Saline Area Schools: Board of Education Meeting (11.12.2024)

001okay oh okay okay I don't see her the parking lot was quite full so maybe she's yeah yeah chairs yeah oh it's the end of the trimester too so kids are getting in there government yeah government yeah but I think a lot of these kids are um it's for government like there's Bryce na yeah I'm as soon as we're able to how's that no I thought maybe would for Hunt is usually hunt or do you hunt down here I yeah where do you where do you hunt around here okay um we could use your he with the deer population US yes we've uh We've total a couple cars yeah every everyone in our family has hit a there ex andw like I sorry folks we're just a little delayed not a good thing to wish

002for yeah there's just way too many oh thanks now okay I'd like to call to order the November 12th 2024 meeting of the selary Schools Board of Education and standing as you are able please uh we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance so before we begin the meeting tonight I'd just like to take a moment to uh thank those current board members who ran as incumbents in the election for another four-year term serving the selary schools Community Brad gerby Jennifer stean and Susan East each made the decision to step up to volunteer to serve and for that reason they have all of them earn my respect other members of the community stepped up and deserve recognition from the board as well Kelly van single and Sher Barnett also ran but were unsuccessful in their bid

003their efforts were noted and I also respect them for their willingness to serve and finally in January we will formally sit two new board members who have not yet served I'd like to welcome to the Board of Education Darcy Berwick and Jason Tas Tas if they are in the audience would you please stand I think we have and we have Darcy is here yay Darcy nice well congratulations once again congratulations to everyone for your willingness to serve and I'm looking forward to the next year uh I'd like to pass you two especially for the folks did I not mention you who's rolling off the board that's that's next month all right thank you Steve Lut hi checking in to see if Dr Allen is in the audience here Dr Allen I'd like to introduce our

004newest member of our administrative team Dr Amina Allen who is the principal of Liberty school and the alternative high school and she's going to say a word so welcome oh okay um good evening superintendent lotch and uh board members trustees um couldn't be happier to be here um I'm sure that you have my resume so you know um that you know I grew up in River Rouge um I was actually the last um uh class to graduate from the old building and um so there's a lot of history there went on to um you know go out of state um to an hpcu and then uh Michigan and then did a short stand in a charter school seven years in an arbor where I learned a ton and now I'm here um couldn't be happier

005to be here um great staff great central office great kids great parent community and it's been great to see see that merge together so um thank you for having me thank you very much this is the public comment section of the evening a member of the public May address the board briefly for up to three minutes or request to be scheduled on the agenda of a future meeting please note that uh priority will be given sorry the students will be given priority to speak on any topic first public participation portion of the evening uh will be limited to 1 half hour 30 minutes normally and limited to agenda items a second public participation portion will be offered at the end of the agenda to allow for other comment individuals addressing the board should take into

006consideration the uh rules of common courtesy and the public participation portion cannot be used to make personal attacks against board members District employees or students so we begin with the students we have a few listed up I'm going to read the first name to speak and who's on deck so you'll know you'll be get yourselves ready uh Cruz Hansen please followed by Aiden Burton congrats on your undefeated season going 9 and0 you now have to play at Northville next week then you have to play at Belleville the following week my name is Cruz Hansen I'm a sophomore here at Selen high school and I'm on the football team the reason I'm speaking today on behalf of team 122 my coaches student athletes and Seline in particularly the seniors is because I'm not opening the playoffs

007on the road after we go undefeated again next year the fact that we are yet to hear from anyone about actions that impacted our football program is inexcusable we deserve more from the athletic department all we've heard from the district superintendent is what a great job the athletic director has done do you know what happens to me if I run the wrong round in practice all I hear across the field is Cruis dancing do you know what happens if my grades don't make the cut I don't play that week what I'm trying to say is that we as student athletes are held accountable for our actions and the only people that have been held accountable for for certain decisions that have affected the football program this year is us the players there's clearly an issue

008that needs to be fixed I'm part of the Seline athletic department and I'm calling for a unanimous vote in favor of an independent review of the program if you vote against an independent review you then be willing to stand up in front of all of us and tell us 9 and0 does not matter thank you Aiden Burton of course and followed by I'll I'll read his name in a second Jack B uh how's it going my name is uh Aiden Burton and I'm a senior on the slam football team this is my third time speaking to the board so I'm here today to express my frustration about how no one from the athletic department has come forward and taken blame or even said I'm sorry as we the players had to suffer from the consequences

009of someone's laziness and inability to do their job I just find it ridiculous that even after our season has finished not a single soul has come forward to take accountability while my time playing with high school football is finished I have teammates who I see as brothers that still have a year or more left which is why I'm hoping that instead of being stubborn and not taking the blame uh someone can come forward and show us young men a good example of how we should act like when in the wrong how to show remorse and being apologetic because as of right now I am disgusted with the lack of accountability thank you it is still team 122 versus everybody [Applause] calling up jagt thank you thanks Brad um good evening good evening board uh my

010name is Jack burer and I'm a junior on the varsity football team I thought the worst thing that could happen to me this season was being sidelined by injury but I was wrong the worst that happened was our team being sidelined by our own athletic department in life our parents teachers and coaches teach us to try and be the best version of ourselves Seline schools should lead by example and be the best they can be I'm requesting an independent review of the of the athletic department so they can be better too thank you for your time Isaac furlo followed by Coleman Ross good good evening I'm Isaac furong I want to thank thank the board members and the uh president and the superintendent for allowing me to have the ability to speak tonight as a

011senior football player and athlete and three Varsity Sports I want to address the issue with the board members lack of follow through with the previous agenda items invol involving the football team I believe that if an issue or a problem is not complete then it should be an agenda item at every board meeting until conclusion is reached as a student we look up to our Administration teachers and leadership to show us the way and demonstrate the correct approach so we so we as students are able to model our behaviors the right way going through going going forward in life there are no shortcuts in Life or in high school so there so there should be no shortcuts with this issue we have with our football team it's a very disappointing the way the entire situation

012has been handled as administrators believe believe everything will just disappear because the football season has ended but that's not the case we still have to make it right for make it right for Seasons to come we have an athletic director that acted like an ostrich putting its head in the sand all football season it's a shame Ashley missed almost every regular G every regular season game in all postseason as she should have supported the team in no ma no matter the circumstances where is her leadership please continue to address the issues we have and have them as an agenda item until a conclusion is reach and make all wrongs right thank you thank you Isaac Coleman thank you followed by James Rush my name is Coleman Ross and I was a senior and a captain

013on the football team I'm here today to ask again for an independent review of the athletic department I may be done playing with Selen football but I don't want what happened to my senior class to ever happen again I know you have heard about the many ways that we have been impacted by the errors made in the athletic department this season but I wanted to bring one more to your attention I was blessed to be named First Team all conference this past week the number of athletes who are recognized on these teams are partially determined by your team's position in the conference at the end of the season so because of the forfeits we were forced to take the number of student Selen student athletes on the SEC All Conference team was limited Dexter who

014we handily beat on the field had more student athletes recognized than we did now you may not think that is a big deal but my teammates worked so hard and many of them deserved recognition college coaches they look at wins and they also look at awards and both of those things were taken from our team and yet nobody has been held accountable what we are asking for is an independent review to improve things I really don't understand why that is asking for too much there are hundreds of students impacted by the by the athletic department every single year don't we want to have the be best department possible if there are improvements to be made shouldn't you want to make them them thank you for your [Applause] time hi my name is James rush and

015I'm a junior on the varsity football team here at s High School our season just came to an end this past Friday many of my classmates friends teammates and people around the community have reached out with congratulations on a great season while I do agre greatly appreciate the words and I know it comes from a genuine place I still feel a deep sickness in my stomach about how our season played out everyone on the board is familiar with us having to Forfeit the first three games of the Season due to a lack of Eligibility check by the ad if you were not aware this was an ERA in 2024 and in 2023 the board is also aware of one of my teammates who had to end his senior year after week three and we have

016yet to see the potential negative impact that this will have on his future we are all also aware of the direct racism that individuals in this team had to face just prior to our third game of the season first pioneer through all this adversity we came together as an extremely tight-knit team we chose to stand by one another and not let others outside of our locker room derail us or change our vision our coach has brought back in many many life lessons that we will be able to carry with us for the remainder of our lives and I thank thankful for that what I'm still frustrated with is the lack of leadership from adults in the ad we as student athletes have had to take the burden upon ourselves and no adult has been held

017accountable after our only loss of the Season our coach took a accountability letting us know he did not prepare us well enough we have yet to have someone take leadership and accountability to let us know they made a mistake and it was their fault not one time this season has the ad addressed our team team about anything that has happened even our coach asked them to they should be showing us real leadership but instead they have been hiding and taking zero accountability the ad has a duty to check all eligibility of our student athletes the mhsaa states their harshest penalty is game forfeitures which means that our football team and AD received the worst penalty possible from the mhsaa if I as a student made a mistake at s area schools with the harshest penalty

018I would be expelled or severely suspended this makes me question how we handle adults who make errors that impact our students here at Seline so I hope you will take action we need a riew into the ad and we need something to change and it isn't just about football why wouldn't you want this to happen what is there to lose is everything is great then I guess you will find that out if there are improvements to be made then things can be fixed let's be transparent about all of this do something instead of just talking about it thank you for taking your time to hear my voice tonight leam Mueller I think on a slightly different topic maybe not um hello everybody my name is leam Mueller and I'm a senior and one of the

019drum Majors for the Seline marching band and I just wanted to highlight that all of these issues surrounding the football game fores reached well beyond just the football team um it has also impacted more than 200 kids from the marching band color guard and the dance team and all of us spend several hours practicing each week and football games are one of the main events where we perform and we only get to go to the home games so these forfeitures cost us several games gam of performances and it was already a very short season with only four home games and so we were hoping to have more and we were not allowed to um so and then there's also funds that are raised in home game concessions that can go to multiple programs that benefit

020kids in grades 5 through 12 and all of these funds were lost through several home games that we did not get so thank you [Applause] thank you very much um Leah U Larry osterling has a very very brief comments make yes um on a lighter note um some of you may be aware of it but last Thursday the rotary who hosted a recognition of Paul TBO longtime principal Paul's a friend of mine and um it was very and there was a number of there's over 50 people there A lot of them are former Educators and the highlight of it I had written up a script the highlight of it was a video that was put together by your guy Ben Ben Goodman over there and I I I debated whether to come here and call

021him out in public because he didn't want to be recognized in public but I said what the heck Ben you did a great job people really appreciate it and it's things like this that the school system can do out there in the public it just really makes it a you know makes us proud to be in this community that's all I got thank you very much I'm going to call up Amy teslin followed by Tiffany Alexander thank you Seline Area School Board um I want to support the football team and families through all the recent hardships as well but I'm also here to speak uh to the diversity Equity inclusion policy propos changes while I don't speak for the DIC I am someone who was asked to facilitate the original Dei advisory committee to the

022district by the previous superintendent in 2019 and 2020 and I have been a Committee Member since 2021 when it became an advisory committee to the board uh if you're like me maybe you didn't realize there was a significant difference between when it was advisory to the district and versus advisory to the board I actually didn't realize this until over a year ago or about a year ago when a very bright member of the diic with an outside perspective shared the difference an advisory committee to the board is accountable to the board and the board is accountable to the community and its constituents an elected body or board makes decisions and has to discuss and vote publicly this is what the open meetings acts addresses based on this I propose that the changes ensure that the

023board decides who is on the committee or at least appoints the co-chairs and determines the process this mirrors The sexed Advisory Board which is not only SAS policy but is also Michigan law I also propose as an advisory committee to the board that the diic keeps making recommendations instead of giving less defined insights that can't be tracked and that they are public and that the board clearly votes to accept them or not always being public transparent and accountable to your constituents the DIC gives recommendations to the board as defined by om so hopefully all students are free to learn by removing as many barriers as possible to that learning our members come from many perspectives Christian Hindu Jewish Muslim re Republican Democrat people of color black white agent Arabic Hispanic uh immigrants people with disabilities

024people without non-binary straight and queer people with less money or more money can we solve all the world problems no but can it help I sure hope so what the board is proposing actually removes any decisions or accountability by the board and puts it all on the superintendent and the District staff this does not seem to align with Ma and not with the way C La is written I'm not saying that this was the intention of the changes um what I am saying is that the board is the elected body and it should be the board making the public decisions right now the community and the board should be protecting our teachers staff and administrators from attacks based on decisions that should and have been made by the elected board and lastly unrelated as a

025high school biology teacher please pass the cab recommendations as is there has always been more than two Sexes and genders thank you be Tiffany before you come up may I have your notes they they were very clear and I I was the person who made the recommendations to change may I oh thank you no not yours Amy's notes oh yours might be brilliant too thank you I thought you meant the ones I was at the meeting with and I'm like I didn't bring them okay so I want to start by giving my full support to the football players in an independent review of both the athletic director and the superintendent uh for the ACT that caused the forfeiture of these games um by independent I want to be very clear I mean it would be

026nobody on the board and nobody who has ever had any uh direct uh experience work experience volunteer otherwise attorneys or anything else with Seline area schools um so I wanted to throw that out there first second when it comes to the deic policy and I'm glad to send this in whole to anybody who would like it I'm going to read the relevant portions of om furthermore an advisory body without Express decision-making Authority is not a public body under om over time with this board and other leadership in this District we hear repetitively what it says is not what it says we heard this with the administrative guidelines what it says is not what it says but I I I know how to read and I can read what it says now now I'm going to

027read the next relevant portion in Pinebrook versus City of Warren Michigan appell at court holding that a Review Committee was not a public body subject to the ma because the ordinance that created the committee did not Grant the committee with authority to make final licensing decisions which was retained by the city council the court found that a lack of Express Grant of authority to exercise governmental or propriety Authority or to perform a governmental or proprietary function was determinative okay soen does not apply next session section advisory committees which I want to be very clear an elected election elected committee such as the policy committee is not the same as an advisory committee the diversity equity and inclusion advisory committee the does not apply to committees and subcommittees composed of the less than a quorum of

028the full public body if they are merely advisory or only capable of making recommendations concerning the exercise of governmental Authority so the entire discussion on recommendations versus insights is disingenuous because it literally says it is because we only make recommendations that we are not subjected to Ma so it it's a disingenuous kind conversation to begin with which again we've already seen before many times lastly I ask that the board accept the sexed policy uh in its full form thank you very much Corey belot and followed by Shelby WM good evening I'm Corey belot she her Selene resident and parent of one alness and two seniors I have two items that I wanted to comment on tonight uh the first one was I was the member of the Dei advisory committee to the school board from

029the fall of 2020 through June of 23 when my term ended during those three years the committee went through many iterations but remained an advisory committee to the board consisting of up to 20 members including three School Board trustees so I don't understand why this is set to be or to be discussed about being changed especially given that Dei initiatives are being eliminated state byst state Dei is still crucial in Michigan and we owe it to our children their teachers and the staff to support and celebrate their differences providing a safe space for Everyone by changing the role of the deac from providing recommendations to merely providing insights it gives the appearance that the committee is perceived as less important regardless of whether the intention is to diminish Dei perception matters and per perception becomes

030reality number two you have a recommended motion to approve the sex education curriculum as proposed by the sex Advisory Board I want to express my full support for an updated inclusive curriculum kids know who they are they may not have the right words to describe themselves yet and it may take years for them to fully understand but they do know an inclusive curriculum supports all kids and that is imperative thank you Shelby and followed by Nicole Gibson write my good evening my name is Shelby oh REI t m e i i e r r lots of eyes and E yeah yeah yeah um I'm Shelby right my arm a little bit new to Seline I moved here from Minnesota to be close to my niece and nephew that go to school here I when I

031was back at home I worked restorative justice within the Public School Systems 11 different school districts we worked really hard to create an allinclusive anti-bullying campaign within a three County region and when I came came here I had to say I was a little shocked to hear some of the news that was coming from Seline school districts um I am here in support of the three people that spoke before me I don't know all the terminology and I'm not going to pretend to but as a therapist restorative justice facilitator I've worked Child Protection in the past I want my niece and nephew to have a safe place to go to school I want them to learn about their bodies and that of anybody studes it's it's Anatomy um so I support Dei initiatives we're we

032are more closely alike than we are different and we need to not be so afraid that someone's a little bit different than us but we need to understand them and if there's something about sex ed that maybe it's uh a moral issue for a parent or something like that that's at your home you know that's not at the school there's a separation between church and state and I think we need to create a safe space for all children to go to school thank you thank you Nicole Gibson followed by Marcy gret good evening everybody for those of you that I have not had the pleasure of meeting in my classroom uh my name is Nicole GI and I a fifth grade teacher at Heritage I'm not sure how many of you have actually had the

033chance to take a look at the full proposed adolescent Health curriculum in its entirety before tonight's meeting but I along with my colleagues urge you to read through the entire curriculum before casting your vote please don't just rely on the slides that have been presented as they do not cover all that will be taught or discussed during these lessons additionally two-thirds of the fifth grade teachers do not agree with the curriculum as proposed because we don't feel that it is age appropriate while this is the first time that I am speaking publicly on this topic I have watched the other meetings um and it appears that some of the board are under the impression that we are uncomfortable discussing this material with our students please let me assure you it is not that we are

034uncomfortable discussing challenging hard maybe sometimes awkward topics with our students we are strictly concerned with the age appropriateness of the content for example the CF has stated that masturbation is not being taught in a sexual manner however the word sex is mentioned multiple times in every lesson and students are even told how to clean up after oneself if two-thirds of the fifth grade teachers have these concerns we can only deduce that there would be additional staff in other buildings who feel similarly if they have had the time to fully delve into the curriculum in actuality there have been teachers at Heritage who have voice similar concerns over the age appropriateness of this curriculum and stated that they feel their concerns will not make a difference in the outcome we would appreciate the opportunity to meet

035as grade level teams so that we can examine the content and become come to a consensus on what we believe would be appropriate to teach to children at this age prior to the Board of Education casting a vote lastly there is still confusion and concern over whether or not we as a building or grade level can make changes once curriculum is approved as a board there's not been really a consensus on this we are seeking clarification and a solid answer on if changes such as wording or eliminating content can be done after the curriculum has been voted on it seems that as a board you would like to see the final curriculum that has been agreed upon amongst staff buildings and grade levels um thank you for your time and consideration we're in the end

036all we want is for what's best for our students thank [Applause] you hi good evening um I'm Marcy go at another fifth grade teacher at Heritage as I've spoken to you previously in regards to this I want to reiterate that there are a lot of teachers that feel like our voice is not being heard when it comes to the um adolescent health and um curriculum that you about ready to vote on when I first spoke at this meeting about this topic I expressed that teachers wanted an opportunity to work collaboratively collaboratively together to provide our feedback you asked if two two weeks would be enough time I said no nevertheless we were just giving a given a slightly more Anonymous survey to fill out and that was it um that from what I understand that

037survey results was reviewed by an instructional design person within the district and only a couple of members of the C board to make some changes that we doing that at the last board meeting we shared our concerns um about our feedback is not being used um after that after the board meeting it was brought to our attention actually by some C board members that they themselves had not met as a whole board to discuss our survey results our new survey results or even to decide on some of the changes that were being proposed at this time the staff has not had the opportunity to meet and collaboratively create a curriculum we feel is age appropriate and more current than our current curriculum we want to do this we want to meet collaboratively together to create

038something that we feel like is age appropriate that we can come to a consensus that you will feel comfortable voting for we will feel comfortable presenting to you we would like to present a curriculum that we are all on board with I hope that you will consider that we feel like the opportunity to come to consensus and find a curriculum that we can all agree on is age appropriate and is going to helpful our students that opportunity to do that has not happened so we just ask that you consider that before you vote today and maybe push the vote again to give us that opportunity and make the arrangements so that we do have the time and effort to be able to do that collaborative work thank you thank you Charlie Hurst followed by Libby

039Williams uh first I'd like to give a shout out to the uh drummer because I was very moved by what you had to say and I have solidarity with the uh marching band so it sounds like we need to have a fun raiser for them to make up for the deficit um but I'm speaking tonight as uh a parent and as an individual who is non-binary and a parent of a non-binary individual when my child had sex ed last year in fourth grade they had a very horrible traumatic experience they did not appreciate the being separated into genders the awkward passing in the Halls not feeling included in the curriculum and I opted them out I wasn't expecting to do that um but I felt the need to do that because they were so uncomfortable

040and I think the uh changes that are being proposed Ed are uh in step with the realities of my children's lived experiences and what kids are facing this curriculum is 20 years old it needs to be updated and it needs to include me because sometimes I want to look around in our community and ask hey I'm queer I'm non-binary do I have a right to life because too often and too much recently we've heard that like I don't that my child is going to hurt someone or attack someone or like they're being vilified and it's disgusting youth are being vilified and we also witnessed how misogyny and the gender binary can kind of seep into things you might look at a person and make an assumption of what they might speak to and it turns

041out to be something completely different um I am also the parent co-chair of the deac and I'm speaking just as an individual when I first joined the 2223 school year we spoke extensively about having public open meetings which is what I wanted which is what we had in Lowden County Virginia where I served for two years but people are afraid we have youth on the committee they are afraid like I I think it's great that we have youth on the school board here it's great but the reality is youth on the deac aren't comfortable being this public public and I wish that would change also we should have that virtual meeting because we're A diversity inclusion advisory committee I'm disabled you know that disability isn't always going to uh cause a long-term Illness but it

042might just be like hey I have no spoons today I need to stay home and zoom into this meeting but we need to do it effectively and I think that we can look into having um better Zoom options so thank you for your time [Applause] I haven't been up here in a while um my friend Amy teslin did an amazing job laying out the um the legal and procedural reasons for keeping the status quo and the deic so I will speak for its necessity diversity equity and inclusion are more than just uh buzzwords or boxes to be checked off by the administration these terms represent social racial and economical injustices that are at the Forefront of communities worldwide even before the election these were real problems for families and students in our community and now

043some of them are even more frightened uh this Board needs to acknowledge that the intersectionality of students identities and the challenges faced by individuals with multiple marginal identities the de is more important now than ever for our schools it needs need to be protected from bias unconscious or otherwise it needs to be allowed to function at full capacity and give its educated recommendations and advice to the school board it needs to represent those in sing schools who feel unseen unheard and undervalued finally I encourage the board to pass the scab's recommendations um not everyone is going to agree on what they feel um kids are ready to learn or parents know the kids know um and this has not had updated in quite some time and I think it's time that it it is thank

044you very much thank [Applause] you thank you very much that's the end of the uh public comment for now there is a second one at the end of the agenda I have no uh response immediately to uh previous public comment I'd like to move on to the uh agenda excuse me setting of the agenda items can be added or deleted from the meeting agenda or the order can be changed at the request of an individual board member or superintendent uh and the agenda has to be approved before proceeding further do I have a motion to I have a motion to revise I'm sorry I have a motion to revise the agenda as printed oh okay um you can do it without a motion at this point okay well I revise the agenda well first of

045all what we can do is just have a motion to approve the agenda and then we can have a discussion about any items that we want to add on with that work I justum procedurally I don't think that's correct I think we revise it I think there's a motion to revise the agenda okay then you're making a motion to revise the agenda y approve the agenda as revised got it approve the agenda as revised then do we have a second I want to make the okay Oh I thought that was it so go ahead no so um I'd like to add an action item and preferably a um direct superintendent Lodge to have an independent third party review of the athletic department support stean so let me kick off the discussion by saying first of

046all as board president if anyone has a moment to look up policy 0166 they'll see that yeah we can add items to the agenda as long as I'm in concurrence with it now we've had these conversations as long as I'm in concurrence secondly I'm happy to re read that for you oh I just well allowed give me a second I've got a few other things to add as well but if you want to call that up go ahead so first paragraph well I'm talking about the end of the paragraph um yeah so um as the policy expert as you all like to call me um the policy 0166 agenda the very last sentence says the order of business may be altered and items added at any Mee meeting by a majority vote of the members

047present um additionally that's here in our agenda where you can add a a individual board member can request to add um and revise the agenda so it's at the concurrence of the board president no where are you looking here do I have to look it up now again happy to so is the agenda wrong well that's just one of the several items secondly uh Tim just a note and the rest of the board it is on the agenda already in closed session tonight we will be discussing the review of this the other reason is that uh it relates to an first of all you would like a review of the you could you clarify what it is you're asking for continue the the do we want to have a conversation about the do we want

048to discuss this this now or do we want I want clarification of this is a this is a board of seven not a board of one I understand so I think we need to vote on this I want to be clear about what you just asked for could you re could you repeat what it is you had asked for was it a a third party in independent third party review of the athletic department okay and this is not you can drill down to whatever you want to drill it down to a person um one sport that's on you that's that's not what I'm asking for I am asking for a third part of your view of the entire athletic department I understand and our responsibility is not as a board now you're gonna I'm let

049you finish Tim our responsibility is not to supervise the athletic department our a our responsibility is to supervise Steve at we govern we govern the district yes we govern the district as our with you know what I'm happy to have a conversation about this without being cut off I've already had many conversations with you about this with but not with the board the next thing is that I I am concerned I'm sorry well hang on I'm concerned that if we have this discussion that this is part and parcel of a complaint that's come before the board and their main remedy for resolving the complaint against our superintendent was a independent review of the athletic department that's why this is all bound up with a complaint against Steve and if numerous times this is not just

050one sport all right we have a couple people want to speak and I I so I made my case at my point uh Jennifer and then Jennifer Jenny and Jennifer so I just wanted to say that um I um I think that it's a bit out of order and I'm not saying that I'm not ever um in favor of having this discussion and Open Session I feel that this idea of a third-party review has not even been discussed um in Clos session as it pertains to the superintendent the questions that were um asked we have um when they were asked uh there was given no opportunity for an answer before the immediate call for the review I think that we have due process and we owe due process to the superintendent we owe due process

051to the athletic department we owe due process to our students and I think that by having and by having uh a discussion and closed session by having a discussion and closed session that does not prohibit us from coming back and making a motion afterwards but I think that when I spoke to uh Dr McVey I said that my fear was can I can I speak I'm not stopping you mean is could I please ask it's the audience it's the audience that's kind of interrupting at this point so you please show some decorum while we hear from the rest of the board members thank you so there are a lot of unanswered questions that need to be that need to be addressed before that and not to mention I said this to you a week ago

052that if we were going to discuss this publicly I feel that it is dire that we have advice from legal councel on what areas can be discussed so that we don't uh have a furpa violation and further litigation so I asked for that I said either advise advice ahead of time time on what is allowable and or Council here present so that we don't uh you know dip into areas that could cause further litigation I think we owe it to the due process to have these questions that have been submitted answered in close session and then at that time if the result is unsatisfactory that we return I think the biggest thing that that that is happening is that because this involves individual people and due process uh it's not it's not that things aren't

053happening it's that things when they're related to an individual we have to be we have to consider uh their privacy and so even though it may seem that nothing has happened we know in our discussions that things have been put in place and so we can have a discussion and close session I've also asked Steve if the answers that are given to us can be written in a way that can be released public publicly without a fura violation so that the public can know the actions that have been made without uh without um you know uh with while still yeah without endangering the district and without violating someone's question what questions are you talking about the ones that you submitted the ones that I submitted because it was one more hurdle president McVey asked me

054to go through yeah and and and those questions were very um very thousand foot level they weren't direct yeah I have a problem with the question so so the answers and and I'm frustrated at this point you're engaged in some clarifying point right I'm frustrated that those questions even got to superintendent lotch that then got to the athletic department to be uh um answer because of due process Tim Tim excuse me trustee Austin can I just clarify something you sent those questions to the superintendent to the bo you sent them to SAS board it is a loop of emails that includes a number of people including Betty yonke and including Steve it didn't used to be that way well I so I understand your frustration with that but you actually sent I never sent them

055to Steve no one on the board did except for you the complaint was actually sent to the superintendent when the parents requested that it not be sent to them and I don't know who they were supposed to be notified and that email got directly sent to the superintendent excuse me can I Susan trusty eastep can I just clarify something I have a meeting every week with Steve every week he's heard about this complaint and every week he said can I just see the complaint and every week I say no and he has not seen the complaint it was sent because I read it it was an email forwarded from trusty stean to you president McVey and superintendent lotch so the original complaint came to superintendent L then he has because the vice president said in

056the email to notify it's not forwarding I can clarify that so notification is not forwarding an email um you walk for yeah I mean seriously okay but but but the the rule says that the vice president upon a complaint to the superintendent must notify the superintendent which I did but so so not just notified that that there is one but you sent the entire email with the document to the to him no actually I I didn't and we're getting off topic for for the motion okay here what I did is I said that there has been a complaint filed I have used the same cut and paste verbage to make sure that there's consistency whenever we receive a complaint in any regard to be very careful with how I respond to the stakeholders in the

057community that might be submitting a complaint and to Jenny's point for due process Steve is required to be notified so of the actual like details of the complaint not the letter not we're getting we're getting off topic but it's right here October 23rd hi Steve and Michael by way of this email I wanted to inform Steve of a complaint this was this was forwarded straight from the emails from the parents no you are getting off topic Tim has a motion which I seconded which we would like to put on this agenda under action item a a third-party review of the athletic department that is the current to okay I would just I just want to say that everything's kind of been um held up I think because more information has been shared than should be

058um so it hasn't been independent that's what I want to point out okay and I think what we're asking for I'm Sorry Brad ju just one second I think what we are asking for is independent to Tim's point because I just want to clarify something we have two email addresses one is internal at sasbo at one is external at sasb add maybe about a month ago I noticed that people had been added to those distribution channels that one person had been added to SAS board and two people had been added to sasb I said something to Michael um I think that's what Tim was bringing up so sometimes when we get email it does not just go to the Board of Education this is going into a separate issue with all of our email addresses

059not being on the website anymore separate issue I would like to have an opportunity because I was just Jenny raised her hair hand first and I had my hand after so I would like to move forward with the discussion on the motion is that okay and now you're making your point now yes so um just a few things with regard to why I would second this motion and have this be added to the agenda I know there's a lot of passion and there's a lot of feelings up here and in this room and I just want to acknowledge that I would like to calmly state that I think that I totally understand what issues can be discussed in an open meeting and what issues can be discussed in a closed meeting my intention with the

060second on this is not to discuss an HR issue it is a process discussion any HR issues should be addressed in closed session and I see that we have that on on the agenda for tonight number two at a previous meeting um about 1: in the morning we made a motion to initiate a third party review around eligibility and enrollment processes um and asked Michael to conduct that it's been to facilitate that the words were facilitated to facilitate the appeal process between parties correct and then the second part was was around supposed to be a legal independent yes that's correct and that are is is that I'm sorry I wanted Clarity from is that what we're meeting about tonight that one are you asking me yeah we are meet no we're meeting about two other

061issues one is the complaint that's on the agenda and I I can't honestly remember the other issue oh the collective bargaining issue and there was okay so no legal on the first I'm prepared to give an update but okay from legal okay okay yeah so so just just to build up on the second point I was making we have a public motion out there to initiate a thirdparty review around eligibility and enrollment process we have not received an update I think that is something that should be discussed in open meeting it's it's a process um decision um number three I believe that there are some questions and I have these also around who would do this or cost I've been thinking about this um and I think that this is totally valid to have questions

062um I have not been a part of a third party review before um though the district has gone through them um and I think that that's something that we need to talk about as a board um and and have the ability to do so legally number four um I think student voice is incredibly important um the football player is here both tonight and on other meetings lacrosse students other sports um I I think we are required to have a discussion about their concerns number five um I think it's very impactful when students say to me that we are mitigating future opportunities whether it's academic athletic through Career and Technical trade through specialized clubs that's important to me as well as their um the stress that is on them as well I think that we um

063owe it to ourselves and we owe it to our community to lead by example and have an discussion and that's all I have to [Applause] say I was just saying I don't I don't disagree with any of those things Jennifer but I think that um in order to maintain Our obligation to our District employees and their protection I think that having it in closed session first and then returning to the table is going to mitigate any litigation that could come um when a violation of Hera occurs I'm not saying that any of those things cannot happen in Open Session I think that in in an effort to hear due process and in an effort to hear what has happened so far we need to be mindful of um of of what has been done and

064what we can share publicly so I'm not disagreeing with you I agree with you that we do need to have some of these things in open but I am not satisfied with the limited information that I had because we have not had a Clos session on this topic yet so I am requesting the Clos session first and then I'm happy to entertain a conversation after um so Jenny thank you because respect the the back and forth um I can't talk about things that we talked about in Clos obviously but I believe that coming out of the last Clos session and has having a motion was the beginning of making a p a public discussion so that's just what I discuss that motion I just don't know that we can discuss the additional items yet Brad

065I believe Brad is next in the list all right I I have a couple of things like just been trying to take this in and what have you I do s have some pause I'll tell you we have policies and I want to make sure we follow them 166 does have some things with agenda setting and the president's role and that kind of thing so I mean I would want some clarity on that and how we feel about about that okay I'm okay with us having input we've had input on previous agendas I understand that but just I want to make sure one that I say that out loud that we're buttoned up on that I am in concurrence with with Jenny about I I'm not necessarily opposed to like us looking into whether it's

066our athletic department or any of our processes or any of our things but I am telling you as a board member that I need more information that I think I'm going to reive in close session to be able to inform me of how I would feel about doing an independent investigation and so like right now I'm kind of on the fence about like I'll be honest with you like my so I I will inform the public I I see things through a teacher lens in the okay and so this is one of my strengths and my weaknesses a teachers how we see things is we see things through a development process right we see things going through goal setting and professional development in those kinds of things and so for us as Ed Educators we

067believe in this IDP idea that we we we have these things that we're always looking to get better and improve upon right and so like I don't want to necessarily not allow for that to happen because as a teacher that's kind of part of quote unquote where my heart is right on the other hand if we listen in close session and we find that you know what this is not going to be something where that process would be appropriate or would not be something that would get us the answers we need then I am more open to it I so like I guess I say to you like I'm not sure if I think just the normal Improvement cycle and the normal you know a principal with their athletic director with their coaches with their

068is the way to go um I'm not saying I don't think that I just don't have the information yet point point so anyway so for me like that's where I'm at so if you want me to change the agenda I'd rather do it later once I have that information I could say oh yeah I definitely want to change the agenda because right now I have no idea if I want to change the agenda or not point point of point of clarity with the Clos session sorry um is this just with the is this the board hearing the public complaint or is this the board hearing from the superintendent again well depends on the complaint piece right I think that our super I think our superintendent and our athletic director definitely have due process and and

069rights and and that kind of thing and we want to be protective of those legal aspects we going that does answer my question were you asking the question of me yeah I didn't know this was then the answer is we are going to be discussing the complaint uh that was leveled at or raised uh to about superintendent lutch in Clos session tonight so that we can make it a decision about how to respond to it to those people who put it Forward one of the things that they said in their complaint was their remedy and that was this uh review that's why I want to move the review and keep the review in close session so we will be discussing it tonight just not an open session is I if we vote that way so

070we're not going to hear from the complaint correct tonight we're doing it the way we've done it with other complaints well with due process complaint actually it's supposed to come to the board and it did and it was given a very quickit it was scheduled very quickly I'm not sure I understand what you're saying I'm talking about the due process with the student the one that we had a year ago or so no which one are you this was about the expulsion oh okay that happened quickly at the um superintendent lotch and president McVey that you all made the decision to have that hearing and similar language in the public complaints says that the board makes that decision and we're going through this whole process that's taking super weeks and weeks and weeks so I'm

071wondering why why we can't just call a to hear from the complaintants and have a hearing why do we have to meet and talk to the person that they're complaining about before even getting schedu the first place just to clarify and thank you for asking all those questions the first question you asked was why did we move so quickly before because that wasn't a complaint that wasn't a complaint against the superintendent that was an expulsion appeal hearing that was different different process entirely right no but it says the board decides if they're going to do the hearing or write something in return so you as a pre president made that decision on behalf of the board right now we're we're we're p this back constantly with the if that's the case then uh I may

072have very well missed that and nobody called me on that during that evening or anything like that so I if I didn't follow the policy correctly I apologize regarding this complaint we are trying and first of all we're following it as precisely as we possibly can make all the faces you want Jennifer followed the process as accurately as the policy laid out in fact one of the parents responded and saying it seems all boilerplate and cut and past and a lot of it was in intentionally so because why weren't we intentional on the due process hearing there's not okay I I appreciate all the all this information because it it is in it's good information for us and I appreciate it but I do want to get back to the um request to revise the

073agenda and um you know I keep hearing back that just because one of these complaints had had a the idea of doing a third party review that that is completely different I'm not I'm not asking to rehash that in Open Session I am asking that we as a district we need to improve and you know back in 2018 when we had the Huckabee one I I looked back in my emails and I even stated that we wanted a report that could see our school with a critical eye in an honest eye because then we can improve and be better and that isn't that what we want with the compass that's our Compass absolutely my concern and you know what I do not disagree with that I enjoyed reading the Huckabee report and there were still

074some issues on there that haven't been resolved but this what you're recommending is a target I'll Point somewhere else then this is a targeted review of the athletic dep Department not the district it's of the athletic department and you're making the case a broad case and I think think I understand it Tim un let I got it right that because the athletic department is so integral to the whole District that we really need to have a good hard look at the athletic department in order to improve the district is that what I'm hearing yep and I don't disagree except I think that this all this is the difference I hear what you're saying please hear what I'm saying this all boils down to a complaint against the superintendent and his and I'm not sure you're

075at the table I'd like to finish up here first I think this is a complaint against the superintendent and his doing his job at running and organizing and supervising the athletic department and that's your position is one and and my position is a little different and then I guess I think we to put it to a vote let we'll let Jennifer and I would like to make an addition to it as well and I would like to say something but I don't want to do that ahead of Lauren's first opportunity to say anything if she would like to or or not I I have a clarifying question actually um the idea of due process so due process implies to me that this um would be looking at a particular staff member administrator versus a more

076Global review so I guess I'd like to understand those concerns that I think Brad you brought up better I'm just trying to be I'm trying to understand um like the athletic department as a whole doesn't get due process right I mean I don't know you're like that's what I'm trying to clarify well I guess I have a wonderment can we if we choose to amend the agenda now could we move the Clos session ahead of the in like you know our discussion on the independence so that we have the because I'm telling you I'm struggling with if I want to vote yes or no on this agenda move like I might be in favor of it Lauren was your question answered I okay no I can answer Lauren so in my in my mind in

077my mind I think that um when I saw the questions I thought to myself this is the first time I've seen these questions and as as someone who has a responsibility to the district and to our community I feel that getting answers to those question questions is important and if we are dissatisfied with those questions that would be moving to the next step I there has been a process in place there has been action taken to um for continuous Improvement and that is connected to individuals and so that's why I'm I'm concerned about Aura violation that's why I think we need to have a closed session to discuss those items and whether whether those answers were satisfactory or not if we find those answers and the course of action to be unsatisfactory then we move

078to the next step but we're jumping that step we're missing that opportunity for due process so these questions weren't meant to be answered by the superintendent to be clear Tim's email said I think a third-party review of the overall program not looking at a person specific person's role and so he proposed some of these questions and um I thought I thought they were great so guess I'm sorry I didn't get an attorney to help me write it I I mean I I don't know your point then is because because he raised these well anyway I think I think the the point being you just I mean you demonstrated that you all think it's just about the superintendent um so that viewpoint step I'm going to renew like my my desire to say Okay I want

079to just hear more before I move forward on something that may or may not be a good thing to do all right did you sorry let me clarify I was talking about Michael sorry Jennifer yes so I just wanted to um correct br language just a little bit Sorry Brad um I I I really don't want to use the term investigation because I don't like the perception that that word has I like process review or something like that because for me this is not about an individual and this is not about Stephen this is not about individuals in the athletic department we have broken process and we have been waiting to move this forward um for a while now and we had a motion that the board passed an open in open public meeting two

080weeks ago with no forward movement and it's continuing to hurt this community and it's it's it's continuing to hurt the processes that we have internally with enrollment and with eligibility and with coaching staffs and with with all sorts of things and one of the and then I want I think if Michael could recognize Tommy I he has his hand up after me um one of the things that I think is really important in a role as a trustee is we have got to protect students and we have got to insulate this District against liability and I think we have potential liability issues and that's one of the reasons I think that we should have a review an independent third review if I could first of all before we get to Tommy thank you I'm I'm

081actually kind of agitated that you said that Jennifer that there's been no forward movement there's after spending 10 hours and having this go well beyond the board and well beyond the district and be before you've even heard my update you've told us that there's been no forward movement I'm a little I think this is a bit frustrating so Tommy thank you I just want to clarify uh Mr gy you said that uh you wanted to have further information before you make good decision um my question would be I know this complaint has come up before and a lot sooner and when they first complained about it they said that time is crucial and this needs to be discussed sooner rather than later um so my question is why like why do we need to have

082more information like why isn't that information already given and discussed because I think these kids have been waiting and I'm not sure whether this is the right thing to do I think I think what these kids want the most is is transparency and I and I just want to know why why this is such a hard issue to get information on and I'm and I'm not naive to to to any that what you're saying and I'm not naive to you know people feeling this way I'm not naive to anything you said here about the impacts that that this has I just know that I got recent information with some answers about some processes and some things that have been happening and I'm telling you I'm on like 24 hours notice of it one okay and

083two is that like sometimes like I I build con I how I build consensus is but or how I build my decision-making process Tommy is by listening to others right and I process some of the things so that I don't get so caught up in how I feel about a particular thing that I lose sight of that and so I would welcome the feedback and hearing like the what's actually happening and hearing about that in the Clos session and then the the there are those discussion points and then we would come into regular session potentially talk about it even more and now I'm more informed to be able to say yeah I really do want that independent investigation but right now I'm like I don't know and I that's a that's a horrible place for

084me to be right now to be honest with you go ahead I just wanted to say um also Tommy I think that um there's a couple of different things at play here so there was the mhsaa appeal so that was a it was a related but separate issue there was a complaint by a single party and now there's been a complaint by a group so all of those have been working through the process so there have been things that have been happening along the way um yeah so that's that's that and to answer I'm going to come as close to the edge as possible Tommy because your question was a question a lot of people here had we can't talk about it we can't talk about things that have happened in closed session we can't

085talk about attorney client privileged documents we do not want to break furpa and prot and risk the the status of a particular student and also there are other issues that are very difficult to say and I spoke to board members from all over the state at a conference a couple weeks ago telling them just how frustrating it was and they said I know we have to do the same thing as board members we have to sit on our hands and keep our traps zipped because we cannot share information with the public about certain individuals especially miners so Tommy I appreciate the question and thank you for the opportunity to share that in fact the statement I was going to give about the motion we gave last time is as is as vague as it but

086it comes again as close as we can get can we listen to the uh motion one more time I think Susan may have wanted an amendment to it but Brad could you mind Tim I me sorry what's the motion again to revise the agenda as printed and make it action item a direct superintendent Lodge to have an independent thirdparty review of the athletic department sorry action item eight what's the the number i' like to have it a so it's before a that's 8 a sorry are we ready to move are ready then I'd like to discuss if we can move into close session between the schedule report and the action items so that we'll know and be knowledgeable for that discussion so here's my problem with that just as everybody's been saying okay we we

087can't we want to discuss in Clos session because there may be things that are about individuals or an existing um uh you know charge against one of our um our superintendent or athletic director we also then could be having some om issues in Clos session when we discuss other things that are not part of that and so therefore and and I think that those are completely separate things we still will have to follow the process on these other things that are already started we're not saying we're stopping those and I I think later I may want to make amendments but I think it's clear that we need to actually make sure that it is independent and possibly not have people involved because this is obviously um if I could just taken a direction where the

088response is not internal all right excuse me Susan if I could point of order I think you're out of order in that case we haven't started discussing that issue that Tim would like to raise but that's that's a great set of statements to say once we do get to there okay if you don't mind me thank you I appreciate that are we prepared to vote on whether we would to approve the agenda as revised seems like we are if if we well that's where that's where uh trusty Austin has recommended that a motion regarding moving into a third part doing a third party review of the athletic department somebody's got the exact language I'm sure yeah You' like it to go to a a uh in independent third party somebody's written down I'm not going

089to uh I think it's we have a moved by Tim Austin seconded by Jennifer Ste oh can I say that it um that the board versus the superintendent do like change that word because I think it says uh superintendent tendent launch yeah um request the review I just want to I don't know that it be the board who's doing that I I'm fine with superintendent LOD because this is not this is completely a third party it's not about him he's just going to facilitate getting the organization in my mind I mean we can bring it to the we could have that have some you know have it come to the board for an action item to approve yeah I just um because possible complaint that we are talking about is against him as well so

090direct he said direct the superintendent to conduct and now she saying she would like it to change to direct the board will conduct Susan could there be a compromise and we say something like uh and Tim would have the exact language that together the board and superintendent lch would Age agree to a third party process review of the athletic department yeah I think that's where like direct superintendent lot to have an independent thirdparty review of the athletic department so we could we could require that uh you know whatever agency he recommends could come to the board for approval um you know I I would be okay with that because i' be okay with that but I think we're I think I think that's more like the part two of the discussion but I'm okay with

091that but I appreciate that you know Susan's being cagnes the exact language trust if the whole point of a third party review is to have it be independent then and if our superintendent it seems like I'm not even sure which way I'm going and we're going to have the discussion but a whole point of a third-party review it seems like a ad if if we were to vote to do it it seems like an ad hoc committee from the board should be choosing the group because what's the point of having a third party review if it's picked right I sounds like what you're talking about think okay so with the understanding and I'm going to ask you to read it one more time because the language changed a lot with the understanding that it is

092already on the agenda for the closed session a discussion of this and could come back to open session as an action item your pardon me I understood that for Clos session we're discussing exactly what's listed which is um uh disciplinary action against an employee complaints against a School employee collective bargaining so this doesn't necessarily mean that we're discussing the exact same thing in closed I see it as two as I'm saying to you based on as I've said earlier as well based on the complaint which has its sole one of its remedies in the complaint is to have an independent review it's going to be discussed in close session so with that understood I hope you understand that let me hear the agenda item that you're asking for and then we'll put it to a

093vote Tim or whoever has the right language direct Board of Education to have an independent third-party review of the athletic department direct the Board of Education to have an independent third-party review of the athletic department superintendent will sorry who's doing the directing I'm I'm lost on the subject here okay is this what I'm hearing the Board of Education will conduct is that it is that what you're saying and that's the discussion you'd like to have at item AA okay all in favor please uh we're not going to do a roll Voice vote but if it comes down to if it's not clear all in favor of of changing of of adjusting the agenda please say I I I I I I opposed I so that sounds like five and two is that correct yeah which

094was oh Jenny and correct yeah at this point board member one and board member two okay uh we are now on to H so Tim we are moving this onto the agenda we are now moving up to uh scheduled reports I'm very sorry for the delay but it was you know the Democracy in action right sir thank you very much uh I'd like to uh if there are folks leaving if there are folks leaving you might as well take a pause or a second Jeff and your partner your pal your mate your colleague that's the one oh yeah I I don't think this is his first rodeo all right for those who are following along in your playbooks item 7A the audit report I'd like to introduce Mr Jeff Higgins plant Moran and Renee esper

095thank you if you give us a second we can just go through our board packs to find your uh your highlights too yeah we can see oh there it is thank you boy I really wasn't paying attention there it is so I'll just expand the slid you just tell me when to turn the page okay just gota look your way all right shifting gears just a little bit again my name is Jeff Higgins with me is Renee esper we're with clant Moran we are the school district's independent CPA firm here to talk about the results of our audit for the financial statements for the district's year ended June 30th 2024 so there's three documents related to our audit of the financial statements that uh are presented to the board that come out of the audit

096process there's the financial report with supplemental information which contains the district's audited financial statements there's a separate Federal award supplemental information which contains our audit of the federal programs administered by the district and finally there's the report to the Board of Education which provides in information on the audit process and results so again as the district's independent Auditors it's our responsibility to express an opinion on the financial statements based on our audit conducted in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America and I'm pleased to report here tonight that based on the results of our various audit procedures we've rendered what's known as an unmodified or a clean opinion on the district's financial statements so this would be the highest level of assurance that we as aors can provide on a

097set of financial statements so the activities of the district are reported in various different funds to show how the particular expenditures uh for which specific revenue is used but we're going to really focus tonight on the general fund as the general fund would be the primary operating fund of the district and Renee will walk us through some of the financial highlights again for the general fund all righty so this slide here presents the district's general fund balance sheet um the balance sheet represents a snapshot in time of balances as of June 30th 2024 and then prior years June 30th 2023 so the first top section that summarizes the district's assets um total assets of 32.3 million which you can see is made up primarily of cash and Investments of about 20.5 million and then 11.5

098million in receivables which that's primarily due from the state for July and August state aid payments and then the next section there's the liabilities and that total is 14.8 million as of June 30th 2024 and that's you can see is primarily acrude payroll or wages and benefits for employees who are paid during July and August and then the difference between your total assets and total liabilities is the fund balance of 17.5 million and then the next slide there so this slide summarizes the total general fund rate Revenue looking at 2024 on the left and then 2023 on the right and as you can see in total for 2024 it's about 74.9 million compared to 78.7 million in Prior year and the decrease primarily relates to the federal sources that orange slice of the pie there

099and that's primarily due to onetime emergency relief funding that was received in 2023 and then otherwise you can see majority of the district's Revenue continues to be that teal color of the state revenue which was about 72% of Revenue in fiscal year 24 that's all set by the state and driven primarily by the people count and then the remaining sources of revenue is inter District sources and then Federal and local sources and then the next slide there so this similarly but this is the general fund expenditures and it's class classified by their object code and it Compares again to 2024 and then 2023 looking at the left you can see the district has total expenditures about 73 million for fiscal year 24 which is comparable to the previous year and then you can see salaries

100and benefits continues to make up that largest component um as expected year-over-year the next slide we have a history of the general fund Revenue over expenditures this is essentially like the net income for the general fund for the year so you can see the history for several years going back up to 2019 effectively the district was hovering around a break even level uh 2020 you can see had a little over a million dollars of net income if you will and then during the covid years you will see there are some different kind of fluctuations in in uh the net net income um as you know there was various Co funding that came in when schools were being operated remotely the cost structures were changed now that we're back in 2024 we really brought back to

101more of a a normalized cost structure so most of the co relief dollars have now been expended um operations are kind of back to normal so districts are starting to get into more of a kind of a normalized operation um but you can again see for for 2024 based on the revenue of 74.9 million the expenditures of 73 million there was uh roughly $1.8 million of uh additional funds added to the district's fund balance so this next slide looks at the fund balance history so again as Renee mentioned the fund balance is effectively the assets minus the liabilities of the district it's um really represents the financial reserves of the district so it allows the district to fund unplanned expenses helps insulate the district against unexpected revenue losses and other funding instabilities that might pop

102up throughout the year so it is an important metric that's that's monitored certainly moded at the state level so then the question becomes what is an adequate level of fund balance so fun balance is often assessed as a percentage of your expenditures so if you take your fund balance about 17.4 million divided by your expenditures of 73 million that gives you a percentage as of June 3th 2024 of about 23.9% you can see uh historically where the district spend compared to State average so seline's the the darker blue bar and the state average is that teal bar so for several years the district was a bit below the state average fund balance percentage over the last couple years the district has caught up and you can see in 2023 you right at about the state

103average percentage of fund balance um it's important to know that various School Finance organizations do recommend a fund balance percentage of somewhere in that 15 to 20% range so you would be uh right at about where you would be uh recommended to be but it is still important to to keep watchful over your fund balance and make sure you are keeping up that that adequate level of Reserve so that was our our summary of the year ended June 30th 2024 if there's any questions we'd be happy to address those this evening I had a quick question when uh might we find out about the actual Statewide average for fund balance so the numbers are reported on November 1st so those numbers be coming in now I would expect it probably might go up a little

104bit as again we're sort of at the end of those covid years historically that percentage was sort of in that 10 to 15% uh number so as you can see going back to that last slide if you go back preco um you're it was right around that 15% and I I would expect that now that we're getting more of a normalized environment it'll probably start to decline again but those numbers are published probably I'd have to rely on whatever the state gets the numbers together probably a December time frame I would expect thank you is there like just for my own interest is there a a memo or a report or a budget there's actually very detailed State bulletins that they published bulletin that's yes there's there's a I don't know the number off the

105top of my head but that includes financial information of all districts sorted by you know individual districts District by size you know based on student count so there's a significant amount of information available at uh the state compiles I appreciate that deep background any other questions Brad Treasurer gerby so I have three items that I would like to do number one obviously having a clean and unmodified um audit refers once again to the incredible work of Miranda Oley in our finance department so I want to make sure I say that out loud she's a she's really good at her job okay yeah that's I like it okay she is outstanding at her job and because she's outstanding at her job I look good as the treasure and uh so the reality for me is I

106get to just take all the credit and and I deserve none of it so so that's that so Brandon thank you for being so good at it all right um the second thing is uh your only recommendation that was in there is that correct about was about food service and there was a food service in um in ex and I'm saying this more for the board's knowledge that we're going to have we're exploring um we had a food service thing where we are not allowed to exceed more than three months of three months of operating expenses so many districts experiened the same issue because again when the co relief funding came through and you were getting significant federal dollars and now that the state is effectively paying for school lunches for all children a lot

107of districts similar to Seline the fund balance exceeded What's the allowable amount and fund balance so the district's required to submit a spend down plan just to get under that three months of operating expenditures so we're going to be doing that and I can assure you like as our finance team we started talking about those things today and how are we going to do that and how do we go about that process um you know the the other thing I would say is this is a a byproduct of the Partnerships and the and the and being good stewards with our structures right we've were very mindful over the last year of our structure structures and one of the things that I will say out loud I was going to make this part of my report

108in a little bit but is that we had said that we needed to pursue um a million dollars in in right sizing if you will annually for the next three years and for this year because of our stewardship we may we we don't think we need to do that right now so we may come back to that idea I mean because we always want to make sure that our structures equal our students but um and I'm going to talk about student count during my report a little bit which is also going to be a positive um thing to say but but anyway but we are not pursuing um those items at at at this time so that would be a positive to come out of this process and then um the third thing is as

109I was geeking out about it because I tend to probably spend more time with this thing than than anyone talk to me about the piece you had in there about the estimated Revenue conference and your prediction that um that sales tax Revenue may not be as robust going forward as it has been so I think you're referring to our comments in our board letter so really just trying to get an understanding of how the future is going to look and what funds might be available to fund obviously education so the sales tax under proposal a you know they went from four to 6% and that additional 2% is really what funds public education to a large extent so it is a a key metric and I think um you know just trying to make sure

110those funds are going to be available to continue the current level of funding for for districts is the the critical piece didn't you say in there that you anticipate that there may be a leveling off or you anticipate that through the revenue conference there might be well yeah so I wouldn't say it's not say our prediction but I think there are expectations that that is going to level off as the economy stabilizes now that we're in this sort of postco world and things are sort of getting back to a typical pace and it obviously a lot of it's just dependent on the Michigan economy and and how well as the treasure I'm always looking for things that should have my antenna up a little bit and so like that's the thing that's kind of got

111my attention right there right I'm always going to be looking at our pupil count and how many dollars are we going to have to educate kids right like those are our whether we like it or not that's our Revenue stream so so anyway so that's why I'm I was concerned I see that and think then we may not realize as robust a per pupil increase going forward as we have now I know that's just like future who knows but anyway I'm just saying to my board colleagues that that that was there in this report a little bit to that was how I read it thank you oh uh Jenny Miller um oh do you want to go first sorry oh oh okay um I uh I just had a question sometimes we um do a

112comparison I know that you have the state um average comparison but oftentimes we do a comparison of um districts who to mirror a lot of the similarity and characteristics of of us and so just thinking um in our County and surrounding counties of some of the um things that we've heard in the news in regards to fund balance um but those districts look and are sizeably different than ours so in terms of um I have a couple of questions in terms of districts that might be more similar to us um not just as a state average but more similar to us how we Measuring Up in terms of fund Equity with them so I don't have the specific numbers yeah ex my head but I just anecdotical because most of districts I work with would

113be similar numbers most districts that I would deal with kind of in southeast Michigan similar size would be in that kind of 18 to 22% fund balance range so certainly ex most fund balances have gone up pretty significantly since 2021 and certainly being that 20% range is pretty typical okay and then I know at one point um prior to probably um 2020 there was a recommendation for um what was a comfortable fund balance can you talk to us about what that looks like I I feel like just because I'm I'm just looking at 23.9% and it looks great but also um I'm thinking about the rising cost of healthare and I'm thinking about the rising cost of just essential materials and things like that and I'm just wondering how um that aligns with the cost

114that we're passing on to others yes there's a couple uh couple items there so as you can see you know if you go back to 2019 you're at about 5% and that was really there was a lot of concern about that level so the Michigan school business officials would typically recommend a 15% fund balance level if you go to the government Finance Officers Association they recommend 15 to 20 so those are some of the the broad recommendations from kind of a floor fund balance number to keep in mind would be 5% so the state does look at fund balance percentage they measure it a little bit differently but basically a 5% fund balance level and if it's at Five Below at or below 5% for two years in a row they take that as an

115indicator of potential financial distress because the state wants to make sure districts do not go into a deficit so if you do have indications of financial distress there's additional reporting and things you have to do to help uh ensure to the state that you're not going to go into a deficit so I look at 5% the floor at that 15% the typical recommendation and then just looking back at the slide I think um let me see if it was one two three four um and I don't know if this is even something that we can predict yet um but there is um a lot of talk about um Federal streams of um financial support for school districts um potentially being eliminated ated or moved back to the States and how like if we are thinking

116ahead to the impact of the dissolution of say the Department of Education at the federal level how would that have a local effect so for Seline if you look at again this uh be slide four as you can see your federal revenue was about $1.8 million so obviously that's funding that would have to be somehow dealt with if that those funds went away now federal funds typically they are you know they strings attached they have different sep SP certain programs have to be spent on certain activities um So that obviously the question becomes if that funding goes away do you have to somehow alter those activities that were being funded under that Federal program uh at this point obviously we don't know where things are going to go but historically Seline like said if you

117look at 23 it was about four 4.9 million of federal funding and that's a lot of that was the Esser funds other Co relief funds I think historically seline's probably been around that you know one and a half to2 million dollar of federal funds that the district is rece received so roughly that like 2% number or less correct okay thank you and I'm going to chime in real quick if you guys don't mind I I just wrote down on my homework to-do list Jenny about um the fund balances of local school districts similar to us and I'll do that homework as the finance chair I know there is um and shouldn't be too hard potentially Steve or someone um in the cabinet could get you there used to be a list of districts that we

118compared ourselves to on number Mees not just financials but on a number of measures yeah we've we've benchmarked oursel against for superintendent salaries and for all kinds of things so yeah I that shouldn't be a terrible especially everyone's kind of doing their audits and doing their reports over this month the two months so yeah I just I my biggest reason for that question around um you know healthy fund balance um versus um you know extra cushion I I know I like to see the extra cushion but I also know that with the rising cost of healthcare it's creating um a big burden for our um staff and the contributions that they have to make so I want to make sure that our cushion isn't at their expense I would like to thank you and thank

119you uh for uh the clean audit and thank you for the work you do and thank you for coming to join us this evening we'll see you us that provide the clean audit it's Miranda and The Business rations to Miranda thank you Miranda thank you and I always look forward to seeing both of you here at our meeting so we'll see you next year all right well thank you and have a good evening appreciate the time second report she standing up she's walking over Carol diglio ass oh pardon Carol diglio assistant superintendent of a human resources on the hiring process I need to take a point of privilege for a second e so I might have to just switch Yeah just I'll just give you a thumbs up good evening thank you for having me

120this evening um I had um Steve share this P PowerPoint because it's kind of lengthy so I'm not going to read all the details hopefully you had a chance to dive in but I'm really here tonight to honor some of the work that's been done at the district level with all of our building administrators and directors and kind of wrapping around um one of the most important things we do here in Seline which is hire sorry my clicker or this clicker isn't working so one of the greatest gifts we have is educating kids and making sure that we have the right people um with kids and education is a powerful tool and we need to get it right at all levels so one of our greatest challenges right now is to make sure that we

121are getting the right people on the bus but more more importantly having them in the right seat it's hard for me to talk about the hiring process without talking about the other areas that we've implemented so that we are making decisions and getting out of a cycle of when there's a retirement or a resignation just automatically posting that we're looking at all the things that are available to us through Staffing and making decisions um one thing that is critically different in education today is there is a national shortage for educators um they started collecting data back in 2014 it started a show in R's ugly head in 2016 where they were showing us that about 240,000 fewer people were choosing education and at the same rate people were leaving that data has only gotten worse

122since 2016 so when we talk about Staffing and when we talk about um education we need to know that the people that are here are really important that we nurture and take care of them and make sure that um they are in good condition and supported so that they can do the best work possible for children that's what we do and so when we look at the whole process I'm going to talk quickly about master scheduling and Staffing what we do to identify vacancy and then I'm going to quickly go through the process and then talk about um the importance on onboarding retention and then eventually I'd like to get an exit survey in place that is both online or in person or both so that we have continuous Improvement and we hear from our

123staff members and learn um so we can move forward so one of the things that um just came and and I've worked with lots of people using this formula is you have to look at your Staffing and master scheduling before you um put up a vacancy so that we're working I know it's near uh to Brad and of course Miranda's that we're working within the budget and not just hiring for the sake of hiring and making sure that we're using all of our resources that we have so we have to look at Staffing Master scheduling which is a beast and our F our finances before we post for any vacancy um we have to make sure that we are uh working as a team we have to make tough decisions we can't make assumptions even

124though sometimes we have to especially during the summer months we have to have an alignment to processes and procedures and support our desired outcomes our leaders um our leadership is Paramount our teamwork is powerful and Empower empowering and we need to include our staff in all the buildings it can't just be a decision made at the district level or at the leadership level we have to be having conversations with our staff we need to model and message um what we want to see we're making million dooll decisions and so um we need to make sure we get that right and now more than ever we are competing with other districts and now more than ever hiring is a year- round process we used to have a season of hiring in education we occasionally would have

125an early retirement in January but now it is a yearround operation when we're looking at Staffing variabl there's a lot that goes into this there's certification and endorsements um we have to look at our retirements resignations leave of absences who's going out who's coming back transfers layoff recalls non-renewals promotions contract language and we need um to look at assignments so those are just the variables that come into play when we are looking at our staffing and when our staffing is turning over or there's a reduction as there is Nationwide it becomes very difficult we look at Master scheduling these are all the different things that go into Master scheduling it's all a numbers game um but the important thing is that we need to make sure students are getting what they need at every level

126from prek 12 and Beyond and so there is electives there's the Michigan Mar curriculum there's core there's special populations there's certifications there's everything that comes into play here but then we have to also look at Trends and you saw with the audit we look at Trends same thing with Master scheduling and Staffing uh we want to look at enrollment Trends over three years we want to look at class selections we look at Early Childhood numbers coming in graduation rates going out and we have to have clear expectations with our principles and directors on how we are Master scheduling this is a concertive effort emails will be going out this week to all I know it's only November and the dust is only set only settling for this year but really we start Master scheduling this

127month we start looking at um getting things ready and prepared for kids so they start actually class selection as early as February um so that we can identify how many staff members we need so that we can make decisions and get hiring done in the spring um is the goal there's lots of hiring variables um um as I just mentioned but we have a great career Tech we have we have um our teaching and learning Department that this is all centered around we have to follow Michigan Department of Education we have special education we want to nurture our diversity Equity inclusion work uh English language Learners we have Community ad and we have all the opportunities we provide after so we want to make sure we're bringing um the right people in that are certified

128and qualified to teach all of our students and continue the opportunities that Seline are schools provide this is where I'm kind of going to whiz through we basically have seven stages this is all in Google Drive um for this for the administrators we break it down by stage but we really have done a lot of work in um system making this a systematic process throughout the entire District so that we are um using the same protocols not just for the process but also for the expectations and qualities we have for staff in the Selen area schools we use something called Power School which is um unified Talent it's where we post and manage everything that um we have as far as the application process um we have all new forms and steps for requesting to

129post um and so we use we use uh We've implemented a lot of communication tools and it's an accountability process as well you request a post we do a deep dive and look is this something we need to do it is signed off by either either myself or Miranda and then we get it going and so all of this is through inform K12 um we spent a lot of time on reflecting on our postings are our postings reflecting what we want in selary schools or is it just a list of things that we want it it has to be specific to what we're looking for and we have to really make sure that we are updating this every opportunity that we have and and the administrators and building principles have been really good at um

130taking uh the initiative of updating a lot of these um I want to make sure that we also are reflective and working towards um our Dei work in the district I know I'm fairly new but I do know it's important and and I want to make sure I thank Anita Martinez and woer verkerk um they've met with Steve and I in the summer um and last spring to kind of talk about strategies and um two things well many things on all of our documents immediately um we made sure that our non-discrimination equal opportunity statement is on all of our hiring processes and then no matter what our um posting is we've added a piece here that talks about our Dei work in the Seline are schools looking for individuals that will live into the work

131that we are living into so we've changed some things um on all of the paperwork end of things um this is how our vacancies are posted um we do a lot of pre-screen you pre-screen the um the the applications of course and we're looking for um uh credentials preferred skills we have to do a lot in education with criminal conduct and background checks we're looking for experience and of course we're always looking for added value to the district we don't want to keep hiring the same over and over again we want people that are going to bring new ideas um experiences push us to be better and that can happen directly through the hiring process this is what our screening process looks like our administrators do this from the building levels um one thing that

132will be coming soon is oh sorry I got a little behind with you keep going yep yeah one more yeah so some of the things that we're doing differently also is um even though our application numbers across the country are much lower I came into this um role when we would have 500 applicants for a part time kindergarten teacher and those days are gone we'd be happy to get 15 sometimes so um one of the things that I always want to empower our staff with and and work on improving upon is different ways we can get information about individuals who are applying and CH is a one of those ways of not just looking at applications but having our candidates do an online screener so that we can look at predictive talent and also we

133will look at um what employment engagement is as far as being an advocate belonging and contribution so those are things that we can collect and it's not always necessarily to to weed people out it also could be used that when we hire people in we gain information about how we can help them if we know where their strengths are and where they might need support then that's information we can have to help new teachers par professionals transportation workers whoever comes into our district we can help them to be better instead of just hiring and then we move on it gives us some information on how we can lead our employees to to improve um there's a lot around that has changed in in uh you can go back in education in terms of proper placement

134it's not as easy as it looks it it does require that we have people in in the right place as far as their certification because of the shortage the state has gotten a little bit more flexible in some areas especially in early childhood but it's still um a tight ship that we have to we have to monitor we find and look and confirm using MOA any of us can be found on moax um you'll find that if you took the roof off of every school the level of Education in in educational institution is amazing you are going to see teachers with two three certifications administrators with two or three degrees postsecondary it it's amazing to see what our Educators have to offer um to kids but this is how we confirm that people are who

135they say they are another thing that was in the district thank you to the previous HR Kurt Ellis he started sparkhire sparkhire is another way of doing pre-screening and it's a one-way video and um there was I think one or two accounts in the district and this last spring every administrator got their own account we ran four or five trainings with spark hire so everyone got trained and now every building is free flowing with sparkhire this is kind of a a Time Saver as well because you can send the questions out they re the um candidates um will receive the video and then they have four or five pre-screen questions they videotape and send it back and then a team of people can have and watch those interviews and with a rubric and start making

136decisions on who to bring to the next level face to face um the next we're going into stage three which is the panel interview we always like to see people um perform or have tasks when they're in front of us for example a teacher would teach um we have leaders do present presentations there's lots of different strategies but as I said earlier we always are looking to hire smarter brighter brighter faster fitter people we want to grow too and when you bring good people in and attract good people that only helps us get stronger and better as Educators so we do panel interviews sometimes there's 18 people sitting on the panel depending on the position a district level position often has a lot of stakeholders at that panel interview but it's very organized you can

137switch um we have all kinds of things and tools in place to keep that organized we have a a confidentiality agreement that we have all the folks on the panel sign you can go to next with our interview questions we work really hard on the specific position it's not just going to be a set of questions forwarded to the next to the next it's specific to the position it's relationship building it's looking for required skills it's going to demon demate Dei we're looking for character reliability demonstrated ability fit for the specific need of the district and what is your added value when I say I believe this one of is one of the most important things we can do I truly mean that because every individual we hire is connected touching in the sense of

138teaching children and it does not matter what our role is all of our roles impact kids and so this is why we have put so much in to um Elevate how we hire and what we're looking for the next the next step is making recommendations uh we we require reference checks the oldfashioned calling people up and doing reference checks and talking to people before we also have to do a very in-depth as I said um uh conduct um criminal conduct back background check fingerprinting uh something called a PA 189 that goes to the previous District to see if there is any misconduct at the district level um these are just forms that live links that you guys had an opportunity to look into here are some of the forms that we universally are using um

139and then once a recommendation is made it comes to HR and I'm the person that calls every candidate that is recommended um and talk them through the next stages and the next step uh shout out to the Department of Human Resources they're amazing in the in the Fast and Furious we were able to get 76 people hired between I think June and this fall like October 76 and that's teamwork that's amazing administrators that's leaders in the Departments that are following a process they know where to start they know how to finish they know how to make sure they're checking on on it and then I have the honor of um talking with all of them and our department puts all those things in motion and a lot of the onboarding part is online which makes

140it easy um I believe it's really important to um make sure we're communicating and building our circle of folks so when someone doesn't get hired um we're very careful about making sure we communicate and reach out to them and let them know where they where they stand and every way every step along that I just explained there is communication and making sure people are updated where we are in the process so we're not leaving people out there unanswered um part of this whole process hiring again is in in the middle of this sandwich a really important part of this process is onboarding people so that they are set up for ESS and I don't I might sound like I'm exaggerating but it's important to roll out the red carpet for our new employees and give

141them the red carpet treatment and one of the orientation days this summer had everybody that needed to be part of it connected so we had Jackie here working and having the interviews done for our opening day we had technology here so everyone that was hired walked away with their lap laptop or their information and they could log on we had all of HR in here working everybody had a um hand in this so that and every administrator showed up to be introduced to the new staff I think in this session we had 42 people um from all of our different um career careers in the district um some of the things that we really work hard on is on inclusiveness we didn't have separate orientations we brought all the Departments together um we also have

142built some things and put in place so that no matter where you are in your career you can access the things called staff links and whom to ask it's really about taking big and making it small so that you're able to navigate your new job um swiftly and and get answers or qu answers to your questions um so new to you can switch new to um some of our intentional ways of retaining people is transparency so the administration worked really hard to get staff links it's under four staff and it is anything and everything you need need as an employee to operate we've also feathered that out to something called whom to ask so if you have a question about a form or a process you can find what department who it is what their

143what the link is to the form who to ask their phone number we really wanted to make sure that people are successful and can um navigate uh it's not easy being the new kid on the Block I said that today in negotiations it's not easy being the new kid on the Block and there's lots to learn it's a fire hose when you come into a new organization and so this was made to to simplify it and give people access to what they need um the other thing that we did for all the groups and it helped in the hiring and and retention part is create individual calendars for everyone so that no matter what your position is you know what your calendar is and it's posted on staff links this is just one example of

144many things that that we've added and then um this is such a an amazing opportunity to be an educator and um I want to just encourage people to remember that there is a teacher shortage and I need to say it's an education shortage um I I I'm very passionate about this um it's important to know that in 201920 there were 58 education positions on the critical shortage list in Michigan most of them were Federal shortages meaning everyone in the country were having shortages right around 2020 2021 they dropped the critical shortage list because every position is considered critical shortage so if you go to the mde the Michigan Department of Education you'll see that that list is gone and there's lots of strategies that we're trying to do to improve and um attract and maintain

145and retain um some of the challenges that we have um you'll see that teacher vacancies jumped by 51% in the 2223 school year high poverty areas have four times fewer applicants than other areas it's difficult to hire diverse certified teachers in Michigan 90% are white 7% of our teaching and education Personnel are black 1% Hispanic and less than 1% Asian in the state of Michigan 74% of our Michigan teachers are women and 26% men and Michigan retain around 73% white teachers and 59% of our black teachers in addition to Employees leaving the pre profession fewer and fewer are going into Ed education as a career path and only 4% of the college degrees in 201920 were young folks going in and choosing education as their career 4% so we have some national challenges some State

146challenges um I lift this data because I know how important it is for kids to see staff in front of them that look like them that is not lost on anyone in this room at on the board your administrators but we statistically have to do something different from the point of entry and I mean seriously need to start talking to elementary kids about becoming Educators and making it look and feel welcoming um the exit surveys are in motion I talked about that a little bit and I hope to get that up and running and then this most importantly next slide is this is what we're here for kids are counting on us they're counting on us do the right thing and they're counting on us to get the right people in front of them thank

147you thank you we may have a question or two I have a question yes um so thank you for the presentation um one question I have is uh there was a lot about the piece of applications but what I didn't hear much about is how we sought applications um so I'm just wondering if in reference to your last Point well first of all I think it's actually maybe even more important for kids to have teachers who look different from them in our district that's what I meant like that that just the thing um just to be exposed to people with different ideas and different backgrounds and um so I know when I've asked this question before about like well where are we recruiting it's often that we're recruiting from Eastern or we're recruiting very locally

148and I'm just wondering what efforts the district is making if Michigan has you know sort of a um challenges and I'm guessing they're Nationwide what what efforts are we making to recruit sort of in non-traditional places to try to bring bring people in I I realize that it's hard to move on a teacher salary but we do have a like major university nearby that brings in people from all over the world and I just don't understand why or maybe we are I'm just curious as to what efforts we're making to recruit more globally are we going to colleges out of the state are we sending materials are we are we hosting student teachers from outside of this County because I I really appreciate all my kids teachers adore them actually but so many of them

149are from Wasa County or Wayne County um and I just that makes me a little sad I got to be honest with you I mean I like their teachers but I feel like they could have benefited from a broader experience it's a great question um in the time that I've been here the first step was to get a process in place and part of that that in in the opportunity to talk with woter and Anita we talked about some of that Global Reach the the frustrating thing is the National Data is not that much different from Michigan data and people like to or will go towards places that they're comfortable with that's why you see that Wasa County um the the the um Talent the power school talent ad that we use is a platform

150that pushes stuff out all over and when you have jobs that are up all year long and you get two or three applicants that that is that National reach that is really difficult the really the crooks of it the bottom line is people are not going into the profession so it's hard to reach far and and financially spend money there's a national job fair right now or coming up in Louisiana and I just don't think it's worth spending the district's money for myself or someone to go to a team because it hasn't changed enough I I've gone to the job fairs for years I've gone on they've tried the universities have tried online job fairs I've gone out of state to job fairs and it's it's the same this the the problem really is and

151your your question's great Lauren the problem really is is we have to replenish our um desire for and interest for people to go into this career just one followup when we get in viewes and I hear that we're using panels are we kind of double-checking ourselves that we're not having like sort of a HomeTown bias or a like you know our own biases and hiring um is that something we're like when we get the panel are we being intentional about not necessarily kind of having a uh you know insulated kind of hiring uh thoughts so that that's a great question that's one of the reasons why I am working to get chall in place because it's never perfect science number-wise but if you when you have a very um prescribed process and people have or

152know someone that say Hey this I have a friend or whoever and I want to have them plot great they have to apply online and go through the process and as you get more people that turn over un like I don't like the turnover believe me but you get different views and and you're to your point getting people outside of wasal County helps to bring in that that next generation of people to come through it's it is so hard and tricky but when you have a process and there are expectations in that process and everybody is following in the process then it it helps in that piece that you're talking about that we're just not hiring our friends and family so to speak not that that's always happening but if I could also add Lauren

153I I work with about 250 of these new teachers every year and to get them to find a job 30 miles away from where their home is is like asking them to go to timbuk too they they're just they're so Homebound and I I feel the sadness as well because teaching can be a great adventure I've taught in school's 2,000 miles apart Brad um one thing that I'd like to to just ask so first of all I want to say you do a great job so thank you for the processes you've done thank you for the transparency and some of the things you share with us with regards to the negotiations process and some of those updates and things I think that communication and that transparency has been really welcome so I I really appreciate

154that um one thing that I notice okay okay and this could like piggyback on kind of what what Lauren's saying here is there's a Consortium of wasara schools okay and so that's like Ann Arbor Chelsea Dexter ipsan Whitmore Lake and so they all list their positions in in one place we don't we use our own like uh Frontline ted. K12 thing and our positions don't show up and so when somebody's looking to be more Global if you will about position right and they don't let's say they live in Wing County or they live up north I just think maybe we might be too hard to find at times we're on if you go to the WD you should be able to see sleen on there I just look to see like a list of like

155all the V like vacancies and schools that are on and like there's all kinds of schools but not any from Seline so if you and and we've talked about this before so I'll check again for you Brad but the we've looked at different search engines or tools yeah the I don't know the full history of why it's not fully completed or included in that but it's very costly and the timing has to be right to pull that down Pull get it up and get everyone trained so this is something that I've been diving into as well um but you should we are and I'll when I sit down I'll look it up for you but we are and should be face face um available to find on the wash and all in the M School

156District we'll look it right now but I but I've asked the same thing and it is it is expensive and it is timely yeah that's the that's the biggest challenge so it's kind of like where do we start and and then how do we continue um and these both both your questions Lauren question questions are great questions um but I'll look again for you okay yeah thanks for the question though I got you got a quick one from Jenny maybe others um I wondered um if you could talk to us um one of the things that be along with the teacher certific or teacher shortage and the continuing um I guess deficit of um applicants in the teacher um programs um I just wonder if I know in other districts in our County they've had

157to resort to emergency certification and do we have a plan in place should we get to that point we we we we have used different um strategies to get people on board and then sometimes unfortunately they'll work as a long-term sub or um then we'll hold them and once they get their certification we'll we'll have a timeline and even do a little back pay once they get their certification um there's a lot of alternative programming out there that can be used we're but we are very resourceful and working with people I I mean recently sat in and made sure that I helped a young lady get her license and do a an online test and sat with her like so we're we're willing to go the length to make it um as easy as possible

158or recruit the best we can the special ed department does a really nice job they work with peras in a program that work towards their certification to become teachers in the district so um again it's getting people to and it's looking every time that we're hiring often we'll see I'll see people that are applying that have a degree but might be applying for a job that's not classroom or or let their certification expire I will have conversations with them about what do you think about getting your certification we get you hired here but I can help you over there so that's why I like to have conversations too so I'm looking at everybody and seeing where can we sort through or help them kind of elevate and then I was going to say considering the

159Hefty agenda we have ahead of us and the fact that we're very close to needing a bio break could could I ask you to make a very quick question yes so just I just had two two things left so um the one i' I had mentioned this before and I I don't know if it's when you were here or if Kurt was if it was when Kurt was here but we do have that ta to teacher program that's happening right here in our County and um and I know that the candidates who are a part of that program are at least employed in our um County and um there is more diversity in that program it appears and so I just wonder if we've made any effort to reach out to um the ISD and

160I know um Dr McVey works with those those um um budding teachers um but I I just wonder if we've made an effort to look at recruiting through that pool of candidates and I know we've made an effort for the Tas who are currently in our district and I appreciate the investment that we've made in them and that that is continuing on into this these new roles but I also wonder if we might um be able to diversify our candidate pool by um potentially talking to Tas in other areas and then lastly I think that um tonight we um were introduced to Dr Allen who is a graduate of an HBCU and I think that um enlisting her um knowledge and expertise and her um her uh familiarity with the HBCU and HBCU and and

161hers in particular uh if that might be an Avenue to absolutely um you know opening up our um ideas absolutely thank you Susan yes thank you for the presentation um I do want to just take uh I mean this will come up U gu segue into um discussion about our Dei advisory committee um thank you for calling out one of our um two of our subcommittee members um working on the hiring process um and and you know I think it's a reflection of the fiveyear sorry three-year plan that the Dei advisory committee um has worked on for the district and making the recommendation and that you all are seeing that like through um I'm super thankful for that um the fact that you've updated the um non-discrimination policy um to be consistent across websites um

162is fantastic because I've been talking about that since before I was elected in 2018 contacting the district and being like ah this isn't consistent right um and I've noticed some of those changes um like with your name being listed and and things like that so um I appreciate those those changes like really appreciate it um so with a a couple questions with um the Dei um are you doing like any sort of bias training um for when um their staff doing um the search so there yeah that that is something that in our committee meetings um we talked about getting I I have some videos I feel like they need to be updated um so looking at different resources and bringing that in is something that is on our more than on our radar something

163that we want to implement for sure there's the Gathering of getting stuff in place and then getting it up in been working and then the refinement of it of reflecting and saying seeing what's working what's not and What needs to get better that's an area that we will continue training on and if you have any good vide that you can recommend I would love to take a look at them yeah thanks and I bet our Dei advisory committee has some good resour specific to hiring yes yes that would be great yeah I would love to take a look at them yeah awesome um and then uh real quick I have a question about so recently we posted um or the administration posted the director of Safety and Security and so I'm curious about like the

164process with position creating position and stuff um I know that's something that didn't really come come to the board um and I know it's a district level um position so I'm just curious how that came about um and I don't know if that's one of the first new positions you all have created but um if you kind of go through that process well I mean that is something that came from the district level and from an HR perspective I work with Steve to um get a what a posting would look like um I know that a one of our te our former administrators was did a lot of research in other districts to see what that position would look like a lot of research and shared it um a group of us came up with

165what we thought would be very important important um for the district as far as a director the hard thing about education is we are asked and given things to do that aren't and there's not the dedicated time at the level of seriousness that this position is so when you have people kind of like when I was a principal I did not like the thought of a athletic director also being an assistant principal the two just it's too much it's too much to oversee this was a position that could be dedicated just to this I'm glad to say that we have I think 30 33 applications really good applications and 16 of them got a spark hire invitation today so we're we're very organized and while on our way with hiring that but it it can

166come from all different need is a big thing what is the need of the district and how can it benefit the district and everyone that is in the district and that is a touch point that that Position will have an immediate impact on everyone in the district okay thank you appreciate it Y and thinkk go ahead thank you for the great presentation I'm gonna be super fast because I know we have a big agenda and it was a large deck thank you um really like the idea of exit surveys so thank you for including those um I had a a question about foreign language specifically um I know we have a teacher shortage I could say a whole lot about the problem we have with the per perception of the profession in our country and

167lack of respect and value and compensation for these individuals but I'll digress um I would love to know uh what we're doing as a district around hiring for foreign language because I do feel it's so important um to be aligned with our Compass as we set these kids out into the world wherever they may happen to go into service into trade into college um to have that Global mindset and having those skills to communicate and connect with people cross-culturally I think is so important but I also know it's a very hard position to to fill so can you can you give us a little bit of an update on that there hasn't we we've hired a a a teacher someone that also helps coordinate with our e students in programming recently and she is amazing

168um but I I haven't had an opportunity and I know Cara and I talk frequently about the increase um in student populations and how the need is changing I haven't personally had a lot of time to dive into that other than us hiring this fabulous new teacher but it is something that I understand greatly um I used to go to the U ofm job fair and I would see people that went and taught in Japan they can speak it fluently but they didn't have the certification so I would pluck them out of that to have a private meeting tell to get the certification so I understand the question but here I haven't had a lot of time to dive into it so I maybe this is a to be continued and Cara can probably speak

169to it greater than myself as well thank you just put in the plug in there I love it foreign language and support it's critical thank you willing there are no more questions from the board I thank you very much Carol what a great addition you've been to our staff and uh with objection I'd like to ask for a 10- minute recess for leg stretching and hydration and we'll keep it at that I hear no objection so see and I don't know what I can't see that far about 9055 thank you e e e we seem to have a quorum once again are we on thank you I want to thank everybody for your Indulgence at our our brief recess uh we have a several items a through G on the uh action items and we

170have some discussion items and we're going to start just Dive Right In um first of all we need to begin with uh we an action item there's a recommended motion to and I hope I got the language right to direct the Board of Education to conduct an independent thirdparty review of the athletic department do we have a mover so move Tim Austin followed by support J stean uh now we' like to engage in a discussion but since this is primary I I I'd like to offer two things I have a proposed uh a motion or proposed pathway forward but I'd like to invite Dr lch to respond which he was not able to do the first time can I just point of order with um point of order with the Clos session component what what

171is your question I thought trustee um treasur gerby was Oh I thought okay oh I see what you mean yeah there wasn't yeah we stopped working on that at some point thank you for reminding us of that so at this point we carved our agenda into stone and we're moving ahead thank you okay thanks um I I do want to uh point out a number of points in support of our athletic department uh and I do not feel at all that a third- party independent review is warranted we already have an 18-year uh retired well-respected former athletic director providing mentorship for the athletic department and is reporting back to me on a regular basis and giving me reports about process and procedures excuse me a second audience Steve audience I understand I understand that you're

172have passions about this but shouting out comments and making comments from the back is not helpful at all to this it's disruptive to the proceedings so we listen to you we'll listen to Steve we'll listen to everybody at the table thank you I'm not going to entertain that at this point from anyone at any rate I'm getting regular reports from a Mentor who the latest report was excellent processes and procedures within the athletic department many of which I would use if I wasn't retired further is offering areas of growth and providing those support areas for the athletic department now a third-party independent review does send a message that our athletic department has committed some gross misconduct which is not the case and I truly do not support it now I can also answer and Report

173out to the Board of Education with any in all questions regarding any of our athletic teams and then if needed or um desired we can report that out to the public in a way that is not violating verpa or anything in that regard and I am not stating that our athletic department cannot improve but I believe it was truste gerby who said that can also happen in the normal process of the cycle of improvement and professional development which is happening now again I fully support our athletic department they're doing a very good job and then the other element that I am concerned about people are talking about accountability my accountability another way to address that is is for my evaluation on November 18th I've already identified six areas which I will share with you that

174you could say well if you feel like I'm not doing the job effectively in relation to this particular issue you could state that you're holding me accountable in that regard so again I do not support in any capacity an independent review all right thank you go ahead I'll okay just a just a point just before we get started I know we are a little agitated at the beginning Tim and I you've you've we and i' had some conversations but I'm G to ask that I'm going to try to be as unbiased and neutral on all this as I possibly can as board president so going forward to this discussion so Tim you're up so this would be a holistic review of the entire athletic department not just one person not just one team um and

175I think it's great that uh We've hired a mentor uh that is completely in Steve's realm to do and that I think that's great that he did this that does not negate uh independent third party review though because in the in the end this isn't reviewing whoever this isn't reviewing the mentor or the person being mentored this is reviewing all processes and um this isn't abnormal you know in 2018 we had the Huckabee report that was an independent outside review of our entire district and the culture and all that um 2004 we had an independent thirdparty review of the athletic department that was a beakman report so these aren't something new and I don't think it's something that we need to look at as it's something Steve did wrong or something the athletic department did

176wrong because I propose that we do a um like a firm that would do this would be one independent and two um it would be it would not be a law firm I wouldn't want a law firm I mean if we were going to use a lawyer to do this it could be used for attorney client privilege I want something that is going to be uh foilable it's going to be um it's not going to be it's going to be transparent and um so using a firm that does that um then then it's for our community and I know there's conversation about the dollars and cents and it's important that we are um cognizant of the dollars being spent but the community supports the school and the school gets their funding from parents bringing their

177children to Seline so at some point when when all this is going on we have to be like okay we can spend some dollars to do this because I think it's ultimately important and if if we have the report done and they find everything out and they can give us uh suggestions uh you know what we can do better this is a learning curve this is this is this will make us better going forward this is not and and and I'm I'm I'm frustrated that that we want to drill this down to it's a we're we're after a single person because that's not what this is about just going down the line well we could just ask if there's anyone has anything more to add response either to Steve's comment or to the motion on

178the table or I could uh put forth a motion that I've been scribbling away at list of questions excellent okay so I don't know I don't know that the board uh will have answers for this but um I guess my first question I hear uh people in the audience part of me does not really understand why hiring an outside person who has expertise in the athletic department is not considered an independent review or third party review because it seems like to me I'm not I'm not a reviewer but I'm a fairly educated person a third party is someone outside the district which this person is who is an expert in the subject matter the only thing that you could argue wasn't uh the only thing that you could argue wasn't independent is that this person

179is reporting back to the superintendent and not to us directly so I guess that could be something that we could talk about um so that's one question I have I'm just going to put my questions out there and then if people have responses why this for our extra review dollars versus a myriad of other District issues I hear our football players are upset I know this was difficult I hear the there's concerns with lacrosse but I've also heard about swastikas and uh lgbtq kids getting bullied and there are so many issues that have like been I think quite actionable that we work through the process on and I'm just not I just do not entirely understand uh as whether or not this should be whether this Rises to the level of an independent review I'm

180not I I really have been like agonizing over this and hearing from various people for a while and so I'm not saying I am not willing to contemplate it but I'd like to hear other people's thoughts as to why because I have not in my time here as a parent or in the district before this year heard like repeated difficulties about that particular thing so that's that um I would like to know I only I'm sorry that I am not aware of these prior thirdparty reviews uh that trusty Austin mentioned but um I'm not and so I guess I'd like to know what came of them because if we had a 2018 review of District culture and we still have some of the things that I've seen in our culture was it useful was it

181a good was it a good does anyone have any evidence that it actually changed or helped anything and if not then why do we think doing it this this one would be better were those your questions I'm not I'm not aware of um that report which one Huckabee I mean I came in in 20 early 2019 I think I have a copy of the Huckabee report at home and I'm uh there's still a couple of paragraphs that in it that that stand out to me as unresolved issues but um it's been a long time I I will try to get you a copy of the hucke report if that's at all yeah I got it thank you Jen for stemman um so I I had a few things I wanted to say that I wrote

182down but I wanted to respond a little bit to Lauren first um and I think we can respond more as we kind of have the discussion because I don't have all the answers that that you're looking for um I I think the difference and to to Susan's point we came in at the same point so I don't have a copy of that report either I just knew existed um I think I think one of the differences to me is that it would be hate to use the word accountable tonight because it's it's it's been been used a few times but I think it's I think it's a good word to use that if we get a report and we have continuous Improvement items let's as a board take it on to like follow follow up

183and and and um make sure that we're doing the things that were suggested as areas for improvement and one of the things is on our agenda tonight that I think I kind of relate it a little bit um we take legal advice right and then it's up to us if we follow up on that and that's kind of the reason that the de is on the agenda tonight and so I think with a review it would be up to us to make sure that we continually follow up on it um with with uh regards to the mentorship I think mentorship is great I I I I love it I think it's yes and um I I don't see it as a replacement um I do see it as not completely independent considering um uh who

184it is who is a wonderful standup person I am I am absolutely sure and very um decorated from mhsaa I'm for it and you know it's not up to me because he's not my employee because I'm on the board of education so if Steve thinks that that is a good path I support Steve in that decision so I think it's I think it's yes and um I think your other question about why that this topic I think that's hard right I I think it hits I think many things rise to the level of us needing to be accountable and have action and I hear what you're saying um this particular team um is tied to some of those other events for me a little bit so um I mean I didn't see anywhere in that

185list of questions like whether or not there's an investigation of why one teammate would racially harass another teammate or like and without getting individ so I I kind of see it as part of and I don't want to tie it just to that team I think it's Athletics like when things occur like that is there an alignment between the processes within the district and within the athletic department because one of the things that we already have a motion for is the alignment between eligibility and enrollment we've already identified that that's something that the board would like looked at perhaps um anti-harassment and bullying is a component of this as well um so I just wanted to address your questions because you put it out there so that's kind of my response to you I didn't

186want to leave you hanging because sometimes we forget to answer questions from each other um I did want to uh say a few things that I wrote down so I wouldn't forget them um the first thing I wanted to say is sitting in the seat um means that we have to make really difficult decisions that are not always popular um and I take that on we are never going to have a decision that absolutely everybody agrees with not at this table or not in the public um and it's hard to do so I appreciate that we're at least having the conversation um for me a review is not about individuals it is about the whole it is about continuous Improvement to support staff and to support students and to discuss all sorts of things um

187we we talked about enrollment and eligibility alignment um spending five years on the finance team I'm interested in the cash flow I'm interested in all sorts of things I want to look at everything holistically we're coaching evaluations right now that's a component like I'm not pursing things out I think eligibility has been stood up so much as an example and clearly we don't want what happened repeated but I like the idea of like if we're going to do this let's do it right and let's look at everything because if we are number one in the state for athletics um then we need to operate like the number one school district uh for athletics and it's the right thing to do um and again I do appreciate the assistance from someone who is um has been

188really highly regarded by mhsaa so I I see it as a parallel path um a little bit so those were my thoughts do we have another comments before I uh so if we're the number one school in the state in athletics are you worried we're going to slip based on that because presumably that's because we're doing a pretty good job in the athletic dep no I I think for me it's just we're very visible having that type of ranking and and I'm proud of it I I think that I think our student athletes and our coaching staff and our athletic department work very hard but if we are that high I mean we should always be whether whether what division or what ranking we should always be operating um legally ethically doing everything the right

189way but I think when you are on the top uh you really really have to get it right um it's just incredibly important because usually those are larger programs and usually those are quite honestly a larger line item on our budget so that's so I I don't necessarily think it's it's tied to the a decrease in ranking I think it just it continually comes up um we are this is one of the things that we're known for and we need we need to get it right so I I will state again so first of all I I did a little research into the beakman report and um the headline of the article from 2004 is beakman report critical of Seline athletic director and I don't want to get more into into that but like I

190have some reservation like this is core to me like I just have to say that like like this is core to who I am as a teacher as an educator and I believe that we've we're hiring Mr Welton to to be a mentor I think Teresa stagger is her primary administrator I think Teresa stagger should have the ability to go through an improvement process with her I think she should have the ability to put her on a IDP and she's not your primary okay so Oh I thought that was the business so so then Steve is her primary evaluer I think we should have the ability to go through the process that is in place that Educators go through this is just this is something I do you know if if we had a chemistry

191teacher I I think of it like this if I was a I am a chemistry teacher and I gave a test and all my students just did a awful right I mean just terribly awful horrible right and now all their grades are like viciously impacted and now they're all worried about are they going to get into XYZ school like would we want to then have an independent review of like my chemistry program and like what I'm doing as a teacher like my point is like and I'm I'm just using myself as an example but my point is like I like I just need people to know I believe in the processes that are in place for educators to get better at what we do and so for me this runs contrary to that right this

192runs where we're not allowing Teresa and we or I mean Steve and we're not allowing Wayne Welton and we're not allowing them to go through these valid conversations for improvement because if we go through an improvement process right I'm I'm I'm concerned about like the the message this does send to our athletic department and I am worried that it would send a message to our other Educators in our district who say well wait a minute like if things happened to to them then why couldn't that happen to me and for me like that gives me drastic pause as a person who works in a school building I and that's all I have to say about that it really really gives me a lot of pause Jenny Miller um so just just thinking about um just

193the time that I have served on the board here these last four years I have history in the district obviously before that but thinking about the processes that are in place um we do have processes in place those processes were not in place when the beakman report happened um the new evaluation system started in 2011 and so that's when those processes um began not that there wasn't evaluation before but the evaluation process now is um more on uh The Continuous Improvement and development of staff and so um thinking about the um IDP or continuous Improvement plan or areas for growth first of all in education as Educators we believe that um there's always room for growth and Improvement and that's why we have the systems that we have and so when I'm thinking about the

194processes that we have in place and in the conversations that I've had with Steve regarding these issues he has met with the parties involved he has met with Carol diglio in um HR and he has developed a plan for improvement and what I believe is that I have asked him please if he could um share in a way that doesn't uh violate furpa for students or for our employees um to to kind of outline the areas of growth and areas for improvement and in this process what happens is that if if the plan is presented to the employee and the employee decides to work that plan that person is Then followed up on more frequently than just a regular annual evaluation they're assigned a mentor they have regular meetings with their evaluator to measure their

195growth against the plan so there's two things that can happen the employee can say I'm not interested in this plan and then the the relationship is is severed or the employee can say you know I agree with the plan or I believe in the plan and we're going to work the plan and move forward and I I personally believe that this is the process that's in place this is the process that is in contracts this is the process that is mandated by the state legally if the plan do does not satisfy us then I think we move to a review but with this plan in place and with areas for growth and Improvement I think we have to give the district a chance the employees a chance to work the plan um I also uh

196just wanted to point out that we are known for athletics we're known for a lot of other things also and when you're saying that by having a third party review that would make us number one in athletics or that would embolden well that would embolden our that would that would well you indicated that by doing the right absolutely not what I said by doing you she's saying our district has standards that that's correct we are currently R number one and we are and we are following the measures in place to improve upon and around those standards by inviting a third party um at this point we are not giving the processes um opport opportunity and I to be quite honest with you I I cannot believe that a union representative has not become involved in

197this I think that this is grievable I also believe that by moving forward um not only is this a vote of no confidence to the athletic department and the athletic director but it is to our our superintendent and I think that that is opening us up to a lot of um a lot of negativity moving forward in terms of who might want to associate with and then lastly what I'll say is that I want to use two examples for how this process works and I I think that these are public so I can say I can I can say this but we had a lot of parents um coming to us and complaining about a situation in volleyball and the plan was put in place the plan was put in action and the people who

198were involved were able to make decisions and changes occur heard the same thing recently happened with lacrosse in fact just this week if anybody has followed up and gotten updates the the process works the process is there for a reason and I think until we see that the process is not moving forward or has failed I I think that we are we are jumping we are jumping too um we're jumping too far ahead I'm not saying that in the future if if things if things um disintegrate or if things do not show an act of improvement that we couldn't re return to this but I think that by not giving an opportunity for these plans to show growth and show areas of improvement we're doing a disservice to our evaluation system and as Brad said

199as somebody who works in public education and is um and is evaluated on the same evaluation as every other educator in the state um this is this is this is going to create um and it already has I've gotten several phone calls it's creating concern with our staff so I'm I'm hearing a lot about how this is affecting like continuous Improvement plans and all that but this isn't this isn't directed towards one person and so yes I think like I said I think the mentor is a great idea and I'm not saying you get rid of the mentor I think you can keep the mentor you can continue to do whatever Steve feels fit to do with his staff that's fine this is completely independent of it and and it's it and it's looking at

200all aspects of it not looking at just a staff member that's not what this is about and it doesn't have to be about that if we want if if if we have people that want to make that the charge and that's what we're doing well you're making that the charge that's not what this uh eval or this uh review is actually supposed to do so that and um now I lost my train of thought but but that you know that I I I keep hearing that it keeps going back to that and and that's not what this is all about so I think we're kind of losing it our uh Focus here I think also if you were to the number of complaints the number of issues you hear of any Department it could be

201a different department but in in in in the buiness business life you you don't just disregard it you you do something about it and you you would maybe have you would have a review with with a with a they're they're they're hired a mentor but this again this is working with one person I want a review of the whole department with all of the sports teams as well down to everything so it's much bigger than that did you want to reply to I just I'm not I'm what I want to say first of all is that um I understand that that that a review would be of the entire athletic department as Brad read from the beakman report and as I read from the beakman report today it did Center largely around um the athletic

202director and what I want to say is that in that case and also in this case both athletic directors acted with integrity and whether people want to believe that or not they did they found out something and they reported it in a way that allowed for um for transparency and allowed for fairness across the state and I wasn't around for the 2004 report so I don't know what was going on entirely with the district what I do know is what is going on with the district today well what I would chime in and say since I started sorry may please because I started this may I please sure and Susan and I I respect to Kum and if you don't well I didn't know if you were cutting off Susan or who Susan's hand was

203up your next Brad yes thank you um okay so I've been on for six years and I did a quick Google search because I all these Sports things were coming up and I think um trusty Miller touched on them there's been issues with volleyball 2022 um baseball 2023 uh fied hockey I believe was 2022 as well um um and so this is well and obviously the lacrosse football um I'm sure there's more in there since 2022 um and so I think you know um the way Wayne Welton I believe the name is um was brought in I believe in reaction to um f like that there was um cause for an independent review and then that's when the superintendent um brought him in to identify and support areas that can be improved um I think

204that's totally separate from an independent um review um and you know I think if we're going to be transparent accountable we should be comfortable letting this happen I'm not uncomfortable I just think there is process I'm just no I'm I'm not I'm saying in I'm talking okay so just I just want to say for the record I am not going to succumb to a mob mentality you can yell at me you can say what you want you can post on social media I am going to act with integrity and I'm going to serve in a way that is dictated by law for the Board of Education and if we continue to get yelled at I'm going to ask for a recess because the decorum that is happening in this room is unfair I was talking

205about the superintend I'm not talking about you okay so um I do believe there is a because of um what we're witnessing um there is totally a conflict of interest for the superintendent to be involved in this um and so I I I know Lauren brought up the idea of ad hoc and I thought that was because I know there was a whole other thing that Lego was supposed to investigate and sounds like maybe we're getting an update that involv D specifics of the academic department and um processes dealing with a specific huh said acad athletic yes I'm thinking ad yeah yeah um so so yeah um you know we haven't talked to Legal about uh that component um it sounded like it was more um working with the superintendent and the board president so

206I want to make sure that we are when we say third party um we are doing that um and they take the Reigns and do it Brad so I want to say I guess I have a couple of thoughts now um number one I'm not opposed to having us do an independent review of the athletic department I'm not opposed to having us do any type of independent review if the processes that we have in place give us substandard answers but we haven't even given ourselves a chance to get them or to go through the entirety of the improvement process and so for me this is just simply too soon for that so that's that's where I just kind of lie and you know and coming from a a guy who who loves Athletics like you

207know I I I I've said my piece okay hearing no more um depending on how this vote goes I have a supplemental thing to add to this uh I think we're ready to put it to a vote so make sure I got this right so all in favor please say I I I got Tim Susan three4 all right opposed okay we got three so here's my supplemental um if you don't mind Tim uh I heard I heard what you said I heard everything I also heard a lot about steps and processes so um I think there's a I think there are so many moving Parts if we're going to go down this road there are so many moving Parts if we're going to do it right I'm going to recommend this uh here's my motion

208to direct the board president to create an ad hoc committee to research and I may have the language wrong the parameters for engaging an independent third party to conduct a transparent review of the athletic department and present their findings by the next meeting of the board or as early in January as possible and what I mean is the parameters just like say because you don't go you don't go looking up uh athletic department reviews are us you you we need to talk about the parameters legal furpa cost who's going to do it how is it going to be done so it's not disruptive and then figure out who's the right person to do it I I think legal sorry and involve legal of course well legal I mean I think we can contact them and

209ask for referrals because they work specifically with K through 12 I mean this is not unusual for these type of reviews to to happen so I think they would be able to give us resources the of who's going to contact that that's what I'm saying we need some the ad hoc piece I think yeah that's what I'm saying thank you Susan thank you you're jumping ahead a little bit anxious to do the work probably but you're right one has to contact the legal and figure out that stuff and um I do I have someone who can second what I just recommended no I would like for you to read it again because I believe wait hang on one second I'm not done talking all right I do not think that this should rest in the

210hands of one person that's what we did two weeks ago and I totally believe that we we are seven we are a team of seven and we should be making decisions at the board table an open meeting about this and having conversations about what to do with regards to cost with regards to the who um I also am not a reviewer I don't know where to start and I would love all of us to work together um so I would not support the language as written the purpose and maybe you can help me with the language is to figure out where the Ed es of this problem are and what we what information we need to put in everybody's hands in order to make a decision about which uh outfit to to engage do you

211understand what I'm saying yeah I I think we can it once we start to research and find the facility and I think masb will probably be able to help on this too because I'm sure they've been asked this as well but once we um find the candidates then we can ask them what the parameters are versus US setting the parameters and that's when we have a discussion at the table either I don't know maybe December's too fast but or in January to talk about what those parameters are so this is why I mentioned the word parameter obviously we're going to have a discussion Jennifer about the details and make our decision is to say well is cost really an issue yes no and and let's move forward with that I'm going to read the motion

212again and if there is a second that's great if not it dies to direct IR the board president to create an ad hoc committee uh that'll be three people to research the parameters for engaging an independent third party to conduct a transparent review of the athletic department and present their findings by the next meeting of the board or as early in January as possible I don't see I don't see why there's I mean I think that's fine we we can't deliberate on email so we just need somebody to like a few people to need narrow down a few options and come back and present them to the board that's all I thought if I can add an example a few years back when we hired a superintendent here his name the the successful candidate was

213Steve lotch we had an ad hoc Committee of Jennifer myself and Dennis Valente trusty to just to talk about who should we engage as a search firm and then take that to the next steps we brought it to the board for a quick discussion they decided okay we're going with mli as opposed to masb fine that and that's what I'm hoping we can do with this I would second that thank you okay before we vote on that we're having the discussion now I like that it has timeline in it we are in a position right now where I understand there's there's hurt and there's passion for this topic in the community so I want to be cognizant of that I want to be cognizant of the fact that I believe at least two of us

214are not at the December meeting um I want to be cognizant of the fact that we have two new trustees coming on in January so there uh and you know they will be obviously one person one vote full trustees with having no prior experience as a board as a board trustee and there is a learning curve and you know we need to support them especially through that first year as our board operating procedures say so I just want to better understand what this looks like operationally because we're at almost the end of the year we have people rolling off we have people rolling on we have two people that cannot physically be here in December how what does that look like I guess is my question like the easy answer is that when we tried

215to get ourselves together for a review of Steve's sorry Dr L's evaluation there was like a day that we could all get together so that's why I would like very much only it was my understanding that only six of us are available that day not even all of us so there is not a day for us to get together before December 31st there you go so the point was operationally Jennifer uh an ad hoc committee would get us moving faster and set the guidelines that we need to bring to the table uh so that we're not just sort of throwing treating it casually if you want to do it let's do it seriously and do it professionally figure out what the parameters are bring it to the table make a decision have a couple of

216names in front of us and then move on it I don't um you will be able to watch the video I assume the live stream but we canot I don't think this is going to happen in December quite honestly and I I get your point about doing this I actually my original draft had this at the second meeting in January make sure that that we present our things in the we can't to your point about new members we can't just wait for everyone to catch up I'm I have great faith in the two folks Jason tus and and Darcy Berwick are going to be right up to speed really quickly plus we're having an excellent onboarding in the next week all right so we're doing oh I just wanted to be clear I was not

217saying that Jason nor Darcy would have a problem I would say we need to support them especially through their first year as our board operating procedures say and coming into this situation is challenging for the seven of us I I just want to be cognizant of the learning curve that we all know is a part of being a trust we know there'll be on the learning curve uh but just to be blunt I don't think that's a reason to not do this so I'm not saying that to do it well I'm not really sure what you said then um Susan and Jenny yeah um so uh I'm thinking real quick but I forgot what I was say gonna say you like Jenny to go first while you gather your thoughts so yes go ahead Jen

218I was just going to say that um I fully understand as I've had to miss meetings in the past too but as long as we have a quorum I think that we cannot hold up board business um and so that I think we need to move forward in December and if if trustees can't be here then we need to the five who can be here need to U move things forward if the ad hoc committee has something by then sure um I just wanted to point out that um special meetings can be called um I know by president or or by any two board members so if two of the ad hoc we get a quorum that kind of thing to make a decision we can do that prior to December uh well not prior

219to De you know I'm just just to move that along and just the last month and a half we've called three special meetings so yeah we'll aware that one okay are we ready to put this to a vote then uh all in favor have a second I do it's Lauren one more time of course to direct motion is to direct the board president to create create with all due haste an ad hoc committee to research the parameters for engaging an independent third party to conduct a transparent review of the athletic department and present their findings as soon as possible I don't know by the next board by the next meeting of the board or as early in January as possible that is the moment just a point of clarification that you would be assigning an

220ad hoc committee by January what's the timeline that I'm surprised okay I will be creating an ad hoc committee as soon as conceivably possible I will put out the re the ask to the board members tomorrow to see who's interested and create the committee as soon as possible probably by Friday okay but I'm not going to write all that in I mean we'll just I'm not dragging my feed I'm trying to get this done as soon as possible professionally and properly all in favor I opposed I wish I could thank you very much six 6770 I'm going to move on as quickly as so we're going to aim for alacrity here uh I'd like to entertain them oh so entertain a motion to approve the appointment of lesle hundy I got to get my glasses

221on say it again hund that's what I said hundle to the Seline District Library board for a two-year term beginning December 1st 2024 is submitted by superintendent lch and recommended by car Carrie wara labrary director Leslie Hunley currently serves on the Seline District Library board and her term expires at the end of this month all in favor I'm sorry do we have a motion you do JS oh second me Lauren gold do you know this person all in favor please say I hi hi opposed welcome to the library board welcome back to the library board lesie uh did she was she here oh um second I'd like to entertain a motion to accept the audit report is submitted by assistant superintendent Miranda owley make it Brad gerby second T Austin all in favor please say

222I I opposed I didn't say I sorry I wasn't fast enough I say I thank you I can hear you we don't need the mic for that uh to NE next recommend a motion to adopt the annual summer tax resolution as submitted by assistant superintendent Miranda Oley this is your chance Jennifer so move Tim support Jennifer stean all in uh all in favor please say I I oppose hearing none thank you recommend a motion to approve the blue this oh Cole he's Cody's gone to approve the blue Energy Group in the amount of 73,000 and2 for tax Consulting Services related to the IRS investment tax credits ITC as part of the inflation reduction act Ira as submitted by assistant superintendent Oley I'll make the motion thank you Brad second thank you Lauren I don't know

223if we need much discussion on this I do have a question on that um is that 73,000 is that can we use bond funds to pay that bill or is that general fund dollars yes it will be Bond dollars for that service and then in general when we get if we get a tax rebate then that will also go back to the bond funds to be to be kind of refunding and extend our use okay Miranda this is an awful a lot of money but they pay back or pay off or be exceptional we are using this this service and we we're hoping to get tax credits in the millions of dollars so in general it does seem like a it's a service it's not in our realm of um General operations the IRS you

224know we do payroll taxes and that's the only thing the district does these are relatively new and I've been tracking this project as we've gone along and keeping it in mind and also had lots of meetings with a lot of different people to see what it would cost to have someone consult on this work for us because in general it's a lot of money to put on the line and it isn't something that's been around for schools before and so it is very new and the first one just came out and there's also a lot of different levels of requirements and so and putting out the RFP and realizing um some people said percentage wise of the rebate and that wasn't something I was interested for the district but at this point that I feel

225like is a very good investment in the district to maximize our rebates in in this category excellent all in favor pleas say I closed I think we're all in favor money um recommend a motion to approve the closed session minutes from the October 21st board meeting under Section 81b and both close sessions at the October 22nd board meeting under Section 881a and 81h now you're going to have a tricky situation because you weren't at one and not at the other correct so it would need to be broken into two um because I have to both or abstain I have to abstain from the meeting I wasn't at yeah the motion has to be split I don't think I I should I don't think I should vote on a I'm going to do two motions then

226to approve the Clos session minutes from the October 21st board meeting and the second motion oh yeah let's hear that Brad gby BG support s e okay and and uh without any discussion the uh motion to uh to approve the Clos session minutes from the October 22nd board meeting should we just do them in order can we just just whatever all right we'll do them in order well could I have a motion for that one then we'll there's no discussion I'm sure hey Brad would you like to so moved Tim thank you anyone want to support Tim put put me in is that yeah okay great so now we have the Motions out there those of you who are new to this procedure we read the Clos session minutes quietly because it's an no to

227the public and then we uh get back to our secretary for if you've had a chance to read all in favor of the October 21st minutes please say I I I I'm G to read six and one abstention uh abstain I'm still yeah I don't think sorry I Haven by thank you all in favor of the October 22nd minutes please say I I I pardon yeah good great thank you very much thank you very much secretary Miller you've done a once again phenomenal job of keeping track of these minutes I'd like to entertain you're on I know before before 10:00 come on uh I'd like to entertain a motion to adopt the sex ed curriculum grades 4th through 8th as a proposed by the seab in compliance with Michigan law do we have a motion

228now this is now I understand because I missed some of this there's option A and there is option b we're talking about option A at this point the curriculum without any changes correct yeah as is recomend as is all right do we do we have a motion to approve I uh support sorry motion to support motion to you move you've moved I am moving do we have a support support Miller thank you very much um I believe now it is time for a discussion as to if you and I if you think we're ready to uh move forward with this uh anyone want to start and I would like to thank Kristen Hoffman peer and assistant principal Cam Cameron who are make doctor cam Cochran what did I call you again Cam Cameron that's close

229enough cam Cochran I'm sorry my apolog my apologies if you could just sort of St be on standby to answer any questions uh I know you're going to be getting a few so okay I'm not hearing any questions oh I hear one question one hand I just um so one of the things that I've been thinking about um over the months and months that we've been discussing this is that um the state has outlined a process um for how um for how this particular uh piece of curriculum is um decided upon and it's I think to my knowledge it's the only um curriculum that has legal mandates around how it is um reviewed and how it is uh how it is evaluated and then put forth for a recommendation and one of the things that

230I heard repeatedly around this particular selection and the the group in particular that was um tasked with making this decision and in other the otherwise called the seab or cab um they um they what I heard repeatedly from our um District leadership is that this was a diverse group that had a wide um wide diversity in their backgrounds and in their beliefs and in their um just general um experiences and so the thing that I keep coming back to is that the process was followed the process was followed with a variety of people who represent a wide variety of people from our community and the outcome was that correct me if I'm wrong but that it was all it was everyone voted to bring It Forward for a recommendation except one person abstained they didn't

231vote against and so when I think about the process and I think about the legal legality around how um sexed or reproductive Health curriculum is um is selected I keep coming back to that process and if if there are um people who feel strongly around how the process should be changed um recently we saw some other um education um policies and uh legislation change around um reading and and I know that because that's my area of expertise and so I know that our officials our legislators are listening to their constituents but for now with the parameters that we have been been given and the legislation that we have been given and the recommendation from our cab and um experts in the field of Child Development and Medicine um I feel strongly that that this is

232the appropriate action to take thank you if there are no other I'm also in agreement um and one thing I want to clarify because I've been seeking input um uh is that decisions on how the classes will be set up whether it will be is going to be left to the administration it's the CB has a recommendation but that has not yet been decided so just for clarity because I got that question more than any other um I I have an opinion on it but I'm not going to be teaching it nor am I administrator so um I just uh that is a question I heard a lot and feedback I heard a lot and so I just wanted to clarify that I um you know fifth graders learn about really hard things like enslaved

233people and uh and my kids heard about an Frank before I was ready for them too and really hard tough things and so I understand that people have concerns about age appropriateness but boy there's a lot of stuff that I think fifth graders learn and developmentally they really are at eight or nine you can start thinking about more complex topics and so I feel comfortable with the curriculum as is and I support it Susan oh oh sorry um so um I guess I'm gonna try to be um quick to a couple of the points I believe there was a [Music] question something brought up earlier um that I think was answered at the last meeting that once this is passed this is the curriculum that will go into the school so it's not you could

234take out and add and all of that I believe that was clarified last time um by the co chairs and um looked into by admin and everything um as far as yes there's a recommendation with that curriculum as far as um it being inclusive um with gender and currently with our transgender and non-binary students policy um that would be consistent with how it should be going right now um I know we go back to the Weber Bloss uh I'm saying that totally wrong that um if we go back to that and the stance that we took taking into consideration the transgender non-binary students policy it is only appropriate that we have mixed gender um classes um with sex ed and I I propose that that move quickly so okay can I go okay so um

235couple things one is um to No Surprise I'm not for this curriculum I think that U the age appropriateness is uh is is not there for me I also think that you back on 522 I emailed trying to not have the first public hearing on um June 10th I thought that was too early the week after school was out and um so many people weren't even looking at it or weren't even involved in it and so now we are in a situation where we have staff members that are concerned about it and they want to know what the process looks like going forward and if we look at our um our policy we there cannot be any change to it per policy once it's approved any changes have to come back to us so I

236think it's important that we all know what what we vote on now is what we have and they they can't just free will will he change anything so um Michael called point of privilege and apologies since I just had to do that as well okay um I can jump jump in for him any other can I say I just wanted there was one thing that I forgot to mention before um one of the things that I think is is quite brilliant um on the um part of the um of the legislature which also uh gave me um more um confidence in moving this forward is that for a variety of reasons and we heard from someone tonight who had maybe a very different reason for needing to opt her their child out of um out

237of participating in uh reproductive Health last year um but one of the things is that it does give this particular piece of legislation does give um Power and choice to parents to opt out of it in its entirety or to opt out of um uh parts and pieces or sections of the curriculum and so with that um with that I feel that or I guess I believe that um that is allowing for all of our students to be seen and heard and acknowledged for who they are it's also a measure of safety for all of our children and um it allows for the ability for parents to tailor the program to the needs of their students um whatever the reason might be oh Jennifer I had Jenny go you were gone um she she had

238her hand up first um so I I wrote down some comments because again I didn't want to miss anything because like like some of the other topics that we've had tonight this is incredibly important as well first of all Cameron I wanted to thank you very much for allowing me the time to come to your office and review the binders and the videos and um you taking time to answer some of my questions I think it's incredibly important I think for me it was a a good process what I do is I I see see things then I hear then I listen to everybody and then I go back and I turn the pages and that's just how I I learn and um and for myself and it really helped during the life skills curriculum

239um when I did that and I I thought that that turned out how how it should turn out for those those students so thank you very much for taking that time um in flipping through the binder uh both binders uh in the videos I think that the curriculum is solid I think there are a lot of good lessons I think we absolutely desperately need a new sex head curriculum I was pretty pretty thrilled to see some modernization in many many areas um and it in Incorporated things like consent and bullying and boundaries and things like that um social media which is a huge thing I wish we would double down and even add more videos and content around that um however um the cons to this for me are um I believe that now two

240of you sit on the sexed advisory board so you probably have a little bit more uh understanding than the rest of us but from what I understand I'm the only trustee that looked at the binders in the video in Cameron's office that could have changed in the last week um I think that uh to Timmer Susan's point and I'm apologize because I don't remember which one of you made this um that there can be no jo uh changes to content after a vote um it can be operationally um run by the um the principal Steve everyone teaching and learning but the content itself an opt out solution is is available as Jenny said but the content can't be changed so for example if there's there's something that is in Lesson Four and and um the

241teaching staff determines we're going to do everything so the board passes all of Lesson Four and then the staff decides we're going to do all of Lesson Four except for page three they can't do that because that's that's against the policy of the board um so I think we need to allow them time um to discuss that um you know there had been a a conversation Point around uh we should pass this and then it gets operationalized I think it's the exact opposite process we need to better understand how this is operationalized and then we pass it so then we have a Content consistency in decision from the board table so then the teachers who have already been Consulting in that and workshopping that um know exactly what we're voting on and they as the

242subject matter experts have been able to endorse and um co-create in that process um a lot of times in business we say we must go slow to go fast and that you have to get it right and go slow in the beginning and then it goes smooth sailing in business and I I think that that's um a really good um analogy here um I have really appreciated hearing from the Heritage teachers I would love to hear from the Middle School I I I haven't heard from any Middle School teachers in this so I would love to know what they think [Music] um okay right I'm sorry hearing from them as far as emails and and at the board table I feel like the Heritage team has been very present at the um at the board

243meetings um so I would just love to know um if if they feel um similarly or different ways and by um giving them more time I think that is a good idea because then they can Workshop that I also did ask if we had time if this was voted on to operationalize the Spy spring um and I was told no so that tells me that we have more time to give them I want to go back to what I said in the very beginning to make sure that people heard me correctly I think this is a solid curriculum I think that is has a lot of great lessons I think we desperately need this I think we are so close but for me the subject matter Experts of our teaching staff with regards to this

244content come number one and then understanding how we operationalize this so we can have an absolutely clean vote per policy is how I see things happening so I don't want that to be misconstrued that I don't think it's a good curriculum I just process-wise I don't think that we're there yet to avoid tabling this I would like to put it to a vote at this time all right thanks Brad um let me just look at my notes here okay uh we have a move by Eep seconded by uh oh Jenny Miller all in favor please say I I I I opposed I I all right thank you so that's five five2 thank you very much uh first of all to the seab co-chairs thank you for your service um I don't know if you're coming

245back again for another two years of this grueling uh Adventure uh Kristen but um I I hope that the curriculum gets updated more frequently may I just have a point of clarification what one did you pass a or b okay option A Asis okay I didn't hear that as is I would also like to say that uh last week uh I on Friday attended a group and Lancing governmental relations they are making massive Chang changes to the seab regulations haven't been updated since 2003 I think it was or 2005 everything from removing clergy from the team to talking about sex trafficking etc etc they are we are actually uh we're doing I think very well uh we'll be well in line with this so uh if it gets pastoring lame duck uh we look for

246changes to the seab uh line up very soon and oh sorry just real quick um that might be something like your feedback um Jennifer um looking into that right um as a legal component um like you're were talking about process and stuff so I just wanted to mention that if if it's in the legislation like might be something you want to peek at or contact your legislators so before we go on I just want to ask a quick question Mr Murray doing okay all right thank you I appreciate your patience sir I I I wrestled with the idea of moving into Clos session a bit early but uh I think we can rock it through some of these next steps thank you uh discussion items board finance committee meeting update Brad gerby I I can

247definitely rock it um we heard about the audit process earlier and the and the good position that we are in we're we're grateful and thankful for that um so that was there was there were two items on our agenda because there are two things the finance department kind of um obsesses about student count and Foundation allowance and so the other item that was on our um agenda was u a definitive lockdown of what our um headcount is and so our headcount is as follow we had budgeted for a loss of 110 students for the year and after you do a lot of work with regards to head count and then FTE and all of that we are now saying that we will have a loss of 75 students and so that is a differential in

248our favor of thir of what I would say is positively of 35 students so if you take that roughly times 9600 you could do the math that that's a a good position for us to be in so uh yeah so that's that and like I said we talked about the audit and the finance department or a finance team I want to thank everybody who's on the finance team because we will be in recess until the 2025 year and I'm thankful to the board I'm thankful to the team I'm thankful to everybody who uh has entrusted the the treasury to to our stad and like I said Miranda Oley makes this look really good Brad I just want to say thank you uh when we uh three or four of us talked about creating a Treasurer

249position we were we were unique I know you discussed it and dence Valente and I all discussed it and uh you have uh fleshed out that role quite substantially and I greatly appreciate your work and your efforts moving on to the board policy committee speaking of people are doing exceptional work um we have two up for discussion and I have a few questions about each of them so it's all yours Jennifer Miller okay um sorry I sorry I just need to get to the memo on the title line um so basically um sorry I don't have the memo up in front of me let me get to that piece or if you want to pull it up um the um basically what we are looking at is that um as we know Title Nine is

250um is a uh is something that we often have to refer to and it is something that um we when we do have an issue around Title Nine we seek the advice of um legal and and when we have sought advice from legal it has Ben TR um that is the the um legal team uh that we um look to for that for helping us to navigate some of the intricacies and details around Title 9 um and so when considering a policy for our district um regarding um title N9 policies and procedures um we have to consider um which policy we might put in our catalog and so when we met with the um when we met with the uh policy committee we had some input from um Carol diglio who is our Title Nine

251coordinator and she has been working very diligently with our team of Administrators and um getting them um updated in their training around Title 9 and the platform that they're using for training is um trun um trun offers that and it's in alignment with the policies and it is updated whenever the law is updated additionally um now um we've been in discussion around we have administrative guidelines and policy on our page we're looking towards moving to having forms on that page as well and trun has forms ready um and should we decide to include forms on that platform uh we would have those forms ready immediately to be added that would be consistent with the training that our district receives the legal advice that we receive from trun and the policy that would be in our

252um policy uh book of policies so uh when we were discussing this as a committee we felt that adopting the policy that was written by trun would be the most effective um policy for our um our book of policies so we are asking the policy committee is asking for you to consider um adopting and adding this policy to our platform and just so you know we have adopted other policies that are not Neola policies in the past and they can be added to our platform even though it is a Neola platform which what do you mean by that like another like we have have written our own policies or if trun has policies that we've used before we can add those it doesn't have to be policy haven't not the thr specifically right right right

253exactly but we can okay is what yeah so it's there's no conflict I guess is what I was saying that it would be it could be added yes it's common practice that can be added um and we can do the forms as well um any any forms right besides new yeah okay are you do you want to run the do you want to call for discussion oh no I mean we call for disc do you want to call on people I guess is what I was asking do you want to run the discussion thank you facility yes fac Susan and then I have a question to ask uh you okay um I know in the past um actually I believe it was the ad hoc committee um of me and Michael maybe um we had

254brought we had looked at a couple of different um Services uh as far as like policy services and thrun was one of those um and at that point in time we had said and Miller and Johnson I think we looked at as well at that point in time we had decided um that we weren't going to change with Neola um and so it sounds like we've added Neola um or sorry uh thrun yes TR thr whatever um that we added it sounds like uh superintendent went ahead and did the handbooks with uh thrun um and so I know that th thrun is a um oh is a law firm that um provides the trainings um and I think that's great um I don't think niola is you know one who does that right and I

255think with title9 there's very specific language that needs to be used um I guess in every District um and so I hope that that would be consistent across all districts um who knows title 9's probably going to change January 1 um so um so I I guess I'm questioning um well do we have the Neola to so we draft as well yeah so we did consider the Neola policy in policy in the policy committee and I'll tell you a couple of reasons why we decided not to go forward with it and not to to bring that to the board for um our recommendation isn't that an Omission uh well we were asked to consider both and make a recommendation to the board and we made a recommendation to uh bring trun forward okay can you

256send that uh that that one to us later I think the Neola one yeah do you know um yes I'll look into that um but the reason why we decided not to continue to look at the Neola policy is because of a couple of things but the biggest being that our Neola rep uh left Neola in August and a new rep has not been assigned to us and they have not been very responsive to us and so when we were considering something as um as intricate and as important as Title 9 and and how frequently things might change and need adapted we felt that having someone who was uh more responsive um was to our benefit and to add another important part um every well often when we have a title 9 issue we involving

257TR we have we have a lot of legal issues that we have to discuss so it it doesn't really make sense in this case to have a policy written by Neola that may not align with trun um for this particular policy it's we're not saying we're adopting you know all all the other trun policies but for this one where there where we do have a number of issues that develop every year with this that's also why we need uh this stre policy just lastly the other thing that I'll say is that the the policy committee has given updates around policy um at least twice a year from niola they come in like a batch email and we consider those policies and consider which ones to move forward we don't always move all of them forward

258for a full board discussion so um I didn't see that this would be um any different but I am happy to find the niola policy and send that to you um we we really didn't in looking at the merits of the two they're very similar however we felt that the support and the updates and the training and the forms all being in alignment um was important I do have a question um one of the TR this is for Jenny uh and the policy committee one of the trune pages listed the actual names of some of the the people we obviously are taking those names off it's titles only correct yeah that's uh and we did talk with Betty about that so in our version of this policy it will have titles however correct me if

259I'm wrong I know Betty's gone um but I think the um and maybe Carol you would know but I think on the website you would be listed as the title n coordinator so people would know how to get in contact with you so it's not needing to be changed in the policy should the Personnel change but on the website it is to be updated is that correct she she's nodding okay so so so previously it was changed because the superintendent um is supposed to update us annually I believe that's on the current policy I don't know that we've consistently had annual updates on those changes um so are you saying that you're going to take off this um 22 64b designation of coordinators who is Carol digley and Lindsay Gunther and then there's also the

260Civil Rights and all of that that's getting yeah so I I I'm not because Betty's not here to speak to this but um in our discussion to be um in alignment with our previous decisions and with our previous um uh I guess decisions at the board table we had decided to not name them in the policy but to name them on the website so that is correct I I am unclear sorry as to why um it wasn't changed in the draft that was sent to you but that is a change that would be made so that could be made before our second discussion in December I'll ask Betty if she could do that is there a motion to approve at this point this no um our our practice is to have two oh this is

261our first discussions this is our well we talked to Carol previously about it yeah if you want to come up we talked to Carol previously about it but then the policy committee went back and made the recommendation to move forward with this collection of policies from chair one of the greatest benefits of of um working with trun in this particular case is that all of the administrators had to go through another three-hour training they were one of the few um and in a very fast manner were able to do a shortened video that we would put on our Vector uh Solutions where we do all of our training our bloodborne path they were able to put together a very quick training so our entire staff got trained the thing that's really nice about the package

262is that title is extremely tedious the second that there is um a grievance or complaint then there are several steps and it is so tedious that trun has set it up that those letters are set up concisely and in order and they allow for us to move quickly through the process instead of fumbling through and trying to figure out the process the it it it is a Time timely process and it is a package that allows us to we're able to do it and then we're also able to consult if it isn't if it's something out of the ordinary it's just a great um partnership in that respects because there are so many layers to this the website what we would do is take our grievance process and make that um very transparent on our

263website along with Lindsay and I as as the coordinators and then make sure the Complaint Form is also on the website and it's all aligned with the policy it's just it's very userfriendly is the best way of putting it in a cumbersome process that's really important to get it right right out of the gates I guess my my thank you so much I think my concern is that it's right off the bat like coming from a legal um component uh versus like a policy standpoint so I don't know if that automatically I guess in a defensive way like defending um right um I don't know at what point like you could you pull them in right it's not like consistently through that process I'm just concerned that you know it's um that the process maybe

264invol eving legal early on may not be um good going through that if that I I don't know if that makes sense no I I he what you're saying I I guess what I was thinking and and Carol I'd like to hear your thoughts on this because what I was thinking when we were having these discussions was that um it wasn't necessarily Consulting legal as a defense but as a way of making sure that we were following the law the way that it is written and because there are frequent updates and and cases around this um that set precedence we would have the most upto-date information that's that's how I understood it but if you could explain how you've used legal in the past in a way that doesn't divulge any confidence I mean there's

265lot of policy that is threaded with legal aspects That's Not Unusual at all it's also not unusual for you to use a company like Neola and then pull in other pieces that this is is really about a clean process and a process that um is very well outlined for us to to move right into um it's it's tedious um I I mean I I just sat through a second three-hour training um just last week because I don't feel like you can hear it enough oh yeah I gave College many many college students uh tit on N trainings when I worked at the University yeah so you know so when you when you have our unfortunately niola we don't have a rep this went into effect August 1 we had to act quickly on getting everyone

266trained um and then we had the other issue with the mothers of Liberty list and we landed on that so there were a lot of moving parts and this was a a really positive way to move and I appreciate the um policy committee inviting me uh because we had to move swiftly and make quick changes and um still I'm waiting to update things on our platform until it's um until the board makes a decision but we're I'm meeting tomorrow about t Title 9 with Lindsay we're positioning oursel and getting ready we're just waiting for the board to make their final decision before we Susan oh I just um did you all consider um any language that you may want to point like pull in from Neola at all do you know what I mean guid

267language and they have policy writers too already and so we would go with through when there's a Title Nine like automatically you know what I think might be helpful also Susan is when we're talking a lot and doing a lot of work around policy and then getting our administrative guidelines aligned up with that this marries the two together Neola doesn't as thoroughly give us our administrative guidelines so those forms those forms literally like the Complaint Form the supportive measures form the complaint notice all of those you can look at as our administrative guidelines and they're married with the TR policy which I mean title 9 is Title Nine the the langu AG is not that com that different um it just is the alignment is much smoother for a quick implementation especially I I'll have

268Brad and then I'll I'll I just have one quick question it's this does not having this in place like right now does this impact our ability to like do an investigation if we needed to do one tomorrow we're we're trained I'm trained the administrators are trained we've already had to do one this year um we get questions about it and discuss it um we would manage I I mean we would we would get through it and manage but it would be the sooner the better is is the way but it's it's no fault to the board because it changed August 1 that's fine I I've been like the guy who's trumpeted like two readings two readings two readings and so for me I just want to make sure that we wouldn't be vulnerable so not

269being able to do this important the law the law is still the law the law is law yeah and we could have pass okay we we I think we have enough people that have been trained and have gone through it and we had advisers thank you and we and we met with we met with Carol more than once well she came to one meeting and then she and I had conversation because she was uh in negotiations and was unable to come to our second meeting and so I brought forth her thoughts on this to our consideration and our discussion um and uh I think the other thing just to to consider we did not consider peac mealing like taking parts of niola and putting it in with trun because they both follow the law but

270this is just streamlining um the process so um if that with with looking at the time um I would like to if if we can H move any further anything further to our discussion in December this will come back to the table for a second reading then okay Jenny yes MH because of the lateness of the hour the fact that we have a guest now I suggested I whispered this to Steve and he laughed but I would like to consider tabling the deia policy so you you may do that and if you do then you will be will you hurt me what no I I don't that's fine if you decide to move this to December I just want to tell you that if you move it to de December a new policy chair will

271take over in January for the second reading oh no problem I mean we the policy polic can we be can we can we this is the second reading so can I just am worried that we're going to stay here be here till midnight before we even hear from Ryan Murray oh no I'm just see you just said you do you said there's no way they'll move but that's okay I'm I apologize I apologize I didn't want to throw you under the bus on that one um all right then thank you Jenny we're going to go on to deic policy we're considering we've had a first reading now of that previous policy no we're not done yet so memo memo number one is the membership considerations and so um if in looking at this at the

272memo um this is the second reading for that portion of the policy and the reason why we broke this out into two and have already had the discussion around this was so that um the policy committee could move forward with seating new policy members and in talking with um Ryan um Dr Kerr it is my understanding that even though we had not P we had not passed this they did have um the blessing of Michael to move forward with seating people um and so they have seated those people so um and they're and he's contacting them but in looking at this particular portion of the policy you can see in the memo and also in the policy that's listed so in the policy that's listed in the packet you can see the and somehow I've

273lost my there's too many things that we had to look at tonight um I have the memo open but I don't have the full packet in front of me I apologize for that this um I just don't have the P yeah thank you so in looking at the full red and green um uh and following up on our discussion from last time you can see in memo number one that um the revision um began it began with um a recommendation from Dr McVey which then led to two separate um legal opinions um the second one was received an email and was forwarded to all of you back on October 21st and so that has led us to the following language I'm going to put on my glasses you guys I'm old now um the superintendent

274and or their design Shall Serve as co-chair and an additional co-chair shall be selected by the superintendent and or their design with committee feedback uh include e uh excluding sorry with committee feedback excluding the board trustee Representatives this co-chair shall be selected from the existing committee and at least one of the co-chairs shall be a parent of a child attending a district school application shall be revised and decided upon by the superintendent Andor design co-chair one student rep and two additional volunteer committee members um Board of Education trustees May observe the application selection process but not deliberate or decide applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and then C it says if selected the applicants uh the applicant will be notified by the superintendent Andor their design when a vacancy becomes available so that

275is the um language that we are entertaining in a second reading tonight um for some reason I did inquire about this but I didn't get a response I know things have been really busy but um this particular um memo and its contents was supposed to be um an action item tonight because this is our second reading so if we are in agreement with this particular language um we could seek a motion tonight to accept this piece um but as I said um Ryan was Dr Kerr and his co-chair were able to move forward I think seating the committee I'm not sure because it does say here that um the Board of Education trustees May observe the application selection process but not deliberate or decide and I I know that I have been um attending my

276daughter's field hockey the last two games um sadly her field hockey season has ended so um um that will give me a little bit more time to be available to for these meetings but I wasn't at the last two meetings so I don't know if there was decision on um how the trustees would observe I did not get any information around that I wasn't invited to the meeting so there you go okay I have a comment or SLO of clarification to Jenny I just wanted to go back to something you said that they the committee has seated members that was a conversation that I had with Dr Kerr last week and um they were they had been um the the committee itself had been uh the numbers were lacking and so because we' had the

277discussions and um be because they had the two co-chairs it's my understanding that they went ahead and sat okay Michael can you can you verify and I'm sorry I just want to I'm doing it right now verify did the deac seat members other than the co-chair I'll verify that right now deac members who are in the audience did we seat eight new members so I we'll ask Dr C tomorrow then okay because on October 21st you said they would not that they would um go according to the board wishes from the board table and that we because of potential liability from the legal letters um that Jenny hadam provided that we were holding off on that until we could come back and move this policy through so I just wanted to confirm well and and

278it wasn't if Susan wasn't invited I mean I wasn't either okay yeah no and and I think honestly honestly as long as the de AC board rep um is not appointing right um this should have happened over the summer to be honest I you know like I said a committee a president a superintendent shouldn't be holding up a process you know I know there was a question about the OM but clearly that's that's not an issue it hasn't been violated so I'm I see your point I see your I see your point Susan my my point um and your point understandable and and helps with the legal situation potentially um my point is we gave direction from the board table and I said hi Steve I would like to please confirm that while a co-chair

279was selected for deac the group has held off on selecting any new members as directed by the board in our open meeting thank you and and Dr Kerr is not here I can just tell you that in our conversation he expressed to me that he and the co-chair had met and that they were in the process of contacting new members okay so they went against the Board of Education with that movement if that occurred so was that a vote that we took it was a conversation that we had at the table we had all agreed I mean it it's I assume we have the video because it wasn't a second reading yet it was my understanding that they were going to wait however I I will say yes it was a conversation that we had

280that we were waiting for the second reading and also I understand the urgency that the co-chairs um were operating and seating them but I agree with Susan that if if that was the case you know it could have been done months ago before anyone seeks to chastise Dr Kerr I'm I'm definitely not looking at you I'm seeking to clarify a statement that Jenny made reading the before anyone seeks to chastise Dr Kerr let me tell you how the conversation went he asked me specifically is it okay if he starts to look through the folders and the files and the names to isolate and identify people that they they think should be on the board he asked me again and asked me again and Susan was in the meeting at that point and we we said

281we think it's okay at this point at least I said I think it's okay um but we haven't heard any names yet and we have they're not meeting again until next Wednesday so before we I I didn't have any sort of decision in that and and and it was said that it in the committee meeting that yes move forward so um and and again I'm telling you that there was no violation of om that that's not my concerned but thank you Susan I I my my point is we had decided in an open meeting that it would halt until we could get this through because we had all agreed that that was the procedure I had verified that after the meeting because there was another email string internally it was confirmed and then on November

2824th I believe Michael sent a board update on the de and did not mention anything with moving forward so I'll just I I don't I don't want um I'm not uh I'm not in indicating or even um insinuating that Dr kurr did anything nefarious or anything that he shouldn't have done so I just want to say that publicly um we had a conversation um because he had some questions um that he wanted to have clarified so we had a conversation last Tuesday and um that's when he indicated that he he understood the conversation that had had occurred at the diic meeting I think on the 29th or 30th the 30th that um he was given permission to move forward so regardless we can deal with that and I think in another but and the action

283of the board is voting yes so if there was not a vote and it was just simply said that's not an action of the board yeah yeah so I think I think that's gray because I did follow up in writing and was told that it would not occur so moving forward with this language this is a second reading so um entertaining further discussion and or if there is a motion to approve this membership selection process so so I have some questions because we had made changes um and I don't know if that's completely reflected here I know it said the superintendent um and we were talking about because it's not consistent the language and we were going to change that so the superintendent in parentheses or design um so I know in the the new

284edits that's not appearing here so I so I'll I'll um I will let you know there were a couple of things that did not come through um and BET's not here so I can't ask her right now but there were a couple of things that she said would be um like made to be an alignment like those um those uh whether it says superintendent and or their designate or has it in parentheses she was going to amend that in the final um and I'm not sure why it wasn't this time there was another error that I caught to and I believe um that she made the change but correct me if I'm not if I'm wrong but we did make the change um per our last discussion I think I even noted it here in

285the memo that we removed because it was not our intent to um it was not our intent to limit the I think that's in the next piece actually in the next memo so I'll hold off on that um and then let me see so I know it says the board of education so under D um Board of Education Dei committee members and superintendent or Desy will appoint new members to the committee um that's an action I think the question was it used to say Dei reps board reps um but I think personally that a point should be taken out of that um maybe choose or I'm not sure um and then I would like to to consider um because I know you all were looking at the the sex aded um advisory that was one

286of that was um the lawyers had brought that up for our consideration yes and the last time when we worked on the initial um policy we sent the actual policy to um legal I don't think we did this like sending the actual language and getting that feedback and maybe when everything gets cleaned up we could do that um but I I think you know going back to a comment that we heard earlier um when we're talking about cab because this was based off of both cab and uh Wellness which is a district committee cab being a board um and I know that that some of the mostly the board uh cab stuff is included in there um I think we should look at um that the board chooses appoints the two co-chairs because that's what

287is currently in our sex aded um even though we don't we haven't been doing all of that um and so I think you know that that would be an action here and then again I think they're continuing to work on the um Charter um yeah Ryan and I discussed the charter too yeah okay I'm glad you all had a meeting well I mean he just asked if he could have a phone call so um so uh so yeah I want us to consider that because it's not a district committee which would be under wellness and it is a board committee which is cab I think we should be able to appoint the co-chairs is that the only point of comparison with the seab that you want us to consider Susan I want to make sure

288everything from the last meet the meeting in September 20 what 24th I believe yeah that it's all reflected there I did want to just say it is here in the green I now have it in front of me and I did ask but it I I don't know what happened to that email string that I asked for this to be moved to an action item and I also asked for this um portion where we had amended it last time where it says reasonably reflects the um District student population we had asked yeah we had asked for that to be um stricken and so um I did ask for her to strike that and I I'm not certain yeah it but I um I did ask for that it's not in this red and green but

289that is um what um I had emailed her to update we already have a co-chair now policy committee can meet again we just need a deic group picked now can we but it sounds like maybe now it there's some question of whether it can happen or should be happening so I'm just suggesting that we just vote on this language and if we want to do something different about post picking co-chairs in the future we could always do that but otherwise I support that so I'm in agreement as well it sounds like there's a motion on the table on the floor to uh approve the changes as and I just want to be clear we're only proving the changes to how we Pi although we don't have the actual edits from last time in front of

290us no she's great yeah correct there's been a lot going in we I believe we've seen the same language no because we made changes September 24th I want to make sure that there's a clean version and it has it here and it we've caught three things already and three things yes the superintendent or design um the appointment which was the question originally the can you appointing where you're saying the Board of Education committee is appointing uh that's under d i I'm looking at it under you're looking the board packet yeah that's go go up further I just want to make sure I'm looking at what you're looking at Susan can you give us a page number when you get to it just that okay so there's a memo yes thank you so there's a memo

291right and then if you keep scrolling down so there's memo one the next page is memo two yeah but you if you keep scrolling if you keep scrolling there's the full um policy it's on page 17 the the changes in blue are from the 24th from the policy committee meeting those are in memo too so the one um that I did ask for um to be amended and it was not um and I know that things have been very busy but to strike um uh and a membership selection process that reasonably reflects the District student population because it was not our intent to limit and there was some other things so in the past that was previously there right so that that particular um that particular language we I did acknowledge that it was requested

292that it be um stricken and it wasn't but I also acknowledged that it's been um a lot of meetings and very busy and so um I'm not uh I'm not blaming Betty for that so I'm just going to say that that I I think we can all agree that that was stricken at the last meeting in terms of whether it says superintendent Andor design or parentheses um in the past when we've had minor changes like that Betty has been able to update those in the final processing so I think if we tell her that we want it to be consistent and we want it one way or the other she can submit that in the um when she sends it to mola for processing yeah I think we did make the decision to be consistent

293yeah yeah so I I did mention to her that those things were in the September 24th discussion um and uh in the past she's been able to make those like I would what do we call them scriveners scers errors so just making it to be consistent so those two things so the Striking the one piece because it was not the committee's intent and then also uh the membership piece being um reflective of the student population and then also the making superintendent Andor design um consistent throughout the policy anything else I'm not sure if there's anything else so I think I don't know Michael you said there's a motion to approve the changes in memo number one regarding membership with those adjustments that were um discussed on September 24th and you're okay keeping it appoint that

294the board committee members are appointing a board committee is appointing other people in action can you tell because that's what we were asking where did can you can you point us to that it says it says that we tried to do that so it would be more inclusive so it wasn't just the superintendent and the co-chair so we added we wanted more student voice and more committee voice and picking that the intent of that was to I I understand that was kind of the inent intent to have the board reps to I guess involv to kind of oversee that um yeah process because I mean I was on the first yeah back in 2019 and it was like the process was just not to clarify to clarify how it happened this this year I I

295appointed Ryan as the designate and you know that he would be fully running and supporting as a co-chair and then he appointed the co-chair I believe and but however you choose to do it it's fine it just that's how it went this year I did not appoint um the other coach no so I think our thing was that now the two of them plus a committee including a student instead of having a board rep there since there was some question about the legal the legality of that and let that be consistent with the cab too yeah and so I don't know I I just want to focus on this one thing for a second so the idea was if we ever had a dist you know if we had a situation where we wanted more

296than just the superintendent and the co-chair to bring in a diverse amount of perspectives that having a student voice and other committee members voices in order to pick the newest committee members made more sense really than having a couple of board of ed reps I I think it's a good idea I'm I'm I don't disagree and that process is laid out right um so I'm not disagreeing on that I think the word AO I mean maybe I mean it's a board committee appointing I think that's like we're giving them a power to make decisions so I just want to put that out there I'm asking again though you said that it's in D I don't my god let's see uh it's under D so it's on the next page it's the last page of the

297de a in the packet um what is your concern about giving this smaller subgroup of people including the DI co-chairs and like is that the decision I think from the no I'm not I'm not talking about the makeup of the committee who's doing the decision I'm I'm questioning that word a point I don't no no I I'm not questioning the overall thing and input I think I think do you what word do you want like what what would be better on a point I don't CH choose collaborate like I don't know like I just think I I mean I said what I think but because the the point was there before and that was the whole question to begin with so and the the board and that didn't come out last time but the board

298rep that's what it said before right board rep and superintendent so we are telling the board advisory committee that they're making an action now does that need to be public no no so who made I don't I've lost TR now who made the motion was there was a motion to approve memo number one Brad is there support because I think we need to we need to either decide if we're moving on or if we're coming back to this okay well let's yeah then I support Brad McVey okay I have it written down but I think you're president you have to call for I'd like well uh all in favor please say I I I I opposed me oh Susan great I just want to say this is a learning experience for me uh I made

299my lesson is you got to go of course my lesson is that I I made too many edits and suggestions and now I and to the policy committee I I'm fine with you changing that language and adding more people people in the decision- making process that's just great you stuck to the the heart of what I was trying to do in that particular thing which was to move the board members off of the process and and it'll be just fine I think it'll work great so in terms of and to be clear nobody the superintendent actually said that the board members have never he's never run into anything that's great no with the process just just to make sure we're clear because I'm not sure well he's not here so I don't want that the

300goal was to make this de committee stronger thank moving ahead so moving ahead to memo number two um I just want to quickly we can just quickly run through this um what I would um I guess I'll just quickly run through this these were in blue these are the changes that the policy committee made um on our September 24th meeting so we changed um that uh the policy will now that it can be up to three board members which has been which has happened in the past but is not specified um the next uh bullet these are all out of order e a d i just see this now um but uh a says attend regular scheduled meetings um modeling the Norms of the bridge of Civility which should be established and reviewed at the

301beginning of each meeting that is the current practice but we felt strongly that because of the nature um it I just put this here I'll just read reading the Norms of Civility at the start of each meeting can help EST establish a respectful and inclusive environment where all members feel valued and heard the practice reinforces the committee's commitment to Dei principles encouraging an open dialogue and fostering collaboration among participants um the next change um that was uh a revision is that it is encouraged for full meetings to be impers however extenuating circumstances could be considered for online participation by the co-chairs so a closed meeting in person is important as it Fosters um trust encourages candid discussions and strengthens relationships among participants however due to extenuating circumstances co-chairs can grant remote access to ensure that

302all members have the opportunity to contribute and stay engaged maintaining inclusivity um and participation even when physical attendance is not feasible the next revision says um this is the piece and Michael if you'd like to address this but review and make ins sites um review and uh so this was the the change um from review and make recommendations um to applicable District policies and procedures it happens again under D um and so the um the uh explanation is that a board advisory committee should offer insights um rather than recommendations to maintain compliance with the with Oma as this approach allows for open dialogue and information sharing without Crossing into decision-making territory by focusing on insights the committee can provide valuable perspectives while ensuring that final decisions remain within the jurisdiction of the appropriate governing body

303thereby upholding transparency and accountability the use of the word recommendations could invite scrutiny to the committee's work as it is specifically defined in the rules of oma opting for terms like insights or perspectives can help clarify the committee's role and intent promoting a better better practices that align with om while fostering constructive dialogue without the risk of misinterpretation the shift from um recommendations to Insight does not diminish the importance or the value of the work that the committee provides to the board rather it emphasizes and collaborates um the nature of the committee's role in informing decision-making by Framing their contributions as insights the committee highlights their expertise and perspectives ensuring that their input remains integral to the board's disc discussions and deliberations while members of the board advisory committee are not elected trustees they serve

304as an important arm of the board providing valuable insights um to support decision-making processes it remains crucial for committee members to adhere to the rules that govern um public bodies as their work is subject to the same standards in transparencies accountability and ethical conduct that guide the actions of the board ensuring that they uphold The public's trust and maintain the integrity of the advisory role um and in I don't know Michael I had asked since you had made that um that recommendation if there's anything that you'd like to add to that particular one oh at this I really don't at this point okay um moving forward then just reading these um the next recommended um revision was that um it had been um that the Dei AC was presenting quarterly um and to um uh

305the the there was um a request for clarity around that and so the revision says that the um DIC will provide um sorry present at least it says right now present at least quarterly to the board so it will be amended to say will provide regular written reports and one in-person um presentation regarding committee activities to the board of education so the reason for this is that all other advisory committees present annually to the board in a meeting rather than presenting solely to the board annually the nature of the Dei um advisory committee's work May benefit from quarterly reports as this approach allows for more timely updates on progress challenges and emerging initiatives um frequent communication can enhance collaboration fostering accountability and ensuring that Dei efforts remain aligned with the board's goals and the needs

306of the community throughout the year here additionally there was some discussion around minutes um that would be available for the board to review for each of the de meetings So currently there is a link on the committee subpage that has been um that has it has a a place for meeting summaries that were from 2022 to 2023 but that prati practice was not maintained when committee leadership changed um taking a closer look it appears that other advisory committee websites or links would also benefit from some updates the policy committee is I said recommending but I should say suggesting that a new board operating procedures uh board operating procedure might be created to reflect consistent minutes summary reporting for all of the advisory committees thank you for your work this year as the policy chair that

307out there I guess I'll just say to we have one more meeting in which um I will be updating uh just and then we can get back to this but updating um there is new updates from neol I'll be um bringing those to the surface and allowing for those to continue to be discussed in the new year and um if we have an update from um the district on the um uh inventory I guess of the um Flags um can I just say is there any way to add some language um about the I've been sort of asked to consider uh adding some language about how we receive the guidelines or uh insights and um I think it would be good to add some language to the end of that saying that the board will

308vote on approving these in you know I think that's something we might want to take off if I could say this is a discussion that we we did have at the last de meeting was this the pro process they're afraid and I get it that if we they toss up something for the board to consider there's no sense of processing or seeing tracking it where it's going how it's being reacted to if it's being ignored or not and I fully yeah we can figure out some language and and I wish this started with talking to the deac initially I'm sorry Michael how many deac meetings have you attended because I heard Susan say that she wasn't invited and I heard Laur no she's talking about a different meeting no that that's the selection process with

309the co-chairs okay to my knowledge there were no um none of us were invited to that was not at the meeting I've just been talking to people in the community oh so Michael has attended the past two two and I'm not sure if Michael is the third rep I I have no idea or if you're still I I have no clue so I was I communicated with Michael that I was unable to attend the last two because of family obligations if I if I walked into the room and there were three board members I would turn around and walk out I'm that Comm saying I didn't know if you were showing up as a being critical no no I'm just saying I'm I don't know if I'm officially a third or not I just was

310there to to uh cover jennif Jenny so getting back to my question would we want to add a line into that um you know as to how we receive the insights since we say rden uh guidelines and we say one presentation is yeah I I'm not opposed to that Michael had made the revisions and he said he was at the last meeting and there was discussion around it so I was waiting for him to tell us more about that discussion but I'm not opposed to to work in progress um I if we could have a goal though of um of moving to the next item maybe in the next five minutes if we could wrap this up so that we could okay I'm sorry the next item in the agenda we ABS thank you um

311the reading has I don't have say because this isn't the final one that we're going to vote on I just all right if you have a revision or wording it sounds like Michael was writing something but maybe not but if you have wording to put on the table now now is the time so that we could have it for the next reading I will I'm not sure I can craft it right this moment but I will certainly submit something to the policy committee before the 19th is that the date 19th okay are we ready to move on no okay um so a few things um when we were talking about the selection there was talk about consistency with c AB um consistency with advisory boards and seeing all of these new updates that seems to

312be not uh where we've along the lines of that idea um about the initial like membership change and stuff so um I guess so one thing modeling the Norms of bridges to civility this is a policy I don't know if there's a policy of bridges to civility so 10 years from now when bridges of Civility don't like that reference may not be um accurate um I don't see anything like this in cab or Wellness um moving on down um the inperson full meetings being in person with online participation that is not in advi other committee things um I feel like I think I said a lot of this could be board board operations uh talking about advisory committees and how they function and maybe that's putting that in there right this is this is you

313know the board members roles this is the staff roles um of advisory committees because even if we appoint like an ad hoc committee sometime or whatever maybe that's things that can apply um and maybe that's where you put bridges of Civility maybe the title will change you know I I just someone reading that may not that may not click for them so I just think it's additional stuff uh with got we're talking about a policy right and we've just totally crossed um if if I can ask if I can add um the full meeting in person um initially the recommendation was for full meetings in person as is um the case for cab however we felt that this committee is um the very nature of this committee should invite inclusivity and so um Lauren I

314think actually recommended that we add the second piece um to allow for online par participation um for extenda circumstances well why have it initially I guess is what I'm trying to say I guess so for an example I got an email that um the special ed department is and I think this is great um maybe it's from that that suggestion but they're um having a meet meet the director and um it's there's it's going to be via like option via Zoom or whatever so um you know I think that that's like policy-wise I don't think it fits under here okay so the purpose of the full meetings being in person is because it's a closed meeting so in having um the option should it say that it is a closed meeting this I mean should

315it say that why it's like I'm you're saying add to the rationale well I guess if that's part of the rationale because it says holding a closed meeting in person that's it says that in the rational below like as an explanation for our thinking along Fosters trust well I would say having random board members come into a a committee meeting too is um possibly invading trust as well so um I think again I think we're getting into the weeds here um so the review and share insights really quick um we had talked that's fine wow um advisory uh committee I've never seen review and share insights um anywhere else on advisory committees again if we're sticking with consistent language which is what we said on the other changes um this isn't consistent um and then

316oh I had notes here where did they go um so the with the DIA you're saying review and share insights when there have been um earlier we talked about the three-year plan right and that's like the de AC supports the supports that and it's part of one of the things that they do so that's people sharing insights and um you know it does come come to the board um and it's a partnership and plus there's also the equity survey right so they're they're G Gathering insights um so I think you're downplaying a lot of the work that what they do bring um and I don't understand why advisory I think it was mentioned in um September on sep September 24th that the the word recommendations you all were saying that that would be a violation

317that it needs to be open to om but again it was brought up at the last board meeting or last de that that's not correct so in the explanation that I just read so in first let me just say that the change to review and share insights was a a revision that was brought to the policy committee for for consideration and we considered it and are bringing it forward and our rationale is in the four bullets below I heard it okay thanks but why why why isn't consistent with the other advisory do you want since youed well there are so many issues you just asked remind me which which one you talking about this time this last one well I'm talking about all them she's asking why she's asking why rev review and share insights

318is here and not in other advisory policies yeah why is it not recommendations again being consistent because that's what we were pushing for last time what what's review and share insights it's an Advisory Board yes and they make recommendations what like I've never seen this in other policies in general so I'm I'm curious what this is and I offered you the four points for rationale there and you said that you heard those I asked Michael if he had anything further to add do and yes now that we're talking about that it very very simple I tried to make this really simple and and apparently failed miserably well I've never heard it before so well then let me share it with you for it we do not there was concern raised to me that recommendations from

319the superintendent or wait are you talking about your I'm going to start the sentence and get all the way to the end there were concerns Raised To Me by members of the deac or members of sorry members of this board that it felt like the recommendations sounded like directives is look you're challenging what I'm saying because lived experience yeah you're giving giving us recommendations which was great but some board members were thinking that they sounded like directives so I thought why don't I change the language a little bit so that it's less like a directive that they're an expect with expectations that the board will deliver or that the superintendent will deliver this is very very I'm just going to say very disappointing how so because we value diversity equity and inclusion and the work

320that we're doing and we supposedly pass this and we we have these goals and everything and we're trying to diminish because you are like uncomfortable with what's recommended I'm not I'm not sure you heard me so I don't know if saying it again will help or not let me know Susan will saying it again help clarify it or not yeah you can tell me why you feel that the deac recommendations are um hurtful or any board member said hurtful I said I don't know like challenging I'm not demanding I I don't understand where you're coming from or the other board members so thank you I shared what I shared the experiences I heard that if that some members of the board were feeling like the rec recommendations I'm going to stop talking at this point

321and not engage anymore in that because of your smirks so let's do this on some other on some other day we've got other things to to do well I value Dei and I always will and I think no said anything diminishing about Dei here at the table at all yeah that's aren't those aren't even my words that I came up with I just said and again so I'll just sit out the rest of this conversation until we get on to the next thing okay so is there anyone else before we move on to item C is there anyone else who has anything um at this point there will be another discussion so um you know feel free to um bring concerns or questions to the next re read and then we can move to item

322C thank you item C is the board meeting calendar and it's pretty pro proforma at this point because March has spring break when we usually have our meeting I think the suggestion was and I'm in concurrence with it that we have uh five months in the year that have only a single meeting and March would be one of them now I say we move it to consent for the next meeting move it to consent okay I am in concurrence thank you I did double check the dates moving it to consent the next thing is I I'd like to uh entertain a oh Je we skipped over a whole thing speaking of consent um I don't know if we have a heck of a lot of time for administration or board updates uh but I'll I

323guess I throw myself on the mercy of the rest of the board to to be as brief as possible because I really would like to get to the Clos session so we could have our lawyer talk to us and we're down to one item now we're going to just have the one item complaint against a School employee I'll go super quick I'd like to acknowledge the hard work of the foundation for Seline area schools in their fall luncheon and fundraising I saw um uh people who have volunteered for years I saw new faces and it was wonderful to hear all the grants so thank you for all their hard work usually the facil usually the process as the administration starts so that's okay sorry I'm really tired and I apologize I didn't mean to do

324that he's gonna pass I'm gonna pass uh rad I or Tim the um the community for the support of the WID millage that was awesome anyone else yeah I would just send I um I would just like to expend my best Thanksgiving wishes to our staff and to people who deserve a break so I hope they enjoy it I just wanted to thank the veterans who came to us thank veterans in general and the veterans who came to speak to students on Veterans Day including my father-in-law oh that's great JM or SE no Susan um I want to thank the cab sex education Advisory board and the recommendations that they made um I really um appreciate that um it's been 25 years in the making um yeah true so so um very very um thankful

325for their work um and and uh November um there's a trans awareness week and also um actually I think we're in this week um transgender Awareness Week um and then also transgender day of remembrance will be November 20th and um I just want to um recognize that um and I'm thinking of all of the um families children adults who are uh transgender and um what they may be going through right now um and uh let them know that I'm they're in my heart and I support them thank you I interest a motion to uh authorize a consent agenda as printed so moves tbon JS support Miller JM uh all in favor please say I I I great 70 thank you items from next agenda sir yes I'll be giving a state of the district uh

326end of year report oh okay thank you oh we have time for public comment oh my gosh we have three actually not and you're not it uh Shelby W Meer who I believe is not here uh Scott lamb is that there he is I was starting to wonder if that might be you thanks Scott green light all right my name is scam lifetime resident of I have two children one alumnus and one middle schooler in the system and first off I want to apologize this is my first time ever to a board of education Seline meeting don't necessarily think I chose the right one I wasn't coming here with any sort of agenda any motion or idea of speaking it was only partway through the beginning I felt I I needed to speak up and

327what I want to say first off uh Carol diglio the HR session I spoke to Carol earlier that was an extremely well done presentation I work with Fortune 1,000 companies I work with public private I work with Executives all over the world and that was an exceptional presentation not just the materials but the way it was delivered I would hire you in a heartbeat it was just well done take no please don't but I think it's important to you know call out where where you see things are exceptionally done so I wanted to make sure that that was was spoken made public and just personal I spoke to you the other thing is the beginning of today's discussions and what are we five hours into this the uh the addition of an an item this

328group appears highly dysfunctional at times and I say at times because I've only been here once and so I would say at least twice during this session it's been highly dysfunctional so when those topics come up and from someone from the outside is watching it doesn't give a lot of confidence in what we see and what's delivered and with that when the request is to have an external group to come in to give a review someone from the outside such as myself enjoys that because we don't have a lot of faith and trust when we see dysfunction so I just wanted to share those thoughts that's everything I had thank you appreciate that Scott are you related to Bethany yes she's my wife Tiffany Alexander okay I'm going to read it again the does not

329apply to committees and subcommittees composed of less than a quorum of the full public body if they are merely advisory or only capable of making recommendations so it is literally because the deic is an advisory committee that we can only make recommendations that's literally why a doesn't apply so during the last disa meeting let me first say it is so deeply and deeply offensive and harmful to hear the words that our co-chairs somehow went against the Board of Ed no our co-chairs asked and got clarification to move forward it's deeply offensive you guys are lucky to have Ryan ker so let me go with that to begin with uh second of all we we had a meeting on these things and during that meeting it was said that any of these recommendations if they're problematic

330they don't have to be accepted that that's what was said that they don't have to be accepted that these were just suggestions we could move on so to hear that there's other board members who apparently don't believe in transparency and don't want to come forward and say we have a problem with the word recommendations um that that's something that is now that cannot be walked back when you say this doesn't diminish and it doesn't harm I'm actually on that committee and it does diminish and it does harm that's how it feels to me okay I recognize that doesn't really matter but that's how it feels and I know there are other committee members who also feel that way we also feel singled out and with good reason because we have been continuously singled out so

331I also propose a question which I know you can't answer right now we were berated abused told off and publicly humiliated over administrative guidelines and told repetitively it's because Neola does it now I just sat here and listened to somebody say well Neola doesn't really do the guidelines so my question is when did they stop because the way we were treated over that for everybody here to just like have this look on their face like that never happened is astounding and confirms like I said the fact that we feel it diminishes it really doesn't matter now I'm going to go on to in terms of an independent review it needs to be independent because otherwise there's no Integrity somebody working for the district and having a supervisor in the district cannot give an unbiased review

332somebody who has any associ with the district has implicit bias if not explicit an independent review for multiple reasons have been asked for multiple times and the problem isn't actually Sol solved because you said as trusty Miller said you had it with lacrosse you had it with volleyball apparently the problem is continuing so thank you very much and next time I hope maybe you consult the members of your committee and what feels harmful thank you very much uh I'd like to entertain a motion to enter close session at 11:35 p.m. with the intent to read open by 11:59 uh for the purpose of disciplinary action against a School employee 8A and the rest of that motion is gone thank you Tim Austin support from anyone M oh oh JM thank you very much all in

333favor please say I I I thank you thank you very much for sitting through this we'll oh they're going to oh yes i' I'd like to ask Carol please to stay are you all going to stay excellent e e e thank you I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the negotiated settlement as discussed in closed session so moved L gold support Eep s Eep uh all in favor please say I I I oppose no thank you 70 thank you so much I'd like to um entertain a motion to adjourn tonight's meet this morning's meeting at 1211 and a half so moved oh T we don't care we don't care without objection uh thank you thank you it's a WRA