JPS Board Meeting - 04/19/22

001okay it is 5 45 so i will call the meeting to order and welcome you to our april board meeting number two is pledge of allegiance where's the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay number three is the roll call mrs oxley uh miss hamilton present mrs brown here mr white here miss hunt here mrs simonetti here mrs fitzgerald and mrs mitchell here okay number four is approval of the agenda so at this time i would entertain a motion for approval of the agenda i'm sorry i'm sorry who did the okay thank you any deliberation yes i'd like to make a um a motion to amend the agenda i

002need to take ca jps room rental um out of the consent agenda take a separate vote on that 22 21 yes 22 21-22-107 okay we okay we have a motion and a second any other deliberation i think we're amending the agenda so but i think let's vote on that that was the okay let's vote on this one and then if there's other things then we can so all those in favor moving the caa to an action item say aye aye opposed okay that motion carries and that's pulled out um any other deliberation um yes i would like to make a motion to remove uh the agenda item 21-22-115 jhs attendance policy okay is there a second second okay thank you aaron all those in favor of removing that from the agenda say hi discussion on

003action oh sorry discussion okay so give me a second i'm pulling myself up i didn't know what we're coming for okay so i'm saying uh no to removing the jackson high school attendance policy from the agenda some of the issues that have come up in regards to when board items when items have been added to the agenda from board members have been that they have been added late i addressed this concern in an email to the entire board letting them don't know that we get the agenda for this um we get the front of the agenda so we get like the first two pages of the agenda on wednesday generally speaking on friday we get the full packet um so we can't go through everything that's in the agenda and the package and et cetera

004to fully know what's going on until friday our meetings are on tuesday and we have saturday and sunday between there and a monday many of us work full-time jobs many of us have other responsibilities besides our full-time jobs and our families so i have mentioned to this board that them being understanding of when items are added to the agenda should be something that we do so i know that's one concern that has come up um so i'm saying we should keep this on the agenda but considering how this may go i do will i will address what this policy is because i asked for this attendance policy to be added to this agenda um just about i guess about two or three weeks two weeks ago i guess this is um april 19th about two

005weeks ago um i got a robo call regarding my son being tardy from a school and in that robocall the message was rather offensive and punitive in nature and so i immediately sent some emails to jeff and this the board president to address the nature of this call i asked a few questions that speak to my lingering concerns about this tardy policy and how it doesn't align with our attendance policy and also our choice not to recognize the obvious impacts of um on students of color in this policy this tardy policy that they created um this also speaks to i apologize for my voice this also speaks to my comments that i've made uh consistently since i've been on this board i'm related to dei the coordinator which i spoke about last month a possible

006department and why these things are important so some of the questions that i asked how long has this policy been in place i was informed that these hall sweeps is with these tardies this tardy policy is designed to is the idea of it is hall sweeps um it's been occurring since april 11th um i asked what trends are we seeing specifically racially speaking with regard to this new policy that they've decided to implement without board um oversight without board voting et cetera and that is again in not in alignment with our um attendance policy which is why the attendant policy is on here the answer to that question specifically what trends are we speaking are we seeing i was given one day of trends which i asked for uh you know the full thing because

007you know and i in order to get trans you have to need to be able to compare i was only given one day but i'm still giving you the information for that one day the first day that this was uh implemented 47 students were swept up of the 47 students 28 of those students were black 24 of those 28 students were black males but the 34 students were all students of color so 34 of the 47 students were all students of color again 28 of those 47 were black and 24 of those 28 were black males i'm on that same day when this swept was taken nine more students or nine students um were kind of like repeat they got swept up again um of the nine students six were black and five were black

008males um so another question i asked is was this policy vetted through a dei lens it wasn't evidenced by the disproportionate impact on at least 28 students 28 black students and then of course like i said 24 of them were males the policy and the implement and the implementation of it was designed to create consequences for choices that work against the student's best interest while keeping them in school was the answer to a question that i asked you know what was the purpose of this policy what is it designed to accomplish what are we doing with this policy again the policy and its implementation the design of it was to design to create consequences for the choices um that these students are making that these students are making that are not in the best interest

009of their own education is what the uh statement was which again is misaligned with board policy and this information you can find um this part that i'm going to read right now in our handbook which is on our website um it says on our website in our handbook regarding our attendance policy being present in a classroom aids an instilling concept of self-discipline and exposes a student to group interactions with teachers and fellow students such presence also enables a student to hear and participate in class instruction discussion demonstration cooperative group activities spontaneous dialogue between two teacher and student performance tests audio visual presentations and student laboratory activities our handbook says that these are the benefits of our students being in class and yet this policy that we have it's been designed to create consequences for choices

010that work against the students best interest again so you are i should have mentioned this before the policy that was sent out according to our online the voicemail it says if your student get one and i'm not quoting it directly some of you who got it you know you might be able to quote it but the gist of it is a student gets one tardy as of second between second and sixth hour so first hours off the table second and sixth hour you get you get one tardy you're getting sent to the ist room which is we know it's in school basically detention um it doesn't matter how late you are how early in that lateness you are you're getting sent to this room for the entire uh portion of that class it doesn't these

011excuses are not you know excuses are not accepted i imagine that they might have some exceptions you know i've heard some different things that are also a little bit concerning but so the first time you get tired you go to this class the second time you are tardy for any of your classes the same day you go to this ist for the entire portion of that class it doesn't matter if you have you know 35 minutes less left of your class time 40 minutes left of your class time you have to go sit in this ist room the idea that we are choosing to implement a policy again that is out of alignment with our board policy and that also is out of alignment with uh written documentation that we have letting us know why

012it's so important for our students to sit in class is a concern for me so i brought this to the board for that i wanted this board to consider um the fact that these things are not aligning aside from the fact that you know all these things are what i've just already spoken of um the creation of a tardis policy that is misaligned with our board policy and handbook that's a problem um the creation of this tardy policy that is disproportionately impacting black males specifically and students of color in particular the mistruths and con confusion that cause that this causes in our students their families and how that hinders the quality education that jps promises to its stakeholders is another problem and then the other problem that i notice here is the impact that these

013students are feeling on their psyche to be forced to comply with with a policy that isn't concerned with understanding what reasons they're late to class which undoubtedly speak to the culture of education that jps is from their vantage point so again i you know i have six children i have four teenagers at home i am well aware of how teenagers create you know whatever they do in order to not be responsible or accountable to whatever okay um so i was a teenager once myself believe it or not i actually was um so i i know what we do at that time i also recognize because i've done extensive learning you know i'm grateful for many in the community who have uh you know done different things around trauma informed care you know aces study bridges

014bridges out of poverty all these different studies all the dei work that i do that our students when they are 15 16 14 13 you know these ages um they are not fully um in the place that they ought to be mentally they're not adults grappling with these things so we as the adults in this community need to be addressing them and dealing with them and engaging them in a way that that acknowledges the space that they are in as students in addition to the fact that most of these students who are being pulled up and swept up are black students that does something to our black students as a dei community you know we're up here at this board table we had a dei you know forum last night we're doing all the study

015in our community on dei you know with dr j marks nothing against him in any way shape or form but if we are going to be spending all this money we had an equity report four years five years ago with all these different things that we could do to address the disproportionate impacts of students of color if we're going to continue to create policies again that are misaligned with our board policies and choose to just implement them arbitrarily you know not concerned with how this is impacting our students in a from a dei lens then i'm not sure what we're doing as a board to uh provide extra actual quality education so my vote on this i didn't realize we were going to be doing this so soon so i apologize to you all who

016got you know you didn't get to hear the music first um but my vote on this would be a hard no as far as removing it from the pilots from the agenda because again i feel like this is the conversation this board needs to have my hope is that we will be able to kick this policy over to the uh the policy committee and that with dr j mark's help viewing this through a dei lens we will make sure that whatever attendance policy we come back and present is vetted through a dei lens and that it doesn't disproportionately impact any of our students thank you okay any other deliberation cheryl yes well i appreciate that there are some discrepancies between the robocall the high school policy the student handbook and the board policy the situation

017that we were made aware of a week ago is an individual school issue which is not within the scope of the board's practice so if we want to review the board policy on attendance and tardiness that goes to the committee level and does not need board approval in order to take it to committee okay erin i would say the last portion of what keisha said was was spot on as far as the actual process most of what she said would be very hard to disagree with as far as inadequate inadequacies with the actual policy but even more troublesome is when an individual incident happens at a school especially in this short period of time we're talking two weeks i think she said the incident happened with her own son about two weeks ago one of

018the incidents that brought to her attention you got mrs pierce i'm sorry if i missed out that you got mrs pierce principal of instruction for jackson high school with her support mrs curtis maybe there was some discrepancies on what they did but we have to allow them to be able to correct that issue at the school level and not take the wind out of their sails let them manage through the process and to her point at the end it should go to the policy committee where we take the full scope of the policy and do due diligence and work it back it could easily come back to the agenda as a discussion item and we work it properly that's the process we cannot overreact and put an agenda item on the meeting when something just

019happens let the schools the leaders that we hire to put in position let them work the process okay um so all right right now we have a motion on the table to remove um that item 21-22-115 from the agenda so i'm gonna let mrs oxley do a roll call vote on this uh miss hamilton no mrs brown no mr white yes miss hunt i support that this issue needs to go before the policy committee that's a yes okay mrs simonetti yes mrs fitzgerald yes and mrs mitchell yes okay motion carries that item is removed all right we are on number five superintendent's report so at this time i will pass it off to mr beale thank you very much welcome to the april uh meeting of the board of education uh we've got a lot

020on the agenda tonight and i'm going to start if i could by inviting mr willie lewis and monica pierce to the microphone and they're going to give us an update on jackson high school and pathways [Music] good evening all right good evening um can you hear me i still feel like you can't all up on the mic test test test test test do i need to testing what do you say just go ahead and start testing test tests can everyone hear me in the back all right i used to do the mic check at church so i could tell it wasn't all the way up thank you all right again good evening to our board and to our community and thank you for this opportunity just to share some of the great things that we

021have going on at jackson high and jackson pathways high school so our first piece that we wanted to share was our students who were part of a piano a student panel at the day of discovery at the isd and this is where they spoke about mental health awareness to a group of teachers so those educators were able to choose that session and our students did a great job we heard great reviews from everyone who attended that panel about how wonderful and honest our students were in that discussion i get to speak a little bit on a program that we brought to to jackson high it's called the avid program when we were when we take a hard look at our students we recognize um some of the disparities that we see in our upper divisional

022courses we look across our educational landscape and we notice that it doesn't always look like jackson high in all in every class and so um one of the things that we um we can see is that there are students that are missing and so the avid program which stands for advancement via individual determination helps to address that um what we what we do know about the avid program is that i mean what we know about our students is that they often um don't feel like the culture that they are in and the culture that's in those classes align with who they are and so we have to convince them at times that they are that they have a stake in that classroom and what avid does is it teaches the students in an elective class

023that we have on campus about themselves as learners but it also teaches them the skills and the ways in which that the language that happens in that classroom flows back and forth between students and between teachers what we also do at the same time is we educate our educators at the same time so the same educational practices that the students learn in that avid elective we're also teaching those same those same academic skills to our teachers so that they can use those skills in their classes and so when that kid that wasn't a part of the upper divisional class shows up in that classroom he goes or she goes this looks just like the same thing i did in my abbott class and it breaks down that barrier and it makes it that student feel

024like they have a place in a home in that classroom this year was our first year at it we had freshman and sophomore we tried to go we we went with ninth and tenth because we knew our ninth graders did not really have a school year so we wanted to jump right on them as well as our current 10th graders and then next year we have those students still in avid because it stays with you throughout your high school career and we now have 55 freshmen from parkside or eighth graders who have signed up to be a part of our avid program next year so we're excited about that and we have a meeting with parkside to talk about the avid program at parkside as well in the next couple days at jackson high school

025we also have our jackson county early college program and you can see our numbers here where we had in the fall 200 our students earn 265 college credits and in the first seven weeks of spring 84 students earned 117 credits you can see that there is a diverse group of students who are attending this program 49 students qualify for free and reduced lunch with 10 students having ieps or 504s and 74 students meeting guidelines for other at-risk factors so we are excited about the growth of the program and there's a parent meeting here at jackson high school on april 27th here in the library at six o'clock p.m for those who are interested in more information about the program congratulations just wanted to highlight some of our young poets who were participating in the jackson

026district library contest and these three students were winners with the titles of their their poems attached to their names yep so um we we have also introduced uh um what we call a system little success academy it's manhood training that we've um that we've developed because we began to notice the young men in our building when they came back to us after being on covet um we noticed some things about their behavior and about how they interacted that we knew that we needed to speak into and so myself and mr coffey had we reached out to all of our young men or a ton of our young men especially those that we knew were struggling with um interacting in the classroom or or how they were behaving in the hallways or they weren't making it

027to class on time or they weren't academically engaged like we thought we should and we wanted to give them some insight from our own perspective as especially as young as young men i think i can still call ourselves young men who who grew up you know who grew up in this in this space as well and to give them some insight into how to engage with each other how to leverage their relationships with each other other to to push themselves to be better and so we've spent a ton we spend every thursday for about an hour with these young men and helping them to to grow into the young men that they want to become we help them identify what success looks like and what they want success to look like for themselves but we

028also help them to understand what does it mean to be a what does it mean to grow into being a man um we bring in speakers and as a matter of fact we had jermaine merritt who was a part of the um reduced the violence summit he came in as a keynote speaker and spoke to our young man along with all of pathways so that was a part of the conversation that he came in and spoke with our our group about and then these young men um they were a part of the reduce the violence summit we took 31 young men to the summit they spent the whole day there and i'm going to say it was phenomenal watching our young men interact because they went and participated in each of the breakout sessions and

029they were able to provide a perspective on what they thought we as an adult should be doing to reduce the violence in our communities it was invaluable as i walked back into the main area i had at least 16 people stop me to congratulate us on how our young men behaved themselves and how they presented the ideas and what they thought was uh was important for us to take into consideration in that form so we're happy about the success academy and how we're going to grow out of that just a shout out to mr lewis and mr coffee for making that dream a reality for me because i didn't feel that i was you know as qualified as them to run that program but it is running and it's working well for our young men

030so um our next highlight is our southeastern conference academic award winners and these students are our top students in the class of 2022 and they will be acknowledged tomorrow at an academic awards banquet in ann arbor so i'll speak a little bit about them tomorrow give a short bio so we're proud of our students and their hard work our next piece say yes to the dress we have done this event once before and this is born out of our community closet another portion of our school where we speak to our students as a whole child and the students who are in need of anything can go to our community closet during lunch twice a week and they can pick up hygiene items food products notepads writing utensils backpacks anything they need and the community closet

031parents decided that they wanted to have this event and so this is the second say yes to the dress so students from jackson high school and jackson pathways high school are able to come on friday from 2 30 to 4 o'clock in the cafeteria and pick a prom dress at no cost to them the first again the first event was so exciting the young ladies were down there trying on the dresses and the lady who brought the dresses in who donated them is also doing all of the altering of the dresses for them so this is an event that we're excited about all right pathways i get to speak just on all of that was uh jackson high and pathways this is pathway specific um okay so pathways uh one of the things that we're

032we have been excited about is our credit recovery model that we've created that we've leveraged um because of the pandemic we moved into using google classroom as a platform for how we how we um engage with our students and what we realized is that that that took down a barrier when it came to our credit recovery process and so what we have learned to do is that if a student failed a course in in a previous trimester all of that work is still available for that student and so we have a class now where the stu where we ask the teacher to open that class back up and instead of having them restart the inc the whole class over again we're asking the students to go back in and master the content they didn't master

033the first time and that's been uh a game changer for our students at pathways it's actually changed the direction in terms of how we're able to get these students back on track even quicker because now they're not having to do a whole trimester they can do the the final we're forcing them you have to go back and do the final exam you have to go do these tests over and the students are happy about taking that process rather than jumping on the e2020 okay um the we have a speaker series that we bring in um a bunch of speakers and one of them was jermaine merritt as i spoke about before we've had monica mosher from jackson community foundation we've had jtv in and these are all folks that the students have asked about about

034things that they're interested in and so we bring in folks that that are connected to the ideas that they want to know we also have been creating things in pathways and i know you guys the the stuff is on the screen behind you but there's oh you can see it the backpacks that are there those uh those were created and curated by students at jackson pathways and they were sold as a fundraiser to jackson high school and jackson pathway students they were able to buy the backpacks for uh 16 to 20 some odd dollars depending on how how personalized you have and then you can see the little 3d the 3d dinosaur there there's some foldable movable toy that um that they're able to create with the 3d printers that we have downstairs and pathways

035as well we're continuing to work with youthbuild that's a program that helps our students get certifications and they build a house and learn building skills in the community we had three students who graduated from pathways from that program with a bunch of different certifications this year we have a partnership with tops which is a teen outreach program and we've done community service weeks after weeks after weeks this year where our students are getting out in the community and doing community service through that program our students have been involved with we now have a cohort of students that are part of the ready set jet program which is a summer bridge program for our students that are pathway students that are going to go to um jc in the summer so antoine breedlove was met with

036our students we have a group that is going this summer to be a part of that program and then finally we have this in the works we have we're meeting in with jackson college right now to build out uh an early college model within within pathways but the focus will be on um on skilled trades and some more practical hands-on coursework so right now we have on the works networking is a pr is a possible course course load um esports management health occupations and then finally light manufacturing or or um construction now what the way that this is set up and the way that we're trying to design it they will be in our building from eight until until 10 30 and because of the way jackson college sets up their courses by the end

037of the year the students will end up with 20 college credits by the end of the year if they work through the program while they're on our campus and then walk away with credentials that they can stack and work in the field that they choose all right okay jack we also have been sending mentors over um this is not a throwaway comment this is this is this is something we're really proud of we've we've worked to connect with hunt and sending kids over those students that don't have a first hour because they've worked hard enough that they've earned the ability not to wake up early they are now taking on the charge of going over during their first hour or second hour and going over the hunt and mentoring two two students over at hunt

038now which has been something that we've been working on all year and we finally got it up and running and we're pretty proud to see our students over there all right the vikings versus the bulldogs our students in our self-contained classes were able to have a basketball game against the bulldogs from lao torrent and it was just exciting to see them out there and they had cheerleaders they had concessions it was such a wonderful event they're going to do three games per year now instead of just the one we also did an easter egg hunt our advanced house students are role models for our younger vikings so they had a day where they went over and they planned out and hosted an easter egg hunt for our students at sharp park there was also one

039done at hunt school for from our pathways students here are some of our ceo challenge winners our ceo students participate in a program through junior achievement where they're able to sharpen their creative and critical thinking team building and leadership skills and these are some of our students who were winners in in that activity uh just a quick picture of kyla johnson we had the jackson college mlk dinner in january and she was speaking as a representative for the jackson college men of merit and sisters of strength leadership team that we have here at jackson high school uh kayla i'm sorry if i said kyla kayla is one of our seniors who is graduating this year and she has been in the program kudos to jeremy patterson for creating this program and this connection and network

040with the college way back when they were in eighth grade four years ago and they've continued on in this program that is now carried over into jackson high school for our students to be part of esports all right mr hunt is our esports coach he's a he's one of our instructors here um just a quick um just a quick thumbnail the esports team they actually compete in three different teams uh or three different video games uh the one is overwatch another is rocket league and then another is smash smash super smash bros you can't say brothers because then you sound like you're old don't do that bros um and then uh those the overwatch team they they won a bunch of games but they were kicked they were knocked out of the playoffs in the

041first round our uh smash super smash bros teams they did really well we have one one group that was five and one another that was four and two and then our rocket league um we have an a team and a b team and they're actually competing at grand valley on the 28th of this month up at grand gvsu so we're excited to see them compete and just right before our last piece just speaking to what a great job our orchestra did before they left i know we didn't have time to give them kudos but they did a wonderful job kelly spleer is our orchestra teacher and she just recently came to us from from montrose so i just wanted to make sure that i did acknowledge acknowledge them lastly our graduation day just highlighting some

042of our activities that are upcoming um we're excited to host our in-person junior and senior prom on may 21st and our baccalaureate and then our honors convocation and graduation this year we're having a senior banquet on the day of graduation for all of our jps graduates so scmv pathways and jackson high students will come together and have the last supper per se right and then alicia dominique will be our speaker she's a class of graduate so we're excited about our graduation day thank you very much [Applause] don't disappear i want to take a couple minutes and just appreciate the uh the information that you shared thank you very much for all that you do are there any questions real quick on the presentation this evening yeah still want one question um the speaker alicia dominique

043is this new this year to have a speaker for commencement are the students still going to be like last year what is she doing so this is not new uh this is something i think there were a couple years we didn't have a speaker just because of kovid so we had tahata which i can't gentahata i can't remember the year but students will be still be speaking thank you that was my main question thank you and i just wanted to say thanks for your presentation and i have a son at sharp park and he loved the egg hunt that was put on so thanks i heard all about it thank you all right thank you very much um if i could i'd like to welcome up the the former principal for instruction here at jackson

044high school um barbara baird paulie she is a associate professor out at spring arbor university and she is going to talk with us about um an exciting opportunity that we partnered with spring arbor with regards to student teachers we're actually here for a couple of reasons i don't think anybody is foreign to the stressors that have been on our educators for the last two years uh we recognize we're in the third school year of this but calendar year it's two years and i have a strong professional and personal belief that when we know the stressors that our schools are under uh when we have an opportunity to extend appreciation then we have a responsibility to extend that appreciation that's why we're here tonight with me is sarah galloway who is a sophomore at spring arbor

045she's an early childhood major with a reading minor and an endorsement seeking in urban education i always want to put urban studies but urban education and so our appreciation is multi-tiered in the last couple of years it's been difficult to get into schools and one of the core requirements for our education classes at spring arbor are site-based hours so that our students are in classrooms from the very beginning of their education through to their student teaching and so my first appreciation is just allowing us to come into classrooms being amongst students allowing our students to teach lessons develop lessons and working alongside of experienced teachers the other appreciation is the partnership that we've established in terms of having student teachers here again working alongside of experienced teachers who demonstrate mastery of practices and our students

046are learning great practices from the teachers here in jps in january i was mentioning this to pam when i first came in i learned a new term we have the j term which is a semester course taught in 13 days and part of that course in diversity is placing our students into classrooms so that they're able to see and experience what diversity looks like and that diversity looks like things that sometimes are very visibly diverse other times not visible at all for example students perhaps with special education needs social economic differences just learning style differences and so in january within that 13 days we made five school visits and amongst those school visits we were at dibble parkside and i should be more official the middle school at parkside and jackson high school and what

047our students walked away with were the following we are amazed at the amount of technology that's being used by teachers that's being used by students and it's not a mystery that a teacher coming in at 20 or 22 to 30 has a whole different perspective on technology use than a teacher who has been in the classroom for 25 30 years the exposure is different and what our students walked away with was it didn't matter whose classroom we were in they were using technology effectively and they were learning things that they hadn't seen before current practices that they're learning in class were very evident inside the classroom it didn't matter which building we were in practices such as brain breaks and the creative way that teachers were using brain breaks posting of learning intentions and integrating

048that within their lessons visible transitions throughout a lesson and throughout the days and understand that they were in on average four to five classrooms in that five to six hour time period that we were here interactive lesson delivery not just teacher-dominated but student-driven instruction visibility of administrators in the lunchroom they were particularly amused over at dibble and at parkside and walked away with my goodness i was in high school for four years i don't know if i ever saw my administrator in the cafeteria and they were there visible interacting and how comfortable the kids were it was kind of cute devil they came up and sat with us and wanted us to make sure that they knew that they were double students and the presence of routines and procedures and again these are practices that

049they are learning as education students are important to well-run schools and well-run classrooms a huge focus on relationships noting how well teacher student interactions played out very naturally as well as the focus on academics inclusion practices were evident they were walking into classrooms where it was very evident that there were certain students with special needs included very easily into the day-to-day instruction for all students what was really impressive to me and anybody who knows me knows that my heart and soul are in this school and in this district and from the students i had doing site hours in the fall this is my first year full time at spring arbor so that's why i say the fall and the j term and the present term every building we have been in students come back saying

050i can see myself teaching in that school that's exciting to me as a former employee of jps as and i did not graduate from jackson high but i feel like it's my my second home that they see themselves wanting to teach in our district and i say our district and that's one of the reasons sarah is here because sarah was in my j term and since j term we're now on our spring term i call it winter but spring term and site hours continue and as a result of her experience in j term chose schools within jps to come and continue her site hours so i'm going to hand the microphone over to sarah thank you i am here today to talk about my experience as i've been able to work in several different school

051districts different different schools as mr probably has mentioned and the two that i'm currently working at is cascades elementary with mrs simpson and mr pyle at middle school at parkside and both of those experiences have been absolutely wonderful and you have two amazing teachers that you have on staff and i have been able to work hands-on both these teachers and i've been absolutely blown away i know that i'm able to have experience with other teachers through my j-term but these two i've worked with the most so i'm going to speak to those two primarily today so i was in my j-term class in mrs perfole's class and i was able to meet mr pyle and i was absolutely blown away when i walked in the classroom his ability to collaborate with the students and his

052relationships with the students just it just put me in awe like i could not believe how much he really puts into his class and into his students and so with working with him for the last several weeks i have been able to learn hands-on experience through him and through his practices that i know they're going to stay with me while i continue as a future educator and i also have learned great classroom management as someone who's really wanting to work in an urban setting school i think that he is a great mentor to me and i have been able to learn so much about what it takes to really be a teacher in this type of school and in the setting it's not easy it's definitely going to take lots of time and effort to

053figure out the right strategy and right practices by working with mentors like mr pyle and mrs simpson i know that i'm getting the best education so thank you for allowing me to work with those too for mrs simpson i have been able to connect with her through some of my friends have actually worked at cascades previously it was not one of the schools that i was able to work at through j term but i've been able to make connections and i just have absolutely loved my experience as cascades mrs simpson has been teaching kindergarten for several years and kindergarten is probably one of my favorite age groups to work with i know call me crazy but it is just so much fun and those students just bring so much life to my whole entire world

054and i just absolutely love it and she's been a great mentor for me as well as just showing me what it takes to be able to teach kindergarten will also be in my ideal grade so she has a great ability to differentiate for each of her students and the individualized instruction and just giving them exactly what they need and i hope that when i am able to have my own classroom one day i'm able to do just as fantastic of a job as mrs simpson does for her students like i said you have two amazing teachers in this building or in this district and i know that other buildings you do as well and i look looking forward to my future observations and being able to work at other jps schools so thank you for

055your time and thank you for listening to us today thank you sarah so again we just appreciate the opportunity and to be live in classrooms and what's been really reinforcing for our students it's what we're teaching day to day and i just heard a student say this last week and it's like music to your ears when you're an educator i'm beginning to make the connections between what i'm reading what i'm studying and what i'm experiencing and so again thank you to the district uh and thank you to the teachers who have allowed us to come into the classrooms with open arms and sarah represents the next generation of teachers and as i describe it the next leader of the next generation of leaders coming through our classrooms so thank you thank you very much all

056right before you disappear are there any questions comments or follow-up thank you so very much we are very appreciative of our partnership with spring harbor university uh thank you and we look forward to seeing your students in our classrooms all right uh dr patterson uh superintendent patterson i should say again um congratulations uh but if you could give us a quick secondary update that would be great sure thank you mr bill just like to thank mrs pierce and mr lewis for a wonderful report on jackson high school and for taking half of my secondary report today so this um i'll be brief here i'm just a shout out to jen copp and science teacher at 4th street learning center she has been nominated as good things going teacher of the month for may she was

057presented with a plaque and will be highlighted on jtv for all of the great things that she brings to jps and 4th street learning center challenge day is coming to middle school at parkside on monday april 25th approximately 80 students seventh grade students will be participating in the power powerful event to help students stop teasing violence and alienation of young students that they can experience in school so those that have experienced challenge day it's always such a powerful event and students i get a lot of that out of that day and we're excited to have it right at middle school at parkside mr lewis talked about on the guest speaker jermaine juice merit he also spoke at 4th street learning center again he talked to students about the importance of growing and improving their mindset

058on connecting with people who are doing positive things and never giving up on themselves so it was great that uh he continued those talks at 4th street learning center as well parkside 7th graders were amazing at junior achievement reality career fair i know mrs hamilton and ourselves got to stop in the library and see that in action our community volunteers were very complimentary about our students all day long on thursday april 14th the students enjoyed a hands-on learning experience with job selection monthly income student loans personal expenses credit budgeting and other real world scenarios shout out to 7th grade teachers carrie beal and becky wood for for facilitating this opportunity it was a great event to see the kids all in action and going to those different booths so and then spread the word new

059student orientation at parkside will be held at on tuesday april 26th at 6 pm beginning in the auditorium new students and families have the an opportunity to hear about that exciting opportunities at parkside meet and greet with staff and tour the building this is a great opportunity for incoming sixth graders and in other new families to learn uh more about parkside with an up close and personal visit so as a previous principal at parkside it was always a great to see the new faces come in and and get them acclimated to middle school at parkside so thanks to mr patterson and and the staff to to making that happen so with that if there's any questions i'd be happy to all right thank you so very much dr harrison we appreciate that and all the

060great things that are happening in our secondary miss baker uh your elementary update for the month of april good evening board members and community members always exciting things happening in elementary school obviously um so some of the highlights that are happening um we have spring is always the time that mileage club starts up so in a lot of our buildings if you go there at recess time you're going to see kids walking and getting their feet we have true community credit union locations opening up in many or that have opened up in many of our elementary buildings we got the first two of our student fishbowls finished uh yesterday with dr marks and i got to see a portion of each of those and that was very very exciting to see kids um utilizing their

061voice and and talking about um you know what their experience is like in our schools um in two of our schools we had some jackson district library young poet winners um lucas shaney in first grade at dibble and sean williams also in first grade at dibble we had a couple of students also at sharp park olivia hyler in third grade and haddon bauman in fifth grade and you may you heard a little piece about this but a great easter egg activity happened this this following or this past week with jackson high school and pathways students at sharp park so some really some really cool things happening in our building um jps montessori if you've never seen a family dance before um it is the most wonderful thing we uh we did one a few years

062ago at montessori and they they've they're doing the new one they're doing one now we weren't able to do it because of kovid but i mean a bubble machine fog machine and it's mom and dad and all the kids in the family just with with a dj and it's the most awesome thing so we're really excited to see some of the things we're able to come back and do um another thing that's happening in all seven of our buildings our elementary buildings is is kindergarten roundup season again and so it has looked quite different for the last three years we have a number of our partners that come in from the community department of health and human services the jackson county health department center for family health ymca the jackson district library transportation there are

063all kinds of services available to our parents when they come in so they can get vision and hearing screening done they can check on vaccinations while they're there um we have this really cool thing that got started back when we all had to wear masks that was called the the skill pack the skill pack for food so if you've never been in a cafeteria the first couple of weeks of school it's the most horrible thing when the kindergarteners are trying to learn how to open their food so we send those things home with parents a few of those items to kind of show them what they should practice on over the summer just to make life a little easier this year we're adding an english language learners table for parents of students that are english

064language learners and so we'll be able to give information about programs at sharp park and at northeast we have a lot of giveaways bikes t-shirts that say class of 2035 class of 2036 for young fives masks that say jps and lots of great photo ops so exciting things happening and i just really also wanted to bring attention to we had a really great um district uh parent and family event that happened recently april 16th at the michigan theater we had a morning at the movies and we had a group of families that took advantage of that came in it was free admission and they also got popcorn and pop and got to watch the movie um disney earth so thank you for your time thank you very much any questions or follow up for miss

065baker lots of things going on miss janet you want to wrap us up here uh for the month of april i do thank you very much for everyone who's here tonight um just wanted to give a shout out to dr marks and everyone who attended the community forum last night we look forward to more of those community forums and even more people attending we appreciated the feedback that we got and also the um just the the the whole entire evening was a great way for us to express a lot of different viewpoints and we appreciated everyone who was there to do that just on a side note take a note that we are we did a series a new series on jtv and we are interviewing a number of parents throughout the district to talk

066about their experiences with jps our first one came out with christy dillon our parent liaison and there are many many more parents that we have interviewed and even in there we got jen coppin because we're pretty excited about her greenhouse that she started over there our june 9th is a half day for all students and that we just announced it was a half day for our older kids but now it's a half day for the entire district and that day will be the jps staff picnic and i would just like to say that i sent out about 45 emails to our community partners to those folks who might be interested in donating gifts and prizes for our teachers and our staff who have been through a lot this will be the first time that we've

067done our jps picnic in two years because of the pandemic and we absolutely love these celebrations in the beginning of the year and at the end of the year and i have been overwhelmed with donations of some really exciting prizes and people who just really want to celebrate our staff and how proud they are of our staff and the hard work that they've done this year in fact it's overwhelming just the comments that we've gotten so i look forward to hearing from some more people with some more exciting things but we have lots of fun things like tiger tickets and fair concert tickets and just an amazing amount of donations that came from all different vendors who work with jps on a regular basis who are just proud to be part of this community with

068us so i did want to just note that and finally i just want to remind everybody that we did embark this year on an oral history project which is a little bit different than the directory that we've done in years past uh we did the last our last directory was in 2015 so and the only really way for us to be able to do this is to be contacted um you know to to work with a company on this we simply just don't have the staff and the manpower to be able to uh you know horn you know get all these addresses and information from the graduates since j jackson high started so this project in particular is with jackson high school we do not have a commitment with parkside at this point we have

069been unable to find a company who would be willing to compile that information for us and no database exists at this time simply because the school is no longer in um in service so if there is somebody who would like to do that i'm all ears but right now we're working with jackson high everyone would have gotten a uh or number of you have gotten a postcard and it is an oral history project and what we've really heard from our alumni is they would like to tell their stories and i get on a weekly basis a number of stories and we would really like to highlight what is happening with our jackson high graduates you would be amazed at what happens with so many folks who leave our our doors here and go on to

070some very successful fun things so um this oral history project they are compiling stories and if you are interested you certainly can participate by calling the 800 number or checking out our social media pages for the actual 800 number now do understand that somebody has to make money on this project so don't be surprised when they try to sell you the book but it's not required for you to be in the oral history book but it is a pretty interesting um compilation of many years of a lot of great jackson high viking stories that we're very interested in hearing about so that is like a two-year process so i wouldn't expect anything soon on that i just wanted to make the community aware that we are aware that these postcards went out and my name

071is signed on those so it is something that you can respond to if you're interested or respond to if you have um information about the person that it was sent to so we appreciate the help it takes a long time to compile this much information and and any help that anybody can give is very appreciated awesome thank you very much doesn't have any questions before we close out and uh if not then that concludes the superintendent's report for the month of april okay thank you mr beale we are on number six the consent agenda so at this time i would entertain a motion for approval of the consent agenda support thank you libby thank you shlonda any deliberation okay all those in favor say aye opposed okay motion carries okay next we are on number

072seven citizens requesting to address the board and first i would like to acknowledge that you will no longer see a delegate to speak as a delegation as an option on here this was removed because after reviewing our board policy it is not included in there so i apologize for the error was a clerical error but we must abide by the board policy i also wanted to read before we start a few reminders on our board policy that was revised november 16th 2020 participants must be first recognized by the presiding officer and will be requested to come to the table i'll say your name each statement made by a participant shall be limited to five minutes so i'll put my timer on when it dings if you could just please stop because your five minutes are

073up and we have a lot of speakers the presiding officer may interrupt warn or terminate a participant session when they make comments that are repetitive obscene and or comments that constitute a true threat or more specified persons into believing that they will be seriously harmed by the speaker or someone acting at the speaker's best fiest request any individual to stop speaking and or leave the meeting when that person behaves in a manner that is disruptive of the orderly conduct and or orderly process of the meeting and request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when the person's conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting so those are just some reminders so i will call you up one at a time and you have five minutes so the

074first person i would like to welcome up is mike mason good evening can you hear me okay how's that is that okay good evening my name is uh mike mason uh i was hired by jps in 1998. i taught at jackson high as an english teacher then history teacher then became the impact coach at parkside for six years and now i'm back in the classroom teaching sixth and seventh grade english i'm here tonight representing two people community member a community member who lives and pays taxes in the city of jackson and as an employee of jps as a community member i'd like to speak about the bond and how the money has been managed as an employee i'll speak about what i experienced under mr beale's leadership over the last eight years as a member

075of this community i voted for the 90 million dollar bond for the school district and i wanted to thank mr beale and the school board members who had pardoned overseeing the project i'm amazed at how mr beale the school board and central office has been such an excellent steward of the money the community gave you thank you for contracting with local companies when possible thank you for being open and transparent on the project timeline where the money was spent thank you for making sure that the job is being completed and done well i've witnessed firsthand how mr beal dr patterson and mr patterson combed the building in which i work to make sure everything is done correctly and finally thank you for making jackson a beautiful city my wife and i walked the city and

076loved to see the beautiful school buildings in every neighborhood across jackson this was a huge undertaking and mr beale and the school board did it with collaboration and care thank you again as an employee of jps i want to thank you mr beale for your strong leadership over the past eight years you've given me a sense of security and calm that has created a great work environment thank you mr beale for overseeing a 55 million dollar budget with complete transparency you've been open and honest on how the money spent you negotiated pay raises when possible you avoided layoffs impossible thank you for creating a sense of peace and calm by managing the money so well thank you mr beale for all the learning opportunities you brought to the district that had a direct impact on

077the classroom thank you for the professional development on data driven instruction that helped us use the student data to create lessons in our classroom with purpose thank you for the professional development on visible learning this initiative helped us build student efficacy and incorporated classroom strategies that had the highest impact thank you for the equity and inclusion training the race forward training and the training with dr marks has been valuable in self-reflection and ongoing work that is necessary to build a more inclusive and equitable school district and finally thank you for the strong leadership you provided with the transition to remote learning during the pandemic thank you mr veal for giving us the tools we needed to meet the challenges we faced when forced to teach and learn from home thank you mr beale for giving

078us the opportunity to work collaboratively with you and central office to develop the plan for remote learning and finally thank you mr beale for consistent communication and encouragement throughout these challenging times in conclusion again i want to thank you for your for the leadership you provided that created a sense of calm security and hope watching you and the school board work together over the past years in such a successful way makes me proud to be an employee of jackson public schools i look forward to working under your leadership for many more years to come thank you okay uh next up is joe cranmore i'm going to be very very brief um been paying attention kind of what's been going on here oh sorry i've been paying attention obviously in the newspaper i'm live see the

079news here tonight um i'm not here to say anything other than it's not on don't pick it up there we go much better i just want here to show some support for mr beale the other board members obviously you guys have disagreements we need things to work through and those take time but again you've got support out there whether you know it or not if we need to uh i guess get some of these things out in the light and discuss them i think that's great i think there are ways to do that but i think we're heading in the right direction the change that i've seen here since 1990 are impressive and i look forward to what happens in the future thank you okay next up we have um jessica barlow and if you

080could just hold the hold the mic close okay can you hear me can anyone hear me yeah just talk loud in the mic close there all right thank you um good evening everyone so um a little nervous just gonna start with that um also i was a 2006 graduate from jackson high so i'm very saddened to even be in front of you to discuss what my concern is not only for my child but for other children who may be experiencing the same thing i feel that there is a concern for increased violence at parkside so on april 7th there was an incident that occurred with my son involving thumbtacks he was i don't know what word i should use but i want to say stabbed because it pierced his skin five times in the back

081so this is more about accountability and making sure that situations are rectified and handled appropriately i did research on the policies in particular 5507.01 which addresses anti-bullying falls under the anti-harassment as well so the process a through d was not handled appropriately the complainant should be giving the interview first mrs jarvie handled that i reported it on the 8th to mrs jarvie before 8 am where carter was unable that's my son's name to give his statement he was at home with me i kept him home so she instead went backwards with that process she took statements which i feel is not an appropriate word to use for sixth graders especially when parents are not involved which is also addressed in the handbook under parental involvement so she questioned um a substitute teacher that day and

082two other students and then also the respondent prior to my child um then called me back and basically it would have just been a debate so at that point i was not comfortable with how it was handled so i made the choice to enroll him through south central virtual learning m steps are coming up i made that very clear that that was one of my major concerns for him so i was referred to them which i'm under the impression is still part of jackson public schools so i enrolled him that day which was the eighth then returned the chromebook to parkside in person with my child where i met with mr patterson my son gave what i would believe was a statement as he was writing things down on a notepad we gave the child's

083name we discussed other issues prior to that he gave the kid's name in full who did that to him i showed him his actual back i have pictures of it um so i was referred to the virtual place under the impression he could still complete this year and take his m-steps so come wednesday the following week week which was the 13th i had to follow up with the school about his enrollment where i was informed that they do not offer m steps for sixth graders so i think that's very important for the board to know as well because they're referring students to a program that he could not even take state testing at then i called so i followed chain of command i spoke to mrs jarvie mr patterson i then called the superintendent's office

084i spoke with william patterson at that point and i had notified him and a follow-up call from jeremy patterson that he was unable to take these tests i asked for information about an incident report and was told that they were unable to give me any information unless i re-enrolled him so basically i have no information if an incident report was done there was no officer liaison that contacted me so yesterday i filed a police report where officer i want to say dutch check maybe called me i just feel that everything has been swept under and undermined as far as the magnitude of it i'm not sure i believe it's number 31 and 32 in the code of conduct that addresses dangerous weapons this is a tack so it is a sharp object five times in

085his back and nothing was done and now my child is on day nine of zero academics and i have to pull him into a school district that i do not want to take him to but i do not believe he is safe and if we're allowing this at sixth grade with zero follow-up unless i re-enroll him i'm concerned for what is going to be allotted by high school thank you sorry your time's up okay mr beale will follow up with you okay next up dennis mitchell hello uh my name is dennis mitchell and i'm uh attending the meeting tonight to show support for the leadership at jackson public schools during the summer of 2018 my wife and i volunteered to go door-to-door advocating for the proposed 86.7 million dollars school bond through that experience we

086met many positive people who spent their valuable time doing something that they thought was good for all the children that attend jackson public schools we attended the election party to watch as results came in from the bond we celebrated as it became more and more apparent that the community trusted mr beale and the team he put in place uh to update the existing schools and even open two new elementary schools that is a huge vote of confidence when a community votes to pay more taxes with only a plan of how a school system intends to use that money to make the system better there were many people watching the results come in that night and there was such a great feeling of community as we all felt as though we did our share to make

087jackson public schools the best it can be today we should be more excited about the future of jackson public schools when the bond is passed it's only a promise that more money will be injected into the school budget the real work begins after the passing of the bond since that night almost every school has been updated and has enhanced safety we have a beautiful new aquatic center that is being utilized by the whole community a new elementary school built out of an aging underutilized building and a brand new cascades elementary school that is the nicest school building in the county all of this has been done within the timeline that was initially proposed and it was done within the budget that was originally proposed those things are not easy to do in construction i am

088a contractor and i know that even a kitchen or bathroom remodel is tough to complete on budget and on time so it is an incredible feat on its own but then add in a global pandemic in the middle of this to shut down everything for months and may material prices skyrocket many times amazing accomplishments go unnoticed because the people that are responsible for more that are responsible are more focused on the goals than the credit this is the exact reason that as a proud viking it makes me upset to sit back and watch as unsubstantiated accusations are so easily thrown around in 2018 the community as a whole overwhelmingly sent its message of support to this school system and mr beal through the bond election the results are clear public jackson public schools are far

089better today than the day that we all celebrated the results of that bond election jackson public schools will be far better in years to come if we don't let the naysayers and accusers hijack our school system we need to focus on where we want to be and leave the negativity behind us as we continue to move forward it is time for our community to stand up and support our school board our superintendent and the entire team that all work so diligently on a daily basis to always make it a great day to be a viking thank you thank you next up tim levy good evening uh i am tim levy um former board member wife and i are both graduates of jackson high school as our as our were our four daughters so um been

090around for a little bit so i was a co-chair along with brian and carrie glick harold white and sarah richmond of the 2018 87 million dollar bond issue in our role we met with and presented the district's case to many many groups in the community we talked we listened and we endorsed this project because we all believe in our district and we all know that this would enhance the life of lives of kids not just within jps but in the entire community so almost four years has passed since the bond was passed so much has changed it becomes hard to imagine wisner street without a new cascades or clark street without a john or lewis elementary or jackson high without the new aquatic center these are things that we only dreamed about when i was

091on the board but it was a vision that jeff beale had for a long long time leaders like mr beale are rare in the are a rare commodity these days his skill set is is in high demand his belief in our kids in our community is evident to anyone he has talked to mr al glick a leader with few peers believed in mr beale in his vision for jps proof of his belief is right over there every time i spoke to mr glick he always asked how jps was doing and he always expressed his gratitude that jeff beale was still a jps he knew that these changes would not have happened without him so speaking on behalf of my fellow board chairs we simply want it known that we believe in jeff beale we believe

092in the work that he has done and in the vision he has for jps and there are many many people in the community who feel the same way and i believe that most of you feel as we do it is concerning to us that all the good work that has been done by you and by many others who have come before you can be harmed by the voices of a few i would implore you to find a united voice so that our district can continue to move forward and take advantage of all the great things that have happened in the past four years to do otherwise would be a grave disservice to our kids and to our community thank you uh next up joanna perkins i'm joanna perkin retired jackson public schools teacher english chair

093and building committee chair of 23 years at the last board meeting 12 individuals myself included 10 of whom are former jps employees one education consultant with the isd and one student came forward or were represented concerning their personal experiences of retaliation abuse lies and harassment at the hands of superintendent beal yet you as a board didn't even feign concern there was no we will look into these claims or we take this very seriously instead you responded with saying i'm disappointed in the public disappointed in the community and don't believe everything you hear on facebook what does facebook have to do with 12 victims coming forth 10 of whom were physically present following those aloof statements board members angela mitchell erin white sharon molletti shalonda hunt endorsed beals superintendent beals lies to the public and as

094quoted on multiple news outlets we are confident that the allegations brought forth in the meeting have been successfully vetted and investigated in the past mr mitchell said in a statement superintendent bill was also quoted as saying the victims who came forth at the board meeting are disgruntled employees with poor evaluations not a single investigation of a single thing brought forth from 12 victims in the last month's board meeting or brought forth during any of our employ has been vetted or investigated as you have collectively stated and continued to support u.s board chose not to look into any information brought forth instead you supported his lives without taking a single moment to access any information supporting those claims in fact as of late i filed we filed a foia request but the district has failed to

095produce any such reports those reports absolutely do not exist you as a board has supported these lies not a single one of us has poor evaluations the superintendent bill continues to publicly claim and speaking for myself as a former teacher of the year i have a record of not only impeccable evaluations but in fact highly effective and glowing quite the antithesis of superintendent's bo retaliatory lies however instead of taking the time to look into very easily accessible information you as a board immediately and publicly co-signed superintendents feels utter and despicable lies you have went from enabling his lies lawlessness abuse and retaliation to being lawless retaliators yourselves you have allowed superintendent bill to harass former hr director nicole johnson into the ground refused to look into her claims of harassment and her claim of superintendent

096beal having used the n-word in its entirety with witnesses you refused to look into multiple whistleblowers of beal having had sex with several students in quincy schools i'm disgusted and embarrassed for you you have allowed this man with a consistent and incessant track record of abuse towards women to conveniently rid of the former hr director whom he harassed and conveniently laid off and hire himself as hr director and foia coordinator at a sixty thousand dollar raise thereby eliminating all checks and balances so all roads lead back to him one victim should be enough for you to get to give you pause and concern yet a board member a principal a union president an hr director education consultant english chair building committee chair and a myriad of teachers all credible professionals with long-standing and impressive careers

097were all represented at the last board meeting with their experiences of abuse at the hands of superintendent beale yet that you sat there unmoved unbothered and on your phones several more victims including teacher of 30 years and another union leader will be represented here today regarding the abuse they experienced from superintendent beal you are disappointed in the community cheryl simonetti really it is the community who is disappointed in you superintendent bill has been responsible for misleading the public falsifying documents and covering up the truth for far too long once again we are requesting you procure a third neutral party to look into each and every claim brought forth in the last month march meeting and anything iterated today hey thank you next up is mr hastings sorry william he's gonna we were gonna present as

098a group tonight but that's off the table so i better talk fast um good evening before i begin i would first like to acknowledge the dignity and composure of the majority of the members of this board during its last public meeting and subsequent to it ernest ernest hemingway famously defined courage as showing grace under pressure i commend those of you on the board who refuse to bow to an atmosphere of hysteria and verbal and physical intimidation that is unacceptable my main topic however involves the present court course jps has already embarked on that will have a potentially profound impact on academics student proficiency school discipline staff morale and race relations within this district i'm referring of course to dei the story begins with the equity audit when only when i took a long deep dive

099into this lengthy report i realize how deeply flawed and dangerous it is i could easily do 90 minutes on the equity audit but time is short and i must be brief to begin with the audit was conducted by adjusted equity solutions the first tip off to me was their motto is quote to achieve justice in education the stated goal is not to increase proficiency in reading writing math or science is not to foster true academic excellence at all levels is to achieve justice which is a completely arbitrary term that can only ever be defined and measured in the eye of the beholder the reality is like all the other purveyors of critical race theory d and dei adjusted equity solutions uses intentionally vague terms as goal posts that can be easily moved and never actually

100be attained rather than hard data like state test scores that can be that can far more cleanly track basic student proficiency over time all the data used to form this report comes from opinion surveys of students faculty and parents according to the report though very few surveys were actually completed completion completion rates for parents and students was very low often in the single digits that's your data set the methodology this methodology would not be considered acceptable let alone thorough in any real academic or business setting the data is based on opinion surveys it's very important to understand the data isn't even hard data it's thought and feelings it is very important and this is an important point it's very important to understand that an underlying tenet of all the ideologies that emanate from critical race

101theory social justice equity sel and so on they all hold as a cornerstone tenet that if a person from a minoritized group feels oppressed or mistreated in any way their feelings alone legitimize and validate their claim to be a victim regardless of what any other person may say or think in a 323 story on this current conflict on the board that ran an m live board member keisha hamilton was quoted as saying no amount of progress negates the experiences recounted by our jps community now i disagree with her assertion but i think it is 100 percent accurate representation of what the social justice narrative demands so experience recounted experience recounted what this means is feelings emotions opinions and very subjective personal narratives cannot be negated not by you not by me not by contrary evidence

102certainly not by any kind of due process please understand that this version of social justice is the bizarro world diametric opposite of due process and the rule of law as we commonly understand it it is a personal nightmare to be on the receiving end of this new and improved version of justice which reared its ugly head during the march 15th board meeting um i have to condense here um so i may not know all the members of this board on a personal basis but a basic level at a basic level i get who you are you are or almost all of you are alumni alumni of the jackson schools who are also parents of children who who attended or attend the jackson schools serving on the school board is not a glory job it is

103a giving back and a gratitude job i also think that most people who serve on school boards are ordinary center-left people who are happy to vote for maybe don't vote for democrat candidates but their lives do not center around politics they have jobs and careers and are part of a shared political spectrum crt slash dei slash sel is an ideology that does not represent the political center of the country where we can agree to disagree it is something truly new and radical i think jps is doing many many good things to try to help all its students succeed i also think jay marks is a decent man who speaks to everyone sorry mr hastings you're out of time next up we have will or i'm sorry marilyn acton dowell hi i'm i'm marilyn acting doll

104my voice is going can you hear me a rising tide lifts all ships chinese proverb we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness declaration of independence if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together african proverb my own great grandparents came to this country because they believed it was a land of opportunity the 1960s civil rights movement sought the fulfillment of the american promise of freedom and equality under the law before the civil rights act of 1964 we had institutionalized inequality we are moving towards a new institutionalized racism white children are being taught they are the oppressors and children of color

105are being taught they're oppressed with diversity equity and inclusion we find a movement willing to trample rights liberties and national solidarity in pursuit of equity which is distributional equality or equality of outcomes which is often contrasted with equality where all groups receive the same rather than differential treatment i'd like to talk about unintended consequences as a counselor i worked with children during the pandemic who were to practice social distancing and wear masks it is important for children to be able to look at and read faces this helps them in social development with the ability to read facial cues the cdc reported that masking impedes breathing which is not good for your brain it also triggers many other problems including anxiety attacks these harms are even more likely to occur in children particularly smaller children due

106to staying home the children i saw had anxiety from not being able to keep up with school work via remote learning and depression because in their minds they couldn't see an end to all the restrictions athletic games dances and so many other social gatherings were cancelled which you can never ever get back there was a national rise in child abuse cases suicides we put you know prisoners in solitary confinement we really did that to our children i mean all of us had to do it but we did all this to be safe even if it has been shown that if you are less than 20 years old the survivability of covet 19 is 99.997 percent i'd like to speak about implicit bias by definition these are negative associations that people unknowingly hold in critical race

107theory discourse this refers to unconscious stereotypes imposed on members of a different group also known as unconscious bias critical race theory scholars assert that all whites are racist that disagreement or discomfort with this realm is also racist and that indifference or disinterest in so-called anti-racist anti-racism efforts is racist so as a counselor i teach personal responsibility for our actions and how to treat everyone with kindness and respect especially ourselves if the filter is one of implicit bias towards people of color and that to deny this is still racism it's a no-win situation this is unhealthy and only leads to unhealthy behavior there's a study done by the psychologist martin seligman called learned helplessness when people feel they have no control over their situation they may begin to behave in a helpless manner this inaction can

108lead people to overlook opportunities for relief or change i i don't believe we can assume we know what is in the mind of an individual social emotional learning is being introduced in the schools and at first glance it makes sense on the michigan government website it states on page one sel competencies help support a well-rounded education that teaches to the whole child thank you sorry you're out of time okay uh next up uh robin inman oops let me stop this hi i'm robin inman i have eight boys so hopefully i can make you hear me um i actually i'm new here we just moved here and my children just started going to school here for the first time but i have six children and you guys at school in your schools i have adopted 11

109special needs children all with diagnosis and three i have three biological children who are now teachers themselves and on february 28th my son my autistic seven-year-old tiny little guy was sexually assaulted in the bathroom of hunt by another child on that day i get a phone call from the superintendent's office and i want to say it was julie baker i i'm sorry if i can't remember who it was because it was very it was in a moment in my life where i was very it was very clear but i had been told that my child had gone into the bathroom willingly and pretty much had a sexual liaison but it wasn't said that way but they went willingly together and that my channel that it was planned my child doesn't have the capacity to do

110this he just started being verbal so he wasn't able i went and got my child from school and i came home and i got a phone call as soon as i got in the door from the principal upon stating he can't come back to school tomorrow per administration so i had to look at my little boy and say that he can't come back tomorrow and his little face looked at me and he said why i bad and i said no you were not bad i called over several times to the superintendent's office and they wouldn't answer well i live across the street i know they're there so i walked in the door mr beale told me twice i brought my daughter who is a special education teacher from another community another school district with me

111he said twice that the other mother feels just as bad as i do and i'm going to tell you right now don't you ever approach a mother whose child was just sexually assaulted in the bathroom that some that the perpetrator's mother feels bad as bad as you do because you have no idea as i went to leave he stated to me why don't you get your child therapy or does he already have a therapist one of the problems is my child was adopted and i guess that's a problem i guess adopted a previous foster children want it we're looking for that in the bathrooms my little boy is not so i'm going to tell you over the next nine days i kept my child home i kept him home because i said julie baker is

112not questioning my child i will have a forensic interviewer question my child i took him to the hospital and he had marks and scratches on his genitalia if it hadn't been for that little boy that sweet little boy who came in and witnessed what was happening to my little boy i might not have known because he did not have the words he doesn't know the word free therefore while i'm going through all of this i was told by the people at a hospital i've never stepped foot in before that this isn't that uncommon and they'll probably try to get you not to talk i had a previous somebody i don't know a previous staff member say oh yeah that happens a lot and i just want you to know it all came out in the

113end okay in the end after i got a lawyer after i kept my child home for nine days to keep julia baker from questioning him after i took him myself to child advocacy center after i called law enforcement because nobody else did somebody else in that school system should have but i did everything came out i schooled him for nine days and he got to go back and the other child did not get to go but from what i understand the other child was back in school i don't know maybe not the next day the day after that my little boy stayed home with me and i just want you guys to know that this isn't the way you welcome somebody in the community and that's not a good day to be a viking i

114heard somebody say not for my little boy and i if if someone doesn't get some empathy training or some kind of training to deal with the parents and and to know not to blame the victim because i got a little boy who has no clue he thinks somebody hit him in the genitalias so i just wanted you guys to know that something needs to be done thank you um connor wood hello members of the board can people hear me okay cool uh connor wood i live in bone street uh i did not graduate jps i moved here after uh college and i don't have a kid yet but when i do i'll send them to jps and i do pay property taxes so i'm here uh and thank you to trustee hunt for inviting me

115i'm here to offer my thanks to the teachers and the staff and to the board for steering the district through the coveted pandemic it was tremendously difficult i i cannot imagine how hard it would have been for me if i had been a parent during hits so everyone who had kids during this process has my sympathies and i got to say it's absolutely shameful how far the social status of teachers and other frontline workers has fallen from the beginning of the pandemic when they finally got the respect they always deserved to where we are at now i also this isn't what i came to talk about but teaching uncomfortable history and talking about the way that racism works is not reverse racism or crt teaching kids the truth is actually your job so thank you

116for doing that and also reducing the spread of code but is actually a good thing i do specifically want to thank the teachers who are listed in the human resources report who are retiring after decades in the school and welcome to the new hires to the teachers and the staff and to the board know that this community supports you i'm happy to hear about all the positive work being done at jps i have not actually been in this building since when i visited pathways and the updates in the new edition look great i'm also really happy that there's been productive dialogue because of the diverse perspectives on the board disagreement i think is healthy and is necessary i do however get disappointed when i open the paper and read about board dynamics escalating from healthy

117disagreement to unhealthy conflict i firmly believe that healthy organizations evaluate performance based on agreed upon metrics and benchmarks and allegations of misconduct have to be thoroughly investigated that's how accountability is supposed to work i have no knowledge of the conflict beyond what has happened in the news and i don't think that any one person or side is entirely at fault for the current dynamic but i do believe it's the responsibility of the entire board to get this district back on track so please lower the temperature and work together you guys have hard jobs as the board i think the district is broadly speaking on the right track just stay focused on the students and the community will have your back thank you thank you next up is amy gish i have not asked anyone to

118validate what i have been through i don't need to i know the truth i speak the truth any good words that anyone is saying about the superintendent does not zero out what he has done to me to others and what he continues to do in 2018 journalist anna north wrote the following since allegations against larry nassar were made public in 2016 many women have told variations of the same story they tried to speak up they told their parents their coaches university officials other doctors but those who had the power to stop nassar never did anything for years the abuse continued during her victim impact statement one of nassar's survivors pointed out to him quote you were also building an army of survivors espn sarah spain wrote we shouldn't need an army of survivors to believe

119the stories of the abused licensed psychologist dr sarah sarkis wrote maybe you've heard about the real story behind the tragedy of the space shuttle challenger nasa's ambitious 1986 attempt to bring space travel to the everyday ordinary civilian this is the year they picked one person to train and launch into space with astronauts who had trained their whole lives for this mission christa mcauliffe from new hampshire was chosen and the pr media campaign that blossomed around this announcement braved new life into the nasa brand it was late january and there was a cold snap in florida the morning of the launch temps hovered around 36 degrees typical temperatures were in the 50s 12 hours before the launch two engineers from the firm nasa hired to build the rocket boosters called to express concern about the dropping

120temperature and the re reliability of the o rings apparently in colder temps the o-ring loses its elasticity upon inspection that morning icicles were found on the launch structure and yet the launch was cleared 73 seconds into flight the challenger exploded all souls on board were lost do you know what psychological phenomenon killed the people described in the scenario a phenomenon called group think or mob mentality is the root cause of what led to the death of those people and guess what it's more familiar and pervasive than what you might assume one of the most important aspects of group think that most people overlook is the fact that because the behavior is dispersed over a group the individuals no longer feel any personal responsibility for the outcome of the group behavior the typical pressure we feel

121from our conscience or moral code is diluted by the presence of the group this allows people to act and behave in ways that they would never do on their own the group think or mob mentality this board uses has a name they have identified it and have named it it's called a united front and the united front has an agenda erin white has identified it for us it's called stay in line if you're not for this superintendent you're not part of the united front get in line or we'll do what we need to do to get you in line thus the investigation it all has played out in public bullies rule this board i call them the board five angela mitchell pam fitzgerald cheryl simonetti erin white and shalonda hunt the board five some of

122you don't even know me but you speak like you do mob mentality group think it reminds me of david koresha's branch davidian community and jim jones and members of his people's temple a persuasive leader in a group without dissent cult-like it's sick disturbing even when i worked for this district i couldn't follow disturbing orders but there are many here among us who are looking out for themselves so that means they fall in line they obey they don't ask questions they carry out their orders even if it means they're doing something wrong even if it means they're hurting other people even if it means they're destroying everything someone else has worked for they're acting just as self-centered as the superintendent acts that's how this corrupt system works that's why decent human beings don't fit in at

123jackson public schools we don't accept our dehumanizing tasks as normal we take a stand we get out of line we create good trouble and although we get tortured for it we never give up on our agenda taking care of kids i'm still taking care of kids the only difference for me now i don't have this superintendent in my chain of command trying to get me in line it sure feels good thanks sorry your time is up next up is jamie grace [Applause] good evening for the benefit of the audience and two new board members i'm jamie grace i recently served on the board from my election in 2014 through 2020 when my term ended i know most of you are amazed that i was here on time and to a greater extent even speaking because

124i know i was always on my microphone when i was at the meetings i'm a lifelong jackson resident and graduate of jackson high school my wife and children are also graduates my desire to address the board this evening is to show support for the amazing work our teachers staff administration and this board have put in through the two very difficult years the accommodations were many the determination is impressive jps now has great momentum from the passing of our historic 87 million dollar bond this is in large part due to the leadership of the superintendent and a dedicated group of stakeholders and overwhelming support of our community we are now seeing the completion of this work a new school an incredible field house and the addition of students and the advantages that these students will have

125for many years to come i felt the need to address the board also because and for those in attendance to clear some items that i thought were grossly misrepresented it was said that the superintendent was not up front and lied to the community and the board in regards to his contract and its structure this was absolutely inaccurate as i said on the finance committee for my entire tenure and on the board and i can very clearly state that there was never in the past or now misrepresentation by mr beal or any board member to the community the rolling practice adopted was clear with all admin is clear and commonplace for contracts in education and to represent or call into question through one's own misunderstanding of that process is past unfair i find it curious that

126in the six years of sitting in your chairs there was never anything remotely close to the commentaries that we have here now aside from a few known disgruntled ex-employees that continue to resurface any organization of our side will have those that do not see eye to eye with every issue there is always room for constructive conversation there are always ways to improve participation and constructive improvement is the board's job there is no room for purely destructive commentary we need to continue the momentum of this district and support its leadership in superintendent beal thank you [Applause] next up is zoe lyons good evening my name is zoe lyons i have three adult sons who graduated from jackson high school i myself was born and raised in flint michigan and graduated from flint northern high school i

127remember when my oldest son graduated my mom came to the graduation and talked about how proud she was that her grandson went to a diverse school it was very important to her i share these bits of information and i have to put my glasses on because i'm not reading this well it's just a quick introduction i also want to share with you that i have begun my own learning and journey to becoming anti-racist one of the things that we share in this work is what we call the three f's i felt i found and i feel i'd like to share mine with you before i started this work of anti-racism and dei i felt like i didn't have a lot to learn i had grown up in a city and gone to school with black

128people my entire childhood and that because of that i was good on race related things after my learning after my learning started i have found that not only was i not good but i was so undereducated about race and the history of our country that i began to see all the information i could learn and i reached out to begin to do that i feel now some sadness that it took me so long to start this journey that i was 50 years old before i had any understanding of how systems have marginalized and oppressed people of color specifically black and brown people and how i feel responsible now to be a good ancestor by continuing this work i share this really as an invitation to the members of the jps board specifically to the white

129members like me to lean in and do the learning that you can do to read books and watch movies 13th is a great movie to start with and read articles to the entire board do a book study together meet each other for coffee learn each other's lives and where you came from we call these meetings one-on-ones and they're a great way to meet each other where you are i ask you to lean into this authentic engagement and learning for the good of our jps students because jps has white students and black students and brown students we have multi-racial students and lgbtqia plus students we have students living in poverty we have hungry students and students without a bed to sleep on at night we have traumatized students and they are all counting on you as

130they're teachers art as well they're black teachers they're brown teachers they're lgbtqia plus teachers their teachers need you too that this board has white members and black members and mixed race and men and women is really something to be proud of and it is not something seen everywhere it's imperative that you communicate authentically that you hear the voices of those who have historically not been heard and that you come together in your truth your love and your commitment to understand each other for the benefit of the students at jps and so i ask you to truly hear each other to ask questions when you don't understand someone's perspective and to withhold judgment to create an agreement together about how you will be in this space together and that you follow that agreement in all communications

131i ask that you think not only about how you can be a great jps board member but also how you can be a great ancestor to our children thank you [Applause] thank you next up devon camel can everybody hear me it's divine camel actually and i want to talk about how the the attendance policy how it doesn't fit in a dei lens because of how it doesn't express how it hurts children of marginalized societies and how it it's basically more of a punishment than a solution to an attendance problem and i heard a i heard a phrase yesterday during the forum to not see color but see heart and that bothered me because if you don't see me you don't see color that means i'm invisible to you and that means you don't see my

132happiness you don't see my doubt my worry you don't see my joy that means i'm invisible so you couldn't see how i feel in situations where if i was a jps student where being cut off from my education would hurt me or it would hurt my opportunities and i believe that's where we need to be is see the kids where they're at and wonder why they're running late for class and wondering why um why they need excuse me wondering what can we do as a community as a school board to help them get the tools that they need to be more successful in the classroom and i also like to thank kesha hamilton for her work and speaking for those who can't speak or have gone have been dismissed and the fact that i find

133it interesting that the attendance policy was taken off of the record for today it shows that to me that this is an issue that couldn't be bothered to be addressed that is further ignoring the agenda which is to care for our children and show that they can be heard they can't be seen and that [Music] their that their lives do matter because this this is basically their lives and kids are not just numbers and i also wanted to address also the inclusion of bringing in teachers of color but if i was a teacher of color to be honest i would not work for jps because we have faculty members that see the pain of their community and laugh and they're on their phones or we have a superintendent who uses the n-word like it's nothing

134in front of faculty members who are of color that would be concerning to me if i was a if i was a teacher coming into this to this district because that shows that you don't care about my feelings you don't care about ceilings of your fellow staff members you don't care about the feelings of your community and that's where it's been lost over these last few years even during the pandemic we forgot how to feel and we need to get back to that because when we get back to learning how to feel then real change can happen then we can actually be heard and we can be seen and and the problems that we have can be addressed from a place of heart and not numbers and that's all i got to say thank you

135hey uh kendrick lane hello hello hello as i stated before uh i would have returned if i had to trust me i have a lot of things i would prefer to do than to establish clarity on the uh actions that i continue to see uh you can consider me to be a curveball i graduated here 2006 uh i think our class had the most fights it was a lot of ruckus a lot of trauma being being endured from my class so uh i'm actually the second person tonight that graduated from here that my children uh does not attend this district um but let's keep this on track got five minutes um the lack of understanding and the lack of compassion even even with your your reminder today and the presence of those two officers in

136the back that just establishes what you're most concerned about your ego i sat and watched two people sit in this chair crying one embracing the other and there was a complete disregard for that so if you are to help guide our children to um a state of compassion in a state of love which truly matters how can you do so when you do not demonstrate these things every time you get behind that microphone see the thing is the majority of you sitting behind those microphones you're one person when you're here then when you're home you're a completely different person that disconnect is starting to filter into everything you do what you do here you're more concerned about the district itself than the children within it you're taking the same approach that the city does you're

137more worried about polishing up things and making things look good and worried about the heart of what it is that you are here to serve uh i think you can call that putting lipstick on a pig i'm not fooled by your fancy structures i'm not fooled by your hollow words i told you before i see you for who you are so there was a post uh aaron uh your post um there's a lot of things in that post you know how you minimized people's actions um how you minimized his actions jeff uh i don't know i'm still trying to figure you out i am i am i think that i've said in a similar seat as you before as you understand what the structure is but you're trying to play a game that's too long

138because change is going to come right now um i think you're in the atta boy club that's not where you want to be man i fell for that oh that that rope a couple of different times is not where you want to be man it's not where you want to be this is not a battlefield this is not a warrior fighting this is this should be a sanctuary for these children to grow and to evolve and to become true leaders not to be be uh to become a sheep you're hurting people hurting guiding them to the structure i was one of those kids that needed help i was 16 years old on my own and i somehow fought and worked my way through all your systems that's why i'm the curveball because i see through

139both sides i've experienced it i've sat at the table with the ceos i've heard the structure i've sat back and watched plant managers and ceos completely disregard the most oblivious atrocious things for the sake of the name for the sake of the brand you will not sacrifice the future of these children to promote your games anymore it will not happen see the thing about me man is my perspective runs very deep so just think about the many ways i can display what it is that you do to the world i'm just getting warmed up check the time i'm almost there i'll be back i'm gonna keep coming back i'm gonna keep coming back until everyone knows exactly what it is that you stand for it's not you can play those games somewhere else maybe when

140your product is fans or boxes or bread but you won't do that when it's children man you won't i will no longer stand for it everything the trauma that i was one who implemented the emotional trainings at a formal company when i created a culture committee we actually raised twenty thousand dollars for andy's angels for four people that's the power of purpose so i understand the effects of what could be done but even when i did so those effects were overlooked it was just like it was all about the money come on man this is an order for you to have any chance to endure this you have one option to go home thank you sorry your time is up next up julia hastings [Applause] may i proceed should i move forward more good okay

141good evening ladies and gentlemen members of the school board my name is julia hastings and i'm a part of the class of 23. i'm here tonight representing many of my peers i'm here to speak to you tonight in order to address an issue prevalent in our academic standards i'm here to propose a solution to our valedictorian selection issue i believe we should implement a weighted gpa system recognize the objective valedictorian and salutatorian and still award the same amount of students scholarships academics in theory is a field dedicated to the development of individuals in order to properly equip them for the challenges in their career additionally it awards merit however i believe the current system stunts the academic progress of students and breeds complacency the valedictorian system communicate in the handbook of 2019 and i quote

142states for the class of 2023 and beyond students must take ap classwork equaling the average or greater than average than the number of 4.0 students and students must take the number of dual enrolled classes equaling the average or greater than average of the number of 4.0 students this was communicated quite clearly and there is proper documentation of communication to parents of the class of 23. additionally anytime i asked a counselor what the system would be this was a policy they communicated to me up until a few weeks ago the class of 23 would be the first to have one valedictorian and one salutatorian however this plan to implement a fair system is being backpedaled on because the school does not feel there is enough communication to students about the new system while i'm grateful that

143our current system recognizes students with academic achievement the honor our valedictorians receive completely disacknowledges academic rigor our current valedictorian system awards every student with an unweighted gpa of 4.0 the title of valektorian if you are unaware of the difference between weighted and unweighted gpa i'll briefly explain i hope i will briefly explain both terms a weighted gpa takes into account ap classes and at times college classes by grading on a 5.0 scale an unweighted gpa does not take ap or college classes into account and the maximum gpa one can receive is a 4.0 therefore our current system of grading on an unwitting scale on an unweighted scale completely disacknowledges achievement in challenging classes i would like to provide you with a theoretical example that highlights our academic system by knowing that our current system honors

144all students with an unweighted 4.0 gpa imagine a student that may want to be challenged in an eighth year college class but chooses not to take it because it may lower their gpa which would cause them to lose their two thousand dollar scholarship what if i told you this was in fact a real student i think many of you would agree that the nature of a large student body means different students have different strengths and weaknesses i also think many of you would agree that students weaknesses can be improved and strengths can be refined through taking challenging coursework however our current system not only gives no reward for students challenging themselves but it also punishes those students by increasing their risk of losing valedictorian status according to several ap teachers it is more difficult for

145students who typically receive a's in honors classes to earn an a in an ap class therefore giving they're forgiving uh students who are not in ap classes or dual enrollment classes an upper hand to receiving this an upper hand and an advantage to receiving this title of valedictorian last year our high school awarded a valedictorian title to nineteen students which included a two thousand dollar cash award to each of them a scholarship our alumni endowment spent over thirty thousand dollars on these students i would like you to think for a moment about our grading system though why have 19 people earned a 4.0 gpa it is only in a highly abated grading system that this many students can receive a 4.0 gpa looking at the top schools in the country this does not occur however

146this system failing students need not remain the administration today has the ability to properly comprehend this malaise and fix it while i agree that students with 4.0 gpa should be awarded in some way for for example i believe they should still be given that scholarship i do not think they should be carelessly given the title of valedictorian when objectively they are not this is incredibly disrespectful to the two students with the highest objective academic achievement in order to address this issue i propose a school transition to an unbiased and objective grading system a weighted gpa system and select the value sorry your time highest weight is gpa thank you all right next up derek dobies we got some work to do up here um well thank you for the opportunity to speak here tonight as

147a um i just wanted to start off as a former mayor who has led the creation of the department of diversity equity and inclusion in the city the racial equity commission we created our first chief equity officer uh preaching against equity in a room full of teachers has to be one of the biggest gaffes i've heard here tonight schools aren't intended to teach every kid the same thing but to give each kid the education the instruction and the attention that they need to be successful and i want to thank each and every one of you for doing that work and making the difficult decisions necessary to do that despite some of the detractors that may show up here tonight to simply give thanks to thank our public school teachers who have had to teach our

148students through pandemic and who have gone the extra mile to ensure equity in our education system and to also thank our administrators [Music] one of the funny parts about being a former mayor i had uh jeff beale's cell phone uh contact information my phone so every time uh now with a jps student in the school system as my daughter here uh i get blasts about uh jps stuff it comes up on my phone as jeff beale and i pick it up and say hey jeff um and it's just a recording but um i i do wanna also uh thank the work that um jeff and other administrators have uh put into making jps so extraordinary and also to thank mrs lesby who is principal from sharp park here with us tonight nova's greatest principle that

149nova has ever had but it is it is incredibly comforting with a kindergartner to have a principal and to be a part of a school system where i can show up to drop off my kid and see my principal principal of her school standing there welcoming the kids as they enter uh the building giving each one hand sanitizer and feeling comfortable uh leaving your uh your kid in the hands of someone who cares that much and i think that that i'm sure is reflected across the rest of the jps system you know i also want to thank you guys as well it sounds like there are some difficulties that you're working with some disagreements i always say that we can disagree without being disagreeable and i think for those that are interested in advancing certain

150issues uh it's worth understanding that and finding ways to surmount some of those challenges um disagreements that we face and as a mayor i just want to say to this board uh the work that we've been doing and that i've been honored to be a part of over the last decade to rebuild and transform the city to rebuild the downtown has been in part because of the school excellent school system that we've had and because of the energy and work that so many of you have put into jps and that lends to the superintendent himself in the bond proposal and uh now stepping back from public office and focusing on we'll sharpen it when i'm done focusing on being a father with a student in jps uh just know that i'm very excited and honored

151uh to have a school to have a student and to be a parent in jps public schools thanks thank you next up is stephanie i think it's chizik sizzic i'm stephanie excuse me i'm stephanie zizek and i'm a retired teacher from jackson high school in 2019 spanish teacher mr beal members of the board after some time in consideration i realized all of the same people i presented my concerns to in the past when i was being harassed while working at jps are still pretty much in the picture when i brought attention to the matter that i was being sexually harassed by teacher john hastings i was told nothing could be done about it my concerns were that that of a quote crazy troublemaker unquote who should go to the police when i complained about a

152new superintendent who didn't listen to serious complaints and instead insulted me my building principal and the hr director made no efforts to look into the matter it's been heartbreaking to see that many good teachers have left jps due to bullying and harassment over the years it's also disturbing to see other teachers and losing teachers to see other teachers and staff suffered and even sued the district due to such treatment from its leadership but if losing teachers students and money to running programs that fail to attract students to choose jps over other districts doesn't open the board's eyes to what's going on then my statement certainly will not suffice it did nothing when the teacher who harassed me was found guilty of the same behavior with several students in 2015 and when super when i called

153the superintendent to complain about it as i was treated as a parent in the building will you do anything now first the fact that mr beal is allowed to continue to hold two positions is the conflict of interest the board should see this and rectify the matter secondly it should remove anyone from the top down who does not promote a safe and healthy work environment the board is not providing this by allowing such a person to remain at its helm that was written this april 2022 by gina cowan many of you know her former teacher jea union leadership at jackson public schools her name now is gina ciambella i am a retired jhs teacher and have been bullied by jeff beale from the article he implies that the only people complaining are ones who've had

154unsatisfactory evaluations totally untrue i don't know of one complaining teacher that that's true about and you know that mr beale that's my insert this is not true throughout my 30-year career i had all highly effective evaluations i had a disagreement with the former middle school principal and was called into beal's office during the course of the meeting he stood up leaned over the table yelled in my face that i was not interested in what was best for students i felt disrespected and bullied i was extremely offended at the accusation that i was not looking out for the best interest of the students at the time he was relatively new to the superintendent job he didn't know me at all but his first instinct was to get his way through intimidation there are other excellent teachers

155who've left jps to get away from the bullying of beal and the group of administrators who follow his lead that was pam nordhagen yeah i think some of you know her spanish teacher jackson high school retired what oh yeah i thought you were saying my time was up and um yeah she was an excellent teacher i worked in the same department and i was also bullied as was lisa carroll who left taking a salary cut and went to northwest schools and pam nordhagen was a spanish and french teacher you had no right to talk to her like that she was an excellent excellent teacher and i didn't hang out with her but i she was across the hall for me she did things right she stood up for what was right and that's what lisa

156carroll did but like some people who've spoken before you don't seem to care folks care about i know superintendent bill has done some great things and that's good for the new aquatic center and stuff i give you accolades thank you your time's up thank you next up is jennifer bittinger good evening okay so first of all i wanted to comment on the conflict between the board members um i have been attending the meetings where the superintendent was falsely accused of poor treatment of another of the board members i cannot witness to these other accusations and the other business going on i can only witness to what i have seen here at these board meetings and in my opinion um this other board member was guilty of improper behavior disruptive and disorderly during the board meetings

157she showed no respect for authority rules or anyone else and in my opinion she has no business being in a position of responsibility on a board making decisions for our children even tonight what she brought up about the tardy policy kids need rules and whether they're black white rich or poor these were rules that were set up for all and yet she's trying to use this to say that it's an attack on black males i just get so frustrated please stop teaching rebellion against good truth and please stop stop trying to divide us um and cause discord i also wanted to say that i attended a city council meeting in which she exhibited the same disrespectful unacceptable behavior towards the council members there we do not want this to be an example to our children

158there should be consequences for our actions and unless she has changed or will consider changing her actions i do not believe that i believe that she should be removed from this board and that's not because of her skin color or her the fact that she's a female so i just wanted to comment on that um it's all sad um i did want to also um speak on something i'm passionate about um switch gears our country was established by following god's truths over decades of decay man has been turning from and rejecting these truths in order to please themselves and public education is working tirelessly to provide curriculum to teach our children distorted truth or out downright lies the truth god made male and god made female okay he does not make mistakes this is what

159should be taught truth you can change how you appear but not your genetic makeup and god gives us the free will to make our own choices and many choose to reject the truths either by rebellion or by the influences to deceive as the administrators of our children's public education you are responsible to provide curriculum and instruct your staff to teach truth not the humanistic ideals that are being filtered in i am so glad that when i was a child um god made didn't make all strong he-man males and all dainty females okay i was a tomboy i ran with the boys i climbed trees i played a lot of sports and i'm so glad i didn't have the influence of my teachers and different people trying to make me feel like something's wrong with me

160and i should make wrong decisions at that time we all go through those children go through those stages and they should be allowed to go through those stages in order to push certain agendas the world is using the public schools to influence our children and parents and concerned citizens for our future want you to reject the false teachings our children need to be highly educated in math science and reading and true history not about their sexual orientation in fact i believe it is child abuse to force thoughts of these subjects on minors you are planting immoral thoughts into these young minds that have no business in the schools so please stop following the anti-god anti-truth principles and help our community succeed by teaching truth thank you [Applause] thank you next up is kaden jamison testing

161testing hello i am here as a student at jackson high i'm here to talk about how the principals in our district are not following the district handbook policies currently at jackson high a new tardy policy has started that completely goes against the tardy policy in the current handbook if i am tardy to class i will be escorted to ist for that hour if i'm charged again on that day i'll be sent home for the day what message does this send to me and the other students it does not say that education is important at all it says that if you are tardy you need to be punished never mind why i'm tardy because no one even bothers to ask it places me as a young black man on the school-to-prison pipeline many young black males

162in the district are already on the school-to-prison pipeline and are doing their best to get off of it but rules like this new tardy policy keeps us there and adds more of us to it i have friends in this district who have been murdered into the streets friends who are in the court system friends who have no food at home friends who have no parents or parents support and friends who are acting as parents to their younger siblings for some of my friends school is the only place that they can feel safe and get to be a teenager and if and you want to have policies that kick us out for a simple target how tardy how about instead you roll up your sleeves do some digging and figure out why that we are tardy

163to help us where a community comes together needs to be more than a saying we need accent thank you hey thank you uh next up destiny davis i will try to speak up but i have a loud voice anyways um for those that don't know me my name is destiny davis i'm the french teacher at middle school at parkside and hopefully one day a principal for jackson public schools this is my seventh year at jps in my classroom i teach kindness empathy stress management and there's some french thrown in there too we meditate we journal and we color because mental health is important especially nowadays i have conversations with my students about race injustices in the world equity and getting their opinions about current events i have openly talked with them about their life experiences

164as young people of every background and every group i have bought school supplies backpacks christmas presents belts and food for students that may otherwise go without to say being an educator is my job would be a lie being an educator is my lifestyle choice those that know me now i'm being truthful when i say that because my free time is seriously lacking due to my dedication to this craft that being said the jps that is being described these days is not the gps that i work for the jps that provided food and lunch for families during the shutdown internet for kids to work remotely that was talked about in the new york times and tweeted by kamala harris gives clothes to kids that are in need and hands out backpacks of food for weekends in

165my roles in my many roles during my seven years here not once have i ever felt unsupported by my administrators even with my rather loud disagreements and crucial conversations we have had their support never wavered one of my many roles was director of the french exchange program before covid and we had 15 students signed up to travel the year the shutdown happened in that role i have had to deal with a rather pushy and very aggressive woman who is the director of a program we used to host and to go to france at one point she sent an email without thinking that was incredibly rude and disrespectful so i got a hold of jeff jeff got copies of all of her emails from me as this was not the first time and i'd been dealing

166with it without saying anything for quite a while during a scheduled conference call with this woman jeff spoke to her about her show of disrespect and lack of professionalism while i was doing cartwheels on the other side of the classroom never once was his tone threatening or intimidating but he was calm cool and collected while still getting his point across honestly i cannot imagine working anywhere else or for any other administration we have teachers and administrators that do the most as the students would say we're getting partnerships with community members we have reality fairs we teach and run our after school tutoring programs and so many clubs i'd have to take off my shoes to count we have administrators and staff that teach with their whole heart myself included which is why i'm so grateful

167to have passed that knowledge and that ability on to a graduate student intern from the university of michigan which is the first year that's happened at jps while there's work to be done as we could see from the dei form last night that i attended i look forward to continuing to toot our jps horn and our parkside horns because there is so much more positive in our district thank you uh next up is jackie leslie let's did i get your last name correct you did okay uh yes jackie leslie and i'm a resident of the jackson public school system and i like what that last gal said she is one of the things that i want to think about the teachers here at jps because it's clear that she loves what she does and we

168need more teachers like her that actually enjoy being with the kids and i appreciate that on the other hand most americans believe the idea that every person should rise above their origins through education hard work and good citizenship this is part of the american dream people from all areas of the globe want to come here to experience this dream but what we are experiencing in america today with the modern approach to social change is an attack of these foundations and our core beliefs what is so wrong with the merits of education hard work and being a good citizen our country was founded on these values and they are valuable people throughout history of our nation have been very successful on those principles people in jackson michigan have lived good lives based on hard work and

169education but today our children are taught in schools that everything about american society is thoroughly racist and minority groups will never be equal until american society is entirely reformed children are taught that hard work education and merit-based achievement is racist children are taught white people are the oppressors and all others are oppressed what is the outcome of this theory how are biracial families to deal with this theory think about the single parent mom of a hispanic caucasian heritage who has loved and cared for her daughter says her daughter is being taught to hate the parent based on the color of her skin the ideology would have the daughter hate and deny part of her own self this theory being forced on our children does not work this mom is a former school teacher who taught

170her students how to think and treat others with respect and dignity upon which our nation was founded that all men are created equal another set of bi-racial educated parents ask how does that theory work our kids have half oppressor and half oppressed when they come home who do they see an oppressor and the oppressed as a nation we must recognize the equal and inherent dignity of all people and oppose any indoctrination plan that reinforces hate diversity equity inclusion are cover-ups for critical race theory and is being taught in our schools defenders of critical race theory will aggressively claim that is only a theory and its critics are overreacting but this theory ceases to be a theory when it crosses the rest the threshold into a school it's assigning a societal value to students based on

171their skin color telling kids that the universal values of merit and hard work are white supremacists thank you [Applause] thank you next up is louise gardner first i would like to say this subject is very emotional to me as a mother of an autistic high school student who has also been through a similar situation as myself and her past my daughter does not attend the school district as we live on the west side of the state it is encouraging to see my former teacher livy brown and former classmate kisha hamilton on the school board good evening my name is eloise gardner formerly known as eloise david i an alumni i am an alumni of jackson high school class of 1999. i grew up attending a small private christian school prior to jackson high our graduating

172class was 18 students imagine my shock as i transitioned to high school it was an it was obvious to my peers i was not like them as a result i was horrendously bullied during my career as a high school student at jackson high if it wasn't for teachers such as penny davis pat aben and julia clark porter i wouldn't know where i would be today these teachers always provided a safe place for me every day they encouraged and gave me confidence to keep moving forward mrs aben taught us to respect ourselves and one another in her class if students used any cursing or said the word shut up we had to see her after class still to this day i avoid using the word shut up her class was safe because i knew nobody could

173hurt me with their words in her room likewise penny davis provided a safe place where we were taught acceptance she taught us to try our best with anything we strive to do when projects didn't turn out as good as we hoped it was okay because i knew bullying was not tolerated in her room ultimately the only opinion that mattered was hers and she was grading my work it breaks my heart to know at least one of these safe people is a victim of adult bullying in the same building where i was protected by them this must end if jps truly cares about their students and staff there needs to be consistency and consequences that apply to all in the realm of bullying staff and students alike think of your own families your wives husbands children

174and grandchildren would you like them bullied bullying leads to irreversible consequences that can be carried an entire lifetime trust me it happens don't allow the toxicity of bullies to poison the future of our teachers students and families take a stand do what's right and treat everyone with dignity and respect you might be surprised the ultimate outcome you will experience thank you for your time and allowing me to speak thank you next up marcy jankovic good evening i'm marcy jankovic i'm a jps grandma my grandson is at jackson montessori school i'm very proud of him and i'm glad he's here allegedly critical race theory is not taught in michigan schools it's not taught it's implemented it's disguised with new acronyms like dei and diversity equity and inclusion or sel social emotional learning and it has come

175to light that the nea has nationalized crt committing it to the full range of left-wing radicalism uh claiming there is no crt in k-12 is a slight of hand using the word tot for a press release from the department of education the technicality is used to try to sneak crt past parents crt is composed of both theory and practice the activism done with that theory in mind when proponents say crt is not taught in class what they mean is that teachers are not reading college-level academic crt legal tasks to kindergarteners no one claims that those texts are being read in class our claim is that adherents will engage in crt praxis by infusing concepts of crt in their curriculum guidelines as evidenced in the adoption of a resolution by the nea to promote crt in

176all classrooms again they don't teach the theory they implement it thousands of teachers signed a pledge to continue teaching that intentionally divisive curriculum to be taught their truth about this country that it was founded on dispossession of native americans slavery structured racism and oppression and structural racism defines society today according to crt universities and colleges have created a cottage industry of people who profit from indoctrinating america's future leaders with the dangerous and destructive ideology these future leaders spread this diseased ideology like a virus without an antidote into k-12 public and private schools critical race theory avers every dysfunctional condition in black urban communities can be traced to slavery and its aftermath there is no place for individual choice or initiative or responsibility what critical race theory actually accomplishes in districts where it has been implemented

177over time creates anger frustration and despondency especially among persons in the victim categories who internalize this indestructive message crt is born of critical theory established by the frankfurt school including theoretician marcusa this academic discipline was fostered by derek bell at harvard when he began to study law through the lens of race bell maintains that society is divided along racial lines into white oppressors and black victims similar to the way marxism frames the oppressor victim dichotomy along class lines to promote communism crt contends america is permanently racist and that its legal structures are invalid while the tenants were created in law schools those ideas have filtered down through the work of people not directly involved with the legal professions co-founder of crt richard delgado said that crt is in some ways more lively in education than

178it is in law dr marx was asked at the meeting last night about who his thought influencers were he mentioned those names along with robin d'angelo he seems like a nice man and we achieved some real good communication but the focus of the meeting last night at parkside seemed to be a promotion to lay the groundwork to hire a dei coordinator at jps we don't need a dei coordinator at jps because we have a human resources department that can do the job we don't need crt to teach true history or to recruit qualified candidates of all types we can do that without a coordinator the crt talking points for the districts jps received from nasa claims citizens don't understand crt yes we do those talking points sought to so doubt in those who are alarmed

179at the marxist roots and radical ideology of crt we're not fooled it is unacceptable to group children of any color or to teach them to judge the character of others based on their race or ethnicity children of every color are individuals not responsible for the sins of their ancestors educator robin d'angelo proclaims quote it is not possible to avoid being socialized into a racist worldview if you are white sel instills groupthink at the expense of the individual proponents claim we just want to teach honest history well that's dishonest while it's fair to note that crt does look at history it does so through a lens with a mandated narrative the claimant is merely the teaching of history ignores the negative manner in which crt does so in praxis slavery jim crow japanese internment racism sexism

180and more have been addressed in k-12 curricula long before crt was pushed into the classroom i'm 75 years old i had it when i was in high school parents want history taught accurately through a lens that affirms the american idea that all humans are created equal and endowed by their creator with thank you mercy right your time is up [Applause] um i would like to ask the board we have seven more speakers um would someone like to make a motion to take a 10 minute break for another bathroom i'll make the motion to take a 10-minute break okay second okay can you just go okay all right all right we will resume 8 41. so we will resume thank you everyone okay is she coming oh okay oh she was walking around okay okay we

181will start in one minute thanks erin i so okay we will resume in five minutes at 8 47. so we are back with a public comment and we are on to and sorry if i mess up your name um jan bostick jr you don't have to do it if you don't want to i love you too okay my name is johann i'm four years old i like trains [Music] i want to be an engineer i need to be in class and that's safe and where my teacher focus on me and be happy yay you're welcome okay am i next yep okay wait you can sit next to me okay all right so this is my grandson you guys um i'm very proud of him i'm not only for his best to learn but also for

182the work that his village has vested in him that's what it's all about my why and my purpose um i've heard i didn't even plan on talking about this critical race theory but you know what in 10 years or less he will be viewed as a threat okay and there's there's situations that he will be faced with simply because of the color of his skin and it just kills me that after 500 years of oppression and racism and discrimination that because someone wants to talk about the true history of our country um we're i mean they're now the victims so that's all i'm going to say about that because i i already had an agenda for what i wanted to speak about but um i want the best for my babies the youth and the

183community overall and i am going to show up every time there are concerns expressed about the processes that impact them in a negative way i also show up to cheer when positive things occur i want to publicly remind people that the investigation because i think things have gotten off track a little bit but the investigation for jeff was specifically opened as a result of an incident immediately after the january 2022 meeting the fact that delegates and former teachers showed up last month to share their experience as a whole other matter and we we can't we must not let the smoke from those issues blind the issue at hand which again was regarding an issue of inappropriate behavior by jeff towards keisha in january i want to talk about impact and intent if an action was

184intended to be positive but the outcome is negative you can't just forget about the impact that the action caused we must address the impact there needs to be ownership and or accountability for inappropriateness as educators as adults we always find the message in accountability for youth but quite often we don't apply that same accountability to ourselves as a resident of jackson who is totally vested in in the success of the community i support keisha i've sat here and witnessed how other board members get irritated because she asked questions it is very evident in the body language and the comments keisha has represented the concerns that i have regarding the agenda topics at jps meetings um and just because she asked questions you just clarify why is you know the all of the attitude and just

185clarify the question or you know she asked the question you clarify it and then you move on so all the the extra i just i don't understand but she seems to be prepared and from my perspective she asks the right questions and she challenges status quo she's also very visible boots on the ground in the community advocating for equitable processes and decision making in all spaces that she participates in i reviewed just before this meeting a full list of equitable actions she has taken since she's taken the seat um and these last couple of months i've been witness of her representing me and my concerns we can agree to disagree if you don't like the questions that she asked but know that she does represent a segment of this community many who have historically experienced

186inequity here's a perspective is your visceral reaction to keisha because you are unwilling or unaccustomed to authentically listen to someone who represents people who have not had adequate representation think about that i'm not here to minimize good work that jeff has done whether it be the bond approval or the um you know the improvements we've had with the buildings but i am here to hold him accountable and also hold you all accountable as the school board for what he did in january um my grandma said there are three sides to every story the first the second and the truth and you know the truth of all the story it kind of falls somewhere in the middle but she also said where there is smoke there's fire the school board must not turn a blind eye

187thank you thank you [Applause] uh becky wood good [Music] okay good evening superintendent bill board members central office staff my esteemed principal jeremy patterson community members and fellow jps staff my name is becky wood and i teach seventh grade social studies at parkside i have held this position for three years my journey with jps started many years ago my three siblings and i all graduated from parkside when it was a high school we attended jps from kindergarten through graduation i can easily say that jps prepared us for the real real world both academic academically and socially my journey with jps does not end there my dad john hammersley was a math teacher at frost and parkside when it became a junior high he also taught driver's education and was involved with a football program my

188mom carolyn hammersley started the strings program during the 1970s and build it up to be an amazing opportunity for anyone involved when she retired in 1989 the program was at its best i am a jps family i have five children and all five attended jps from kindergarten through graduation i did have the choice of sending my children to western schools where i was then teaching i never considered that as a choice because i knew the curriculum diversity and extracurricular activities at jps were far superior all five of my children successfully graduated one was a valedictorian and have professional jobs while two are still in college jps prepared them to be successful not only through education but interacting in the adult world where decisions are not always easy i taught for western school district until 2008

189as their lead adult education instructor the program closed due to funding and i knew that this was my time to teach for jps i was hired in 2008 and taught until 2013 both at wilson and then moving to parkside in 2013 due to health problems my teaching career came to a halt it was a decision made for me and in hindsight i understand the reason i was not happy about it at the time i had some tough conversations with jeff beale and ben pack who was then the human resource director and at the time did not return to teaching even though the conversations we had were tough never at any time did i feel intimidated or threatened it was simply tough conversations on both sides it was in my best interest looking back that i

190did not teach i was not healthy and would not have been at my best in the classroom however in 2017 i really wanted to return i could have applied at any district anywhere but the only place i wanted to teach was at jps primarily at parkside i asked to serve as a long-term substitute so i could prove to myself and others that i could return to work in the fall of 2017 i worked at parkside as a long-term substitute for seventh grade social studies then in january of 2018 i stepped in to fill in a vacant position for sixth grade social studies and finished out the year in the summer of 2018 i was offered a full-time social studies position at parkside upon returning no one made me feel that i was not welcome in

191fact returning to parkside was like returning home i have never ever been happier as a teacher and my choice will always be jps it is a district that offers challenges diversity and quite honestly a true feeling of making a difference i am grateful to jeff field for giving me the opportunity to return to jps i also appreciate human resources and the staff that interviewed me and i'm also grateful to the board for improving the decision as well everyone looks at situations from different perspectives this is what makes this world so wonderful we can learn and grow if we keep open minds and listen to one another this has been a real learning experience for me to come back and a very positive one at that working for jps is like having a second family and

192a second chance to finish what i started i will always say it is a great day to be a viking thank you next up andre parker good evening everyone first and foremost my name is andre parker i'm a student advocacy center i come as a father of a teenager and the middle schooler i'm a former teacher i'm a former coach head coach so i wore many hats in the education realm sitting here tonight it really it really breaks my heart to hear some of the things that are said tonight i think this is a very dynamic district with very passionate people very proud people great history i want to say i commend you for the job that you guys do up here because i know it is hard but there's a disconnect within you you

193all and with parents teachers the community kids we're all in this i i let me let me let me let me go back i am in this or got into teaching and coaching because i wanted to give back to children i had people do that for me i think that's getting lost in some of these back and forth is we're here for children there's been a lot of personal attacks all right and i'm that's not why i'm here okay and there's been personal attacks from took from to keisha miss hamilton excuse me right we're not on a first name basis so i apologize to miss hamilton and it shouldn't be it's okay to have courageous conversations it's okay to have difference of opinions but we have to listen to each other body language is a

194language some of your body language to quite quite honestly and it's the public watching you right so what what type of of example are we setting when we're not listening to someone that has a different opinion than us how are we teaching but we call ourselves educators if you heard and i'm sure you did because we are here there's a clear divide in this community depending upon who was up here and i'll say it from white to black to something in between of the experiences they've had with the board with the school system with the community a clear divide and as educators as a school board we have to we have to break those barriers down not run from them not hide from them but meet them head on that's our job that's our duty

195you represent all of us so to have this course up there publicly what does that say to the community the school system is the bread and butter of a community period we have to do better for our children for our future we have to do better we have to listen we have to have the hard conversations we can't run from the things that are being brought up we can't sweep them under the rug we can't take them off the agenda because the suspension rates are through the roof in this district disproportionately from people that look like me through the roof facts university of michigan privately solutions data look it up publicly homelessness thank you in this district it's through the roof sorry your time is up thanks next step is we have to do that

196we have to do better i thank you for your time [Applause] um good evening everyone as mentioned my name is maisha jones and i want to acknowledge again for those of you who follow me and expect me to be looking fine all the time i do leave taekwondo practice and come immediately here so i'm sweating out and looking a hot mess please don't judge me i'll be fine again tomorrow i promise but anywho i first want to start now by acknowledging a really great experience that i recently had with mr patterson the principal at parkside i had a situation with a family member who goes to parkside and you know we can be honest when your loved one is involved with the situation you get very concerned and i really was ready to cut up

197because you know i do have a secondary black valentine no i'm just playing that's not why but you get really passionate and emotion and really want action taken and i went into mr um mr patterson's often and really just expressed my concerns and i was very upset and emotional and he didn't get offended or afraid he really just heard me we made an action plan and he followed through and i thought man this is the experience that we should all have when we're upset we should be able to come as ourselves tina say hold on misha you can't be you can't have that volume in here he allowed me to be who i needed to be and we made a plan and i'm glad that experience happened to me and i want to really just

198transition that and for first and foremost to thank our um all of our teachers and everyone who's working hard to make our students have the best experience through education they can but i was really concerned because how i acted towards mr patterson with my nephew and how he responded was amazing but if i hear stories from people who don't have that amazing experience i'm not gonna be like well mine was good i'm good i'm gonna be like no why didn't they have the same experience and when i hear all these teachers get up and talk about how great their experiences and how great mr buell is i'm glad that you had that experience but why aren't you concerned about all of these stories we've heard about the horrific experiences like where's your empathy yeah my

199experience was great but that privilege that i'm fine everything is fine that's not a good representation of the type of people that we want to be for our students we should be like whoa wait a minute my experience was great but why everyone should be just as great and i think that's something that our teachers need to maybe look into i'm glad your experience was great but everyone hasn't i remember what happened at albion with that um the superintendent of the college he did one thing and he was out like a light this is the first school board i've ever heard so many horrific things about a superintendent and nothing's been done if anything your credibility and the negative impact is enough to do something i'm like oh yeah good to have friends in high

200places i guess but anywho i'm just concerned like if if any job you have where you paid and that many concerns are risen about you you getting fired like i don't even know no one human being who can have this many negative things brought up and just be like oh okay i'm good and so the the next thing i really want to transition to is really this i think everybody need to stop googling critical race theory because y'all some let me just help you out okay diversity inclusion and equity diversity acknowledges that we are all different we seem to get that well because we see that we're all different our race our backgrounds our education level the way we choose to communicate our hair all of this stuff is different inclusion is inviting everyone to

201the table where we have a voice we have thoughts we have opinions they're welcome they're well resourced we have what we need to make this the open space equity is ensuring that everyone has what they need to be successful now equity is not always fair however if we have equity the result is fairness okay so if we're thinking about things through an equitable approach then we would understand things like the attendance policy is definitely not equitable i know as a as a person who comes and does program with jps this attendance policy has already caused a lot of issues even with my small program i do from jps it's just not equitable and once we understand that we'll be able to do better work i will say you know that i'm concerned about just so

202many different things but more importantly i want to acknowledge the fact that it's really important that we understand what equity means i saw a lot of people like quoting things from our founder our founding fathers and let's not forget that this country was built on racism on oppression we stole this land this we stole america so we can't be talking about the founding fathers when they created all this stuff black people are still in um slavery so we keep quoting this all men are created equal and stuff no we were not that is proven and so i want to say this last thing i want to say so much stuff but you know i'm getting tired i've been sweating all day but let me tell y'all the comments i want to really i don't like

203talking about people thank you melisha sorry i'm not sorry thanks uh next up kelly hoover [Applause] good evening everyone i did not plan to speak tonight i wanted to listen because i think that's a skill i always have to work at and something i want to take in because i understand my jps experience isn't everybody else's experience i understand that i have two sons at jackson high school yes i have a husband that works and coaches here i chose jackson high school because of the diversity because of the challenges and things my children can learn to be a wonderful rounded adult to accept all people to work with all people to listen and to care now i immediately immersed myself into jps when i came here i'm not from jackson i'm from the detroit area

204and i just thought this is great i have an opportunity as soon as i got into elementary school what can i make a difference things aren't fair on the playground what am i going to do i'm going to run for pto we're going to change some things on that on that hey jps needs new things they need new schools they need new buildings they need new equipment they need to have education in the classroom that kids can understand from all backgrounds and understand so what do i do i put my money where my mouth is and i went for the worked as a treasurer on the last two um bond three i'm sorry three bonds a little nervous trying to think off the top of my head on three bond runs because i believed in

205jps not for my children but for the children that are going to come why i'm here tonight my children are a junior and a senior have we had a wonderful experience at jackson public school yes have we had things that came up problems that have occurred yes but handled it in the appropriate manner of meeting with my administrations with the superintendent and with school boards many of you i've talked to had conversations with um i think that it is important in that component and when i'm looking at my lifespan here at jackson public schools and the parents to come and the parents that will volunteer and that will be doing that cheerleading on their facebook pages and in their social media about how proud they are to have a graduate of a class of 2022

206or class of 2023 or the classes to come i think it's really incredibly important to understand that when we're listening and we're trying to come together and talk and make change it's important to do so but i also think that it's a community-based thing and again please understand i'm here as kelly hoover the parent of two children i'm not here as anything else tonight when i see problems within my community i don't talk about it i go jump in so when we have children that live with us for periods of time when we have children that need a meal that come to our house and have conversations i understand that they don't have that privilege it could be numerous different kids that come through our house they might not have the appraisal of a parent

207at home or a meal at that point or where am i going to get my clothes washed the next day these are conversations that are happening with kids every day that's why we're making differences in our community i think that when you run for school board you are running because why are you here you're not getting paid it's not you know you're not famous you're not a celebrity you're here because you all ran because you're interested in the benefit in the in this community and raising up all the children that participate and come to jackson public schools i'm very very proud of jackson i know it's not perfect and that's why we have to have these conversations but it's important in those conversations not to lose respect to have the conversations that are uncomfortable and

208crucial but to do it in a manner in which you are actually getting work done and moving forward in that process to make that change because change is important change is forever happening change is going to happen after we're all gone and retired and the next generations are coming through because we're going to show them how it's done how do we make that change how do we make things happen so our community is better that we have kids that go hey i don't want to get out of jax i'm coming back to jackson to work because i want to be here and that is happening in crucial conversations with companies i see more people talking today than i did 25 years ago when i started you know living here in jackson when i first came

209to jax it was very very different than it is today is it ever going to be perfect no because society is always changing but when we're doing that in a very you know respectful manner in which we are communicating and making those changes we can get somewhere and i think that is caring about and a lot of people have had great comments tonight but caring about that village and making sure that the village works together i know that some people are like well you know there's people in here that have questions that concerns but i am proud i am proud to have to jackson high almost graduates i am proud of their experience and a lot of that was because we decided to be active and intentional parents in our children's lives in other children's

210lives and making sure that we are not only caring about only our own children but the children of others and the people that might need assistance to get to school a grocery what happened so and really when we're talking it's about the community too like the community stepping up to make that manage if you know it's not everybody that can get their kids up off to the school what do you need help with and i think these are very important crucial conversations i think there's a conversation happening now i think it's the future we're walking into a position where we're going to be having some elections on the school board i think these are important conversations to be having during that process of time and i think it's important to understand that we are generally

211here because we care we care you wouldn't be here if you wouldn't you wouldn't run for school board if you didn't care um for all the different backgrounds that i'm seeing thank you kelly time's up thanks okay next is jasper lesbi okay hi i am jasper lesbi and i am here um i'm the principal at sharp park academy but i also represent jpsaa and my colleague mr dubois is here to join me um we've had several conversations and we would like to read a letter that we composed to the jackson school board of education we the members of jpsaa feel compelled to share with you the jps board of education the incredible progress and the good news of positive affairs that are occurring throughout all of the jps schools daily the district has been a

212beacon of positive growth outcomes and overarching successes for a plethora of students who have walked through the halls of these buildings our students are growing academically they are being supported through social emotional learning receiving services and opportunities that are unique both to county and statewide we have continuously demonstrated what it means to believe the hype and the progress made as a district in the past several years cannot be ignored as a district there is room for improvement in growth as is the case with any district or local education agency the only way to ensure this growth that allows for the best outcomes for our students staff and district is to work together for our students to provide the best educational and personal achievement possible the members of the jpsaa strive to ensure this outcome day

213in and day out as we put in countless hours of dedication to service and learning of our students in short jpsaa recognizes that it is of the utmost importance that we continue to improve and grow together as a community and as a unified district as a unit we acknowledge the importance of continued learning and growth but we also acknowledge the steps that have been taken by both the community the board of education and each individual school building to both ensure and strengthen the importance of this focus as educators it is our responsibility to provide these outcomes for all students we believe that the district currently sits in an outstanding position and that both district leadership and the members of jpsaa will continue to strive to attain excellence for all students together we believe that the

214challenges facing students both continuing to learn and grow in the midst of a pandemic and the challenges they will face post-pandemic are daunting and immense it is our belief that the responsibility and duty charged to the board is to continue promoting ways to engage students in 21st century learning skills strive towards academic excellence and to adhere to a student-centered focus members of jpsaa believe that as we need to continue to strive for excellence in education we must do so with an unwavering commitment to serving our children our teachers our support staff while we shift our concentration and lens away from divisiveness and negativity and towards a student-centered professional orientation we believe that this will best serve all members of the jackson public schools community the citizens of the city of jackson and all who cross

215paths with a student who has attended jackson public schools we truly believe the hype and we believe that it is important that all members of the jackson public schools board of education both recognize and acknowledge the tremendous growth this district has attained over the past several years we ask that we all work together towards removing barriers and challenges that are blocking our students path to their best educational achievements and continue striving for excellence as a cohesive team as part of this we would like to share some of the things that jpsaa membership counts among the celebrations for jps as leaders in this district we believe in our jps community most of us have graduated from jps and most of our children attend school here staff have spent evenings and weekends working successfully to pass a

216bond that provided for new and improved facilities for all jps students and these facilities are amazing staff come early we work through lunch we stay late and we take care of the academic and emotional needs of our students our focus is always on the students we don't quite on our kids through pandemics crises negativity from others we show up every day 100 committed to the success of our students our students just like our staff look out for learn from and support each other we look out for those who need a kind word a fist bump a listening ear and support jps is progressive and we are a work in progress we love our community we love our young people and families and we love our staff leadership in our buildings is supported and our initiatives

217and ideas are encouraged all that we do we do to enhance the lives of our jackson county youth with the hopes to create a better future for everyone we are products of this system and we will continue to build it up we work hard to actively recruit high caliber professionals who are passionate and committed to the success of our students as we have teachers who are coming upon their retirement years we speak sorry jasper your time zone dang it thank you thank you okay thank you everyone that concludes number seven so we yeah we have one polled item that was pulled from the consent agenda for action 21-22-107 marcus sorry my laptop died so every year we contract with community action agency for classroom space for the head start and great start readiness program so

218before you tonight we have the contract for the 22-23 school year not to exceed 64 000 we are recommending approval of the 22-23 room rental agreement between jps and community action agency at this time one thing to note the only things that we changed in the next year's agreement are the dates we've left everything the same as the last few years okay thank you marcus so at this time i would entertain a motion for approval of the 2022-23 room rental agreement between community action agency in jackson public schools as presented so moved support thank you erin thank you cheryl any deliberation or discussion just a note um because i work for caa i won't be participating in this uh vote so i'll be abstaining okay thank you all those in favor say aye aye opposed

219and yep and it's hamilton yep okay motion carries so we are on um now number eight bond items 21-22-109 tmp additional services fees discussion marcus over the course of our bond over the last several years tmpr architecture firm has conducted additional services at a number of our locations that have gone above and beyond the original scope of the bob project as you remember initially the bond was approximately 87 million dollars we've added a little over three million dollars in additional interest which we've put back into the buildings as an additional additional scope so again the cost of these additional services totals 126 126.00 incurred fees by tmp and their consultants this is just for discussion tonight we'll be bringing this back again next month for an approval okay thank you uh any questions just deliberation

220okay um hearing none we are on number nine discussion items the first one is 21-22-110 bus camera system marcus our current bus camera system is outdated quite old and difficult to access data when we do need to look at tapes and such so we've solicited bids from multiple vendors we received three quotes from different companies each were similar with cloud-based solutions one company provision was a low bidder 193 212 dollars which after uh discussions within our department seems to be the best solution for jps there are neighboring districts that use provision that we reached out to and have been able to sample video to test the quality of their camera systems we did discuss this at our march finance and facility meeting again tonight we're just bringing this for discussion and we'll look for board

221approval next month okay thank you any questions for marcus just just real quick marcus i know we mentioned for the meeting's sake we would we would just briefly highlight some of the features of the cameras and and the functionality you know some parents may want to know for example in an emergency how quickly can staff access the video um what devices can it be played on and just just walk us through that if you could sure um so i know we talked about a few things so again this would be a cloud-based system so as far as how quick we can access the data as soon as we're within our you know wi-fi point where it gets uploaded to the cloud you know that's assuming we can get it that fast currently we have to

222wait for the bus to come back to the garage pull a physical take hardware tape off the bus plug it in you know go through a lengthy process so it is a lot quicker the quality is hd color quality compared to right now it's black and white images you know just to kind of date the system that we currently have and can you also explain how many cameras and the locations per bus um yes i believe there's a couple of cameras that provide full views of of of the entire bus where currently i believe we do have blind spots so we'll be able to see everywhere inside the buses along with i believe there's cameras on the stop arms of the exterior of the bus to be able to see anything that we need to

223as far as other traffic maybe that you know maybe interfering with students getting on or off buses and things like that okay thank you uh next line item is 21-22-111 it's community eligibility provision cep marcus again we have a few food service items tonight that we're bringing for discussion one is the community eligibility provision this is part of the healthy hunger free kids act of 2010 which allows schools that have a student population of 40 or more that are directly certified students to participate in this program and what this does is it allows us to provide free meals to all students in the district and a majority of the students participate in that there is no cost to the district to participate in the program so again all students are able to receive meals at

224no cost and then revenue will you know changes slightly you know compared to non-cep years um it really raises the participation among students that participate in breakfast and lunch programs and it's a great program for the district so again this is bringing to your attention for discussion this month and we'll be back again next month to approve it okay thank you any questions for marcus okay one um i'm trying to find my paperwork i'm a little tired um we is this the one that has the um adult uh cost of lunch and dinners is another one okay thank you thank you okay i'll find it thank you mark it's just real quick for for clarity's sake i know in previous years and it seems like we we at least run this by parents every year

225where if if either you're eligible or not is there an obligation for pa is there an obligation for parents across the board in the beginning of the school year to submit any form or any confirmation on the parent's end in order for this program to truly work we do need to collect household data from from families at the beginning of the year to meet the thresholds i believe to be remain eligible in the program yes okay thank you uh next line item is 21-22-112 participation in the free and reduced price meal program and meal prices for 20 22 23. marcus so every year the board needs to approve our participation in the free and reduced meal program and as a part of that um the usda publishes reimbursement rates for the meals that are provided

226to children in the district as part of that we need to make sure that to make sure that the district is receiving fair compensation for meals for full paying students we have to adjust our meal prices to keep up with inflation and really this mainly affects adult non-student meals and extra milk that kids wish to purchase not milk that comes with their lunch so again approximately 70 percent of our population qualifies for free and reduced and about 90 percent of that population takes part and participates in it we are reimbursed from the usda on meal claims it's expected to be about approximately three million dollars next year and they help maintain those meal claims help maintain our food service fund balance to keep the program operational so again no action again this meeting we'll be

227bringing back again next month okay thank you any questions for marcus i did have a question about this one um help me make sure i mean help me understand if i'm wrong or correct on this the three million that comes from um that's reimbursement from usda based on you know each the meals that we hand out each month we apply for reimbursement for those meals on a monthly basis and those are students right correct now the um the adults who who eats adult it depends on the district sometimes it's staff sometimes and i don't know about here but other districts you'll have parents that'll go and you know pre-culvert anyway because they would go in and have lunch with their students in adults you know are full pay and and there's other things involved with

228that as well and you said it's only adjusted for inflation correct thank you thank you uh next line item is 21-22-113 participation in the summer meals program marcus all right so this one is is there's no actually required this is more informational purposes only so and just to give you a little background last year our summer meal program was very successful we served meals at over 30 sites around the community meals were also delivered to area parks the ymca and churches to name a few it's it's a value to the community helps promote jps again there's not a cost of the district as we are able to claim these meals again from usda for reimbursement based on the cost there's really not an effect to the food service fund for this program this is just

229another way to help out the community and the district during those summer months when kids are not in school okay any questions for marcus okay hearing none uh the last discussion item is 21-22-114 the tayer contract renewal marcus so per again usa got usda guidelines our food service management contract needs to be approved annually by our board and these are guidelines set forth by the usda and mde as well there's certain limits on management fees and things that we're a lot that are allowed to increase you know due to inflation things like that i believe it's capped at two percent um and again in your in your documentation there so the two percent increase for administrative meals per month equates to about an extra hundred dollars of expense which is paid for through the food

230service front again no action required this month we'll be recommending approval again next month and we are in year three of our four year renewal before we bid out food service contracts again okay thank you marcus any questions for marcus okay thank you that concludes our discussion items so now we are on number 10. i need a motion right number 10 is closed session so we'll need a motion entertain a motion to go into closed session okay pam thank you cheryl support do we need collaboration oh yeah any deliberation on that okay all those in favor say aye aye opposed okay um so those of you that are here um you're obviously welcome to stay but we are going to be okay we are going to be moving all of us that are in closed

231session to and then we will come back okay at this time i would entertain a motion to go back into open session support okay thank you libby thank you shalonda any deliberation okay all those in favor say aye opposed okay motion carries and now i will pass it over to our secretary sheryl simonetti i have a resolution to read for the board's consideration whereas at its february 15 2022 meeting the board voted to secure an outside source to investigate issues raised in closed session at its march 15 2022 meeting the board approved retaining attorney lisa l swam of thurn law firm pc to investigate trustee kisha hamilton's complaint of harassment against superintendent jeff beale attorney swem has completed the investigation has reported her findings to the board in a document protected by the attorney-client privilege

232now therefore be it resolved that the board waives the attorney-client privilege to the investigation report prepared for the board by attorney swem and authorizes the full release of the report at 9 a.m tomorrow wednesday april the board's waiver of the attorney-client privilege is strictly limited to the investigation report and its exhibits prepared by attorney swim and does not apply to any other document or circumstance all resolutions and parts of the resolution that conflict with the provision of this resolution are rescinded okay so at this time i would entertain a motion to adopt the resolution support thank you pam thank you shlonda okay any deliberation okay and for this we're gonna do a roll call vote this is axley yes okay motion carries okay okay we are on um board comments so i'll start with kisha

233um yes i do have board comments tonight so um i have been trying to find the words to describe this experience that these last three months have meant to me and what they have done to me i wanted to make sure i did my due diligence to what i have experienced and what i have heard um over the last several months i want to speak directly to those who spoke up over these last several months through social media through email through one-on-one conversations those of you who heard about what happened and took time away from your out-of-state locations to detail your experiences to be shared during the public comment section of the meetings i want you to know i heard you was very important to me that everyone who has spoken prior to today in

234our public comment sections that they know that i have heard their voices that i took those experiences i have taken them to heart they have hurt my heart even today you know as a mother of young boys um and young girls the experiences that were detailed that these uh some of our students had here really impacted me and i just want the community to know that i heard your voices and i have been hearing you all this time over these last few months while i have grappled with the actual event that occurred in january i have struggled also with the intentionally disparaging comments and toxic culture of this board their intentional efforts to attempt to discredit me and my experiences not only in january but just as a person and what i bring to the

235table my purpose for campaigning to become a member of the board of education um i've grappled with those things and just just had to uh you know sit back and really um deal with that sometimes i think we forget that we are dealing with human beings um i happen to be a human being i'm a mother i'm a woman i'm a friend i'm a daughter i'm a cousin i'm a person i do not deny my strength ever in any way shape or form but these last 15 months of this board's toxic culture culminating in this uh investigation have been intense they have been intense i'm detailing that just to say to those of you who spoke up you know because many you're not here right now but you'll see this later i recognize based on

236the things that i have experienced not just here because i'm a black woman you know so so much of what i experienced unfortunately um you know i have experienced this in other spaces based on that other reality that i exist in any way so like i said i detail these things that i just said before um to those of you who came to the board all of your experiences that you had to relive um all those uh you know the detailed accounts that you shared it took a lot of courage it took a lot of emotion it took a lot of pain to relive all that and i acknowledge that some of you these experience happened over a decade ago some of you were here 10 15 20 25 30 year teachers at jps and

237walked away based on the experiences that you had um that were similar and that mirrored minds i want you to know that i heard you you know i felt your pain i appreciate your courage i appreciate the way that you uh spoke out and i know that it was because you care about jps you care about this community you care about our students you recognize you also make those connections which is why you came you made the connections that if one of us is feeling unsafe then we all are not safe and because you cared and you made that connection you were willing to come and expand and detail these experiences not simply for the retelling's sake because many of you were so traumatized by the event that you could not come many of you

238wrote your things down that experience down and had someone else share it because it was that impactful for you you couldn't come and share so you didn't do it just for the the simple retelling you did it because of how it impacted you and also because you cared that much about jps to say listen i need you to know that something is occurring here that you are not focusing on and if i also give my me to moment maybe they'll listen i recognize that that's what happened and i'm i'm grateful i'm so thankful um many of you you know i don't know that i spoke to anybody let me let me correct that i did not speak to anybody and ask them to come and share their experience i shared my experience and based on

239that they all said me too so thank you to those of you who came to uh jps this board table this public comments section to detail your experiences because you cared that much about this district um those of you who because of teaching you know because teaching is your very essence we have many teachers who over these past three months uh two months two three months came and expressed you know what this meant to them you know some of them some of you you know teaching is what you do it's so much of what you do it keeps you up at night what is happening in jps that's how much you care about this district i'm speaking to all of you right now i'm speaking to the former head of hr another black woman a

240black woman who experienced having the n word hard r used in a meeting with her and no accountability from this board to this hr woman this black woman you know after that term was being used based on what she said her experiences were and i believe her i believe her to the 10th grade prodigy a young black woman a young black lady our student kelly i heard you detail the feelings and indignation you experienced upon not receiving responses from the majority of this board and the anger you felt when you detailed how this superintendent accused you our own student our own student our ap student our valedictorian student of being a liar i i felt your pain i recognized it i heard it i saw it i see you kelly those of you who were

241present and watched in horror as one of our older board members verbally assaulted me on the close at the close of the february meeting meeting your immediate action to protect me and your extreme displeasure that brought you back out to the next meeting to address that behavior and how you've kept coming back each meeting since then so that you can protect me i see you i appreciate you thank you you didn't have to do that and i want you to know that i am acknowledging that because you recognize that unprofessional nature that unprofessional behavior how it impacts and how it hinders quality education if this board can engage in that type of behavior against me simply because they disagree with the positions that i hold simply because they disagree with my diversity then we know

242that it's happening in this district and i heard you and i want you to know that i heard you to everyone everyone who out of compassion and commitment to the success of our jps community again i want you to know that i heard you i am laser focused today still 10 o'clock 11 o'clock at night on the on our primary stakeholders who are our students our families and our teachers i'm focused on you and and that that has not changed and will not change in any way shape or form my purpose is the same as it was when i initially chose to run to become a jps board trustee my purpose i told you your voice is at the table now your voice has been at this table and it will continue to be at

243this table i told you your issues your concerns they will be addressed at this table i'm so incredibly proud of keisha and how she has done exactly what she said she was going to do and how she won't be diverting from any of those things in the in the present or in the future as we go along i promised you all different things and i have delivered on those things my promise is the same to strive for quality education in the form of accessibility of trade of skilled trades to jps students on campus a focus on diversity equity and inclusion a focus on trauma-informed care youth mental health training evaluation of student and parent voice i'm sorry elevation of student and parent voice a budget that reflects human-centered values accountability transparency and accessibility i cannot

244control what these members of this board do but i can say that i'm here i'm going to keep asking questions i'm going to keep representing our voices and no matter what is occurring later on i'm still going to be here still doing what i do and still making sure that your voices are heard thank you jps community i appreciate your support hey libby what i've learned over these past few months is that we all have we all have to do better and keep our first priority as our students and go from there hey erin no there's a few things that i want to recognize first and as intense as the meetings have been i think there's some everyday heroes that your work has not unseen the most recent segments that are titled believe the hype

245where our parent liaisons um which to me are kind of just the the underdogs right now and kind of the unsung heroes and that's one of them still here and christy dillon and the other one is aaron slater i was not able to attend the movie on saturday i know my youngest was definitely wanting to go but we didn't have that service i don't believe or recall when i was in when i was here but to have that direct contact for parents and stakeholders to be able to directly contact the schools and work with parents but your your passion and your work and what you do completely it does not go unseen and and that's i don't want those everyday scenarios to get lost in some of this because this is the business of the

246district and this is what we need to get back to um also last night i had the privilege to attend an event which i'm so glad i was able to work out you know track practice and all the things that parents go through to get there but um dr marks i i as much as i've read about him and and the things that he's been working on you know it was a sight to see last night of him facilitate that conversation and i i do think what we saw last night from the wildly different perspectives when it comes to dei it really was a microcosm of our community and i'm talking about jackson county and the way that dr marx walked through that conversation and facilitated that which he knew walking into that he was

247going to be challenged heavily and he and he did it in a way that had finesse and grace and you could almost see some of the people that walked in there to challenge him almost changed to a degree where they yielded to their initial intent on being maybe ultra aggressive so kudos to him it's it's arguable what we have done or have not done with diversity equity and inclusion and that's that's off super fair to argue and debatable and anyone that says that we've done enough or as much as we could have they're just not telling the truth but i do believe this process is a journey um there's no light switch there's no magic wand it's been a multiple century struggle and to keep it on the radar to keep it on the burner

248um is vital and and will continue to do that i'd say tonight all of the perspectives i i i can appreciate and what i i told you know something a little bit ago and i i think the common theme tonight was even in the midst of this difficulty and and the balance of perspectives that was brought forth tonight we have an obligation to continue to move on and do the business of the district there will be disagreements like there have always been on the school board and there's been the point that nationwide you can look at the headlines when it comes to school boards and we have had certainly a tumultuous last few months but i try to look at the cup as half full and you know i i think it could be worse

249we've saw the situation in flint we've seen school board we've seen community members stand up at different cities and threaten the entire school board that they will end their lives i thank god that we have not reached that point and i have enough faith in our community that we would not so in the spirit of tonight and the overall theme to move back as fast as we can to the main business of the district i think we owe it to our constituents we owe it to our staff we owe it to our kids and we owe it to the parents and that's that's what i got i want to take this time to say that as everyone else has previously indicated these past few months have been very very very intense for many different reasons

250what i know about everyone that has weathered the storm and came in here to be courageous and to speak up and speak out is that collectively we all have the same goal and is that we want to see change we are desperately in need in the positive change for a jps school district and the only way that we can see that positive change is through being humble vulnerable lifting up and honoring those giving those accolades praise recognition when necessary being open and honest and taking a look at ourselves we cannot come together as a unified front if we do not look in the mirror and find out what role do we play in this disconnection myself included now is the time for us to think about what forward momentum we are anticipating and what will

251it take um i would just like to thank the members of the community that came out to speak today um and especially the staff because i know it's not easy and i probably gonna go home and worry tonight whether you're going to be the next target on social media and i know that there's a lot of people who couldn't take that step who couldn't come in front of that microphone and speak so i want to thank you for speaking for them too and because there's more power in the people than the people who think they have power i'm not nearly as profound as my colleagues and they've done an amazing job with their comments tonight what i'm hoping for is this is a turning point and that when we come back together next month that

252our agenda will be all set that our public comments will have something to do with the agenda and that people in the community understand we're moving on and not just keep repeating the same same complaints every month i just think jps has so much to offer and we have done such a good job all these years i just hate to have this black mark on us make a difference in how we go forward thank you i would just like to thank our community for supporting jps it's obvious um i would also like to especially thank the staff um their efforts are very appreciated and that's what makes jps great i have two kids that come home every day that are so happy with their teachers their principals their friends the opportunities that they have and

253i also look forward to this report being shared publicly tomorrow with the community okay we are on number 12 there's no new business 13 is the calendar may 17th is our next board meeting may 27th is our commencement uh for both pathways and scmv that's at one o'clock and then for jackson high schools at 7 pm june 7th is the jps retirement dinner at cascades manor house at 5 30 and then june 9th is the jps staff appreciation picnic and that's what we have going on to wrap up the school year so number 13 is adjournment so at this time i would entertain a motion for adjournment support thank you libby thank you need deliberation all those in favor aye opposed okay motion carries thank you have a good night you