody's rights so that's kind of the history of where this has been again this policy has been in place for probably well since 2017 five years now but just this year we've we've really experienced some questions of the other pieces

012that I've had staff directly and indirectly say we don't know what to do a student comes in with a different pronoun or name we're not aware of it the school didn't make us aware of this situation what are we supposed to do JB's really clear about a lot of different things but there are some definitely nuances and gaps that does not fill all of those okay and when this came first came about we talked about guidelines and that doesn't have to go through policy but now we're at jbr so how did we get from that to that yeah that was again a conversation with legal counsel and I think it's a process that we go through yes there were guidelines at first which would have been administrative guidelines coming from myself in the leadership team

013however as we got deeper into it with our attorney it was very clear that what we're doing is we're clarifying a policy but that really needs to become a rule in our policy manual we have a lot of policies that have rules in considering the topic I think it's very important that there's a public process that the policy committee and the board can go through rules means it goes through the policy committee then it comes to the board for a first read it goes to the board again for adoption so there's multiple steps and I didn't feel it was something that it was um you should stay with an administrative guideline it should become have the force of policy okay Jared do you want to take us through where we're at in that process sure

014um I'll just add to Jeff's comments thank you Jeff uh I guess just my regret if to the extent that the anticipation of this process has caused anybody any apprehension or anybody not to feel supported or otherwise appreciated or included by the school um it is um from the very beginning when I saw the first policy I thought it was actually a very good first draft attempt to trying to balance three things one is for students who do want to be called by the pronoun that they identify it's consistent with how they identify and or a preferred name this would provide more clarity in terms of a process that's dependable and would give them consistency across all of their teachers if they did want to have such a plan secondly I think it addressed some

015of the questions that Jeff said he was getting in terms of providing more clarity for teachers and third it provided for inclusion of the parents and by the way I do understand that if there's any portion of this that I've seen so far that would be controversial it's I do appreciate that not everyone does think that the parents should be included in the process and I think that's something that reasonable people can disagree on but that is what policy JB does call for um I would just say I've had a lot of great conversations with anyone in the community who's reached out I see a couple of them here in the room today we've had some very good conversations um and I believe I have not really seen a lot of comments that I've gotten

016that I don't think are ultimately addressable as we go through the document we probably got through about 40 percent of the document today in a first pass as a committee there's at least two comments that a parent gave me a few nights ago that I thought were good ones that that address Provisions later in the document that we had not gotten to yet but I haven't heard anything in my conversations that I don't think can ultimately be resolved in just our process of getting through the document other than if anyone has a strong feeling that parents should not be included in the process and frankly I have not really heard that um I'd say the overwhelming majority of my conversations have acknowledged that having parents involved is good both for the student and it's really

017good for trust in the relationship between parents and the and the school system which I think is very very important so um I guess what I would say about the process is we made pretty good progress today uh in order to not keep people waiting too long for this we scheduled a follow-up meeting it's not our regular meeting time but a follow-up meeting for next Tuesday at 3 P.M to try to make more progress going through the document and once the committee has had a chance to I guess everyone in the commits a chance to weigh in on all the different um comments in the first draft that just sort of begins a process of more public comments as far as I know but the document is available now and I would encourage anyone who

018has feedback in the meantime they can feel free to reach out by email to me for starters or anybody else on the committee and I think that's kind of where we are in the process so far okay thank you Jared yeah at the end of that meeting today um we had normally would normally meet in a month and Carl specifically asked if we could speed that process up um because they're looking for guidance and again you know going back a week or two in the words that I said were that we've there's been zero discussion of changing policy Gab and that's still true and at the time all we're talking about was guidance and so now it's become jbr but JB itself is still not looking at being changed other than um adding the some

019words in there to make it consistent with jbr literally like adding three words that says or gender expansive so that both documents align so that's where that's at I hope that's helpful and um now we will open public comment for anybody would like to talk Jason can I ask um sure I had spoke with you earlier so I know that you're aware that I wanted to propose a motion and um regarding jbr and if you would like me to do that now or wait until Communications yep and then we should wait for items for action or Communications yep okay thank you so I'll open up a comment if you could come up introduce yourself and I've been asked to ask you to provide you full name and address if you're a resident otherwise if you

020work here good evening unless you're a minor you don't need to disclose where you live say again it says unless you're a minor you don't need to disclose where you live a minor unless you're a minor you don't need to disclose where you live students students students okay okay thank you you're welcome Jason good evening Jason Curry I'm a high school social studies teacher here I've been here since the fall of 1998. as a teacher here for 25 years just like all the other staff that comes to work every day I care about your children I greet them with a smile with a word of welcome and more often than not with a nice warm pot of tea on chilly mornings as your employee I'm entrusted with the well-being of your loved ones I want

021every student's school life to be safe and supported my own adult child was born male and has since the age of eight identifies as female and it has not always been an easy Road for her with her peers or with her school staff in another school district a different Community than this I ask you the school board in your deliberations please do not put impediments or roadblocks in the way of any young person who needs patience empathy and caring in their search for their own personal identity I encourage anyone who missed the public comments section from the last televised board meeting to please go ahead and view the first half hour in order to understand so many people's passions and so many of the benefits and the virtues of creating a supported environment for teens

022as they question their identity in separate comments I'm also representing the association tonight and your Education Association would like to make two points number one we're concerned that committee meetings where language changes are being proposed to policies that directly impact teachers in their classrooms and other staff in their dealings with students and their ability to perform mandated roles for the district be scheduled at times where you can seek our input that hasn't been the case recently we're concerned about making sure that we have the ability to offer you advice and consent on how our jobs need to be done and your expectations of us performing our jobs secondly I was a classroom teacher serving on the equity committee last year we have respectfully requested a classroom teacher on this year's Equity committee we have not

023received information or confirmation that a classroom teacher will be included on the equity committee we feel it's something of True Value Social Studies English at the middle school level high school level there's lots of opportunities for individuals who are familiar with the concepts of equity who are classroom teachers to have the opportunity to present you with additional information that can help you make wise decisions thank you very much thank you Jason I'm coffin my pronouns are they them um I just wanted to say that you say this policy is to support transgender students and that's not what it's going to do it's going to put more roadblocks in their way it's going to make a hard situation even worse they don't need meetings or being outed to their parents they just need support and to

024be treated like every other kid I understand that there are different opinions and you probably can't satisfy them all but um this policy will not support transgender students um not allowing teachers to ask pronouns will only alienate them alienate them more having them separately have to talk to their teachers will make it so their class doesn't know their pronouns they won't be addressed right by their peers this is something that's crucial thank you good evening my name is Rebecca pruenti she hers I teach French at Greeley Middle School where I'm also the rainbow Alliance advisor my job is to keep students in all of Greeley Middle School safe and to make sure that everyone who walks in our door whether they identify as lesbian gay bi straight transqueer questioning or other feels welcome I'm speaking

025tonight to oppose the pronoun policy guidelines because they may create an unsafe environment for Trans and questioning students and because the guidelines emphasis on private rather than open and inclusive dialogue promotes a culture of Shame and intolerance that harms our entire School community I'd like to particularly highlight the questioning part of the lgbtq plus acronym students in the middle level are constantly questioning everything they're questioning whether they want to be a hockey player or an actor and this extends to gender identity and expression I don't mean that every one of our students is questioning their gender but we do know that 25 of our students in Maine self-identify somewhere on the lgbtq plus Spectrum we also know that the students on the lgbtq plus Spectrum are more than twice as likely to feel seriously sad

026and hopeless 41 of our LGBT teens have seriously considered suicide and nearly half of them have long-term emotional and behavioral difficulties this is from the 2019 main integrated youth Health survey at Greeley specifically my students have told me that they would feel safer in school if they're teachers rather than assuming their identities would take the time to check which names and pronouns they preferred my rainbow students have asked me for help normalizing gender inclusive language so that they feel seen and respected in our community emphasizing that students and staff must speak privately about pronouns and gender identity creates a culture of silence and shame attending a meeting with teachers administrators and parents can be scary to a sixth seventh or 8th grader I want my students who are courageously testing the waters by trying out

027new identities to know that my classroom is a safe space and that they can trust me I'll have their back as they explore and grow I fear that this policy will put our lgbtq plus community at risk and expose our community and our students to unwanted attention as we navigate these sensitive topics thank you thank you Rebecca hi my name is Vai my pronouns are he him and she hers and ah like Hoffman said this will just put more bro roadblocks for transgender students it will make a difficult situation even harder I am sick and tired of having to go to a school where I am not treated like every other CIS and straight person I am sick and tired of you sitting here and telling me that you're trying to protect me when really

028this is just going to alienate me and other trans students and I and as a sophomore I have two more years left at the school and I'm scared for the kids that have to grow up in a school where they will not be treated the same there's a sign in the hallway that says we all belong with student self-portraits I want to feel like I belong in this school and I don't and you need to change that because you are the people who have the power to do that and you need to change that and you can't keep you can't keep pretending like we don't matter and sorry I'm very emotional um please reconsider this because it's not okay thank you bye hello again my name is Lorien Whitten I am a resident in this

029community I have a child in this community and I'm also a mental health therapist in private practice and um have been for 10 years in private practice and almost 20 working with teenagers and I spoke at last meeting as well and since then have been able to talk to some of the board members which has been really helpful to be able to understand a little bit more about this policy I've been able to express some of my concerns but I feel like my concerns are still not really being heard and I have uh well what I've noticed happening is that there's there's not actually really checking in with the people who should be consulted I have not heard anyone say that they um have looked into talking to a quality Main for their perspective on

030what they think is is best or main transnet I didn't notice when I sat in at the policy meeting today that anyone identified as anything else other than probably part of the majority community of being CIS and probably heterosexual that's still an assumption I probably shouldn't make but since no one is making it known that they are part of the queer Community like I am in case you're not sure I am part of that Community as well and I have a lot of passion to make sure that teens are feeling safe and um I I I know that this policy committee feels of course well-meaninged but you're you're really going to hurt people by putting this in place and um so I think also what this does is that if it's forcing people to have

031to come out at home before they're ready then that's going to one that's going to basically make a lot of students who really want to feel affirmed by their friends and at the school level a place where they can feel safe they're not going to feel like they can so do that because that means now there's going to be a meeting and there's going to be a call home and now they're going to have to talk to their parents before their or their parent before they're ready and everyone should be allowed to have their own coming out story at their own time and what this will do will basically force people like fine we support you only if we have this huge meeting and we bring everyone in which then actually is not supporting the

032students what this policy feels to me more is that it's there to really support parents and these are parents who I heard at the meeting today when I listen on the policy meeting one person said you know I'm a parent as well and I would hate to have this news come from someone other than my kid and I'm a parent too and that would be hard you know if my if I find out there's something wrong with my kid that I didn't know about but that what that means and this might be provocative but that means that you need to do your work parents you need to ask the question why isn't my kid feeling like I'm a safe enough person for you to come to and talk to do not put this on the

033school to to change the onus on the school to make this this is you guys you need to be the ones that are like okay what can I do differently and so um and this is not the answer thank you thank you Lauren sorry I just have one more thing to say um if you really want to help your students all you have to do is ask them what they need because I guarantee you it isn't this [Applause] others Ron Greco Cumberland excuse my voice a little raspy um personally there's a lot of really nice things here and caring people and and I have a hard time believing that there's anybody here on the school board that doesn't care about any of these children um no matter what their gender is and and my or

034sexuality or whatever that is and I don't know that the policy itself really uh is the issue I think it's deeper than that we need solutions that go beyond policies um there's no policy that you you can make that's going to be right or wrong for every student uh and every person because we're all different we're all individuals um I think there's way too much focus on uh and I and I see that throughout the community here and I think it's been tearing us up because we all have our own opinions as to what policies should say and who should be involved and there's no right answer uh this is just right for each individual and I think we need to find a way to to bridge that Gap and be less concerned about what

035policies say certainly understanding that there are some legal challenges here that we need to do but uh perhaps there's there's some resources that need to be applied to something other than policy making so that would be my thoughts and suggestions to the board thank you thank you Ron others comments from the public good evening Hannah Berry parent hearing Cumberland thank you Ron for bridging that Gap I wanted to say a few things this is my first meeting with the new board and I felt a little awkward after hearing some of the emotionally charged comments about policies I certainly know that everyone up on that board cares deeply about the community as do everyone sitting in the audience tonight I just wanted to say I have really enjoyed what I feel like have been some wonderful

036events this fall that felt like bringing us back together such as the wonderful college fair that I got to go to and lots of sporting events and an open house and things have just felt a little bit like we're on the right track to I guess getting back to quote-unquote normal not that there is anything after kovid that feels normal but I think that the um the school is doing some great things and I really appreciate everyone's efforts and I hope we can keep it up for the school year thank you Nick begin Cumberland um we're about a month into school now uh super excited uh the way the year started off kids are back into sports um it just feels normal again so I just commend the teachers you guys for for getting things

037um back in play for this year I just want to mention two things and this is something I talked to last year number one this type of environment way more conducive to great conversation so again commend the board for bringing this into a smaller venue because it was definitely much needed and the other thing I want to mention you know I want to commend the board chair I did watch last um last meeting and the respect that you gave the speakers the ability to go over three minutes without cutting them off mid-sentence the the ability for them to come back up and have a conversation that's what this community needs and I'll Echo what a few others have said it's not in the policy that is not going to bring this community together it's this

038it's conversations and we haven't had that so I there was a sense of bullying that happened last meeting to the board and that brought me back a couple of years ago in this community that does not fix things being vocal on community websites on the town the town page the bantering that's going on out there it's not what's going to fix this I support the changes that you guys are proposing I have three young daughters they were asked their pronouns several times they didn't know what to say they had to look at their friends paper I'd rather have that conversation with them I have an equity community at my company that I run I support that but let me as the parent have that conversation not a sixth grade teacher to my to my sixth

039grade daughter I haven't had that conversation yet with them so again I just you know conversations what's going to fix this uh open communication and and not bantering not you know the post that I see before this meeting gotta come and it's like bring your pitchforks like let's just move on from that we're not going to fix it so again I commend every one of you on the board your job's not easy you have a massive school that you're trying to build um and I'll just say on that on that note the the preparation that you all have done has been pretty phenomenal um the videos the the marketing all around it um you know I fully support that school I think we need it based on the Portables that are out there and the

040ball fields so again I hope we can focus on um more than just one thing everything everyone think that's on your uh on your goals and and um in the Committees are super important to this to this community so again thank you for the work you're doing thanks Nick good evening uh Tim Valenti North Yarmouth Maine um so I also want to commend uh the board and the community as well the last couple weeks uh I watched from afar at work in uh Los Angeles a couple weeks ago really good dialogue for the most part um and I've been um as a member of the equity committee now been having a lot of conversations with the board one-on-one a lot of great conversations with the community about belonging and you can't do that in a

041three-minute public comment so what I really appreciated is uh to what Nick was saying was the back and forth that you guys have allowed the openness that you guys have allowed and the openness of our students that have come this is a lot of really great engagement that I appreciate and it's going to make the uh the committee's work from the policy to the equity much more successful and engaging and hopefully you guys feel heard so with that note I want to open the door to the policy committee to include the equity committee and some of the work that you do on this policy and I also want to invite anyone from the community to reach out to myself or Jared or anyone else in the equity committee to have these conversations I've been having

042a lot of breakfasts lately and Dara and Maples can thank me for a big budget lately um so and the wait's going on for sure after these meetings but they've been really um really powerful for me I've learned a lot about this I've taken a lot from people that we have perceived disagreements and we agree a lot on most of the things and I think that I will continue to learn the Committees will continue to learn so I really do encourage the policy committee to include us and for the community to come out and reach out to me you guys can find me I'll be here for the rest of the night and find my email so I invite both conversations I think it's uh really beneficial for the community and thank you for setting

043up that environment school board and public thank you Tim anyone else for public comment okay seeing none I will close public comment um a great comments I would ask you to reach out to the committee chairs and and work with them further moving down the list to presentations we have Kim McDonald here is going to talk about our International Baccalaureate program good evening I'm just going to take a moment to set up my PowerPoint here okay so good evening Kim McDonald I am the French teacher a French teacher here I have one of three now um at Greeley High School and as of this year I am the IB coordinator as well so thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk to you a little bit about what is IB here we have um

044we even have some IV an IB student right here and others taking IB courses so what is IB what is the international Baccalaureate program at Greeley High School um so the IB program the international Baccalaureate program turned 50 years old in 2018. and the IB Mission encompasses um has encompassed the goals um since its Inception to create a better and more peaceful world through Intercultural understanding and respect so ties in nicely with the conversations we've been having um previously um the IB works with schools governments International organizations to develop challenging programs of International Education and rigorous assessment um our ultimate aim is to encourage students to become active compassionate lifelong Learners who understand others and their perspectives they learn what it is to be human they learn how to learn and manage what they're learning

045so those are all parts of the IB mission um in at the beginning of the IB Program um the junior year the aim is to develop internationally minded people who recognize their common Humanity uh shared guardianship of the planet to this end there are 10 attributes that IB Learners will strive for inquirers so nurturing curiosity developing skills for inquiry and research we hope that students become knowledgeable develop and use conceptual understanding exploring knowledge across disciplines that they become thinkers using critical and creative thinking skills taking responsible action to complex problems that students become communicators expressing themselves confidently and creatively in more than one language and collaborating and listening carefully that they are principled they act with integrity and honesty taking responsibility for their actions they are open-minded are being appreciative of their own culture and

046history and that of others that they show empathy and compassion and respect uh and that they are Risk Takers um approaching uncertainty with um forethought and determination um that they are resourceful and resilient in times of challenge and that students are balanced and reflective so finding that balance between their intellectual physical and emotional life and that they also consider the world in their own ideas and experience thoughtfully so those are the 10 attributes we hope to help students help hopefully help students strive for during their two years of the IB program I also ask my students to reflect on them in the beginning of their junior year and again at the end of their their senior Year how have you done and I share my own thoughts of how where am I in my learning

047on these so as you can see um from the graphic here The Ivy learner is at the center and focusing on their 10 attributes and each subject area encompasses um the IB approaches to teaching and learning which are surrounding that and these approaches to teaching and learning provide a common framework for teachers as they prepare students for success in their studies and also for for Life After School and the IB provides a cohesive and comprehensive program that explores the local and Global challenges and then students enroll in the the six subject areas and they take three um sub three subject areas at the standard level and three at the higher level so that's just that the the level at which they are they will be assessed um and the asset the curriculum is based um

048has six groupings of subject areas I'm going to talk a little about each one of those so these are the six areas in group one students will take English language and literature group two they will take French Latin or Spanish and you can see that the the slhl that's the standard level or higher level meaning the level of um the the type of assessment that they're preparing for and group three they um is this is the group of individuals in society so they have the options of geography or the or history of the Americas um biology and chemistry are the two science class classes that we offer in group four group five are mathematics so students have the option of a pre-calc and stats class or an Algebra 2 in stats class and then group

049six are the Arts which are music or Visual Arts at the um the standard or the higher level so again you can see that the core of the program is the student um moving out from the inner core or the approaches to teaching learning and then we have right here the focus of theory of knowledge creativity activity and service and extended essay so all three of these requirements are in addition to their six academic classes they support and are supported by their academic disciplines theory of knowledge is an additional class and the two other components are completed outside of their school day um theory of knowledge um this is an interdisciplinary course that is designed to help students question and understand how they know what they know and actually it um I didn't take a

050lot of notes on this history piece but it goes back to French philosophy um that's where that's where this originated explorers questions about knowledge and the process of not of knowing um emphasizes comparisons and connections between the areas of knowledge and encourages students to become more aware of their own perspectives and those of others creativity activity and service I think of this as a way to balance out such a an um a focus on the academics for two years it's a way to balance out their life their their lives for the the next two years so um these activities are mindful experiential learning components so creativity exploring um an original or interpretive product or performance activity physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle and service a collaborative engagement with the community and then the third

051part is the extended essay and this is doing personal research communicating working to communicate their ideas effectively and writing a 4 000 word essay and both the theory of knowledge and the extended essay are scored together for three points in a diploma candidate's overall score talk a little about the next three um two slides are School statistics so this past may we had 80 students enroll in IB classes there were eight diploma candidate students that means the entire they did the entire program and there were 217 exams taken by our Greely students um you can just a few other points of interest the um so a diploma candidate the highest amount of points a student can achieve is um 45 the average of points obtained were 33. um the highest diploma points awarded were 40

052and the average grade out of seven on an exam was 5.24 these are the statistics of the past four years so 2018 through 2021 and this coming spring will be the first um so 2023 will be the first year returning to all of the IB expectations um prior that were prior to covid so for three years now they have been modified exams it's the 2020 2021 and 2022. so just a little bit about the um what do um what do students feel and experience after the IB diploma so IB students graduating with the IB diploma are able to study at universities around the world and often with Advanced Credit um it is the diploma program is internationally recognized um as representing one of the highest standards of University Preparatory education IB store students report that

053IB has given them the tools needed to succeed in college and that they have significantly higher levels of critical thinking skills thanks to the work that they've done in their IB courses I'll give you a couple moments to read some of the testimonials from from graduates here Greely graduates and each year we really want to um we want to gather feedback what what has worked well what can we learn about the program um and so I'm I'm looking forward to connecting with um with recent graduates current students in the program what works well what can we do to support students even more in the program this is my first first year as IB coordinator and so I I'm excited about the opportunities to to work with our students and our community to to make this

054program even even better than it is um so I'll take questions I can't promise to have all of the answers since I'm just beginning in this um and learning about all of all things IB but I have taught IB since 20 2009 since it started so I am well versed in um what IB means um in many areas but um so questions for me yeah I have a couple of questions so uh the candidates versus registrations um so this past year is about 10 um of the group um how does that compare to broader like National or state norms no um so 10 although it's 80 students in the senior class so that's actually more than 10 percent so the eight ten 80 80 students out of the senior class because only seniors can sit

055for exams so 80 students out of 10 of it um 8 out of 81 right that were candidates oh Canada's versus Oak I thought you meant 80 students um thought you were talking about the 80 total oh okay so repeat your question again sorry so that eight is out of the 80 students who were registered right yes the eight students are the the eight students who do the entire program of the the six right horses plus the theory of knowledge plus their um cast plus their extended essay yeah okay so yeah my question was how that can like the full completion how that compares to broader norms okay and I don't know like nationally um I well there are only three IB schools in Maine um so [Music] um nationally it it um it depends

056on a District's decision to um to engage and become fully a full IB World School um and yeah so I'm not really sure how how we could get that those decisions they may be available but I'd have to do some more digging a little bit too that our district chose from the beginning 2009 not to go in the direction of completely full School IB Program some districts also use a middle level IB and start IB at the middle level and go all the way through high school and our district is not has chosen not to do that and so it's an option it's a choice but we have at the high school level between IB and AP we have a majority of our students are taking you know one or the other or both of

057those classes at our high school and consistently have done that for many many years since the program really started that's helpful my other question builds up for that so what if you're looking forward do you see any any changes or have any goals for the program in the coming years I think well for part of um part of what we saw over the past couple of years was um not the inability to get the get information out as readily have meetings with um with parents and students and um to to inform so I think some of the um so my goal is to be um having these conversations informing parents and students about what the options are with IB and um and take it from there learn what what other needs there may be they're

058um we've there was definitely a need to um to hear to balance and to to balance assessments and so we're working on that already how can we be as a community be more um aware of when all of the assessments are happening so that there is more balance for students there so we've we've already started working on those goals um what are some of the other other goals so promoting balance um also um uh interdisciplinary um uh work among teachers so that's been a goal that's um that we've tried working on over the years with varying levels of success and that is definitely a goal of mine as as a French teacher knowing how many um how many connections are are available with other disciplines with theory of knowledge with geography with history with English

059that more conversations need to happen between teachers so that we can be bringing we can bring be bringing these Connections in these conversations into the classroom on a more regular basis rather than somebody coming in and saying hey I just learned that in Tok we want that to be more um more thoughtful and more um more planned um so those are those are three of my big big goals but then other things that may come along the way as well and one thing I wanted to mention about the statistics here so only seniors can sit for exams so we've got 80 students out of the senior class sitting for exams for IB um and that's not counting AP so I don't have AP Statistics here and um we have we have eight students who are

060doing the entire program but we actually don't have I don't have the statistics and I'm I can try to find them I'm not sure how I will be able to exactly other than going back and looking through schedules but many students will take five IB or five IB classes or five ibap classes so nearing the um the requirements for the diploma but deciding not to to do the complete diploma program so that's um I think we I think we have some other research to do to get some get some more numbers I actually I have a little bit to add on to that from the student perspective I know that a lot of my peers are doing five all even six IB classes in some cases but they're not doing the diploma due to kind

061of misinformation like that a lot of students have that the Tok um Extended essay in cast is just like a lot of extra work and I think that like kind of adding on to your question that if we like just putting more information out about what the program is prior to course selection I think could boost the diploma candidate number um and I think that like that's something that I've noticed as a student that's very interesting that could like change that number to having more diploma candidates rather than just people taking IB classes isolated without doing the diploma yeah I was going to ask too um so do you have like a student parent information night for the IB Program currently so um there has been there have been IB parents student parent information nights

062just last week we had one for the current Juniors to get the information out to parents what are the next two years going to look like for the juniors and that is definitely my goal to have more um ninth and 10th grade parent student meetings seventh and eighth grade parent student meetings so some of what some of the decisions that are made as to you know why or why not the student might enroll in the diploma program come from what um what they've been enrolled in like what was their trajectory or course selection from ninth grade on um and so informing just getting making sure that that that parents and students have all the information they need to make the decision that works out best for them can you explain the seventh highest grade and

063in class June 700 or missing something um I think Ron are you saying because it's six classes at seven points plus the 42. yeah that's right yeah so I mean math math uh on the on the Fly is not always my my strong suit so 42 right 42 points is seven times six and then you have the three points of the Tok and the extended essay thank you International yeah or at least prepare information yeah what's the sales picture how we are sort of showing that this program has a benefit when you talk to let you talk a little bit about a benefit to critical thinking so there's a student that metric Windows AP or the something that's apparent and I'm for this very near future potentially yeah I see and I love the principles

064of but yeah because all those other ones if you don't have taken like this is apparent information online I don't expect it no I don't have I don't have all the answers I think it would you know it would require that I you know sit back and actually I would love for you to email me though so I can be more thoughtful about my responses if oh wow but I think sounds like some hunting no [Laughter] yeah and I I mean I do have some thoughts on the you know what are the differences how do we how do we measure critical thinking um so I taught AP before coming to Greeley High School um this is my 25th year of teaching and AP and I taught AP for I don't know five or six years

065before coming to Greeley and AP is a great curriculum it actually it AP and IB are um they they're going to watch what each other which what each other does right like so um the IB um just uh the IB themes and the AP themes and the languages are really just the only thing that differs um are the semantics um and you know AP has students uh really analyzing the the language or the um the French perspective and um since also becoming trained in IB and teaching ibnite co-seat French nib I mean AP and I be in the same class so I I feel like I'm I I have a lot of the information about what the difference is between them um and how are they you know how are they working um similarly or

066differently IB definitely works with the the comprehensive overall overarching connectedness of all of the the disciplines and so when you are looking at geography and theory of knowledge and Spanish and um biology there is this interconnectedness that that is intentional in the IB program that um that doesn't exist when it's something that is not built that way so that's a that's a major piece that I've experienced having having taught both and having um been trained in both so just that's just a kind of a first quick answer to that to that question thanks Cameron go ahead Avery yeah I just not just a hard course or a hard diploma to get um what I've found from the IB courses I've taken is that not only does it teach you the information that you need to

067know to succeed it also teaches you kind of how that fits in like the context it has to the world around you I think that there's a lot of Youth a lot that can be gained from them opposed to just like an AP course which is like just a really hardcore thing to do thank you Avery other questions from the board go ahead Christine I've said one follow-up um I also was wondering about the languages and I don't know if that's dictated by what's already offered at the school if there's student interest or ability to expand that to be Chinese Arabic or whatever how does that work as far as what you're able to offer or requests I probably more what has been offered by the school and what the re like the resources that

068have been been available for language learning um I don't know all the history there is something that's called abenicio which is um part of the IB program that you can learn a language for two years and sit for a beginning level language course um but there hasn't been I don't know if there has been any um exploration of how to incorporate any ebeneco and that would require more faculty and whether or not a faculty could be hire a staff member could be hired full-time um and and get have enough courses haven't you know I'm not sure about that um I I know that students ask for other languages I don't think we can suddenly bring on um two or three or four that would be a lot of uh um a lot of um full-time

069equivalents but um could we start offering another one that's something to explore for sure that's part of what I was wondering whether you could be an Avenue for us that if you start hearing students or parents wanting Chinese or Arabic or whatever yeah to you know inform us so we can start exploring what could we expand to absolutely thank you other questions comes go ahead Kim just very quickly um I as the parent of a student who was mentored by Madame McDonald in 2014. you were her extended essay mentors I think I could remember exactly what that was called um she still talks about how grateful she is for the IB Program because it was an opportunity and Ron this kind of speaks to what you were asking um there's a sort of an AP

070profile of the kids you tend to think 4.0 you know just always been taking honors classes and she wasn't that kid she was maybe a b student but just a good critical thinker and wanted to be able to do something different and this was an opportunity for that for that kid um and so I I think in the past that's been highlighted that you don't have to be a straight A student you don't have to be the smartest in the class and when you're thinking about AP or IB um you know you just you just want to learn you want to be somebody who's motivated and to learn and um so she's she's still grateful for it as is my second daughter who didn't get the diploma but took several classes so just affirming that

071and thank you for all that you've done very important I think that's a really important piece that I I will often tell my sophomores when they're signing up for classes anyone can take an IB class it truly is the case anyone can sign up for an IB class and can succeed and I often will follow that up with as long as you're willing to work you know and try hard and it's not um it's not to say that every IB course is going to require hours and hours of homework after after school it's that what we're asking of you you're willing to step up and um you know to take risks and um be be thoughtful be curious be all of those attributes of the IB learner profile and I and I've had many students

072of all levels succeed in the IB um and IB French and um so I I truly believe in that as well you can and people can reach out to you as soon as they have further questions absolutely yes okay thank you very much okay so moving down the agenda to items for Action we have one approval of a position Jeff you wanna take us through that have one position we continue hiring uh we continue to have vacancies in our district we have about 10 educational technician vacancies continuing however we're starting to fill some of those vacancies with professional positions in the area of special education so we're asking for approval tonight speech language pathologist at Mabel Wilson school and this is to help with um the programs at that school and special education this has

073been a path that we have been following for a few weeks now we've hired other professional staff in order to take vacancies for educational technicians we had two candidates interviewed out of four applicants for again this is a very specific position speech in language so we had four applicants for that job which is actually good especially considering the time of the school year that we are in thank you Jeff do I hear a motion I'll move to approve the deployment professional positions is outlined by the superintendent thank you and is there a second second I'll take Christina thank you all right further discussion questions of Jeff all right all in favor all opposed unanimous motion carries thank you chair record since we are in items for Action then I would also now like to make

074the motion that the board of directors table the work on policy jbr and that we allocate funding for the district to enter into a professional development and consultation partnership with the quality Maine second hold on so take me through that again so you want to table a process that's halfway through is that right to read the thing again please I would like to make the motion that the board of directors table the work on policy jbr and that we allocate funding for the district to enter into a professional development and consultation partnership with a quality mean okay give me a second again all right so I'll move to divide the question since I think it's two separate things um and we can vote on them separately if there's a second to that does anybody want

075to divide them up and we hear how it's divided first so tabling and then working with quality main right those are the two things yep I'll second that okay so procedurally we haven't we don't even have anything coming to the board yet um yeah I mean procedurally the board can make you know a board member can make a motion as long as the the rest of the board carries it but procedurally all right we'll first say it is unprecedented to take something out of order from the policy committee or any other Committee in our district that has yet to do its work and then to stop the process of a committee that is going through or in the middle of a policy in fact I've since I've been here it's never happened I was pretty

076unprecedented and I would also caution on the second part of that the board is charged by state law to create policy as a local decision that's derived from State Authority to hand that over to other people outside of the district or other groups that is that is not within the purview of the what the statute says so we'd certainly have to look into that May the board can consult with anyone but it has to be really clearly defined what we're talking about I would think okay um comments from others I have concern about tabling a process that hasn't even moved to the board yet Mike go ahead I appreciate that concern um generally don't like doing things that are out of you know against President um I do think we're moving too fast significantly too

077fast I think we've developed a rule or first administrative guideline or rule draft on without the input of people who have expertise in this issue and I think what's come before us as a member of the positive committee I I don't think is up snuff um there's there's too many substantive problems and I don't consider myself an expert nearly enough to be able to identify all of the potential problems that could come from that the administrative guidelines or rule however we decide we would have could conceivably decide for it to be um first and foremost as was mentioned it's it's structured in a way that places uh the needs of parents administrators before students um that in and of itself to me is disqualifying um and I think effectively this this motion for me the

078reason why I seconded it is because it gives us a chance to start over I don't want to not do this I think we need an implementing effort of policy JB I do full stop this has gone down a path that I'm not supportive of I have elaborate on that yeah even elaborate in that sure um so one you know what what was mentioned in public comment about not leaping into policy forming and changing policy there's a good point that Ron mentioned by another person about you know starting with just asking people what they need those are really good points we didn't do that with this we just leapt into developing administrative guidelines we didn't hold a community Forum we didn't present surveys to students on this all of a sudden administrative guidelines were sent

079around a member of the policy committee um that's one if we're going to do this we have to ask ourselves some foundational questions one we need to ask ourselves do we actually need a rule of this kind full stop then if we do we decide that we do doesn't need to be so bureaucratic because this the guidelines are are very substantial very bureaucratic to the point where it can get problematic problematic sometimes providing some flexibility or a lot of flexibility is really important to make it so that we allow for humans to be humans in these processes um then if we decide we can answer affirmatively we're you know effectively in those questions uh then we go to have the questions of have we developed in consultations with people who have expertise in the subject

080matter um Jeff your points well taken um we developed the equity policy with consultation from Lawrence Alexander and people with expertise on the issue um it's really important people mention the quality main main transnet we absolutely should get consultation I'm not saying they should write it for us heck no no that's our job we'd be you know we shouldn't give away our job but we should uh consult with people who know about this these issues um and then the final question we need to ask ourselves if we've worked effectively and fully with staff and students on the construct of this on this rule or administrative guide on what we talk about it so um we need to ask those questions we haven't asked those questions in my mind and I'm being I'm being very to

081the point um I do appreciate the work Jeff Jared put in but I do think we need to pivot and potentially start over we could use this as a doc to work off of but to stop the process of pushing through on the policy committee and then going through that those machinations to then come to the board I think that's just forcing a vote and forcing probably me well definitely I'll speak for me to say no because I'm not a fan of how it was done and I'm not a fan of how it's written but I'd like to start over so I can become a fan of this I want it to be a collaborative process to be an open transparent collaborative process to actually make this work for people when you're trying to stop

082a process that hasn't even gotten halfway through right I mean that would be my would be my feedback on that um I I mean when when Jeff came to us initially and said he'd like to bring us to the policy committee um I was under the understanding that everyone pretty much thought that Jay policy JB was a good a good policy um and that it was it was thoughtful and the first draft that that Jeff showed us I thought adhered very closely to that policy and was just trying to actually if you just really think through each question and by the way the only work I've done really is do a close read of it and I've offered some comments which are on there so most of the work has really been between Jeff and

083and Drummond Woodson but each question really seemed to answer a question that a teacher could actually have if they were trying to interpret policy JB and and so I thought it was adhering pretty closely to what everyone already agreed was it was a good policy um I want to speak to speed also because I don't think there's any any rush I I had specifically reached out and probably made a mess of things but I reached out to Jeff on Friday while he was at a conference and just said I know we don't normally post policies before that everyone's had a chance to comment on them but maybe this time we should and just so people have a chance to read them before the meeting and it probably complicated things a little bit but the purpose

084was that we don't want to be rushing through this so we're yes we're 40 of the way through a first read of the document but that doesn't have to mean that we're 40 of the way through the process I think we should take as much time as we need to get feedbacks on this document um I want to kind of uncomment on something that came up during the the open the um the public feedback thank you Avery um so someone mentioned for example concerns about a comment that actually I had added which was to say that if anybody would like to come and speak to me about their preferred pronouns or preferred name please come see me in private to talk about it and I heard something that I hadn't thought about before was does

085that imply that there's some kind of shame to the process um actually the the intention was that in privacy it'd be easier for the teacher to explain to the student you know the implications that we're happy to accommodate you if you're asking for a change but if you're asking me to refer to you by a different pronoun or a different name in class we're going to have to involve your parents and and our principal and just have a plan in place and I thought that was easier to have a conversation like that in private as opposed to in front of the whole class but actually as we think through it if there's any problems with that we can change it and be very open to getting feedback on that so there might be some issues

086ultimately where we that just can't be bridged I mean one issue would be how do you move forward without um the question of whether to involve parents or not is a fundamental one and it's one that may if you believe that the parents shouldn't be involved or you believe that they should I don't know if we could ever fully bridge that although it would be very open to hearing suggestions both from students and from parents but I'll just wrap up to say that I I'm I really believe that we can just take as much feedback as needed to get to the best outcome possible and I certainly would be committed to doing that Mike I appreciate that Jared uh I think we I do think we have some disagreements on some of the core substance

087of this I mean just pulling this back even further I this notion of of creating processes around pronouns um I just struggle with that in general um are we going to do this for every student every student uh about their pronoun CIS trans and everything in between but only those who decide who are saying that I am identifying in this manner and we see them potentially as different I mean this is a complicated thing if we're establishing meetings or bureaucracy based upon the subjective nature of one person uh the subjective opinion of one person so that's problematic in and of itself and so just by injecting bureaucracy into this um again I have a foundational problem with that I just want to say that based on the public comment and other comments that I've been

088hearing um there's just not disagreement with the guidelines that are being put forward but with the policy that we've had for five years in this District the fundamental things that people are arguing about are actually in the policy they're not new we're not introducing anything new we're clarifying something that we've had for policy for five years and so I think the board has to ask itself for the policy committee do you want to follow the policy that you've had for five years or do you not want to follow it that's your answer that's your question and and listening to people's comments I think people need to read policy JB which exists right now and has for years in our district because it outlines the process you have to have a meeting we're not following our

089policy that's what I'm hearing we're not following our policies so I think there needs to be a decision is this the policy for this District or is it not um it's important to file a policy others I think another aspect that hasn't been referenced enough is the role of the teachers and the bureaucracy this involves whether we follow or don't follow what's been in place I do know that other draft or whatever we want to call it that went around was very specific about what teachers couldn't couldn't ask and as a teacher I can say I was very confused by it it seemed to say two different things to me as a teacher when I meet students the first day or they're a new student whatever the first question is going to be what's your

090name and you know my name is Christina but I go by Chris and it's the most natural question and an immediate bond between student and teacher and we need to be very careful how that is dealt with now and what levels of you can say this you can't say that there needs to be way more clarification I think and more input from not just students and and parents of course but the teachers so I'm not comfortable that we've heard enough from them so that we can then make the best policy for everyone yeah I just want to clarify I don't think any of the guidelines at least that I wrote and sent to legal counsel on this would negate that at all asking a student what their name is what their preferred name is call

091me whatever by the nickname it's asking a student or all the students and putting them on the spot what is your pronoun whoever the student is for the feedback I've been getting is that's an incredibly uncomfortable and very personal question almost like asking someone their age especially when you get older like us me anyway not you you're young but when you get older and people ask you your age and it's an awkward situation like should I answer you should I not I think that's I think that's some of the feedback I I hear you but I also want to say in the natural flow of conversation hey what's your name oh you want me to call you that okay all right so everybody you gotta call her it would be natural for me to go

092on and say her or whatever so there we have the Crux of it now like okay which pronoun so I I understand putting students on the spot not good putting students in the spot of Oh Come tell me later that's not good either there's got to be something somewhere that some district is doing more information we can get to find out what's the best way to do this so everybody's a little more chill so we're hung up on the word privately there's multiple issues and um you know the reason why I'm asking for the policy work to be tabled is because I believe the work is done with good intention and we just don't have people with who this policy will directly affect the most and with the specific expertise involved in the process and

093it's the the community concerns is not about policy JB because these things have been spurred as a result of teachers on the first day asking for students to provide their preferred pronoun which is setting a respectful classroom environment and affirming every student's seat in that classroom so this policy JB is specifically involving more than a casual Declaration of gender identity or expression the guidelines are lumping the two together and it does a disservice to everyone so tabling the policy is not saying we throw everything out but it's saying we take a pause we're going to put a pause on this and talk to other people who can give us guidance to make sure what we Implement is actually going to help our students so I have a question because I never look at our community

094I reach out to other communities and I look to see what other people are doing outside of Cumberland and North Yarmouth and I looked at Freeport in Portland Portland does it a little bit differently you don't have to when you identify you do not have to reach out to the parents that's their policy um so I struggle with taking a pause and tabling it because I think this is very important Mark and I think it needs to be done I've I have the Yarmouth policy right here the jbr it's it's exactly what was in our JB policy and outlining it it's not though the way that it's written is is different the way that it's written is more supportive and but you have to reach out to the parents this plan may be developed in

095consultation with the student parents Guardians and others as appropriate to address the students particular needs that's exactly what we have said so I'm struggling with yes this doesn't work like this isn't going to work for our children right now how jbr it's written I get that I've heard that and I get it but we need to find some solution that between I want to have this is my pronoun to having to reach the parents tabling it is ignoring it and I'm all for Education I'm all forgetting more knowledge and reaching out to the community members and people and organizations to educate us more but I think tabling is a bad decision I appreciate your comments um and certainly um and again obviously this is how all of it is so messy that for me tabling

096it is not ignoring it or um you know that this work would again still continue but we would just expand the voices that are we're listening to and are helping us craft the best guidelines and procedure for our schools Tom go ahead um so I prepared a few comments um for tonight and I don't want to get into the um the the substance of this um this policy it's we're not even halfway through our first read um but I do have uh concerns about um the uh the process we've gotten to the first read just to be clear yeah right right yeah so but uh I do have some concerns about the process and I I so I'm just going to stick to my my script here I do not doubt the need uh for

097these guidelines and I appreciate you Jeff walking us through the rationale for for why we're doing this uh my concerns lie though in the process that the policy committee is using to craft these guidelines um I recently read a book that included a Senegalese proverb if you want to cut a man's hair it's better it's better if he is in the room forgive me as I make a few assumptions about the identities and expertise of the committee members uh what I observed this afternoon was a group of cisgender individuals without expertise on gender or sexuality attempt to craft a policy that would likely have major implications on the lives of our students in particular those who are transgender non-binary in questioning the guidelines state from the outset that quote policy JB helps support transgender students

098by assisting in the educational and social integration of such students in our schools if we truly care about supporting transgender students we need to elevate their voices and give them a seat at the table if that is not feasible or advisable we need to invite people to the table who have the expertise to represent them so I'm supporting Anne's motion here I don't think we need a real long pause because this work does need to get done but we need to pause until we get the right people in the room so what is the pause with the solution that's what I'm wondering what is okay we pause what's the next step we enter into a relationship with equality means so that they can provide consultation and professional development a lot of this I also wonder

099could have been mitigated with different professional development at the start of the school year how can we partner with our teachers and the association to do things that's more supportively that doesn't even do maybe we don't even need a jbr we might we might I'm not saying that we that we don't go down that path but I'm just saying that a lot of this seems like it's really an issue about comfort and training and that's something we can fix so I think we just need to make sure that we're exploring all of our options and doing everything to the best of our ability and we do that in consultation with those who can help us so if we write a policy jbr and present it to equity Main well we would write it to get

100I mean we would we would say we our policy committee comes up that's what we're charged with as a board and then we present to them consult with them have them look at it and say you're doing this right you're doing this isn't going to be comfortable for you like is that a solution I mean I don't need to be crossed but I feel like we need a solution because tableing it to me is ignoring it and not moving forward and then circling back down this dichotomy yes this was presented not in a standard matter this my second year on the policy committee we did not present policies like this last year with Anne this isn't how it was done so I'm just what's the next step so I guess my concern about how this

101is currently written was it was out of a it came out of concerns that weren't about protecting trans students it came out of questions that parents were having around whether their students should be asked their pronouns and maybe it was like I don't know if those were families of trans students obviously um that's a whole other discussion but um I think that as a starting point that's why I'm found finding a lot of challenges it because at the heart of this it wasn't about protecting those students and ultimately transgender and gender non-conforming students have the right to discuss and express their gender identity and expression openly and to decide when with whom and how much private information to share correct I don't think anybody's questioning that I'm not I don't think the guidelines are no

102one's questioning that that a student shouldn't be able to express their preferred pronoun or name uh our policy is very clear that that is not the case it has a it's a process about making sure that we have a process for supporting all students in our schools to make sure that they have a process in place that they that we can follow that's what it's about and um I mean I was not it's not clear to our staff I can tell you that it's not clear to our administrators or we're supposed to be doing there needs to be Clarity because people are doing different things and I'm I mean honest I was not comfortable with a lot of the way these questions were asked and answers which if you looked at the policy committee and

103was on it I was asking those questions um but having someone else write it other than the elected board I I I don't see that's the right Avenue to do with policies here we know our community we're listening to our community we'll write a policy we'll present it I'm more than comfortable presenting it to outside resources that know better than I and taking feedback and that's what I'm that's what I'm asking for yeah I'm not asking I but I don't want to I don't want us not to have the meeting next week I've already proposed that I don't like the Q a format I would like to have it similar to what Yarmouth has presented and that they have on their jbr and so it's not um and I'm trying to diffuse a lot of

104the miscommunication that's happening right now around this I mean just before I got here they said that we were trying to abolish JB altogether no one in my right mind would I sit up here and let something like that happen but I do think this is important enough to move forward with thanks Vanessa Vanessa would be worth um because and please just correct me if I'm wrong but what I'm hearing is that you're looking for specifics on how we move forward in a in a clear Manner and so would it be worth offering an amendment to Anne's motion um I don't know what Jason had said to split it we'll split yeah I guess split into two because then the second one is effectively uh developing jbr with consultation consultation is that would that be

105correct that second part of it and I guess my my concern is that if we continue the work before entering into the consultation um that we're not doing the best work and that we're doing work that's just going to have to be Rewritten and that's going to belabor the process I'm okay being told I was wrong and what we write and present to them and I think that's just part of the learning of JB and equity and inclusion and all of that so far I guess I'm a little frustrated of the lack of specifics about exactly what we're fighting about I think that um I hope everybody up here has read JB recently it's uh it's well written I don't have any issue with it it was well done it's been there for a while

106I also hope everybody has read the recent drafts [Music] I know some were able to make the meeting but you know at its core the administration is asking for guidance on this um they want it more clear because these things are showing up on a daily basis and they're important and they want to know what they're supposed to do with them um and I hear everybody loud and clear about serving various groups and that's important that we come up with policies that serve everybody including everybody we have 2 200 kids and that's not easy to do me personally parents matter um and perhaps we could change the verbiage a bit to make sure that you know there is the opportunity for you know all kids to approach it the way that they want to approach

107it you know and Vanessa brought up today in the meeting the word privately and I can see how that would be taken could be taken poorly you know perhaps it should say openly or privately but I think um would caution us all to stop this process mid-stream and to Jared's point if we're we may have a big disagreement when it comes down to the part about parents potentially we can Wordsmith that so that there are options but I really have a problem excluding the parents so we've divided the question the the first part would be to table it which basically would you know everything would stall don't we have to vote on my motion first though I don't because I made it first and then you had made the the motion to take to um

108divide it did we vote to divide it no no voted but you have a motion in a second okay so there's a motion on the floor and a second to divide the question into two that's what we will first vote on um and then uh we will vote on the individual pieces if that passes anybody clear on that so all in favor of dividing the question into two parts one two three I guess I'm still not sure what the can you say because Jason you proposed doing that what was the the reason they're wanting to the follow-up votes would be um whether you want to table it and then to me that's a separate issue and then we could talk about equality mean so you can set you can vote on the two things separately

109can I ask for a clarification of the word table because I think it's being interpreted differently on the one hand table means and we're not looking at it for a while on the other hand it means pause how are we using it how are you defining it pause in the vote pause so does that mean that the meeting next week is canceled or does that mean that the meeting next week could be used differently rather than writing or spending time writing it's spending time listening or getting feedback I think either used differently or to move on to some of the other high priority policies that we need to move forward with stabling it so not moving forward tabling something or to lay up on the table is has a bit of an ambiguity around it

110and if you don't Define a time frame it can lay upon the table forever yes it can die yeah do we so just in terms of um functional board rules I don't think we have any definitions in our bylaws on tabling emotions rules and we have Robert's rules um I'm not an expert on um so so if we don't Define a a time frame then you okay we table it for 30 days or what if we table it until we have an external organ or party who is willing to consult with us that's better and sorry how do we are we going to be asked to vote tonight on whether to hire the specific advisor that you're referring to it I mean have we do we have a like a presentation who the experts are

111on this from with different perspectives and backgrounds on them how are we going to right I'd like to see multiple funding and advisor I would like to see multiple representations across the board I would be willing to amend the motion to say that we and we um begin the process to vet and hire a consultation and professional development agency such as equality main or main transnet or other private practice providers that's getting deep can we take one at a time please um so again dividing the question people understand what we're voting for really not really just I think the question is to divide the question do you want to divide the question or not right does the board board accept that motion in a second to divide the question so the first and second and

112then if you do then the question gets divided yeah and then we'll vote on the two pieces separately so are we clear who would be in favor of dividing the question not a strong conviction but uh okay two uh it fails all right so we're back to Anne's original motion which is tabling it and what's the second part well tabling it until we are in um a formal agreement with the appropriate consultation provider appropriate well I I understand that people um would like more information about main equality or quality mean my apologies um you know so I don't I wouldn't want to uh um make people feel forced that we would have to use their services even though they are highly respected and work with many many people um I I think it does make

113sense for due diligence to reach out to multiple um people who could best guide us on this so you have different verbiage do you want to withdraw the motion and say lay it out differently because the first one was to appropriate funding for um hey you can redo it I suggest one other thing and then happy to come back to this but I I've I mean personally it's been hours talking to any parent who wanted to reach out and had some great conversations over the last couple of weeks I actually have not heard any suggestion that I didn't think we could all really come to a meeting of the minds on and as a way to improve this first draft other than some suggestions which I think actually would require changing policy JB itself um

114but what I was going to say is I I think there's nothing wrong and it's only helpful to get advice for the committee or to get feedback um and I don't know whether this is emotion or just a commitment but for example we could finish getting everyone's first feedback on the on the guidelines which by the way track policy JB very closely I thought it was a decent first draft although I have gotten good feedback on ways to improve it and then we could we could have as the next follow-up meeting after that we can dedicate that meeting or the first half of the meeting to having people from the community give public who care about this issue give public comment there's a lot of expertise in the community there's professional therapists who specialize in

115this area um and I don't see why we want there has to be a presumption that we're I mean we I think we just have to have faith in each other but I don't see why we have to have a presumption that we're going to rush anything um I would be perfectly open to getting this document out there give people time to reflect on it and then come and address the committee and then use that to see if we make any further revisions or what further revisions we make so I would offer that if helpful as a path forward to hope to try to address address concerns while at the same time making sure we we continue to make progress yeah I would just say that's been our process I mean we we've had a

116couple of policies over the last couple of years three years I can think of that literally went eight nine months ten months I think one policy actually ended up being more than a year there was multiple people that came to those meetings to express their opinion they were we consulted with people but the policy committee never gave up their Authority and it never came out of policy it it this is a preemptive move and it really just doesn't make any sense process wise the other thing I want to say is I would ask that the board not put 30 days if you're going to table this and have us working with other folks at this point I would ask that you do 90 days because we have a building project and our Focus needs to

117be there we cannot keep giving being given work for the next 30 days we've got a referendum on November 8th I just want to remind the board about that there's a motion in a second but the verbiage the original verbiage is funding equity mean if you would like to withdraw that motion and redo something make one or two also withdraw a second um yeah I would withdraw my motion and represent that um Mike do you withdraw your second yeah that we table the work on policy jbr [Music] until we are in a working consultation relationship on someone who has expertise in transgender students gender non-conforming students and how those issues arise in a school setting satisfied with that motion Jeff when we can get to it I I can't there's no commitment right around from

118the district on this this would have to be other people working on this okay is there a second second so we're tableing it for 90 days is that what that said I didn't give a time frame or I think we should just be explicit I mean I I understand Jeff's point about the referendum um and I'm also can you know I mean I'm concerned that I mean 90 days is more time uh 30 days I just pull out of a hat so not really hot obviously I don't have on a hat my apologies your emotions to table it until we have a relationship with multiple organizations no well one one organization but that has been approved and approved by the board that's new well this is but that's what we can't select one organization we

119have to go across the board yeah so I guess I'm I'm trying to make it Encompass everything and I if anyone else has suggestions it seemed to me that um for the the semester has begun so teachers have already been calling students by their name um they're not going to at this point in October publicly ask correct you know what is your name in your pronoun like you were saying that that relationship's been established um do we want to have something in place by the second trimester of the middle school because some teachers you know they might change some teachers or by the second semester of the high school when the high school students will definitely be starting a new class and therefore a new relationship potentially with the teacher so if we're looking at

12090 days that puts us almost to the start of the second semester of the high school which to me that kind of feels like a good time so that hopefully we can have something in place for that second semester does that make sense well and I also just want to remind the board that you still have a policy in place JB and as long as the policy is in place as the superintendent it says in that policy I am required to implement it but Jeff can you clarify undersea addressing the needs of a transgender student so it sounds like what we're doing is we are saying that um the the pronoun and the name is an a need I'm not saying it's not but this says that if they consistently and and alluded to this

121consistently assert a gender identity this does feel different than a kid who wants to try on a name wants to try out nobody's nobody questions that at all that's what the policy said consistently has been the key word what the policy says is the student is supposed to be on a plan and it's defined in policy JB we've been following the pop we've been trying to follow this policy and I think there's a I think what I have discovered is that the policy is either Unknown by some people including our own staff or it is not being followed and that cannot continue that's either the board follows its policy or it doesn't and that's the decision you have to make because at this point that policy is in place I'm telling you what our legal

122counsel is saying I know people don't like listening to attorneys or policies or whatnot until it becomes my problem to think about it but I'm telling you until this happens we've got to follow our policy it's very important can I so Jeff I completely appreciate that I think this would also this this begs the question that I think some of us are trying to put forward that we need to spend the time to get this right to get the processes in place to educate staff students community members we're not there yet so I think this to me what I'm hearing from you is that you don't have the tools to be able to implement this properly that sucks um what we have in front of us is not in my opinion implementable um but we

123can write maybe no jbr okay they Implement jbr um so but if we take our time and yes it's 90 days but it can give us that knowledge and the processes to be able to implement it yes it's another 90 days not being able to do it but when we can come out of it then we will be hopefully all happy with the result yeah it's up to the board if you want to I mean at this point JB is in place though right but it has been for years so I mean it's been for five years this policy has been in place and we're supposed to follow it so basically if the issue does come up we have to a plan should be developed by the school in consultation with the student parents and

124Guardians and others as appropriate yes and that's the JP all jbr was to was to clarify that in a q a session you took what was in JB and asked those questions yep and answered them from what the JB policy already has so what he's um there's no there's no there's no change policy is the same there's nothing that's it's just clarified so I think the board everybody still everything in jbr is in G right it's really JB yes that's exactly right that's exactly right JB then that's what the policy committee should be directed to do is to look into changing JB correct personally I am interested in changing policy JB but not yet I do think we need to have uh this started another Facebook group Nick um okay pitch Sports and such right

125um but that's not what I I don't think that's where we should be discussing it right now we need to deal with jbr right now and then we can go forward but we also don't have the information in front of us we haven't had this discussion as a community I get I guess I'm going to direct this to the chair so we're because if if tonight I just need to know after tonight if we're not gonna if we're going to suspend policy JB or I'm not asking I'm not asking to suspend policy JB I mean when we look at policy JB section c 3 it says a plan should be developed that's different than saying a plan will be developed there and I know the administrator that doesn't mean anything different well it means nothing

126to me different that means we should be doing it so but do we how many plans do we have on file then I don't know how many plans we have on file but our administrators are the ones that are expected to make sure that this policy is followed I would have to check that my understanding is of course we do we have students who are transgender in our district I hope we have plans on file this policy has been around for five years so again like my concern then is is that we need to find out more of this information I just don't want us to keep pushing forward with things that aren't that that aren't helpful and could be harmful specific things I think there are assumptions about what is and isn't already in

127place around um JB section c and whether there are or are not plans if those plans are now going to be required if we don't put forward guidance but to me that's immaterial the policy says we're supposed to be doing it I need for me as the superintendent the only thing I need is Clarity I need to know am I following this policy or not if not get rid of it abolish it because then I won't follow it because if we have a policy in our books we don't follow it we are legally liable for not following our policies under a lot of different pieces I will point out that one of the points that Alec made very early in the year when this conversation came up is that you know we're putting ourselves in

128liability for not following our own policy that's was the Catalyst for this moving forward like that's a problem we have a 50 ones too say again I didn't mean to interrupt I'm sorry I just mean there's a half a dozen other policies that were also not in compliance with two well that's a problem sure yeah I'm not aware of them in the list of Doc that Fran sent today there's mult there's at least four to six I think it's very confusing in compliance with with the state statutes and I'm causing an argument that doesn't need to be yeah so perhaps I I want to make it clear though again that the reason why I have an issue and why I have brought this forward is what I'm hearing about these guidelines are going Beyond just

129individual students and again they're looking at entire class settings and telling teachers that they are not able to ask for preferred pronouns or names that they're that doing so is somehow triggering policy JB which that's something until that's entirely different and we're putting it together these things are are separate issues there are things that can be that even again with good intentions can have unintended consequences that we may just not be aware of and no matter how involved and passionate all of us are anyone in the community are we just we need to be double checking with people who do this for a living and have this and to make sure again for any students that they feel supported and want School want know that they can be whoever they are at school and we're

130we are not reaching out to those students they are coming to us we can reach out to them the first step did not have to be developing this policy the first step could be building administrators teachers calling people's family emailing their family hey hey how how's someone so doing are you know are they settling in school okay I mean there's other things that are more appropriate I feel like by doing this we are just putting a Band-Aid over things that haven't been done that should have been done and that's not I'm not saying that that's out of any ill will or or anything like that I think um things are always changing there's always new information so we need to make sure that we're providing our administrators and our teachers with that having these conversations

131having annual professional development before the start of the school year so that people are on the same page and we have a way to develop this safe culture with all due respect and what I need from the board is a clear policy that's what I need from the board I can do the rest okay but without that can't do the things you're talking about so to your point Ann if we want her to reach out to those families to make sure we're doing all that we can who would we call since we don't have a list I mean that's sort of part of the process here I think well and also most of the concerns raised sound like their concerns with JV itself and not with the guidance on how to follow JB so that

132might just be a separate question about does JB need it sounds like what Jeff needs first is clear guidance for how to make sure we're following the existing policy and then we could also take up separately should there be changes to the policy I will say the parents who were well versed in JB when they were speaking with me began by saying I want to make sure that we're not doing anything to change policy JB so if there's concerns with it actually tonight was the first time I've heard that and I think Jeff to Anne's point about the concerns of asking the entire class to declare their pronouns wasn't that exactly what elect Alec was talking about as far as liability and for violating students rights all around students that might be transgender or think

133or are transgender and don't feel like disclosing or don't want to and inadvertently do it because they feel pressured students who feel awkward being asked their pronouns who don't want to be asked their pronouns it's a personal question and he said that's a personal issue and it should be not something that is allowed in a classroom you know and JB clearly says that I think there's a difference between having it be a requirement and having it be something that's part of a respectful space yes exactly yep yeah it's got to be respectful all around exactly but I just need clarity as to what the board's going to do so the motion that's on the floor is to table it and there was no timeline on that table but it's until we work with tell me

134again the words what did you say at the time um at when at my amended one the second one we we pulled the first one back um until the we enter a consultation relationship with a provider approved by the board I don't know how else to word it okay so you have the motion it's to table it and there's not a time frame and it's too until a time when we form a relationship with an expert that's the motion on the floor further discussion just to clarify earlier you said an expert on transgender and non non-binary issues do you want to include that yes okay and I think there was a comment to have more than one yes provider considered so one or more as approved by the board yes but that we would only

135be entering into a relationship with one of them right they're not writing it we're just Consulting with them well Consulting we're just Consulting they're reviewing Consulting and their consultants and table doesn't mean forever just until we have that relationship and gotten what we want out of but that could be forever since there's no well we could we could add like up to 60 days or up to you know anything we just need exact verbiage I guess I'll just point out I don't I've never done a request for proposal process with different advisors to the board and to to try to go out to multiple parties interview them and understand their perspectives and then select select one and pay for one that's a really big process and I'll just say there's a lot of knowledgeable people

136here in the board there's knowledgeable people in the community and I'll just extend my invitation to the rest of the the board when they're thinking about this vote that I think we can get the expertise in there I think even the specific comment that was mentioned a minute ago about is there an inviting way to ask the question in the classroom for example would anyone like to share their pronouns or preferred name I suggested they might say that please come and see me privately so we can have that conversation we can we could fix that so what I would say is an invitation to the board or to the community to continue with this process as we've been doing it give us your feedback and we'll make this policy as good as these guidelines as

137good as possible and I think we can do that without an outside expert further discussion from the board I'm going to regret this but is there people from the public that would like to speak with with step up please if you I I can't believe we're still here talking about this topic um given all of what you have on your plate legally Jeff you said right now we are out of compliance because we are not following what our policy says so tomorrow a parent could open up a lawsuit against the school because they cause emotional harm to their child because they ask the entire classroom what their pronouns are is that accurate we can get a lawsuit for any reason but yes that is that but that's in a policy that we've created that we're

138not following we could be sued people it's a vulnerable place for a district to be is to have a policy they do not follow it's better to have no policy so by suspending the work that's trying to fix these issues again not changing the root of what was created by a group five years ago but by trying to address that risk we're going to table this we're going to bring in outside groups we're going to spend money I don't know do we have budget for that probably not like what are we doing guys this is like a dog and pony show the fact is we have people that are frustrated with who's on a committee so they're bringing out all the stops all of them and we're blocking meaningful work that needs to be done

139in this community including equity nothing was getting changed in the root of this policy Jared's opening up you know to anybody to come talk have the discussion but we're playing this game of trying to pass something that doesn't make sense this is just ridiculous like please like move on thank you go ahead I appreciate that this is really hard I'm really relieved that I'm not up there on the board because this is I wouldn't this is a very this is a not an easy decision and a really big conversation and I think that what I keep hearing is the piece that Anne keeps kind of bringing up that I know Jared you're doing a great job of trying to like acknowledge that but with the missing piece is that no one right now on the

140board of policy is part of the community that is trying to be supported and there has not been I mean yes I did talk to Jared it was a great conversation and I'm not touting myself as an expert or anything but I feel like even though I said things and my spouse did as well who's also a therapist it didn't change anything that has happened thus far and so I'm worried that unless there's actually like a I don't know I guess something really in place that Anne is suggesting if it's just we're open to conversations come email me or we'll have a phone call or whatever it is that it's actually not going to change um even though I think that there's openness to those conversations I think that it needs to be because I

141don't think I'm even equipped even though I have many years experience I think that I would still say talk to a quality Maine who has done this before um so those are my thoughts thank you at the heart of this it's about the students and you've heard from students they've come tonight they came at your last meeting to tell you that the policy itself regardless of how you dress it up in question and answer the policy itself is flawed it may be five years old there's lots of things that are five years old that are no longer relevant and applicable the world moves and the world moves fast our understanding of people's needs move fast generational issues move fast and I think perhaps the greater picture for us is to take a look at the

142policy itself is it worth our time to create a question and answer sheet in support of a policy where the students are here telling you it hurts them I'm not sure that question and answer sheet is really worth your time if the students are being hurt by the policy itself just my name is Caroline I live in Cumberland and I'd like to speak on behalf of the students that might be actually feeling uncomfortable and too ashamed to come here tonight that is I think the point of the clarification that Jeff is trying to make is that there are many students in our district who are made to feel extremely uncomfortable by being put on the spot with that question and those students are not going to come here to speak to you because that's the

143point they're uncomfortable Greeley is an environment that supports students of all different colors races and gender identity why are you trying to reinvent the wheel because lawyers have advised you that you are breaking the law I don't think that that warrants making motions to put good work and good policy on hold there needs to be rules in place for the students who are being made to feel uncomfortable with these questions and they're not coming here tonight because they're uncomfortable in their own skin kids putting on outfits in the morning is stressful for them and for you to think that students should feel comfortable with being put on the spot by teachers in an open environment is not it's not fair to every student at Greeley and you need to be honest with yourselves about that

144there are students that are comfortable and will come but there's a lot of students that are uncomfortable that won't come here and so I think that's the point that Jeff is trying to make we need to be supportive of those students too and by putting kids on the spot daily weekly monthly every semester every new school year is not necessarily the right thing to do or good for students and so we've gone into a rabbit hole where this is some kind of a game that's not the point of this the point of this is to support all students and somehow it has turned into something other than that tonight so thank you for trying to all care for the students but please let's not play games this is easy this is a no-brainer be nice

145to all the students and stop crossing the line or letting student teachers cross the line if it's making many students uncomfortable it shouldn't be happening thank you good girl I would just like to say that the uncomfortable feeling that says students will be feeling when they're asked their pronouns on the spot is far less than the amount of uncomfortable feelings that trans people go through in life and you yeah I can't say anymore thank you thank you bye okay I'll bring it back to the board um I think I think oh sorry Avery go ahead I want to talk a little bit about his policy JB um first of all I want to thank all these students who came out and uh made their voices heard it's really really hard to do that especially when

146you're going against the grain um and I also want to to bring up the fact that you know maybe uh you know I I only know as much as I can receive from the public um and I've heard a lot of testimony from some of my fellow students who are trans and um know better than anyone what that experience is like so I can really only take uh I can really only go with that perspective because I I don't I don't have one of my own I don't have the experience of going through that so I think it would be kind of irresponsible for me to try and you know or any of us to try and make a decision based on something that we haven't personally gone through so I think it might be

147worth considering temporarily suspending JB if you know if it's if it's not working you're saying suspending the actual policy JB is it what you said yeah JB the one that's in place now Jeff will we be in a better legal position with the questions that you're getting if policy JB was I don't know what the word for it is paused or I know there's Protections in place from the state for for Trans students um generally yeah I wouldn't recommend pausing it but I feel like that's being asked I think that's a policy committee it goes through policy committee and they recommend if there's changes to JB but JB does have protections for transgender students and I would not want to Beyond what's already in place but by the city reading that I noticed that there

148are like a lot of like you know different bathroom Locker policies that do give trans students um you know a lot of a lot of Rights and I I was wondering if if we remove JB then how would those how would that change could we still like is there any state protection that automatically you know falls down or It's tricky because I'd have to consult an attorney on this I can't I'm not a lawyer but um It's Tricky when you have a policy that's not there you can revert to state law obviously state law trumps everything even if your policy is outdated you yours whatever the state statute is actually the one you follow um however when you don't have a policy in place it does send a message too now we would honor whatever

149we've been doing even if we didn't have a policy and we'd follow the state law but I recommend instead that the policy committee look at reviewing JB itself that seems to be more the heart of the issue and not the r or the rules that would go with it um at least that's my my thinking maybe the policy itself needs a review there's been a lot of policies that have been reviewed in this way and sometimes they take months before there's some sort of a conclusion and that's okay that's part of the policy process that the board goes through but I wouldn't I would not recommend abolishing the policy or suspending it all right so Json only make one more comment and um like I said I normally wouldn't speak to the Audience by name

150but just um since Laureen addressed Me by an email I'll under address you back I would just say I wouldn't conclude that anything that we talked about wouldn't influence um wouldn't influence the writing of the guidelines on on policy JB we'd only gotten through four of the provisions so far and we hadn't had a chance to talk since probably you saw the the latest draft um I mean already just when I heard your feedback on on the Privacy uh or on the saying to students if you'd like to be called by different pronoun or preferred name please come and see me after class or you know or privately um you know even you know later this week you might say these are the concerns with that or after reading it closely you might say I

151think you could improve it by adding this or that and I think there'd be a lot of openness to it particularly since I was the one who proposed that and I thought it was actually a helpful provision and it wasn't even thinking through some of the concerns that you raised so that's all I was going to say is I wouldn't conclude that the feedback can't make a difference I think it can and will make a difference and I guess that's it for now um and you're still okay with the motion as is which is to table it with no time frame and except until we consult with experts and I I mean I think moving forward that that JB should be included in the review though I'm not asking for that to be um altered

152or not followed at this time there was a second Mike seconded it and we're still working on the same second motion that was clarified okay so everybody clear we're voting to table it indefinitely Or until we form a relationship with experts on the map okay I'm volunteering myself to do any of the legwork required on this as well so okay all in favor all opposed okay so me and Jared opposed I didn't see the students um what was your I got have the students vote yeah both in favor okay so motion carries so to be clear we're still following JB with no Clarity to staff yep okay for the time being yep I don't know what I'm still learning all this since I am not on the policy committee but I am on the board

153um what I would like to perhaps encourage the policy committee to do is to look at um number three under D guidance on specific issues names and pronouns because I feel like that that is the Crux of it is whether a student has to go through this process to change their names and pronouns um if they are con not consistently uh showing that they are meeting the definitions I believe is what it says is transgender so I I feel like we're in this sort of other what Vanessa was was addressing we're in this other category of kids who are considering it want to try it on would like these pronouns and so if we are stuck on that one paragraph I think that that would be a great place to start for the policy committee

154right now JB is not on the list of policies to review right no but apparently it's being added it is still I thought the guidelines are no but I thought that um on the policy for review high priority JB well I think that's because of the work that I've heard today I mean it is policy but it doesn't have jbr like above it is Jay LG jlgr so I had always read that when I looked at the spreadsheet that we were going to be reviewing JB anyway yeah I think the only reason that JB might have been high priority is there was one addition from state law that needed to be added to um the policy there's two words that we needed to add that was it yeah okay moving on superintendents for Fort Jeff

155please I'd say in the interest of time I'm okay with I don't think there's anything that he said unless any specific things that you all would like to hear from Jeff regarding the superintendent's report okay moving on to committee reports uh Finance Vanessa finance committee anything to report um yes I met with Scott nothing new but I met with Scott last week he's still working out the agenda of the time frame of approving the budget and the policies there's all kinds of before work that has to be done we're going to be meeting by the end of the month he promised me I have not received that outline but he's been pushing for the budget and focusing on the school and moving that forward so I've been patient okay thank you um policy Jared anything

156else we uh you might have covered it thanks oh bring it up okay facilities Mike we have our first meeting a week from tomorrow um we'll have more to report after that okay curriculum that is somebody that's uh Christine that's me Mr Tom okay nothing substantive Susie and I have connected but um and we'll be meeting soon okay Equity Jared Tim anything to add yeah so uh Tim and I joined uh Jeff and members of the administration with a sort of pre-kickoff discussion with Lawrence Alexander and um we have just been working on sort of a an outline of outlining the different categories of work to be done and basically putting together a plan so at the end of last year the equity committee finished policy ACA which is the equity plan and it was

157approved by the board the last paragraph of ACA calls for the superintendent to put together a plan to um follow through on sort of the spirit of ACA so we've reached out to Carol McArthur who we were told had done a very good job with the Wellness Plan in 2018 to 2021 she has sent along some of her work which I've shared with Tim and um basically we're hoping in the next week week and a half to get an email out to the whole committee with a couple of things in it one is just sort of major categories of of work and the categories would be everything from documenting everything that all the hard work that's already been done by the teachers and administrators to classifying work such as it you know how does the

158how does the community respond or the school respond when there's been an incidence of bias what kind of proactive training work can be done to improve inclusion in general throughout the school and so there's kind of six major buckets and Then followed by a list of all the work that's already been done by the school and then we're going to ask the committee to add their own goals or anything that's not in that preliminary list and sort of comment and feedback it's sort of like the board did in preparation for the kickoff board meeting and then that'll be use for discussion at our opening meeting and with the goal of really just putting together an outline and a work plan for completing or supporting Jeff and putting together an equity plan hopefully this year thank

159you John student reports uh I will go first one thing that um happened even just today that I'd like to talk about during my student report was my first training under the new Alice curriculum that's being used in the school we had miss latanzi and miss Mulligan at the high school teach my advisory in another one um we learned a lot I heard a lot of kids talking after we did that during advice or Ranger support time um it was I learned a lot it was not the entire lesson but it's kind of what's getting us started for many more in the future and I'm excited to learn under this new curriculum and I think that it's really productive and I think that how it's being rolled out is also being done very well so

160all I have to talk about is homecoming we had Homecoming on Saturday night and it was the first kind of back to normal homecoming since I was a freshman in 2019 and uh yeah that's something exciting so it gives us something to smile about that's not right guys yes very nice thing thank you Avery so ad hoc committee is one of the really important ones right now is the new school building committee and Phase One Communications Kim you want to give us an update on I shall um so first of all um some exciting news is that the Cumberland sustainability committee is very excited about the new school they're going to be voting Wednesday on a motion to officially endorse the the school and with that endorsement I think that that gives us um just

161that validation that what we are doing is so environmentally responsible especially with the land um you know that we have indeed uh done our due process on the land and and using it to the the best possible purpose so um uh I just want to thank um Denny uh God thank you I don't want to pronounce it wrong um for for pushing that through and hopefully Wednesday that'll happen so um with that endorsement I think that will um Carry us a little further um we have a sign up sheet going for places where we will be in the community and as of right now that uh the mornings with friends event in October for next week is welcoming myself and if someone else wants to come with me um not necessarily to give a presentation

162but to be there um for those folks who who want to ask any questions or maybe not even are aware that it's on the ballot and I would really encourage anybody in the community who's listening right now if you uh have a relationship with someone who is perhaps a senior citizen who is not online hasn't been paying attention that this would be a great event for them to go to plus they should be connected to Aging in place anyway it's such a great organization so um you know please reach out to them and encourage them to be there uh it's October 12th um in the morning mornings with friends in addition to that we have some times that we will be at the Cumberland Farmers Market the three Sundays the last three Sundays that the

163market is happening so the 15th 22nd and 29th we do have a couple openings still I want to thank the those of you who have signed up already I've just kept it to the phase one committee but if anyone else on the board would like to volunteer their time to be a presence at the farmers market and answer any questions and just meet and greet and I'm just going to remind us that we are there to get out information not to encourage people which way to vote but just just to be a presence for people to ask their questions or Express their concerns so if anyone can can do a shift on one of those Saturdays that would be great uh we are in the process of putting together a printed pamphlet um or brochure

164I guess it kind of depends on whether it becomes a tri-fold or a front and back but um Tyler and and Jason had some good input as well uh today so we should have that very soon I really want to have it by next week so that I can put it into the hands of the folks at the mornings with friends and then definitely by next Saturday for the farmers market so that's my deadline do we print those out does does Tyler send us the PDF and then we send them to a printer I think we should ask him because they can print it okay um that's my understanding okay they can do it I think they're high their resolution is going to look better from what they've done from your understanding well we can

165check okay great great uh and then also putting together a mailer so that's uh I believe at the phase one committee that we had we talked about getting it out maybe the Wednesday or Thursday before the vote so that is um November 2nd 3rd ish so we need to have the the mailer version of the pamphlet in our hands um and again I'm not sure is that something that we sit there and we stamp them or is there a process for mailing out bulk mail yeah so um talked to Fran she'll uh hook you up with a bulk mailer okay okay otherwise much easier way of my kids were gonna have a really big job go to the Post Office for that stuff great and they help fantastic um so I think that's about it

166I just if if anybody's listening right now I just want to remind you that um we know that it can be hard to go to information sessions uh it can you might be able to watch it online but in order to actually talk to someone um that is that can be really important so please reach out uh there is I should update you all that on the website right now there's a link that people can click on if they have a question and they want someone to respond to them it goes to my board email address um I've been seeing I think I've gotten three so far and I've been seeing Jeff Scott and Jason on those so that they can see the question as well um so that that is definitely one way to

167to get a hold of us is just a simple email but um there we can absolutely meet with you in person I'm thinking particularly of of parents of young kids where it's hard to get out at night you might be watching the presentation but you want to talk to someone so please um don't feel that you are limited by just these two information sessions um which leads me to the reminder that next week is our second information session which will be uh at North Yarmouth West Coast to go Hall so and then I just had one last question um on the agenda for the um joint meeting that we had with the Cumberland Town Council in the north Irma select board it talked about a public uh financing presentation which is two weeks from tonight

168so does that happen at the school board meeting or is it something separate no that happens at the school board meeting on the 17th okay um so Scott will give a quick presentation but really it's about public hearing on just that part the financing okay yep so is that something that we should be inviting people to promoting yeah it's a public meeting and people can comment about the money part of it okay so the concept Design's already been approved by the board but in well actually the whole package has been but it's by State law we have to actually have a hearing okay on just the financing of the school okay so that's the 17th okay so I just want to clarify that that was not a separate event from the school board meeting excellent

169then I think unless anybody has any questions for me about getting the information out there or any suggestions anything we haven't thought of then that's it okay thank you Kim uh you've been putting in a ton of time much appreciate that um and I definitely would send out the Sign Up Genius to everybody here in the room yeah I signed up yes you all can too okay um moving on Communications our catch-all do we skip superintendent report we did I deferred it you deferred it okay for interested time fair enough again I I just wanted to note um since this is our meeting right before uh Monday's indigenous peoples Day holiday um in case folks are able to take some time on that Monday to um learn something about the wabanaki people and um I

170also just wanted to thank the board for your service and this work because it it's you know I know it's a lot so thank you everyone okay anything else I was just going to bring up I thought the um the new committee um on climate and well the environment committee was uh deferred till tonight but yeah be deferred again just preferred again we gotta we gotta come up with a charge that's that's on me yep yeah well so yeah but I think it's you know it's an important thing I'm in favor of it uh but you know to Jeff's point we get bigger fish to fry right now so yes just but I think the next step is we have to just establishing that charge yeah yeah it was it was a really good start

171I just wanted to take a crack at fine-tuning it pretty much so but yeah we can we can have it ready for next one thanks Christina yeah okay anything else for communications okay item number 10 is to adjourn the meeting don't hear a motion I move that we adjourn the meeting thank you in a second second thank you Tom all right our favorite I'll post no we can't go for two more hours no the motion carries I'm sorry