001Congratulations by the way thank you so much we are live okay I'm going to call the meeting to order as it is six o'clock please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice raw raw first item is approval or revision of the agenda for this evening is there a motion to approve the agenda for this evening thank you Rebecca and a second from Daryl any discussion on the agenda no all those in favor please raise your hand indicate I I anyone opposed or abstaining all right first thing on the agenda is the superintendent report Dr Ty thank you president Mims uh the superintendent report there's a PDF
002in your uh board dos if you'd like to follow along as you may be aware uh the covid testing that will be held in conjunction with our yellow zone classification will take place tomorrow for Eagle Hill Middle School Anders Road Elementary fville Elementary and M Road Elementary covid testing for Wellwood Middle School will take place on Monday December 7th and FM high school will be on Thursday December 10th I just heard from one of our elementary principles dror Capri who indicated that the portal for Enders was closed uh the county is taking up to 25% knowing that the requirement is 20% so uh it looks like good news uh so far uh in terms of enrollment under community relations our district clerk Sarah Gridley will be commemorating our former dinner with elected officials that usually
003occurred this month by sending out a copy of our annual report to those elected officials she is in the process of working on a draft cover letter to accompany the annual report uh so hopefully this will provide our elected officials with some behind the behind the scenes look at our progress over the past year so I uh say a big thank thank you to Sarah for taking this initiative under Administration once again I'd like to thank our administrative team and the School nurses for their efforts uh to complete the necessary paperwork so that anaga county is able to conduct their contact tracing in the schools as The Surge of the covid virus spikes this Autumn our administrators and nurses have been inundated with a considerable amount of contact tracing as you are aware this work
004has been taking place over weekends so I just just wanted to extend my sincere appreciation for their efforts uh you may have heard in the media right before Thanksgiving that we were being deputized but basically uh it's just asking other school districts to do what we have been doing all along in terms of entering the information into the portal and then making phone calls or contacting via letter or email uh the families just to give them a little foreshadowing of the call that would be forthcoming from anaga County under non-instructional business operations our oacm on our owner architect and construction management team met to discuss the current Wellwood project but also to conceptualize a potential phase two Capital Improvement project that will need to go in front of the voters a phase two project would
005involve Renovations and upgrades to Eagle Hill Middle School Enders Road Elementary and FM high school the team is looking to add improving the Aging infrastructure in addition to examining specific programmatic needs some of the initial research will review the MCAS our maximum cost allowances Allowed by the state for building Aid our retiring Debt Service and the use of our capital reserve Fund in an effort to better understand the impact to the local taxpayer uh so we intend to release a district website article just starting to discuss uh the community and our progress uh over the course of the next few days there's a lot more work that needs to be done by our facilities committee under Personnel we are in the process of interviewing to fill the second uh special patrol officer position as you
006know we budgeted uh two for this year this new SPO will augment our current security staff uh which includes the three school information resource officers and the single new special patrol officer that is currently on our staff and who started at the beginning of the year in area of students I'd like to congratulate our scholar athletes from the fall inter Scholastic athletic season including our student board member in spite of the covid pandemic our student athletes Rose to the occasion and contributed obviously both on and off the field so a big uh well done and thank you for their efforts and in today's Thursday letter I included the placard uh that Mr sugar had developed to congratulate The Scholar athletes under instruction I'd like to thank our instructional specialists in mathematics and instructional technology Who
007provided a number of parent workshops these workshops have been outstanding and have helped interested parents stay connected to the school during the pandemic also in your Thursday letter are some exemplars of a flyer and an agenda that uh was used for a recent math Workshop uh conducted by one of our math resource teachers and academic intervention service teachers and last but not least under strategic planning and construction the Wellwood Capital project is uh progressing quite nicely Mr Furlong Mr Mardi and I had an opportunity to tour the construction site today with our construction management firm and we were amazed at all of the work that has taken place to date the contractors are busy trying to button up the new addition in advance of the onset of the winter weather and uh hopefully to that
008end the school district will take delivery of some of the windows for the new addition as ear is next week thank you that concludes my report thank you Dr Ty for your report um I don't there's not um a report on the agenda this evening for board president but I did want to acknowledge that we did receive a um copy of the recent teacher survey that was administered by fmta um so I wanted to thank fmta for providing that survey to the board um obviously we just got it this evening or this afternoon so the board does need some time and administration to process that but um just in reading through it very quickly I did want to say to our teachers we we hear you um thank you very much um this is a
009tremendously stressful time for all of us and um we appreciate your cander and um willingness to share your thoughts with the Board of Education um so I just wanted to acknowledge that we did receive that survey from um fmta today are there any questions for Dr Ty in regards to his report no okay oops then we will move on to the next item on our agenda which are Personnel actions is there a motion that the Board of Education approve the following Personnel actions as recommended by the superintendent thank you Mark and second from Daryl all those in favor please raise your hand indicate I I anyone anyone opposed or abstaining okay next on the agenda under board development oops um so this time the board is going to have a discussion regards to our board
010goals related to diversity equity and inclusion specifically what we want to do um moving forward um our next steps we had some conversation at our last board meeting um but there were still some open ends there um as far as concrete next steps so I did send out some information that I found through a course I'm taking um about format for some discussions but I'd like to hear other people's um thoughts um Rebecca I think you had some information or you want had some ideas that you want well I mean I I did want to just put this on the agenda to discuss what we will discuss at least at the next meeting and so to that end I know you included the the Nisa draft policies the Dei policy and that is in the
011backup information and I don't think we're prepared to discuss that tonight but I just I wanted to make sure we just kept the ball moving in terms of next steps um and whether so so is it a is are we doing a retreat as a Next Step well I I think that would be helpful to do have a retreat there was also discussion about um committee work there was discussion of work work at with the policy committee and there was also discussion of possibility of having an ad hoc committee um to do some work U ahead of the retreat um so I don't think we ever came to an agreement as to which or both are using both of those processes prior to the retreat um I don't know if we are at the place
012right now where we are looking at our policies um it seems like we're more trying to figure out what that next Retreat should look like in terms of planning what would the date be for that next Retreat we talked about a couple of different dates but let me look at my calendar because we had some contingency dates and I believe the next one we were looking at was so if we go into January so I have the 25th of the as a tentative board meeting but I can't recall if there was something else if we were going to use that particular meeting for something else but that would be I think the earliest time that we could have a retreat I don't want to go too far out our first Retreat within November I don't
013want to like wait I think February and March is getting a little bit later um to have the second Retreat and I also think there needs to be some meetings small group meetings before the retreat to really plan The Retreat and figure out what we're going to do and we can have a conversation here tonight and at our next board meeting but um it might be helpful to have that group working on the retreat as well so January 25 was listed as the first budget workshop and the enrollment in hiring reports there we go I knew there was something on that date thank you Daniel so if that date isn't let me go to I thought we were still considering it I mean that's probably biting off too much but usually if we have something
014like that on a day where we have another presentation schedule that really chips away at the time the focus time for The Retreat so it is better to have The Retreat on its own day or own during its own time period so we're really just focusing on the retreat work so if there isn't a date in January because I believe the other date in January is um the mid year then I believe we should try to find a date in February and it may be that we can't use one of those dates that we have for contingency board meetings it may me that we just need to find another date in February to do it that's fine with me if you want to you know Sarah send out a doodle Poll for sometime in February
015a couple of weeks in February I'm good with February as okay all right so as far as our next meeting in terms of what we want to discuss and what information we'd like to have and where we'd like to go or do we want to have it um a discussion our next agenda we already reca what we did the first Retreat um do you want to instead have a small group meet to sort of get a vision for the retreat um we may be able to get some folks together on a zoom meeting before the next board meeting to kind of Flesh it out um or do we just want to wait till the 14th to have time on that agenda to plan our Retreat I just worry that when we put on the board
016um agenda um I feel like sometimes we're rushed to really give it the the attention it deserves but on the other side of that I want transparency as well because we did say to the community that we would be discussing this at board meetings so they could you know see our progress so I'm weighing both of those things as far as what we should do at our next board meeting um my thought was I mean I was a fan I was a fan of having some sort of ad hoc committee not to do the work as much as to help propose what the work would look like in other words something to take to the board with full transparency to the board and the community here are 10 ideas and our prioritization of the next
017five things we would do and a draft of what the retreat could look like and then work on it at our meeting in January so that between January and the meeting in February we have I'm sorry December or this would be for the December meeting or the January meeting no this would be for the January in advance of the January meeting we well we have the December meeting come up coming up I don't know yeah I don't know if there's enough time to pull people together to really have that level of discussion so time we have about the January meeting the first January meeting which is uh the 11th I think the 11th I don't know if that may not be enough time what do other people think it's a month to have a group
018of people get together meet yeah I think that makes more sense than the December meeting that's just in a week and a half yeah so I I just to finish my thought I I just I would think that if there was a small group of people that would like to just roll up their sleeves and and come up with some ideas and proposals for an hour um or however long it takes to bring that to the full board to then plan for the retreat then there's full consensus on what the retreat looks like but there's just some time to do the work to to to start the planning process remind me what's the uh ad hoc committee composed of board members administrators who who what are we envisioning the adack committee being me made up
019of I mean my vision for this particular portion of a committee would just be a couple board members but as a larger term goal I think we need to plan and strategize around an ad hoc committee that engages all St all relevant stakeholders but I I think to get to that point we need to to come up come up with some proposals and I'm happy to participate as well as a member of the governance team I did like the article that President Mims had shared we don't have to adopt it verbatim but I think it certainly provides some structure and prompts that we should think about as we go through so I think it can certainly give us a skeletal framework from which we can customize as we see fit so how many folks would
020be interested and I'm I'm certainly interested in working with a small group on planning how many people are interested in doing that work I see oops I saw Daryl I saw Kelly Dr Ty I always automatically included you um Rebecca so that's four well Ellen would you would make five so then we can notice it at a the special board meeting then um with five is there anyone else I miss did I miss anyone I've got Daryl Kelly Rebecca myself and Elena all right so we'll find a time then to meet prior to our January meeting and we'll notice that is a special board meeting because there'll be five of us present and Marissa if you you won't have to notice it as a special board meeting if it's called a committee if it's a
021ad hoc committee meeting it the not making decisions and doing business as a board so we learned at our last policy committee meeting webinar that we sat in on that there are no require restrictions on how many board members Sit On Any Given committee as long as no decisions are being made on behalf of the board so I think that if you notice it as a ad hoc committee um that should be sufficient okay did not know that that's a nice update um in terms of transparency and keeping the community informed do we want to live stream this at all or do we want to just have it as its own individual meeting I have that question also in regards to our committees um because we haven't been live streaming those at all um I
022don't think there's a requirement that we live stream those at this time Sarah shaking her head so I'm correct about that but just in terms of transparency and the work of this we want to have this because it is coming up with ideas to bring to the board um what are people's thoughts on having this meeting I just think this is I think if the intent is planning for the sake of planning then it's not necessary but if we start live streaming one committee there is no one committee that we have that's any more important than any other committee that we have so that really needs to be an all or nothing decision and and I age with that yeah to that end our our minutes are are public uh Knowledge from those committee meetings
023or ad hoc I would assume ad hoc meetings as well so um I I wouldn't think you'd need to live stream and just to reiterate to the community we will make sure that the notes are um full enough that people understand you know that there's enough detail that the committee can follow because there is particular interest in this topic any other thoughts on that when I notice the meetings on the website I do provide my email address inviting people to contact me if they want to observe the meetings and so far I've had no one reach out just as an FYI thank you Sarah okay so next step is that we will get a doodle out to the five people who've expressed an interest and get a meeting date or meeting time secured for us
024to have that meeting all right thank you all what are we gonna call the committee now you got some pressure on us here um um Dei planning Dei planning right yeah that works that's what I was gonna suggest all right the Dei planning committee we will get a doodle out for a meeting time great okay any other thoughts any all right so next item on the agenda is a proposed executive session is there a motion for the board to move into executive session for the purpose of discussing the employment history of a particular individual thank you Jason second from Mark any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand indicate I I anyone opposed or abstaining all right so we're going to shut down our live stream take a few minute break here Lucy
025good to see you talk to you soon and we will go into executive discussion and then come out to