Saline Area Schools: Board of Education Meeting (08.22.2023)

001you okay Ben I'd like to call to order the Board of Education meeting uh of August 22nd 2023 uh as you are able would you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Brad gerby indivisible I knew you could roll with that Brad public con oh uh before we start the public comment I would like to welcome this the first time I'll acknowledge them uh Mateo adepolo and Caroline Clark who are two new student Representatives um is although it's their first night they're actually fully invested already they spent the weekend with the nsbma we won't work out that acronym NOW uh meeting with a student School Board representatives from all over the country and doing all sorts of cool activities including what did you say also making a proposal and uh well done well

002you'll see we do it exactly the same way that the professionals do it here and there's never any controversy okay well thank you the public comment section please a member of the public May address the board briefly for up to three minutes or request to be scheduled on the agenda at a future meeting please note that students will be given priority to speak on any topic first public participation portion of the meeting will be limited to one 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 any other comment individuals addressing the boards to take into consideration the rules of common courtesy the public participation portion of the meeting cannot be used to make personal attacks against the

003board member district employee or student we have no students and we have no so there are no comments tonight next time I'm going to look up before I read that long thing thank you I'm not well trained yet thank you um and I have at this tonight I have no response to public comment uh revisions of the agenda please items can be added or deleted from the meeting agenda and or the order can be changed at the request of an individual board member or the superintendent the agenda needs to be approved before proceeding further I like to entertain the motion to approve the agenda as printed Brad Kirby moves what was it okay Mr Austin and Mr Kirby thank you very much um all in favor please say aye aye aye say approach thank you

004so we have an agenda uh I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the weoc or weak the Washington education options Consortium restated agreement resolution as submitted by superintendent Lodge so moves Devin Steven moves Miller supports we'll open up for any discussion or questions and Dr Loch can answer them ably I'm sure well I'll just give a brief overview and then if there are any questions feel free to ask this is really just looking again at the agreement between all the districts regarding weak which is the educational options that include things like why High the wave program which is a virtual Ed program and now they're going to be offering a middle school wave program and when when that occurred they felt that it was time to revisit all the options and have a conversation

005with the superintendents about the agreement especially for the districts who have a lot of kids participating in these programs we do not have that many in Saline but for those that do have many many students they wanted to reaffirm the agreement and also have some to be honest some out Clauses with the ability to move in and out of the programs because as many of you know the foundation allowance goes with the with the student to the program so for some of the districts that are sending hundreds of kids to these programs they wanted a tighter agreement so that's what this is about thank you is there any further discussion or questions no let's put it to a vote all in favor please say aye aye opposed say nay we have a resolution thank you

006and the next part uh trustee Estep I'm going to include your name we have discussed this earlier and if we want to change it we will so I like to entertain a motion to appoint Susan Estep as the voting delegate and myself Michael McVeigh as the alternate representing the Celine saline Board of Education at the 2023 masb delicate assemble delegate assembly being held on Thursday November 9th 2023 in Lansing motion Miller or Kirby okay still willing to do this onerous task yes um yeah and part well I'll have to be at the delegate assembly anyways um as part of the resolutions and bylaws committee with masb and there's not too many this year that we um are revising and um uh so so that's going to be a benefit and actually controversial issues is one

007of the things that was edited this year so um but yeah I'm excited to attend it if you all are there early you get 10 points or like I don't even know yeah just to attend um yeah last year we didn't think it was going to be so um you know uh like uh involved but it ended up being so and that's usually fun when that happens so yeah I'm excited to to go and represent um you all whenever you all get the the um packet that they'll send out um you know if you have questions or anything you could let me know thank you I'm I'm going to be attending that evening as well but I won't be a voting member but I'm looking forward to it having never seen it before so all

008in favor please say aye aye opposed nay all right we have Representatives this euron uh secretary Miller I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the August 8th 2023 closed session for the purpose of the school board to review attorney-client privilege communication pursuant through Section 8 h of the Michigan open meetings Act do we have any support is that Tim thank you for those new to this process the board now reads the minutes and um makes any scrivener's notes and changes I think gets them back I do notice one spelling mistake it's true in law the second last sentence as opposed to Dern no problem and I actually I think I told you I called them up and they are pronounced Troon so we can put that to bed so ladies and

009gentlemen I'm bored all in favor please say aye aye opposed say okay we have minutes I'd like to also entertain a motion to approve the resolution that m-i-s-e-c mysac Michigan schools energy Cooperative cooperative as agent of the district enter into a 15-year power purchase agreement for 100 of the annual electricity usage with North Star clean energy at a fixed rate not to exceed .075 cents per kilowatt hour for the generation and delivery of solar energy with commercial operation expected to begin in June 2025 as submitted by assistant superintendent of Finance Miranda owsley do I have a motion sorry called Lauren thank you second support Estep Susan Estep supports great um we do have one question that has been floating around that Dr Lodge will discuss right so a question that I did receive was you

010know this is a 15-year rate or 15 years of locking in at this rate and at a hundred percent you know the question is is what kind of research is done to determine you know is this a good rate and Miranda spent time uh talking to other Financial officers and feels like this is a good rate and sure there's a chance that the rates go down but there's a better chance that they go up and so locking in on a good rate now we believe is fiscally responsible we also checked with other districts and the wisd for example is allocating 100 percent as well in this direction so we believe that there's opportunities with solar energy and that this is one that we should take advantage of now we're also going to be looking at

011solar energy possibilities for you know our school roofs and things like that so we we feel like this is a step in the right Direction and we do feel confident in locking in at this rate the question you're going to ask thank you is there any further discussion on this great thank you so uh take put it to a vote all in favor please say aye aye opposed thank you seven zero finally under the action items uh two uh I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the recommendation of A.R Brower to award contracts to the below listed contractors in the total amount of one million 865 726 dollars for bid pack number one site work for the new operations center as submitted by director of operations Rex Clary and those names are arborland Consultants

012uh twenty thousand one hundred and ninety dollars Ile Excavating Incorporated 790 thousand dollars Nagel Paving Company 619 790 Spring Valley Landscaping 299 265 dollars Nagel Paving Company forty one thousand four hundred ninety dollars Superior landscape companies LLC 89 991 dollars and I it's just not easy and takes practice most and Kirby thank you Brad Kirby supports Devin thank you vice president seven so could you fill us in Mr Clary yes so this was the first bid pack uh bidpack number one besides the steel building it had uh six one two three four five six items um it represented almost 2.25 million uh of the budget as you see with that number it came in well under budget so um shout out to AR Brower um for getting qualified bids for one getting multiple bids in

013each category um having good documents as far as to bid off of and then um um getting a bit like I said good big bid coverage and hitting their their estimate all bids came in underestimate or at estimate so they're we're trending in the right direction so bid package number two is out now mechanical engineering um structural and that'll be due on September 7th and so that'll come to the board meeting within two weeks after that so all that architectural work we had looked at earlier has already been paid for and so forth correct it's already been awarded and the material is on order the building is like it's a complicated task and I appreciate all your efforts in putting that together any comments from the rest of the accrue Mr awesome um the like

014Spring Valley 299 but their tab the concrete it was 560 wait no 575 was that was there like an alternate that you didn't accept or something or they bidded the interior concrete which we haven't put out for bid yet but the plans are out there but they we haven't put out for bid yet so the number they'll be bidding again for the interior of the building so that's only the exterior so that was everything canopy yes okay so they bid two categories one's not out yet so any further discussion no I'd like to put it to a vote please all in favor say aye aye opposed say nay and all we are all in favor thank you carry on thank you sir we have two scheduled reports just let me check just the two just

015the two two scheduled reports one is uh say well sometimes it's two pages um superintendent's listening session recap and uh following that Rex Clary will make a return to the stage okay thank you very much everyone I'm going to be presenting tonight on superintendent listening sessions so this is the second year in which I've done this and ultimately what that means is I'm getting together with the various groups of people to talk about um you know how they feel we're doing with the district as it relates to equity and supporting their students and so um here's some of the context um more or less we invited families who are identified with racial minority groups special education or religious values I conducted these listening sessions primarily in April and May of this past year the purpose

016was to provide a safe space for SAS families to share their stories and experiences because one thing I learned from doing it the previous years was that people liked the opportunity to come and just talk to me and then Shannon served as a note taker and they just reported on on what they they felt was happening both positives and things that we need to work on and they did comment that they felt it was a safe space we weren't taking attendance and or using their names to report out any information so it's been really valuable um and then how did we do it well we did um send email invitations and a Google form to indicate interest based on Affinity grouping now in addition PowerSchool will allow us to group by race or ethnicity so

017we did specifically look in PowerSchool for example with students that identified as African-American and black and we sent an email specifically to those parents and were able to do that in PowerSchool using the demographic data in there for some of the other groups we sent out a Google form and they had to indicate interest upon which then we coordinated a session so we put this together in major buckets of feedback this year and Shannon assisted with this and so it's grouped with positive experiences things related to communication and connection persistent challenges and then how children cope I put a few notes at the bottom which are a little bit hard to read so I'll go ahead and read those for you you're going to see the term sum being used when describing summary findings and

018I thought that was important because you know some groups had very few people there and and others had more but I still feel that we want to say some because that that's what was being presented and I don't know for certain that you know for example all African-American students feel this way so I used the term sum throughout the presentation the other thing is I wanted to go over sort of how the attendance worked so this session and I also put the dates where I I did meet with with people so first session for African-American blacks seven people attended and these are estimates because again it didn't take attendance so I I went back through notes to determine approximately how many people were there that was on April 18th and latinx Native American only one

019showed even though we had more signed up for that night that was on April 20th Asian five families or five people April 27 special education we had approximately 15 people attend on May 2nd and then those that Express religious values and wanted to speak about that around 15 and May 22nd also of note we had very few only a couple sign up for lgbtq Plus so I invited those people to come to our standing lgbtq a transgender task force that I've been meeting with for around three years now and that's something that will continue so I actually am getting feedback that way from this particular group so this first bucket of feedback positive experiences so some families reported not have had any incidents of racial harassment in the last year racial incidents did occur have

020been handled quickly and satisfactory by the building principles in the past we had heard that you know if something happens sometimes it's dragging on or it's not addressed we heard positive feedback about how that was handled this past year improved representation in the dean's position is noticed and appreciated appreciated that was specifically true about the Middle School some students have had great experiences in athletics band and the steam teams as well as a safe space for the English language learner or a Spanish room which is a really nice space for our students at the high school would rather be insulin than in other districts because of the high quality facilities career and Tech ad and ecse programming some feedback and the other thing I wanted to point out with all this is this is mixing

021a lot of different groups of people so it it sometimes is special education lens sometimes it's about race or ethnicity you just have to consider that as we're looking at this feedback optimism in the changes made after 2020 and then finally many teachers have been responsive to student parent requests for inclusivity so there's some of the positive experiences next we look at communication and connection first bullet point talks about parents and caregivers that need to be notified when there are racial incidents so that they can have conversations with their children about them a few parents reported that they sometimes heard something that had happened through their child not necessarily directly connected with their own child but that they weren't always aware and and wanted to be communicated in that way this next one lumps a

022number of different issues related to trust that there have been some examples of trust being broken but can be repaired by clearly expressing that SCS will not tolerate racism sending home detailed syllabi for each class that was more of a request for parents that want a more parent rights honoring parents caregivers rights to decide what is age appropriate for their children and then there was a request to reinstate parent-teacher conferences at saline high school so the parents and caregivers can build relationships with teachers the next bullet point talks about facilitate more socialization between students with special needs and their general education peers to improve relationships and a sense of belonging acceptance we do have a number of programs already doing that with star and our connecting program at the high school but some parents felt

023like we need to do even more in that area work to intentionally connect students who are new to SAS with current students I think that's an important one in that it is hard to come to a new district and parents recognize that and so do the students so we need to work to do more to to connect those kids to other students so that they have a peer group that they can associate with and then another good suggestion was hosting social events some of you may know we do this International night with our El families and it's a it's a it's a hit people love it it's great and so the idea is how could we do more of that with all our buildings and and invite all our families so that is a focus

024that we we would look to um expand today okay yeah how children cope so um so how to how do kids deal with with some of this when uh their experienced some of this whether it's racism or or feeling excluded whatever it may be how do children cope and this was some of our feedback some children have become numb desensitized believing that this is how Celine is when it comes to racism you know when people hear um the n-word being said in the Halls here or there is that just normal behavior we would say no but if students are being desensitized to this this is an issue that we need to continue to address with our entire student body and that some children are now identifying that any different treatment is racism is going on

025even if that's not the case next bullet talks about children don't want to show or celebrate their cultures because they don't want to stand out and that may be where they don't want to wear a certain you know a style of dress or they don't want to practice a tradition that their family participates in because they are concerned on how other students would receive that uh some of the students don't know how to manage their anger but they don't want to fight back or stand out that they're frustrated when they experience some of this but they're not really sure what is the right approach and we talk a lot about how that we believe is why the trusted adult piece is so important who in the district can kids go talk to when they're experiencing

026that and we want to make sure all our students are connected in that way some children don't feel heard and that some children try to find safe spaces but some still eat alone that connects back to you know how do we make sure that all our kids have a solid peer group or at least at least a group that they can be friendly with during the school day for certain so what are some persistent challenges that some parents state that there's a nervousness from parents caregivers about transitioning from the elementary buildings to the middle and high school buildings because of perceived identity harassment we heard that from a few families that they had not experienced a lot of that at the elementary levels but as students start to transition to the middle and high school

027level there would be more more of that occurring some students hear the onward used some immigrant students know that they're different and don't feel as if they belong from as early as kindergarten like some report from a parent saying that even early on in the elementary levels that was hard to be an immigrant coming here and and having their students kind of report that they were feeling that way some students with invisible disabilities suffer from social ostracization and bullying due to their neurodiversity one example was that if a student was had had a an issue a dyslexia or something that that wasn't showing out out front but that it it was this invisible disability and it was hard for the student to keep up and and and and and not be ostracized in different ways

028there was some talk about staff lacking training and Trauma and forward practices something that we will continue to work on and then this was also brought up that some seminal symbols like Flags in the classroom displayed are a source of discomfort for some students that was also brought up by some families so the big question is why do we still have these persistent challenges and the reality is that they persist persist because their society still has a number of these challenges and so as a school system we do reflect society and we need to keep working on it we can mitigate this is also work in the hearts and minds of humans we all you know are flawed we have biases and that we need to work on this over time this work does take

029time and I think we need to recognize that and work with the district on on our approach one where we want all students to feel a sense of belonging one where we want them all to feel part of the school part of the curriculum that's important to us we'll continue to focus on that and this idea that one lesson one handout one guest speaker for all may not impact everyone there's been some comments that well well that didn't work for my child or that well it's a process and and even though we will have a variety of strategies they don't work all the time for all the students or all the families um and then the notion that if it impacts one child that is working it's it's one child that won't slur their classmate

030or have a further education on how hurtful some of that behavior is um we talk about microaggressions that would be an example of that and that progress looks more like a spiral than a direct incline we learn we commit we do and then we learn more and we keep going with that spiral and I would say that's certainly Where We Are all right can you click it thank you so this kind of maps out what we've been working on and then we'll see a slide in what we're going to do next so we are currently working on improving communication reviewing the hate speech acts guidance for Effectiveness how well is this working yep we have this three-tiered approach but how well is this working uh committing uh continued commitment to bridge to civility we recognize

031that we do have some divisiveness in the school district in a number of areas and we want to continue to work with all families all students as it relates to having civil conversations when we disagree with with an approach we're looking to improve Community engagement around Dei uh curriculum and testing data we we do recognize there's disproportionality with some of our subgroups as we've looked at that data and we will continue to focus on that and then onboarding new teachers with professional development on culturally responsive instruction that we certainly have new staff coming in all the time now these aren't all new teachers but you know the HR department has hired a Pro 50 over 50 new hires that this past summer and so we continually have more staff coming in we need to continue

032ways to help them learn about culturally responsive instruction oh okay and then what will we be working on this is more of the focus for the future so as relates to culturally responsive instruction part of every building's teaching and learning goal uh that this is this is just good instruction part of the normal Fabric and we will continue to work on that the ongoing professional development in athletics we already spoke about new teacher onboarding within the curriculum review cycle that Cara does with the teaching and learning team and that spiraling policy and guidelines and expectations for implementation from day one and that Universal Design as a means to equity that how we design lessons helps to support all students when we look at advisory time or advisory type I think a number of you know

033that we've made a move for the Middle School specifically for next year but if we look back at Hornet time with a ninth grade specific onboarding for experiences and understandings of Dei the SMS advisory implementation of be good people curriculum a similar structure but it really is get it to get at that social emotional Wellness for our students that our public has been saying for the last couple years we need to do more and we want to do more in that area and then Elementary curriculum meetings to support responsible respectful behaviors and skills with our students when we look at District level learning there's a focus on early release days for 23-24 to enhance the tier one and two strategies to support positive behaviors and effective responsiveness so the focus is a lot on the

034behavior element the so because we do believe the behaviors that we have experienced greater behavior issues so to speak over the last couple years we do need to tie that social emotional Wellness part together with that and that will be addressed throughout this year and then data informed decision making we already mentioned disproportionality with some groups and then cross District conversations to align positive behavior supports and discipline practices we spoke a little bit about that and then finally finally SEL collaboration with internal practitioners to examine this system that'll be important excellent yeah okay and then finally I already spoke a little bit about the bridge disability but we want to continue to focus on these nine Norms that they are important and that they can be a great norming tool a protocol for the vast

035majority of our meetings for the vast majority of our discussions around work that we sometimes disagree about and I think that's something that we all need to recognize that as much as we want to say that well everybody should support this that's not always the case and we want to work to figure out ways to bring our community together and unite around areas that I do believe we can all agree on and that's how we best support students so with that said are there any questions that I can answer now and or I'm actually going to grab my notepad to answer any questions that may need some research thank you we'll just go ahead Jennifer stebbin thank you that was really interesting um I had just a few comments uh not big questions but in

036using the bridge disability engage directly and not relying on social media a lot of times in social media SEL is discussed and I saw that it was on your active what are we working on so I was wondering if you can just Define that from your perspective for our students on what scl is sure so we Define social emotional learning as primarily ways in which we can work well together ways in which we can understand each other ways in which we can deal with conflict all those things come together to provide for better conversation and if we can all understand each other more we feel like there will be less whether it's a name-calling bullying any of the behavior that sometimes we see because people not having a real good understanding of where everybody's background

037is or where they're coming from we believe that that's important to be doing as it relates to social emotional learning okay thank you very much um you're coming about connecting kids with a trusted adult always always positive and in the past you talked a little bit about kind of mapping you use the incoming ninth graders as an example but kind of mapping what activities clubs boards extracurriculars have they been involved in the past have we gone back to look at that to ensure that a lot of them or folks entering other grades are kind of connected with something to carry them forward and I asked this because it came up in another slide and I just wanted to remember how much I really enjoyed seeing that you said intentionally connect students um who are new

038with current students and I think that that's really important so just making sure that someone has a even a small Network or a trusted adult I really thought that that was a good idea so I was just curious if if the district had gone back and looked at that kind of mapping we are and so a link crew is is working on some of that making sure that those connections are in place however we need to do more with the individual student that may not have as many connections we do find that students that come into the high school with are already part of an athletic team or a club an organization they do feel more connected right off the bat at the high school specifically and so that we need to do more to

039find those students who don't have those connections and that's something that I'll certainly be working with the High School administration on awesome thank you and then the other idea was just uh around the elementary students you mentioned immigrant students specifically but really any student I will always use an opportunity to talk about our ptas and ptos and what a great job they do and they could be a resource for those students as well there's so many um you know engagement evenings that they could be a part of to really learn about their Elementary School community so thanks for adding that okay sure Mr Kirby I just want to make a quick comment I just want you to know that how much I appreciate you taking the time to engage in these conversations and to to

040get out there and to be you know a face for our schools and someone that you know the community can connect with you talked about connecting quite a bit so I just want you know for me to you I appreciate you doing this work and I yeah sure to follow up on that will you be doing the same sequence again this year yeah I would I would um people want to see us keep keep it going I know that they care about being listened to and so I would plan on doing the same setup in the spring again Dr gold uh yes thank you for doing these um I think we talked about this before privately but could you remind me of how the religious values groups were identified um we just sent out a

041spreadsheet that I asked if anybody was interested in participating in this group and then if they said that they were they left their email and we emailed them how did you define it uh we said people that have religious values that wanted to I don't know that we defined it further we didn't say a lot about yeah how you would Define it I was just curious I just wondered if there would be um any differences if you defined it as religious minorities or underrepresented religions um or if that would be a group that might be worth checking in with okay and likes of rising anti-Semitism in the country and maybe it's a different way to phrase it or to have two different groups it could be two different groups group together just just curious okay

042that's a good suggestion I can I can write that down but yes great uh I just wanted to um thank you but also thank Shannon because I know the two of you and I think even Kara were involved in in work um organizing and structuring and collecting feedback and reaching out and so I just I really want to acknowledge the work that you did and also thank Shannon I know that that she is doing other things now that I want to recognize the work that she dedicated so much time to last year um the other thing that um just came to mind as we were talking about the connections and um especially at the high school because that's where my lens mostly is with my own kids there and um just wanted to recognize the

043work that the teachers and facilitators not just teachers I guess it's staff too that they do to organize the link Crews and the web leaders and the the dedication that they have to developing those leaders in students and one thing that I know was a benefit to my kids when they were younger high school students and now continues to be a benefit as they are involved in link crew is the connection that they that the upperclassmen make with the younger students during Hornet time and I think when we can have those inner class connections and relationships and when they're built on starting with fun but then getting deeper during Hornet time that that creates another safe maybe not safe adult but a safe peer that that younger kids can go to when they're feeling like

044I know for my one of my own kids one of her fears going into high school was that she wasn't going to have a place to sit at lunch and her link crew leaders were able to not only assure her that she would have a place to sit but then check in with her to make sure that she had found a place to sit so I just really appreciate I know that there's there are trainings and things that um things that these facilitators teachers and staff go to to Really craft this experience for students and it pays big dividends for a lot of our students so thank you for the work that that they're doing to make those connections and and I think that that can be a model for perhaps um other other students

045that maybe aren't a part of marching band or cross-country you know when those things are starting before school it really kind of envelops those kids and so link does that for our younger kids but maybe creating opportunities for those kids who haven't found their niche in the high school or middle school yet so thank you for that work sure Susan Tim I don't even have to raise my hand Michael here that's my earlier I think yes yes um so I I do have a question um and a couple comments um but you had mentioned uh two or so people signed up for the lgbtq plus session and you invited them to the parents of transgenders transgender children task force did they attend was it kind of the same format that you had for all of

046the other listening sessions uh no it wasn't the same format no they they did not and therefore I'm just getting feedback from those but the one thing we do need to work on is including more people in this standing group that I've been meeting with for quite some time this is a group of families primarily with transgender students and many of them are graduating or leaving the district and so we need to reinvest in some of our other families that want to participate in that we also need to figure out ways to when it comes to this listening session time that get more families that are interested in meeting with me regarding lgbtq conversation and so that is something we need to work on so you weren't able to pull from the same format you

047just just from conversations that have come up over time conversations through our task force okay right I did not pool that information from the listening session specifically no okay um yeah I think it'll be good good to look into how to um get those people because I know one one of the sessions had one person and so if we had one or two um like you said meeting with them um is positive but um making sure that we get that voice as well from families right agreed um and then I um so I had a question about um because something did not sit well with me uh one of the comments which was some children also now identify any different treatment as racism even if it's not um was that kind of uh observation or

048more like that was actually said uh that was something that Shannon uh put together for for the feedback okay so um I can't say that that was actually said that was a comment or comments that Shannon interpreted and then provided that as a like a bucket a bullet point related to that because when those sessions are going on it is somewhat important for somebody else to be a recorder because I'm trying to facilitate it and talk to the parents and I it's really it was really difficult for me because I did do one session without Shannon and I didn't do a very good job of capturing all the information so yeah and yeah obviously you if it's some you can't you know that doesn't um apply to all I was just curious about that comment

049um and then you know something really really powerful um that was said about um one lesson one handout one guest speaker will not impact everyone if it impacts one child it is working that one chat that is one child who won't slur their classmate um this kind of came up on the presentation on bullying and harassment um where you know one of the things that that we're doing is the advisory time um and so this is an example of you know the SEL um when we're talking about Dei and being inclusive and building this anti-bullying culture I mean that speaks to it right there um that you know even if it's one child who isn't using a slur um so you know it linked LinkedIn last time um to the to the board table here

050as we consider controversial issues um slash um uh instructional materials opt out that we also keep that in mind because things like this is being opted out of when we talk about seltei um and so hopefully people can't opt out of you know um The Bullying education piece when when somebody is a perpetrator I hope that's not going on but you know some something to think about when we're having the discussion later on um I think it speaks volumes I just want to thank you for uh putting a Universal Design for Learning at the top there on your professional development goals for the district I agree wholeheartedly that they are a pathway to equity uh Mr Austin anything right thank you well then thank you very much superintendo Lodge I appreciate it Rex Clary is

051on Deck I just wanted to make sure that Carolina Mateo know we'll never put you on the spot but if you ever want to comment or ask any questions student voice is super important so glad I'm glad to have students back at the table I told them that this evening we would let them slack a little and then and not put too much pressure on them I purposely said it after Steve sat down so he they didn't feel like they had to come Mr Cleary good evening again first uh slide number one I just wanted to give a shout out to the summer 2023 teamwork um so many people worked this summer to make this a success for uh next Monday the 28th from cleaning to teaching to coaching to hiring to payroll to transportation

052to training just there's so many groups that are here this Summer that people don't realize and um you know 10 years ago we may have used two buildings we were able to shut buildings down now we use all of our buildings you know pretty much all summer long so just a shout out to everybody that worked hard this summer to get the schools ready for Monday um one of the slide number three here is our Middle School transportation as many of you know Maple Road will remain closed from Michigan Ave to Woodland Drive also the railroad tracks until early December the original estimates were was late early October late September um they run into some complications and that's been extended we met with the administration from the middle school as long as Central Administration and

053we talked about how will people get to the middle school will they come down Industrial Drive or will they go Selena Arbor Road and come up Tebow will they Sloop around and take Woodland Drive to the stoplights to help we don't know but uh we took a stab at it so you're talking about the plan or the reality yeah and it changes every day next week there'll be flagging there'll be one lane available at bear bear Terrace between Woodland and text and Maple Road one lane they'll be flagging from nine to three PM so be ready for that piece um so the morning drop-off won't change too much they'll they'll still be coming a lot of people coming using using the front of the building that was mainly for special ed we will have General

054Ed now available to to move into that space as well it is two lanes so if people are unloading special ed and they'll be able to stop get out of the car this will take some time and we want everybody's patience for this um and then you'll be able to use the main Loop of course in the auditorium you'll be able to drop off at the west side of the gym at the middle school in the morning only where the change really takes place is the afternoon we will pre-stage our buses in the west auditor West gymnasium parking lot so those are our Middle School homebound buses their stage there they're waiting for the high school students to come from the high school our high school students will come in and they will fill in

055to the north side of the gymnasium where the transfer where it says transfer buses we've had we've got some concrete barricades or Mafia blocks in place now to protect student movement as our high school buses come in they will disperse to their middle school homebound buses as well stay and then the middle school buses that are waiting in line patiently will load onto those homebound buses to start their day we have 50 minutes between when the buses arrive and when we need to get back to the Pleasant Ridge Heritage Harvest and with the metals that doesn't change so how we get kids in and off the buses safely and efficiently is very important so we can make those times and make those building times to get the B run the second round of kids the

056kindergarten through the or young five through the fifth grader home as well um and so I don't know what Tebow Drive is going to look like we have a lot we don't we can't stack a lot of cars to turn left onto the city and Arbor Road I did meet with the city this week we talked about altering um stop lights at Woodland and Sand Harbor Maple in Woodland as well as a temporary light didn't get a lot of traction there but at least I ran that up the flagpole um we are they are in the works of putting a new stop light at the front of the middle school once this project is done we're working with the Washington County Road Commission and federal funds to get that a new stoplight and crosswalk at

057the front of the middle school so that's down the road but they are working on it um and I just again patience we're going to need some patience from parents and bus drivers as well and we'll get the week started and see where we're at uh Transportation bid day so our transportation bid day was um Tuesday August 15th we had 20 22 routes available and we had 13 route drivers show up to bid on the 22 routes um so we started the year off nine short um since June 10th of 2023 we've lost four drivers due to retirement medical or resignation and in the past we've been able to cover that with uh their operations staff all five people in my office our drivers and they do Drive we've got two grounds employees that one's

058driving morning and afternoons the other one's just driving in the mornings we've got some long-term substitutes but we just can't do it so for next week we will cancel two routes bus 62 and bus 79 and you'll see that communication start heading out tomorrow and also during next week we won't be able to offer any athletic Transportation until after five o'clock when our buses return they return about 4 45 5 o'clock and we'll be able to offer that Transportation at that time we are seeking Alternatives with Divergent Staffing Solutions we do have a meeting set up for them on Thursday they do have drivers available um but we have that's all we've heard from them so far so we are working on that to try to fill that as a stop Gap as a bridge

059to our new hopefully contract in the in the fall and our ability to recruit more drivers um and but we're looking but we're meeting with him on Thursday they still got to pass an orientation we've got to go through a background check um they've got to go through Celine area schools training it's one thing to drive a school bus but we want to be able to drive a school bus for Saline Area Schools um and we hope that bridge so we're just going to cancel two weeks this route we we hopefully we can get through this route and not cancel anymore um but if we do have to cancel more routes that info that cancellation will happen next Wednesday and it'll be rotating schedule the same two routes will not get canceled each week so

060Help Wanted come join our team any questions on that I did have a quick question the um you talked about the stop light I've been asked hearing from a lot of folks about stoplight on North Maple that's where you were talking about right North Maple does this also mean that they're going to be nope what's the stoplight you were talking about it'll be at the library middle school exit but it's got to be in conjunction with our new Bond work and how we just how we determine how we're going to enter and exit this campus off of Maple Road so I kind of put the brakes on it a little bit I want to design our ability to get students and stack cars on this campus better so we don't Stack Up on Maple Road

061to stop other people's traffic right um okay I I do have questions about sidewalks and so forth are they going to be installing a sidewalk as well or is this okay good yes that's all part of the plan because if there's anything that I've been asked about more than anything this year for the last year it's been that whole Transportation the busing of the drop-off so thank you for the hard work on this yeah the middle school I mean there's 15 minutes in the morning the 15 minutes in the afternoon we try to make it as safe as possible this building was built as a high school with kids driving themselves not parents coming to pick kids up and so that we didn't have a lot of cueing or stacking ability on this campus and

062that's something we're looking at right now is how we're gonna how we're going to make that happen you could always lower the driving age a few years yeah that sounds like a plan doesn't it all right thank you very much is anyone else on the board uh Susan thank you thank you um so the clever name Drive virgin Solutions I love it um is that something that um contract wise will have to come to the board at some point after those conversations or I don't believe so because it is a staffing it's not a contract whatsoever as soon as we're able to fill backfill those drivers with our own drivers we can separate so there is no long-term contract we do have a contract is what we're going to pay but we we're still fine-tuning

063that piece but I don't believe so okay Ms Miller Jennifer it's almost like edistaff so like a staffing agency so that's just as we need them they'll come to us but it's a little bit different than putting a teacher or a para or something like that in a classroom with another teacher because that doesn't that's normally not how it works in school bus drivers but that's how it'll be so quick question yeah I had two just quick questions the first one that I was wondering about um you said that Divergent has drivers that they can that that might work for to suit our needs um what is appealing for a driver going to something like Divergent instead of coming to a district uh wage okay that's what I wondered they are they're hired to drive

064they may be in our district in theory we're hoping that we have five five to drivers that show up and stay with us until we're we can backfill them quickly and move on to the next person that the salinary Schools employee um but they may drive for us for a week a month then they have to go to Canton or white in Westland um Belleville those are districts that are using them right now it's a macomb-based company out of Warren um very professional it's a different model than most because it does not require a contract okay and then I just I wanted to elevate something that you said too just that um I bus safety has been high on my mind recently and so I just really appreciate that you're not just bringing in a

065temporary driver but you are incorporating them into safety training and driver training and all of the things and expectations that we have for safety for our students so I appreciate that you added that piece to your presentation um to let us know that these drivers will be familiar with the expectations and safety regulations that we have here standards that we have here for our students so thank you for including them in that yeah and our drivers are professionals they're not going to put up with anything that's unsafe Tracy mulcer and Anita felcamp do a great job and they have very high standards running the day-to-day operations of the transportation department I really appreciate those those folks and my own kids had wonderful experiences on the bus and I trust that kids today are having wonderful

066experiences on the saline buses and so by bringing in these folks even temporarily it's important to me that we have that same kind of quality so thank you for doing that Tim Austin yeah so I first I want to thank you for all that you do and oversee because I feel like your department is understaffed I mean obviously we see that with the busing so you're dropping two routes and that's including all of you still driving is that correct well the first week I can't have uh Mrs mulcair or Mrs felcamp in a boss I have to have them coordinating overseeing um if what student misses a bus or how how we react to those situations I really need them running the day-to-day operations yeah because I see it being very difficult for your whole

067staff to be out driving buses I drove my bus today yes did you yes okay I practiced my bus today yes yeah and then the other thing is you know you hear a lot about and you see you drive in in I just want to give a shout out to the amount of work that you guys do also do on the grounds I know some people don't think the grounds are well kept and and maybe in some instances you don't somebody's not going to think so but um so I reached out to Rex earlier to find out a little bit more information so we maintain 140 acres and we have three and a half staff members doing that and of that um one of the grounds employees like you mentioned is driving a bus in

068the morning and in the evening and then one is only driving in the am so of those three and a half you don't even have really three and a half and so I think you guys do a tremendous job maintaining 140 Acres with basically no staff it started off as a you know slow spring actually I think I think it was a busy spring and then it died off there for a while and then now you can't even keep up with it we're more in athletic fields two to three times a week General grounds once a week Teacher moves staff moves stuff like that those guys do a great job and then you know we want our people to take vacations but we want to take vacations from June 10th to August 28th not anywhere

069besides that and so that we work through that as well as being short staffed because we you know they need their time to refresh and reju you know get rejuvenated for the next year yes I just really want to thank you for overseeing all this I think it's difficult to to run any operation when you're this short on staff and Shout out they're kind of the unsung heroes of the Saline schools they do a great job they do a great job right now so you talked just now about wages being a determining factor for Divergent versus here so how much research are we doing to make sure that when I know that we negotiate these things that we are competitive with the Divergence of the world and other school districts and are we running spreadsheets

070are we running like I'm I guess I'm wondering how do we know how we compare and stack up so we can compete well we do have spreadsheets as far as the actual wage but the benefit package and the pension if you're in if you are a Michigan State of Michigan employee versus a privatized employee and the pro and the insurance each one's a little bit different we do have that information available as we go into collective bargaining with ESP and we've looked at a lot of different things to factor in what we need to be to be competitive with districts in our area and we're just not there right now that the piece of being of driver are they getting insurance we don't know that um are they working 30 hours a week to be

071eligible for insurance we don't know that so there's different factors that go into that it's more than just the wage but if the wage is determined Factor we're looking at ways to be more competitive in that market without having to privatize that's what we don't want to do well oh great real quick so that first slide just wanted to amplify the things that you gave to that whole group and what others have said it's very clear that group cares a lot about kids but it's also very clear that you're very thoughtful about our families as well in terms of safety but also the scheduling of those cancellation routes when you have to make hard choices like that knowing that you're trying to not put that burden on the same families every time I think is

072is really thoughtful so thank you very much if there's anything anybody can do to amplify the call for safety around Celine Middle School I mean I know that everybody would would do it at least two times a week last year I would see kids jump out of cars um in the in the in the drives at the stop sign right before you have to make the right to go out towards the library just places that people should not be letting kids out of their car so parents also in garrityans also need to do a really good job about safety it's it's not just making sure the drivers of the buses and everything it's it's all of us too because we could do a better job definitely and in this diagram you'll see that the person

073though as we as football comes out and they get ready and they walk across the crosswalk there and we're monitoring this of course next week um one person you know strategically located there's going to be more than one person I can assure you um but it has great visibility of both sets of buses both the middle school buses and the high school transfer buses we really feel like standing in that intersection we've worked with the senior center to let them know that they need to end programs by 2 30 and not start till 3 30. so Nancy's been great with that as far as you know this is what it's going to look like back here we just need to work in collaboration with you guys with the senior center to make sure we keep

074kids safe at the end of the day so we feel good about it we feel it's going to be really safe we don't know how it's going to transport related timing so but we will find out on Monday appreciate that um when I first moved here 16 years ago the first one of the first administrators I met was uh Mrs chekowitz who is ushering me into the middle school parking lot so yeah all those administrators thank you I saw that smile thank you very much Mr Cleary thank you we have one discussion item tonight which we are going to call a first reading of the uh issue that's been discussed several well once at this table and for many many weeks with the policy committee and uh tonight uh Jenny Miller uh secretary Miller will

075be facilitating the discussion of policy 2240. thank you it's funny um when I was leaving work today I said that I had a board of ed meeting and my principal asked what it was what was on the agenda and I told her and she was like where are you working on that last year I said indeed we were yeah it's been a little while yeah so tonight is the first reading and in the board packet that was online there was a copy of the draft for first reading and then also um because I know that the trustees and appreciate the red and green so the red and green copy is there um and was sent to all of you to preview ahead and then lastly we had some correspondence because at our last discussion of

076this material's opt-out policy um there was a request for it to be run by legal one one last time so that information that correspondence was also sent to trustees to consider we did the policy meeting did meet the day after our last regularly scheduled board meeting to discuss this last bit of legal uh legal counsel and decided to bring this current draft forward to the board for discussion tonight for a first reading and I guess that's the the introduction that I'll make for now um because we've had time to to read over this but I do want to extend the microphone to my colleagues on the policy committee specifically I know that trustee gold had sent some words for um some some thoughts around the legal counsel piece that was that was the latest given

077to us um so if it's okay I'll open I'll extend the microphone to open the floor to Dr gold first okay yeah oh it's fine I guess I should give some context so I think you're asking me to speak specifically as to our decision at the last uh policy committee meeting to go ahead and um and bring this to the board table uh in the way that it was read uh in sort of uh disagreement I guess I don't know disagreement but uh we did not take the we took a lot of pieces of legal advice we did not choose to take the very last piece of legal advice I think partly because that language had been run by legal on a couple of Prior occasions and it was not flagged um and uh also

078because the the language that the attorneys used was not particularly strong I don't think uh it was like well this might be an issue so um I had some running comments and I think for clarity I'll just probably read what I had said at the policy meeting so uh I'm sorry if it's a little bit I'm looking for it now I'm sorry if it's a little bit uh repetitive give me a second I I guess I can explain too that when we we had sent um this would have been the third time that we had um gotten legal counsel the first time was Rob dietzel from from Troon and then Jennifer Starlin and then this last time it was Jennifer Sterling again and in this final reading Jennifer Sterling asked us to consider the phrase

079should be considered with respect to individual circumstances and she questioned um whether we should include that or not and in in a part of her um in a part of her comment around that she did say that um if that were to be challenged she felt that it would stand up in court but if it were to be challenged it could be costly in court so um that part kind of gave me pause too because it I kind of felt like it wasn't like the typical legal advice that is like this violates these laws or this precedent um and so it wasn't really clear cut as as other legal advice has been yes with that I'll just read my comments um you know I'm loathe to disregard the advice of counsel I feel that leaving

080the reference to individual circumstances in the policy is warranted first I think that the policy is meant to set Vision as it has been stressed to the board the administrative guidelines will do the heavy lifting that the educators will develop but we have heard from our members of our community that they would like to have an opt-out policy despite the advice of legal counsel our community has asked us to provide a mechanism by which students may be opted out beyond the statutory reasons covered by the law regarding sexual education or under the religion policy therefore the very essence of our intent in creating the policy was to create a mechanism by which people and teachers Educators parents family students could take personal circumstances into consideration because there's already statutory president for other reasons for opting

081out so that is part of the language regarding individual circumstances our goal is to ensure that we're providing the best education possible and this I think will put the focus of the policy on where it belongs the individual educational experience of a student versus like any large larger societal issues it's really trying to say we're looking at individual students and what teachers and families decide together is best I would like the spirit of the policy to make it clear that the district does not support in Mass opt-outs based on any one agenda but the district does support listening to and working with families so for that reason I believe the wording is worth keeping and I don't think that it's clear that every threat of a lawsuit has any actual legal Merit so I don't

082think it was wise to rewrite the policy based entirely on fear of unfounded legal action thank you any follow-up regarding that language trustee Estep sorry I was just trying to I was listening to your last the last thing that you said um so I was like trying to um so um you just put me on the spot I was like you can we can Circle back I just didn't know regarding that particular language and that decision to leave it in there if that particular piece if you wanted to speak to that or we can come back to I didn't mean to put you on the spot yeah um and and it's kind of a I guess broader um maybe discussion for late well comment later um but you know I I had pointed out during

083the public meeting um that Miss Starlin went back to um and reference the um three and a half page document that we received from Rob dietzel um and and so and I think in the past some of her her stuff like discussions with um uh Steve um have like referred to like made reference to that specific um item that he uh had written for us um and so that that I think kind of a conversation about um for example she said I see a lot of room for error um with talking about the individual circumstance but I feel like she's talking more broadly like you know our um and I'm reading from this because it was read at the policy meeting um so like granting some but not all opt-out requests um May draw a

084Viewpoint discrimination claim um so it says my fear with this policy language is that it doesn't provide direction to administrators on when requests can be granted and when requests can be denied and so I it seems to be like a theme that it has kind of come up that um you know we need to have neutral application um and then it said anything but neutral will expose the district to Legal liability we've talked about like the mandatory versus permissive so even with this component um with the individual circumstances which you know I I don't necessarily think should be taken out based on this because in other areas you know it's still you know you fill out a form in the educational team is going to be considering regardless um but we don't have strong language

085like language to kind of guide the administrative guidelines so um you know honestly I feel like it's kind of like uh you know if if we don't have that outlined um that uh you know it's putting it's putting legal liability on our staff members to and how they make these decisions um regardless of the words of you know an individual circumstance and things like that so that's just something I've kind of honed in on that you know we we don't have to legally um require um it at all so it was a conversation of like well we can put in whatever then if we don't have to legally require it um but you know there's still This legal liability um component to it regardless um and so I guess we do have the freedom to

086put these words in there but still a risk I don't know so I I went back to and maybe many of you did too I went back to the original document from Troon that we had received from um Rob dietzel on in May it was May 23rd and um a couple of things that I kind of Drew out from that in regards to this conversation a couple of things that Rob had had shared with us the first is that he did feel that this policy was written narrow in scope which was positive because it it does provide guidance for educators and specifically specific items that can be included in opt out it limits um it limits the the impact to a wider scope of students in fact it eliminates that and it's only we it

087specifically says that it can't impact the education of other students and then the other thing too that I went back to is kind of what Susan was referencing too but um he specifically talks about Viewpoint um and protected status discrimination and then he goes on to talk about the permissive versus mandatory language so one of the things that I think it was trustee gold raised is that the first piece of advice from legal was that we not have the ability to opt out that we don't offer that we don't offer an option for opting out it's not legally required and um and so their first legal Viewpoint was to say don't do it because you could open yourself up to um you know potential issues or people might perceive potential issues however we've heard from

088a number of parents and and especially we've heard from teachers who are navigating this without much guidance and I shouldn't say without much guidance I know our teaching and learning team and Steve have been really supportive but there isn't like a universal um universally implemented process or procedure and so we do feel like or at least I feel like I'll speak for myself I do feel like this does begin to create a process for that partnership with parents and teachers and it doesn't put teachers in the hot seat it invites a team of Educators along with a parents to partner and make decisions for their students it also doesn't allow for blanket opt-outs so I've heard people say you know that it could impact our advisory times and the the policy and the accompanying guidelines

089are very draft guidelines are very clear that that opting out of all of hornet time is not an option that that would be that that would be a you know a discussion that parents and their educational team could discuss around certain topics materials I guess I should say around specific materials so for me I feel like this is um offering the support that um teachers and parents and public comment and in emails have um have requested so for me that language maintains the intent of the policy however I do feel if the board feels strongly about removing that language I don't I would rather have that language removed than to not see this policy in support of the Educational Learning Experience for our team and for our teachers and students so that's my kind of

090stance on this I had a conversation with someone around whether or not we are kind of not taking the advice of the experts and I feel like we already are making decisions based on the individual needs of our school district and we are the experts well we are not our our team around us is the experts and they've given us feedback on this and so I do think we are taking advice of experts even if we don't always take the direct advice of legal and again as Lauren pointed out this was Rob dietzel took a look at it Jennifer Starlin took a look at it and then at the last time that we saw legal counsel this came up so the first two rounds this wasn't language that was um that was flagged so I

091do think that it it took a little bit and perhaps perhaps um we asked in abundance of legal counsel for this policy but I do think it was an important one so I guess I'd just saying that I would see but uh you know not having a policy doesn't mean that requests aren't going to happen you know people are going to still have requests and have requests possibly under other policies and then we may have a patchwork of each teacher is struggling trying to decide on their own how to best maintain a good relationship with the family and how to be accommodating but it's not too accommodating and you may have differences from one classroom to another and one teacher to another and I'm no lawyer but I do know a lot of lawyers and

092um that doesn't seem like it's all that legally awesome either you know um having no policy at all isn't I don't think I mean it just means that we the board have our hands out of it but I think the teachers are still left in a similar position and families are still left not knowing what is acceptable and one family might get one answer from one teacher one year and a different answer from a different fam teacher another year and so I think the idea of having a policy is to have some um you know framework and again this policy very specifically references not leave not impacting the education of other students not taking out large portions of the curriculum and being sensitive to individual circumstances um and I mean as students are treated as

093individuals it's very hard for me to imagine how that is going to necessarily be a bad thing you know and if there's no policy or the policy doesn't even say that we're going to treat students as individuals it doesn't mean that people aren't going to be making judgment calls all the time that could be interpreted as Viewpoint discrimination whether or not the policy has that one phrase in it or not seems sort of beside the point it's going to be how the policy is carried out that is going to either work or not work you know I think really so oh just one second I wanted to start our discussion um around that piece since that was kind of the newest piece since this has been to the table but I do want to after

094Susan has an opportunity to speak to that piece I do want to open up our discussion to the to the policy as at large too so um so get your questions ready estup sorry yeah um so just to be clear because and you did clarify when you were saying we um you clarified that it was you because um I I haven't heard from Educators besides like you know talking to people who have talked to Educators um so I don't know if that's something like I missed or maybe you all the two of you like people reached out to you or whatever um I I really haven't heard that um and then when I went back um through like the comments that we had actually last year there were a lot of public comments that we

095received when we discussed it in general the policy um that there was about I mean a lot of repetitive people who come speak but there was about 15 or so who were um you know super like let's keep this policy supported um and a lot of the things that came out um from those people who spoke um were very um harmful to the lgbtq community and based on I think we heard maybe some come to the table here as well so as far as like and then I know there was about half so it's like half and half really I think that I counted out that are saying that you know it if we have this policy it needs to State um that and and it's not part of this policy right now um but

096that um you know the that um you can't opt out based on um bias against like an identity and that's something that hasn't been accepted even though we're legal we're offering um this draft right um anyways but um so whenever we I guess I see it differently whenever we talk about the amount of people who have asked for this policy and what that means like it's not just as a whole like this specific draft either so um just kind of um making sure that we think of all perspectives there um I get I guess I hadn't like I'll do my statement after you start the conversation I guess because yeah yeah okay um I don't know if there's any clarification around that particular piece but if if uh if we want to open the floor

097to a broader discussion around the first reading of the proposed policy that you received we can begin that I have a super 50 000 foot question okay so it might be a good place to start because it's super basic I don't sit on the policy committee for folks who who know or don't know that um and so I guess my question I'm just seeking to understand in this reading and and gather gather information so my first question is I went back to some of the emails in may as well and saw some of those drafts and I guess my first question is are Neola policy book online if we look at 2240 it looks very different than this yes can you can you speak a little bit to um and may looks much more like

098this so can you speak a little bit to the evolution of what we have online and what we have in front of us not getting into like specific but but the language overall is very different so I was just wondering for for any comments right so the the current policy is very different in the intent of the policy is very different um and when we originally I mean goes back to the beginning of my time on the board but I know it extends even before that this policy has been brought to the table as um as one that needed to be reviewed um and uh needed to um needed to be discussed more broadly and so we reached out to Neola we reached out to I think president correct me if I'm wrong but we

099reached out to True Neola um and several others to ask if they had done work around this because it seemed to be a topic of conversations if you Google controversial issues in schools and I know I work in another school district this has been a topic of conversation and so that I believe correct me if I'm wrong president McVeigh but when you were the chair of the committee I believe that Neola said oh that's a really good idea let us know if you come up with anything um and so they've never heard from and they were never heard from again um and so so we put put our minds together we collected Community feedback and came up with the draft that is in front of you after many many months um and what I would

100propose is if this policy is um after a second reading is voted out and accepted by this board that we would rescind our current 2240 and that when we send this to Neola they would give it a new number that helps to clarify because um it's super helpful when we see the red and green and our markup copy um but it was red and green off of the May draft versus this so I just want to clarify yes exactly thank you trustee Estep I saw your hand too do you want to go ahead now or do you want to wait yeah I mean I I mean it's not question based so right if everybody wants to okay we can do questions then then or how do you want to okay okay um yeah uh did

101you know that since 2021 five states have passed bills that allow parents to opt their students out of any lessons or coursework that mention sexual orientation or gender identity two of these states that allow opt-outs have now taken it even further by adding don't say gay or trans laws Florida and Arkansas are those two states um kind of to whenever you type in controversial issues or opt out and it's coming up and being talked about is because of this very reason the anti-lgbtq um rhetoric and harmful laws that are being created so the policy is not required by state law legal has cautioned against it the board is I assume choosing to to keep the policy in general um my suggestions revisions not allowing opt out based on bigotry against protected classes will not be

102considered the advice that's been given to us has been repeatedly focused on lgbtq versus religion in fact the last examples from Starlin use the terms homosexual couple and then the next example was traditional family um so it's very much been centered on that and I I can't ignore that um lgbtq families have requested for the removal of this policy since late 2018. after the public notification and opt out for the reading of I am Jazz the practice of families opting their children lgbtq or not out of inclusive curriculum which we've heard from our community who want this policy um out of lgbtq race ethnicity Dei SEL specific individuals who teach those things and support that um that's harmful for all children to be opting them out of um I do not support this policy how

103it's been implemented and especially without revisions to disallow bias and bigotry in our schools um I so I I want to mention um that it is not acceptable to Center religion and discussions of a public policy for public schools and so I yep that's I mean you all have been aware of um where I've come from I've actively helped work on um you know the policy to refine it and that's just what I do with policy but um I I still stand here thank you I I appreciate those comments and I think that it is very tough the um protected classes language it was uh suggested to us that it would be very hard to weigh various protected class requests but I do think we also heard from the community the one that like stood

104out to me this week was the the the student who commented her family who commented I can't remember in a video that was sent about using the policy to avoid calorie counting because it was a student who was struggling with an eating disorder we heard I thought actually quite a few examples of the kinds of individual circumstances that I referenced in terms of families requesting for reasons that were not um they wouldn't be not the loudest voices but that we're not um purely around excusing from for SEL or and I really really hope that the way the policy is implemented in the guidelines would not allow for missing a hornet time or anti-bullying or um you know I I really hope that they will be narrowly construed and used because if we start hearing from

105the community otherwise then I think we would have to definitely readdress but I do think that the uh the idea that that the community was the people in the community asking for a policy were only asking for opting out of lgbtq issues was not how that's not what I was feeling like I was hearing from the entirety of the community though I grant that there was a lot of that Framing and I'm not sure what to make of Miss starling's language which I agree was offensive but it's like um so are we supposed to listen to her and not have a policy because or listen to the lawyers and not have a policy because that would be because that was it like if her language was bad there then the Lang that language was used

106in the individual circumstances memo right so that was the only part that I was talking about is whether or not we leave the individual circumstances language in the policy we've created and I definitely have heard from teachers that they would like to see a um and you know from our teaching and learning team and that a framework would be helpful um but I'm not unaware of the Nationwide uh Horrors being perpetuated on the lgbtq community and the laws but I don't think that this policy is doing that and if it is implemented in those ways I'd be Gravely upset in the first one standing on a table to yell about it thank you Nick uh someone else Brent yeah I'll I wanted to listen for a few minutes and I'll weigh in a little bit

107now um first of all you know I do I see this policy and I've said this before really is like a parent School partnership policy okay and uh I'm glad to see the old 2240 will be retired right because I'm glad to see that controversial I've already skipped how I feel about that um the one thing that I will tell you that I it shouldn't surprise anybody when I talk about how much expertise has mattered to me and so for example when we were talking about medical decisions and we were valuing the expertise of those individuals of the health department and and so I will flat out tell you that my initial preference does lie with the idea of if our legal partners are saying that we shouldn't have that language that my initial instinct

108is to say I would take that out that said overall I would like to see 2240 be a positive experience or and and I think there's so much good here that um I guess how I'm how I'm how I'm coming to this is I could take it I guess either way because what I would say is this I respect the work of the policy team who went through this and who looked at this and said this is language that we've debated we've engaged with our community and multiple times we've had evening and multiple meetings we've dealt with this for a long long time and you have right and so I guess I would say that I respect the work of the policy team and I would not I would not vote I would not vote

109nay just based on that is what I would say uh you know and then I guess the other thing I would say and we just kind of touched on this is that you know I I do think we need 2240 as it's written here because if I put my educator hat on the the new 22 for the instructional materials opt out then this policy and Structural Materials opt out one of the things I really like about it is it you know it trusts Educators as professionals and it empowers Educators as professionals to be leaders in their classrooms about the materials that they select and so like there's language in here about Saline Area Schools Embraces diversity and inclusion and about students being able to see themselves in the curriculum that the District offers and being

110able to you know reflect and consider alternative viewpoints I want that for my kid right I want that for both my children so I guess what I would say is I greatly respect the fact that this instructional materials and opt out policy whatever number it might be called right like does that for educators because it allows them to now have some framework and some ways in which they can now implement this and now we're gonna have administrative guidelines that stand behind them and say like so now if I'm an educator in a classroom and I want to try and I want to do this I feel empowered to say I can and for me that's where this kind of lies in my support so that's what I'll say for now thank you Tim yeah so

111um you know a lot to read here I guess I guess my thought on this is it is it is important that we have an opt-out policy for our community I mean parents I think uh whether we want to agree on how we raise our kids or not that's their right so I think that's important I also think if this policy may not be perfect and I don't think it'll ever be perfect for any single one person we're going to have to find a way to make it work for everybody and I think that's important I think this this um this does it I mean so I I question some things in there like uh only accepting a district opt-out policy is that gonna legally be okay I don't know um but this is a

112start in in in the the guidelines when we go to the guidelines at the end of the day we don't want any child that a parent is option out of any kind of program to feel weird when they leave or whatnot so if if done right it shouldn't affect anybody else so it shouldn't matter what one person thinks they should be hearing or they shouldn't be hearing um because it should be done seamlessly and so so therefore I I don't think it matters and I think it's important I think it is about an individual right I just I want to clarify a couple of things that we've heard from legal just um some things that you said just because we have it from legal so so I can offer it to you it's not my

113own opinion so the first is the legality of only accepting miscellaneous schools opt-out form that is legal we do have backing um to to do that and it actually helps us because when there are multiple different forms coming from different people it's it's more difficult for us to operationalize um and uniformly Implement a policy so legal did actually they they liked that idea a lot that that was again narrow narrowly focused the the opto option the other thing is and I know this is controversial I'm just relaying the information that was given to us from Troon in terms of what what is a right afforded by law opting out is only a right under those multiple items that we mentioned back in May and we listed those things um and I can I can list

114them again for you but in terms of opting out of other material it actually is not a right that's legally afforded unless it falls into one of those those categories so that is why the legal is saying you don't need to have this policy but we are considering it an active partnership with parent well I am considering it and and people that I've talked to are considering it an act of partnership with parents and I think that what it affords is some consistency and the other thing that I appreciate about it is that it opens up a conversation for us to understand the perspectives that might be different than our own and so when parents can have an opportunity to talk with Educators Educators can see parents in a different light and parents can see

115those Educators in a different light and maybe they still don't agree at the end of the day but they've had that conversation and they can appreciate the humanity of the other person on the other end of the table That's My Hope in this policy okay trustee Easton yeah that that was one um concern that I did have and I think brought up even though I have a couple every time I see I'm just kind of like Michael I see something and misspelled or whatever and I'm like ah so I do have some some of those um but but to to the point of um what like rights federally and state that you know um that are already there um I know that some of that language was in our or is in our current policy

116um but didn't move over to this policy and so that that was kind of a concern that I had um with and actually probably plays into um clarifying what what Starlin was saying here that you can't you know opt out of like um you know um uh exam or something you know um so I didn't know if that's some language that to consider putting in to make that clearer or we just trying to keep it broad anyways I thought that was why we had decided to go with the calling the policy instructional materials to make it clear but you cannot opt out of a teacher a a specific teacher based on their identity like this was pretty narrowly you couldn't opt out of an entire you know exam instructional materials is defined in the policy

117that that was my understanding is that that was how we were narrowing it was by by focusing on the instructional materials I can just as fresh eyes not having seen this um until recently I I did not read it as opting out a teacher either and I would not agree with that I didn't I don't think I said that but like that's an example you were I wasn't talking about that no just um I'm the specific ones that were kind of listed was um because instructional materials would also fit under which that's something I think we need to put um reference the sex ed right um that that's a whole like families can opt out um uh in a different process than this would be um that that's already set um and then um yeah

118there's the like surveys and things like that um but also um let me see instruction on symptoms of disease instruction on child sexual abuse um and then yeah so I mean there are some kind of instructional uh material type things that are more like well I guess that's the right too but then there's also um like I said the testing and things like that um that's more clear that that wouldn't be possible or like required curriculum through the state and that's in here somewhere I think like those numbers so what Susan is referencing is in the first document that we received from Troon back in May it lists very specifically five um legally required um the the legal requirements to allow parents to opt out so she mentioned the right to opt out of sex

119education the right to opt a student out of surveys the right to opt students out of instruction or material or sorry instruction under the characteristics or symptoms of a disease the right to opt a student out of instruction on um sexual child sexual abuse the right to be free from compulsory physical exams or medical treatment and then lastly it goes on to further explain that there might also be some um changes in curriculum or changes in materials due to accommodating a student's disability or religion so those are federal laws so they mentioned those so so if you wanted to go back and look at those it is on page two of that document from Troon and can can I read real quick what our current policy says that I guess kind of encompassed that maybe

120um sure that the student however will not be excused from participating in the course or activities mandated by the state so I get and so I guess it was broad right broad enough that I don't think it's referenced within the policy but I don't know if it's worth maybe adding something like that or keeping that piece I don't know yeah I just wanted to to bring that up oh so I'm sorry I misunderstood so you're wondering if we should add that piece back in because because the state mandated curriculum is that yeah okay okay so what is what is the state mandated curriculum that yeah okay well I would imagine that that would be part of the administrative guidelines right that when the teaching and learning team was deciding which that would be part of

121that that it there was a required teaching topic that was part of the curriculum the teaching the learning Department would have to find another way to teach that if they felt they could otherwise they would need to say we can't you can't opt out of that part because there's no method of us meeting the need another way that that scenario could happen yeah and I I guess with that and talking about protecting our staff legally um I feel like us putting like legal stuff in the administrative guidelines is like the exact opposite of like like that's where the policy should state it so then um it's very clear because the uh administrative guidelines are kind of they could change at any moment and how they're interpreted and things like that so I just want to

122make sure that it's like legally as sound as can be is kind of what I'm bringing bringing up on that component I I'll just I just wanted to say that we do have some policies that mention um the requirements for graduation um which we definitely could state it again in this policy but there are other places that give guidance around um the Michigan Merit or required curriculum but definitely we have had redundancy in policies before so if that's something we have but I'm not sure it's necessary here at this time it might we may find that it is okay when this first part of me when this first came up about 16 17 months ago the second time it came up I I naively thought it would be fairly straightforward and it appears not to

123have been and I preach so I have listened very closely to the arguments that trustee Estep has put forward and I have done a lot of research and had a lot of conversations privately and and I appreciate you allowing me to sit in the last two meetings just to sit at the back and listen because I was starting to lose the thread of the discussions especially when it came to Legal so I want to thank uh trustee gold for a couple of things it's for clarifying and this is all you've all added these words a few times I wanted to say um some of my concerns were addressed this evening is the policy too broad apparently according to our lawyers the policy is narrow enough it limits impact to a wide range of students so

124this is good um I also appreciate uh that the teachers are not being placed in the hot seat from the beginning of hoped that this policy would not be a burden to our teachers and I and I still am optimistic and I think that one of the reasons it won't be a burden is because of the leadership team who will be addressing each and every one of the occasional opt-outs that come up and I want to talk about that in just a second finally um we do have a number of policies at the bottom including policy 9130 which addresses materials and and so forth in in the schools and how one may get out of those opt out of those materials um and as Dr gold noted this policy does help us to avoid a

125patchwork of policies and it's and it does a it goes a long way toward creating a framework um I also in everything that I've heard from you Susan and I appreciate the concerns uh trustee I appreciate your concerns I also started doing a lot of Investigation to what are other reasons uh the reasons I tried to opt out of things in uh in high school I myself and it's it happened several times um I went through the first frog dissection and thought well that's that's not going to happen again and then I found out that fetal pigs were around the corner so uh thank you for science teachers everywhere I'm looking at you Kirby and I thought I I don't want to do it and I so I sought recourse and opted out and I

126think I just had a head cold that day you know about this at all I found 38 separate reasons that parents can legitimately opt their kids out and some of them made absolute sense I'm not even counting the calorie counting which was oh 39. and I'm sure there are more uh so some of them are heartfelt and extremely difficult and what I like about this policy and from what I the sense I got from the administrative guidelines that I've been able to see early drafts is that we start a conversation with the parents if you have a concern let's talk with the teacher let's talk with the administrators we're not just hitting any eject button and leaving the teacher is saying well here's why we're approaching this let's have a conversation and it's these conversations

127I've heard at a couple of places here an active partnership with parents um an essential conversation all of this is really why we're here it's about education and um and not making an ideological stance shouldn't be about making an ideological stance and as you alluded earlier Dr gold let's see how this goes if we find that things are not or if too many parents are opting out you've for those particular reasons some of which you mentioned it's time to reconsider the whole thing this is a long conversation that we've had and I the last and final thing I want to say about this through the end of this discussion I think it's near the end right is thank you to uh to secretary Miller thank you to Lauren gold thank you to Susan eastop for

128everything you brought to the table this was not it it's not over yet and I'm sure we're going to hear but with two superintendents from now are going to be talking about this Dr Lodge and they'll look back on these notes and say wow they they made a stab good try but I appreciate that the efforts I really do and um and I'll just draw my conclusions now just to build on what you were saying I just want to want to say that for my own personal um part that if if this policy is accepted and we move forward with this policy it doesn't mean that it's put to bed for me we do have quarterly meetings with the superintendent and I will plan on asking like how's it going are we noticing any Trends

129um what are what some of the feedback that's being received and I hope that the community will continue to give us feedback as we work through this and that our policies are Dynamic and such that we have a policy working policy committee that can return to these and make revisions as as needed and so I don't think that this is you know locked in cement when we're finished that that this is something that is ongoing and needs to have conversation continue around it as we notice and recognize the ways that it's being implemented okay any final final questions or thoughts okay trustee Estep and then if anyone else and then we'll wrap it up until the and then okay then trustee seven and then we will um look forward to a second rating I think

130if that's what president McVeigh decides okay um so there is a trend so I want to mention that there hasn't been a trend and that's why it's kind of been this policy since 2019 has been kind of pending and not taken up um because the original suggestion as we all know was for the removal of it um and finding out like you know and and we came back and and obviously got you know that it is we can have it but it's not legally required that kind of thing um so there has been a trend of you know opting out of um the the topics I I have mentioned um so that's actually its main existence of why it's been a topic of conversation from the get-go there are um within the policy again it

131says parents Guardians and students have a right to inspect instructional materials which is in policy that students have a right as well um and then so and this is to the 18 and older so we we had said um if after careful review of these instructional materials a parent Guardian student identifies um that is object personally object help me out object yes yes that the parent Guardian student and then it says 18 or older so I know there is like that first sentence is accurate right that um any student regardless under 18 can and I know via legal they added the 18 or older um so I I just do we need to take something out there or at like so we did have 18 and older after the first um piece and then when

132we re-looked at policy it doesn't say that you have to be 18 or older to inspect material so they have the right to inspect material but they don't have the right to opt out unless they're 18 or older but um in that one sentence so not the first sentence that makes sense right that's um but the second one has after if after careful review it it still says student and doesn't have the 18 or older so should we yeah we probably should put the parentheses in there yeah I can't remember we did have it um in one point and then we have it yeah in the sentence but maybe we should put it at the Betty's putting it in right now thanks okay thanks I count that as like a scriveness right like that's it

133thank you yeah yeah all right thank you for catching that um using your language I think I think that was it is one of the best words I have learned when it comes to editing these things uh scrivener's issue errors yeah yeah just one more thing um at the last paragraph instructional materials um there's parentheses so it says that last sentence there of that paragraph um it says to and from question mark in the parentheses yeah I think when we were transporting it over there had been a comment from Lauren that got that got um it was a comment for edit so the the suggestion is to change the two to from so Betty can okay thank you that would make it more grammatical thank you doctor I keep saying doctor because of Dr gold

134sorry trustee Stephen vice president it's okay I'll take it thank you Jennifer is just absolutely fine um so thank you for all of the pre-reads and the hard work from the policy team um I enjoyed hearing what everyone else thought I'm comfortable having this move forward a lot of the things that I wanted to hear about were already addressed so I wanted to thank Susan for the really um the real statements about um uh opting out identities and and the discussion of Dei so thank you I also wanted to thank Lauren because I also have heard about eating disorders and other comments with regards to this opt out so recognize that there are medical situations there are Trauma from assault there are all sorts of things that are also playing into here that the families

135need to have conversations about that might be affecting a possible opt-out it's not one category or another it's it's probably several so I appreciate that I am I've always wanted to change the name of his policy um people people and situations aren't controversial topics can be critically debated um there's a big difference and I also appreciate in the pre-work um Steve's comment about um confidence in having strong administrative guidelines and Trust in the teaching and learning and team to take this forward and to support staff appropriately so I look forward to whenever it shows up next all right well thank you for a healthy conversation tonight and for your comments I know that I am listening intently and will continue to listen and listen to um listen to public comment and uh you know people

136if people want to reach out I have had private conversations I've had email conversations and phone calls and in-person conversations and I know a lot of other people here have too so we're always open to continuing that and we'll look forward to when um president when and president McVeigh decides to move this to a second reading you're giving it to me Administration board updates now thank you foreign yes I have a few I want to personally thank the human resources department for onboarding over 50 staff members this Summer that is a tremendous amount of work and the whole department has done a great job in um sort of rapidly moving people into the organization and then that that onboarding process involves quite a few stops leading to professional development and then having them ready to

137start it's an ongoing process for Kurt and the HR team so thank you very much and we also want to welcome all the new staff members linear school is a great place to work and we're really excited to get the school year started tomorrow is our our opening day for those who don't realize for for our staff and they come back tomorrow along with we have some Elementary open houses tomorrow at evening so we're excited to get the year started and then we'll be eager to see all the students back on Monday August 28th I do want to point out some important changes and updates for the 23-24 school year and Jackie Martin our Communications and community relations the director she'll be sending these out to the community either later this evening or tomorrow morning

138and I wanted to more or less make sure everybody knows what they are most of them are positive but we already heard from racks this evening about the need to restructure some of our bus routes leading to the cancellation for the first week of school of a couple of routes and his team's working hard to try to figure out that stop Gap solution with Divergent and just better strategies to get more drivers who are you know permanently going to work for the saline school so we're they're working on it intently so that message will go out but another uh three other important messages that are very positive there will be free breakfast and lunch for all students this year that has been ongoing but that continues and that's that's great for our students and and

139for for um you know students and all the other school districts as well uh in addition we have cashless Athletics and concessions we've always had well for the last few years we've had cashless athletic ticket purchase but now we are going um that route with concessions and Miranda and team have worked to get that in place we continue to try to just make sure to maximize our usage of technology and so that will be more or less where people order something and they go to the concession stand and they pick it up with their name or ID number kind of like if you've ever been to Panera that's how it works you just pick stuff up on a calendar and then also we have some changes to our visitor check in at school buildings if

140you well we should hopefully people are starting to notice but there are kiosks at the front of the school buildings now and more or less what that does is allows the check-in process to begin before actually letting people into the vestibule into the school areas and we feel like this is going to be more efficient answer safer bottom line so we're going to start rolling that out I'm sure there'll be a few hiccups but we'll work through that as we want to continue to work on the Safety and Security of our school building so that's it for me thank you very much I'd like to start down the table from Dr gold to Mr Austin if that's all right if you have anything to add if you don't that's quite acceptable oh that's a shaking

141of the head okay um so um actually you do the sex ad Advisory board so um trustee gold and I attended the sex ed Advisory Board and it's the brand new one um and so and all three of our students who are on the um who've chosen to be on the board um were there and already contributing um to the conversation which was really cool we had a presentation um from the Washington area Council for children and they do some body safety training programs and all sorts of different programs and different age groups but something that actually the last the last meeting of the sex ed Advisory Board you know when their term uh right before their term was over actually unanimously oh my gosh um uh wanted to move forward with this um uh

142program and bringing it to the the board having the hearings and so um also this new group um they did did a presentation and um we'll be bringing it as well um with the Public Public hearings so look for information on that um so getting started right away um with the the new board um and then there are I think through the end of September I don't have the date but there are applications being accepted and will be reviewed um at the end of September for our Wellness committee and then also our diversity equity and inclusion advisory committee so there's some spots open on that as well so yeah have let people know to apply and I'm excited and looking forward to to helping with that process and seeing who applies and so okay trustee

143if I understood there's supposed to be a meet and greet with the seab is that coming up or is that was that what the meeting you were talking about no there won't be a meet and greet just the public hearings specifically are you referring to the names of the committee being announced yes I I'm not sure when yeah I think that'll be part of um part well yes Steve made that decision apparently there will be one it's just not been said okay thank you that's good yeah thank you I I worried that I missed it yeah short and sweet um we we thanked a lot of people in Rex thank you again for that that first slide with all of the hard work that's been going on and the shout out to HR and the

14450 plus new hires but I specifically didn't hear our athletic department called out and they are in the thick of things already um as of last week with mhsaa bringing us back last Monday um that team deserves a big shout out as well for all that they do for our kids and supporting them outside of the classroom and I know that that will be only Amplified as we return to school with all of our clubs coming back into play so go Hornets uh ongoing professional development I attended the masb summer Institute and if you know anyone from Ferndale School they just rocked a presentation on data and the Dearborn School District had a phenomenal group of students presenting as well on Thursday the 17th I attended an masb legal workshop online thank goodness um interestingly

145regarding Title IX issues the ink is still wet on some of the Supreme Court cases literally we're talking August 3rd was the most recent one so they're still blending in and looking at issues related to that also parent rights and Oma updates and things like that so it was it was an interesting time so keep them fresh uh I just wanted to quickly say that um I cannot be in attendance tomorrow for the opening Day celebration which kind of breaks my heart because when I was here it was one of my favorite favorite times um to meet with the entire School District um the staff and to reconnect with with friends and colleagues and just to have that overall feeling of the excitement around the first day of school so I'm sad that I will

146not be here I'm wishing all of of our staff and our colleagues the best as they launch a new school year um there is just something exciting about the beginning of the school year and I was just talking with a friend today who retired and um and I was saying that I think the first week or two of school like this PD week and then the week that students come back the first year that I retire I will have to be someplace else so that I'm not confronted with that because it is one of my favorite times of the year so thank you to all of the teachers who are working outside of their contract they are not paid during these days where well they are paid for a short like what a few hours

147um to set up their classrooms but many are spending days and and enlisting the help of their friends and family to set up their classrooms thank you to buildings and grounds and for all of the work that they're doing thank you to HR I know that um you know even last minute changes are coming and and continue to roll in so thank you for all that you're doing um thank you to Steve for your leadership and your oversight in all of these areas that continue to support um to support the The Learning Experience for each of our students um and I I will close on that all righty uh I will Echo the you know that excitement is real right I was working cashless concessions and you know it was right after all the you

148know individual or the kids had gotten their teachers right and so I was really excited to share I got Mr Perry I got this you know Miss such and such like so it is an exciting time of year and so I want to Echo the things that I've heard here I want to thank our coaches and Athletics and and a bus driver took our soccer team to an hours and 15 minutes to Midland and back and just all of those things and I I really do want to make sure that I give a heartfelt thank you to every person who will impact the education of my children and other people's children this year in the classroom and in buildings and getting them there safe and taking care of our grounds and thank you very much

149appreciate you so I just want to Echo all that as well kind of like I mentioned earlier think there's been a lot going on not only at grounds and through the um uh buildings and Building Maintenance and stuff but through teachers human resource all that and um busy summer and thank you now I know I said you wouldn't be required to report but perhaps do you have any how's the feeling out there is there any excitement at all on the halls of our school yes it's exciting to come in and sit through all this and learn about high school and the board and all that and one thing that president McVeigh said in the beginning me and Caroline attended the national student board member Association conference this weekend and we learned about all the agendas

150and how to write proposals and everything so looking forward to read through all those and comment on them in future meetings I'll say something too um I'm super excited and I think that was helpful um this weekend because now I know how to read all of this and um that was really great um so I'm excited to actually voice my opinion and throughout the school year um giving you guys updates on what's going on throughout the school with student showcases so thank you and we really are looking forward to it thank you all right um the consent agenda the consent agenda is listed in this agenda and will not be read aloud the motion noted will allow for the authorization of all listed items without discussion unless a member of the board requested any one

151of them be considered individually so I'd like to entertain a motion to authorize the consent agenda as printed thank you thanks support Estep um all in favor please say aye aye opposed okay thank you very much the consent agenda has passed um item scheduled on the next agenda Dr Lodge yeah the main schedule report will be a teaching and learning update about the continuous Improvement cycle and that'll come from the teacher learning team foreign thank you thank you very much the public comment section uh aboard a member of public May briefly address the address the board for up to three minutes or request to be scheduled on the agenda of a future meeting we have one two three four and uh Chang Ming fan is first up on Deck is uh Ann Jeffers green zone

152good evening Chang Ming fan local social entrepreneur I really want to have to rush several things to want to share with you first thank you so much the one who work of the policy Jenny you did great job so all of you and uh let me just steal Winston Churchill's famous quote American always do the things right after try all of other things it's ongoing things so although summer part is not as some of you agree but let's continue moving on and this is just like American history in the very beginning the slave owners said oh man I created equal but until now still things are not a hundred percent equal about this country keep going and several things before I forgot Michael I finally can deliver to you as you request also not just

153for you for everybody for the joint meeting record 44 pictures so um but unfortunately downloaded take forever so I cannot give you today and how can I give to you it's a zip file you prefer do you can you give me a drum in some way and it's going to be quite a lot of pictures wonderful meeting between the city and the school board and this is should we always have the record and the public you know and you all should know about this one of the things how public can work with you guys Dr Large you did great show on the report and really one page is yellow and blue and talk about persistent challenging why we continue hype because I totally agree with you I like that life it's just like that we

154have the face these challenges and learn commit and do that's why it's what we are here about and that is one part of that which is I think that continued the fight against discrimination including a lot and one part of the sub-teacher issue not just here I think whole nation is but sub teacher is like Super Submarine or whatever what kind of food consider I think is junk food and that is something we have to continue and finally most important things and thank you for YouTube being here congratulations you represent future when they represent tomorrow but it's so important I like to work with you more one last question the third draft of South initiative after mayor keep pushing me can I give both of them and that is the question Maybe I should let

155you all know I'm not gonna give to them first review until it is okay thank you Mr fan I will get you a thumb drive thank you I know not right now soon no problem Dr Mr yeah Dr Jeffers and on Deck is Megan Gunnerson um I'll keep this short uh just a few comments about some of the stuff that I saw tonight so you all know where I stand on the policy um so I don't want to to spend any time talking about that um uh Susan took one of my comments which was um Gathering feedback from the teachers and making sure that you're getting important feedback from from them because I think they're the ones who are on the ground and who are the ones who are going to have to um deal

156with the the policy along with the the teaching and learning teams um and so maybe inviting the union to come speak at the next board meeting for example might be a good idea another thing related to the policy was that I was surprised to hear that there were a couple of board members who were concerned about some of the wording and the the lawyer's language and I just wanted to remind you all that you have the ability to appoint the lawyers and you can always seek second feedback I had some feedback also on the listening sessions that professor or Professor sorry I'm still in getting ready for school mode um Dr Loch presented on so I have three kids um two of them are black one of them is lgbtq all three of them have

157disabilities right so as a working parent I'm not going to show up to three different uh listening sessions and so I picked the disability one um but there was a some discussion that took place um where Shannon had spent a lot of time talking about getting rid of the n-word right and she was doing a lot of important work on that particular slur but as a result of that there was an increase in the effler the arsler anti-asian slurs and all that and so um there was some discussion that basically said more work needs to be done and I think we we all acknowledge that but but the reason why I'm bringing this up is because I think the listening sessions need to be gathered in a way that um accounts for intersecting identities basically

158um and then the last piece of uh question that I have for you is about the the Middle School uh construction so the the I can't pronounce it but it's the Tebow Tebow um Road um where it exits onto Ann Arbor Saline Road that intersection is pretty hairy in the mornings um at drop off and so I was just wondering you know with the increased traffic on Ann Arbor Saline Road due to Maple being closed is there something that's going to be done about that intersection all right thank you thank you very much Megan Gunderson and on Deck is Olivia Williams no sorry um so I just have some feedback about the wording of the policy just to kind of highlight some Community concerns where it says parents and students who have the right to

159inspect instructional material I'm hoping that with your all district meeting tomorrow you can remind the teachers or work with them to provide in-depth syllabi so that parents have the opportunity to review and then make educated decisions and then my other concern as a parent who has utilized the opt out program before it says that such requests will be considered by the team and should they be considered with respect to the individual as a mom I'm not seeking your permission for my child to opt out I'm informing you that they're not going to miss an entire academic day and they're going to miss a lesson and I come to you after having gone to Dr Washington's presentation before I allowed my son to go and we don't ever use that word and I don't want it

160to ever be normalized for him to say some can use it in some camps so I chose the tinaco and I will continue to do that had I gotten a in-depth syllabi my child would not have seen a film in AP site that had a guess the gay in it to say that that was damaging is an understatement and I can't believe that had I gotten an in-depth syllabi she would have been in that classroom because she would not have been in that classroom I'm sorry I love my kids and we all love our own kids but that was disgusting and I will she confronted her teacher and got pushback for that happening not acceptable and I expect in-depth syllabi if your teachers are going to put their neck on the line to show something

161like that I'm going to opt my child out I have a license some of you have a license you have standards of practice you have to abide by and you have a code of conduct as far as I'm concerned showing that film of guests the gay was a violation of both and you shouldn't be a teacher if you're going to single children out like that okay nowadays okay good good evening um I wanted to thank the board and policy team for making it clear that you have provided that the opt policy um is against legal advice um that there are actual rights that are afforded and there are some that are simply perceived regarding this issue and I want to thank you for stating that very clearly tonight actually um I'm also happy to hear

162that the Forum that will be will be standardized through the school board um so there will not be any secondary forms I'm glad to hear that um I also Echo um Dr Gold's hoped that this policy will not be used to opt out of Dei SEL or hornet time activities but my hopes are not that High um I hope they're not um but I do hope that when the board that the board takes into consideration on how to handle that situation when it undoubtedly does arise when they um fine-tune the administrative guidelines regarding it as you say the policy and the guidelines are um malleable and can you can change them as needed and I hope you take that into consideration thank you thank you very much back to the agenda the um the next

163meeting of the Board of Education will be held on uh not August 22nd oh I know I know you're usually Flawless what is the date September 12th thank you very much and uh I think that evening we're going to be meeting some of our new hires I believe um I would like to entertain a motion to enter into closed session of the board of education at about 905 uh with the intent to reopen that how long will we take five minutes at 9 10. for the purpose of collective bargaining 8C of the open meetings act under Section 8C just a simple majority vote is sufficient to enter into closed session uh do I have a motion please oh God Tim Tim's got it all support who Moved Tim Austin thank you and second oh seven

164Jays thank you uh all in favor please say aye aye opposed all right thank you very much ladies and gentlemen thank you for leaving the room fairly promptly and we will We There Will no there will be no votes or action taken on our return so you won't be missing anything thank you like that's also my name so I was a bit confused and please don't um I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn the regular Board of Education meeting of August 22nd 2023 at 9 16. so moved Easter Easter moves was that Tim Austin seconds all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed looking at you girby nope thank you see you see you on September 12th