001buch always e is e e e all right good evening everyone I want to thank everyone for your patience this evening we are in a non-traditional place where we typically meet um but if you are not aware the Board Room ceiling collapsed and so we figured you guys maybe want it to be in a more comfortable space than um uh looking up at well there's pipes but not as friendly looking pipes um so I'm going to call this regular meeting of the Board of Education to order and ask that the clerk please call the role Dr cabinet Mr creem Mr Lopez Mrs Moore Dr nebar Martinez Mr neski Dr Rodriguez Miss Williams present Mrs Willies presentar Miss pres thank you and I do know that uh Mr nowinsky is in route he should be here
002very shortly and Dr Kavanaugh um Dr naris Martinez and Miss Moore did um tell me in advance that they had a conflict and would not be here this evening but before before we get started with our other additions to the agenda I am going to ask everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you I had planned on having Mr noisy read the mission statement this evening but since he's not here yet I'm going to ask Miss Williams to do it for us the Lancy School District's mission statement is to provide a high quality education and a culturally safe and nurturing sorry nurturing environment that supports all students to live purposefully and fulfilling lives thank you very much uh next on the agenda is any additions to the agenda to my colleagues do we
003have any additions to the agenda seeing none we do have a time on this um evening's calendar for public comment on agenda item I do not have any registered um speakers on agenda items this evening but I do want to uh note for speakers or any individuals in the audience who wish to address the board later in the evening on non- agenda items it's important that you complete one of these blue cards that are in the back of the room and give them to our board secretary over here on the side um so that you can be recognized during that portion of the agenda that brings us on to our next item this evening which is presentations and report from superintendent so I'm going to turn over to Mr Scher all right thank you whoa
004uh good afternoon everyone it's uh really lovely to see all of you as Rachel said uh we are in a very different kind of uh building because our roof has collapsed um although I will say being in a school is actually really quite nice uh last year if you folks remember we actually kind of toured the the district and if this goes well I think we might uh continue to do it because to be honest I have no idea when the roof is going to be or the ceiling is going to be uh set up um it's certainly been a while uh the way that the calendar broke down um you know we had July 4th and we had the iss's which we don't have so it's been it's been a long time uh since
005we've met so there's been some really kind of great stuff uh that's been going on of course the graduation uh for those of you who saw for the first time in a while we had the graduation at bresin which I think went uh over really really well there's something pretty special about that so um it's certainly our hope that we'll uh continue to do uh that work uh but at bresland which was really powerful of course was the graduation and you know the numbers that are verified are are typically done in February but the initial numbers that I can kind of share with the district is that it looks like we're really close to the 85% graduation rate that we've been really looking for and our goal was to do it in the 2025 2026
006year so the fact that we might have done it two years earlier is really quite amazing and I want to give a big shout out to all of the high school folks and of course the K8 folks but uh the work that the high schools have done over these last three years has been really tremendous again just to be clear the initial numbers are what we're talking about they don't become official until February once the state uh certifies them and does their accountability metric uh you know the other big goal that the district has uh has been around attendance uh sadly you know for years the attendance has been pretty low uh two years ago three years ago our attendance uh was at 70% and again to give a really nice report is that our
007end of year initial numbers uh are actually all the way up to 84% so just to put that in perspective in the last three years um we've been able to raise the graduation rate by 23% and in the last two years we've been able to raise the attendance rate by 14% coming within less than a point of pre-o attendance which is pretty rare for uh school districts so you know I wanted to keep the the kind of update brief uh we haven't spoken for a while um but it's really it's really kind of amazing to see what's been happening uh throughout the district um over these last couple of years but as I think everybody can see we actually are visited uh by lots of people today which is terrific um I am used to
008sitting on the other side where I was on a school board myself and typically our rooms would be filled with hundreds if not thousands of people um in the three years I've been the superintendent you know our rooms are usually pretty empty um and so it actually is really quite wonderful to see uh so many people here today I can only imagine uh that a lot of people want to hear about and want to speak about the libraries um there has been quite a bit in the Press uh discussing uh the district's possible decisions around libraries but I will say if you've noticed or paid attention to any of the news or any of the Articles the district hasn't said anything uh there's a reason for that is that none of the stuff that you've
009been reading is probably true and so we want to be really clear uh certainly as me as a superintendent is there's a reason why school districts don't respond to the press and there's a reason why school districts don't engage in kind of back and forth things with folks because we have to a protect our employees and B we also have to make sure that if we're going to make a decision we have to really decide on it in a kind of systematic way but because so many people have seemed to care about this and so many people have really reached out to us what I'm going to ask the board president if she will allow me to is to kind of show you how the decisions get made here this is my time as superintendent
010on the uh agenda right it says report from superintendent so usually what I would do here is say well you know I'm the superintendent this is what's happening you know graduation rates attendance rates etc etc but what we can do and what I think might be really kind of powerful and might be really interesting is to show the community kind of how decisions are made within the district and to be really clear about what I'm going to ask if it's okay that we do is to actually have the people who have been advocating for the change about libraries to present to me as superintendent what they want to advocate for this is a lot different than what you know you think or what people might think how this works as a superintendent I'm always asking
011our amazing staff what do they think we should do to make the district better and over the course of three years we've done a lot of things Universal prek Lancing Tech new programs left and right all of those things come from conversations where staff will come to my office or I'll go to their office and really sit with them and say okay what are you advocating for what do you want and so what I'd like to do is to invite uh some of the members of the Departments to come to the table and really kind of explain to me what it is that you are advocating for and I want to be really clear here the district again and this is what to see District hasn't made any formal decisions one way or another about
012anything we don't really do that in the middle of the summer per se we're trying to plan we're trying to do stuff but we know that there's this information out there that people are perceiving about what the district is going to do or wants to do or has already done so what if possible I mean Christina and and Sergio and Sarah and and Clayton and Sarah why don't you guys come up to the the front here um and take your I guess chairs with you um if we don't fit and so again to preface this yeah it's okay whatever whatever works is that what's about to happen is that the representatives of the office of um uh schools which of course is our pedagogical side then we have the office of um special populations we
013have human resources we're lucky enough to be joined by one of our terrific principles uh hey Nicole nice to see you um and then Sarah O'Neal um is part of our uh office of schools as well and then Christina is the co so she's representing kind of facilities and operations so again we rarely kind of respond to stuff in the press and we really try to kind of keep things you know closed to uh as we decide things I don't think anybody really wants to see how the sausage is made but because there's been so much I think misinformation and so much concern about what the district might be doing it might be kind of interesting or I think very very helpful and elucidating um opportunity is rather than me give a kind of report
014per se is to actually have the people that are leading this charge to report to me and have you kind of see this what you'll also see during this is I'm gonna probably ask them questions I'm GNA probably push back on them I'm going to see what's going on the request here from the board of course is this is the during the report from the superintendent of course the board can ask whatever they want at any you know at any time but I think it'd be really helpful to kind of hear from the employees of the district who represent the office of schools the office of special populations HR facilities Etc to kind of see where any of this stuff is coming from because as superintendent I don't make decisions in the in a vacuum
015and I rarely make decisions that aren't going through or vetted by the um by the staff so I'll have probably some comments around this later but I have to say that I have been really impressed um by how our staff has has taken this and how wanting they wanted how much they wanted to be able to kind of share their thoughts around their ideas that might or might not be uh kind of decided by the school district so I don't know if people can see the screens oh awesome so people in the audience you can see that one and I guess the board can see this one terrific so I'm going to turn it over uh to I guess Dr O'Neal awesome all right take it away Dr O'Neal good evening Mr schner thank you
016for allowing me to share what I think we should do moving forward with our libraries as director of diversity equity and inclusion I also have the pleasure of leading the library Department over the last few years I'm an absolute lover of libraries I have grown up in this community and libraries are deeply important to me I am a passionate about books period I have served as a seventh and eth grade social studies teacher in the back of the yard's neighborhood on the south side of Chicago where we didn't have access to a library at the middle level I would take the bus downtown Chicago and fill as many of the tote bags as I could to make sure that my students had access to high quality literature I have also served as a Title One
017Reading specialist where I took pride in engaging students in literacy learning by being clear about the why of reading matters and how it can be life changing for a child I was lucky enough to serve as principal of real school student voice led me to prioritize the updating of our library to be bursting with books full of representation and diversity of thought reflected in the content I smile when I think of it now because I was not yet a student of Library I had no idea the amount of additional work I created for those Librarians no matter the community pulled together with Librarians and they made sure every book was stamped labeled sheling was moved and students what they needed I would argue at that point that we had the coolest books in The District
018extending us across Contin reading levels I also LED in partnership with West at a team through our 2021 systemic Equity review We consisted of a team of 40 stakeholders representative of student staff parents and Community boys the review made four specific recommendations to begin infusing Equity into our libraries with a librarian serving the team recommendations included rewriting our fine policy which the board took immediate action in abolishing all fines to increase access to books to conduct a yearly review of Library materials to ensure materials accurately reflect the diversity in our community to allocate necessary resources to add or replace our library Collections and to review funding policies to ensure Equity all four recommendations have been addressed and are in continually own targets I say all this to say that historically we have invested deeply in
019our libraries and yet Contin to see our literacy scores Define we finally have the time and the resources to Rie this question what tools and resources are essential for our students how can we modernize to continue supporting libraries while increasing scores to Ure that our students become Global and critical thinkers next to show you the current state of our libraries I will pass off the next to our thank you Dr OD I would like to share that all of our schools have a library yes every school has an open and active library in our district I know there have been things published in the media stating that we are closing School libraries and this is simply not true and if any school would like to close Downes within their school or add newes this is
020something that has brought to my attention for discussion among the leadership of our district I would like to share with you the current state of all of our libraries our first slide is ail Elementary and before I continue with more what you're going to see in some of these pictures there are spaces with items move to the side or potentially box up that's because we care deeply about our libraries and we spend the summer cleaning them thoroughly and that is currently the process that is going on additional boxes that you might see in several of these libraries are the thousands of new books that are beinged each and every one of them the next picture shows cavan Elementary you can see a wide array of different books and I mean just again for everybody who's
021watching this at home or in there if this was really a meeting like this which it kind of is because they're sharing this with me I would say are you are you lying to me when you take these pictures right so when did you take these pictures these pictures were taken two and three days ago Department fair enough very okay Park Lions element Willow at Riddle we're doing some extensive cleaning there so you can see that's a little bit NY Atwood Dwight Rich this school this week and next week is being deeply cleaned so this is one of the schools I was talking about that has everything pushed to the side the boxes you see on the side are brand new books that have been delivered to the library um and I believe Miss O'Neal
022we're having thousands of new books delivered to Dwight Rich alone so so these are new books that are coming to the school right now correct oh okay Garder representing all of our lovely communities Len Elementary and this one I want to be specific to mention that I know there's been some things circulating in the community um that luton's library was boxed up that were we were removing all of the resources this picture was literally taken two days ago as you can see none of that is true and there's no plan to there is no plan to remove resources or box up the library no fair enough Mount Hope at the current Wood Creek location just want to make sure I point that one out because as you know we're building the new Mount Hope and
023I will get to that later North Elementary pattingill so this is one that's a little bit of an exception we're not removing any of the resources but as you know we're adding a new 14 classroom pod to the school um and so what we're needing to do is use this space as flexible classroom space until that pot is finished being uh buil so we're going to take these boxes we're going to move them into Mobile Library carts and move it into a different space within the school and this is done until we build the 14 classroom extension correct and then we will reopen this traditional Library space and put all the and and when do we Pro when do we think the extension is going to be done um it's going to be somewhere around
024like fall late fall okay and then it it'll go back into the library back into Library okay this is posto shared and Road and here you're going to see we have multiple digital resources as well with the different carts Wexford and now I'm going to move on to our high school libraries and what you're going to see is we really spend a lot of money investing in our high school libraries with a lot of our new builds so these spaces are really have started to turn into more of the modern Library spaces where we've got different seating arrangements and those types of things ever a school that we invested in um heavily last year in their Library last summer so you'll see the different new soft seating arrangements more Collaborative Learning spaces to get into
025that more modern Library experience and then this is seon thanks yeah of course um with that I'd just like to turn it back over to Dr O'Neal so she can talk about our future vision of literacy and what that looks like in the district I have a question if possible Miss toart can you go back to the Widow Willow at Riddle picture for me is that a temporary classroom or is that the actual size of the library you're only seeing part of the library so a lot of these pictures even in fewer pict like this is not the entire size of the library it's the libraries are large they're the size of a classroom or larger in most locations larger okay thank you and this is the original library that riddle had correct well this
026was actually moved into one of the larger um kindergarten rooms so when we built on the new extension at Riddle we added two large kindergarten rooms um this was back in the previous Bond um and so then with the reconfiguration this space is actually one of the larger spaces larger than a traditional classroom oh good absolutely so we're going to talk a little bit about the vision of literacy that we have our vision in the instructional Division and across departments is that our Lancing school district will provide academically rigorous and culturally relevant literacy instruction that prepares all students to be analytical readers skillful writers and effective communicators for success in college career and life in order to achieve this students need to have access to up-to-date resources diverse and inclusive text materials at their reading
027level a printr environment opportun to dialogue and write about the text with each other and access to lots and lots of books we need to ensure that the library is not the only place where books are found we've invested heavily in our school libraries and we are branching out to also provide books for daily use in a child's classroom and I'll talk about that more later we are also ensuring that students have access to these spaces year round so as an instructional division Mr schner we believe in 21st century literacy inclusive digital literacy if students are going to grow in literacy they have to be surrounded by a balance of high quality literature and non-fiction at all times throughout the day I along with the deputy superintendent of schools our three directors of instruction and
028principles all believe that children need to see books surrounding them as part of the fabric of everyday educational space that they occupy Mr schner we was shocking to read in the paper about disinvestment we have spent more money and have more books than we have had in decades our current collections are stunning and we ensure that they are by using the library software Title Wave which provides a diversity equity and inclusion report to make sure our collections are diverse we can pull a report for you right now for any school and show you a breakdown of percentage representative of every subgroup of students that we serve and we make sure this happens yeah I mean I I appreciate you saying that I mean I've been around long enough I'm not shocked with anything that's put
029in the Press uh but you know I'm glad that you're saying that I certainly know that we've been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on Library equipment and library books and you know I know you've worked really hard so I don't want you to feel bad about what might or might not be portrayed in the in the Press uh this is why you get to always meet with me so uh I don't want you to feel too bad about that but what I'm hearing here is that there's now a kind of a move towards not just the libraries in the schools as kind of singular places but really trying to make sure that the whole building is printr and you've invested in quite a lot of that work as well correct on multiple fronts great
030thanks Mr superintendent yeah three decades in administration and three children of my own attended our schools today we have books more representative of our community and also we have bilingual books for a large population of multilanguage Learners which is about 177% of the student body never do I remember one of my Childs bringing a Spanish book when they were in school in addition we have 34 preschool classrooms which is one of the largest programs in the state each classroom has a library with selections that represent the population being served these four-year-olds have access to text and visuals at a very young age which is an early literacy foundational strategy in addition the program shares bilingual books with students to take home so parents who are not English proficient can also support their own children with
031L literacy skills I mean sorry I mean and again I this is not you know this is how this would normally go and I'm hearing something that Sergio was saying that I didn't know and I would actually ask him so we have a program that sends bilingual books to homes to families that's awesome what what is it we have a program in the preschools where the kids uh when we identify what langu speak at home they have a little bag with a bilingual book English and that language and they take it for a week that's that's great to know so anybody in the audience we if you know about that we'll get you books that's really actually quite terrific thank you sir you're welcome Dr O'Neal do you want to explain yeah I think it's
032important to note that in addition to uh the purchase of new books that last summer we spent more than 300 hours as a larger team a team that consisted of librarians and general education teachers that are supportive that we appreciate so much weeding our collections for racist and or classist or inaccurate material still in our collections weeding is simply the proc book by book by book in a collection and using a criteria to determine if a book should remain in the collection school by school we moved as a team reading our collections meticulously so that all criteria can be met in the selection of new reading materials to support diversity us student as the driver and sah that was a lot of the work that was kind of started with the equity team because I
033know that was one of the things okay did you have Equity team members do that or was it was you and educators lii and lied out in the Ed Community to support that's great all of the decisions we're trying to make is based on our vision as a district so we are asking the district to think differently based on this Vision with that being said Ben you know that's what I call you um I want to have a discussion about what modern libraries are and I'm sure you might know what those are but I want to kind of go around what the definition is circulating in the education Community um in the landscape of modern education School libraries are undergoing a revolutionary transformation evolving from their traditional roles as book Centric storehouses they are now
034vibrant multi-functional hubs that nurture collaboration creativity and digital fluency this shift mirrors the broader move toward a student centered learning model wherein engagement and learning outcomes are significantly enhanced through interactive technologically enriched environment right these are four examples of new modern libraries and this is what we are looking forward to enacting within our schools are those on the the lower right are those movable they are they're on casters so that's something that's really really unique um and something we're actually looking at exploring for Mount Hope and Willow well with the cter you can create different learning spaces different collaborative spaces um those different um types of storage units can make all of those different spaces depending on what you need to use the system for okay thanks no problem so we care I just want
035to reiterate that we care deeply about our libraries and we want you to understand that there is a different way of thinking about them the new and best models around the country focus on digital fluency media centers 21st century digital learning are comfortable and warm spaces for everyone our libraries must change from cled quiet to a modern warm Collaborative Learning environment I will now share Mr schner three slides with specifics around how we have invested in our libraries over the last three years I want to be clear that it was really hurtful to see people saying that in the three years I've been leading we've been disinvesting our libraries when in fact we've been investing hundreds of thousands of dollars the star Grant allocated 2,000 for eight Elementary and academic Academy Library serving grades 4
036through eight in order to provide books with a focus on social justice social emotional learning financial literacy and the lbgtqia Plus for students the read Grant allocated 2500 for Willow's library to focus on updating their non-fiction curricular supports we realized after weeding that library that the copyright average copyright date was is uh just into the 90s most recently the Reed Grant allocated 25,500 to be split for K8 libraries to support the same topics mentioned above and we were awarded 50,000 for writing the Laura Bush Grant 10 schools got 5,000 each we used the Title Wave diversity Equity inclusion report that I mentioned to analyze each of our Collections and fill the eight libraries with books reflective of our population I would like to now defer to my colle Adams our assistant superintendent of finance and
037budget to share with you about an increasing in funding from the school level to support libraries I mean Kim you are allowed to come up to the table if you want I uh I just think there wasn't enough there we go thank you Dr O'Neal what I'd like to say is during the Spring we had met with all of our schools they budgeted for school through school school-based funding on how they would like their budget set up for fiscal year 25 this year our schools in their sit teams chose to invest more this current year than last year they increased the budgets by 26% in addition to the data that Sarah's presented we had over $300,000 from the Reed grant that was invested in school packages uh kids took home books to remain at home
038for them and their parents to use $300,000 so we've invested more in libraries than we ever have thank you thanks now I would not normally do this with the staff because they know school-based budgeting but just as a reminder to the community one of the things that we're really trying to push is spend less money in the central office and spend more money in the schools and what that means is that principles themselves and I I see some in the audience and just one here they have more control over how they want to spend their money and I didn't know this Kim saying is that on average the principles when given the opportunity to control their budgets shocking they chose to increase the number of dollars that they were spending on things like books and
039literacy that's great that's why we do this we're trying to move very very far away from this idea that me some you know dude in a tie is going to decide how every school spends their money what we're trying to say is how many kids you got this is how much money you get because that's how we're allocated now spend the money you want and that's really nice to hear that the by giving them that Authority the principles have actually increased uh the money for libraries and books and things like that all right that's great take it away no problem so the first slide was the Li Library investment in our traditional libraries I would like to now move to how we're investing in classroom libraries so we received a rag Grant which will provide
040a diverse classroom library with 400 books to every kindergarten and first grade classroom for the schools um that are in Partnership and that will be implemented when kids are ready to come back this Falla they've been ordered the read Grant is picking up the other nonp partnership schools so that there is no inequity this the classrooms receiving books from 47 classrooms to now 75 classrooms will receive these classroom libraries these grants provide access to diverse classroom library for all students all day the instructional coaches will work with teachers on how to utilize these libraries for instruction read alouds and time on text for students using High interest books research for the books that we chose is based on Dr Goldie Muhammad's work who wrote cultivating genius an equity framework for culturally and respons of literacy
041this is a text that a lot of our staff is familiar with has read has been used in professional development and we've had much success creating a printr environment throughout the district is our goal not just the library great just a few more Investments so some more General Investments are bookshelves so we knew when we received the rag Grant in these beautiful classroom libraries that space was going to be so we allocated 2433 for bookshelves to support classroom libraries um and a lot of those bookshelves are not stationary they're flexible mobile spaces which is very exciting on average we spend sorry s so this would allow us to do kind of like that picture where we had flexible spaces and we can move the books around okay correct absolutely or uh Project based learning or
042polling based on theme all of that got it thank 70,000 per year for book Replacements and adding to library collections is what we're averaging now and then an ongoing regant investment so 27638 has been spent on libraries including books and necessary supplies the reg Grant insured all K5 classrooms District ridad classroom libraries and the most exciting that I'm most proud of of our board is 92300 and forgiven fines due to the board's decision to increase Equitable access for all so Mr Scher I leave you with this thought all of this collection development and collaboration between departments to revamp our libraries has been done since you've been here under your tenure and taken over I hope this gives us enough standing for you to listen to us in designing a new K8 model that's why we
043are presenting to you the best way forward all right well you know I appreciate that um but it is kind of amazing you know know from my standpoint right I look at the $220 million that we kind of spend every year but it really is quite incredible how much money really in the last three years and and you have to get a lot of credit too Sarah you've been in charge of the library stuff for the last three years um I mean you've really spent a lot of money uh on books and in the libraries and you know if we are to believe you Christina that every school has a library and we haven't messed it up uh it does seem like we've really invested quite a bit in this um and then the $92,000
044board you did that so just just know that uh but I think that's really quite wonderful that uh that we were able to do that so all right well what's the plan right to give you an idea how Staffing all plays into this last year we had seven certified Librarians three of the high school and four to cover Ka grades going into the next year we don't school we are are in plans to include two certified Librarians and these positions will work schools ACR allur also we've posted 34 new instructional assistants across arcade schools to support stud l and Library us and we're currently hiring now when it comes to the number of certified Library staff reduction for next year CER I think it's important to not a couple things all of these folks who
045serve at librarian roles last year are still with us and continue to be employed as Educators this upcoming year there are no firings no layoffs they're with us there are employees until they choose and sorry to interrupt I just want to make sure I'm understanding this so the presentation what what you guys are asking for is we had seven certified Librarians in the bill in the schools this year and this is to go to five so it would be a reduction of of two certified Librarians but all the high school folks stay and then you're going from four certified folks K8 to two but you're asking for 34 34 not not three or four okay I mean do we have the money for this okay all right uh 34 instructional assistants in every K8 school
046to support literacy instruction and Library usage and I assume Sarah you will explain to me how this is all going to work great keep on going uh Clayton sorry all right well to to talk about the 34 instructional assistance these are eight hour positions okay um there like you said there's there's 34 there's two uh for each school um that eight hours may not seem like that's a change but it is it's an hour difference between a typical 7h hour um position and ex beyond the school day which allows us the potential opportunity to staff use those two to keep libraries more exess okay so so the idea here is that they would be kind of instructional assistants in the school doing normal instructional assistance stuff but because you're making them eight hours it would
047allow the libraries to kind of be open before school and after school and and again I mean no joke folks I this is a question I I would ask and I am asking this is my experience uh in some school districts is not having necessarily an assistant uh in a in rooms alone with kids but we're allowed to do that right so if we're opening up the library let's say kids can be there and stuff like that okay so the idea here is every school all of our k8s now the LI the high schools are different because they have the Librarians already there what you're saying is this would allow the K8 schools to have an adult in a a employee in the schools before school and after school so kids could use the library
048all right as well as other literacy as right I mean clearly they're going to be helping kids throughout the day they're not going to just sit on their hands but this is the this is the novel thing that I guess this is why you wanted to present this okay I get it thanks um I think on the next slide U Dr will explain what this means for our kids like in the context of schools and programming absolutely so hearing the HR Director we're going to advocate for a new model that will help all children this past year students had access to library for only one semester and they went to the library one to two times per week the other semester our libraries remained dark this means that our Ka students across the district had
049very little access to the library in our current model the current model does not work for our student students in addition to not having I'm sorry I mean you know I visit a school every day and I'm in classrooms all the time but I just want to make sure I'm understanding this that the old model or the current model is that kids had Library basically one semester a year but even then they only got to go to the library like once a week unless otherwise derranged with the library and yes got it okay that doesn't seem like okay anyway I'll I'll keep my my my responses to later so the idea is the the old model or the current model is one one Library kind of a semester and then when this the librarian's not
050there during that semester the the library is just kind of closed yes to the argument would be to protect our collection but it blocked access protect the collection the the books are going to like attack the children or the children are going to attack just resources that we invested while the door will say just so everybody understands I'm a big fan of kids should have access to stuff and if they take a book home God bless uh I will say I don't know if I've ever shared this story is when I was a principal we started an acre organic farm in our school our school was in a some might consider a difficult uh neighborhood and the response I got was Ben if you open a farm in your school people are just going to
051steal the vegetables and my response was is if they want a carrot they can have a carrot so I am concerned if the pedagogy of the district was about protecting the things and not our children I would much rather us to think about how our kids can have more access to things which I assume is where you're going to go but that is I'm glad you brought that up Sarah thank you for elucidating that okay so what what are you advocating for so in addition well I'm not done oh you're not done sorry in addition to not having a lot of time what we were doing in the library instructionally wasn't working we know this because all of the investment has only led to lower proficiency rates what I've seen in the libraries is that
052some teachers do not have a fully developed curriculum as they only see the students once a week and they don't have the chance to build strong relationships it's not because they don't want to they don't have the time this affects the classroom management in the learning environment across multiple weeks which adds up the libraries as we have them now are only open once twice a week and it doesn't work for building strong literacy skills okay so I mean you know you you have your doctorate I don't you're much better at finishing their classwork than I am but you know I want to make sure we're not doing a kind of correlation versus causation but what I'm hearing is hey look we haven't had good literacy rates for a long time maybe this isn't the right
053way of doing it that's the argument not that we can prove that whatever we're doing but that's it's a fair point it's a fair point so we've been doing all this investment our literacy rates haven't really moved you're going to say hey maybe there's somewhere better correct all right I got it so we are asking you uh to help us be creative in expanding access to books by keeping two certified Librarians to oversee the K8 collection they will also be able to provide uh thorough professional development to the 34 instructional assistance we are asking for in this new model students would access the library before and after school or during lunch our collections will remain protected under our certified positions additionally it opens up opportunity to invite our parents and community in to help us
054with check-in checkout and shelving once they've obviously been trained under our Librarians our K8 model Mr schner must change the system we are proposing will best help our students increase time on text and Achieve Mastery of all things literacy so that they can move on to become competitive in multiple contexts and arenas okay so Kim I assume this is going to cost me more but it is what it is okay uh you can tell the look that my assistant superintendent of budget gives me is yes this is going to cost a lot more but I get it so really the argument here is we have three High School princip uh three high school librarians they're going to stay they do the stuff in the high schools we had four certified Librarians in the K8 you're
055going to go to two the two are going to be kind of more districtwide making sure the collections are okay and they're organized or whatever but that this dark time this closed time is going to kind of cease to exist because you want to open it up and make the libraries much more accessible to our kids uh before school after school during school etc etc and that the hope and I want to make sure I heard this correctly is that the 2K8 districtwide Librarians are really doing professional development to help work with those assistants are they also going to PD for the teachers too absolutely we seek we seek to do that and we really seek to have a system that is sustainable okay and that we may have to change in iterations but that
056will be longstanding okay Mr superintendent in addition the flexibility of having more access to our libraries will benefit a large number of students participating in special education and English language development pull out programs in these programs students receive specialized and targeted instruction which frequently causes them to miss their scheduled Library Time by having more flexible access teachers can assess their students in selecting in selecting resources that align with their levels of literacy subjects and current content taught in the classrooms so Sergio he usually doesn't call me Mr schoner but he's he wears a tie Sergio is more formal than I am so um you're telling me that typically our ml kids and special ed kids and and the kids that need extra support a lot of times they're pulled out during things like Library time
057I gotcha okay and this this will help fix that yeah okay and teachers spend 80 to 90% of the day with their students and no one is better fed to assist students whose academic growth than their own teacher so by giving teachers the opportunity to be more involved in the usage of the libraries it allows for a greater impact in developing literacy among all students okay sadly our scores have not been great so these strategies are just another effort to do something different and more effective okay so as we move forward Miss ster will describe and explain how our new school Li are going to look like got it so Ben I know you've seen this before yes this is the slide everybody knows that I have seen because this this is a building that
058is being built pretty soon absolutely yeah um so I just kind of want to reiterate kind of how we went through the process of how we design our new builds and how we go over um what our community and student um and parent involvement is so for the new Mount Hope we actually went in through field day with the students um and we started with them first and our kids of course love to ask for really awesome things and really creative things in this case including unicorns ponies and a pool um which you know I don't know where to find a unicorn but you know uh pools and ponies not so much but they could always take you a bus out to ersa um and um or you know out to our riding center for
059the ponies um so I just kind of wanted to go over that process and hearing um from the feedback from our parents from our students they really did want kind of a more traditional learning environment and with the new Mount Hope being a 58 it was kind of important for them to for the fifth graders to kind of have their own space so on the upper left is that fifth grade hallway and then our sixth through eighth graders are departmentalized since we started to move back to that so they're going to be able to move more freely throughout the space um so that was important to kind of section out the fifth graders um for the staff and parents so we did that different cafeteria different gym of course that's very important um and then
060the Shaded pink area is the new Media Center Library so I also kind of wanted to point out that that's the largest space in the school outside of the gym and the cafeteria um one of the reasons for that is moving to one of those more modern environments so having those digital spaces having the collaborative environment those soft space as the movable furniture and really being able to use that space for the modern learning um of our students right so we we are lucky enough to have the the current and hopefully future uh principle of Mount Hope uh we really uh I mean I want the community to know just how terrific Nicole's been uh in just one year of leading that school we've seen a pretty great turnaround um so I do remember this
061slightly because I remember being there when the kids were asking for like a pool and uh and horses but the way that we derived this was we talk to kids we talk to parents we talked to staff and because they knew it was going to be a 58 School schol they really said look we want a fifth grade section and then the rest is kind of more traditional because the kids the sixth graders seventh graders and eighth graders move classrooms around they wanted a kind of more traditional library at least in terms of having a a big big room called Library um but I do also remember that the big big ask was to have a separate gym from the cafeteria correct that was super important yes great so I don't know Nicole I mean
062it's just great to see you if there's anything you want to add about you know your conversations with with families or or the teachers if they're happy with this you know how this came about talk I mean whatever you want it's just nice to see you so thank you nice to see you sure good evening everyone so our our students are really this is what they wanted um they're looking forward to our new building we're really excited um when I think of 21st century library media center so I'm closing my eyes literally picturing an environment where our students are walking in are able to read and find countless resources now I'm going to open my eyes again so countless resources where there's collaboration with teachers where there's Explorations students are reading books um when they
063have projects they can get online and do some research they can work at Great level and this way our literacy program our literacy um program is more robust where students are actually um there is equity because our students deserve that so we are really looking forward to 21st a 21st century Library setting for our students I'm glad to hear that the kids like it I know I remember them really wanting their own gym that was a really big thing um and then those little pop out things I know that somebody in the community thought that they were somehow like holding cells for children uh but they are in fact those uh Nooks for kids they're reading yeah specifically designed for each costume for reading NS good but we still of course have the big library
064that that they wanted and that's it okay absolutely all right sounds good so this is the new Mount Hope and and I know this I don't mean to kind of be factious here um remind everybody when should this open when will we get the new Mount Hope there is no should it's happening okay when is the new Mount Hope opening uh the new Mount Hope is happening after next school year so the fall of 2025 okay so um we welcome the community I don't think we're going to do much when it's still under construction but I promise uh that when when it's ready for people we would love to show it this is the first new build in decades um it's something we're really really proud of and it's going to be a brand new
065brand new building from the ground up and if you drive by it now you can see a lot of it um I have not been inside yet but um I guess I'm allowed too I to wear a hard hat so all right so this is the new Mount Hope what's next yep so next I want to go into our next new build which is our new Willow so one of the major things that we heard from the community when we were going out for the bond again thank you community for that um since you're here um was that we they really really wanted the seventh and eighth graders out of the high school it was a resounding I think it was like 83 85% of the input that we had back was get the seventh
066and eighth graders out of the high schools and back more into a middle school or K8 um model so we're go ahead and we're shifting to that and the new Willow that we're building was previously a prek4 and we're actually expanding it to a prek-8 school so we're helping provide some of that and expand um the upper grade levels into the willow Community um this helps um with multi-child families as you know we have several families that could have a student kindergarten third grade seventh grade eighth grade um they can all be in one location and it Fosters longer term relationships um while doing this though we did have family concern concerns about having the younger students actively interacting with the older students on a consistent basis so they like the idea of having these
067smaller learning communities within the school so that idea of having um a a campus model you know having separate learning communities branched out from that um and so the campus model that we have designed with the families um is their Standalone buildings or houses what we like to call them with different classrooms bathrooms in a shared space including individual libraries in those houses um so rather than having books in just one room in this space we have two of the houses have libraries in them and those libraries are the size of a classroom so when entering the Pod and coming in there are libraries um and I'll go ahead and flip forward so you can kind of see those in the pink um and then along with that in our K through 2 pod we
068have those more individualized classroom Library collections with those soft learning spaces still those modern environments that we're going to build in right into the classroom opposed to having the Central Library in the Pod and this was really done I mean I I remember these conversations was when I got here the community really wanted to take the seventh and eighth graders out of the high schools we created these s eights but there was a concern about having the younger kids and the older kids kind of all walking together going to the same place Etc so the model of three separate houses for the K2 35 um 68 but the the two older buildings older kid buildings they get their own Library it's not one Central one it's one for each of the houses correct yep and
069those are in the pink and then the K through two are the smaller green areas but those in relation are a little bit larger and they have the movable carts again and the soft spaces that are movable to create and the big thing that I remember speaking to the faculty was they really wanted to make sure that that Pathways was covered absolutely and we going to cover it corre it is being covered Y in addition and then additional with the pods too is creating kind of a sense of community within those smaller learning communities so with Willow we wanted to honor like the history of the willow tree um and so each pod kind of has its own identity its own color from going from like seedlings in the younger pods and then showing the
070tree growing so we have a theme throughout the school but they also have their own external learning environments too for each for each house so that's one of the other things that we made sure kind of really they can all come together as an entire School in those larger spaces but can also stay within their smaller learning communities got it so really the families kids parents teachers the idea was to give them kind of a separate space their own outdoor space their own indoor space and they get their own bathrooms their own Library Etc correct get it yes okay yep but they still have like art art music art music I can't see that far it's okay yep so the gymnasium the art room the music room is right off of the cafeteria so what
071we did for that is the cafeteria is going to be our performance space you can kind of have backup house in the music area and go right into the cafeteria for performance um we've got stem Labs we've got collaborative spaces special education spaces sensory rooms um lots of different things and as well with the um soft seating in the library areas and in the classrooms we're Al also working on sensory um sensory items as well in those in the houses okay thanks yep um and as you know Luton is going to be um our third build so we haven't developed anything fully yet so Willow is under construction as you all know we took down Willow we are currently working to build Willow um even just two days ago we had our second parent meeting
072um with our luten families um to go over what the what they would like to see in the community we originally since luten is a prek-8 we kind of took the willow model and presented it to them and said hey this is what the willow Community this is what it looks like here's the um the different learning environments the pods um and what we've been hearing back from the luten families is they want one Central Library that means something to them very much so so they want one Central Library um and they really want to keep the learning environments enclosed so it's not really coming across that they want the same things as Willow which is completely fine every Community wants something a little bit different so I think we're going to need to continue
073to work with them and shift back more to a Traditional School layout um because that's something that the families want there but if we create the one singular library for Luton which is fine if that's what the families want it would still be more of the modern like Media Center Etc ET it would just be the one for all Ka correct absolutely and so if the families want it so the idea is that the kindergarten kid and the eighth grade kid are all going to the same space they wanted just a more traditional model and and this came from what meeting we had two two days ago we're having another one next week but we had quite a bit of turnout and that was quite the consens and it was it was pretty clear like
074very clear okay yes it was very clear so then it sounds like with Luton you're going to kind of go back to the the drawing board or just a more traditional build correct one library and then um and then kind of more enclosed space correct yep okay yep so we're we'll continue to work with the families over the next couple of months okay on that yep sounds good so I want to hand it back over to Sergio to kind of wrap us up great Mr superintendent we are in the 21st century our kids come first we will have more access to books and libraries by keeping them open we want to make sure that we share this this recommendation with you so you can have a thoughtful decision about the future of libraries in our
075schools thank you absolutely I will build on that uh Mr schner I've LED for three years and making our libraries better the last thing I want is for us is to regress I along with with the instructional Division and the special populations Department believe that going from Seven Librarians to five Librarians while increasing access tfold for our students drastically in continuing investing in books which we've been doing equipment and new builds is the way forward I hope that you take this recommendation to heart thanks um so typically what I would do is now ask them a bunch of questions but they also already took an hour and I know we have lots of other things to do and I'm sure there's lots of comments and things like that we'll get to when it's time but
076what I'm hearing just so that I can wrap this up is all of the libraries are still the libraries we haven't closed down a single Library the only library is the patent Gill thing and that's cuz we're building the new thing and whatever and whatever the rumor about luton's library is just false great good to know uh I will say I don't go into the buildings uh during the summer as often so I'm glad you took pictures um what I'm hearing is that currently we have seven certified Librarians three at the high school four in the middle school or k8s you're advocating to go from keep the three but go from four to two but really make them more districtwide but I mean just so I understand you had four certified Librarians in the whole
077district for K8 percentage wise that's pretty low for the number of schools so you're really talking about going from four to two so that the two of them whoever they are can really help make and and create the the books and the and the whole you know kind of the the whole way of making sure that they can order right and and and organize them Etc but that you want 34 Jesus uh that you want 34 assistants to really get train so that these libraries can stay open all the time what I'm also hearing is Mount Hope um you want a more traditional you're getting more traditional but a lot of it is because you're a a 58 school and those kids kind of move around lot and there's no reason there's no house for
078them to live in it's all in one thing the willow Community kind of liked that thing but as of what two days ago uh the looten families are pretty clear what they want fine you know par parents and kids should and teachers should have a a pretty big voice so I will take this under advisement again I want to be very clear to everybody in the audience and whoever's listening at home and whatever news stations are still here I will take it under advisement meaning we haven't made any decisions we will try to make decisions pretty quickly certainly the board can ask whatever questions they want but this is how it would go we would probably not they would probably not call me Mr schner but this is what they would do and they're doing
079it and we wanted the community to see this because the last thing we want is for there to be any sort of misconceptions about what we're doing in the last three years this district has changed inexorably for the good but I will say and you know a little bit of privilege here is line like as a somebody who's not from here it's kind of sad that like I see a lot of just overt negativity around the district uh I feel like there's um The Ginger Rogers effect right she had to do everything Fred aair did but backwards and in heals and so I just want to make sure that what I'm hearing is we haven't closed any libraries down we're contemplating a really thoughtful and new way of thinking about books and literacy to add
080access to kids more times in libraries more times this you know sari you've worked your tail off for three years about this that's what you're asking for yes please okay I'm not going to promise anything um but I will certainly take it under advisement and certainly I will defer to my bosses here but I think this is really powerful and I really hope that the that you feel heard because I know all of you and many of the other staff members have felt kind of put upon over the last couple of weeks uh all of your really hard work being kind of changed in a way that that nobody really thought was was real so thank you uh we really appreciate it thank you before you before you all Scurry uh just a moment I
081know I know this isn't typically how this happened so the superintendent started out um as he led into his presentation I don't actually know if you have more there's no gas card there's no gas cards or anything like that to report on this week right not yet we wouldn't typically have this conversation because you aren't actually bringing a formal Rec recommendation to the board to consider we did this as um as a superintendent said you know there's a lot of information out there and additionally it's important that we have an increasingly transparent um process with our community whenever we make M major decisions it was incredibly maddening to hear since the last board meeting either in the media or on social media that because there had been a conversation with seven members of our staff
082about where we could place them that the that that was interpreted to mean that the district was intentionally disinvesting in libraries and literacy in our school district the purpose of this presentation was an opportunity to show that nothing was further from the truth and that that is not at in any shape or form the um intent or recommendation that's even under consideration from this District I had written a couple questions down that I was hoping to have answered during this um presentation and a lot of them were answered one of those questions was how much have we invested in libraries over the last couple years you guys covered that in the in in the um presentation I was going to ask you know Miss Tokar you started out by saying we have libraries in all
083of our buildings and I was going to reiterate not just our old buildings but our new buildings as well we just hit on that I wanted us to talk about what's our current access to libraries with Librarians and what does that look like you guys absolutely hit on that I also understand that um Librarians have uh there's a reason why we use the word certified Librarians as opposed to just District staff right like there's ways for us to access libraries or for kids to be taught how to use a computer and log onto computers and they get access to how to understand literacy in the classroom but having actual Library um access is unique right like that's that's that's a process learning how to check out books I mean kids these days don't have to
084pull out an encyclopedia to look things up now but it's still a process right so we talked about maintaining five certified Librarians in the role of librarian within the district and having 34 instructional assistants are we going to do anything special with those um 34 instructional assistants that to make them more unique than maybe a um a lunchtime Aid instructional assistant or something like that to kind of make up for that Gap I know we talked about the two Librarians that are going to be our ka8 Librarians will do PD but are are we doing anything unique with um that job posting or anything to recruit um okay or planing yeah so um I already spoke about the one extra hour to give them sure right that that makes them unique and and actually I
085hope we see some people move from seven to eight and actually accept these roles and say like that's a better fit for me I I'm going to take that um the focus is on literacy with these they're not lunges so they're not going to be sitting in and also they're not babysitters in the library they're expected to be instructional assistants and you know when when we're thinking about hiring good staff we want to look at who we already have that fulfill these roles and also bringing in people that are literacy focused right we don't want these we have to in the recruiting that this is about literacy this isn't about babysitting and I think that a lot of times you know instructional assistant might get um you know get the short end of the stick
086in terms of their value in school and I want to emphasize their value in this thank you that was exactly what I was I was looking for final question because it was on the slide now I need to more information about it so one of the slides talked about the new models and it said that the new model will increase ampy access of the art music PE over the semester can you just tell us how with that how does that work out as an interplay absolutely so with this new model our art music and PE not only have we been able to increase FTE but they will see the children every day so relationships will be deeper we'll be able to go much deeper into the content and that will benefit so the new model
087not only will help have access to literacy but it also allows us to reallocate our resources so that ampy is Amplified as well yes perfect thank you are there any other questions from M CeX Mr Lopez thank you I think I have a couple of questions um the first one is there any study out there that um looks at our uh student uh benefit of digital books versus a book and how is there any data that that gives any kind of comparison in terms of learning and you know um keeping what they learn either way yes so as a team we're always reviewing the latest research I would have to look into the specifics of digital versus print I would be happy to get that information and get back to you but yes we do
088re research to make sure we're Innovative enough areas so I'm not against spending money on books that's fine but um with the new technologies I mean you know a student can check out a book maybe on their iPhone or their computer they take it home absolutely so is there any study of about that best practices whatever there are one thing that we utilize very deeply though is with cattle all of our students have access digitally to the collection in the Capitol area District Library so they have tons of access to the digital as well and our staff make sure that they're aware of that they spend lessons on how to log in and to utilize that so are there new um uh practices for librarians to in using technology uh rather than you know as
089not in in place of but in addition to Absol absolutely and how absolutely so the American Association of Library standards is very uh heavy technology focused and digital citizenship and digital responsibility and so part of the duties of the two certified Librarians that will'll be providing professional development is to train our instructional assistants in that as well as General Ed teachers to uplift their skill set to be able to use that in the classroom and one thing uh G if you don't mind so there has been it's early because the digital stuff is so new there is some research that's showing that especially for younger kids the tactile sense of like touching books and being with books is is sometimes better being surrounded by um print is good but you're right the modern world is
090digital we have to make sure that we're doing both getting the kids to love books and love learning but also having the skills to use the kind of 21st century things um and I think what we've been doing is really trying to infuse as much technology in our libr Aries as we can but also still have the kind of paper books uh you know one big study that's been for years is you know the number of books in a house the number of of words that are being uh kind of around that's really powerful so the more that we can surround our kids with those books and the digital it it it will hopefully be a better thing and finally um with with books obviously you have written right there I wonder how how new
091technology uh Works to uh protect and now with with this new AI you know and how does that what impact will that have uh in the technology area in the digital are question sir well you know it's it's it's coming it's here uh so um I think that uh we need to look at that but the last question I have is how much capacity do our older schools have for digital instruction or or libraries uh because I know our new ones are going to have plenty but our current libraries all for secondary are we speaking about no no on the elementary through high so all of our um kind of as I showed earlier and you can't really see the size of the libraries but they all have a library within them that are all
092the same size or larger than a classroom um and those libraries are not currently full of books but that's why we're spending on money loading in new tech so we've got the room to continue to bring in um increased digital resources and new library books as well in those spaces and those are available through digital form too through the what I'm sorry dig they're available digitally um I don't know what our book collection we have not moved to purchasing Digital Collection as a District because we have that resource through cattle that we teach it's it's a pretty significant investment and you can only check it out so many times that would have to be a long-term planning investment that we are open to but we have not taken that leap yet yeah that's what I
093was gonna ask Mr Lopez are you asking like are you asking do we need to move towards considering investing in digital media and expanding is that the question depending on what the research may say and I think we're going to have to anyway but but currently currently do our libraries have how much uh access to they have to digital technology oh they have access to digital technology yes and they bring their Chromebooks in I was speaking of access to uh texts digitally that are housed in our collection perfect y I just wanted to say just as a reminder we're work towards a 2:1 ratio so all of our students have a Chromebook or iPad with in the school and then the ability to take one home as well separate from that so we allow them
094to take that around to the school have access to the digital libraries through cattle uh I don't know how many of you have uh heat but this is not a great place for the Acoustics AR for heate users next time we'll bring cheering and stomping well next time we'll bring the band shells in or something to help with the Acoustics sorry Mr Lopez um were you all set with your questions okay thank you Miss Williams Madam president so we did a lot of focusing on our K through 8 we didn't not talk a lot about the 9 through the 12 that is a strong suit right there because that's the point where they're preparing for college writing we did not say what upgrades what modifications we're going to be doing um what things are going
095to be in place for them literacy is always forever and I know as a student the library was my place to go that's how I learned so that's my first question how are we going to be advancing and making sure that the 9th through 12th graders are getting the ongoing things that the K through 8 are getting absolutely so our secondary schools will be fully staffed with certified Librarians all three of them are are strong they stay there all day in the library and they collaborate with General Ed on on how to teach research and uh the different literary units and they are a place of Refuge for some students and open after school in our librarians have great relationships with the secondary students and so we would want to continue that I also want
096to let you know that ever in particular has invested um a significant amount of money at the school level to update the library itself and the furniture and the collaboration spaces so students are having wild success with liking to be in their uh to do their projects and their research and their writing so we ultimately hope to update the other two to be similar to Everett okay so let me build on that because within the high schools we do you have several multiples of children with special EDS so are any of those 34 assistants going to be added into those high schools to assist those certified liberians to work with those children who have need that extra when that Liberian is not available always we always want to be inclusive with our assistance in every
097content area okay my next question was is there some type of way that I know we're moving towards 21st century we have to there's no doubt about that but the traditional setting of a library should still remain is there some way we can merge the traditional with what we're trying to do modern while maintaining the Integrity of what a library should be yep So the plan is to not get rid of any of the library spaces itself it's just to continue to bring it into the modernness so um when I think of a traditional Library which some of our schools still have while we're working to move it into modern um tables wood chairs Library shelves um you know our students like to find comfort and refuge in soft spaces my child included in this
098very building um seeks refuge in the library so um while we're talking about going modern it's creating some of those additional spaces like Dr O'Neal just talked about where they can do lots of different things in the library can still be a quiet space for some soft seating somewhere to find something that helps them sensory um but also at the same time to have collaborative environment writing projects those types of things so it's not meant to take away Library it's going to change from the library we knew it as growing up but that's where our students are headed um but it's meant to still create that space and keep that space available for them I let me expound on that um when I say the Integrity of the library being able to understand how to
099do a research paper from start to finish using the Dewey Decimal System going going to the card catalog because again everything is digital now and with everything being digital we can cheat let's just be real we can cheat we can plagiarize I think that's what's affecting our children their learning their literacy and why our scores are not going up because we're becoming more inundated into the changing instead of teaching paper pencil then we go to the computer does that make sense I do hear you yes ma'am and we are our high school libraries um I think if you review the standards that they're teaching are very inclusive of both things that you're talking about so there are lessons in how to navigate the library how to research how to use databases how to evaluate and
100be critical of the information you're looking at um because just because it's labeled non-fiction does not mean it's true all being critical thinkers all of that is covered okay thank you Mr noisy expand on the note that was on the Staffing slide it said that we have more Librarians than other districts in inam County I believe so I'm curious if you could speak to what that meant or I can if that's okay um yeah you know it's again I one of the fascinating things about this whole conversation that's happened over the last month is just to like put all of this in perspective Waverly the great Waverly School District has zero certified Librarians um uh East Lancing I think has one certified librarian it's interesting that the press and the social media wants to talk
101about you know what we're doing I always wonder where everybody else is all of this but I would say that even with this new model of going to f uh certified Librarians um Not only would we have the number the highest number of librarians we would actually still have the highest per capita as well I will I want to give mad props to Mason U Mason has three um and they uh only have about I think 3500 kids um but the Lancing School District uh will continue to have the most certified Librarians in the area and per capita as well except for I I think Mason um and you know I love East Lancing and Waverly I'm not trying to throw them under the bus here but most of the school districts in the area
102so we're in the Ingam ISD um and it's funny I had no idea Dan was going to ask this question I actually printed this out because I was curious um Danville zero East Lancing one Haslet 65 Holt one Lancing that's us Leslie 0 Mason 3 okus 2 Stockbridge Z Waverly zero weberville Z Williamston zero now look the comparison to weberville is certainly not fair but in general um we have a preponderance of the number of librarians per kid than almost anywhere else and in fact sadly most school districts in America which tend to be small tend to not have full kind of certified Librarians so we we still even in this model cuz I was curious um with five would still be really quite good I've never never seen 34 instructional assistants um in that
103so thank you thank you all very much uh sure doc Rodriguez thank you very much M president I want to tell everybody how much I enjoy this hour and a half because if you want to know about knowledge you had to go to the libraries I'm thinking about the Alexandria library I'm thinking about the Congress library a place that a City without the library is a very poor City I'm so glad we are having buildings with libraries I am concern about the other issues around the libraries I agree with Mr Lopez about new technology the AI the new role the libraries we are not eliminating we are transforming and I will ask by President your permission that you gave us to the board education in writing a plan for the libraries containing not only the
104buildings the people the people the people who moving their Library knowledge to our students I want to see the plan I want the plan in writing I want that plan to be approved by the board as soon as he approves this plan yes thank you U Mr Crim yeah just had a couple questions um so I know you mentioned it's going to be opened after and before school it's an extra hour is it half hour before half hour after how's that going to work so that's that's the potential right with school waste budgeting decisions at the school level you can decide maybe we have more need in the beginning of this beginning of the day students come in maybe it's after school I think that's going to really depend on the need of school maybe
105it's both maybe it's half hour before maybe it's half hour hour um it's the option there that gives it access and I think that we're not in a position to decide every school is going to do an hour after does that make sense yeah I mean the only thing I would add Is Not only would you know Nicole or whoever the principal is make that decision but that's also not the uh the limit it's we're I think and again this is new to me if the idea is to bring these folks in to do it this would be kind of the the the the lowest level it's possible that Nicole could say I'm going to put somebody in for five hours and keep the library open I think with this I'm assuming this presentation is
106the expectation is that it would be a total of an hour maybe it's 30 and 30 maybe we know that the students really like being after school so it's an hour after school not in the morning that's really up to a principal okay um uh so just to make sure I'm understanding those 34 positions are are new positions they're going to be all outside or inside hires I mean I'm sure we don't know just yet till it's approved but that's the expectation there be new full-time positions yeah so uh we never know so we always um allow staff of course then they want room for advancement and like Clayton mentioned mention if we have sour assistants that want to move up to 8 hours that's great we're going to get a blend of internal and
107external so um these positions I know since they're not certified Librarians are they certified or trained how how does that work they're going to need uh deep and thorough training which is why we're asking for the two certified who are the experts in the field um under my direction to plan it out and have a sustainable system built so the expectation then is for the two Librarians to train all 34 correct plus do some training for General Ed teachers okay and Clayton not to put you on the spot but and and Josh if it's okay just can you walk us through what the general expectation of in instructional assistance are like what's what what do in order to get that job what do they need and then there's extra training that we would be getting
108sure yeah so you know you have your credit hours limits but you can also pass an ETS test the the PA Pro test um if you don't have college credits so really I mean there's the entry level is low we're looking for people that are they coming in with skills and the willingness to help about kids so that that part of it is is the like the limits for hiring but once they're here we want to know how are you supporting our teachers how are you supporting not just watching kids when the teacher over here what are you doing to support the instruction the lesson planning the uh assessment that's happening and taking the teacher lead so there's a lot that instructional assistance do to support the teacher teacher moves the certified teacher um I
109think that that job description is to support the instruction that's happening in the buildings but when we're adding on literacy as a focus that becomes now a little bit more training needed we need we need them to understand the basics of the science of reading structured literacy things like that and in addition to how that translates to what it is in the library like how does that Translate over to the usage of the library to support thank you that's all I thank you all right thank you I'm G check the okay Mr LZ thank you just one last question and probably would don't have to talk about it right now superintendent but but I I I would imagine that with these changes and additions uh we're having conversations with a with with a bargain unit
110on on those changes yeah absolutely and again you know to put all this in perspective again the reason why you the community didn't necessarily see a um you know full-throated defense about the libraries and how much we care about books is so much of decisions like this have to be made in negotiations with unions and with uh labor and so there's no question I mean imagine saying to a bargaining unit we're about to create 30 34 new positions it's a lot of positions even though Lancing is relatively big we have about you know 1,500 employees 34 extra folks in one bargaining unit's pretty big so I if again the presentation's now we'll talk about it if we decide to go down this road uh it would be a huge conversation with uh with the Lea
111we can still create these positions um and I think we we are regardless of what's going to happen in terms of you know really trying to support the libraries we need to create um just more people to help our kids um but but yeah we would absolutely talk to Lea as well as lsca uh in terms of these kinds of conversations thank you all right thank you guys for real this time for real thank you uh Mr superintendent do you have any additional information to share as part of your report I mean only to say that I hope everybody enjoyed this um everybody is more than welcome to always come to my office I think I've never turned anybody away um this is kind of how we do um we try to really be thoughtful
112and transparent and be pretty public and you know I think anybody who's ever emailed me gets a response pretty quickly even if you don't like it um but I'm this is the kind of fun stuff that that I hope you see that we're really trying to do collectively you've got great leaders principles directors Co superint Deputy superintendant there's very nice about speaking about their own children I think there's something really powerful about um our own District folks uh sending their kids even to this building um and that's really quite quite wonderful so I want to thank them um I want to thank the board um you know again the attendance rates that that I mentioned I'm really proud of because that's something that we've been really working hard on and um you know we'll see
113what we can do but uh I appreciate the the presentation and we'll take it under advisement right thank you that moves us on to the agenda which brings us to our routine matters first item this evening is a committee report for facilities committee Mr Lopez thank you Madame President um facilities committee met a couple of days ago we reviewed um uh three items um that are in your packet for discussion and approval um they're the ones for uh the Willow Elementary School um food service equipment we have some uh work on um penal on the modular units associated with the modular units and we have uh the third one associated with the hill track uh project so as we get to U approval if people have any questions we can uh try to answer them
114between Mr K and I and of course our staff so that's what we have uh for for this evening thank you so Mr Lopez I see on the uh consent agenda this evening we have the food service equipment bed um a change order for the hill track and a change order request for the pattingill molder the mobile module or the bill that's having aeno um is that all that we have this evening uh well as for General discussion we have the issue with the um uh green link got it okay okay and this we this is a separate item that we will deal um since the food service equipment in Hill track and Paton Gill are on the consent agenda of anyone has any questions um you feel free to ask Mr Lopez or ask
115supp to be pulled off for consent agenda Mr Crim do you have anything else to add no okay okay so we don't perfect any questions from Mr Lopez seeing none I'm going to move us on to our Personnel committee report oh I'm sorry Miss Williams so I'm looking at the food service category one so we're not according to these three bids are we rebidding out because it says no for all of those or are we going with great great great lake West I'm sorry just getting clarification no no sorry the part where it says no is just that it's not a Tri County vendor um so that's so where it says no no Tri County vendor yes it's a Michigan vendor no not minority owned not female owned but the one that is highlighted which
116is Great Lakes West that is the vendor that we're recommending okay I'm sorry I didn't scr all the way down so I'm sorry that's okay I like wait a minute um okay um C any other questions this evening all right Mr Lopez flooor is still yours with you and Mr nosky to give us the Personnel committee update uh yes the Personnel committee met on June 28th uh we talked about a couple of different efforts uh that the HR department is doing to fill teaching positions in particular with International teachers and through Teach for America uh we also talk about other recruitment efforts for all staff positions you know we're getting updated on the the busyness of the summer and trying to hire and it looks like we have less vacancies than we've had so it's
117going in the right direction um we also talked about kind of tracking Grievances and what that looks like uh for the district some special projects uh some questions about retention and exit interviews that the board has lifted up in the meetings before and I know um Dr Martinez has been working with the Department on on some projects on that regard and then looking at the report that we typically get during the school year on resignations retirements uh new hires and what should be in that report and how how we want it to be structured so we might have some changes we're going to talk more about that in our next meeting on how and when we want that report to come to the board future meetings perfect sure thing Mr Dr Rodriguez thank you how
118we don't have the report from the human research uh teachers people leaving retirements and all that is not here today yep so to incorporate everything that we're doing it'll be in our board meeting next month the August 1 board meeting I will see it thank you mrsk are we also talking about creating an arm boarding process or for new hires or is there one already in place that will create a path for Contin learning and growth the committee's only discussion was about some of these new programs that we're working with but in general I think the staff would I just want to make sure I heard the question just are we working on onboarding for our new staff as they come in is there an onboarding procedure that continues to cause growth and monitoring where
119we're not seeing a turnover at year one or year six uh six months like we've been seeing in the past are we revising that sure well I I'd say two things one I'll certainly turn it over to Christina and I mean Clayton because you were in the audience I if you still are um but uh you know I I think the I want to be really careful about the correlation and causation is you are 100% right that we have to do everything we can to retain terrific staff we have to be really careful that if somebody is leaving after a month six months a year we have to really understand why you know is that uh we are doing a lot of new kind of onboarding and support but just because somebody worked for us
120for 6 months and left that doesn't necessarily mean that they were a great fit and we're sad to lose them it also doesn't mean that they wanted to be with us um but I think that you're right to highlight on that I will say what was really interesting to us when we looked at the the data before is that there was people leaving in the first two years and then there were people retiring at 25 the fact that people were staying between year two and 25 is actually a really good thing when it comes to hiring because it means once they kind of came over the hump they like it they they're they're here but I just want to be really careful to think that anybody who leaves in the first year um is is
121something that we have to be overly concerned about uh My Hope and this is something that the board's asked for and I'm really happy with and um de is really working on as well is we got to give you the rationale as to why people are leaving because like for instance we saw that there was at one school there were a lot of people leaving and they all had the same reason and if we don't fix that that's a problem so I really appreciate you saying that I don't know Christina if what onboarding stuff you know we're doing but sure so um we continue to develop the onboarding process um I will absolutely say that it's something that was lacking um in Prior years so what we're looking at doing is having a more robust
122um onboarding process where when new hires come in they are given resources they are given time to spend in the buildings and they're introduced to staff prior to starting uh something that we used to do as a district is you were hired you were onboarded started the next day or two um kind of didn't give them enough time to acclimate themselves with both maybe who their leader was what the department um was or the school that they were going into so we are moving to more of that model um and continuing to develop that process and what it looks like for each position because for every position it's a little bit a little bit different um so but yes we are continuing to work on that onboarding we do have a current onboarding process um
123but continue to develop that thank you are there any other questions for the Personnel committee all right seeing none I'm going to move us on to the consent agenda our consent agenda this evening consists of the approval of the June 6th regular meeting minutes the June 13th public hearing on the budget and the June 13th information study session minutes along with the willow food service equipment bid recommendation the change order request for the hill track and the change order request for pattingill build may I have a motion Madame President uh Mr Lopez I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda as presented it's been moved by Mr Lopez supported by Dr Rodriguez Dr Rodriguez all right all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppose same sign great motion passes
124six zero that brings us to our uh new business this evening for consideration we have our glrc resolution which is the greater Lancing Regional Committee in the Great Lakes recovery and energy I'm hoping that Mr Crim has a lot to say about this because this is Greek to me um but we have a resolution and recommendation in front of us I'm not sure if there's a member of the administration that would like to tell us more about this I thought you were just going to ask Mr Crim to talk about it no just kidding um so this is something that we have to do every year so um oh man this is standard business for the district so um we are part of this is part of storm water management um this is basic this
125keeps cutting out uh for the B for the district to continue to comply with making not dumping um inappropriate substances into the water and making sure that we are complying with all storm water um and drain management So This Is Us signing on saying yes we will continue to do that and be good stewards um of the community now that you said that it does remind me that Mr Crim helped translate for this for me last time we talked about this uh Dr Rodriguez yes um they say authorizes the payment how much is the payment is not here sorry I'm looking my director of uh operations right now but she's having a hard time remembering too it is not a vast amount um but we can absolutely get that for you okay yes that is
126um thank you okay thank you and this it does say extends the agreement to April 4th 2028 does that mean the board does not need to review this again until 2020 or is it still required to be reviewed annually I'm going to double check on that one too I think we might still need to review it annually but we're entering into the agreement for that time frame perfect okay that that doesn't change the fact that we need to do it for this year so right we have right this is something we have to do I want yeah no problem we just might need to recommit every year to it perfect all right are there is actually may I have a motion Dr Rodriguez I moved at the board education approved Ling Regional committee to stor
127Water Management memor of the agreement as presented it's been moved by Dr Rodriguez supported by by Mr Crim are there any questions or comments on the board seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion passes 60 that brings us to our green leak contract um I am going to turn it over to miss Tokar to talk to us more about the contracted services sure document we have in front of us this evening thank you um so this is um I think the board is familiar with but I will remind you gladly that green link Education Services um is the company that we've been partnering with over the past year um to help us through several different projects um highlight I want to highlight some of those
128things um one uh green link education um helped us receive $12 million in Grants and anticipated savings that will benefit the distri for years to come um we have also garnered National recognition with the Lancing School District being one of only 13 school districts in the United States as a 2024 recipient of the US Department of Energy's efficient and healthy schools program additionally this past year uh we received 20 all electric school buses through the efforts of green link education and through the epa's clean School Bus grant program we've also launched a student internship program um which we're very happy of and I believe sever of you have met Cadence um who helped go um out to Denver to help us receive our award um we have also done uh um they assisted Us in
129um getting our Master facilities plan going and we've done several other things with them so this contract is for those green and sustainability initiatives including working with EPA unclean School Bus sorry this keeps cutting out um and then they also assist us through a different contract that is separate from this so I want to make sure there's a distinction between the two this is the one to help us with the items that I just stated um thank you very much um the other um thing that green Link services does is work with us on solar but that is a separate contract that is different from this um so this contract that you see in front of you tonight um extends this opportunity through the next school year currently they are working on grants that may
130uh re that the district may receive anywhere from 12 to4 million worth of Grants this next school year um so that is the current information that I have for you tonight regarding the contract and the different grants that they are working on thank you very much I um I I just feel like I need to reiterate this because I'm channeling my intructor driguez said this has nothing to do with placement of solar panels or when that's to happen right has nothing to do with this is very separate I see you double checking I just want to make sure that that was clear and this was contracted service hours I'm going to turn it over to you guys in just a second I did have a question just so I'm clear about how this came to
131be so as I'm reading the project overview it says the laning school district is seeking Professional advisoring Services for our sustainability action plan and this is a proposal for contracted Services did we have anybody else supply for contracted services for this Purpose with us so it's not there's not it's not an applicable like a contractor service is not something that you post to have people apply for if that makes sense I got it that helps clarify I was a little confused okay thank you I have a question a Dr I have Dr Rodriguez Mr this how many people is an organization or is a person working how is the what is operations and the total is 135,000 that's is all correct correct is all um so the total amount of people that they have in
132the organization now I believe is up to eight so this includes the entire team working on this the team also um and is comprised of uh the two people that created the team are the former um person that I would say is in my role but for the New York City public school system so 1,700 schools that oversaw operations and also um the gentleman also that um has been here to present for you before that also did operations for the Washington DC public school system and both of them have worked to have M multiple sustainability and green initiatives um in those two very large school districts um so they have them and then they have other members of their team as well as well as working with student interns in the Lancing School District so
133they bring them on as well that is why I'm not informed as much I supposed to to know that that maybe during the year we get that report telling us all this was thanks to that company okay and that way we know that we are spending that money but we are getting something from the money absolutely and I don't want to wait one year to approve the game sure without knowing so um the total cost for this contract is uh 135 roughly th000 um and I don't know what last year's previous contract was for the amount but you they helped us obtain what was that in Grant number again $12 million that is just phenomenal I know I've said it before at past meetings from but just thank them and thank you and all you
134guys that are doing that that's huge for the district to be able to spend I don't want to say it's a little bit of money but to in the grand scheme to get that 12 million in Grand it's it's huge absolutely thank you thank you Miss Williams Miss toart um I just for clarification because it said in the top half it says that they support our EV bus charging and all of that but in the attachment it says that implementation support for Michigan EV bus Grant if awarded I thought we were already awarded that with 20 buses so just we were um awarded different grants for buses we also then got another buses but with along that comes what comes along with that is charging so we were awarded the actual buses themselves but now
135we need to do all of the work around creating the charging stations what that looks like I can go into that a lot um but actually getting those up and implemented Contracting out that work working with Dean Transportation as our partner to see what that looks like and we meet with them frequently as a team to make sure that we get all of that up and running and as well as Board of Water and Light okay thank you forication thank you um I think I did this out of order because I opened for questions without a motion but may I have a motion Dr Rodriguez thank you I move that the board education approved green link education contract for the 2024 25 school year as presented mooved by Dr Rodriguez supported by Mr crem any
136other additional questions or comments from board members yes president Willis sure Mr noesi I just want to Echo that I think this is a very wise invest ment for the district to to make um you know for these Consultants to help us I just want to lift up um looking for that recognition again I know that's a project they're working on we've already received some I think Lancing has been a leader in this area and want to continue to lift that up as a positive for the district and also in the area of Waste Management I think it's one that I hope we explore with the the city and municipalities it's an area that not many people have looked at and we have a large amount of I'm sure biological waste that could be disos
137of in a better way from our cafeterias and other programs so I hope that you know through this Consulting process we'll find some Solutions in that area thank you so much Mr crem no Mr nowinsky I'm sorry any additional questions or comments from board members all right seeing none may all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppose same sign great motion passes 60 next we have uh consideration of our renewal of our membership for mhsaa which is the Michigan High School Athletic Association I would like to say that I am happy to not only see that someone figured out how to type on this document this year um but it also includes our list of um Middle School sports that we are offering so I'm going to do this in the proper
138parliamentary order of this time and ask for a motion Madame President I move with the exception of a correction on the date that we that that we accept this resolution which date are you looking at it says the 18th but it just has the T no h in the form so we need to make that correction where you looking in the resolution itself oh on the resolution not the application gotcha right at the record of adoption perfect okay so since you made that before to make sure that it's is um corrected there's a motion on the floor may I have a support support move by Miss Williams supported by Dr Rodriguez that the Board of Education approved the mhsaa renewal form for the 2024 2025 school year as corrected any questions or comments absolutely um
139I just want to really point out not only is this um membership into mhss say including a lot of our junior high school work and our K8 work is our real hope is that with this approval we're going to be pushing uh towards a lot of uh health and wellness all the way down to our younger kids typically uh over the last couple of years sadly the school district has really been focusing on high school sports and high school Wellness but not as much as really robust um Sports programs and health and wellness programs for the younger kids this is going to be the the kind of beginning of a really new and Innovative and rigorous um Athletics program so I'm really happy to be able to comment so thank you president thank you any
140additional questions or comments All right we have a motion on the floor all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion passes 60 that brings us on to our discussion item section on the agenda we do not have any discussion items that brings us to report from secretary and announcements thank you mad president sure thank uh July 27 5:00 p.m Easter High School class 1974 F reunion 925 South cres Road registration required all the Quakers should be there august 19 teachers first day we finished the school yesterday August 21st first day of the school next board meetings July 20th is today but to no July 20th the board education will be in a retreat at 9:00 a.m. and the conference center and 225 College Avenue Holland Michigan August 1st regular
141board meeting and August 15 regular board meetings that and the secretary announcement Madam president thank you very much any questions for drugz Okay C none we are up to public comment on non- agenda items I am going to ask um for Courtesy from our board members if we could take a five-minute recess we have 17 members um registered for public comment which is is great I welcome the the feedback and I want to make sure that we can give you all of our attention but we have been sitting here for two hours so we could just take five minutes to stretch our legs so that the public speakers have our full attention um during their public comment I'd appreciate that is there any objection from board members take a five minute recess okay all right
142we will um reconvene at 808 and oh I was going to say well this came from summer camp oh good you do already no I have to tomorrow there's yeah she just sent me a thing the other day that she filed so I don't know what she decided she filed but well yeah the budget for all those positions I mean I don't know where coming won oh really one of the wasn't I think it's September and October we have to approve that yeah okay no they saying that because they had to announce to the public too right yeah I think they said they had some meetings in well yeah e e e how we doing well how are you e e e all right good evening let's go ahead and get started back one two
143we are all back great um perfect I am going to like I said we have seven 18 now um members of the public registered to speak to us um you have three member minutes to address the board if you're not familiar with um speaking to the board at public Comet there is a mic set up um right here to my left about three4 of the way down the aisle um I'm going to call the first speaker and then I'm G call who's on Deck so you can just be prepared to know that you are coming up I'm I'm just um calling folks in the order in which they submitted these forms so um our first Speaker this evening is Marisella Martinez who will be followed by Lee Taylor so I would like to invite I'm
144sorry invite Marisella to the um makeshift Podium this evening um to address the board with your comments thank you hello I'm mie Martinez and I'm a sub in the district I'd obviously like to speak regarding the restructuring of the library staff from what I've heard presented here there were no lies of told by Sarah Atwood in the Lancing State Journal despite Ben's comment about misinformation the plan described involves cutting the number of librarians and you kept saying five Librarians will be staffed but that's only two Librarians for all of those elementary and middle schools this is a complete undervaluing of librarians a librarian has a master's degree in library Sciences I heard the words about training programs for the instructional assistance by the two Librarians being created creating a program for them but will that
145be sufficient um it doesn't sound sufficient it sounds like when the kids get a long-term sub that teaches them nothing all semester Elementary and Middle School libraries are just as important as high school libraries if not more important because those years are preparing them for high school more people to work with students is not as effective as a highly trained professional librarian my question is are the two other Librarians being cut so that you don't have to pay them a salary and benefits and you can pay the instructional assistance for less without benefits a decision like this is going to have long-term consequences and will create a gap in our educational system that will be felt for years to come Librarians are at the Forefront of the battle against censorship and book bands which have
146already started started to be enforced in our country libraries preserve history and truth and Librarians are not just people who help kids check out books Librarians are teachers who teach essential research and information literary literary skills that are increasingly important in our digital age these skills help students navigate the overwhelming amount of information that they encounter daily so that they can be informed discerning citizens critical thinkers and I urge you to reconsider this plan to cut Librarians and to recognize the invaluable role of librarians that they serve in the district and in our community thank you for your time and attention thank you I would like to invite uh lee Taylor followed by Cheryl brand thank you so much I appreciate the opportunity to speak my name is Taylor L is for lovely and Lively
147T is for tall tan and terrific these are the things that the Librarians and the Educators teach our youth I understood everything that was said here today and I really respect what that young lady just said and the things that people over understand under understand and do not State appropriately and misinform everybody else with their rhetorics they do teach and it is true that the Librarians have have an important area in the school district as do also the Educators Educators have the opportunity to inspire and engage Youth and tell them how to go to the library to get the things that they need to get and to look into it I had the opportunity to uh earn or get or get move books from a school or a place that were the libraries from all
148of the schools in the Lanson School District donated to an organization that was not part of the school district the thing that I noted in all of those books that I received was 100% of them was only taken out of the library once or twice in 10 years that means that either the educator did not have the opportunity to inspire the youth to go to the library to get the the material or the educators were restricted in their curriculum on how or when or where they send the children to the library if you have an educator that is creative they can Inspire the students to do better and they Inspire the students to read I introduced to Michigan State University of coopertive extension in the 80s a way to do Reading Readiness for kids been
149getting in early development all the way up to high school some of those ideas are still used in the two counties I also introduced in the Lanson School District methods and operations to improve how youth do essays researched books and culture and academics in order to know how to be into the technology world so they can be in journalism reading and writing reading is really fundamental and they can't always get it in the classroom except with a creative educator the creative educator then works with the librarian and they all teach the children how to research the materials in the books I don't know when a book loses its value and when they just give it away because they no longer want to keep it in the library I'm grateful that they did that because I
150acquired over a 100 books like that but if the books are acquired by me and never read by the student what good is it to have all those pictures of the books in the library all the books showing up on the desk and nobody is teaching the children how to research or read the books creative Educators smart educated Librarians work together our public system is dependent on the [Applause] two I would like to invite up Miss brand followed by jaia Murphy Architects are Architects are designers and Builders not Educators the Ling School Board were elected and charged with providing what our students need to be successful and be vigilant caretakers for tax dollars not Educators the board hires a superintendent who is an educator and can advise them as to what the best systems protocols
151procedures everything that helps our kids succeed so when cubby libraries common space bookshelves no or two Librarians is suggested it's the superintendent's responsibility to passionately veto that immediately because he is the one who knows or at least should know that part-time Librarians drastically increase students reading and writing capabilities not to mention the benefit of full-time Librarians especially for K through 8 and the emotional growth paths they offer are immeasurable so does our superintendent not understand the value of librarians or are going by Ben's State journalist quote today that this was an internal Personnel issue perhaps he feels they're too expensive when I contacted the board last month I included three pieces of literature with 57 57 links to students briefs evidence um of the obvious benefit of librarian and not just pretty rooms um from
152that I got that data from one link from cattle and I am continuing every day to get more data to me this appears to be a heinous dereliction of Duty and there should be consequences for that how much evidence is required to fix this before it's broken irreparably all our Librarians need to be restored to fulltime and that includes a sixth through e8th grade that received no Library Services last year along with several schools without Librarians the architect should reconfigure for libraries and while that's costly it needs to happen the state of Michigan is poised to enact a law requiring schools and libraries to have libraries and Librarians where a law should not be required to do what's right for our kids full-time librarian should be the future in our pretty rooms the schools have
153been told there's no libraries no no libraries next year and the Librarians are all displaced or reassigned so to say you not closing libraries they're just rooms with books it seems this Administration will wreak his path of destruction and move on to another job while you the board will remain as those bearing the stink of destroying laning school's libraries everyone I have spoken to teachers parents citizens who have reached out to the Border Administration with questions have been ignored stonewalled misled deceived distracted and tonight's no different with all this gaslighting it's real clear that this Administration and board know this is not with the community wants or will accept so it's all hands on deck to silence any push back the utter disregard disrespect and contempt for our staff families and kids in this matter
154I find diabolical there never was or will be a scenario where anything good was going to happen with our libraries denigrated devalues and unprotected I'm asking the board to do the right thing for our kids and restore and protect our libraries and Librarians now I have uh teia Murphy followed by Heidi fry and Miss fry thank you for putting the phonetic spelling on your card I invite you guys to take a look around today this might look familiar last fall the Lancing community and LSD sta invited the school board to a community discussion about equity and what felt like discriminatory practices we spoke some people cried some sent letters children poured out their hearts most of you were in attendance it could have been the start of a deeply restorative process instead we were only
155given responses through media Outlets where the board president explained all conc concerns were simply a lie I'm almost defended by the tone from tonight but I won't waste our time to explain why I'd like to instead leave you all with the following to use during your personal reflection time later how might you receive remarks questioning the validity of data and information presented during countless press conferences the district has participated in over the past year it appears from tonight parents from Luton were successful in gaining your consideration for the change to a centralized Library how many Willow families provided feedback on school plans Andor the libraries were riddle families a part of that discussion if parents didn't attend how should they have provided feedback to you how have m parents provided feedback it was stated that
156the library space in Willow's pods was comparable to the model shown on the board what is the exact square footage of these Library spaces on the building plans how might you work to improve communication between district and Community it is your job to address these concerns are you doing this well news flash pun intended the information on social media is coming directly to you from us a collective us I'm glad you're willing to speak to us now about our concerns as I as I've stated before and what others have also shared I'm happy to participate in dialogue about what I can only guess was a recommendation presented here tonight by your team I'm sure the community would love to give their recommendations as well to read is to be free literacy is [Applause] Liberation um
157Miss fry and then miss fry will be followed by Sheila contas hello thank you for your time tonight I'm a Lancing resident and I voted to fund new facilities like many parents and many Lancing residents I took it for granted that building a new school included building a library the central Nexus of learning and education in a building what I've come to realize is that the board and this Administration is viewing that definition of a library very Loosely when we were presented with plans none of those plans included the word Library it wasn't until my daughter going into sixth grade raised her hand at that meeting and said there's the library we then learned that the library quote space would be better defined as a booknook a small area in a pod okay unlike the
158the large images that we were shown tonight the square footage depicted in these plans were nothing like what was presented they were areas where the library would be um dis dismantled and given to these small L these small pod spaces all of this information did not come from social media disinformation or rumors this came directly from the plans that were presented to Lancing um parents at Luton additionally when students circulated a a petition they gained 120 signatures in a matter of two days supporting the library space and retaining the key resource the librarian to help the the students and to help the teachers at Luton but also at other schools in the district like the superintendent and like everyone else I was shocked to learn this I was shocked to learn that there was a
159disinvestment in libraries in our schools I was also shocked when I attended with 24 hours notice I attended a parent meeting at Luton to find that the summary slide summarizing all the parent concerns did not include our concerns for the library and retaining not only that Central key Library space but also the library facility the library staff it included other concerns but those that were expressed um by parents and also by students were not documented in that process and those concerns were not honored as much as all of the other things that were mentioned that evening I do want to stress that we understand you appreciate books and you know that books are important but the access to those books and the place where they're housed and the staff that are trained have master's degrees
160and are there able to help guide our students through the training process to introduce them to libraries and introduce them to books are important too we encourage you to also add those Library spaces to riddle Willow and retain them at Mount Hope as well thank you I have uh Sheila curus who will be followed by by Jamie Lee Rollins we did not agree for you to raise our taxes to build schools with no libraries and I will not quibble over the definition of a library I think we all know what it actually is you've taken our Goodwill our hopes and dreams for the future of the city's children you've taken our money and if we are in this spot now we are here because of the lack of transparency and the outright well as somebody
161said before for gaslighting telling telling people who have observed with their own eyes something that it is not true to continue on this path with this Library plan um even the new one which is exploitive which is exploitive it is exploiting the labor of teachers and it is exploiting the labor of those potential 34 Specialists they cannot be trained to do the job of a librarian it's exploitive you're adding more labor to people who are already just working in under restor under resource situations um so this is not a one school issue it's not each school and then the families decide that is not how it should be the to the virtual lack of any kind of research base for these decisions is astounding and the undervaluing of librarians and their specialized skill and training
162is I can't even think of a word it's just um it's offensive um we were into the process we we trusted and we agreed voluntarily to this tax increase thinking our children our children in this city would have buildings that would enable them to reach their full potential now we're hearing things about mother motherships and which is gendered outdated Language by the way about motherships and um prefab uh you know manufactured housing buildings they aren't even brick and mortar I mean do people know this like do we know this so if we we are not quite with your program it is because you have not shared information with us in the way that we needed it to be shared um I think uh God there's just so much to say there's just so much um
163to make it sound like teachers have the opportunity to develop relationships with students well that's just that's just ridiculous that's just ridiculous as if teachers don't already do that so back to the point about the millage what feels like has happened is a bait and switch and you're doing it here too you're doing it all over again throwing out all kinds of information that people have to absorb very quickly you took our hopes and dreams for this public school district and you turned us into the Agents of its demise that is horrifying I'm so disappointed okay it is the policy of the District not to respond to public comment and I want to make it clear that the comment I'm about to say right now is not in response to any public comment that has
164been said thus far however I think that it is critically important that the public understand that all of our buildings have libraries they have a physical space that is a library our current buildings and our new buildings if there is a question about the utilization and the access that's different but to purport that there is not a traditional library in our schools is not accurate and so I just need to make that abundantly clear I'm happy to hear about all the other information and concerns but it needs to be a headline statement that there was not going to be the absence of libraries in any of our buildings period so I just want to make sure that that's clear we I'm sorry we're not going to engage in this this is a meeting but we
165literally show during our presentation the schematic of luten that included a library I'm sorry I'm sorry this is not the time for this but what I will say is if that if there was time during a prior iteration of a map that didn't include one the only thing that is a matter of fact is what is approved by this board and so there has not been a schematic approved for luten period period there has been no schematic approved for Len so to say that luten doesn't include a library is not accurate because nothing about luten exists today period so to say that it doesn't have a library is not accurate there are two buildings under a development right now that is Mount Hope and Willow and both of those buildings include a library so I
166just want to make that abundantly clear we hear you but to say that the building foundations the four squares of those buildings that not include plans to include a library is just not factually accurate for the buildings on the operations Luton has not been approved by this board okay I would like to invite Jamie Rollins to the table um sorry to the podium and the next up is Ash Allison okay well my name is Jamie Rollins I'm a third grade teacher at guer Park and I have seen what our librarian now our librarian currently is not a certified librarian she's a certified teacher she's working on getting her um uh certification in library now when I hear these different things the first thing I I thought of was when I have a conference with parents
167and teachers start talking we start talking our lingo and some of the words we heard were books literacy and libraries those are all different things they all go together but they're all different things we're talking about a library with a librarian who is going to work with teachers we work together on our curriculum they reinforce our they make special bonds with the kids I appreciate whenever we have AIDS Paro whatever you want to call them we need them however it is not their job without even with all the training you might give them to be a librarian we need certified people to be a librarian we know this so I want us all to understand that this is very important that schools are staff with certified teachers thank you thank you oh I'm sorry okay
168we have Ash Allison followed by Adeline morisy Shoemaker hello everybody I just want to take a moment to thank the community for showing up tonight as advocates for our children and our Librarians your voice is absolutely essential in parent involvement especially advocacy has proven time and time again an integral part in facilitating actual meaningful change that is good for our children so thank you for sitting through this going on three-hour meeting now you guys are amazing wonderful for being here um my name is Ash I'm an educator in the district and as an educator I am a steward of learning as is every educator in the district uh we play an integral part in educating our youth but it's really our Librarians that help to construct these imaginative spaces that help us uh facilitate a
169love of knowledge for our kids the questions surrounding the future of our libraries and the Librarians are numerous and pretty fraud at this point the lack of transparency from the board in this process and the hesitation to collaborate with all stakeholders has left the community really frustrated and very distrustful that the board is making decisions that actually reflect our community's needs we are focused on building literacy skills that students need to succeed in a digital age sure of course we're teachers uh we want to analyze text have our students become critical writers and thinkers and that is essential for supporting student growth but what we also need to consider is the importance of creating a shared culture around knowledge that is stewarded in these common spaces libraries have an essential meaning in collaborative spaces across
170time and Empires and have been the seat of society's Collective power uh School libraries are a microcosm and reflective of society's values and our priorities children and human beings in general are innately curious and we seek knowled and find ourselves we identify with characters we find empowerments in our own interpretation that give us courage we learn lessons and we share what we know with the world in order to bring us together and our kth libraries are essential in this process they are exposed to stories and a common experience not just a multiplicity of diverse literature that students can't easily access students cannot and will not read if they haven't cultivated a love of reading which happens in the library Librarians teach students how to follow their interests and intuition we find they find themselves in
171characters and share experience with them and Librarians are not not only people interested in cultivating a love of knowledge but they actively choose to work in our schools and who help guide students show compassion and they have the expertise that is needed um the board discussed tonight that libraries are as they currently stand are not helping raise literacy or test scores but is the loss or restriction of our libraries really the solution to this problem or is it symptomatic of a much larger systemic issue that fundamentally opposes our mission statement that we're dedicated to I think that we should remember that we are here to help cultivate a love of learning and that is what happens in our libraries and we need to be investing more not cutting back thank you next I have uh
172three speakers so I have Adeline morisy Shoemaker I believe it's Ella Shoemaker and Jennifer Shoemaker if you guys are a family you're welcome to join the podium together but you each would have three M three minutes to speak are they have they left okay I will keep them if they make it back before the end of public comment we certainly will recognize them um that brings me next to Kyle Rashard who will be followed by it's we have two students from post o um I don't want to mispronounce your names but I have I believe it's sagua and lard ly they're here they'll be after Mr Rashard uh good evening everyone uh my name is Kyle Rashard I'm a candidate for Ling Board of Education um I'm here today because uh really the level of
173uncertainty going into this you know I had heard rumors that we might be losing some Librarians I had seen some stuff online that we might not have uh libraries in Mount H and Willow and and as of right now Mount H and Willow are patches of dirt right they're if they're going to be schools when we want them to be Schools they're going to want to lay cinder blocks sooner rather than later and when I look at these uh blueprints you know the media center a media center is frankly not a library um and it's on the blueprints like a classroom and a half um and for Willow it it is the deconstruction of the library the classroom libraries um I was a teacher for a few years at sexon and there was a time
174where where we were kind of there's an Initiative for us to start doing classroom libraries and the question for me that comes up is who's doing the labor right who who is going to be keeping track of these books is it the teacher's responsibility as the classroom teacher to keep track of who's borrowing books when and better not lose a book while also keeping track of your lesson plans and your grading and your mental health and your home life um I don't know I think uh one comment that was made uh by superintendent there was a comment that I'm not from here but there's this overt negativity um and I think that you know we we move at the speed of trust and in my experience in the time that I've lived in Lancing and
175the time that I've paid attention to the board is I get the sense that the community doesn't trust this board um we couldn't trust this board with the sex and mascot change right we were this close to the sex and scorpions um and so if we can't trust this board with a mascot change how can we trust this board with our libraries with our Librarians Librarians are just as valuable if not more valuable than a classroom teacher um and so when we talk about oh well it's four to two we're going from four to two it's it's four to two that's half right we we wake up with the sun before the day is done there's work to do and so if you're gonna just because we go from four to two doesn't mean we
176have less work to do those two Librarians are still going to have to do the same amount of work as those four Librarians unless we're going to have these 40 these 34 instructional assistant and I personally agree with what was said earlier about uh the exploitive nature of this I see this is just oh well we don't we don't really know when the library is going to be open 30 minutes hour before hour after we don't who's going to staff the library right are these instructional assistants 34 babysitters that we can underpay without Ben benefits like it's concerning and I I don't want folks to take it personally and think that you know the community is out thinking that y'all have nefarious intentions we're concerned about impact when cinder blocks go down is there going
177to be a library at Willow when those cinder blocks go down is there going to be a library at Mount ho that's what folks are concerned about tonight thank you okay did the were the student speakers from Post Oak still here okay if you guys don't mind seeing your name and get started and you can take the mic off my name is land I'm eight years old I go to postto academy for school and I love reading librarian helps me find new books and tells me the sections of where things are My Librarian last year was very helpful I'm San I'm going to be 10 next month I go to post like my brother um I like to read too a lot my a raran helps me find new books most of the time because
178whenever I need help finding a book I just ask her she her name is Mrs L she's really helpful every time that I've asked for a book in the library she's helped me find it or told me they don't thank [Applause] you okay next up I have catoria Boer followed by Nicole holiday hey y'all my son is a student at Mount Hope and had no active Library time this past school year according to the Center for educational performance and information only 8% of Michigan schools had a full-time librarian in 2019 as of March 2024 some school districts in Michigan don't have libraries at all and more than 90% of public schools lack a certified librarian we were a part of that 8% I believe that tonight's presented plan would put us at the Forefront SL
179ahead of what is happening in the Senate her Senate Bill 741 to 743 completed April 2024 this bill would amend that each public school would have one already um would have one Library already by the 2025 202 six school year further a school with 1500 or more pupils would have at least two fulltime certified school librarians further the Michigan State Board of Education recognized that certified library media Specialists serve a critical role in increasing student achievement by supporting collaborating and co- teing with classroom teachers in Reading development also this year in April of 2024 our great Governor big Gretch went ahead and labeled April as Library month whereas School library programs staffed by certified school librarians are integral in improving student achievement whereas certified school librarians are leaders in technology integration and digital literacy in
180their schools whereas certified school librarians teach students the skills they need to access EV evaluate and use information throughout their lives I for one was very impressed with the plan that was put forth and I would actually lastly want to spend my time respectfully love you all I would challenge Madame President about the board policy not to respond to public comment specifically when a question can only be answered by current board members unless you can point me to a bylaw or adopted policy that I missed per your bylaws adopted November 15th 2018 public expression of board members from time to time individual board members will make public statements on school matters when these opinions are expressed in statements that are theirs personally they simply need to make it clear that their views do not necessarily
181reflect the views of the board or of their colleagues on the board further Pere bylaws adopted October 8 2015 board member ethics board members will strive to improve public education and to that end will remember always that their first and greatest concern must be for the educational welfare of the students attending of the public schools and encourage the free expression of opinion by all board [Applause] members thank you next we have Nicole holiday followed by Lauren Cooper do we have Nicole holiday present with us right I'm gonna put this here in case Nicole makes it back Lauren Cooper followed and our final speaker of this even evening will be sah Jones hi everyone um I want to thank all the families and all of these tough kids that are hanging out and just want you
182guys all to know that we are here for you guys um and I really do appreciate theity to speak today on this important topic um there's a lot to say here so I'm going to try not to repeat things that we heard previously uh but I do want to start off by being very clear and I wasn't going to use the word lie up here but um I have been to two meetings about this with Luton school and neither had a library including the one that we had less than just about 24 hours notice to attend this week um there is no library in the maps and I have the screenshots to prove it if any media wants to follow up with me afterwards um overall the issue with the library and um is is
183needs to be consistent across all schools and I want to bring up some unique points Luton is a Spanish Immersion School we don't have kids speaking or reading at the same levels we have some kids that don't speak English very well we have some kids that don't speak Spanish very well it is a fundamental inclusion issue to have these pods that will undermine a student's ability to get access to books that are appropriate to their reading level it will be very uncomfortable for a child who's in sixth grade to need to go to the between third and fourth grade to find a book that they can read okay this is like fundamental inclusion principles um this is um and there's a lot of reasons why people read at different reading levels not just language there's
184learning abilities home situations all sorts of reasons why fundamentally without a Central Library kids will simply have access to fewer books period they will have access to fewer books there's no way around it a library is a large storage of that they can come together have access to books they don't even have to be this newest books it's fun looking at older books it's a space and it's a convening it's a placemaking space that a music room will not serve this purpose there's after school clubs that meet in the library there's tutoring that happens in the library a library is a cultural center point of a school that no other room fills this purpose um and beyond that I did want to point out that um there's also an issue with an emphasis on on
185tablets in our schools uh and this is almost like some weird dystopian future that is actually becoming real that we're living in now that now we're not going to have a library too and my kids are on tablets all the time even though we limit screen time at home and I did not find sign the tech form but somehow my kids use tablets all year long and they have access to the internet and they're watching YouTube and they AR allowed to do that at home and I have talked to the super about it and I've talked to my princial about it and nothing has changed and now we're not even going to have a library and it's hard to not feel frustrated I want to be I'm a landing resident I want to support the
186schools and I don't feel supported as a parent I worry about what my kids have access to on this Tech driven solution even though our te kids can all do things on our own iPhones better than we can so I'm not really impressed by a lot of tablets we want a library we're saying it clearly I honestly don't know what is the issue and it must be a budget thing or something that's not actually being made clear to us because we're just saying we want libraries [Applause] okay our final speaker this evening is sah Jones hello my name is sharah Jones I go to also go to postup academy um as a ling School District student I was surprised that we were getting wi of libraries and how we were getting Li um literature is
187the based of learning in [Music] the Bas learning and how can students learn to read without a library like for example was a a blind kid that goes to school and there were no bra books and there was no Library how they do how learn to read thank you for your time thank you [Applause] I do want to Circle back before I move on in the agenda to see if any of our registered um commenters have are here so I don't miss them Nicole holiday are you present and any members of the Shoemaker family okay seeing none I'm going to move on in our agenda to the time that we do have set aside for board members to make comment um so we have comments from board members on the agenda would any board members
188like to make comment this evening I I will start on this side then no Mr noisy yes thank you grateful for the public um bringing all of these perspectives and points to us I know I was troubled to hear that our current Staffing plans create these dark periods when libraries aren't available so I'm hoping that the plan we're presented with once it's dialogued um you know with staff further and the community will be able able to solve that however that's worked out so I look forward to seeing that plan as was requested and um thank the community for being involved and encourage you to continue to attend those planning meetings for the the new builds thank you Mr crem why did I do that to you twice today Mr no I'm sorry it's because I'm
189going to call next on Mr Crim and the Mr Lopez go ahead no start from this sorry I do want to Mr niskey and say thank you guys all for coming out it is truly amazing to hear the voice um it it's showing honestly to to all of us how much you guys care and how much this means to you and this is not a adopted plan so to continue to voice your concerns until we are able to refine it and be able to get a plan that that it is something that we all can agree on and look forward to um I know personally myself I I do have some concerns as well along with the line of question that I had that I had um so I I just want to appreciate all
190of you and continue to voice your concerns email you know how you guys have been doing it I do see those emails and I appreciate that so keep honestly keep them coming thank you Mr CR Mr Lopez thank thank you Madame President likewise thank you to everyone who's here um obviously you know the plan is been set is it's a plan it's not been approved so we're going to be talking about this for a while maybe not that long but for some time um need to iron things out um it's not an easy thing you know there's too many moving parts and I think that those parts need to come together at some point in time hopefully it's sooner than later but thank you for coming appreciate that um the other question I have uh
191Mr superintendent uh school-based uh budget budgeting right does that include the school Improvement team are they part of the school based budgeting yeah I mean so there's a couple of steps that happen one is there's legal requirements in terms of what budget they have to spend and how they can spend but a lot of the work and what's nice about the school-based budgeting is that sit teams and others are be they're a part of it and they end up having to approve quite a lot of it um sometimes there's things that happen through the Union contract that are just unequivocal but a lot of times it is uh through sit team I mean I don't know if anybody else wants to speak because you guys are in those meetings with the principles but I don't
192know so when we set up the budget meetings we encourag them to develop their budget plan with their school Improvement team and community members and then they come in and they sit with us and they tell us what they want we work with them to make sure it fits within their allocation and that it follows contracts other than that we don't dictate one way or another yeah yeah just just to make sure that that that input was there and that it's taken consideration by the principles obviously the principles may want something that the team might say well let's think about it and that's that's a good idea so thank you appreciate your response thank you Dr Rodriguez thank you thank you very much to everybody we are here because you and you are there and
193we are here because the students and that is not going to be our task it's a new beginning I said that before the from here we can do better for our students um I think that this board is doing the best we can always are perfect but we try to represent the community the best we can and we will do the best for you but thank you for your ideas your courage and keep doing that because it's the community that bring things together and educate the child thank you very much thank you Miss Williams first let me say thank you for all of you being here it is wonderful to see you actively using your voice for who you are and what you want I am excited that this dialogue is happening and I look
194forward to more of it um I thought about as we as we begin to go through this what my platform was but it reminded me as a child how I spent all of my time in the library because that was my safe haven and I came across something that said let's remember one book one pen one child and one teacher all together can change your change the world and that's what we are as Educators as parents changing the world for the Next Generation so let's look at how we can work together to make that change and make it Greater again thank you all for being here tonight thank you any additional comments on board members I think everybody's gone I do know that superintendent would like to um make one more comment before I have
195a motion to adjourn uh I just want to say thank you also but I also want to make sure that I understand the comments because again the entire premise of doing this today was to hear for you to hear what the staff was Al advocating for us and then trying to hear feedback I do want to just make sure that Mr rard understands my meaning behind my comment I'm still really shook by what happened over the Memorial Day weekend and what I was referring to in terms of the negativity was how our children were blamed for actions that they didn't do um as a superintendent I we rarely talk about it but when a student dies there is a level of guilt that is pretty palpable and the only thing I meant by the comment
196of the negativity was how quick some folks and certainly I don't think anybody in this room was to blame our children for being victims and that's just something that really has has gotten to me um over the course of my time here so at no point did I mean the stuff about this um but what I'm really appreciative of what uh Mr rard said is it's absolutely clear that there isn't a necessarily a sense of trust with some folks in the community and I think what we need to try to understand is by doing these kinds of activities it's the opposite of what it seems like it was interpreted as it's to show how decisions are made so that we can get feedback so what I'm hearing is a couple of things one there seems
197to be an overwhelming response from folks around Luton that they want One Singular Library great I mean terrific like I am sure that we need to have some more meetings about what that means and I think we could probably do it the second thing is and I don't quite understand this but there's a sense that having 34 assistance is some some sort of kind of like labor issue I just want to make sure people understand that these would be unionized full workers who would have pensions and healthare and and things like that if the community thinks that instead of having 34 uh assistants throughout our schools we need to bring back two Librarians it's fine that's actually that's less a lot less money so this argument that this is about fiscal responsibility it's really about
198trying to put kids first and again the decision is not been made but what I've heard over and over again from the staff is many of our libraries are empty in terms of their they don't have people in them during large pieces of the day or the year trying to figure out a way to do that is something that um we should try to do but if the current model is the one that the the community wants we're absolutely going to listen to it I just think that we probably need to start thinking creatively about moving forward but what I would request from the community is we heard you loud and clear um there was a lot of concern about devaluing like Librarians it was certainly not our intent and certainly the idea of getting
199rid of libraries which as the president said that's never been on the docket um if people need to know square footage of rooms we're happy to give them that's really not a big deal um and I also want to make sure somebody had said that I uh called Sarah Atwood out personally that's absolutely not true I think Sarah is a very good reporter uh all I was saying was in the ways that the district is perceived in the Press at times has been negative and I think honestly that's really true uh a lot of times uh the benefit of the doubt doesn't go to the district even when things like our graduation rate is up 23% or attendance rate is up 14% or we increasing enrollment or we're creating Lancing Tech or we're doing Universal
200prek so I would say to be honest I we want to gain your trust what else is it going to take because the only way that this is going to work is for us to uh be able to work together so you know I appreciate the time um we'll try to put together a plan in terms of the ideas um but you know what uh what we're taking loud and clear is those that spoke around Luton you want a individual Library no problem for us it's actually cheaper to be honest um and that the willow families that's what we were told but if the concern is not many Willow families spoke and when I say Willow I mean riddle Willow it's one school but it is is a combination of two so again thank you
201so much for the comments and you know we'll take them to heart thank you any additional comments from board members okay I just want to um again thank all of our speakers this evening and reiterate uh the point of my comment was that nothing is official until the board takes action so that was the point of my comment um may I have a motion to adjourn president Dr Rodriguez I move that the board education adjourn it's been moved by Dr Rodriguez supported by Miss Williams all those in favor signify by saying I oppose same sign time is it at 906 the board oh motion passes 60 at 906 the board is a joed