BCSD Board of Education meeting for December 2nd 2020

001for for for for e for e e e h e I think we have everybody with us so if we can reconvene our meeting to open [Music] session the board has been an executive session since 610 to discuss a confidential legal matter we could start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I'll start with um introductions uh for the board uh tonight we have uh Jonathan fishbine will Oar Meredith morti Chris Meyer Christine Beck and myself Holly dball uh Wendy Samson is not able to join us this evening um and we also have Jody Monroe and Dave Hurst um and Judy kho and Kathy Johnston um and then uh I

002think we have a couple of uh special guests for our presentation later I see uh Andy Baker and Nick patrion uh first on the agenda is our approval of minutes uh it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the minutes from the November 18th 2020 board meeting second any discussion all in favor I any opposed any extensions that carries uh next meeting reports our superintendent report uh thanks uh just a couple of things uh the first thing I wanted to let everyone know is that the Hall of Fame committee um did meet to review requests to remove Megan Kelly from the Hall of Fame that had um happened earlier this fall the committee tabled the voting uh regarding the removal of her is the group requested that Heather colan reach out to Miss Kelly

003to ask some questions um so a request has been sent to Miss Kelly's assistant in hopes of having a conversation um I also wanted to provide an update um um because we sent out some information about um covid testing uh um the end of the break uh last week to families to let them know about the different zones that the governor had um identified the yellow orange red zones and what did that mean and if you've been following where Albany County is um we have been close or to the yellow zone uh recently uh the governor did announce some potential ch changes to those zones and clusters and how that might work for schools so it's a little unclear what amount of testing we'll have to do but just to provide an update um we

004do have approval we have information from Albany County Department of Health to be able to use their lab um information to test we have ordered the rapid test and they're supposed to be delivered um Friday we did that based upon the yellow zone cluster in 20% um that we would have to test over a two-e period it looks like there's going to be a little more flexibility and timing uh one thing the governor um also had indicated was that there's the potential that schools could consider pool testing um is an option again some of this is still up in the air but uh we are looking at getting some outside help to help us with testing of students and staff uh and we have agreement um with the unit our bargaining units on testing as

005well so we're relatively prepared to do testing there are still some questions about the data entry piece and how that all works but uh we uh we'll be ready to move forward uh with whatever that looks like and I'll provide updates um as I learn a little bit more about it but that's where we are with testing if I know that some people are wondering we also are in the process one other piece of that um we do have to get get consent from families um so we are working with our vendor who does the covid screening tool that's sent to families on a daily basis to use them for the consent um so we can keep track of which families have consented to testing um so as we get in more information I'll provide

006that but that's kind of where we are with the testing piece and again things are changing every day so um I do think we're in a pretty good spot to be prepared for testing uh when we need to I have question on though so if if we have to do 20% testing and there's a lot of families we don't receive the consent back from it's not really going to serve the purpose of we're testing the same population so how would that work if we don't get enough of the consent forms back um I I don't see that as a problem I talked to a couple schools who have already been testing who were previously identified as yellow zones and um their response uh from families was actually very positive um and parents were very um

007willing to participate in testing um and if the currently the yellow zones you do testing for a two- week period And if your um positivity rate is less than the community positivity rate which is what is being indicated in all the schools who are testing is that there's uh very little rates in schools it's the larger community that has the spread um that you don't have to continue to do testing that all right thank you y Jody I had a question about the the testing also it um those rapid test kits come out of our budget right and we're not billing people's insurance for testing that happens on campus the rapid tests that we get from the state are free um so we don't have to actually pay for the test we have to pay

008if for example if we're hiring a couple extra nurses or paying our nurses to do a testing after school hours or we've talked about doing uh a Saturday or a weekend where we do a drive-thru testing um piece then we would have to pay that that's not covered but the actual tests themselves are are free from the state currently and you're talking about the test kit is free as well as processing that test skit yeah it's a 15 minute turnaround time it's a nasal swab you put it in I say it's not really an envelope but a little card thing and it turns color to let you know whether or not it's positive or negative so it's um after the 15 minutes you have the results you ENT it enter it into uh what's called

009the eclair system the state database and um there's also an app that goes along with that system so um you can go in with the app it's got a QR code so it identifies who's being tested and then after the 15 minutes those results are sent directly to you through the through that same app so that's that's my update that's all I have tonight great thank you next on the agenda is the board report um first I wanted to say thank you to the boou for offering um their virtual presentation um as part of the their talking with your teen series on coping with covid um uh and hopefully that was helpful to members of our community um and I believe it was recorded and is available for anybody to watch if they were not

010able to listen to it um uh when it was held I think it was November mber 18th um I also wanted to mention I don't know if anybody else has had a chance to check it out um but if not I encourage um other board members to take a look at the virtual calming space that um our Counseling Center has created um I'm I know you can access it through the high schools counseling center um page on our website um and there's a lot of uh Nifty virtual tools on there for relaxing um uh animals and sounds and all kinds of different things so um kudos to the counseling center for putting that together um because I have heard that uh a number of the high school students talking about they've been enjoying it um

011and then lastly I just wanted to let everybody know that the policy committee uh we were scheduled to meet this coming Monday um but we have uh canceled that meeting um uh because there's uh nothing urgent to look at at this particular juncture um but we will be meeting um the beginning of January um does anyone have anything else they would like to share at this time and next on the agenda is our presentation this evening um on initiatives to promote Equity divers and inclusion okay thank you hopefully you can see my screen um so tonight um yes we're going to sort of give a recap um of where we are um in terms of our initiatives to promote Equity diversity and inclusion um if you recall it was about three years ago now that

012we established our committee for Equity diversity and inclusivity um which has grown to include over 60 administrators and faculty members at this point um we established um a vision and gold um back about three years ago now um and some of our goals were to create maintain a welcoming inclusive and Equitable School climate recruit retain and develop a diverse faculty and staff and support Innovative inclusive and culturally responsive teaching and learning and it's that last goal that we're going to sort of pay the most attention to tonight um and that's the reason that I asked um Andy Baker and Nick patrion to join us tonight to talk about some of the work um that was done over the summer um and over the past few years with um our English and social studies departments um

013to ensure that we are um you know equipping students with um you know an equitable diverse inclusive um curriculum so one of the things I would like to mention is that you know we're all familiar with our core values now in our mission statement um but when you look at our mission statement it's really important to remember um that are desire to educate and prepare all students to reach their potential discover their purpose and be engaged community members um it's impossible to separate that from our commitment to equity diversity and inclusion um so that is sort of on the Forefront as we move forward with our work so as I said um tonight's theme um really deals with um curriculum and another one of our sort of action goals um through our committee work is

014that we commit ourselves to work with our teachers to provide resources and ideas about how to create more Equitable and inclusive classrooms by diversifying our literature sharing varied perspectives of historical events and encouraging open conversations among students and staff surrounding these important topics and much of this work um is really Guided by sort of a um a TED Talk um from 2009 um that was given by shim um in GOI and D um and really she talks about the danger of a single story was the title of her talk um and really what it um struck her was you know she grew up in Nigeria and many of the books she was reading um were from Britain and she had this picture of what British life was like and as she began to write her

015own stories they all took on the same flavor as these British stories that she had been reading even though none of that was at all familiar to her and um but that's sort of the way she thought stories had to be told because that was the the types of books that she was reading um so you know in the end really what her the lesson learned there um and she kind of points to that at you know at a micro level um there's danger in a single story because it prevents people from authentically connecting with others as individuals and then more at a macro level um it's really an issue about power right so you know there's many stories out there about the dominant culture um so when you have single stories um out there

016about you know the non-dominant cultures that really threatens to create stereotypes and it just sticks to those groups that are already being um dis represented so that is sort of the lens through which a lot of our curricular work is being done um that this whole idea of it's very important to um present multiple sides of every story um so that you know people can have different perspectives and then choose um to sort of make sense of the different perspectives rather than pigeon Hing a certain story um on a certain um group so I'm going to turn it over to um Andy and Nick now and basically they're just kind of going to alternate through each of the levels um Andy will speak a little bit about the elementary perspective um for ELA and then

017Nick will talk a little bit about social studies and we'll do the same for middle and high school so I turn it over to Andy all right thank you Dave um and on behalf of Nick and myself I just want to say uh we're really excited and uh you know honored to be here tonight to speak to you on this important topic uh we want to thank Miss Monroe Mr Hurst um members of the board Miss K uh for the time and uh for all of your support in this initiative so um and I think this is my first Zoom board presentation so uh with that um I will get started um just to kind of give an overview of uh some of the overarching themes that we've looked at and I and I think

018it's really important to underscore that this is certainly a work in progress um our work has been I I would best best describe it as I think that our work has been accelerated um and there's been new emphasis placed in these areas and with very good and for very good reasons in terms of you know wanting to move forward on initiatives that um we've worked on for years but really in the last six months to year uh we've really put these things on a faster track um which is a good thing um we sort of have some overarching goals in the English Department want we want to raise the level of different perspectives and and voices in our literature um and includ be more inclusive with regard to those stories that Mr H spoke about

019um we also want to uh Empower and encourage uh students to engage in in discussion of you know sometimes more challenging topics that that come that come across and come across in the literature such as racism um you know systemic racism diversity discrimination and all of that we also want to in general promote excuse me promote more culturally responsive uh teaching and to that effect uh we're going to talk a little bit more that about that later I will say in terms of Elementary for ELA um we we launched a new curriculum this year that are part of our book study this was part of our prioritized curriculum where uh teams of teachers developed um units to to look at and study different texts at each grade level we did this to we did this

020for a lot of reasons which I won't really get into all those reasons now but we also asked our teachers to kind of you know look at trying to accomplish two things at once so um we we are really happy that we've included uh some diverse texts and and and you know books that represent different cultural perspectives within our book study so at every grade level and I shared a few examples of those um for you to see uh and so with that I'll turn it over to Nick to talk about what's happening at the elementary level in uh social studies sure one of the responsibilities that we had this summer was to take um the magnitude of what we teach in social studies and prioritize it so the best thing that we thought we

021could do when I sat down with teachers is focus on certain things that find themselves in um kindergarten all the way through fifth grade and see themes like citizenship and diversity became one of the dominant Concepts that we really wanted to tack on like Andy mentioned that we are spending a lot of time on finding resources and developing different perspectives and giving kids voices and demonstrating that um delmare and the world is changing and we have to do a better job at representing that change so we're really focused on those three themes Community is a big part of it government is a big part of it and when we have time we add geography and environment and all of that together is is a work in progress the other the other point that came up

022during the summer when we talked to um past students is that they really felt like we didn't do a good job at being honest with them about some of the things that happened in history that we needed to really tell them or explain to them and provide more perspectives and so we've done a lot more with indigenous peoples Native Americans of the United States and of the Americas and that's been something that former students have pointed out to us that they felt like we felt a little we fell a little bit short so we have spent a lot of time on that already I think about the number of classes that I've been in lately um I can give you an example from fourth grade that we looked at a book that was written by

023um I think Jane yolan and it's called encounter and it really is the idea of challenging the dominant narrative behind Columbus and they're tackling that in fourth grade it's not something that's easy to do teachers are um not struggling but they're they're not content experts but they're really doing a good job based on the perspectives that being provided so having another voice having indigenous voice telling a story from a child's perspective um really matters to kids and it's really been very very effective okay so um I think I also should mention I'm not sure by way of introduction uh I meant to do this earlier Nick and in in my role in The District so I'm the ELA supervisor uh Nick is the social studies super visor so that that's why we're speaking to you

024on these topics tonight um you know as as Nick said you know we want to try to build these these themes and these understandings at a young age in students so that this is not just the work of the high school we think about um you know some of the difficult and challenging issues that our society has to you know that our society um you know experiences with regard to discrimination and marginalization of people of of different um backgrounds and races um those are not issues that the high school should have to tackle alone these are those are issues that we should be building in understandings and presetting students to build in that Foundation of understanding and perspectives and empathy from a young age so as we move from middle I'm sorry from elementary to

025middle school we continue in that theme um Middle School for the English Department uh does become a little more specific with regard to the use of literature in the curriculum um and we have made very concerted efforts across our grade levels and our teams to incorporate more voices of um diverse authors and present more different different perspectives with regard to um race and ethnicity and background and socioeconomic uh differences and all of that um really too many to name in this presentation but a lot of it goes towards um the the inclusion of Mentor texts with our with our writing uh you know writing workshop units of study and reading workshop of course um it also goes towards uh some whole class novels that are done in Middle School albeit we don't do as many

026at the high as at the high school but we do do a few um we also are very very pleased to have been working with um a a a a lead expert in this field a Woman by the name of Harriet groer who is um just a very voice in terms of uh her expertise and her background and she has worked with our teachers on in incorporating more uh strategies to promote culturally responsive teaching so we're really really pleased with that work I think we've met I think Nick can correct me if I'm wrong but uh my department has met with her at least twice and we have goals of meeting um several more times to again try to promote class discussion and deal with you know increasing the culturally responsive teaching that's happening in

027the classroom Nick and and just to add to that Harry's been really good at pointing out that we need to really look inside ourselves and look at our own personal biases when we're delivering um whatever kind of instruction we're delivering so that's been very positive and the teachers have received her very well the other thing that's important to note about um the Middle School in particular is that we really are trying um we're trying hard to really cross-pollinate as much as we possibly can between Ela and social studies we feel that there's a natural link there and so I know there are several teachers that have been doing this for quite some time um Annie Baker and Karen Suffin have been doing this for several years now where they're looking at literature through a very

028different lens with with social studies as the historical context but from a literary perspective and that's gone really really well and uh I'm trying to I can give you an example like for example if they use something like something you would understand would be like hidden figures for example it was a book that eventually turned into a movie but they do lot with civil rights the Cold War women and science segregation youth movements it's a really nice way to bring all of those disciplines together if U if you would walk into Annie Baker's class you know at the beginning of the school year you would see a lesson on sharecropping but it was more than just sharecropping because it eventually got into Jim Crow laws and the disenfranchisement of certain people in this country and

029then it got into suppression of voting and this is all driven by students the teachers just facilit itting that learning so kids are making connections on their owns based on the kind of information and the images and the resources that we're using but one of the things that we are working diligently on is trying to find the right resources and there's a lot out there that are given to us every day both for digital and print text and all sorts of things and we've got to kind of navigate that but teachers feel like they have a lot of resources to work with they just don't have as much time as they would like and that's something that we need to continue to work on but the idea of teachers working together whether it's uh Chris

030holiday and Evan Harley have done a lot of work together from Ela and social studies this is becoming more of the norm um than the exception we also use things like teaching tolerance in terms of documentaries we use the Brown University choices program so there are there are other resources that prior students or graduates have pointed out to us that we really really like and so we're trying to listen to those voices and bring those voices into the classroom as much as we possibly can okay so at the high school um you know a lot of focus is spent on the high school in terms of these issues we have you know a broad range of students who have have have asked for uh you know our curriculum to reflect the times and to better

031reflect um the social diversity of our country and also to um begin to kind of focus on um perspectives that are not just from the dominant culture but you know looking at history or looking at literature through a lens that's not through the dominant lens but that is through the perspective or lens of a different point of view or in a different perspective be it racial or be it e ethnic or be it again you know socioeconomic and all of that um and this has really been very empowering for us we've this is probably where we've seen kind of the most you see the most um response from immedate response from students where uh it's very exciting and I have to say I'm I'm I'm personally very excited at the at the at the work

032we're doing here and one of the things we're doing to speak more concretely um at the high school is our initiative has been to make uh you know make an effort and and follow through on that on that effort to include more um diverse texts and and and pieces of literature that reflect more diversity in our society um and as you can see I just put a kind of a little smattering of um titles and pictures of the authors of some books that are being um piloted this year because what we're going to do at the high school and the English Department is we're going to Pilot some different books and at the end of the year we're going to get together and decide how do we want to utilize these books going forward we

033we are committed to incorporating and expanding our literature to include these different voices and it's really exciting um because just the conversations that these books are going to engender in the classroom I think are really going to put us on a better path towards um creating more empathic students as we go forward um this is challenging work though and with this challenge comes teachers sometimes stepping out of their comfort zone and having to um you know Embrace conversations or or or have conversations in the classroom that do step into areas that can be and I and kind of am reluctant to use the word controversial or because I I don't think these conversations should be controversial because I think that that canotes a negativity I think that these are conversations that are difficult but I

034think we want to empower our teachers with the tools to um better have these conversations with students in the classroom and so yeah they are challenging but at the end of the day um there are ways to do it and the most important thing is that it's not going to be perfect and teachers have to you know we want them to buy into that thought um and we're making great strides in this area with the help of Harriet so um we're we're really excited and I'll turn it over to Nick to talk about what's happening in social studies yeah there is there is no question that this is not easy for um teachers or for kids we're trying to create as much of a safe PA safe place for kids to have conversations and we've

035heard that word before that they kids want or our students want a safe place so we've been working diligently at creating that atmosphere and it's been a struggle for all of of us because there's so much going on in the community it's hard to tackle all of these issues at one time and try to finish what we're supposed to finish in the in the scope and sequence and the new Frameworks but we're looking at the origins of slavery and racism today we're starting to talk about inequities outside of you know traditional Southern the southern part of the United States and look at places like what's happening in delmare and the capital region we've talked about race and discrimination and privilege in a way that we've never spoken about before and this is all part of

036these larger conversations that we're having with either Harriet or kids that are outside of school um former graduates our current students those kind of things we've also entered in trying some some new approaches to things I on there you'll see lab school English and social studies 1112 um Katie Leo and Meg Masset have done a really nice job at trying to create a course that really deals with anti-racist kind of topics and themes and using literature to explore those and so they are um they're using stamp for example which is a book that we purchase so that they can start tackling the issues of race in America and kids are starting to read that or will be reading that they've used the 1619 project um and the podcast from that project to tackle the founding

037fathers and what they really meant when they when they got together and mentioned the word compromise compromise compromise and how much of a compromise is that in American history and those kind of things so we're working diligently at giving kids a voice providing as much perspective as we can challenging um students to really intellectually get involved in a conversation that is much larger than themselves and it hasn't been easy but we're not going to give up on that yeah and just to kind of piggyback on what Nick was saying um briefly you know in terms of what it looks like in the English classroom it really is about looking at things to a different lens so everybody reads to kill mocking BG right do we look at it through the lens of attakus Finch as

038the you know the white Agonist hero who saves the day or do we start to shift and look at that novel through the through the lens of Tom Robinson and the plight that he's en encountering in that novel um and just a shift of a lens in a focus on a book makes a huge difference and this goes to what Harriet has taught us and Harriet really taught us look at purpose why are we teaching this book what do we hope to get at of it what are the goals we want to get out of it and if we do that we're not g to pigeon hole ourselves into just books by this author or that author but we're going to take a broader view on how we can generally increase our cultural confidence so

039thanks Dave yeah and I just want to mention one more thing that this is not really we look at it from social studies and I think we should look at it as a building as well it's it's more than just one discipline it takes all of us to really tackle these issues that our kids are facing today and you know I walked into an economics class last week and they were talking about gerrymandering and the next thing I knew they were talking about redlining and then School budgets and how come certain budget I mean these kids really want to communicate what they're feeling and our job is to help them get there and to listen to their voices and understand their concerns and triy to bridge that gap between ignorance and knowledge as best we

040can and it is it is happening um and and we're just doing as much as we can promote it given the kind of circumstances and the classroom environment that we're in right now thanks um Nick and Andy and I think um one of the themes that you heard over and over over as Nick and Andy spoke was the idea of student voice um and this is something that um you know our Equity committee um really put at the Forefront in that you know bringing student voice to the conversation allowing our students to tell their stories listening to what they have to share and those are all very important components um but also partnering with members of our community to ensure that we're listening to them and responding to what's happening outside of school um that's

041going to enable us to work together to build a more inclusive stronger Community um so one of the ways that we are going to approach that is um again um in working with Harriet and progression Partners we have um two different um sort of um Workshop series that we're going to be offering um each Workshop consists of four onour sessions um we sent out notification a few weeks ago and it looks like as of now we're probably going to be running um three different groups for parent parents Guardians and caregivers um and those hold up to 30 people so we've got about 80 parents Guardians and caregivers to date that have expressed an interest um and we've got just over 20 students in recent alumni so as of now probably one one group for that

042um again with the we are going to send out sort of another call in the spring um we you know we're looking to do these January February March time frame and then should the in this generate more interest we could run more sessions um sort of April May June um but both of these work groups will be working with Harriet um really important to note that the whole idea is that these are going to be both be welcoming environments for reflection and open dialogue um you know the parent group will go more sort of into the science behind um some of these issues um and the student one really will be more about sort of having conversations with them to get get their perspectives um and explore ways that they can actually take action um

043so we're really excited about this they're sort of sub smaller versions of what our faculty on the committee went through um if you recall um our committee that met at on campus worked through we went through eight full day modules with Harriet um so you know close to 50 hours worth of work with her so far um so these obviously only being four hours we'll just give a sampling of you know the depth of what we went through um but really really powerful um she began doing these um out in California um in September and has had great success with this so we're really excited that she's able to bring this to us but this is just one way that we're now able to sort of um work more directly with students and families um

044to to get a better understanding of the work that we're embarking upon and how they can help us um make this become part of the culture of BC and not just um you know what it's become in a lot of places sort of just an add-on thing to do it really has to be part of the fabric um which is why again you hear um how we're working you know K12 to ensure that it's part of our everyday programming and to Andy's point this this isn't just an English thing or social studies um it really does have its place in every classroom I guess Nick brought that up I apologize um just you know obviously it fits nicer into Ela and social studies in terms of the depth and the richness of the discussions but

045there's still certainly considerations to be had in all areas um you know something as simple as when you're doing word problems in math ensuring that you know you're using things that are culturally sensitive right does it make sense anymore to say um you know there's so many males so many Fe females at a at a dance how many partners can um pair up at the dance right so what does that question mean in today's language you know that came up not too long ago in one of our classes and the kids kind of question that they said well does that mean all the pairings have to be male female or can they be male male female female um and it's obviously something the textbook publisher hadn't put much thought into so that they know these

046conversations do come up from time to time in other areas not just Ela and social studies um so that really ends sort of the formal presentation um so having Nick and Andy here I'll turn it over at this point for questions um I'll start I had a quick oh sorry Holly no go ahead Willow it's okay um so just quickly there was a reference on one of the slides for elementary school all right sweetheart thank you um there's a reference to diversity units so I just wanted to make sure that the goal is really a broader um representation in curriculum generally in library resource materials classroom materials things that are on the walls you know the whole thing that we're not just taking out certain text for black history month or pride month and that

047it's the goal is broader than that for sure I I'm not sure if that's for me but for sure you know our our presentation tonight tried to focus on some newer things that were happening um but of course our elementary schools are continually and have continually worked in this area to broaden um you know the different diverse voices across the school and to to include more um different perspectives with regard to the overall building culture um in bulletin boards and curriculum and and in every aspect of what they do so absolutely and Willow you raised a really nice point because we've been struggling with language a little bit like what kind of terminology should we be using and we've kind of approached ter with those things and we don't really have a definitive answer for

048that but we are working on that thank you um I was wondering if somebody could speak a little bit to the training that our teachers are getting to teach some of the new um curriculum initiatives um whether it's in you just using social studies and Ela um because I'm I'm assuming that we're not just giving them a new book and saying you know go off and handle this but that we're we're giving some training in how to how to teach these um kinds of new materials yeah and that's how we're leveraging Harriet Harriet's working really closely with both the English and social studies departments um they've met with them as individual departments um at least three times now we did superintendent conference day um she met with them she's um going into the department meeting

049she's going to continue to work with them in their department meetings throughout the year um you know she it's interesting she's she's really brought um a great perspective to our discussions um you know she's taught English she was a principal um you know she's she's very involved in her community and so she brings a lot of different hats to the discussion um and to Andy's Point earlier um she really challenges people to to think about purpose right what's the it's not enough to just say you know hey yay now now we're we have three books by black authors you know what's the purpose behind those books and ensuring that the books are actually worthwhile to even read right um are they even at the appropriate reading level do do they actually tackle the topics that

050we want from the topic or are we just offering them because it's happens to be written by a black author um so she's really challenging the department to make sure that they're thoughtful in choosing these books um and then to Annie's earlier point you know sometimes you could find books that are written by um say a white author but just taking different characters perspectives instead of focusing on sort of the the you know the dominant character in their perspective throughout the story focus on another character um and what their perspective might have been and tying that back to sort of historical times um so she's really working with teachers to you know to deeply analyze the text which again is why we're not like wholesale changing everything right it's it's got to be in small

051chunks because you have to give teachers a chance to work through the text themselves discuss it amongst themselves um before you can just you know throw those texts out to students um and and have meaningful discussions I don't know if Andy or Nick wanted to add to that but I I mean I just would briefly uh Nick go ahead I'm sorry no I mean I can tell you that um harri challenges us to the why we call it the why like why are we really doing this and so we spent an hour talking about the Declaration of Independence so if you're a social scientists that's great but it really got into the weeds of that document and it really challenged our lenses and how we approach um the beginning of what we would consider our

052curriculum and it's it's going to be a slower process than I think people realized it's going to take us time to get through every single unit looking at the resources and trying to figure out the best way to do that we also have teachers um who want to do more and I I can I can speak for Miss Krishna Kennedy who has gone through a significant amount of training who wants to start helping other teachers and other disciplines understand their their lenses and the things that they see their curriculum through is not necessarily in the best interest of our kids all the time so we do have internal people that are really to step up and move forward and I think Dave correct me if I'm wrong but I think she's working on setting up

053a a professional development for two hours for teachers after school who want to start tling biases and those kind of things yeah she's an approved trainer um I forget the exact name of the the program but she's going to be offering that um after school for teachers thank you that was actually going to be my next question was whether we have teachers who are willing to help other teachers with tackling some of these issues so that's great to hear go ahead Christine I and I appreciate Nick what you're saying about it being a slow process it's something that's new and it's going to affect you know every type of class instruction so it's got to be thoughtful and um well planned out and and I guess when I'm listening to you discuss it it sounds

054like it's just like the initial talk stage like where you're having Harriet come in and she's having thoughtful discussion on how you can look through a different lens and and remove some of the biases that we currently have in our programming but I I guess where I'm going is like when do you get to the point where you actually have a plan which the plan or the process is going to take even longer where you're going to say okay this year we're gonna add you know one area One content area to each class to kind of get the ball rolling because it sounds like when we're doing training you know it's an hour here an hour there or two hour you know teacher you know continuing head class where you know we want to get

055the Buy in from the teachers or get their body Seas to change but really like it's the direction of leadership and like when does it become okay this is what we're going to do versus just the discussion plan we've made several changes already I don't want you to think that we haven't made changes the work the work I'm talking about with Harry right now is to ensure that teachers can properly navigate these changes and then also look forward to Future changes right we made a lot of changes um in terms of titles that we've put in our libraries um the titles that we're using in our classrooms K5 um the the way that we're approaching different social studies topics in the middle and the high school um texts that we've chosen I mean there's several

056changes that have already been made okay again Harriet warned you know you can't change everything all once because there has to be purpose and you have to have the why behind what it is you're changing so it's very easy just to look at we're using these 10 books let's get rid of eight of them and replace them um but that's not thoughtful right that's that's kind of that's the cheap and easy way of doing things and she warned us against that right she said yes make make the changes that you know need to be made in right away that you can handle and she I'll help you work through that but you know but the process of overhauling an entire curriculum can't be done in one summer um process of training in your entire Community

057can't happen over one summer so don't try to do too much at once because then what ends up happening is it's just you have all of these things out there but none of it's tied together well none of it's approached well and then people just get sort of fatigued by and say what what are we even doing because nobody has any idea what's going on so we're being very very methodical and purposeful about what it is we're doing and we're relying on Harriet's expertise to kind of guide us into what is the right amount of change um in a in a specific period of time and don't forget we were supposed to be working with her on site this entire year to really help us embed this change and we had to shift gears a

058little bit because she's unable to do that right so we're sort of out of order a little bit like the parent the student workshops some of those really weren't supposed to happen until next year so we're sort of accelerating that um and sort of decelerating some of the work she's doing with teachers because they really need to be done full day workshops handson in person you know Zoom just this type work um to do full day workshops just is is not really appropriate so we did get kind of mixed up a little bit but I want you to yeah don't don't take away from this that we're not making changes or we're going I just was looking more for like what did we what did we do in certain content areas not like did we

059you know add add a book in middle school did we uh focus more here just a little more of the detail of what we've done versus like the the overview I guess the high high level but I understand like this year we probably um have slowed down where we were going to be because obviously we can't demand more from the teachers than we already are in you know Christine I I think I think actually the opposite I think actually I'm really encouraged that we've actually been able to make the gains that we've made um given all the challenges we've had with everything outside of good today and I think and I don't say that from a defensive posture I say it from a i kind of astounded by my teachers because you know we had

060a we had a meeting in June we we had a conversation in June that was an hour long that the purpose of the conversation was to wrap up the entire year and all the grading and all the covid quarantine stuff and oh yeah also talk about diversity and literature and I was just really really floored by the way my teachers and I think Harry has mentioned this to me and to you Nick as well they're real they're they're we're so lucky because they're ready and they want to do this work um and we're blessed for that and so yeah to me the buyin is going to take I thought maybe it would take a little more time not that I needed to convince my teachers the importance of the topic but to convince them of

061the of the worthiness of the cause in regards to moving forward quickly so this year we're actually you know we didn't say oh we're just going to talk about it this year and learn how to do it and we'll roll something out later on when when CO's over we hit the ground running with new books we've got new books in our classroom that have never been taught before and these teachers know how to teach these books you know to Holly's point they're so excited you know we teach reading we don't really teach the books but the fact that kids are going to read a book that has a the where the protagonist is not white is just such an exciting thing and it's incredibly that small shift and it's not a small shift that huge

062shift I think is going to have a huge impact on our student body as we move forward but clearly we have a lot more work to do okay now that's exactly what I was looking for because I I heard from some teachers over the summer that they were actually working on curriculum and developing uh things in their classroom so when we were getting the overview I didn't get that interpretation as detailed as you just gave it now but I have heard a lot of excitement from a lot of lot of teachers and especially from like social studies in English I mean because that's an easier way to um implement it so but it was really good to hear your overview and I'm excited about it my balance is trying to hold some of my teachers

063back because we've given them permission to try a lot of things and they're going to do that and because they want to really tackle these issues from a perspective that kids will start to really appreciate and understand where they are if that makes sense so the hard part is is trying to convince them not to do some of the things that they want to do I can tell you on Monday Annie Baker is going to work on something with w deor in Black live matters she's going to make that connection that is you know over a 100 years away or close to 150 years apart and that'll be an interesting lesson but those are the kinds of things that we've given our teachers permission to try because we're we're not sure what's really going to

064work and how long something's going to take so if you look at the choices program out of Brown University um those those units of study the Civil Rights unit could take us 20 weeks we don't have 20 weeks to do that so we have to pick and choose the kind of topics and the kind of uh resources or or primary documents or secondary documents whatever it is so that kids can really get into the conversation about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the Voting Rights Act of 1968 or 65 those kind of things um that's where we're heading so I I'm with Andy I think I think somebody poured gasoline on teachers they want to get moving and they're not afraid they just they wantan to in some ways they want to know that they

065have your support because they're having some really complicated and difficult conversations in classrooms and those classrooms these kids are young and in some cases I'm not sure they're ready but um we're doing the best we can with that I'm assuming in the older level or secondary level you're getting a a lot of excitement from the students I would imagine with some of the topics because we have you know a lot of kids who uh participate in these type of movements so getting and that safe environment for them is really really important I will say we also have a class we haven't talked about it but we have a class called race gender and identity um taught by Miss chrisna Kennedy that kids really really enjoy and this is the whole Foundation of what we're talking

066about is done in that class and it's done for 20 weeks and the kids get a lot out of it I got a lot of emails this summer about how thankful students were for Miss Krishna and opening up those doors for those conversations that they were having because now they're going to college or they're talking to their parents and they're in the community they have a real good sense of what's going on America because of that course great thank you uh Nick I had a a question about um our teaching of world history um are we making an effort to look at countries where we have traditionally not taught as much you know when I think of traditional world history classes I think you know we learn about Rome but we don't necessarily learn about

067different countries in Africa and um I was wondering if we are making an effort to to teach a more diverse history of our world and if so are we going to have any problems um with the Regents exams or the AP exams considering how tight um our curriculum is this year because of the time restraints because of covid um that's a you you asked a really complicated question so when you think about if I can explain it this way in third grade they start studying cultures around the world and yes we are tackling um other you know Kenya for example is one of the countries that we've chosen as a as an area of study in the bosei site um but so is China and Brazil and places like that the question is whether teachers

068can really get to those in in the time frame that they have the instructional period that they have I'm not really worried about the Regence exam as much as the teachers are I think we do an incredible job in social studies getting kids ready for those exams and our scores certainly indicate that um the issue for us this year is not having as much instructional contact time as we've had in the past and these exams are a little bit earlier than usual I don't think people understand this but the Regent exam in 11th grade will be I think it's June 2 or fifth which is two to three weeks earlier than we've taken it ever before so there's no question that we we are tackling these issues I can give you an example from like

069third grade that I just had a conversation with a teacher about instead of doing they were trying to do something with Thanksgiving and he realized right away that Thanksgiving the stories the traditional stories that we're teaching is probably not what we should be doing in third grade so he looked at festivals around the world and harvests around the world during this time frame that was a great use of time and kids and there was a kid from India or you know in class and they really focused on that particular child's country and the emails that that that teacher received from the parents because their their culture and their religion their celebrations were were celebrated by their classmates has gone a long long way if that makes any sense so that was a real positive experience

070for the kids in that particular classroom I don't know if that helps answer it is a pretty complicated question absolutely absolutely and then I just wanted to jump in on on Willow's point and I I believe Andy you mentioned it as well just to ensure that um especially for our youngest readers that um we aren't focusing only on issue titles is you know titles that of course titles that deal with diversity um racism discrimination those are important topics to introduce to Young to our young uh students but I also want to make sure that just generally our literature reflects the diversity of our world like you know our books about superheroes should have black superheroes you know um Asian princesses you know I'm thinking of Zoe and sasta series and the Katie wo series a

071to tost scientist you know I just want to make sure that the actual books that are available to the kids and for you know teacher read alouds just generally um reflect the diversity of our world and um as Willow said are not just merely um about issues you know and difficulty that we really celebrate all of our um characters and in literature so um but I think you already spoke to that so I appreciate it just like a couple things one um just a comment I think it's really amazing that you know 10 or 15 years ago if we were having this conversation it would be controversial you know it would be like well what's Bethlehem doing they're stepping out and you know and today it's not it's not controversial it's necessary like we need

072to do this it's not a should we it's we need to so that's fantastic uh the second thing just something that I struggled with as a teacher and it sounds like we're doing it and so I think it's good so I'm not assuming that we're not it sounds like from what Nick was saying that we really are in social studies but just making sure that we connect everything to today because you know something that I struggled with teaching is like we say that Columbus was bad to the natives and we we talk about it and then we talk about how western expansion the natives where Native Americans were poorly treated and then it's kind of like well I guess it must be good today because you know we don't talk about anymore so that problem's

073gone you know Native Americans go to be super duper happy you know or that you know that talk about African-Americans you know that it was bad but Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr came in and saved the day and you know gosh goly G were good so it's just the ability of us to connect it to to where we are today you know you know it's like finding things like you know um the facts that like the iroy national lacrosse team didn't almost get into the world games because the the world didn't recognize them as a people as a separate nation you know these things are still going on in 2020 so it's that ability to to do what we're doing which is really good in terms of talking about these things then not leaving

074the kids hanging and saying well we solved it no no we didn't solve it it's still here and just making sure we add that last piece into everything that we do Chris you're absolutely right I mean we are doing as much as we possibly can to connect it to what's happening today one of the things that was not mentioned today is that we are still continually meeting with um uh graduates of Bethlehem kids that um you know when they come back from home there are some of these kids who are really active in our community and they've been great and I know our teachers both English and Social Studies have private meetings with them with zoom I know I've sat on those meetings before we've talked about indigenous peoples quite a bit because they really

075feel like we we haven't done a great job with that and I can tell you our fourth grade teachers um are doing really really well with with that topic in fact one of them um lacrosse is kind of near to my heart those of you who don't know me but I've already talked to a couple female athletes over at Sunni Albany who are native American indigenous population and I want them to zoom in with our classes the only problem right now is they're back home and and it's a little harder to do that with their schedules and stuff like that but at some point we're going to connect you know um college kids with our elementary kids to talk about what it's like to be someone um who is not considered American in some ways

076I know that sounds awful to say um because there is a sovereignty issue there's a reservation issue whether it's ancestrial lands or res reservations there's a lot of terminology here that some tribes like and some tribes don't it gets really really complicated but I think our kids want to have that conversation and they would love to interview someone who um comes from a very different background and yet lives in the United States of America but yet does not have the freedoms as some of our children have if that makes sense so that's a real positive and we're trying to do that with a lot of other things too as well I me I think you're absolutely right the kids love this stuff they like they they they they want to talk about these things you

077know we're like I think sometimes as the as the older people were like I don't know but like they they really want to dive into this they find it fascinating you know we looked at my class this year we looked at you know the the Royal Museum the Royal Museum for central Africa it's in Belgium like how did it get there like why why is all that stuff there what's Theory that makes it how did that happen you know and so the kids are fascinated by these things and it just that connection today makes it so much more powerful all right I'm gonna be quiet because Chris and I can talk about this so we're blue in the face because that has a lot to do with imperialism by the way but um but you

078get what I'm saying yeah we we we can have our nerd convention later on we'll do it don't worry we'll get together that's the colonization of the Congo by King Leopold of Belgium for almost years right is that what that yeah um I had one other question which was with respect to some of the the changes in incorporating diversity are we looking also at other kinds of diversity um in our curriculum K12 I'm thinking specifically about um more diversity with respect to gender and sexuality yeah I touched upon that briefly but not long enough obviously um you know um I think you saw that with some of the the books that were um that the board donated back to the libraries um recently um yes we've one of our units um I'm trying I can't

079remember the grade level deals with families and I I sat in on um the reading and writing unit for it last year in one of the classrooms and the teacher did a great job about presenting a book that dealt with you know sort of an what would be considered a non-traditional family I guess and talking about not being afraid to celebrate your family no matter what it looks like and the kids went around the room and shared um what their families looked like and they're all so proud um about you know I live at home just with my grandma and someone else I have two moms and someone else um lived with both grandparents and they were just so proud to talk about their families and I don't think he could have done that 10

080years ago right um I think kids this is just you know we say not traditional but that this that is what families are now so um I I think it's just really exciting that kids they don't think of it as being different they they they they like to read stories um and it's not different to them it's um it's natural to read stories about um non-traditional families there's probably a better term but that's all that's coming to my mind right now um and um yeah we also I should have mentioned that we did a lot of work with um Lynden cudlitz on lb L yeah lgbtq issues um he did trainings with our Middle and High School faculty two years ago now um and Elementary faculty last last year um just really again talking about

081um you know how to approach students um in in difficult conversations around that especially at the high school level and Middle School level we have several students that have different preferred names sometimes their parents know sometimes they don't how to approach that what do you do when you you call the student by the wrong name and he just kept reassuring us that it's it's okay as long as you know when they correct you you make an attempt to change the next time right it's it's when you're repeating don't make changes so just giving faculty the assurance that it's okay to make mistakes um it's okay to bring different texts into the class and have conversations about kids and you may you may fumble through some things but students will appreciate that you're you're you're attempting

082to have these conversations as opposed to just sort of hiding behind this is too difficult to talk about so we're just not going to do it um and it's hard but the kids really do appreciate um teachers um taking on topics that are not comfortable that are not necessarily familiar to them but still willing to have those conversations with um the students thanks yeah I just wanted to make sure that that wasn't getting lost in the rest of the conversation and the change and that's that's actually one of the reasons we chose to work with Harriet initially um some of the other groups we were looking at were solely focused on um issues of race um Harriet is very much um you know talked about diversity and Echo socioeconomic diversity um gender diversity um ethnic

083diversity it's really about just um you know her whole Focus really is on you know sort of dominant culture versus non-dominant culture um so regardless of what what it is you're talking about making sure you're Equitable um in your treatment of different cultures I don't want to cut off the conversation did anybody else have any other questions s um Dave do you think would it be possible to put some of this information um in a place that's easy to find on our website yeah we started 20 we started to work on a dedicated website towards the end of last year and then things kind of fell apart for us and our website Focus was on covid not um sure committee for Equity diversity and inclusivity so actually I have a template that I Jo Allen

084and I were working on last year um we and especially now that we have the parent um and student forums that are going be going on we can certainly I'll Circle back with her um and we can get that information up but yeah we actually had the whole shell already planned out um it just kind of yeah sure yeah I think that I did see something I did a search because I was curious on on our website and I came up with um some information about the committee and then I went off of it and I couldn't find it again I didn't know what happened to to it and I was like there's there's got to be a better way to put it up there because I think you know there are a lot of

085questions in the community and it would be great for people to have a place where they can go and see um you know the work that has been going on for um over the past few years um because I think that is something that a number of people are unaware of that this isn't just something that started in June um but that it has been a process that's been going on for a while sure it's definitely G on for a while and and even the the name itself is evolved right originally it was sort of the committee for equity and everybody thought we were just talking about money um so yeah um it's been a long process for sure I'm also happy Dave and and Holly I'm also happy to share uh some of the

086documents that detail some more specifics on the titles that we're incorporating um so you have a chance to look at those if you'd like that would be great I would I I would be very interested to see some of those and the only thing I would add to that is if anybody has any ideas or comments or questions that supervisors are here want to be responsive to those questions that parents might have or that you might have so we encourage people to send us emails to contact us directly if you have an idea that you think might work or some sort of um you know something that's happening locally that you think kids should be interested in or should be you know exploring we would be we would be happy to look at that for

087sure that's great thank you um and thank you to all three of you for your presentation tonight um and for doing this work um I'm very excited about it um and I think uh the rest of the board is as well yes thank you thank you all for your support um next on our um agenda is our recognition of public comment and we did receive a few comments this evening um the first couple actually uh do pertain to uh the presentation this evening um the first was uh from Niah Hera Santa who writes uh will students be more directly involved in the decision-making process to change the curriculum such as having a say in how it is approached what books to add what topics are taught Etc so um as long as we have you

088guys here I don't know if anyone wants to just have a brief comment about how we're involving students in those items well we've certainly involved students that have been active um kids that have already approached us some of them are former students who have graduated already or in college and but some of them are are currently in our buildings now at the high school um but I don't think we have anything formal Andy correct me if I'm wrong um it might be yeah and that's a really great point I think that that's another thing that needs to go on the colum of what we need to work towards um I know in the in the late well early summer I guess it was I met with students from the Amnesty International Group and that was

089really um informative for me to hear their their voices and perspective so I think it would be really important to have some an ongoing mechanism for um speaking to students or maybe a a survey to gather their input um so for sure that is something I think we need to explore more thank you uh the next comment is from nari santaliz who writes um I do think it is important students graduate high school Having learned and deeply understood important historical facts that shaped Equity diversity and inclusion in the United States such as the Trail of Tears the Indian Removal Act the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee the Chinese Exclusion Act um the immigration and nationality Act of 1952 and 1965 ID to be Wells and her investigative reporting in the red summer of 1919 on

090the elementary level students should definitely celebrate the diversity months and teachers should plan lessons including around Martin Luther King day um we also have a couple of covid related questions um and comments that came in um one from Deborah tan who writes due to the increased rate of covid all around with the option for students to go online from now through Christmas holiday be offered um and I Dave I just wanted to clarify I think right if there's a um a high school or or seven through 12 student or I guess six through 12 student they could go virtual if they wanted to right right so I guess it the question sort of depends on grade level um 6 through 12 can transition remote at any time um they're already here every other day um

091so the model really wouldn't change in terms of what the classroom teacher needs to do um because we are running a standalone virtual Learning Academy though um changes at the elementary level can only happen at the quarter marks um which the next one um the effective date would be February 1 and we'll send information out um in early January on that process as we did um back in October if there were a s through 12 student who wanted to go virtual on from now until say Christmas what is the procedure what should the parents do so they should work through um I know Mr DOL sent information out but um I'll just kind of rephrase it um basically they should work with their counselor um first to ensure that so so some courses you have

092to be careful right um some of our Hands-On courses um we really need students to be there at a minimum every other day or they can't do like it's kind of hard to do woodworking if you're never in the building um so just to make sure that there's no scheduling implication should you decide to do that but once they clear it through their counselor their counselor um lets our register our know she puts the icon in Aspen and they're good to go immediately but they should always work through their counselor first okay great thank you um we had a comment from Quinn Tracy as an as an employee of the school district I'm concerned with the constant rise in numbers especially among the students uh what is your plan of action as the numbers continue

093to rise and we had a comment from Christopher Fano uh my son attends Glenmont Elementary and after the recent case report I have some questions um the language used was Albany County Department of Health has determined that there was possible exposure at school and will quarantine an entire classroom and any close contacts at the school as a result the date of possible exposure was Friday November 20th what is a possible exposure what does this mean how is it possible someone was exposed second this possible exposure affected one specific class are we not able to receive information about this wouldn't we as parents get to determine whether or not our child might have been exposed and consider getting them tested especially before a holiday where that child will be spending more time with family I understand

094HIPPA laws and not knowing the name but it seems to me that we should be allowed to know where this exposure occurred and allowed to make the determination for ourselves if we consider our child a contact and Jody I don't if you want to comment on that yeah I I can actually respond to both of those so I think that we provide updates to families and staff regularly about uh concerns about safety and we've gone high school has gone virtual a couple times so and we work closely with the Department of Health so um in regards to contact tracing the Department of Health and exposure so when there's um an individual in a building that uh is uh becomes positive let's let's give a specific example they become positive the um Health Department based on

095Research deems 48 hours prior to that time um there's potentially an exposure so if someone became positive on a Wednesday um then um and they have or let's say they became symptomatic on a Wednesday the Department of Health goes back to 48 hours prior which is when um there's most likely exposure so the Department of Health is the one that determines based on their investigation what's the potential date of exposure um and then we work with the Department of Health to give them the contacts um for students who are in the classroom and I think I've mentioned before that Albany County does quarantine entire class rooms or entire buses they're they determine that that's close contact and those individuals should be quarantined certainly if a parent if there's a exposure in a school um they

096can always get their child tested if they're concerned about exposure uh but in regards to just being in the same building with someone who has become positive at some point does not necessarily mean there's an exposure and that's done through all of the documentation that we're request to keep and then provide to the Department of Health uh the Department of Health then following the information we provide follows up with further contact tracing so they may find uh you know through their investigation that a child was on a a soccer team or something um outside of school or was at a birthday party over the weekend and there's potential other exposure but that's the department of Health's determination and they don't uh then follow up with this School District about that but if a parent's concerned

097about an exposure they certainly can contact their physician and get a test at any time thanks Jody the next comment um comes in from Marietta angelotti I'd like to request the Board review the policies on requiring use of webcams during the six hours of Zoom meetings daily while it is no doubt helpful for teachers it can cause harm to students which should also be addressed and mitigated um there's please see the attached article that describes some of them most districts do not require continuous webcams instead they may require it at the beginning and end of class only or make it voluntary and sometimes use Point systems for participation through chat and other measures of course the best measure is one that measures learning rather than simple screen presence before we go further into this year

098I think there has been enough experience to evaluate its effects and modify the policy as appropriate um Dave I don't if you want to just say I just want to say yeah um so teachers do have the flexibility if a student has a a particular situation as to why they can't have their camera on um the student should have a discussion with the teacher um and and make other arrangements where as a general rule um you know it does work best when cameras are on um research does show that um there's um I would disagree with the fact that many schools don't require cameras on I'd say it's you know at best it's a 50/50 split um and talking with my counterparts um many schools that I'm aware of do require cameras on with exceptions

099as needed when teachers and students um are able to have a conversation around it we did see last spring that when we did not require cameras the level of Engagement was drastically less um than it is right now um and you know having the camera on um ensures that students are at least somewhat present right once the cameras go off we had stories of you know teachers calling on kids and they wouldn't even reply back and then come to find out when they checking with the student later say oh I left you know I wasn't really even there I just kind of stayed logged in um so you know they there are benefits to having the camera on WE recognize there are some unique challenges and those challenges should be worked out directly with teachers

100but as a general rule um you know just it's not a great analogy but just as we don't really let students sit in the classroom with like bags on their head there there is something to be said for eye to eye contact and to be able to um you know interact with folks um not just with the name on the screen and I could just add I've been in several classes at the secondary level where kids are at home and they're not on uh the screen for six hours a day that there's frequently the teacher will do an intro everyone's engaged then the students at home can turn their cameras off work on something or working with kids uh in the classroom you know or um virtually so um I think the um the idea

101that kids are glued to the screen with their cameras on for six hours a day is is not really an accurate portrayal of what's happening in in most classes thank you um we also received a comment from Natalie Bordeaux who writes uh to whom it may concern on reviewing the December 2nd board agenda I'm writing regarding the draft policy on anti-racism as you may be aware the concept of anti-racism has been widly widely debated and is by no means generally accepted by our society as a whole the federal government was recently ordered to discontinue all anti-racist trainings for employees due to the racist ideas espoused specifically towards white people the proposed anti-racist policy for this school district similarly singles out white people as to blame for racism for instance in your proposed definition of cultural

102racism that is in and of itself representative of the implicit bias and microaggression which the same draft policy purports to explain racism is racism the law recognizes no distinction uh between discrimination carried out by one group of people as opposed to other groups encouraging or suggesting that only one group of people namely white people are capable of discriminating does not Foster positive relationships amongst groups only further so is division and is an unfair characterization is the district seeking to compensate for a problem that has not been identified alternatively if a problem was identified um explain how it was brought to the district's attention and who decided that this was the best way to address it um and I know the policy is on for a second read um later on the agenda so um we

103can uh have some discussion at that point um seems appropriate um we do have uh one more comment from Ethan McHugh uh who writes as a student of Bethlehem High School I have noticed uh myself and classmates experiencing difficulty finding jobs internships and Community Service uh covid-19 seems to be the cause as employers seem less likely to accept applications for internships or jobs finding community service is also proving to be a challenge uh quarantining has disrupted the normal atmosphere of normal everyday life um internships and community service are required for seniors to graduate at least for lab school I'm unsure about the rest of the seniors um action should be taken should be taken um how can we meaning the Board of Education or the school help students in their ability to acquire jobs internships

104and community service so Dave I I don't know if you have any thoughts on um I would think that probably reaching out to uh supervisors um or counselors would be the best course of action yeah and I can work with Dave lendrum to see what this particular situation um involves in terms of the lab school um Nick do you want to speak just a little bit in terms of what um um soci studies you're doing yeah so we minimized we took the 20 hours and made them into 10 hours and we've been really flexible of how kids could get credit and what they can get credit for so they can we've talked about them um you know mentoring um middle school or a high or an elementary school student via Zoom or via Google meets

105that's a way that they can get their 10 hours in really easily helping out a neighbor doing some shopping for people there are all sorts of other ways that we would typically not accept in the past um as it's not as civic-minded I guess is the best way I can put that but it's still community service and helping out your fellow neighbors so we've been really really flexible about that we've extended um you know we have kids help us with all kinds of things within the high school itself but um there are ways of getting community service hours that do not require you to go into town and do things like that um secondly in terms of internships it's hard when you're dealing with companies now that are um are not as open to interns

106but we've actually Tracy frell's done a really really nice job at figuring out avenues for kids to get the hours working V virtually with companies or through companies so we've actually done fairly well so I'm not exactly sure what Ethan's um what obstacles are in front of Ethan I'm not sure what he wants to do but I know if he just shared it with us we'd try to help him as best we could either through the Counseling Center um through Dave lendrum through Tracy somehow so I'm not really sure what the circumstances are it has been a little tighter but if we can get somebody to go to Alban Med into their pa program as an internship we should be able to get kids other places because the we just have to follow their protocols

107and we ourselves have a lot of protocols in place I know Jody's been really clear about what our kids can can and cannot do and we have to follow those protocols great thank you um we did also receive um two additional comments um requesting the removal of Megan Kelly from the hall of fame um I'm not going to read those now they were quite lengthy um but all of the comments as usual will be attached to um the minutes of the meeting um and available for everybody hly those will be forwarded to the Hall of Fame committee iume well I believe one was already copied to them um but the other and the other one if it's not I'll double check and make sure that they receive it uh next on the agenda item six

108action items it is recommended that the finance action items it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the following Finance action item one any discussion all in favor any opposed any extensions that carries B Professional Personnel action items it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the following professional Personnel action items 1 through eight so moved second any discussion all in favor I I any opposed any extensions that passes C support Personnel action items it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the following support staff action items 1 through four so move second any discussion all in favor I I I I any opposed any extensions that carries D other action items it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the following action items one and two so moveed so moved

109second you so move I'll I'll second it if you did the first part sorry thanks Chris um I just want to um mention that this is the second reading tonight for the new um anti-racism policy um and um just to re reiterate that we um started taking a look at this um policy uh when it became really clear um I would say in the spring and the summer that we needed to do um more take more overt actions to address racism um in our district um the policy committee met and um we did have the draft policy reviewed by um The District's uh equity and diversity committee um and the members of that committee were able to give some give feedback um and we were able to incorporate some of that feedback into the poliy

110um Draft before it was put on the agenda last week um so I just wanted to make sure that um everybody knew that um and if anybody had anything else that they wanted to discuss um before we did a vote on the policy um all in favor I any opposed any extensions that carries item seven future meetings and events um our next regular board meeting is on Wednesday December 16th at 7 o'clock anticipating executive session at 6 the meeting following that is on Wednesday January 6th um at 7:00 anticipating executive session starting at 6 um and I'm anticipating that um uh that we will be um meeting via Zoom still for both of those meetings um that we'll have to confirm that the uh Governor's executive order is extended because I believe it was expiring

111either today or tomorrow um and then on Monday January 11th uh at six o'clock we have a policy committee meeting uh seeing no need to go back into executive session can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting so second all in favor I any opposed meeting adjourned thank you I guys for