001male and there's female i'm a former laboratory scientist females xx males are xy and i think that we have it's a slippery slope i'm a concerned that you know i looked up to my teachers there my mentors i was taught to respect my teachers and we have to be very very careful where we're going here with this whole thing if you look at statistics in the united states of america 18 years old to 64 0.7 0.7 percent would say they were transgendered and 65 and over 0.5 so we have to be very careful where we're leading our students i'm just really concerned about that um there's just a push a movement that i i think we shouldn't have this in the schools and and again i'm not going to talk about test scores tonight but
002there's just other things we need to keep sex out of school and that's actually uh that's going a little that's kind of a little far from me so um i just want us to all be aware of what we're we're doing here i don't know what the policy is at jackson i've never seen it or anything like that and i'm not even pointing fingers but i just want to everyone to be real aware of that so and thank you for all of everything you do i appreciate it i totally appreciate what you did for my kids and they're very successful and i actually wanted to just say something my son actually started a music career because he was given the opportunity to be in drama and he actually was a really good singer and he
003wouldn't have known that if he wasn't here at jackson high so i just i love that we do arts i love that there's a french teacher i love that and so you're just doing a great job and so i'm not complaining i'm just just saying something so thank you for listening to me tonight thank you next up is amy gish for decades i was trained as a teacher to understand the differences in culture so i could better meet the needs of my students during the july school board meeting board trustee keisha hamilton remarked why she was voting no on the adoption of the new valedictorian criteria keisha keisha has a strong background in diversity equity and inclusion she works closely with people from a variety of cultures and she's an intelligent black woman who has
004been by several people in this room misjudged and misunderstood take the time to talk with her and you'll understand just what i'm talking about her knowledge is not being utilized only criticized a great example came from board members who ignorantly spoke against a comment made by kisha when she said that valedictorian criteria is racist a small group of community members even ignorantly laughed out loud one must have a discussion about culture when talking race within each race are many cultures with traditions beliefs and values that may make their way into the classroom when i was teaching i had a latino student who was so bright he caught my attention with his ideas his thinking his work he could have been a valedictorian but his culture puts his family first and when his mother was dying
005of cancer the family granted her wish to die at home that meant family members took turns to stay at home and care for mom my student included so she ended up so he ended up being absent every third or fourth school day depending on how their schedule worked out dad needed to keep working as he was the sole income and health insurance provider at the time so life was very stressful for the family dad cried on the phone when we did our check-ins i knew he was struggling to keep things together my student cried often when he was at school because as he would tell me he could not stop thinking about mom when mom died they had her transported back to their native homeland where they buried her that student of mine returned to
006school a few weeks later and was relieved to see everyone under the new valedictorian guidelines that young man should he have wanted to would not have been able to retake any of his classes for a better grade such a shame that school year four of my students experience experience the death of a parent one student lost both parents life happens our culture is define in many ways how things are done keisha understands this thus her comment i don't speak for her i'm speaking for myself those who commented so ignorantly and laughed so ignorantly do not understand this they are the true embarrassment to our families in this community you don't even understand them apparently you don't want to adopting children from a different race or culture than your own doesn't mean you understand their native
007culture having the same skin color doesn't mean anything either you can have the same skin color but have different cultural backgrounds if you were raised with native cultural teachings that's what one needs to be mindful of if you're learning and understanding how this works and it sounds like a lot of work it is that's what good teachers do that's what good people do that's what good board members do they learn about who they're working with who they're representing or supposed to be representing and meet them where they are and find out what the needs are one's culture that may present itself in the classroom the ignorant call this excuses i taught at the high school i know administrators call for exceptions to rules let's see who gets that first under the table exception the white
008athlete whose parents always contribute to the silent raffle for the ambassador's dinner you know they're big supporters of the district let's do it for them so laugh all you want let's see how much laughing you do when those students board a school bus in the morning with northwest schools written on the side or when they receive scholarships to transfer to a local private school remember that single father of five who spoke a few months ago he drives his five children a half hour away from here to attend another school district and he lives down the street from jackson high school remember that student accompanied by her parent who spoke before you about the valedictorian criteria she has already learned that this system operates better depending on who your parents are and who you know remember
009that jackson high alum who recently spoke about the low test score she's disappointed with i wonder if the disenfranchised know that they are disenfranchised and let it show in the test scores why try if i don't matter to you students know that low test scores don't equate to their success in life they know how to send a message you fail me i fail you so keep on laughing keep on commenting keep on chasing people away if your goal is to disenfranchise those who don't share the same culture as you you're doing a fantastic job you just can't figure out how to fix years-long problems in the district sorry amy your time is up you are failing us thank you next up is stephanie sizzik members of the board five superintendent beale i'm stephanie szyzak i
010think you know that but a retired spanish teacher from jackson high school only today tonight i'm speaking as a citizen and more than that i am speaking because i am a mother um and joanna perkin is my daughter and amy gish is my friend i'm aware that both amy and joanna have tried to resolve matters involving the superintendent by following the jea contract and school board policies while working for the school district unfortunately their requests for resolution went unresolved and or just ignored this is while they were working as teachers and amy was union president thank you since march of this calendar year following the incident reported by board press trustee keisha hamilton many students and citizens including joanna and amy have spoken before you people reporting first-hand accounts of unbecoming unprofessional and disturbing behavior
011by the superintendent with the exception of the july board meeting i've listened to many citizens joanna naby included speak to the nature of their complaints and the facts giving rise to it i've heard them state with regard to that which is alleged that joanna and amy have been affected adversely i've heard them clearly speak about the reasons why this matter was not able to be resolved with the superintendent and in some cases his designee and heard them state the action or actions in which joanne and amy wish were taken and the reasons why they felt that way i know first hand that the school district's attorney who represents you folks and represents the superintendent has put in writing that you're advised not to communicate with joanna and amy i find that to go against your
012duties as a school board member your oath of office and your own school board policies i wonder why you've chosen to single out joanna and amy by misleading the public about them you and the superintendent have caused many among the community to believe that they've had low evaluations which is not true shall i say highly effective that's what they got just the opposite that they were disgruntled employees which is not true ask their co-workers ask their past students where they've all both of them gone above and beyond their jobs caring about kids that's what they care about and that they're trying to assassinate the superintendent's character which is not true statements of fact shared in good faith followed with requests for a third neutral party to investigate has been their course all along which means
013they've been following board policy but for some reason in this school district under this superintendent those who follow the rules get treated like troublemakers hey troublemakers who stand for students rights and their protection according to policy so that all students may have a safe and quality education that's what they care about they're trying to enforce the policies perhaps you need to stop listening to your attorney and start following your own rules your own policies food for thought you next up is joanna perkins well i'll just accommodate this you'll appreciate my brevity tonight i'm usually quite verbose i'm joanna perkin as you already know retired english teacher of over 20 years english chair building committee chair i've spoken at the last six board meetings and disclosed many disturbing despicable and utterly reprehensible things happening within jackson
014public schools regarding incessant sexual abuse retaliation harassment etc all without accountability or discipline those things have yet to be addressed vetted looked into inquiries continue to be made and they continue to go unanswered please be clear that although you the board five have been given a directive not to communicate with amy and me we find it necessary to be clear that these things are still of great concern and to follow up on the terminal pay leave matter with you teachers regarding that issue teachers are required to sign a contract that reads like a non-disclosure agreement in order to receive their terminal pay which begs the question what do you have to hide this contract in essence forces teachers to sign their rights away in order to receive what their retirement what what their retirement pay
015from the district in other words sign the contract and we will pay you your benefit i think it goes without saying that's illegal to have someone sign a contract under collision or duress the jeia should be filing a union grievance to protect the rights of teachers for requiring them to resign a contract in order to receive a benefit already negotiated for them covered by the collective bargaining agreement in other words you don't have to sign a contract in order to receive something that's already been solidified within that contract uh ever since 2019 and 2020 respectively terminal pay has been used to bully and intimidate amy and myself in fact it was not until lawyers got involved that we were able uh just as of late 2022 literally just within the past like a week or
016two um to get to the road of resolution and for several years we have had this terminal pay held over our heads and and didn't even have the option of signing the contract so what i just said um mentioned that teachers have to do we weren't even given that opportunity and then once we were several years later we're now forced to sign or you know the district attempted to force us coerces into signing this non-disclosure which shines our rights away to receive what the contract already clearly states thank you okay oops okay we are on number eight um action items so the first one is 22-23-17 and it's the neola volume 36 number two board policy update second reading adoption uh mr beal thank you very much um most of this is uh boilerplate stuff
017again you know we saw these last month the first batch deal with address staff dress and grooming you see that in policy 1616 for administration 3216 for professional staff 4216 for support staff and 5511 for our for our students you also see policy 6110 which deals specifically with grant funds and the requirements associated with expensing grant funds from the federal government so these again this is not anything that we get to say anything about this is the language is is 100 percent the requirement from the federal government in order for us to expense these grant funds and 6114 is more grant funding so most of what we're dealing with here is uh is grant funding 6325 is the procurement from federal grant funds so you kind of sense the theme here so really our policies
018this time around center around just a couple of issues the dress code and um and the expenses of federal funds with that being said it would be the recommendation of the superintendent to approve the board policies revisions as presented okay thank you at this time i would entertain a motion for adoption of the volume 36 number two policy updates as presented okay thank you oops pm are you yes and okay libby and pam thank you any deliberation okay all those in favor say aye opposed okay motion carries okay uh next line item is 22-23-18 and it's the masb2022 assembly jeff excuse me so we have uh representation on the misb delegate and that assembly meets in november at their statewide conference so i would encourage you to attend but this board needs to nominate and
019appoint someone to serve in that capacity and cast the vote for jps in that regard so if you are planning to attend you might want to put your name forward to cast that vote um i think we have two i think would all right so i believe shalonda and keisha are are both going miss miss hunt you're going is that all right so it looks like we have two delegates i guess i i would put this forth that if the board supports it it makes great sense to to nominate and select those both kisha and shalonda thank you for your service okay thank you i would entertain a motion for the board to certify shalonda hunt and kisha hamilton as delegates for the masb conference as presented so moved thank you aaron thank you libby
020were you the second okay um any deliberation okay all those in favor say aye opposed okay motion carries all right next line item is 22-23-19 and that is teacher pay teacher subscription marcus all right so teachers paid teachers is a resource subscription website subscription service that jps teachers currently use out of their own pocket for resources to help in planning activities and such for the classroom the district has decided to have a district-wide subscription for this service for teachers to use at no cost to them we did present this at the finance facility meeting a couple of weeks ago so again this will allow teachers to access activities and things to use in their classrooms the annual cost forty three thousand five hundred dollars will come out of the general fund so we would recommend
021approval of this subscription tonight okay thank you marcus at this time i would entertain a motion for approval of the teachers paid teachers subscription in the amount of forty three thousand five hundred dollars as presented thank you libby thank you pam any deliberation okay all those in fact one question yep just on one question how um what's the process what would the process be for teachers to access those funds the way that it's set up each teacher has a certain number of um credits basically that they could use for that service and so we can also look at it and see sometimes people you know we'll have people that are not interested in using it all so we'll have additional credits for those people that are wild about it um but to start with we'll
022we'll be sort of dividing those up evenly among our staff members but it's it's a wonderful resources it's um it's activities that are developed by other teachers and so it's wonderful that um sometimes you know with our series the different series that we have already selected for the district um sometimes the the first time lesson doesn't catch everybody and so you're looking for another way to present it so having something like this in your back pocket is really helpful ask one last question is there a possibility that a teacher could cap out and no longer have access to these funds i think that we would be able to i really do think that we're going to have people that just don't use it so i mean i think that we'll have additional credits that we'll
023be able to spread out to others as needed thank you okay any other deliberation okay hearing none all those in favor say aye aye opposed okay motion carries oops next line item is 22-23-20 and it's the double playground equipment marcus all right this is the first of two playground updates we have tonight so the playground at dibble was one that was not updated through the bond process and in what in our walks we have some pieces there that are either unsafe or uninsurable as we we go through inspector playgrounds each year so we reached out and received a quote for 163 190 which at this time would come from the general fund and potentially at the end of the bond if their funds left then we can transfer that expense to the bond fund at
024that time we also reviewed this item at the finance meeting a couple of weeks ago so this time we would recommend approval of the double playground updates okay thank you marcus at this time i would entertain a motion for approval of the double playground equipment in the amount of 163 190 as presented thank you pam thank you aaron any deliberation one question are any of the um items on the playground able to be salvaged are we keeping anything or is it a full renovation we are keeping some of the items there there's a few items that we have taken out or making safe until we can do this playground update but um there's two halves so and one half of the playground i think we're replacing the big structure and then we're adding a few
025stations so we're adding a few pieces too so some additional pieces and just reconfiguring how it all lays out and and the principal got with ms went through the playground with her staff to kind of determine what kids are using what kids are liking so we can kind of go through this update process okay any other deliberation okay hearing none all those in favor say aye opposed okay motion carries next line item is 22-23-21 it's the montessori playground equipment marcus all right so same thing we do have a structure that is not safe and a couple of other ones that we have smaller ones that we've removed so again we've gone through with the principal and their staff to kind of see again what what is being used what is liked montessori is if you're
026aware of it as a real big open space there um so this one we're actually adding a lot more to it in addition to replacing uh two of the the two larger structures that are currently there so again we would ask to approve this one in the amount of 238 694 and again it was also reviewed a couple of weeks ago at the facility meeting okay thank you marcus at this time i would entertain a motion for approval of the montessori playground equipment in the amount of two hundred thirty eight thousand six hundred ninety four dollars as presented support thank you libby thank you shlonda any deliberation okay hearing none all those in favor say aye opposed okay motion carries next line item is uh 22-23-22 energy advisory resolution marcus all right so and this
027we've talked about this company guaranteed clean energy a little bit in the past again they've helped us in the solar project that we recently approved earlier this spring and summer gce is an energy advising company they go through and they'll be coming through and doing an extensive audit of our district and coming to us with energy efficiencies proposals and ways to help fund those through get grants and third-party funding sources and things of that nature they also helped us today we submitted our application for the electric vehicle clean bus grant so just on a side note we've applied to convert up to 20 of our current older diesel buses to electric and jps is a priority district for funding meaning that if awarded we'll be able to replace those buses at just about no cost
028to us and again these buses are probably close to four hundred thousand dollars apiece so if we're approved it could be over eight million dollars of funding so that's the first part and then going forward they're going to again do this energy audit and come to us with proposals of energy efficiencies air conditioning and hvac throughout the district being one of them that you know we've kind of gone through some of our higher priorities that we would like to address the resolution today is just to allow us to sign off on some of these proposals as they come because with grant funding we're going to have short timelines and things of that nature to not have to come to the board every time there's a new grant out or whatever okay thank you so at
029this time i would entertain a motion for adoption of the energy advisory resolution as presented thank you aaron thank you pam any deliberation okay hearing none all those in favor say aye opposed okay motion carries next line item is 22-23-23 nwea site license k-8 marcus the district will be going forward in using nwea for grades k through 8 this year the annual license cost is 35 thousand 000 and will be paid for through the general fund nwa is a product that we have used in the past and was recommended from our testing committee it's called so at this time we would recommend approval of the license quote in the amount of thirty five thousand dollars okay thank you marcus at this time i would entertain a motion for approval of the license quote in the
030amount of thirty five thousand dollars as presented thank you libby um any deliberation okay hearing none all those in favor say aye opposed okay motion carries next line item is 22-23-24 symphony math license and that's marcus symphony math is an online math subscription service that the district has chosen to use at the elementary level the annual license cost is thirty nine thousand two hundred dollars and will be paid for from the general fund so again at this time we would recommend approval of the district license in that amount of thirty nine thousand two hundred and thirty dollars okay thank you marcus um at this time i would entertain a motion for approval of the license quote in the amount of thirty nine thousand two hundred thirty dollars as presented okay thank you libby and aaron
031any deliberation okay hearing none all those in favor say aye opposed okay motion carries uh last action item here is 22-23-25 and it's the maintenance fan purchase marcus last summer we the board approved purchasing a new maintenance truck and maintenance van and we knew there was long lead times due to production delays and supply chain issues and things of that nature we received the truck at the end of june this past year however we did not receive the van and then ford shut down their that current year model production they've reordered the van it'll be a 2023 model year however due to inflation and other supply chain price increases they are not able to guarantee the price that we were quoted last year so we're coming back for approval of the new price of four
032thousand eight hundred seventy four dollars which is an increase of about fifteen thousand dollars over the approved amount last year okay thank you marcus at this time i would entertain a motion to approve the purchase of the maintenance van in the amount of forty four thousand eight hundred seventy four dollars as presented thank you shalonda and aaron any deliberation okay hearing none all those in favor say aye aye opposed okay motion carries you okay we are done with number eight all the action items so we are on to number nine so this time i would just open it up to any board comments i'll go ahead and start if that's okay just wanted to congratulate while they're here um mrs davis and obviously miss carter um i remember like yesterday hearing the superintendent kind of
033lay out the vision for your career path and it's it's been it's been nice to watch that and and so congrats to you and and ms davis your energy i can already tell like it's it's perfect for parkside um your charisma and i think what you bring to the table so happy about that as well i had the opportunity to attend two events recently both at the high school the voyage event and i think shalina was going to probably tee in on that too but the voyage event last wednesday for students and then also the dinner for the freshman class uh last night um you know we were reminiscing on you know when we came to jackson high as freshmen i want to say 97 was the first class that ninth graders came to jackson
034high so i that overwhelming feeling of being nervous but the staff and you know the secretaries and the the volunteer folks that were there last night just really laid it out for the students and the parents and i don't think anyone left that building last night with questions or concerns so um just hats off and job well done to all the staff at the high school for that i'll piggyback off of that yes so my daughter as well was heading into freshman at high school and just the onboarding process has been quite an experience the multiple contacts from the principal and making sure that the parents are involved it means a lot i know a lot of parents are saying we need that involvement that touch point with teachers faculty and staff is happening and
035i'm on the receiving end but i also have heard from other parents that greatly appreciate that as well so i'm excited to start this new year so wishing everyone all the teachers the principals everyone a good school year we're we've put a lot into it the kindergarten roundup and trying to reduce as much anxiety as we possibly can for our parents so welcome to 2020 to 2023 school year okay thank you libby did you have yes i'd like to add to aaron's comment about welcoming jessica and destiny on board on jps staff and well you've been jessica you've been on a staff for a long time but i'm glad to see that you finally got to strive as human resources directed okay pam i had a couple things to say um lunch buses everywhere i
036have had more people tell me i can't believe how many buses they have feeding these kids out here and i was so proud that we're still doing that and anyone who needs food is able to get it during the summer and the second thing is um our own christian eddie was recognized by jackson magazine if you give jack's magazines a great picture of her and a wonderful story about the difference she's made in jps with her enthusiasm and her excitement and her contacts with everyone and she's everywhere and everybody knows who she is but i thought that was really nice that jack's magazine focused on her and what she has done for our district and the last thing is a personal thing in 46 years i have had somebody in school at jackson public schools
037and my last one graduated last june and i don't have to get school stuff 46 years gps okay thank you um i too would like to congrats jessica and destiny on your new position so that's very exciting and there is just so much excitement around the district with um like we've said with all the construction and everyone getting excited from the kindergartners to the you know the freshmen my daughter's at the middle school she's very excited son in kindergarten so for my own kids and then hearing from other parents too and seeing the facebook post it's just very exciting for the start of the year mr beale yeah actually i really just want to talk very quickly on the open houses and this is just a resource for our parents if you have a not
038enrolled your student yet please do come down and see us we'll help you get the paperwork but if you come to our open houses and you follow us on social media on facebook you can check our websites for next monday tuesday the the various open houses at your elementary transportation will be there food service will be there uh school staff will be there to help take care of all of those anxiety issues so that you know where the bus is going to be what time the bus is going to be you know how to go through the lunch line you know you you know that those things are taken care of before the school year starts with that being said that's all i have for the month of august it's going to be a great
039year and i look forward to seeing all of you next week okay thank you anything else all right uh number 10 there's no new business uh number 11 just the calendar um like we've already said august 22nd um all the staff is welcomed back at jackson high school at 11 30. so that's very exciting that's already monday and then our regular um board meeting in september is the 20th and that will be back here at parkside at 5 45. um so at this time i would entertain a motion for adjournment thank you pam thank you shalonda any deliberation okay all those in favor say aye okay opposed motion carries thank you have a good night you