001e e e would like to call this meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance I pled Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all want like a motion to approve the agenda for for July 18th 2024 as presented second player b car all in favor say I I all opposed say no motion passes the Board of Education welcomes comments from its Community a period of public comment is set aside at the beginning of each regular Board of Education meeting regarding public participation at board meetings uh those interested in speaking during p P comments are encouraged to visit the district website for more information during Patron comments residents of the district and staff are invited to
002address the board of education on issues related to the school district speakers are called forward in the order of sign up each speaker has three minutes to make their remarks please remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time and combining time or giving your time to someone else is not permitted the board appreciates you've taken the time to come this evening and we Valu both your input and perspective I'd like to remind everyone that we expect speakers will remain civil and respectful when giving remarks if anyone fails to comply with board policies regulations and rules we reserve the right to cut those three minutes short first we welcome Jamie Martin to step forward good evening I'm Jamie Martin I'm a mom and a leader of the organization Francis H forward
003in February I stood right here and shared my concern that culture wars and hot button topics while important are keeping our attention from some of the most important issues of all like how we solve problems when we fundamentally disagree today this topic feels even more relevant history shows us that moral Frontiers come and go when Motion Pictures were new clips of a Spanish dancer who screw showed her ankles as well as the first to show kissing on camera were both bound banned for obscenity when we granted women the right to vote or the right to own property many predicted it would be the downfall of the family and when integration became law families fearing interracial marriage cited Bible teachings to support their staunch and often violent opposition of course race and gender Dynamics continue to
004challenge us last summer five of our current board members retired a non-binding resolution against racism and discrimination most of the directors never articulated what specific language in the resolution made them uncomfortable and though director Ponder promised then that a new resolution would be crafted we've seen little evidence of that effort in the year since last month 15 policy and regulation changes were suggested the revisions removed the words rights or freedoms and astounding nine times one policy prohibits C candidates and community members from discussing upcoming elections with parents on school property another uses the words obscene and vulgar to place heavier restrictions on classroom and school libraries two common threads run through these revisions first a significant expanding of board authority and second decreased involvement of District professionals students and their families in keeping with these
005themes the political action committee held a secret meeting on Tuesday which they opened only to their supporters I was pointed not to be invited and where two of our elected board members discuss the policy revisions today I brought my youngest a four with me he's back there miles promised to stay quiet if I told everybody he has his first loose tooth when I look at our children and I think of recent events I can't help but wonder how far are we willing to go to preserve the current standards of morality and who if not the parents has the power to define those standards I urge this board and our community to pause to put down the arguments about policy curriculum and gender pronouns just tell me about your kid and listen when others tell you
006about theirs and believe them let's be a community that can hold deep convictions on either side of the aisle and still move forward not backward with respect for one another our kids all kids deserve that [Music] uh next we next we welcome Jeff balesi good evening I'm Jeff bareli lead library media specialist I'm here to address proposed policies and regulations 6310 6241 and 6341 these policies which per which pertain to the learning commment were written and proposed by vice president cook without consultation of our district library media Specialists and newest revisions to these policies do not reflect our concerns last month the board moved forward with a humbling discussion about these policies during which the board demonstrated confusion over the process of policy writing and approval of a timeline for next steps and even confusion
007about the content of some policy I expect a more robust conversation tonight than so does our public this all left me confused why did you vote to discuss these policies without vice president cook attendance last month and why were they even proposed in 18 years in the district I'm not aware of any data or rationale to propose such drastic changes to our policies please share your data with us tonight I know our students and values represent of Raj I know our students and families represent a broad range of values I honor that in the development of my book collection and I honor that when parents contact me to place restrictions on their student accounts I've received three such requests in the past three school years one was to to remove access to two books for
008one of our students and the other two were simple limitations on the number of books students were allowed to borrow so why do we need to overall po overhaul policy and put into place artificial barriers that slow down the acquisition of materials for our students like posting public lists of requested books what special expertise do our district patrons possess about Library collection development literature reading or student learning that we don't already possess among our collaborative group group of teachers and library media Specialists I know you want to protect our students but why are we writing into policy confusing parameters about sex language violence and drugs they will result in censorship of materials that are perfectly appropriate in meeting our students needs like books for young readers that delicately address sensitive topics such as child abuse
009or sex assault why do you ban these topics for elementary school where we have survivors sitting in our classrooms tell us more about the FCC definition of profanity and how you see that plays out as we apply it to book purchases what kind of words would or would not be allowed in elementary school books try some out tonight we're listening I'm concerned that proposed policy reflects a narrow range of values inconsistent with many of our district families I'm concerned by the removal of language from current policy stating no parents have the right to determine reading material for students other than their own children I'm concerned about board abuse of power you propose to be the final arbitrators on collection development so I would like to know your expertise when it comes to literature reading instruction
010and most importantly our students thank you next to welcome graceon [Applause] Justice good evening do you think I should do what the teachers say then why am I here I just kind of look down and wait until it's over these are some of the quotes that a board members should not say about their school or teachers representing Francis H but we have those two up here right now it's a shame that my school district is gain negative publicity from the board and some of y'all terms are ending next year so if you're thinking of running for board again don't cuz we have enough of these games and the and that are costing people's lives these new policies and regulations that have been introduced from the last meeting without uh without contacting or having a meeting
011with f u Francis Hal educa uh Education Association to go over these policies and regulations are unprofessional also is so unlawful and discrimination I wouldn't be surprised if this came from Project 2025 or agenda 74 if you don't know what that is let me tell you it's a 9,000 plus page document of every right-wing magga moms for Liberty Christian nationalist proud boys dreams come true depending on the November election for example eliminating the Department of Education giving Public School funds to private and religious schools Banning books eliminating free lunch programs reducing uh workplace safety regulations ending protections and policies promoting gender equality criminalizing lgbtq plus especially trans and non binary and many more agenda 74 is the same thing but it's in the you know who style if his in his first day of office
012in short it will end democracy and welcomes uh dictatorship and authoritarianism like Nazi Germany in World War I you need to listen to your community including the ones you disagree with and make this school district a better place for everybody vote nay on policy and regulation 6310 6241 and 6341 and another thing happy anniversary for the board um removing um discrimination and racism uh I think it's a good time to bring it back since you guys have no idea what you're going to replace it with thank you next we welcome Janny Wilkins good evening my name is Janie Wilkins former teacher and Francis Howell current parent on Tuesday evening of this week a far right pack that has organized to put lots of money into candidates for our school board that they support elected that
013they support get elected held a private meeting only this extremist Pack's allies and donors could attend now this wouldn't be a big deal except that they also advised that two of our board members would be present to talk about the recent policy proposals as a parent and a taxpayer in this District I don't think I'm alone and having a problem with a meeting being held where I'm not allowed to attend or even listen to what the discussion is is secret and it impacts my children's education if you're going to run on transparency as a candidate you shouldn't be participating in a meeting that doesn't allow all district stakeholders to be present I hope that come this April the parents in our district parents who are largely not a part of this secretive far-right pack go
014out and vote yet again for pro Public School candidates thank [Applause] you next you welcome Anita [Applause] Keener good evening I'm Anita Keener and I'm a retired teacher and Patron of the Francis heal School District this week is the one-year anniversary of the fhsd 5 eliminating the resolution in response to racism and discrimination director Ponder made a pledge to work with the community to create a statement and yet we have heard nothing I am concerned about the overreach of the Board of Education when it comes to writing new policies around library books and classroom resources the policies that are already in place protect parents rights regarding their CH child's [Music] education after introducing policy 6241 challenged instructional materials and policy 6310 learning Commons at the last board meeting Randy met with the Librarians then with
015the policy committee some things were changed to make this policy less invasive however policy 6310 gives the president of the Board of Education all the power do we really think that is a good idea it limits the number of Educators on that committee and will not allow a librarian to have a seat on a Review Committee our teachers and Librarians are professionals our Librarians have expertise in this area and can speak to the use of these materials for pleasure reading and as well as curriculum needs also this week Frances hell families and two Board of Education members had a secret meeting to discuss these policies Randy and Jane I thought you campaigned on transparency why a secret meeting to exclude a majority of Voters a majority because this last election tells us that what is
016important to parents is to have the educational professionals educate their students if people thought the district was heading in the right direction other people would have won in the April 2024 election we need a board that meets the needs of our students and faculty we need a board that student learning is the focus not political agendas thank [Applause] you next we welcome Harry Harris righty somehow yet again we have uh a lot of ground to cover in three minutes uh first well I know that some of these proposals that were introduced previously and have been walked back removed or given a different ZIP code or whatever has been done because they don't seem to there doesn't seem to be a lot of order to any of this anymore um that I can't even follow along
017with what everybody's doing I've been told time and time again that from board members of how after an election there's a type of will of the people that should be followed on the backs of those who won well given this last election I think the people of our district District said loud and clear that they are tired of the political games being played with our children tired of lay people without a day of classroom experience trying to micromanage what our trained professionals who you've heard from already do on an hourly basis and most of all tired of attacking the children of our district especially our lgbqt families and frankly all minorities but we're going to swing back to that I'm here tonight to say stop it quit letting your political influences take you by the
018nose and attempt at running ruining our district some of those original proposals I passed by lawyers that I know and just asked their opinion if they thought they were legal to quote one of them that's a no for me dog as a district parent who was out there talking with other parents at conferences just like former candidate Mrs was we are exercising our right of freedom of speech I mean the pack supporting five of the seven of you all sued the district for the freedom of speech if you try passing something anywhere close to what I saw when it came out I can guarantee you that you will find the board right back in that position now I'd be remiss to remind you if I didn't remind you all that this meeting is the one-year
019anniversary of your your removal of the resolution against racism and discrimination people forget about that last part discrimination that it was a statement to ask that our district do better and be better clearly that wasn't a priority for you and speaking of priorities I sat about 12 rows back that night at the end and uh listened to director Ponder make a speech at the end of the meeting fitting that he's not here something about asking his Elementary age daughter if she thought we needed a document on the wall to accomplish this odd that he chose her advice over the almost unanimous lineup of people of color that night that came to speak in favor of keeping it but then he took it a step further vowing to work with community members to create a new
020version of the document and those crickets you hear are still waiting on that document for a year now community members have reached out to him including myself in good faith to work putting on putting something together I know some received a polite email that it was in the works and others like myself didn't even get the courtesy of a response you all can do better and you need to thank you next we welcome Jared Pillsbury good evening good evening board I want to talk about transparency Saturday as you've heard will be the one-year anniversary of this board's decision to resend the resolution in response to racism and discrimination the Francis how Community was told director Ponder would work with members of the community after the vote to put forth the new statement yet that has
021not taken place and we've received not even a community update as to the efforts and why a revision may or may not even be workable more recently a proposal was Advanced to limit free speech at campus events you've Advanced a proposal to make finals wor 20% a punitive step for students raising the finals to even higher Stakes we're learning about the board having final say over books a preemptive book ban we have Librarians and teachers for a reason and for their expertise let's use that what we've seen from this board from this majority board is overreach little accountability and most of all a stunning lack of transparency sitting board members have blocked patrons from their social media Pages where they discussed District business emails aren't even acknowledged let alone answered perhaps of greatest insult and
022lack of transparency as you've heard tonight the Fran family's pack held a meeting on Tuesday with special guests vice president Randy cook and Treasurer Jane pushkar the invite to that event read in part quote this invitation is for our supporters volunteers and donors only end quote and quote very selectively share this with anyone you know is a supporter and might like to get more involved in quote I would ask for a readout of this meeting to be provided to the public I ask you board how are you being accessible and transparent how are you hearing from all stakeholders taking time to listen and respond to them and their concerns because what I see is a board only interested in hearing from a select few and not serving one howl thank you for your [Applause] time
023next we welcome Natalie poyer hello my name is Natalie poer I'm a rising sophomore at Francis H high school I'm here to talk about your new policy specifically regarding books policy 6241 it's frankly h critical it states warning quote materials that present all viewpoints concern concerning international national and local problems and a rising issue of our time end quot but it does not allow books that don't commit that don't fit quote Community Values and students ability and maturity levels to understand points of view we can let Community Values get in the way this can censor and hinder the amount of issues and and experiences that are that myself and my other years can listen teachers that you have that the district has hired have degrees on how to properly educate children let them do what
024they let them do that and use their expertise without the bias and hyp and the hypocrisy of the community policy three prophecy 6 310 it refuse it frankly refuses to let Librarians do their jobs in 2024 a librarian needs to have a bachelor's in library science to be hir HED at of school meaning they have gone through they went to school to understand what books are appropriate for children of the levels that they are teaching at they know how to accomplish your goals of broad flexible arrays of sources resources and instructions to support students Mastery of essential academic learning requirements you aren't letting them do what they need to do to properly ex to properly do their jobs and policy 41 the definition of obsene your definitions are too vague it allows complaints to be
025more made about more books in turn it allows books about queer characters and characters of color to be taken off shelves it contradicts your statement that I have previously mentioned of materials present all viewpoints concerning international national and local problems it takes away stories and experiences that are given to students such as myself allowing these books to be taken off these shelves is irresponsible and not okay for anybody in our school district um let the teachers who have gone through school and know how to teach kids age appropriately and responsibly to do their jobs without subjective Community getting in the way overall school is a place of learning learning includes learning others experiences which you all have agreed upon as I have previously mentioned let's see let teachers give let teachers and Librarians give students
026the resources and the resources to be able to properly teach their students thank you next we welcome Mark [Music] kimman good evening everybody uh I am not here to weigh in on the debate of whether or not pineapple goes on Pizza you can find that reference on the cisa.gov website um what I am here to weigh in on is with all the policies that are being considered the school district has not given one ounce of any regard to the fact that they've lost one day of school due to anomalous activity on the network on the computer network there is not a single policy governing Information Systems acquisition all of the uh I was here for the um when the budget for services was approved and one of the services that was approved um I I
027was able to get to The Domain administrator login in less than 5 minutes while sitting in this room I have not seen a single sock 2 report I have not seen any due diligence on the part of anyone keeping children safe online there is no information security policy there is no um Access Control policy there is no um acceptable use of techn Tech ology policy my children this past school year at Francis Hall North were given access and told to view a video on a website that I as a cyber security professional block Blacklist do not allow access from inside an organization by default when I configure a firewall one of those one of the sites that my children were told to go to I block and deny all access to by default I'm not
028saying that the Educators don't know what they're talking about but there is no oversight to protect our children in how they go about doing it I presented the president of the board with the SEC with a security scorecard report for the school district the one of the biggest points reducing the district's security score was lack of a chief information security officer we need managed services to do to take this role I am happy to discuss this with anybody thank you your time is up next we welcome Sandy Hendricks good evening my name's Dr Sandy Hendrick I'm a taxpayer in the district a parent of two students for Francis how and a teacher of almost 30 years 22 of those being here in the district thank you for your time this evening as I speak to
029the proposed learning commment policies and regulations first I would like to tell you why I became a librarian one of my earliest memories was of my mother taking my brothers to the public library way before I was in school my house was one where books were Limitless books were magical to me I was very lucky to grow up in a military Community my mother was from Germany and my dad was an Army veteran of World War II in the Korean War we lived next to the military base and my life was full of Multicultural experiences my best friend's mom was Korean and my parents best friends were an interracial couple so I learned from an early age to accept and love all people my mom always told me what mattered most was what was was
030what was on the inside of people and that is how I've lived my life thus far growing up my mother often told stories of Hitler and the Nazis coming into their schools and taking over and her speaking out against it as a first grader and then getting into some severe trouble for it but another life lesson she has taught me is that if you don't agree with something you need to speak up which is why I'm here tonight these proposed policies will provide barriers to our students literacy and love of reading our students deserve what we have been providing for them for decades books that will meet their needs my dad's parents were also German immigrants and he couldn't speak English when he started school so education and schools were very important to both of
031my parents and literacy was the most important growing up I loved my school libraries and Librarians there were no barriers to my school access or my access to books as a child I suffered from debilitating anxiety and books were my medicine Books open up Windows to a world of endless possibilities for someone like me being in a military Community I was exposed to things like multiple cultures and races so I absolutely love seeing those characters in the books that I read and when I did not understand how people could be so cruel when for instance my high school basketball team couldn't stop in certain towns to eat at their McDonald's after a game I would read about racism and somehow it gave me Comfort because it gave me knowledge we can't be scared of things
032we do not know which is why reading is so important the policies that you are proposing will squash those opportunities for the students of Francis hell children seek out books for many different reasons to read for recreation to learn to seek Refuge to learn about other P people's points of view and the list could go on and on our job as Librarians is to provide grade level appropriate highly reviewed books on many subjects and in many genres to meet the needs of all of our students over the years our students have changed they are coming to us with severe traumas and broken family lives that just break my heart it's the job of librarians to provide books for those students that could somehow make their lives maybe a little easier deleting the language no parents
033or Guardian have the right to determine reading viewing listening matter for students other than their own children out of the regulation 6 6241 is very Troublesome for me and for all of them your time is [Applause] up next we welcome Harper Schneider Harper Schneider she's not here next we welcome Sam [Music] young good evening board thank you for the chance to speak this evening um I want to talk about the library Poli policies understand they're not up for vote tonight um but I just want to respond to some of the attacks that have happened on them um some of them have been mentioned tonight I've read through the policies and uh I've seen the changes from the first reading to what was uh posted uh previously this week um to me like they don't restrict
034Librarians from picking books the uh they also don't put board approval as the final uh determination of what books get picked um having your list of books that we're spending public money on that are going to be available in our public Li Public School libraries um having that as anational item you know during an open board meeting uh is a transparency item it doesn't seem like extra work that they already have a list of the books you know they could choose what the format is whether it's a purchase order or or whatever so I mean these things already exist so just having it out there in the open you know that's not board approval it's just information um so of the discussion tonight was that it would limit the types of books for um people
035of color LGBT um from people of different cultures but the uh the people of different um TR tragic experiences abuse but you you look at the restrictions you're talking about restricting the types of sexual um scenes that are put in there you're talking about um it's got to reach a certain point so all these things can be discussed it talks about uh drug use well that that doesn't limit uh buying books for different communities it it talks about violence um illegal activities none of these things strictly limit buying books for for other cultures there are plenty of books out there that meet these standards and are available to kids um when you look at the American Library Association website you know they're very clear that um they consider having age appropriate limits as censorship you
036know they consider having age appropriate um limits as in and restricting the freedom of uh people and in this case minors to read but I don't share that view I mean having age appropriate limits um on books just seems like common sense and very reasonable thank you for your time next we welcome [Music] FHA good evening Chiefs board staff and patrons I am Francine H the new fataa president I'm honored to represent certified staff and educational support counselors and work work collaboratively with the administration and the board our staff is looking forward to welcoming back our students colleagues as well as all the new teachers we appreciate the collaboration that has already occurred library media Specialists were able to provide some feedback on policies and even though all issues could not be resolved some compromise
037was reached we were disappointed that F leadership was excluded from this meeting the added language to policy 6310 about classroom libraries is also appreciated during the policy committee meeting July 11th the collaboration between board members pushkar Harmon and cook and the entire committee was a step in the right direction to working collaboratively as we approach the beginning of a new year some things are on the minds of our certified staff Elementary and Middle School teachers are wondering what they will use to replace Brain Pop when our subscription runs out in December Librarians are uncertain about how to proceed with their budgets to ensure District funds used for material s um will not be accepted by the board and funds would be wasted we have been able to make many improvements to our buildings in our
038district in addition to the new Francis how North because of the bond issue that was passed by the community Tri County labor helped us pass this bond issue however the district decided to use General Contractors that chose subcontractors that had not completed a federally approved Apprentice program for the district's board policy the district needs to support the people that support our district as each union members are part of our Francis how Community it is hard to see picket lines at our schools we also are very concerned about the proposed policies about learning resources because legal council has advised they may be a violation of First Amendment rights the B the broad scope of the policies regarding the learning comment and instructional materials is setting our district up for potential lawsuits especially when you consider that
039challenges to any resource will be decided by a committee which consolidates the power into the hands of the board president who will essentially control five of the nine votes we believe that the policies will push parents to file formal complaints rather than working with building administrators or teachers to find alternative resources for their child when and if they even have concerns we believe that these policies and regulations will limit the educational opportunity for our students and hamper our highly qualified educator and trying to develop lifelong readers we urge you not to move forward with these changes again fhaa looks forward to a new school year and a new start to collaborate for the good of our students and Community thank you next we welcome fisa good evening vice president cook superintendent rumpus cabinet board and
040guests we hope everyone is having a great summer and taking time with their loved ones and families I may have been in Disney with my kids this last board meeting I was sad to miss but the point is to recharge school will be starting back up soon so take some time if you can August 10th we're inviting all FEA eligible employees to our before school bash at chillax come chill out with your support staff friends for an afternoon of food drinks and fun for everyone just please RSVP by August first we'd like to highlight all the work being done throughout all of our departments our summer employees and year- round AAS that keep our buildings running so well in our facilities Department our maintenance is busy at work with preparing the schools for kids' returns
041and handling all the leaks and floods this last week has brought grounds has been keeping our facilities beautiful All Summer Long Warehouse has been tirelessly handing the huge move that took place at new North and are now working on Surplus the custodians they have been doing top tier tile maintenance throughout the buildings restoring the tile from old buildings to as if new we have projects being completed throughout the district creating beautiful updated and safe schools for all kids in this district for many years to come have meaningful conversations truly listen to understand and work together to achieve great things one [Applause] how board next we have the consent agenda does any member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda director cook I'd like to remove the Personnel report okay item C is removed
042for further consideration so we have a motion to approve the consent agenda for with with the exception of item C Personnel report for July 18th 2024 as presented do I have a a motion do we need a vote to remove the Personnel report we do not restate that again or I like a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of item C Personnel report for the July 18th 2024 as presented so mov car do I have a second second all right all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say no no could I get a r can I make a roll call yes thank you just just so we're clear this is the a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of items Personnel report director Blair no
043director Harmon hi vice president cook hi treasur pushkar I director Owens no motion passes next we have the item pulled from consent uh order a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented so moved second all right I'd like to make a motion to pull this is part where I'm supposed to right I can right you may amend the motion okay I amend the motion to approve the Personnel Report with the exception of this I believe it's called a styen for Mr shot at Francis House Central Mr Mr shot is listed twice um is your intention to no High School journalism okay so we have a motion to a motion to amend the Personnel Report with the exception of Mr shot that's stien for high school journalism do I okay do I have a second
044for that Amendment we have to have second before any discussion second okay okay so now now we will vote on the motion is is uh just question is conversation about the reason um allowed in this format or not it is not okay since it is Personnel discussion of it is not permitted um next we will vote on the motion gu basically we we can't discuss the reason so it's a we just have to vote on this version of the amendment the one for transpar yeah the the one that you second it is the motion that's in front of us so board we're considering a motion to amend the the main motion so the motion is to amend the main motion um to approve the Personnel Report with the exception of Mr Matt shot for high
045school journalism can we ask this one what would be the F what would be the followup to this or what would be so initially we will we will vote on whether we're going to amend the motion and then we will vote on the motion or whether to approve the Personnel report either with or without this exception so if we would vote no if we don't want to remove that one teacher from the Personnel report vote Yes if we do want correct to keep that person removed from it so on this amendment it's really do we support a personal Personnel report absent of this one teacher that is correct but an affirmative vote would be to to amend the the main motion all right let's do this one by roll call director Harmon no vice president
046cook no Treasurer pushkar hi director Owens no director Blair no okay motion fails so now we're back to the main motion so motion to approve motion to approve the Personnel report as presented so it's already is it already it's already vice president cook I Treasurer pushkar no director Owens I director Blair I director Harmon I motion passes next we have action items individual up first uh board have a motion to approve the transportation fuel Island schematic design and development as presented so moved second director Blair director Haron Mr ster good evening board uh so before you this evening you have two schematic designs uh that will be presented by our new design partner hollison Miller Architects with us this evening we have Mr Justin Durham who is a partner with the firm and uh it's
047Megan Blair not Megan Blair Megan Barnes I should say uh who is a client leader uh for our account uh the presentations this evening are part of the are part of are the transportation fuel Island and the softball baseball complex at Francis House Central as a reminder uh the board during the march 2024 uh work session uh approved a listing of projects uh for district leadership to uh further explore and bring back individual recommendations uh for considerations so with that I will turn it over to um Megan and she will present the transportation fuel Island schematic design and then Mr Durham will uh present the uh Francis how Central trans softball uh baseball complex thank you thank you Mr szer good evening Board District leadership and staff um we're excited to be here tonight to
048present um one of the first Bond projects um that we've had the opportunity to partner with you on just wanted to take a quick second Mr ster just introduced us but um alongside Justin and myself um we also have two Project Lead Architects that are working on these two projects that we're presenting tonight U Marissa is leading the fuel Island and the transportation complex that will come back to you for next month and then Grant Tomy is leading the baseball ball field um baseball softball ball Field improvements with Justin and myself as well so um just again thank you guys for the opportunity to partner with you on these and the rest of the bond projects um we're really excited to get going and do some good work for the district so with that I'll
049dive right into it so the first project we start to work through is the transportation fuel Island at your current Transportation complex so the first thing we started to do um when we were hired about a month ago was really dig in and start to assess the current site understand some of the current challenges and also opportunities that we're seeing there um some of the biggest things related specifically to the fuel Island itself as you can see in some of those photos here um when the district procured the site from the previous Transportation Company um the the infrastructure is starting to age a bit um there's some some deteriorating conditions both in the paving some of the access points to that um you guys have a large Fleet of buses that you're maintaining and trying
050to safely get in and off that site um over 160 buses so as you can see here um the current fuel Island encompasses the underground fuel tank you can see in that bottom left photo um for the UNL gasoline that fuels the majority of your buses and some of the district White Fleet um we've also got two F pumps there and then you can see in that top left the the fuel truck right now is how the majority of the buses are fueled on site so that goes gets filled up it drives around um and fuels most of your buses some of them are still coming on and oneoff times and then you can see some of the other miscellaneous things um this set up is a little bit dated to say um typically we
051want to see a little bit more protection both for the buses um the other vehicles and the staff that are utilizing them to make sure that they can do uh the fueling and operations on site very safely and then you can also see some of the control system so um obviously some of the buses are unlet gasoline there's also a few of the buses that are currently diesel as well as some of the White Fleet so we also need to be able to Monitor and track from a financial fiscal responsibility standpoint um the difference in transportation Bud budget versus maintenance and operations budgets um that so as we look to um update this site that'll be something that'll be important to make sure that we have that infrastructure in place to do that um to
052maintain functional operations there as you can see here zooming out a little bit um one of the other projects you guys have asked us to take on is a new Transportation maintenance facility on the same site so trying to be very proactive we've kind of Zo zoomed out as you can see up here on the current site um the current the old district office that's now the transportation facilities there on the the right side um today we're going to focus on the fuel Island but next month we'll come back and talk about the big blue box up there that's the new Transportation Center um but the key piece here is really because of the current underground um fuel tank we are going to look at locating the new fuel Island in that same area to
053try and um reduce costs and create some efficiency there um and get the most bang for our buck okay so zooming in a little bit as Mr sord mentioned we are kind of in that schematic design actually early DD fa design development phase um actually since we've submitted this presentation we've actually met with end users again so we've had I think three almost three four meetings with end users the transportation team since they are the end users and really know that facility and how the operations work so we've been digging into those details with them and making some minor tweaks um to the design but as you can see here kind of the core pieces of this updated site would be looking at a new pre fabricated canopy to provide some protection from the elements
054um no matter what the weather is with they're out there fueling buses and getting things moving bus drivers are coming and going so we do want to provide that protection there um currently right now there's the two fuel pumps they only have one fast fill to fill that large fueling tank um and right now they're having to climb on top of that fueler to fill it from the top um not probably the most ideal situation so we do want to look at getting a new Fast fill station there um with some Safety and Security ladders and access points to make sure we can do that again throughout the elements um very safely um as I mentioned right now the majority of the vehicles are unlidded gas that are being fueled from that underground tank um
055currently about 10 buses are diesel as well as some of the White Fleet so this is one of the things that's changed in the last couple weeks initially we were talking about a 500 gallon diesel tank that would be above ground um since then some of the new buses that we're going to replace some of the Aging buses um are on order and unfortunately the only ones that can be um fulfilled in the timely manner would be new diesel buses so we are actually looking at upsizing that to 1,000 gallons in the next updated designer durations before we finalize this um and the other thing just zooming back out as well is we are also looking at knowing that fueling and different um Technologies with vehicles and buses continues to change we're also looking to
056try and make sure we have an opportunity if diesel would increase increase in the number of buses and vehicles that we also have space on site to potentially do a larger diesel um tank underground or somewhere else long term just kind of thinking thinking through that to set us up for success in the future and then finally um also trying to provide a fueler kiosk under that canopy so as they are kind of doing their um monitoring and things like that then get out the elements especially in the winter um and conditions things like that so finally real quick um as you can see here since we are in the schematic phase looking at a pre prefabricated canopy like the photo in the top left that protected kiosk would be underneath that canopy something like
057the top right um the above ground diesel tank will look like something like that bottom left and then we're looking at the catwalking platform that will help safely and securely fuel that tanker to get the buses fueled very efficiently there okay so with that um right now as I mentioned we've got another um meeting with users here I think in about a week and a half to kind of continue to finalize some of those details we've also been doing an assessment onsite to ensure that the current conditions of that underground fuel tank are in good operational um capacity that that nothing else needs to happen there so as things continue to progress we're going to continue working on some of those Minor Details Access Control security cameras that sort of thing finalize that design and
058our hope is um obviously uh incorporating any recommendations or modifications requested tonight and then we would hope to come back in August with the final design um recommendation to the board board any questions I just one question the above ground tank um what are the ways to make sure it's safe um is there like a lock to make sure it's not misused or poached another ways so there'll be there obviously the site itself is fully fenced and fully secure there secure access to the site itself um and then with the new fuel Island there'll be kind of concrete curbs and some B cards and things to protect that um and there are some ways that we can look at locking out access to it as well controlled with badge access you've got to come in
059with a badge to turn it on that sort of thing and then just protecting the site in general board i' just like to reiterate what Megan shared the current safety concerns that without having the um structure that they are climbing up on top to fuel in all of the elements and it's a significant risk not only for the person doing that potential spills and things that could happen one of the reasons this is so important one question with respect to the inground tank um well I guess the ultimate question is you know this is right next to a flood plane or very close have you looked at have you looked at all that with with bearing a a big empty tank be at buoyancy or whatever and any of those costs guess would would we
060be surprised by those costs or have you already looked at them and you've considered it an INR is the way is the best most cost effective way to go so currently we are actually going to be reusing the current underground tank so we will not be burying a new tank currently and then the new diesel one would be above ground okay we will be we will be um adding a little bit more impervious surface so we are looking at that there is a drainage detention Basin just to the north of the site so that will be taking on some more so we are uh doing final analysis of that with the survey to make sure that we won't um impacting the site around that as well and the inground tank currently is in good condition
061yes so we are working with a fuel consultant that has done service over time um we are doing a little bit more due diligence on that um in terms of We There is a little bit of a question on the original age um of when the previous um owners put that in there so that is something we are actually still looking on and have a consultant actually coming out later this week tomorrow um it's Thursday to uh review that one more time to make sure there's no concerns there any other discussion all right all those in favor say I I those opposed say no guys have it or like a motion to approve the Francis House Central baseball/softball field conversion to Turf schematic design and develop as presented second director Blair director Harmon Mr ster
062again I'll go ahead and turn it over to Mr Durham he's presenting this one all right thank you guys very much for having us tonight like Megan said we're excited to be here um want to take a few minutes and give you guys an update on the ball Field improvements at Francis House Central and so we always start just like Megan did at the the transportation facility as is as assessing our existing elements on the site so what we're looking at here at Francis House Central is what we would call like the Southfield not the back field and what we looked at here is we have a baseball combo field so right now it's set up for softball you can see that temporary fence if you drive by now it's kind of set up for
063that that sport that we're going to play in the fall so the the facilities team has done a good job getting that set up so we've looked at that we've looked at uh the two dugouts that are currently on side uh we have one midle storage building that we currently house um you know our our Nets and our our L screens and things like that in we have two bull pins um on the site we have one on the third base side and one on the first base side uh we have two batting cages those two batting cages are kind of down the right field line on the first base side um we have five sets of metal bleachers that currently exist some of them are aging a little bit you'll see some of those
064pictures here in a few minutes and then uh we have a fence storage area um kind of down by the batting cages um on the right field side that we currently have some of those larger pieces like your Bubba tunnel and things like that they use for batting practice so we've been out to the site we've kind of Taken assessment of that and one of the major objectives here one of the only objectives that we have really is to get Turf onto this field and and by doing that what that means is you know we put Turf on the infield The Outfield we would also do the beding cages and the bullpen so it would kind of envelop all of those pieces right so you'd have a full um turf field and facility within the
065confines of the field itself um some of the good parts about this is by eliminating the grass we do eliminate a lot of that ongoing maintenance the mowing the watering the fertilization the striping of of those fields you know putting the chalk down and things like that um and so what we estimate really is those expenditures are around 50 to or 60 to $75,000 a year um don't want to mislead there is still work that needs to be done on a turf field you still have to groom you still have to maintain it there is work to be done but it's not near the work that we would typically have to do on a natural turf field so that's a good benefit there one of the other benefits that we didn't really put up here
066is um the ability to help instructional time we play softball and baseball in the spring and in the fall a lot of wet Seasons so a lot of times when we do have games that are rained out our students may have to leave a little bit early to go to another field or postpone games or put things off which can increase travel time so they may be released out of school earlier to travel to another field if we have to relocate so sometimes it is nice to have those turf fields not only for the maintenance piece but also for the like the no not having a loss of instructional time if we have to travel to another site on a rain day or a day after to play so on our on our baseball softball
067improvements one of the things that we're looking at that we always do when we do this is a new perimeter fence and the reason why we take the old fence down and put a new fence up is is to Anchor the new turf field we have to have a concrete curve that runs around the perimeter and that allows us to attach that Turf to it and hold it tight in place so when we do that then we'll have to put a new fence up and um we'll work through that with you guys on what that look can be and and the safety measures like that safety cap rail that you see on the top there just to protect players from the knuckles on the top of the fence and and those kind of things um
068another scope piece that we looked at here is the um back stop replacement So currently we have a very tall chain link back stop um it obscures the view of the of the patrons when they come to watch some of the games so we are proposing to replace that with a net structure kind of like you see down on the bottom of the picture here down on the bottom left so that what that comprises of is a net structure and a pony wall or a knee wall that goes around the bottom with some padding on the inside and so what that will allow us to do is give better views to the patrons and it also helps to um you know maintain the use of our equipment so baseballs and things that hit it you
069know they don't get as damaged also um when baseballs do hit that chain link fence a lot of times if you guys have baseball players like I do you will see that bottom kind of curl up so the fencing around the bottom can be a bit of a maintenance issue too we kind of eliminate a lot of that when we do this type of piece so U it will be a good addition for several different reasons to that facility uh the dugouts themselves currently the bottom uh this is a representation of of what we have and on the bottom left you'll kind of see in the area in Orange is the area that we're looking to enclose those dugouts So currently people can walk right up and interact with players and things like that whether
070it's another student or a parent don't always want that during a game right you kind of want those athletes to pay attention to their coaches pay attention to their games so um we're looking at an opportunity to potentially block that in or or either block or midle panel another piece that would kind of separate those players so they can focus on their game and pay attention also there's a little bit of um HED and and deteriorated wood and things like that around those dugouts that we would want to take care of so just updating those painting them making them look good that's kind of what we've got in our base bit scope so as we walk through um you'll see artificial turf uh is number one and then along with that you'll see the bull
071pins which is uh 1B so you'll have one on the third base side one on the first base side so home and visitors and then you have those beding cages those would all be Turf uh number two is a new perimeter fencing so that would go all the way around the facility from basically Dugout all the way around the Outfield to the other Dugout where the new net back stop would then enclose fully enclose that field uh the next would be our uh renovation of the dugouts so those are indicated by number four right there and then what we wanted to do is just step back and and do a full analysis of this site for you guys right so these are some future options that we can consider um when we did our presentation
072to you to be your architect we told you that we would help you with alternates and things like that to maximize what you guys can do on midday and so what we want to do is just bring to you guys some things that we typically see on baseball fields and just bring it to your consideration on whether you would like to do some of those things or not so the first thing is is um additional needs and opportunities as we've identified the potential of lights right it is an expensive move but what it can do is allow us to use that field a little bit more instead of just one or two games that on a day we can extend that time period of use just beyond daylight hours during the spring when you know
073the sun goes down early in in the afternoon or the evenings so just extended use for those lights um another one this is a bit of a safety and SEC uh security concern for us so currently we talked about the five sets of bleachers that are back behind the back stop so we have uh asphall it goes back there now you can kind of drive down an access road and it's asphalt some of that slopes a little bit towards the field which is not what we want we typically want all those surfac to drain away from our Fields so um not only for irrigation and water purposes we would want to kind of change that slope but also for safety some of the bleachers are a little bit tipped and and turned so that it's
074not as comfortable as it should be really to kind of set on some of those bleachers so that might be a consideration of an optional thing that we do for you guys um the metal storage building that we talked about at the very beginning you know there's better ways that we could potentially do that and what we typically do or what we typically see is we can add some some uh storage additions onto the dugouts that face the field it just adds easier access to get those L screens the screens the balls the things that they use on a daily basis in and on and off the field on a quicker manner um and then so here's some of the additional options uh number one is the field lighting so you'll see we typically have
075somewhere between five and seven lights per field it depends on kind of the layout how high we can make the poles Etc so you'll see those indicated as the number ones uh number two would be the modifying of those bleachers in that that asphalt pad that's behind what would be the net back stop and then um with that we hope just like Megan had mentioned on the transportation fuel Island we would like to come back in August and talk to you guys about the final design and then uh ask for permission to go out to bit on this so we still have a few meetings with the end user groups just to make sure that we're getting the designs and all the the intricacies done that we need but we do have that uh that
076we'll re back to you in August and then for our next steps uh in August we'll be here to talk like Megan said Transportation fuel Island the baseball softball improvements at Francis House Central and then we will be here to talk to you about our conceptual and SD designs for the transportation facility itself so that'll kind of be what we will bring to you in the month of August so with that I will turn it over to you guys for Q&A any questions just one question um the turf that's being used I would imagine it's been taken into consideration its effect on the athletes um can you just share what Turf it is and how it's actually good for our student athletes yeah so athletes yeah so we haven't necessarily identified a specific brand of
077turf yet we're actually working through that there's several different things to consider on the type of turf that you purchase whether that is something that we want to directly purchase or something that we want to put out to the open bid several different manufacturers they all make make a very similar type product um what we would like to do is work with you guys and your staff on the playability of those surfaces so I've done probably 20 or 25 baseball fields in the last four or five years and you can make these surfaces drastically different so some can be a little bit softer which means they have a little bit more bounce to the baseballs they're a little bit more forgiving to the athlete a little bit right because they do have that softer surface
078um you can also make them a little bit harder a little bit faster right so ground balls run a little bit faster um Fly balls that hit the ground don't bounce as high but they are a little bit tougher on the eth so those are some considerations that we'll bring forward to you guys you know when we talk to the coaches and the staff about what type of playability what type of surface would you like and it also has to do with the infill of the surface right so that's Rubber and sand sometimes there's alternative ways that we could do infill um coconut fibers and some other things they all have their pros and cons and those will be the things that we really look at and dig into in the next month before we
079come back to you and we'll we'll address those when we come back next month for sure and I'll I'll highlight those for you Insurance thank you you're welcome question for on the uh back stop is there any way to look at flexibility especially for softball use making the back stop shorter distance yeah so there are recommended distances for baseball and softball I mean Misha will kind of dictate what our minimum is and so what we can do that's the beauty of doing the turf is we can kind of reorient that field we can move home plate back a little bit cuz we're going to have to remove all those current bases anyway so that'll be something that we can look at so if something that you would would like to see is maybe a shorter
080back stop versus a larger one that may be currently there we can look at that distance and kind of offset that just from having kids play the game baseball and softball totally different Field layout and I don't know if the softball coach has had any input as to where he or she would like a back stop to be yeah I would just like that to be flexible and then batting cages I can see the turf getting War if you're hitting out of the same batting cage mold to mold how was that addressed and even around home plate where the catchers always sit and where batter yeah that's a great question so the way we set up our Fields is that for home plate on your main on your main playing field your home plate and
081where the catcher sit and where the Umpire stands kind of that home plate area those are removable panels so when we buy the turf you will get about an 8-year warranty on the full field but those High wear areas they're actually velcroed down so you will get four to six sets of those and what we can do is every couple of years we can unpro those when they start to wear and then put the new ones down they also make items like um mats that we can set down for practices and things like that so that the boys are hitting boys and girls are hitting off of mats not only in the in the batting cage but at home plate on the field those mats are somewhat disposable right they're about $100 a piece those
082can be brought in and we can specify that in the project so that they're kind of a a use thing that that keeps the use off of your Turf and you wear those wear items not necessarily your permanent Turf so those are the things that we would do to on those highear yeah to protect them yeah board I would like to remind you and our patrons as well the reason we're talking about Turf on these fields yes it's around safety and durability um there was also an issue that we um had a complaint filed in 2021 related to an OCR complainer on sex discrimination in Title 9 um because at the building and the number of softball and baseball teams that Franc House Central has um sharing the two fields that we were not providing
083Equitable opportunities for both um our male and our female athet at that time we reached an OCR resolution that led us to um pulling the grass off of the infield each time we had a softball season so that we create the smaller field putting in the new fence they I'm going to reput that in um when it was time to go back to the baseball season which had a cost this continue to increase and so yes there is a durability piece there's a safety piece to the turf it will also allow us to use that field safely um for both teams throughout the school year just for clarity OCR that 21 uh office of civil rights for those who aren't familiar with with all of that um going back to uh your recommendations to to
084look at lighting and drainage around the bleachers um at what point will you have kind of an estimate of cost for those do you have that already or will you put that in the bid as an alternate and then we'll decide then what's your recommendation great question our process there is that we would get estimates on all of that before we go out to bid so we would have an all-inclusive number for you um we will have hard cost and soft costs including all Al all base bit items so the dugouts the turf those things we will also have an estimate on all of our future items our alternates so that would be the lighting if you want to add on to the dugouts if we want to replace the concrete and the bleachers uh
085the lighting we'll have we'll have numbers for all of that we'll show that to you guys before we ever go out to bid on what we think the cost will be and then for the bids if you would like us to we will then take those as alternates on bid day that way after the bids if we get a great price on the turf and the other work that we're doing then if you guys want to proceed then we can take some of those alternates to then maximize those dollars on bidday because things will never be cheaper than they are right now and some of those things will have an economy in terms of if we decide to do the concrete around the bleachers we're going to have the kais there to do the concrete
086for that perimeter ring that I told you about that goes around the fencing so you'll have concrete guys on staff already on this project they're already going to be on site they'll be mobilized it could be relatively cheap compared to having it done as a separate bid to do it during this project so yes it will be alternates on bid day and then we'll bring those numbers back to you guys and you guys can choose how you would like to move Wonder um Mr ster or anyone who can speak to this what's our what's the scenario with FHN do we have lights there on the new school on these fields would this be the first school that has lights um this project would be the first school in our district that resp effective to softball
087baseball that has lights none of our other sites have that and just to add to that one of the reasons that we've even brought that forward is one of the challenges that we have right now you know specifically in the spring during baseball season if we get you know torrential rain pores um and all of our programs are hosting um we get rained out and so there's always a Mad Dash to contact others schools that have synthetic surfacing uh and we have quite a few in the St Louis area on whether we can you know move our gang to their facility and that that's a disruption to many things uh that involves a phone call to Transportation hey do you have a a trip bus that we can utilize um to get you know our
088co-curricular student athletes to that site to be able to play a game and most often what that results in is students leaving class early whether it's know seventh or eighth hour to get changed and dressed and so that's something as we looked through this and talked with the uh building leaders on some of the the challenges and big rocks that they face when when we have weather uh that we felt to be uh appropriate to bring forward for consideration so that that sounded like an argument for Turf but not not necessarily the lights right uh for for for both really uh respect to kind of what we're discussing tonight the lights has kind of the alternate piece of piece of it so um I can speak that a little bit our home field where my
089son plays baseball he'll be a senior next year we have one high school that does have turf one that does not so when we do have those rain days and both teams are scheduled to play we can play the HomeField team there and then after that game our team will then travel for a 6:00 first pitch right instead of a four and six so that allows us to go from about 6: till 8:00 p.m. and get that second game in that way we can play you know both games in a single day so that's that's how we've used it in the past that's how we've seen it used and I can see you guys using that if if Francis House Central is the only School currently that will have turf for right now there could
090be rain out Francis H Central could play at four Francis H could come over and play a game at six and you're not traveling you know a distance to get to a field it's it's still in District so there is some benefit to it and and it does increase the usability of that field from time to time so that is a benefit but that's just you know something to weigh as a positive um potential so when we come back from midday you can kind of take that consideration on that number sure yeah thank you welome Dr Ras I wonder if we can get an opinion from you know you guys can over the next month or so talk to the athletic directors and get their thoughts on how desirable this actually is how realistically this
091would be benefit or not we' be happy to provide that any other discussion see none oh did you have another I just want to make sure that you know I have Clarity uh so are you're talking about the alternate respective to lights to lights yes okay all right thank you all right all in favor say I I all those opposed say no guys have it right Bo I like a motion to approve the financial report as presented director Blair director Harman miss good evening I promise this will be perhaps the most brief financial report I provided you so far so this evening our very brief financial report includes our typical General budget summary information as you can see this does represent the 2024 20 25 fiscal year a reminder that June 30 represented our fiscal
092year end and so the team and the finance department is busy working through reconciliations and preparing for audit work to be conducted but what you can see here is that based on uh the original ending fund balance information June 30 we are projecting for a 31.1 6% ending fund balance at June 30 of 2025 we do not have budget amendments for for you at this point in time too early for that uh but we're confident we'll bring those forward in the months to come another reminder that the bond financial statement is posted each month under Financial reports and provided for your handy reference we uh did add back in based on some of the changes relative to this information uh the costly Elementary Phase 2 HVAC that was part of our commitment that as we
093see changes in the avail aable funds we will add projects back back in if we ended up with enough available funds and currently that number that's so tiny is$ 2561 million our next uh prioritized project rather would be Sager for HVAC work so just keeping you apprised of those changes and again as a reminder that you're in process we'll have Auditors in very soon they've already done some preliminary work in June they'll be back as the dat are noted there in October and in November and ultimately we will bring forward to you not only the audit report but also the final financial report that is provided to the Department of Elementary and secondary education we file that as a preliminary report to the state August 15th each year but then continue to update it until
094it all ties out and is approved by the auditor so you have any questions I'd be happy to answer those any questions an unrelated one um have you heard anything from the audit of the preps funding the state audit has we have we received zero information on that nothing earlier this summer they indicated they're still working on the final report Dr Rus was it like May or June or do you remember just a guess it was in June I believe we heard from the manager of the office that I did ask Mr Meyers because he had helped with some of the lagging requested information uh that he notify the lead that he was departing at the end of June and that prompted uh just an additional engagement but no no real information or questions been
095they have your your information on failed too they do okay and Dr you're not going anywhere Dr Romus you're not going that is correct right I want that in writing that is correct we have it in writing all right all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no guys have it listen closely board Mo Bo like a motion to approve the addendum and property schedule number 10 between American Capital Financial Services Inc and Francis H R3 School District which modifies and supplements the max Master tax exempt lease SL purchase agreement dated July 15 2016 and authorizes cheap Chief finance and operations officer to execute the associated documents as presented okay you might consider that that may have been written by an attorney potentially we have the first by director Haron anyone want
096to second that one I'll second IT director Owens thank you Mrs Embry can you explain this one to us well so the the easy explanation is that back in May during the board meeting in May and then during the board meeting in June you approve the purchases of technology for the district for some refreshing cycles and one of those purchases was with cdwg and the other was with Apple so a variety of devices throughout the district and at that time it was indicated that we would provide you with lease information uh for financing that it's very common that districts uh perform a 5year lease on matters of technology and this is part of that refresh so the last time that these particular devices that you approved in May and June were uh refreshed back in
0972020 and so they're up for that new cycle the total of the principal lease is 1,634 67233 the interest rate is 5.5 82% we did post on board docs the repayment schedule for your information all of the lease documentation has been vetted by legal councel and it does require that legal council provide a an opinion letter about the lease so uh that has all been perfected Bo any questions seeing none all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say no guys have it thank you Bo like a motion to approve the purchases as presented so director Harmon second thank you director Owens any discussion on purchases questions seeing none all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no guys have it okay just an informational item uh for the
098the community we have a one curriculum document woodworking three on the agenda so if anyone's interested in that upcoming please take a look at that curriculum and provide your feedback to the board as you see fit uh next we have some policy items for a first and second reading and vote these are the 4,000 policies um so Bo like a motion to approve the 4,000 regulations as presented so move second Blair director Harman any discussion board see none all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no guys have it next we have an informational item uh first reading of policy and regulation R um or is there any discussion on this one happy to go first if anyone else does um do we want to start with board comments or do you
099want to see if there's an admin um to speak to of those I do want uh I have some will ask for admin feedback on the library pieces which are 6310 and 6341 um that's my in so okay uh since I wasn't here last month unfortunately due to Friendly Skies um I'd like to briefly start with um some background about policies and regul 6241 so the current challenge materials policy and regulation 6241 is geared towards instructional materials and this is evidenced in part by the fact that it's housed in section 6200 which is titled instruction section 6300 of our policies is for learning Commons media and Technology service a little bit of legal guidance there is regarding the removal of challenged materials from school does draw a distinction between instructional materials and materials available in
100a school library so therefore a single challenge materials policy is insufficient in my view or would need to be overly complex to continually distinguish between instructional materials and Library materials so for this reason policy 6241 has been retitled from challenged materials to challenged instructional materials and a new policy has been proposed titled challenged learning common materials and that's the 6341 policy uh the new policy challenged learning Commons materials is appropriately housed in section 6300 and is numbered 6341 so I hope that clears up some of the reasoning behind why 6241 and 6341 are very similar but but uh different in a few important ways um regarding the content of of policy and regulation 6241 which is what we're going to discuss here uh in this section um as I mentioned it's it's proposed to be
101renamed from challenge materials to challenge instructional materials so I I since I wasn't president at the last board meeting um I did watch and I'd like to just address some of the commentary made by board members at the June 20th meeting so at that meeting uh director Blair opened his comments about 6241 by stating that the revisions cross out the word Freedom a lot and then suggested that somebody may want to do account as to how many times the revisions crossed out the word Freedom so I've done just that the word Freedom appears three times across both the existing policy and the regulation the word Freedom appears in existing policy 6241 twice um so there's policy and there's regulation so in the policy it's in there twice and the regulation it's once so in the
102policy uh the the mentions refers to the principles of academic freedom and the freedom to read so it's well known that K through2 teachers do not have the kind of academic freedom that's enjoyed by higher education so to suggest that academic freedom supersedes the board's role is misleading Anyone who reads his policy as for the freedom to read I don't believe anyone's infringing on anyone's freedom to read but the notion that the freedom to read would be used as a defense of a teacher using improper instructional materials in the classroom doesn't really work for me and is therefore an odd statement in a policy about instructional materials is a student free to read about cars during a lesson on human sexuality yes he is um there may be consequences of of not paying attention but
103he certainly is free to read that but I don't see how mention of that freedom in a policy is relevant whatsoever to the question of whether the materials being used by the teacher meet the state guidelines on human sexuality instruction and that is the point of this policy the challenging of instructional materials if the board decides a resource used in human sexuality instruction Falls outside the scope of the curriculum then we are free to decide as much and omit the resource from the district that that is wholly different from infringing on a student's right to read that resource on his own time at home at the public library or even on his personal cell phone or device on school grounds provided that content of course doesn't violate other policies regarding the use of personal devices
104the third instance of the word freedom is used in the existing regulation hello in a section about the American library association's library Bill of Rights since this policy and regulation going forward will not have anything to do with the library but rather on instructional material the entire section on the library Bill of Rights is irrelevant and was struck out so I hope that clears up any confusion on the point of the word Freedom next there's a suggestion that every book is guilty until proven [Music] innocent um since the June draft of this regulation had a provision whereby challenged instructional materials except primary textbooks would be removed from use pending further review I understand the the uh the concern I think it's been addressed the concern here is that if or at least my initial concern
105was if there was something that was wholly inappropriate in an instructional material we didn't want children exposed to it after the district had been made aware of a potential problem this is a risk and a liability to the district of course on the other hand I realize there may be instances where items are challenged that aren't necessarily a legal risk if continued use uh if continued in use until the the review is complete so this matter was discussed at length during the last policy committee meeting and we landed on the language in the current draft on the agenda today which states that the superintendent or his designate May remove the material May remove the material at his discretion uh pending a review after a challenge is made provided the material is not a primary resource
106we realize that if an Ela teacher is teaching say Romeo and Juliet that we can't very well have someone challenge it and disrupt plans for the entire academic unit however if a teacher is using say a risque article from a website or video to supplement the instruction of Romeo and Juliet and that particular item was challenged then we would give the superintendent the authority to decide if a challenge is made whether there's a risk in leaving uh that resource in place while the challenge uh is is going forward so I think the matter uh has been addressed and I think it's been satisfactorily resolved to the best of my knowledge next director bar Blair brought up a concern about parent rights and expressed his uh displeasure that a certain phrase was struck from the policy
107that phrase States no parent or Guardian uh have the right to determine reading viewing or listening matter for other students other than their own now I can see how striking that out may seem shocking to some people however the presence of that phrase in the policy is uh meaningless with when when you compare other other sentences in the policy and I'll explain this further the existing policy the policy that's in place today at the very first sentence States any Resident or employee of the district May formally challenge learning resources used in The District's educational program on the basis of appropriateness again this is existing policy so any Resident or employee regardless of whether they're parent or not May challenge material so a challenge implies that a fair process will be used to determine the appropriateness
108of said material and the challenge could result in the material being removed in essence the policy is the sole purpose uh I'm sorry the policy is the sole purpose of citizens be they parents or not determine what will be used in school for instruction of all students if that's not the case um how can we State further down in the policy that no parent has the right to determine the reading viewing or listening for other students other than their own this two statements do not U do not J together for that matter many of the teachers are parents and they determine what students other than their own will read all of the time the only way the two statements can live in harmony is that if we say only patrons who are not parents can
109are able to challenge the materials I think we all realize the uh lunacy of that so the fact is no challenge actually restricts anyone's right to read and no one is going to tell your child what he can or cannot read the challenge merely says that we have the right to determine how public funds are expended and what materials are available in K through2 schools since we have a responsibility to do what's in the best interest of all students we cannot leave in materials that we feel are inappropriate next director Blair raised a concern about the fact that the president would be involved in the selection of lay persons on the Review Committee uh director Blair mentioned he does not like this because he thinks that any president in the near future will be endorsed
110by a political action committee and that seems to be reason enough not to have the president involved in the process the endorsement of a pack is not some scarlet letter that says the person cannot be fair and objective so I fundamentally disagree with this objection this language that would require the president of the board to offer suggestions for Lay people uh for the committee is actually part of the template from the Missouri consultants for Education MCE which is the policy service the district pays for this is not language I came up with in a vacuum and I suspect it's used uh in districts across the state the fact that someone has to pick lay people and to trust the unelected school staff to select all the committee members is one of the loudest concerns I
111have heard and a share about the current process for developing review committees if we're going to bother to have a committee the the public needs to have trust that it will be a fair committee and I have proposed that some members are chosen by the president and some by the administration the review committees are not required by law or statute the Review Committee is there to provide a review by people partly inside the bubble of education and partly outside the bubble and report to the superintendent so that he can carry out the recommendation of the committee not having these committees would save everyone time and effort from forming the Committees reading meeting reporting their volunteer time and so on but if we are to have a committee there has to be a fair a fair
112process to IT director Owens brought up the fact that teachers would be on these committees and asked about Subs extra pay and so forth uh the current policy has teachers on there so I'm confident that the practices around those questions that are currently used will be used going forward that's a detail I'm perfectly comfortable leaving to the administration to address uh as a have successfully done in the past so with that happy to entertain any other discussion but I think that covers most of the board discussion from last meeting and I appreciate you me that time for I want to say thank you to vice president cook for a number of things um one uh sometimes work just doesn't allow you to get back for a board meeting and I that's what happened in last
113meeting you weren't here for any U malintention reason reason um sometimes airplanes are late and your absence of the last meeting was nothing besides U the result of airplane type stuff and so I just want to acknowledge that I want to uh thank you for allowing us just to quickly run through a couple things um and I appreciate you sharing some of those comments already out loud so I don't need to repeat them um so this is not really for us debating this this is really just sharing an idea if somebody has an idea um for director pusar or director Harmon director Owens if there's something here you just want to lift up and say I really like this part uh I want us to look into this part I think that would be helpful
114um just really briefly um on policy uh 6241 uh one thing I did not share uh last time um is there's a line that says every effort will be made to provide materials that present all points of view concerning international national local problems issues of our times um I just want to say uh I don't believe that the nature of that sentence intends to uh present all views on issues like um is Nazism good or bad did slavery happen did it not happen was it bad was it not bad was the Holocaust a hoax or not a hoax um I just want to make sure this idea of all points of view um just clear language that untruthful claims like the Holocaust is a hoax does not count as a point of view that we
115want to present um also U I think having some clarity uh around um hate speech not being allowed as a uh acceptable point of view um regardless of what the topic is uh maybe use the definition by Oxford dictionary or whatever something like that but just clear because I don't think that was your plan um to include that um but want to make sure there's clear language on policy uh 6241 um on so just for clarity that's an existing you didn't put that in that's an that's from the existing correct that's what I see right and and I agree like there's things that could be cleaned up and director Cook's desire to clean up or make things clearer isn't a bad desire to have to make things clearer can be really helpful for a community
116to identify their values and how those values get lived out in policies and regulations so desire to review this is not in my mind uh objectionable so yes though that is just something that might need to be clarified um the regulation I did want to identify that you did make a Improvement regarding material being removed the whole guilty before um guilty no proven innocent that could have been extremely um disruptive and so the modification I think reflects uh you listening to library media Specialists last week and um I appreciate that um my concern about the the content of who makes up a Review Committee is because the the board president would uh create a list of eight people who the district superintendent picks and those eight people could be of one ideological background or another
117and the board President also has a role in making sure the board member on that committee um might actually be uh similar to theirs as well so what that does is it creates a nine person committee where five of them are connected to the board president um at the last meeting I think uh president Bertrand said that he personally wouldn't want that particular um responsibility now what that looks like nine people I think there's a lot of different ways to make sure it identifies the values to make sure there's community members um and whatever that recipe is this isn't for here I just want to name that part um the other part would be that uh when the Review Committee makes a decision it will come to the board and the board shall vote to
118accept or reject the recommendation I'm not sure how many Times Review Committee will want to meet knowing that no matter how many hours of work they put into it it's our decision that's yes or no and I think there might be value in having that go to a reconsideration committee um because again it says here the decision of the board will be final um uh the last letter piece um uh when talk oh uh the criteria for what is allowed or isn't allowed it's not listed in 6241 it's listed in other places but in the current version of 6241 it does make a reference that the criteria for learning resources include educational significance age appropriateness of materials and that's something that I don't think people may be aware is already in there um but I
119think that's a strength of the current regulation um maybe able to say age appropriateness of materials especially as it relates to sexual content uh violence and drug use um I think those are um things that they're currently thinking about but if we wanted to make that more uh uh specific explicit um that might be helpful and um I think that might be oh and then it's a small concern but it's listed here that uh we should have the email address and address for the superintendent of schools and I would just amend that to be email address and uh work address the superintendent of schools for versus the superintendent school's home address so uh those are just quick thoughts about 6241 thank you for listening any other feedback on this one are we on just 6304
120624 6241 yeah I have just a few things I'm editing um well students do have First Amendment rights I know she spoke about teachers but um students um have legal rights and they cannot be erased by deleting language in a policy I agree they still have these rights so I I would like that to still be in there um And discussing uh the committee consisting of nine people and only three are certified staff members um I think a trained education staff should have a strong voice at the table since they have the most training on how to implement curriculum and I know you said it came from Missouri consultants for education but I see it differently uh because the decisions being made will directly impact their effectiveness in the classroom so I think we should
121rely heavily on the Educators also um when the president is the sole appointer of people to vote on to be on the committee I think that is a way to stack a committee and doesn't have a good look I mean I'm I'm not saying that somebody would do something but there's a possibility for it and you want to take that away um and then referring to the library Bill of Rights in the classroom um I think it's still called a classroom Library so I would like to see the library Bill of Rights respected in this language here um and I don't like that we removed principles of the freedom to read listen and view I think that's important I do like freedom and I like it said out loud and I like it in print
122um I'm editing I'm not reading everything so we're just are we is that just 62 right now 6241 yes okay and the why is the reconsideration committee eliminated that was another question I had um this it's not eliminated this whole the entire policy is is the formation and creation of a of a Review Committee or reconsider ation committing after the fact no if someone challenges a instructional material that's not a primary resource then this this policy and this regulation is what spells out the formation and the the yeah just this policy is for the review right there was just so much removed I I didn't understand cuz you know these had been well thought out and discussed by a lot of people and I just I didn't like to see everything erased like that and
123made so short and concise I think we're leaving out things la i' like to say something about the uh regulation for 6241 it says something I had it up here and I just lost it again um about a secret B ballot of the votes for the hang on where is it Randy hel it's number 10 okay says that the votes will be by secret ballot um in the interest of transparency I disagree with that totally I believe that if votes are made that they need to be made public understanding that the there's two sides to that that the uh people doing the voting may not want their votes to be made public um but I think it's it gives us more opportunity for transparency if they are nobody's forcing anybody to be on a Community
124Committee and nobody's forcing anybody to um vote so I think that the secret ballot is unfair to the people who pay the bills which are the constituents and I'd like to see that change I'd also I'd also like for you I know we're in first read to consider the whole aspect of this Review Committee and that is that a lot of time a lot of work a lot of um energy is put into it what I'd like to recommend and this is whether you know it's up to you uh director cook whether or not you heed this advice or not but you bring in a third party there's there's companies out there that will check um any book by ISBN number and give a read on whether or not they think it's age appropriate and
125this is their opinion but it's a third party it's outside source and then we we employ that way of of um looking at these books and then bringing the that recommendation either to a Review Committee so that basically their work is whether or not they have any you know issues with what the third party said or to bring it directly to us probably having a Review Committee just review what the third party vender did um would be probably more more uh applicable or are more beneficial in the fact that there's that many more eyes that are laid upon the isbns or the books or whatever is questionable to find out whether anything AG appropriate that's my feedback thank you director Haron anything these are a lot of proposed changes so this is the beauty of
126being on the school board is your job and done after just making these statements that your job is to follow up with director cook then and let's incorporate these and then discuss them just like we did in the open meeting in the policy committing last week in a transparent manner so which I appreciate the transparency that's going on here is the open discussion but then following up so that we can all look at the proposed language and then come up with a product we're all happy with so I'm I I don't want to add to it right now I'll I'll do it when everybody has all their stuff put together we'll figure it out thank you for saying we'll all be happy with it thank you I let me amend that how about a majority
127right no yeah so we'll be all we'll all be engaged so um yes good feed uh you know always happy to take feedback and and I'm sure we will get additional email from the community um I'll just say I'm happy to take the feedback but I am not a fountain of uh of policy words I've done my very best and you know sometimes that's not good enough on the first draft and that's why we go through these processes but you know when you say things I've heard complaints or or you know concerns I guess I should say about the the four lay people being selected by the president or other whatever that matter may be and I guess I just have to say if you have a suggestion on what to put in there that
128would be better let's start feeding those ideas to me and then let's I mean there's got to be an idea there that can float to the top and um I don't I don't have it I've thought more hours than I care to mention about that um and I always have a lot of ideas yeah I mean just start sending them over and um and and for the community too there's um the the the intent of that is to is to put trust in the community that this will be a a a fair committee um yeah that that's the intent so however that happens I'm open but um a fair and age appropriate and age appropriate right so okay if nothing else we'll move on to the next item which is 6310 policy and regulation uh
129first read informational item so uh I think I'll take a point of privilege and go first here again much shorter I promise um do you want to add ask I will in just yes um I think the uh objections raised to 6310 during the June 20th meeting uh to this set of policy and regulation have been addressed in the latest revisions um not probably to the satisfaction of absolutely everyone but I think everyone would agree that uh substantial changes have been made to 6310 since we first read that um and we've Incorporated a lot of feed I've Incorporated a lot of feedback um this is how the process was always supposed to work we did a first read we get feedback uh we make changes as appropriate and we end up with with something better
130than what we started with so I think it's important to acknowledge there's certainly some who won't be happy unless absolutely no changes are made um but it is the duty of the board to review and update policies and procedures on a regular basis that itself is a policy policy 0510 so just to explain this policy in general and the shortest amount of words I can it this policy my intent here is to set guard rails around what we as a community feel is age appropriate in our K through 12 school libraries um it also requires that all purch for the learning Commons or classroom libraries that are made with public funds be presented to the board and to the public as an informational item on a board meeting agenda prior to purchase so this is
131really meant to have our community help us to ensure that we are not unwittingly purchasing materials that are not age appropriate I think we'll all agree no one's perfect we can all make mistakes and Overlook things from time to time uh together staff and Community work together to look out for the best interests of the children that we are charged with protecting and educating each year so that's really the overarching goal here of this policy um so happy to take additional feedback that there have been substantial changes made here and as I said earlier happy to take suggestions if if you have them I'd like to make a suggestion about the portion about Book Fairs um though I somewhat agree with what you're trying to do I don't agree with of course how you're trying
132to do it I don't think that the board should necessarily have to approve every book fair but I do believe that the books that the book fair brings should be subject to the same criteria that the books in our libraries are meaning that if there's an objectional book that is brought by a book fair it needs you know the it needs to be kept off of our property period excuse me point of order needs to be kept off of our property and I think that's the intent to keep profanity and egregious books off of our property so I would suggest that again books that are coming onto our property in the form of a book fair um I don't know that we should maybe um opt out of a a certain company but the egregious
133books and so maybe those the books that they intend to bring should be put put through a third party review that can look at ISBN numbers um they're fairly easy it's easy to find those those companies and they're fair and balanced um Dr robus I wonder if you can um unre speak a little bit about this since this policy really regulation revolve around uh collection development which is to say how library books are brought into the school library or or or a classroom Library um you can speak a little bit about the process that we use currently in this I will be happy to defer to Dr Buckman or I believe we have a couple members of the academic team here who could speak specific to that process we currently have in place so your
134question is how do we select a book for a school library I think that's the question yeah and other materials yeah um I mean our LMS curate The Collection that you know it's I've never been an LMS so I would or library media specialist i' be remiss to pretend like I know exactly all of the things that they consider When selecting but student interest making sure they have a wide collection they have some guidelines that the um their professional organization provides uh we look at reviews of the books before that they're purchased for the school libraries and I mean it it it's not a complex selecting building their um collection I don't want to under value that the determining if we're going to add it or not we're looking at book reviews they they go
135through a large volume of books so it's ask them to read each book that they're putting in things of that nature that would really just be unrealistic especially at the secondary level I agree I too any other discussion on 6310 um I had several things and you know since it was Rewritten um tell me if I'm wrong that this has been fixed okay um first was removing um provide materials and resources which reflect the ideals and beliefs of religious social political historical and ethnic groups and their contributions to American and World cultures I didn't understand why that would be removed I mean I can send you all these yes and then there was um another thing that really I mean I was really shocked about um removing as they acquire critical thinking and problem solving
136skills because a major thing I learned as an educator was to teach my students critical thinking skills and um I'm not sure everybody really knows what that means but um you can't effectively problem solve without critical thinking critical thinking is how to identify a problem process and organize the information and come up with Solutions teachers do not are we are not taught to spoon feed our students we want our students to learn how to think for themselves it's very important concept and I believe they're still teaching that uh ideal in schools and I think it's a beautiful thing thing um another thing that I found con confusing was uh according to different attorneys that I've read about they said the removal of books that have been already been selected for the library may be legally
137RIS risky they've already been uh you know selected in the proper way and then somebody tries to take them out that apparently has some kind of legal ramifications uh according to the Pico case I don't know if you've read about that um I've read and then um again I'm going to hammer again on the American Library association's Bill of Rights I still think of as a library I mean might have a different name I mean it still has the word library in it so I think that's important um as a student of the history of public schools in America I learned that public schools were instituted in this country to build an educated citizenry so I don't I don't think that should be the phrase understanding of American freedoms through the development of informed and
138responsible citizens I hold that dear because that's why we have public schools that's why they were instituted was to to educate our citizenry so they become educated good citizens and be able to contribute to a good Society this is important this freedom is a Cornerstone of American public education and should be honored as a basic right and also a duty of all Americans and then I did not understand why the library media specialist was removed from collection development am I wrong on that um when I looked at the what was crossed out it looked like that the Li media specialist was removed the library media specialist is Central to collection development no it would said that they were remove that they were not there may have been one sentence that mentioned it yeah in the
139context of something else that was struck out but no the library media specialist is still the responsible the way it appeared to me so anyway and it just I don't know this this policy and regulation it just kind of looks to me like um we're saying we don't trust the library media Specialists and I I I don't know if that's probably not intended but I think that's a real bad look because we hired them to do their job and we need to trust them to do it didn't we already establish that the library media specialist doesn't read every book right is so are they reading every book that's going into the library no no right yeah am I wrong I mean something I read said different people are looking at the books and checking them
140like a group and I just want to make sure what I'm hearing is but do we have a library media specialist here that could speak to that or is that inappropriate I think we're at a at a first reading I think we're just maybe identifying the issues we want to look into a little bit closer and what I'm hearing you say is it might be good to have aition uh feedback that includes library media specialist between now and our next season I think is that one that's basically most of what are put and I'll just go really quick Mo she said most of them but um regarding policy I mean she named a couple part of it is uh just difficulty identifying the word profanity I mean there's a lot of vagueness even the description
141um you know this word versus that word and how many times and um the reference to like sexual activity like how graphic or not graphic or um there's just a lot of things that are seem like it's so vague it might limit a person's ability to even want to order new books um uh I also want to identify uh like the word violence last month we had reference to Hung games well um I'm not sure if anybody hasn't watched hung games or read it and there there's a lot of killing at the end it's kind of a battle to the death at the end um but that's a different kind of violence than others it is it's hard to identify I just want to say if I spoiled Hunger Games for you I apologize um
142and then just really quickly on regulation um uh again the selection criteria to consider I thought that was helpful to keep um and the again other things that kly mentioned I just want to agree to that I'm okay all right well a lot thrown out there um I will just I got to defend some things do them all but um you know the notion that we don't trust Librarians um again the The Librarians are the people tasked with making all the recommendations um and and you know these are these are the people who are selecting over 99 % of our books currently and and will continue to do so if this is passed as is um you know with some of the concerns around profanity um this is a this is a difficult one I
143I acknowledge um right now it's in there that you know I basically used what what the Federal Communications Commission the FCC um considers indecent or profane and this is directly from the fcc's website considers indecent or profane content that may not be broadcast between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10: p.m. when there's a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience so it's already established FCC policy that certain things shouldn't cannot be said on TV and radio when there's a reasonable risk children will be in the audience our school libraries are 100% children that this is the only audience for them so um I think that at a at a minimum it says we are well within our rights to put some limitation here and um you know what those profanity words are
144is on a caseby Case basis and it goes on a just like it would here it's a complaint basis with the FCC not going to go through and name them as someone here one of our Librarians had the desire for me to do um I will not fulfill that desire but um you can Google the seven profanity words so um with respect to violence or anything else these are these are all very very hard things I've heard mentioned that well the collection desire uh development guidelines are vague um compare these to the existing guidelines and and ask yourself which is more vague um I would I would well ask yourself that um yes at the end of the day we you know there's a lot of everything is it's very subjective it's Case by case
145it's hard to put Rock Solid definitions here I asked several Librarians if if we can put into writing what they currently use I was unsuccessful to get a written you know description of how we would Define profanity or how we would do uh sexually explicit content and and so forth so once again I was less to try to take all the feedback and come up with it um here because no one else seems to be willing to throw out and throw anything out um so by all means if people have suggestions email them maybe maybe there's one out there that's better than mine but when when no when everyone's criticizing and not submitting ideas there's only so much I can do I only have so much uh so many words in my vocabulary all right
146anything else on 6310 all right moving on to 6341 policy and regulation first read informational um I guess I'll start this by asking uh Dr Rus or the administration this policy actually is the one I mentioned earlier that would be challenges for any materials that are in school libraries or classroom libraries so I wonder if you could speak a little bit to the current process if someone challenges a school library book which has been done a few years ago um what that current process looks like yeah I'm actually going to invite Dr Lamers he's our director of curriculum up and he would be the one that would facilitate that process In fairness we haven't had one in a while so since he's been in this role he hasn't had to lead that process up but
147he can talk to a little bit about what the what the process does look like I thank you yeah it's been since uh January of 2022 since we last had a formal book challenge so uh under current uh regulation currently under 6241 um any Resident or employee of the um of the district can issue a no layman's terms book challenge but a request for consideration is really the formal language our standard procedures before it even ever gets to something like that at the beginning of the year each year we ask our principles to remind uh staff um what parents rights are uh with relation to um challenging materials and if they are to contact them about a certain material then they're to accommodate that for their students and work with them and building Administration to
148find an alternate resource for them to use um but um essentially when a challenge is initiated it begins at the building level and they start with a conversation with the principle and um through the the stages of the of the challenge we do not not limit access to the material during the reconsideration process the major Criterion of those early conversations is the appropriateness of the the material for its intended educational use um so there's usually an initial um conversation that's had with library media Specialists sometimes us um about does the the material in question does it meet the selection criteria that's outlined in policy and Regulation and there have been cases when we've looked at that and said you know this resource doesn't actually meet those and we don't really need to go through an
149entire committee it doesn't meet our selection criteria so um we do feel confident pulling that from this level and potentially making it available at another level or just pulling it in general um and and every attempt is made to resolve the matter initially at the building level um and then uh the parent or the or whoever has issued um that request for consideration is given a copy of the relevant policies and is given a form um that they can fill out if if that building level resolution um is not satisfactory they can fill it out and they submit it to me um so when it comes to the district level for a review the petitioner submits the form to me um we then notify the principal that this book or this resource doesn't have to
150necessarily be a book it can be a magazine it can be something online um um we notify the principal that that that this is happening and that it originated in their building and then um we would be tasked with forming a reconsideration committee so I would work with the principal of that building in the formation of the committee according to what's outlined in 6241 um so the membership would include the the person who filled out the form the petitioner it would include myself two teachers from the impacted grade level or subject uh to students if it is a High School level um so if it's uh below High School it would not include students uh two library media Specialists one from the impacted School a board member and four lay persons and the way uh
151current policy or current regulation outlines for us to um identify those four lay persons is to email uh people who are currently involved in parent involvement committees at that level if we get too many uh responses for for the number of um seats that we have available there's a random drawing um if we don't get enough from that um initial Salvo initial invitation then we email other committees so like booster clubs and other parents that we know are involved heavily involved in the schools um one of the um requirements is that at least two of the parents must be from that level so they got at least two the parents have to be from elementary if it's an elementary thing or um from high school if it's a high school thing um there the the
152regulation does allow me to appoint other committee members as deemed appropriate um but if I when I look through all 23 um of the challenges that we've had since 1987 I didn't see that happen even one time um and then um the the the role of the committee is to examine and read the resource to determine the professional acceptance uh by reading critical reviews to weigh the positives and negatives of that resource and to form opinions based on the material as a whole rather than passages taken out of context um we the committee then discusses the resource in context of the overall educational program and the committee then takes a vote where they vote either to retain without restriction retain with restriction and that can look like oh you know we this probably doesn't really
153belong in an elementary school but it would be more appropriate for an elementary or for a middle school or another level things of that nature um or to not be retained after the vote um I would prepare a written report with the decision the rationale um and um I would not identify the votes of the individual members of the committee I would mail a copy of that report and the appeal process to the P petitioner within 5 days of that vote um under current regulation that decision of that commit committe is binding um and we provide a report to the Board of Education as an informational item um a copy of that uh report is provided to all library media Specialists and they are tasked to retain it I also would retain a copy both
154uh digitally and um in paper and um one under current uh under 6241 after a uh challenge the material cannot be rechallenged for 5 years um the report is made publicly available as um that informational item on board docks and then um when that is made public the petitioner and any Community member May appeal the decision within 14 days of its publication and the Board of Education would then review the report and make a decision that um is expected to be in consistent with policy and regulation 6241 so that is the that's the current challenge uh procedures for um Library resources did you say that the committee hasn't met hasn't had a meeting since 2022 January of 2022 were we're talking about the challenge committee the yeah the the yes request for considerations yes have
155books been challenged um not since I've been in the role and I don't have any oh just to clarify the committee is formed Med each time a book is challenged so there's not a consistent committee that meets on a regular basis when a book is challenged we form the committee the committee runs the process and so um each time the committee is formed it's made up different people understand you know how many books have been removed after a challenge since 1987 I saw one that was removed I saw several that um they were maybe taken out of Elementary and moved made available to other levels and there have been other times in when things were um a person didn't fill out a uh formal challenge uh but a concern came up at the building level
156they talked with us we T we looked at um at the resources as uh as library media Specialists and we decided that it didn't make a lot of sense and that it could come out in the next meeing cycle um yeah so there there have been cases where books have been taken out after um a concern has been raised but the parent didn't fill out the formal form i' also just to like to remind our parents who are listening as well as other patrons there are you do have the ability as a parent to Monitor and see books your child does have loged checked out of the library you can log in through their active directory credentials to see the books they currently have and the system also does allow you to sign up for
157daily email anytime your child would head books check on Library unfortunately not all children are uh blessed enough to have parents that are involved or parents that you know you know what I'm saying Guardians that care and those those are the kids that I worry about as well point of order you're not a why have liian so I just want to clarify since 1987 basically five books have been impacted either removed from the schools or moved to a different grade I wouldn't be able to land on a very specific number um on that but I do have the records and I read through all of the records in preparation for this meeting um there have been a handful I would I would call it a handful that have either been moved to um a different
158level um and there has been one that was flat out removed and acknowledging that to the formal process i' I've only been in this for four years I am aware of one or two books where when a patron or parent ra ra the concern that the librarian at the building level they actually agreed and through that informal process the decision was made to move a book remove a book I don't have any questions I just add a couple quick comments1 thank you uh just again being as quick as possible uh for the uh policy again ask the question um the definition vulgar or educational suitability there's a definition of obscene but clear definitions would be helpful um for the regulation there's a reference to nine copies uh being questioned shall be removed from use uh
159or curriculum to made available for the Review Committee uh there could be some situations where those nine copies were removed uh students don't have access to those that material that title and that could be like an unintentional censorship that we want to avoid um uh again there's another reference that the board will receive the report from the Review Committee then they vote to either accept or reject the recommendation which again I think that might um not incentivize the Review Committee to put all the effort because at some point uh it's either us saying yes or no um so I would suggest again it goes from a Review Committee and then if somebody wants to appeal it might go to a reconsideration committee um that language is in here elsewhere and uh just lastly just want
160to identify that um the library media Specialists uh have a lot of different criteria that they have uh earned whether it's credentials or education and those uh are actually listed one of our q&as you see in board docs and um when we hire somebody they're checking all those boxes and I think that identifies a level of expertise that I like to value um the last piece is that it's good for us to spend time on what we agree on like we we agree on that the parents have rights we agree that pornography should not be in the hands of like little kids and um and all the question has to do with like where you draw the line and which value takes precedence and and I just want to say there's more in common with
161the five of us than than we might otherwise have thought and I think we can live out a leadership that acknowledges that we share some of those same common values the question is which value takes the lead which one's in the driver seat passenger seat um for me the biggest concern um behind all this is that currently uh library media Specialists and parents are in the center of all these decisions and these policies would push the board into the center for all these decisions and for me that feels like boor overreach um and for me I I would prefer if library media specialist and parents who were in the center of these decisions and the board played a role the question is what the role is right um but the board played a role um
162but not the central role so thank you all for listening I just had something to add to what he he said a lot of things I was going to say uh but tell me if I'm wrong here that the library media Specialists are not included in the configuration of the Review Committee on 63 41 is that correct I saw that they were it said they may not be or their cohorts or something like that that's correct yeah the library media specialist uh it's been revised where they would submit a a report to the committee right their opinion on the the challenge um I'm not understanding that um I find it unusual that they would be able to write one statement of opinion and they cannot discuss any other aspects of the challenged material so in
163other words keep your opinion to yourself we don't want to hear it um I think that's weird and I think it's disrespectful and I think it's I think it's overreach also so I'm sure you have proposed language then you'll be submitting to Dr or director cook I can come up with that yes I would include them so um the key aspect of this policy is defining under what circumstances can book be removed from the school library or any classroom Library so um the the proposed policy states and I'm quoting here the Board of Education shall remove materials from the learning Commons if they are deemed to be obscene as defined by section 010 um of the Missouri statutes so um the definition of obscene here is codified in State Statute and flows down from a
164Supreme Court ruling in Miller V California it's also known as the Miller test um the test goes like this and now I'm going to read directly from the statute any material or performance if taken as a whole uh applying contemporary Community standards its predominant appeal to the prent interests in Sex and the average person applying contemporary community stand standards would find the material depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way and a reasonable person would find the material lacks serious literary artistic political or scientific value so that's that's the obscene test very difficult to meet and and if it's obscene we are required to remove it um so that's not in there currently that's not in the current policy but we are required to do it so it's in there now I I
165hope that one is controversial um so for something to be required OB seen all three of those conditions must be met it's a very high bar to meet and I I'll be the first to say I doubt we have anything like that um that passes that F even the first bar um to be honest here so um the policy as proposed goes on to State uh the board May remove materials from the learning Commons if they are deemed to be pervasively vulgar or lack educational suitability the board may not remove materials from the learning Commons because they dislike the ideas contained in those materials and seek by their removal to prescribe what shall be Orthodox in politics nationalism religion or other matters of opinion so all of that language comes directly from the Supreme Court
166case of Island Trees of epo which he referred to earlier um that's easily the best known if not the only Supreme Court case involving removal of materials from a school library uh while it was a plurality decision uh meaning there was no opinion to which a majority of the justices signed on to uh the plurality opinion by Brennan which had the highest number of justices who concurred is widely seen as the precedent for the last 40 years this language all aligns with that plurality decision um as for the definition of what is pervasively vulgar those are two words that any person can look up in the dictionary uh the term educationally unsuitable was not defined by the court and to the best of my knowledge hasn't been since uh but is left up to the
167local school boards that are elected by their local community um as for me the Missouri constitution in article 9 section 1A clearly defines the purpose of free public schools it states a general diffusion of knowledge and Intelligence being essential to the preservation of Rights and Liberties of the people the general assembly shall establish L and maintain free public schools um so personally and this is just Randy cook if I were to attempt to define whether something's educationally suitable um that's where I'd start with with the Missouri Constitution and I would go down from there um it defines the the purpose of what free public education in Missouri is for um that statement would be the guide on educational suitability um and anyone submitting or defending a challenge on the grounds of educational suitability um I
168think should speak to that section of the Missouri Constitution at a minimum so as for other feedback on the challenge I think you know or or this particular policy um again I'm happppy to happy to take it um I will just briefly mentioned um director Blair you mentioned if if the Review Committee if the decision of the Review Committee is appealed by the petitioner then maybe it should go to a reconsideration committee um I think there's a terminology issue there that this is a reconsideration it would be like it would be like doing the process twice this process twice so the right now the process is really in that respect the same as it is now where we form a committee the committee does the work if the if the petitioner the person who originally
169had the concern isn't satisfied with the outcome of the committee then they can appeal to the board and the board makes the final decision if they don't appeal to the board then the board never gets involved so that's hopefully clears up some of that thank you anything else all right superintendent comments Dr Rus thank you vice president cook um first I would like to welcome and introduce our new District leaders who began in their roles in July 1st we're here tonight uh Mr Mark Delaney why not new to the district but is new to his role as our Deputy superintendent we have Mr Scott Gowan Santa wave our new director of Technology Dr angelene O'Neal hogri returns to Francis Howell as our director of data and assessment and high schools we have Dr Kevin Morrison
170joining us as our director of student services Dr Brian Rich who joined us last year at Hollenbeck is now over here as our new Director of Human Resources and Julie Walsh who isn't here with us tonight but is our new Director of Finance I'm really excited about this team of exceptional leaders and the impact that they're going to have on our team and on the district as we move forward I'd like to take a moment and also celebrate 2024 How High graduate Titus sisle on being drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday he actually becomes the 16th Viking to be selected in the MLB draft which is kind of amazing um that full list if you want to see of our student athletes who have been drafted in the major leagues is posted on the
171district's Facebook page we learned just two weeks ago that our district 2024 Teacher of the Year Nicole Ashraf who's a fifth grade teacher at Cosley has been selected as one of the 10 St Louis Regional finalists as teacher of the year give her a round of applause she will now be considered for the Missouri State teacher of the year award and potentially the national teacher of the year of the award and we really have um incredible history as a district and producing teachers who not only are selected here locally but move on through the state process um if you haven't yet heard Hannah shenberg who is a bus router for the district placed first in the Missouri Association for people Transportation 50th annual school bus driver competition this summer um which qualified her to represent
172Missouri at the international competition in Texas three weeks ago where she achieved sixth place in the con convention bus category um we are proud of her and that she chooses to work for the district and also when use this opportunity to remind you that we have plenty of bus driver and monitor openings for next year so please visit our website and we do offer training if you don't need your CDL we will put you through the training and compensate you for it so please come work for us um we continue to invite everyone to join us for the opening celebration of the new Francis Al North High School which while it will serve that those students in feeder patterns really is a celebration for this District that'll take place on Saturday August 24th um during
173black and gold day we'll do a ribbon cutting ceremony at 2:00 in the formal presentation followed by an open house and student Le Tours um for the next couple of hours yes it is the middle of summer but I want to make sure that our parents know that school supply lists are out and that the registration process is in full swing for next year um as a reminder this is the first time that online enrollment is mandatory for um parents to go through and so we have tried to make that information handy to our parents um in a variety of different ways um it's been emailed to parents if they need the information it's also available on website for them to find we are excited as we gear up already in the next couple of
174weeks for the new school year we welcome our new Educators around 150 new staff that will be joining us on August 5th for a week of learning and onboarding and then our returning teachers come back on August 12th followed by our students on Tuesday the 20th and as we kick off the 2425 school year just want to share I'm excited to continue to work with the seven of you um our leadership team staff students and Community as we really work to make that Francis Howell um continues to get even better um this fall we will be finalizing our strategic plan um we know there are other community issues and concerns that we're hearing about buing behavior and discipline the need to recruit and retain high quality staff and teachers and um recognize that those are
175opportunities for us to really come together and work together um to review and work on some of those issues um and it's really an opportunity for us to come together um as it's been said several times tonight and focus on the many things that we do agree on in this District that are positive POS um it's an honor and privilege to be in this role and now both as an employee and a parent in the district I'm being committed to continue to do the best we can for the students and our community thank you thank you Dr Rus uh any Board of Education comments yes please sure director Owens when I was elected to serve on the Francis House School Board I was anxious to share my education background and classroom experience with the other
176members of this board I will continue to seek a collaborative working relationship with my fellow board members I appreciate that the board will now have a workshop regarding these new policies and regulations I do think it is a good idea to continually refine and add good policy that has been created with many voices in the room when we collaborate with Administration policy committee fhaa education experts parents and taking and students and take into account legal requirements we will bring forth the best policies and regulations for all of our stakeholders during my 32 years as a teacher I witnessed many attacks on public education and they are still going on but I always felt the school board had my back because they trusted me I want our education professionals to know I will continue to trust
177them to do the job they were hired to do and I will do all I can to provide a safe healthy ch challenging and welcoming learning environment for each and every student first I'd like to I'd like to welcome all the new members to the team um I I names Escape me sometimes so thank you herly um yeah and and so I just we all look forward to working with you and if there's anything that we can do to help you achieve your goals please don't hesitate to ask us I'd like to also welcome the new president of the fhaa and I actually look very forward to working with her I found that we have a very common link and that is our dogs and so as a good point to uh start a a
178a good relationship I look forward to collaborating with with her and the rest of uh the members um before I get into what I really want to talk about tonight um I want to say that I never have been invited to a Francis Hall forward meeting so for those of you compl planning about a meeting that I attended last Tuesday that you didn't get invited to please invite me to one of yours um you also there are also some complaints tonight about um not hearing about a certain resolution well there's also a policy that's been sitting out there for the last 9 months and that's policy 2116 privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms and so I I'd like to talk about that and discuss why maintaining separate bathrooms and locker rooms for boys and girls
179is essential for the well-being privacy and safety of all students I want you to picture your and what most people don't talk about they talk about the bathrooms but they don't talk about the locker rooms which to me is a much bigger issue than just the bathrooms for the opportunity for a male to dis robe in front of a female without her consent to me is just one of the worst things that can happen to a young lady and vice versa it goes both ways first and foremost bathrooms and especially locker rooms or intimate spaces where students rightfully expect a certain level of privacy boys and girls have different needs and comfort levels particularly during their developmental years by providing gender specific facilities we ensure that each student can have a sense of security and
180privacy which is crucial for their emotional and psychological well-being not just a few but all students separating these spaces helps to prevent potential issues of harassment or bullying in mixed gender environments the risk of appropriate inab inappropriate behavior can increase making some students feel V vulnerable or unsafe by maintaining distinct areas for boys and girls we create a safer environment where students can focus on their education and personal development without fear of discomfort or intrusion we must also also consider the perspectives of parents and Guardians who trust us to provide a safe and support important um supportive environment for their children many parents feel strongly that gender specific bathrooms and locker rooms are necessary to protect their children's privacy and dignity ignoring these concerns can lead to a breakdown in trust between the school and
181families which is detrimental to our entire School District furthermore our current facilities are designed with gender cic specific use in mind converting them to co-mingled spaces would require significant financial investment and logistical planning diverting resources away from other essential educational needs and in a time when budgets are tight we must prioritize spending on initiatives that directly benefit our students learning experiences as well as invest in their safety it's also important to recognize that maintaining gender specific facilities does not preclude us from being inclusive and respect of all students identities we will provide accommodation for those who may feel uncomfortable in traditional gender specific spaces such as single occupancy restrooms or private changing areas these Common Sense Solutions allow us to respect the privacy and safety of all students while upholding the standards the majority in
182our community value in conclusion keeping Boys in boys bathrooms and girls in girls bathrooms and maintaining separate locker rooms is a matter of protecting privacy ensuring safety and respecting the need the diverse needs of our entire student body the majority of this board will continue to foster a supportive and secure environment for all of our students thank you uh just really brief um a few minutes ago oh actually hours ago now um one of the patron comments mentioned concerns about a website that teachers were directing students to look to that should be blacklisted um I'm sure we have new informational um uh staff and admin and so it seemed like something worth looking into I imagine the leadership here just is already aware and look into some of those comments I appreciate uh what was
183shared um I was also going to celebrate Titus sisle um and just being part of the Arizona Diamond Backs um you know this is officially said it was carin's country but now it's caral country and diamondb Country and it's okay to celebrate that it's okay for this reason only to wear an Arizona diamondb hat within Francis H um I I want to make uh two last things one um uh director Ponder is not here for work purposes and just want to share that uh his absence was not um due to anything out outside of work related um restrictions um just want to make sure we're you know saying truthful things on behalf of one another and want to share that piece uh on his behalf um I'm looking forward to all the pictures of the
184new playgrounds being brought in um I think those pictures probably start coming in next month so we get a chance to celebrate a lot of the things that your propess funds are being used for and a lot of celebrations coming in um do you have an interest in future conversation about vaping at some point or another but whenever that happens um just how do we make sure everything goes well for our students um the last thing I want to make a comment on and U I hesitate but I feel like it's um uh last Saturday there was an event and um former president Trump was hit by a bullet and I just want to share that my prayers are with him uh for his safety and my prayers are with the people who lost their
185life on that day and I feel like the way that we uh treat each other within this environment can go a long way into creating a better environment for all people and I just wanted to say um again I'm thankful that uh former president Trump um is alive and well and also I give my prayers of condolences for those who are also hurt on that day so I want to share that too just real quick I I want to back up with with the what Miss pushkar said about the policy committee meeting working with the fhaa it was very engaging and the comments back and forth and and I like the discussions that we have regarding these policies these policies are not a right versus a left or bad guys versus good guys it's opening
186dialogue between us all and the engagement within the community it it should be encouraged so any input that you guys want to give to us please do so um but emails just emails or conversations of don't do it okay well we can be a little more constructive than that um and then the other thing would be is the the diversity the diversity of ideas that we heard with fhea and hearing it from a Viewpoint diversity of ideas is a good thing I don't know why there should be hissing we talked about this when Janet stigl during her closing comments when she said can we not all work together as a community everybody thought wow yeah why not with diversity of comments if you don't agree with somebody practice good common decency and keep it to
187yourself and discuss it with them in a private manner but what what good does it do to boo and hiss somebody in a public event I don't get it um but and I'll finish with this uh just so you know to policy 6 6450 the assignment of grades um I ask that be pulled for a second read um Dr Buckman we we talked and since the last meeting there's going to be a committee put together to find out how we can fine-tune that policy to maybe have it work across grades have it work across subjects and I'll be happy to I'm excited to be working along with that committee so God bless all right uh just a reminder we have our next meeting on August 15th that's the next regular board meeting um I do
188believe there will be uh a board retreat coming up sometime in the near future date to be announced so those of you who are interested in uh watching that exciting meeting are welcome to watch the board board docs for announcement of that um otherwise i' like to wish everyone a good night and board I'll hear a motion to adjourn the meeting all right second and director Owens all in favor say I I all oppos say no you guys have it have a good night