Clayton BOE Meeting Zoom

001all right good evening everybody um it is Wednesday January 18th welcome it's very nice to see everybody here tonight thank you for coming out in the rain um and let's go ahead and kick it off with the Pledge of Allegiance foreign all right um so Stacy I think we're gonna start with the approval of the agenda it's been moved and seconded questions or comments all in favor aye any opposed that passes and now we are on to recognizing our own so I will invite Dr kachowski all right foreign we're going to start with the National Merit commended Scholars first we have Jackson Leonard they actually have Oliver Pollock foreign next we have the National Merit semifinalists first we have Katie De La Paz foreign next we have Beck enzik Smith next we have Anisha Direct

002next is Scott McCrary foreign next we have Ishmael robolis project next we have Samuel rosenswig Alice Wang okay Esther Wang Elaine you was there anyone we didn't we didn't his name didn't get called thinking about a round of applause for all of our great Scholars we could uh quickly do a group picture with all of our amended and uh Scholars and our national parent semi-finalists uh let's do it over there ouch there we'll just do a quick shot and then we'll be you're welcome to stay though foreign right okay Chris I don't know Chris can I go back on yeah can we start can he hear me okay we're back live okay do we have any public participation tonight comments okay sorry I can't see Chris um all right then we are on to superintendent

003Communications perfect thank you um so I appreciate it obviously all of our parents and students here who are here to be recognized for National Merit I thought that was a great event and it's they worked really hard so it's a good thing that we were able to recognize them tonight so I always like to start off with a few recognitions as well as in addition to the recognizing our own um I actually want to highlight one of the why down Middle School PE teachers Christine Schneider hand was selected by shape America service and Lifetime Achievement Award committee to receive a legacy award and what this was was just a simple but yet really important recognition for her for all of the advocacy and work she does to provide Equitable opportunities for our students so we

004were very excited to recognize her and she does a phenomenal job at the middle school for us and she's even started to like promote all the activities that we do at the middle school and basically mirror what we do at the high school in terms of sending out newsletters upcoming events so it's really neat to see her and Steve Hudson at the high school start to align a lot of those activities because as we know that as the younger the kids are and the more active they are and engaged in activities outside of their schoolwork the more successful they are academically as well so it's a really good program and ideas that she's putting forward so I definitely want to give her a shout out we also in addition to recognizing our National Merit students

005we also at the high school just 43 yeah 43 seniors were inducted into the National Honor Society and so I know Dr gajewski had a faculty meeting I believe it was last week what was that last Monday yeah last Monday where we recognized our students and they got inducted into the National Honor Society and then finally we also recently had our diversity recruitment and networking events and we partnered with Ledoux to do that and we do that every year and we just change the location every year so before we've had it here when we had it in person and then it's been virtual the last couple of years this year we finally were able to bring it back in person and we had about 44 to 45 applicants that came in and were interviewed by

006our admin and the deuce administrators um so it's a great event and I want to thank Tony and the HR department for putting that together so we appreciate all the work on that and then finally on Friday we had our professional learning day for the district and it was phenomenal we had great feedback from it and it was all the professional learning sessions that we had were aligned to our strategic gold one and three and as always we always ask them to do a kick-up survey after these events so that we know are we doing a good job do we need to change anything so one of the things one of the questions we always ask them is how are we be doing in terms of specific topics right so if you look at this

007chart that I just wanted to highlight real quick um we had about at this point when we pulled the data 88 88 people had turned in the responses 82 responded to this particular question but we always want to connect it to the profile of the Clayton graduate like the sessions that they attended how did it connect back and did they learn from it and this was their um perception and information that they shared back with us in terms of the sessions they went to and then another question that we asked which I think is really important is prior to attending this session what was your knowledge level on that particular topic and then after attending the sessions what was your knowledge um level on that so according to this 53 of the participants had a

008strong working knowledge in the areas covered prior to their experience in the professional learning afterwards it was 86 and then they also have a chances to answer other questions and give us their thoughts and we really use those thoughts to really try and tweak and make adjustments to better suit their needs and so I want to make sure I give a public shout out especially to Milena for putting all these professional learning events together because there's a lot of planning work that goes behind this and then for this event Cameron and Robin really LED all the work as well because it was about goals one and three so really good feedback from our staff on this and I think professional learning days are super important for obviously all of our staff and to be engaged

009in the work we do and aligning it so it was it was a good day um and then I will hand it off to Carter to give us a student perspective okay no okay so today I'm going to talk a little bit about uh the upcoming presentation from the student perspective on on some of these governmental and political policies that are going on in Jefferson City so we talked with some students and some teachers about what's been going on uh specifically two of the policies that we've really touched on where uh first the ones that sort of was known to like be taking books off the shelves and second the one which bans the teaching of critical race Theory um so first like our initial reactions on these policies in general is that I mean

010like obviously we all believe that this is not really like the purpose of what the government should be doing like uh we've had teachers who said that it feels like they're stepping in and telling Educators how to do their job when you know they don't really know that much about education necessarily um and we also thought that especially like even more so than what the bills seems to do on the surface but the fact that they were opening up teachers to lawsuit and like putting the punishment punishment on them was especially um aggravating to us as students um so next we sort of talked a little bit about what our experiences have been as a result of these uh new governmental policies and we we actually had have had teachers who have said that they

011used to be teaching certain subjects but now they're not choosing to teach it anymore and they've literally said that they're afraid of being sued um so I think that's a little bit of a warning call and shows us that there's stuff that needs to be done and stuff hopefully that we can do um additionally we've had some teachers who have been worried about taking books off of their own personal shelves in their classrooms um and also just some teachers and students feel like there's at times like a trade-off between a teacher feeling safe and like protected and the them ensuring that kids get like a full and complete education which is really sad um so in general while Clayton has probably had a little bit less of a felt a little bit less of an

012impact as a result of these policies maybe some other districts have um it's still a cause for concern we feel and things that we can do so specifically some of the ideas which the group generated to see like what we could do as a school district and as a school board to address some of these new policies uh first is just to continue to like sort of resist and not give in to uh these bills to the extent that we can um and second is something that we thought it was to regularly keep teachers students and parents all updated with new bills which may come out and how they impact our school district to make sure we're providing them with the information that they need so they they really know what's going on and how

013it's impacting their kids and uh finally we also think that we should like make some sort of like pledge to teachers and students that like if issues do arise that like the school district will defend them and like and protect them so they don't have to feel worried doing their job well those are good ideas and I think we agree with you um does anybody have any questions comments sorry I just want to say thank you I think you bringing those to our attention like that you discussing that in the way that you do with the students um it just really feels so important in terms of these issues and I really appreciate the time that you put into this it really makes a difference so thank you and I was going to say I

014wish that our legislators were here already to have heard that from you and also um or maybe they're listening maybe they're already on the zoo but um also um I'm encouraged that students are engaged in this and interested and maybe like we could really use students to actually fight some of this you know on on District's behalf so I'm I'm so happy to hear how engaged you are in the work so thank you all right um well now I guess we will hear from um well we're going to hear about that we're going to do our legislative update so we're going to hear from um Senator Carla May and um reps Ian Mackey and Joe Adams of course I'm great welcome we'll we'll be able to see them because I don't yeah there you go

015Hi Ian hey hello are you are you on mute uh I'm not can you hear me okay yeah hold on a second sure foreign hold on one second sure please all right Ian are you able to hear us okay I can yes uh-huh all right great I'm gonna turn up we got to turn up the volume on our end so if you get standby for Just Another Second sure okay I think we're ready to go okay great okay good how you doing I am doing well how are you we're good welcome thank you for being here tonight absolutely okay well yeah we'll go we'll go ahead and start so um yeah but is he is he the way of nobody else in the wedding okay um all right well welcome Ian and uh thank you

016so much for being here tonight and um as I said earlier the reason why uh Ian is up on our Zoom is because he has graciously agreed to give us a legislative update um and with that I will let him go ahead and start great thank you all uh yeah I wish I could be there in person but uh still in the capital and uh yeah but happy to chat about uh the start that session is off to uh today was the State of the State address from the governor so we got an outline of what his priorities are especially as they pertain to our state budget and then um you know we've had bills filed uh going back through December up until just a few hours ago uh related to issues that are going

017to be important to you all um and the first notice was sent out uh and just updated in fact this afternoon for the elementary and secondary education committee which will be meeting next Wednesday and every Wednesday Hereafter at 8 A.M um so our hearings are still at eight in the morning but rather than being on Tuesday we'll be on Wednesday mornings um and our first hearing this Wednesday will deal with three different bills uh two of those bills will be various forms of open enrollment policy for public schools uh one filed by Brad pollitt who's the chair of the committee and that's similar to legislation that he's filed in years past it's a very detailed and prescriptive process for what he wants open enrollment for public schools to look like and then there's a more

018sort of vague approach from uh the vice chair Ben Baker that leaves it looks like a little more control I'm not I should say I've not had a chance to talk with these sponsors in detail about their bills we've not had a chance to really dive into them but my first reads of them um Ben Baker's Bill looks to give schools a little more autonomy and a little more independent judgment both systems are voluntary but Ben's is a much shorter bill that leaves it looks like a lot of decision making up to local districts Brad seems to be a piece of legislation that's much more prescriptive and then we'll have a third bill from uh representative Chris Dinkins dealing with uh School Safety Officer school protection officers um and it's pretty vague as well not

019really clear what her aim what her goal is but it looks like the beginning of a conversation around school safe which is important obviously to all of us and clearly a timely manner especially for our region and really for everywhere um will be it looks like having a discussion about one approach to that which is uh perhaps increasing the number of school protection officers that we have in school buildings around the state so those are the first three bills on the docket on the house side uh that we'll be hearing next week in the education committee today on the Senate side there was a hearing I believe on Senate Bill 4 Senator koenig's Bill who's the chair of the education Senate committee uh dealing with parents Bill of Rights that's a term we're all familiar

020with especially you know given the legislation last session there are a handful of bills filed in that space not a ton but a few um and it looks to be too similar to what I just did with open enrollment policy two different ways of thinking about how to go about this legislation from the people who have filed and sponsored these these pieces of legislation Senator koenig's Bill has a lot of language language such as teacher Xiao School shall not school shall teachers shall not um on the house side representative christophanelli who's been a sponsor of these bills in the past who has a pretty high profile here in the house has a parent's Bill of Rights that's much more vague that's much more sort of honestly a reiteration of what parents already have the right

021to do which is view the curriculum of their District understand what's being taught in the classroom right parents already have those rights that's already happening in Clayton that's already happening in lots of districts um and is really and actually has some Protections in there for um uh students of uh who may be facing danger at home right we're gonna you know rumors are we'll hear bills like have been heard in Florida that don't say gay bills the anti-lgbt bills um bills like that in terms of you know Florida's Bill and others have required teachers to report students to parents who share information with them such as coming out um Phil's Bill actually has Provisions to protect students in those situations if they're at risk of facing harm at home um they're protected teachers aren't required

022to disclose that information so there's actually a few good things in that it's not a good bill overall I don't want to give that impression but there is some actually good Protections in that um so we're seeing these two different approaches the sort of Firebrand approach we've seen in years past that really wants to just um you know put the thumb down on schools and on teachers and then another approach that's saying look um we're going to give more discretion more leeway to schools to try to figure out these problems obviously we prefer the latter approach and we'll continue continue to to try to do what we can to work together with folks in the majority party to make sure that whatever passes um is is as least burdensome as possible um so that's sort

023of uh I guess a general overview of what we're looking at we haven't seen any legislation so far that is the specific and narrowly tailored words that we've seen last year such as you can't read these books you can't teach from these uh professors or this line of life you know we don't have any sort of specific curriculum bands or book bands or anything like that yet not to say we won't not to say that fight isn't on the horizon but we haven't had any of those bills filed yet um the governor today in the State of the State address made no mention made zero mention of any sorts of uh bans on curriculum or or books or or you know no mention of critical race Theory parents Bill of Rights none of that came

024up in the governor's speech today in fact what did come up in the governor's speech and what has been a topic of conversation around the building is increasing teacher pay um and increasing support for our schools and our teachers I get the impression it's just a guess but I get the impression that a lot of my colleagues went home over the interim and heard from their teachers in their districts and heard from their superintendents and heard from folks who are working day in and day out in their schools who said we need support we need support we don't need more burdens we don't need uh more restrictions more regulations more liability we need more support I think that message is getting through I hope it's getting through that's at least the beginning of session obviously

025a long way to go from here but that's the beginning of session and what we're looking at foreign well that's um thank you for that information um I'm glad to hear there's some of those more narrowly tailored bills aren't on the table yet but we shall see what happens we shall see um does anybody have any questions or comments go ahead Hi Ian it's Stacy I don't know if you can see me in that in that picture thank you so much I'm I have a couple questions one is I think you said it's Brad who's the chair of the committee yes who put forward one of the Open Enrollment bills yes and he's done in the past is his bill any different than he's presented in the past did he make any changes this time

026uh my first read of it there were some slight changes um around um some discretion for rejecting students I feel like there was some changes I haven't done a complete word for word comparison for it was just me trying to remember what I read last year and looking at what was and I just saw it for the first time this afternoon so trying to just try to think back to last session and look at what's going on here um there are some looks like minor differences um but it looks like mostly the same yeah I guess I was just curious like if it didn't pass last time did he make some concessions and some changes this time was why that's why I was asking yeah this is just a complete guess it looks like he

027didn't make a ton of changes and it looks like probably the folks who wanted more changes um looks like found Ben Baker um it looks like it looks like Ben Baker's Bill certainly provides some more autonomy um and some more discretion to school districts than bradsville does Brad's bill is much more of a prescriptive process so I'm assuming um the folks who weren't happy with Brad's Bill and maybe still wanted to see something in this space that I'm guessing that's how Ben's bill came about so I realize you just got these and you haven't read through them so you might not know the answer to this either but you know one of the many concerns about these open enrollment bills is um special education services did you notice if either one had any provisions like

028anything about that in there uh so there's I'm trying to remember if there were I there may have been a I know Brad had some boilerplate title seven language you can't discriminate on the basis of X Y and Z race gender you know those things and I can't remember if he included disability I do now recall the biggest change I feel like actually in both of them but especially in Brad's is providing for transportation I know that was a big change that was in Brad's Brad has a big Transportation piece to his especially for districts um that border uh non-resident districts that border a receiving District um have to provide transportation and there's a mechanism for doing that in his bill so I do remember that being different I do not recall off the top

029of my head if he changed anything thing related to special education that I would have to go back and look at thank you yeah so just so for those of us that that don't know can either Ian or Stacy can you tell us what does like how does special education like why why is that important can you sure well you know I think some of the people listening might not know what sure how that plays into it you know it comes at a higher cost right that education comes at a higher cost um and so if you have a uh a non-resident student um seeking to fill an open enrollment seat in a receiving district and that student requires special education services that comes at a cost right and so that's uh one of these

030pieces that uh folks who are proposing this system are trying to solve for and I do not recall how Brad specifically addressed that issue and there's I guess you know the fear that those schools that a parent would choose could refuse based you know for that reason I guess could refuse based on their disability right does it feel that they wouldn't really get to choose the school a school wouldn't have to accept them got it okay um go ahead yeah how you doing yeah hey I'm good good to hear from you man um so you know I was reading about these firearm bills there's a bunch of bills about um School protection officers uh teachers being deemed as protection officers in this protecting firearms in schools pretty much that's what I'm reading can you talk

031more about that and how that how that looks in this Uh current legislation that we're in right now yeah we're gonna see you know similar I think to years past and sort of the national discussion being mirrored we're going to see proposals to basically give guns to adults in schools uh to you know protect children right uh ideally and from the point of view of these Bill sponsors I think we probably agree I certainly have the opinion that more guns in schools is not the solution um in fact it's the opposite so um that discussion I think will play out I think we're heading down the road to have a debate about whether or not um how we protect our schools is providing more guns for folks to have in the school setting that's not

032at all I think what the right approach is but I do think we'll end up having that debate at some point I do also though think we're going to have a lot of support and a lot of resources at least the governor would want that he'd mentioned it um in his State of the State today more uh financial resources and support for mental health profession Nationals and counselors in our school settings that is something we all agree on um you know we don't all agree on how many guns and how many folks should be armed in our schools but we do agree that we need more trained and licensed mental health professionals in our schools to work with um children who are at the most risks of committing acts of violence and so I do

033hope that that is where the conversation uh I hope that's where consensus is on this conversation I do think there'll be a lot of noise about um arming teachers or arming any types of school Personnel I think there's folks that want to arm any sort of person who wants to go into a school setting um and you know I hope that's not where we end up I hope the consensus is around providing support for mental health resources and our counselors and other folks who are providing uh mental health support for students and for staff foreign and um there's also uh some bills about well I guess it's called curriculum prohibition and requirements right so there's like a bunch of Senate Bill 42 do you know about these this bill the numbers yeah go ahead no

034you go ahead no I don't Senate Bill 42 is not ringing a bell off the top of my head but tell me about it critical race during which is what car just talked about yeah um let's see uh divide some Concepts there's a bill instead of Bill 172 this is sponsored by Republican or representative Brian Seitz yep so can you talk more about any of those those types of bill because those seem like they're pretty it's several yeah so there yes no there's there's a handful of these pieces of legislation that have that boilerplate broad language about not teaching like you said divisive Concepts quote divisive Concepts um not teaching in their terms in their bill language um not teaching that one race is inherently Superior inferior to another right um we are definitely going

035to see um those sorts we're going to see those bills probably at some point um whether they're in a committee setting or whether they're as amendments on the floor there is a faction Brian Seitz leads it among others in the house and there'll be folks in the Senate who do the same who want to push that forward um that is incredibly vague language that is not language that says you cannot teach this book you cannot teach um this curriculum from this company you cannot teach um the words of this professor you cannot right we saw that legislation last year we've and other states have seen that legislation but very specific narrow targeted bands on authors and on on pieces of literature um their approach so far has been that vague language right uh you can't

036tell um white students that they are oppressors you can't tell um white students that they're bad they can't make them feel guilty right that's how they look at this framework that's how they look at um sometimes uh uh a lesson around Equity that's how sometimes some of these few folks who sponsor these pieces of legislation view that conversation we'll have that debate we'll have that discussion it I I don't know what the end result will be but that language is is as vague as can be right that language is as open to interpretation as just about anything else we could pass here we know the intent behind it right we know what Brian Seitz means when he says that but honestly that doesn't matter it is intent his intent is irrelevant his reason for sponsoring

037that bill what he intends or means for that bill to do is completely irrelevant the only thing that matters is what that bill says the only thing that matters is the words that are in that statute when they're signed by the governor and put into law that's it that's all that matters and I really want folks to keep that in mind um it so if you pass if a piece of legislation passes and says you can't tell um you know you can't you can't make one group think this or that well of course you who's going to do that what teacher a has the capability he let alone the desire to make somebody think a certain ideology or belief that's not that's not the business of Education that's not what our teachers are doing that's

038not what schools are doing um so forget Brian's intent Brian cites his intent forget Andrew koenig's intent forget what motivates these bills and just read the words and go from there and I think we'll be okay I hope that's where we end up and the last one there's also a bill about um that pertains to parents being able to appoint students out of class if they disagree with the information that's kind of a separate but so how does that how does that look that looks pretty detailed so so that was I remember I recall seeing that legislation in Phil Chris to finale's Bill Phil however requires that the parent provide the alternative setting if I recall correctly his legislation requires the parent to find something to do with their child um which you know if

039you're gonna do it I mean I'm not for a Hitler's veto I'm not for having every parent you know I'm not for having a parent every hour have a heckler's veto and what's being taught in class and you know creating an alternative setting for their kid or this kid or that kid at least in Phil's legislation it's on the parent to figure out what to do it's not after the school it's not up to the teacher you know again I'm not I I I don't want to advocate for people's position that's not my position but um he he at least puts the onus on the parent to find something to do so you know if that's where they end up it's it's better than other places where we it's better than the school having to

040do it right it's better than every single teacher every single administrator every hour trying to say okay well we got one kid in this class who needs an alternative setting another kid in this class needs another one another kid and this class needs another one that's unsustainable right and I think he realizes that I don't know if others do um in his party or folks who are going to leave the conversation but uh you know I I think like I said at the beginning I think a lot of these folks went home over the interim and heard from their schools heard from their teachers heard from folks in their communities who said uh you know we need your support we don't need you micromanaging our day-to-day we don't need you uh uh dictating to us

041how we're going to proceed day to day in our school setting we need you to support us and our job and trusts us to rate to to teach your kids and to help raise this community and so I I think that's what we're seeing thank you very much and appreciate it yeah go ahead Gary hi Anne it's Gary Pearson thanks for being with us again and for updating us on this I appreciate your attention to these things and um being with us you mentioned the education committee the sort of regular meeting times and um I don't think you were on the line yet but we heard from our student rep um some conversation about what Clayton High School students were were doing and talking about and thinking about with some things that happened in the

042in the past years that might be happening this year in terms of voicing their opinions about things that the legislature might be doing can you just speak to what the best ways are for people to keep up to date with what might be happening that affects education and how they should know when to show up if they should want to want to show up and voice their opinion and things like that yeah absolutely so I will send out uh my first uh email legislative update uh probably tomorrow maybe Friday um sometime here in the next couple of days um and I know most of you are on it uh forward it to anybody you think is interested um if somebody wants to join it just email my house account and and tell me you want

043to be on it and I'll add you to the list um that will have a detailed explanation every week and as things develop um in the meantime about what bills are coming to the education committee and I'm glad Jason brought up Firearms you know I'm really focused on just that committee but obviously we're concerned about other spaces and other committees where some of this legislation that affects School settings may not necessarily always come through the education committee so I know we'll have uh students from cvpa uh Central visual Performing Arts um down here in the next couple of weeks in the building meeting with lawmakers talking about their experiences going through that school shooting and what that looks like um and what support they need from the legis Slater so um you know I know

044that every time students are in the building and other folks in the community are in the building sharing their stories and talking to lawmakers that really that always moves the needle in in the right direction um that is the slow process of changing hearts and minds and finding consensus that we're looking for and so I look forward to being in touch with the student rep with other students who are interested in having a physical presence in the state capitol during session and whether that's showing up to a Committee hearing and speaking for two or three minutes about their story and why they're here or whether that's just walking around and finding folks to meet with and to talk to about their experiences that really you know we saw last year the first hearing out of

045the gate in January last year was specific bans on curriculum specific bans on authors and on books and we had folks fill the room and it stalled that legislation for weeks it watered it down it put it in a better place and ultimately it didn't even pass um so that hearing is what did that um and having folks physically in the building to share their stories is is really what we need and so yeah I absolutely look forward to doing that and in terms of keeping up um you know as it moves along um I'll try to do that by email um as quickly as possible I appreciate that Ian and my my second question was going to be what other committees or what other uh settings should be should be things that people keep

046an eye on so I know that should be difficult to predict but appreciate your efforts to keep us informed and on all these topics so thank you yeah and I yeah and I'll try to keep an eye on those two you know I would say the general laws committee the emerging issues committee and potentially the crime of Public Safety Committee which I also sit on those three will will um from time to time here um especially our gun related legislation often that goes through that may go through the crime committee this year or it may um as it has in the past go through the general laws committee or maybe the emerging issues committee those are definitely issues to watch in those committees great thanks again God hey and thanks for coming again um I

047just have a quick question on both of the um parents bills of Rights bills the post dispatch had an article a brief article about it about um how both bills regardless of the detail in the build um required uh the state to establish some type of transparency portal do you have any insight into what that looks like is that the existing like students first portal that is already kind of out there with the Sunshine Law requests or is it something separate and unique from that that is not clear that is I think going to take a lot of question and answer time in our first committee hearings um that is something I've already talked to colleagues of mine about to try to wrap our heads around um it's not really clear um and I don't

048I don't even know if it's clear to the bill sponsor what they want that to look like or what they expect that to be we've had Bill sponsors in the past say we want every single lesson plan scanned in electronically and put up on a school website right or in some portal um and we've had other folks say you know we just want to know what the curriculum says like there's you know obviously a wide range of what folks expect that to look like and what they want that to be that is truly an unanswered question and something that I hope we'll get an answer to in our first Committee hearing um on Wednesday okay because certainly uh what I think we would worry about as a board mem as as a board is the

049administrative burden on our administrative teams here and the extra sure of you know potential costs associated with meeting whatever the requirements of that portal is so as you guys are debating through the mechanics of the legislation some of that administrative burden underneath it as you know if it's a simple matter of just you know a link to our um to our website for the school district that's one thing if it's as you said every lesson plan every uh curriculum instruction for every grade at every grade level or you know what are we teaching in European history versus whatever then that's a totally different animal so and I think we would want to be involved in you know making that Trek to um talk to those committee members and and putting groups together to make sure

050that we have a voice at the table for that stuff absolutely okay go ahead Carter Hi Ian this is Carter uh thank you for coming uh so my first question is uh now that uh the Liberty school I forget Independence perhaps one of the school districts switched to four days a week and I know like other school districts across the country are also having to make that switch do you think that this will sort of uh like sort of switch the these lawmakers mindsets so they'll sort of be less focused on making teachers jobs harder with these restrictive legislation and just sort of can you speak to how you expect this to impact the bills yeah that's a great question it is you know I think there's the the question about why schools are moving

051to four day uh School weeks and I think in the beginning that was a financial constraint that was placed on some schools and I think in the beginning of the movement toward a four-day school week we saw the impetus of that really being a financial concern which is obviously incredibly disappointing and sad and frustrating and schools should not be forced to close one day a week because they can't afford to stay open five days a week but that conversation has really shifted over uh the time that this has been happening um and you know The Experience from some schools that have had four day weeks has been positive um parent surveys have been positive Community surveys have been positive teacher surveys have been positive although that is changing in some districts where now they're requiring

052teachers to come in and be at school the fifth day and they're creating these settings for students who don't have anywhere to go and then it ends up kind of being a quasi five-day week that's an issue but um I think this is really still an emerging topic and an emerging issue to to think about and to wrap our heads around um and uh I don't think that there's any clear Direction right now as to whether or not Independence was by far the largest District to go down this route they're one of the largest districts in the state and it certainly made waves when they made this decision um we'll see what their we'll see if a district that size has the same sort of you know we to my knowledge I don't think we've

053seen schools go four days and then decide they want to go back to five I think the ones who have done it have stuck with it um and so we'll I you know we'll wait and see um I don't think it's gonna have necessarily too much of an impact on um the other legislative issues we're seeing like the ones we've discussed tonight I don't think that um the four day week is necessarily um playing into those except for uh perhaps the issue of teacher pay interesting and then second you spoke about uh how students uh what might have the opportunity to come down and speak at legislative sessions which I know uh myself and some other classmates are definitely interested in uh but can you speak to some other ways that students could get involved

054and sort of make sure that their opinions are being heard sure you know I think um in the past Clayton has done a great job of uh bringing these concerns and these issues to your peers to your community um you know I think especially around the issues of gun violence around the issues of racism um you know students at Clayton have I think done an excellent job of bringing these issues to the to the Forefront for their peers and for for your community in your school setting um and inviting the press to come and cover it getting that story out there um you know whether it's marching down why down whether it's organizing something in the building whether it's uh writing to the local papers getting that story out there and putting your voices forward

055I think in your own Community is also uh hugely important thank you okay okay all right well I think uh that there are no further questions so um again thank you for being here tonight and we would love for you to come back uh sometime uh during the session and uh update us as uh more information materializes um and you know just just keep us informed we'll make sure and uh you know we look forward to your emails but it's it's really helpful I think to have you here um to answer questions so we we appreciate your time absolutely I'm happy to do it and yeah there'll be much much more to talk about as session gets going and yeah I look forward to being back absolutely great so maybe like when you think it's

056a good time if you can let me know and we'll we'll get it on the agenda great I will do that all right thank you yep all right have a good night you too bye foreign let's go ahead and take a very short five minute break and then we'll reconvene um so we are now on to um so the first reading of policy bddf which is the voting method is that right okay on traffic um change the abstention of the motion or about abstained I think and then the other one is basically spelling that adversity employment to him at this there's a question I do um thank you so first of all so I I read this a second time this afternoon the way it reads to me and I'm the Newbie still um it

057is changing the definite what happens with uh someone who votes in absentia it seems like before the way it reads is that it's taking it's that's the idea of taking away a vote if you vote and it's such a you know is the equivalent of not voting that that's a change my so I'm am I reading that right because you I thought sorry I thought I heard you say that it that's not a change it's clarifying language or it was okay is that a change in practice for how we've considered it as a warden it's not okay it's really a question of how many votes how many affirmative votes you need and an abstention not lowering the number to get to a majority which I think it could have been perceived that that happened before

058I don't think that was ever actually the case but this clarifies that it doesn't lower the threshold to get to a majority so so so okay you may have to talk to me like you know like I'm you know kindergartner here but if you let's say a vote is three yes to no and to abstain does it pass it doesn't pass there's not a majority okay so so specifically in when so it's only for contracts and Employments that you need the majority of total board members that you have to have for when it's when it's specified that it's a majority of the board to approve then it doesn't change an abstention wouldn't wouldn't change that but that's not the case with every motion I think that's what you're saying right but you also have to

059remember that we may need a diagram a flowchart yeah yeah sorry sorry go ahead you'll remind us if it's one of those cases that yes well and the the approving contracts or employment that's by I think this is true by State Statute I think it specifically references a majority of the board of education has to approve it so that's why so that's always four right okay well I'll just say it you know for me from my perspective at least you know you can probably not with this group but you can Envision sometime down the road where you have that scenario where something controversial comes up for whatever reason unexpected and it's three two two and it passes and are we oh are we okay with that that's really the question well it won't pass if

060it has to do with contracts or right but if it's not if it's a so if it's a policy though right you know are we okay with that well I think I mean I don't have my copy of reference rules here but I think that is actually the case now without this Clarity it is okay that's what I'm trying to understand okay oh I yeah I got that pretty sure you have always done it this is just okay yeah well we follow Robert's Rules of Art and that's what it is then okay I'm done Ask Gary for any Robert's Rules questions but give me a little heads up will you um all right thank you hika for that and um then policy uh B ddl which is release of information yes the main change I'm

061the custodian record for the District of where we get Sunshine Love whatever call it I have to follow the law it's being moved out of policy but in that's go ahead yeah yeah so I someone I mean yeah we can clarify that a little bit because I was looking at it and I was like they really paired this thing down to like them which also eliminated some of the things that I know when um has been requested for that are in there I wouldn't want to make sure I understand what that means to for our policy and what it means for the procedure procedural part and what it means legally I guess so the language that they took out which but uh so we're moving in the procedure or what I'm sorry like we're moving

062it into our procedures yes we're moving it out of policy because it's something I have to follow the law but when somebody sends me a record request or sunshine batter and some policy they're doing is they're moving it out of policy and just knows what it is [Music] but it doesn't need to be policy no yeah I think you are so let me ask it does one of these things have more difference over the other um it doesn't because I have to follow it right I have the three days to respond because that is the law that's the law all right so then why are they taking while they're taking it out of the policy then and why are they paring it down to just this simple language and you know does anyone know what

063the origin of this that's why I was struggling with like why are they doing this I think it's common to have you know you have a policy and then you have procedures that you know Define how you execute on the policy so I think that's whether it's his policy or other policies I think it's common to you know you you set the policy and then you have the procedures which back up the policy and explain it's like kind of the how how you do it or the process for it that a lot of times doesn't get embedded within the actual policy yeah I think I was just struggling with the idea of what the what was the reasoning and what's the origin of this and why would they do this because I'm always thinking there's

064some kind of ulterior motive yeah there's always some kind of move someone's trying to make and that could put me in a trick bag that's all I didn't know before I say yay to things like why are we doing this and like so we like so we don't know so there's no real I mean your explanation is great and so is yours I get it at that level but I still don't understand like the why this is a pretty this is a pretty serious policy for us as a poor I mean this is a thing that I know that happens and these tactics are important so I want to understand like why and we can just kind of find out like the why and what does it mean extrapolating this language out then putting in

065the procedure and then this being the policy with that Paradigm language I would like to know why I think that haikoko probably call msba and get that information quick pretty quickly and then report back to us at our second meeting exact second reading of the policy um because there was nowhere nowhere on any website or anywhere was like the reasoning they just couldn't get it so I know one of the reasons that sometimes they do update policies besides just a legislative change or Etc is if they're getting a lot of requests for clarification on a specific policy from tons of school districts so then all of a sudden these laser focus on that policy and go why are we getting so many questions on this policy and they clarify the language on it so that

066is one thing I know msba does um but I don't know if that's the case for this policy we can certainly we'll call them and ask them well it also goes back to like these these books being pooled you know and then someone's saying like our attorney general say I want to do a Sunshine Law request on all these things and then now this isn't in the policies over here and like you can they could just come in and do what they want to do I just want to make sure that's not the case like there's no weird stuff happening that we don't understand that makes sense before we agreed to this okay well we can certainly get that info and share it at the next reading of this um go ahead Jason oh I'm

067just sorry quickly it looks to me like a lot of it's been a couple days since I looked at it but I feel like a lot of what was struck out of this was like such redundant the statements were so redundant it almost made me think like how and what like when this was written in the first place who proof read this like it was like it seemed very redundant so some of the pairing down is probably you know innocent like that but I do think Jason brings up a really good point that the motive Behind These is always important to know go ahead just a question I'm not sure it's fair to even ask this question I'm gonna do it anyway so under the um under the board member access yes how is it

068decided whether whether the request is related to a board member's duties or not do you make that call or the person in your the custodian records make that call if it's a request just like you need a request and bond backwards Boardman okay so it's your so it's your call and that's not a bad response I'm just trying to clarify it's your call to me because the custodian of record there's a custodian of records are found by law okay yeah I just wanted to know all right cool thanks but that is a good part of the policy that the board does need to make sure they read Because that's the optional part if we want to add that into the policy or not with the board member access to records like okay um Chris are

069you okay anybody else okay thank you Micah and uh we are now on uh to our action item number eight which is these uh policy di a a I move that the Board of Education approved policy approve policy diaa relating to fund balances second it's been moved and seconded are there questions nothing okay um all in favor aye all right any opposed okay and we are on to our financials for November 2022. um John gunnover John did you have anything to share for the financial report for November 2022. nothing Beyond that's written okay and so there's no action on that um well it looks like we do need it motion we do need to Stacy I'm sorry approve the November 2022 disbursements right I move that the Board of Education approved the November 2022 disbursements

070in the sum of 2 million 605 508.37 second okay it's been moved and seconded are there any questions I'm just wondering if we're having any luck recovering the close to 95 000 for the substandard contractor work done on the roof okay yeah is it a contractor do you know that we've used for a long period of time that has an incentive to pay us all back that money contractor Builders Society there's lawyers City okay um any opposed okay Amy I like to abstain please on the disbursement report is that what we're yes okay did you abstain my question is when it's not a roll call vote do we just get to not vote or do we have to recognize like you know what I should what I should have done was um I should have

071said something before Stacy called the motion and you guys would have excused yourself from the room oh and then come back come back in um when after the vote but I and I know that you did eat text me before so I apologize that I forgot um but I guess if it's go ahead and you can mark it as you could say yeah abstain so you've got four yeah yeah but in the scenario you just gave you said we would come back after the vote so we wouldn't even vote is that what yeah I mean that's like okay I I I I see I don't know that it's I don't think it's problematic that you were sitting here yeah um I actually don't think there's any policy about physically living yeah I just uh like

072we used to do that yeah we didn't have to do that right to just ensures that you don't vote right okay totally yeah I'm really yeah I'm really bad at Roofing apparently job Chris so I guess just to clarify Amy like before every vote should you be saying like all those in favor all those and then all those abstain like I mean or how should that normally I you know all those in favor and then when I say any opposed someone could abstain that yeah I guess I would say would anyone can clarify a roll call vote if they think it's unclear who voted which way yeah so I think we just clarified it the way that Jason brought it up and okay I think I think that's fine I don't know what like remember

073Joe used to yeah but he didn't have people that was his yeah yeah okay that's a making sure you're if you're not in the room then you there's no question whether you participated in the vote um so we are on consent I move that the Board of Education approved the consent agenda items 10.02 through 10.05 second it's been moved and seconded are there any questions or comments all in favor aye any opposed okay motion passes um see here are we I think we need to approve d uh we're on Stacy do we need to approve or no I'm sorry no that was all in consent that was all in consent um okay so we're on board communication um does anybody have any reports go ahead unless Jason wants to talk on this grow um so

074I was on the um legislative advocacy call I think you were on it too that's why I was saying or if you want to talk about anything but um I think Jason grow and I were were the only ones on that Zoom call and Nisha was also um so those legislative advocacy group calls um we had one I don't know recently and Ian covered most of what we heard and I think do you know haika was the whole board emailed that slide Decker just Jason and I that attended does anyone know you know how we got a email with I don't remember getting oh I feel like I did okay or was it in the Weekend Update okay so if you haven't had a chance to look through it I would and if you are

075interested in this and like what Ian was talking about tonight I would encourage you to join the next one which is coming up in February I think the first Friday in February it's just a zoom call um I didn't even have my camera on I was listening while I was walking my dog so you know it's not like you have to be sitting at your desk but I found it very informative and engaging and um there's some really knowledgeable people on that call anyway and I would just say that I think um I was just looking at my notes Ian covered pretty much in his talk most of the same you know things important things that we heard on the call um I would say there was kind of a push to say that we

076kind of long gone are the days where we just can rely on superintendents to do the advocating for our public school districts that we really need to get students and community members and others involved in it um mostly because I think he said some kind of statistic like half of the superintendents in Missouri are like in their first two years in the position like they're young and they are overwhelmed with their new job as it is so um the community really needs to get on board to help with this um and I think one more thing I think that maybe is not an issue for Clayton but across the board in education in Missouri is that the rate of teacher retention is like at a record low and early retirement at a record high and

077so I think even if we're not dealing with this issue and Clayton it's important to be aware of that when we think about how some of these laws will affect these districts that are having a really hard time retaining and hiring teachers so anyway the next one's coming up I think the first Friday in February so if you're free it I forgot if it was 8 A.M Maybe on Zoom like I said even if you're just doing other things I want to listen and I think I think they're great very helpful for me I guess I think are they are they on our calendars uh yes I see okay maybe haika could just put them on everyone's calendar and so then if you can attend you will and if you don't you don't like does

078that sound good haika like maybe just send everyone the links on the calendar because there's I think three more scheduled for this school year yeah when it used to be in person so we didn't want to overwhelm it with you know all seven of us but now that they're just right zoom and they're more people from other districts I've noticed that show up too yeah yeah I think it's great to see that so yeah and even Carter that could be so I don't know what times does what time does school start 15. okay well some of you guys I know sleep in until like 9 30. so well they I don't know they don't have a class and like in the morning so let me put it here first school starts at 9 30. they

079do Amy's calling you in front for next Tuesday no what's your your group don't you have a legislative or a committee yeah that you can if somebody does somebody after that hour they can log on I don't think it's gonna be Cha-Cha but it would basically probably be fifth period because it's a p day it's Friday mornings it's always a Friday at 8 A.M so that would always right that's true but if we do it's a beating I mean it's 8 A.M what are you going to be doing yeah well I'm not saying Carter has to do it he he can see if somebody is interested or somebody else yeah what can I ask a question yes Stacy did they focus I have a couple different thoughts and a question first is do they um

080talk at all about how to rally and inform sort of like what Gary was saying your District's parents and students around this stuff is that what that I was hoping that instead of just informing us who the people that got on the zoom that this would be a nice forum for us to understand exactly how to raise our parent voices and help parents to be more involved and and to know what's happening so that they can go down to the capital and you know I just wonder if other districts have great I know at the conference I certainly talk to other districts that even go so far as to have a lobbyist for them but um I just think that we're all kind of sitting in our like heels like oh gosh what's gonna happen

081and we're knowing that we need feet on the ground and we know that can't always be us but what can we do to support the people in the district a knowing about all the stuff be really supporting them being able to organize around it if that's where the you know energy wants to be which I think it is in Clayton they didn't talk about it on this call I believe I remember in the past we have and I also know that the board PLC the school boards professional Learning Community like that Joe had started that happens the last one of that which was last spring maybe that was the focus was like talking about how to do that and what to do and my personal opinion or wish would be that not even just in

082Clayton but with some of these districts in our area that are on this call like the Webster the Kirkwood City like that we band together because I think their strength in numbers especially when you're showing up in general yeah um so maybe we bring that up on the next call like how could we as a collective right and I just wonder my next comment is the idea that I actually just thought of but is there a a place for us as a board to have a bit of a subcommittee with whether it has a board member or not but to have a subcommittee that sort of studies how we can approach this budding need um for our district I mean for all districts I would say um especially the ones here in St Louis County

083so um I don't know I just wonder us if wondering aloud if I hate for us to say wouldn't it be great if we could support a parent voice and then not really have much more action on that than rather than just saying it I just wonder if there's yeah we've talked about in the past having like a legislative advocacy kind of because it's a thing like like our financial advisory committee yes we never really because at this point I don't really have the subcommittees I wonder if this is a case to have one I don't know yeah I I don't know I think that in the past the problem that we've discussed is that you know the legis that becomes political the legislative advocacy and you know some of our community feels one way

084and some of the community feels another way and it might be hard to have you know you can't exclude people so it might be hard to have both right you know so I was I wasn't saying that we would hold a position on any any of these topics I was saying what can we do to inform in this or help them to be their own position whatever that position is sure so not be political about it but also be aware informative about it or you know what I mean I think there's I think there's some things that we could probably be doing better and I I'm sure Mission Chris can talk about I mean I don't know like what even just you know putting Ian's access to Ian's emails on our website and um yeah

085the or the I'm sure I mean I don't know that we need to come up with the how but I if it's important to everybody that which I think it is it is that we are informing the community of legislative activity I mean just think of the example he just showed about last year yeah and how much that made a difference for that bill you know it got stalled and then it ended up not passing at all yeah I just think sounds to me like the students are very wanting to be involved and that probably means this the the T the you know parents and maybe teachers too so again without us taking a actual stand there has to be a way for us and from informational yeah and really all these we can just

086call it elevating parents you know education you know what I mean yeah maybe I yeah let's just start I feel like let's start brainstorming or have you you know really think about what that could look like right pretty interesting space I mean I guess well I would I don't know what's the question which I don't understand like like like like I love Chris's enthusiasm you know like yeah yeah like I think always important appointment well I like I you know Jason I love it when you I love to hear your thoughts but we should if we're going to have that conversation we should probably have but uh on the agenda so if any of our community wants to hear it um that's um something that we can consider being a different one it can be

087more aware yes regard yes I mean they could Advocate however they want people can Advocate however they choose to Advocate exactly right I mean certainly as a board we can we can um we cook you know collectively um say how collectively as a board that we feel but um you know right and some community members will agree with us and some community members will disagree with us and you know it's really just sort of a community yeah we're acting as you know a group of concern you know people who are committed to our education you know in helping our community know how this affects them as well and obviously we're doing it because we know that we have students and um that are really passionate and we want to support the students as well so

088again it's not about picking aside it is about saying this is important to education and here's how we're going to you know make sure that our students teachers and parents have a chance to engage in whatever form they want to right exactly and I think there's also a way to just speaking strictly factual if Bill XYZ passes here's how it affects how it will affect our community it's huge too just that's factual that's right political yeah there's nothing political on my side that's just explaining what's going to happen so again what does that look like yeah I don't yeah and I'm not coming up I put that on the agenda um yeah and then present the board with you know or just or um update us in in one of those future meetings I wonder

089if again we can just ask that question of the other districts what are you guys doing what is what what does this look like in your district and those meetings are very um I mean there's a presentation usually but then there's discussion like it's very open to it's great anybody being able to ask that it's a very like I'm sorry I couldn't get the inclusive call yeah everybody can anybody can talk right so yeah so I'm hearing that everybody is interested in this and making sure that the community is informed and so I'm sure you know you'll we can either put it on the agenda in some form or it could be part of superintendent Communications um I think that's a good idea so thank you guys for both of you for um stressing that

090uh are there any other reports go ahead so uh I attended the Clayton Education Foundation meeting last last week or two weeks it was great we heard two uh we heard two proposals we heard one from Cameron pool um who put together who's putting together a really exciting uh bus tour of hbcus for our students and it was really cool to hear about that work what he's doing so I appreciate that um then we also tell us what that just tell us quickly what that means what that stands for and what do you know oh oh historically back yeah yeah historically black college what you told me the other day because I didn't I didn't know her Cameron could tell us no I mean about the bus tour yeah that was so it was that

091was awesome so correct me if I'm wrong it was taking a group of Juniors I believe through sophomores okay on a bus tour through the South to uh various hbcus so historical black colleges um so they can get exposure to those campuses learn more about those schools and more about those post-secondary opportunities I love it yeah good job Cameron I think that's awesome thanks Cameron seriously um the weekend um and then we also heard a proposal about um and I'm new to this being the guy with Merrimack kids but um the chuckle Island trip uh which tends to be like an annual sort of thing so we heard a proposal about that um and I don't know how the I didn't know how the what they decided to do at that meeting um but you

092know again just wanted to thank Cameron for for stepping up on that um and then also there's this Friday is alumni basketball night so if you know anyone if you know anyone who played basketball for Clayton at any time you know they're gonna do something I guess to honor those players and they're gonna have a little get-together afterwards at a bar nearby and so if you know anyone invite him to the game on Friday um great I would I will say my my report too just quickly briefly I just wanted to make sure that um I we did have another um Equity committee meeting and it was great and we're still doing the same stuff that we were before and I'm really glad to be a part of it so just nothing real new just

093that I we did Jason and I both went to this last meeting and we're still doing the good work and we'll report more once we get look at more data and have more recommendations wonderful okay anybody else I well I guess we will adjourn I move that the Board of Education adjourned second right