Special Meeting: Policy and Audit COW | December 3, 2024

001e e e good evening I'm Commissioner James Patterson audit committee chairperson I'd like to call the audit committee meeting of the whole to order the agenda for December 3rd 2024 there are no speakers or comments on the agenda item number three uh review and acceptance of the minutes from the June 4 2024 audit committee as a whole the minutes from the June 4 2024 meeting uh meeting are available online can I have a motion to accept the minutes so move commissioner Elliot uh um motioned it and uh commissioner Malloy second it are there any comments all in favor I any Nays the eyes have it I would like to turn over the next section of our agenda to miss Henry wheeler to facilitate our external Auditors from the dresser and Miki thank you can hear

002me um so the uh board has received a draft copy of the financial statements for the year ended June 30th 2024 um those were given to you on November 15 tonight our external Auditors from drer Mali are coming to provide a presentation on the overall Financial results and I'd like to turn it over to dresser M than feel good good glad you like it could someone mute that's uh online please good all right than you evening how is everyone um all right Matt montelo from drer Mali here to present the results on the school district's uh June 30th 2024 I don't know if that uh microphone is working that work test there we go all right um so here to present the results of the audit for this school district's year end of June 30th

0032024 um we have a PowerPoint presentation um if could advance to the first slide okay um so when we were back here in June we did the planning um meeting with the the audit committee which laid out our audit plan um that's how we approach the audit the first thing we clarify with an external audit our approach is really looking at a snapshot in time so June 30th 2024 that those balances that's what we're auditing we're auditing the activity for that year end so it is it's a backwards look uh we don't put put an opinion on the current activity or your current budget um it is a snapshot to essentially gain confidence in the balances as of the end of that F that prior fiscal year um so going forward when you're going into

004the budget process for the upcoming year uh you have reliable balances that you as a board or outside third parties can rely upon um so that's kind of the objective of the external audit we look at certain risk areas which we'll get into in in this slide here um we talked a lot about the key risk areas being cash and Investments um these are some of your more in in larger balances or more significant balances um with when you look at your cash and Investments about $370 million do of assets um within those those liquid assets uh your receivables your Revenue recognition uh about a100 million at year end that's due to the district um so when we look at these key areas we want to verify that this money either exists when we as

005you as it relates to cash and Investments on the receivable side is this money going to come into the district uh so a lot of our audit tests surrounding those areas um are in reconciling those amounts um and looking at those records to support those pretty significant balances um as it relates to the long-term or contingent liabilities this is more where you're projecting out what is the district's ultimate liability as it relates to uh the significant areas being workers compensation your other post employment benefits so these are the projected benef benefits for retirees uh health insurance a lot of these really large liabilities that are projected out into the future you rely on actuaries or outs outside third parties to project those liabilities um because they are pretty significant uh for for your financials and

006then another key area is your federal and state grants this is more of a compliance Focus because your compliance Within These programs really relies on future the future funding of federal and state grants uh which is a very significant part of your financial operations um and then some of the other key areas we looked at Capital assets capital projects uh your certainly your fund balances and then your short-term liabilities uh so these are the areas we talked about in June as as Focus areas um on the next slide just kind of a more of a a highlevel focus your overall risk s there's always a risk even if you have the best policies procedures and processes there's always a risk of override a management override of those controls so we look at a lot of

007how the systems work how the financial inputs get to the the balances or that final step in your accounting records um and we did not have any findings in the management override uh when we talk about cash and Investments receivables we looked at those reconciliations we viewed a lot of the the bank statements um the bank activity and then on the compliance side each Federal program that you're is subject to audit has specific guidelines so we look at the federal guidelines compare that to what the district is doing and we did not have any compliance findings in in those areas as well and then as I mentioned earlier on the long-term debt side a lot of it is based on actuarials studies or outside third party specialists that provide those estimates um on the next

008slide kind of the last pet of piece of our required Communications uh what we clarify is our responsibility so I talked a little bit about the external audit what the objective is so what we do clarify is in our in accordance with our standards our objective is to provide an opinion or report on your financial statements so we don't take any responsibility for the books and the records management is responsible for preparing all the information we come in as an independent third party and provide that opinion on the financial statement so we did uh we did plan on moving forward with an issue a unmodified opinion on the financial statement so that's a clean opinion so in our professional opinion the records of Rochester city school district for the year end of June 30th 2024

009fairly stated or fairly represents your financial position so in other words you can rely on that information as a board as well as third parties can rely on the The District's records um we did not have any issues within your uh your policies or estimates uh there were no uncorrected or corrected misstatements and then as far as other matters we did not have any difficulties in performing the audit so this is there's a lot of coordination when we look at those significant balances the different departments the compliance areas so it took a lot of coordination we really appreciate the help of management and staff um in performing the audit pretty smooth audit um but again no no difficulties and we receive full and open access to the books and the records um any questions on

010the communications kind of our required items before we get into more of the financial highlights I'll start uh with uh individuals that are online I see uh VH LeBron is online I I don't know those other two are but um vice president if you have any questions no not at this time thank you okay I'll start at my right and move to my left if there are any questions there are no questions okay um okay so we'll we'll go to page four of the slides um this is your financial statement highlights uh we do a a five-year Trend this is your general fund revenues versus expenditures so this is based on AC ual activity that has come in um like I said it's a snapshot looking backwards um so five-year Trend revenues in blue expenditures

011in Red so a pretty um favorable Trend over the last five years uh where your revenues have exceeded expenditures uh in each of the last five years for the year-ended 2024 uh revenues exceeded expenditures approximately $61 million so that is the amount that your general fund fund balance grew during 202 for uh so it went from about 20 $224 million of total fund balance to 286 million approximately at the end of the year um so like I said a very very favorable Trend over the last five years uh on the next slide we break this down a little bit further show your major Revenue sources some of your major expenditure uses um you can see what jumps out at you that state and federal sources that's the majority of your revenue is about uh right

012around 80% historically um you did see about a $33 million increase in state and federal revenues um state aid uh your arpa funding uh would be within those and then uh you did have some other small increases certainly a lot of government entities right now and school districts are taking advantage of the interest rates their cash balances are a little bit higher with um with those favorable increases um a little bit more interest earnings and and then on the expenditure side you did see an increase of about $47 million from the prior year um mostly in that uh that transfers out that was due to the um the capital project your new software implementation with Oracle uh but you've been able to control the expenditures uh as compared to the last uh fiscal year um

013so you can see the change in fund balance that's at $61 million and then on the next slide we'll talk a little bit about how that has impacted your fund balances so uh this is a fiveyear trend of your uh total fund balance we break it into restricted and unrestricted categories um and you can see uh a pretty pretty good growth in fund balance over the last five years so where you were at in 1920 uh with unrestricted fund balances of around $70 million uh you can see how that has grown to uh just over 254 million in the unrestricted category uh so you're a much more stable position than you were five years ago um on the next slide we talk a little put that in a little bit of context um what we

014do is we compare that to your budget or your next year's budget and in this case it would be the budget that you're currently operating under uh so we look at what what is the ratio or percentage of your unrestricted fund balance to your budget or your next year's budget um so at the end of 2024 you're at about 27.7% um that essentially gives you the liquidity uh to operate uh gives you that uh cushion uh when you're you're paying your operating expenses your contingencies um a lot of the best practices H start at like a minimum of two months so that would be around 16.67% as a minimum and you can see over the last five years you're in a much better uh position than you were even prior to that um we did

015compare to some of the other large city school districts um as far as the most recent data available so some of the 2024 data wasn't available um but you're right around that a little bit um lower than some of the the city school districts in Buffalo and Syracuse but um but very close um so from a conclusion standpoint you're in a stable position but as we can see the other thing that kind of jumps out is when you look at your subsequent Year's budget from 24 to 23 uh that certainly jumps out at you that increase uh from 836 million to 9177 so being at 27% I think that's a that's a good thing with the challenging budgets that you'll have in the upcoming year and the and the years to come um because that

016that is the trend we're seeing as those stimulus those Federal stimulus dollars are starting to wind down um the your budgets are going to become more challenging um so it's good to be in that stable position at 27% versus you know 5 years ago where you were below 10% um quick snapshot on some of your other funds uh so the special Aid fund this is where you capture all those federal and state programs uh your revenues within that uh was about $254 million an increase of about 15 million from the prior year um I would anticipate as again those stimulus funds start to wind down that number is going to go down um but the way that fund operates is it's totally reimbursable basis so there's a zero fund balance uh your school Food Service

017a small decrease of about a million doar um but still in a stable position that is again very riing on state and federal aid to to fund those operations uh your debt service fund uh about $81 million you move over annually to pay off those Debt Service payments um it grew a little bit about $4 million but those are all restricted for future debt service within the debt service fund and then just a highlight quick highlight on the cap capital projects fund you had about $28 million in capital outlay so that's an your investment in your your major capital projects uh that's up from $23 million in the prior year just to highlight a few other reports that we issue so we issue that opinion or that report on the financial statements we also issue

018a report on the federal single audit so that's your compliance with the federal program so we actually do a separate compliance audit and look at whether it be your arpa program the education and all those fund that are included in the education stabilization fund we also also tested the title one program um so we look at your compliance with with those funds as well and then we also issue a report on the extra classroom activity funds that's a cash audit and then in agreed upon procedures on the contract for excellence um through New York State ad uh some of our observations moving forward uh every year you're subject to new accounting requirements or accounting pronouncements uh these are the ones that you'll have to implement in the future um the uh gasby 101 we'll talk

019about a lot at the uh the next planning meeting up in June as as the next year's audit is up coming um that would be the one out of the the list that might change your your financial statements a little bit but it's not going to necessarily change the way you fund uh your compensated absences those these are those uh leave payments that you pay out or ACW for sick vacation time those sorts of things um and then as far as any other observations um we did not have any reportable audit findings so we look at it as a level of a material weakness or a significant deficiency those are the two definitions that we operate under under our standards uh we did not have any reportable findings um when we look at the challenges

020going forward I talked a little bit about the the budgeting budget challenges with the arpa funding wrapping up um what we're seeing with other large city school districts as well as Government entities right now uh Staffing is is has become a big issue as far as just transition planning uh succession planning um when you have a lot of knowledge in one particular area or department and that knowledge is retires uh having backup and having those policies and procedures in that planning in place really helps to uh reduce your risk um going forward uh and then another area certainly you have a pretty significant project uh with implementing a a whole new Financial software um you know that that has been in our experience with government entities that has been a challenge just because you're you're

021really almost rebuilding your accounting system um and trying to bring forward all the things that work and Implement things that you know uh that the new software um offers so that can be a very difficult process and you know certainly something uh you know to uh to you know proceed cautiously with um so those are the the overall observations like I said through the financial statements the district's in a stable position as as of June 30th 2024 um to handle those uh those budget challenges going forward uh any questions or concerns andessa do we want to take questions at this point in time or okay so let me U begin with um uh a few things here or highlight a few things and just for the public um gby the government Accounting Standards Bureau so

022just so the public even I had to look it up but yeah yeah but so the public understands uh when you were speaking relative to screen 12 what you meant by the gasby statement blah blah blah yeah so the governmental Accounting Standards Board that is essentially the standard setting body for uh government entities your accounting standards so that's what you're required to implement that's the how you're you're required to um maintain your your books and Records based on gb's rules and pronouncements so every every year they come out with new standards now they're up to 104 so you have 104 accounting standards that you have to abide by and present your financial numbers in accordance with those standards you know that's that's probably the best way I could hope hopefully describe it because even even

023someone who works with us every day there's some confusing things in in in that terminology okay thank you also um I'm glad you mentioned um you know the budget has to be more uh the budget will become more challenging due to uh the stimulus funding being uh cers the AR funding that's gone away so um that had been uh noted mentioned to the administration um uh the prior Administration uh being led by another superintendent that uh we had to prepare you know for the future when that funding did go away so hopefully we've done that but just so the Public's aware of that's when you talk about stimulus funding you're talking about to the uh state and federal funding the AR source of funding yep exactly okay and so I'm going to take questions I'm

024going to start uh once again um up on the uh online screen excuse me commissioner Patterson I just wanted to mention um our board clerk rahima win is the other person as well as Mark Potter our Financial Consultant just so you know who was on thank you very much all right so um we'll start with any questions uh vice president LeBron has no I don't necessarily have a question but I do want to ask um to put on the record now for the firm um if they have any insights on the potential impact with the administration coming in in Project 2025 and the Department of Education being eliminated if there are any insights that they have at this time about what that will look like for us and they don't need to necessarily answer it

025at this time but I do want it on record that I would like them to give us some clarity if they have any why don't we um put that in the question log and uh we can pose that too you know a little later y okay thank you thank you for that comment though all right so we're going to start to my left this time uh State independent monitors you have any questions and no questions coming left uh no questions thank you none at this time so in reading the what is the term called I'm used to what did you call iter yeah I'm used to kaffer so got to get used to that name um in reading some of that I saw that um you um uh noted that our student enrollment was down

026to 19,000 so we've been under the assumption that it is um still in the in the 20,000 you know um and so and that number came from the accountability so uh my concern is is that as the former superintendent had um alerted us is that over years we're going to uh be reducing uh in student enrollment is going to be diminishing over time and so um the question becomes what do we have to uh look out for when we have a diminishing student enrollment as aside from the fact that we're not going to have the the cath the um the arper and the cursor dollars uh how do we need to prepare for that for a kind of low enrollment as is projected yeah I mean I think that certainly is that's probably more of

027a you know certainly a budget process question because it it involves so many different factors on both how are you generating Revenue uh because as we saw in the one slide 80% comes through state and federal sources um so and enrollment does play into that um certainly from the state aid side excuse me um a lot of it is I mean really what you have control over is the the expenditure side and only to some extent um so it's really looking at how you know obviously the the main concern is that you're providing education right so you know I would never make a statement of you know cutting staff or anything like that so the the budget becomes a a very difficult Challenge from that standpoint because it's so heavily relying on personnel and those

028sorts of costs so you got to look at other areas where you know you can have cost savings or Revenue generation outside of the state and federal aid so it it is a significant challenge what I can say is your fund balance position at least puts you in a stable position to be able to handle those challenges and maybe absorb some of the at least over the next couple years you know when you kind of you know adjust the budget process yeah but let me put on record you don't want to put it on record but I will that that does mean that we may have to reduce staff I mean we just have to be clear about that and real when 80% of your budget is around Personnel cost um and if we're losing

029students you know then that means that we need to reduce staff I'll just put it out there that's a hard thing to say but it is the right thing to say because we have to make sure that we're doing our due diligence for future Generations so thank you very much that is yeah the decision of the board for sure all right U superintendent no no questions uh no questions at the moment thank you okay Griffin yes I'm sorry I just have to I just wanted to to actually um address what president Elliot said and I totally agree that our our our staffing for me as I seen we have a lot of duplicate roles so right now and we and knowing that our numbers are down that is kind of bothersome to me because that

030money could go into other areas to govern our children and so to her to her point I totally agree that that should have been something that should have been looked at yesterday um I think we've known for a while that the the the uh enrollment has been down and we're we're sugar coating that and with you coming out with them the actual numbers shows to the public the trans Arcy in actual the the the um how the numbers are actually going down in our enrollment in the district and that's very concerning because what's happening is the kids are leaving our district they're leave they're going either to a charter school Suburban schools because the parents are moving out or they're going to private schools so that is kind of damning to us because we are

031still not on the upswing as people would think that we are and we're not we are still not where we should be and giving our children what they need to be successful in the Rochester City School dist City School District so I look forward to making that a way where we can keep them here and keep them vested in the city and and that is a goal that we should have number one in our list thank you for sure I just wanted to um if I may commissioner Patterson thank you for the presentation it was um really helpful and I know that your role tonight is really to level set and help us understand how our dollars are being generated if we have a healthy balance and whatever strategies or discussion points we need that's

032with Administration um so I do recognize want to recognize that um but I appreciate the way you presented this information and um if I do have questions I will submit them to the question log thank you thank you so moving forward so at this time I did want to make sure the board has an opportunity I know you've asked questions as it related to the presentation which was on the Acer um specific to the actual documents you received on the 17th while there weren't material changes there were little minor tweaks as far as ensuring all of the enrollment numbers lined up with the S Beday data um putting in the updated opinions and signed documents Etc so the updated documents that are in board docs at this time those secured because they're in draft format

033um are actually available to you as well as any of the required Communications from the Auditors having um the opportunity if there are no additional questions on either the financial statements the Student Activity statements or the single audit um if there are future questions these would be adopted by the board at the December business meeting feel free to either forward to the log or send to me directly so I'm aware that they're there um so that I can certainly respond to any questions that you have I would like to defer back to commissioner Patterson thank you I would like to receive a motion to advance the 2024 Financial reports including the annual comprehensive financial report aser the Student Activity fund extra classroom report and the single audit report for consideration at December 19th 2024 business

034meeting sove is there a is there a motion I think that was President Elliot and it was seconded by Malloy uh commissioner Maloy all in favor I any Nays I should say there are any comments no comments is commissioner LeBron voting this evening she's not on screen so I know she's gonna come in to vote or not commissioner LeBron wasn't gonna come on camera so I'm not going to vote sorry no problem thank you okay so once again all in favor I any n the eyes have it is there an executive session this afternoon or evening are you on number five commissioner Patterson I am okay the fiscal accountability legislation allow the board to recess into executive session is that where we are okay close to the public for a confidential meeting with the external

035auditor can I have a motion I'm looking at the wrong thing and who was Simmons was the motion Malloy was who motioned I did I motioned and commissioner Griffin second was Griffin was there a vote hey all in favor I I have it so we're recessing into EXA executive session e e e uh we're back from executive session and uh we're going to go right into the audit committee discussions item I would like to ask Miss Henry wheeler to complete the next item on our agenda thank you um I did include in the uh board docs the yearend claims audit report from nacki Smith they're not presenting this evening but that is there and available for you they were presenting at our last meeting so if you have any questions that relate to that report

036please feel free to send me a question or any notes or concerns if any are outstanding uh the other item I did want to bring to your attention is this is now year five with nacki Smith as our the board's claims auditor and therefore it is time to actually uh do another RFP for the claims audit process so I did want to make sure that there was agreement from the board as it relates to um moving forward certainly nrai has been an excellent partner for us and I hope that they're able to um you know come out in a positive way but they have been honoring the five-year pricing we had we actually had our RFP back in April of 2020 and they have been our uh claims auditor since then so I do need

037to over the winter have an RFP process bring information back to the board with a July 2025 start for um the claims audit the next claims audit period so that's what that is the next item yes I know we said to questions in the question log but I did I'm looking at the letter and if it's okay with the chairperson I would like the superintendent to react to what their observations and recommendations are because we have some invoices some of these things when they're sub um submitted are 90 days overdue and so the superintendent was saying earlier that this has been reduced significantly but I still want if the if you don't mind chairperson that um uh Patterson that the superintendent respond to uh what we're seeing here in terms of Rec in terms of

038what their observations were and also in terms of the recommendations if that's okay that's fine okay good evening president Elliott uh so in terms of the observations and recommen recommendations that are U before you on this document what you see here is that sometimes services are rendered even before a contract or a requisition has been executed um this actually does happen uh in some districts and some organizations at times due to uh just lack of communication or uh the bill comes too late and the services have already been rendered or passed generally you all um have already passed the um the resolution or contract and whatnot um but if it isn't at the beginning of the process then what would normally happen is uh it would come later and it it comes as a confirming

039order as we are paying for services that have already been that have already been carried out even if you all as a board had passed it to mitigate some of these things um the uh different departments have PE cards uh the PE cards can be uh used up to $2,000 uh anything under $2,000 you can use a peard to purchase the services and it won't go through as a confirming order if it is over $2,000 um it it needs to go into our concur system and it would go in as a confirming order you then get notification that we have confirming orders um and you know basically it's just like we're acting out of practice or out of policy we need to make sure that we straighten up the processes um and these things do

040happen they've been happening um the past two years what we have done to sort of bring down the amount of confirming orders in this process uh from happening is we've actually been requiring individuals that do have the confirming orders to write a memo to explain why this is a confirming order because at times again it's not always on the fault of the district it could be that the organization that we're um getting support from or that's rendering the service did not build us in accordance uh to our policies and that's why it's uh late so we're making great strides the peard does help with smaller expenses uh you will see sometimes there's a confirming order for $300 you know we could have paid that with a PE card and it's all about socializing with the

041organization to make sure that people are aware of what we can use the peard for and how and why so on and so forth but we work to get that making that better so so just um um an estimate how many uh transactions or inquiries are there because we're looking at in both in all of these and I I can't remember when we had our own staff around with the claims um claims staff how many um trans actions that needed to be processed but I think it was substantial compared to where we are now but still what concerns me is that we ensure we want to make sure that people are mindful that they need to get this in timely when they can when they receive it and um you know also looking you talked

042about the peard and there's still about 460 inquiries that did not have supported documentation saying that it was only one% of that but you know I I just want to keep that in the Forefront that we're doing our due diligence maybe what this is is just human error and just systems is you know things that are out of their control but I wanted to make sure um that I address it because as I mentioned to the superintendent there are um um resolutions that we're being asked to approve a contingent upon receiving all of the necessary documentation and if I'm going to be approving that when I see something like this you know it sort of gives me some hesitancy around not voting in favor of that when I see that there are these kinds of

043delays now it may this just may be as I said it may be minimal you know but you know I I'm not sure about that so you want to say something I was just going to say it happens to many departments the Board of Education also uh at times ends up on that document and it's just the nature of again the it it's not always rcsd it can sometimes be the vendor you know but to to your point to see 1.3% that's five five out of 460 um that's pretty good I mean from where we were of course we want to be at zero and we'll work to strive that uh stri these are the only ones that they tested right I mean we've got far more 100% oh okay okay all right thank you

044thank you that's good okay moving along okay so um also we finished and was included in the board docs was a review of the Wilson Student Activity fund generally a lot of the paperwork compliance type items not having a second set of books making sure documentation was in order uh documenting meetings decisions Etc and ensuring timeliness of deposits the biggest challenge we have what Student Activity funds is actually having the students with their own second set of books um that happens across the board in most cases as well as ensuring Bank reconciliations are timely and approved we've improved Bank reconciliations by making the accounting department responsible for them and they actually pushed them out to the various schools so that ensures that we really know the actual funds available in the bank and we oversee

045that from Consolidated um reporting so we actually have a lens on any cash that is at the school level from that standpoint nevertheless we did go into that school one thing we will be following up on shortly is the administration of Student Activity funds to ensure the oversight on school related funds across the district and see how that management is going which is usually managed by the accounting department so that is that um the audit department is still actively in human capital performing testing in a number of areas including things like hiring onboarding separation discipline vacancies and doing substitute management followup all of those things are going on um right now as we're trying to round out the work um that body of work um this generally concludes where I'm at commissioner Patterson all right

046so that concludes our our meeting this evening uh as far as the audit uh committee um I would ask that all board members uh complete the survey and um let's see here I can I have a motion to adjourn so move by President Elliott and seconded by Commission Griffin all in favor I I thank you take a take a three minute recess till policy president ell Elliot five minutes Griffin five minutes thank you e e e hi good evening I'm um I am commissioner Griffin and I'm the chair of the policy committee for the Rochester uh Board of Education it is now 7:38 p.m. on Tuesday December 3rd 2024 this is the policy Committee of the whole and before I get started I just wanted to um say something to the community and even to

047um to my commissioner I wanted to um say a couple of words in reference to the things that have been happening in the community and to and families into in the community of Rochester so I'm just going to start I'm just do a little speech it's not it's not anything long but I think it just needs to be said good evening everyone everyone I want to warmly welcome each of you to our policy meeting tonight I hope you all had a chance to enjoy the holiday I would also like to take a moment to reach out to those who are experiencing the pain of losing a loved one or who have who have someone close to them facing any illnesses this past year has been particularly challenging as we've lost several valued members of our

048district as well let's take a moment of silence together to honor to honor their memories and to support these those Among Us who are navigating through their grief thank you for sharing this moment now I'll go ahead and continue I would like to approve the minut minutes um the motion to approve the policy c meeting agenda so moved second thank you is any discussions all in favor I thank you motion carries and we do not have any speakers so we'll just move right along and I need the approval to I need then I'm sorry I need to approve the minutes from the August 6 2024 policy of the count meeting as well thank you any discussion all in fav excuse me commissioner Griffin I didn't hear who second you need Rim I'm sorry am I

049moving too fast no I only heard commissioner Simmons but I think they clarified commissioner Patterson you second Comm P second all in favor hi thank you and now we going to need to review the nisba policy recommendations at this time I will ask for General councel Neil to provide the nisba policy recommendation updates um thank you very much uh commissioner Griffin um uh for for this installment um nth did send um uh three uh policy potential updates and recommendations uh the first is 1120 School District records um this was actually the policy uh change that we expedited at the last um last meeting of the board um and so there were some changes um to law regarding Freedom of Information law and what's required uh when we um disclose certain records um so the the

050district is already uh took care of that one uh there's also a recommendation regarding students and personal electronic devices uh the district actually does have um uh this is addressed to a degree uh in the code of conduct um and so the district does have some some some protocols not to necessarily level of of detail um you know in this in this recommendation and that's something that the the district can revisit through the code of conduct um policy process that's going on right now uh and finally um there was a a school safety plan and teams um there's some some recommended updates again um you know that the school safety plan uh that the the the that team meets um at least once a year um and you to kind of review our safety plans

051and policies so I think some we do have a policy I think our policy is 8135 and so elements of that recommendation and again these are just these are recommended updates not not mandatory updates so I think some some recommendations from that could make its way into um our um our safety plans for the next school year any questions all right thank you very much thank you thank you Council next we have the code of conduct committee I will turn it over to rahima for the Cod of conduct committee updates rahima yes ma'am good evening commissioners of community so just want to briefly share that at this time there are approximately 30 members of on the code of conduct committee they have been meeting bi-weekly since October and are slated to end that work in

052February um and their meetings are moving to their virtual components um and then for right now now they have been really focused in on um awareness that's become um a constant conversation just ensuring that not just families and students but District staff are also also excuse me aware of the policy and the policy process so that continues to move forward thank you rahima next we're going to move on down to the new business um and it has to do with the fund balance you did I do something okay um at this time we we'll talk about the fund balance which is a policy reviewed annually annually per its deliverables at this time there are no recommendations for revisions from Administration we have a motion to forward policy 6500 out of the policy committee can I

053get a motion to forward it so moved second thank you any questions all in favor I any opposed motion carries next we'll deal with the school board part two 21201 through 2325 and school board part 3 2440 through 25 uh30 as part of the policy C review the school board policies 21201 through 2325 and 2440 through 2530 are up for the review tonight since these policies are specific to the board they do not follow the normal policy review policy process to to receive feedback from my advisory groups and administration is there any feedback or discussions needed for the policy 21201 no for the educational goals and metrics no is there any discussion for the 2160 School Board legal status no discussion 21 20 2260 can I just group these do you want me to just

054group them if no one has any discussion yeah you absolutely can commissioner okay I do have a question okay 226 2260 okay so the language has changed there why are we doing that is that state policy state law that we have to change his um so so so typically I mean I think organizations uh everywhere and and and and it is it is kind of federal and in state law you regards like Title 9 and things like that to have like more inclusive kind of General um language um and and that is as we review policies there there are those type of changes and tweaks to um most of the policies and it's it's it's occurred in policies that have come before the board already and will'll kind of continue to occur so everybody I

055think it I think everybody everybody everybody else besides um commissioner I mean there's um there transgender um there is a a whole spectrum of of people out there and I and and I still either identified as a woman or a man that that's up to that's that's up to each that's up to each individual not necessarily commissioner um um I I think I think the language is as inclusive as we can make it and I and that is the the recommendation of the you know the the federal law and or state or state law president Elliott do you want to further look into it for your do you want you're good with it okay thank you so is anyone have any questions between the regarding the new business and we grouping it to grouping these

056all I do have um something around 25 Comm Simmons 2510 okay go ahead um and this is the new board member orientation um which I I think we can do a better job of how we Orient board members especially in hindsight coming on um I think we the administration does a great job acclimating us and introducing themselves and and their General job responsibilities but I do believe um as we've come into better knowledge of governance and and how we should be conducting ourselves as Commissioners in this particular role it it would be advantageous I think that's your word commissioner Griffin of us to um make sure we extend that knowledge to incoming Commissioners on the front end um to to avoid some things and there is a question I have around number two because I

057know this has been a conversation or point of contention on some levels around including incoming new board members um including them in executive sessions and I can see how that is can can be beneficial um on some levels because that's you know those are where some conversations happen however um I I do believe we need to be mindful of what executive session is because even as actual Commissioners I don't know if we've executed executive session as it should have been right and so um as Commission we have um I think we're moving in a great Direction now so I don't want to belabor the past but there have been hiccups around how we've handled executive the session executive session if I if if and that's calling something lightly so when you bring a new board

058member in uh or a new person that's that's not yet sworn in you do risk risk that so I just want to open that for dialogue if that's a possibility can I can I respond to you I think that's an excellent idea if you have input do you feel like you can provide that information to us so that we can we can definitely see how we can put that into the policy do you so we can riew it to be put it in the polic my input is to and um I'll digress to other board members because I think I hear some other thoughts did you I think it's a great idea I'm just saying with specifically what information do you want to add to that policy that what I'm saying is we may need

059to exclude exclude that from the policy I'm not looking to add anything I'm saying I'm saying as we invite new folks in how does that look right and how are we being mindful demor very cutesy no I'm just joking how are we mindful seriously around the executive session portion I think that's a very light or delicate space and and uh we might want to reconsider that being being language included in this document as well okay got you commissioner go ahead go ahead pres is there is that something that we perhaps can in our who govern training to get gu C probably go ahead I'm sorry I I was just writing what what um saying totally agree with h commissioner Simmons on this I would love for us if we could to have something in her

060that specifically addresses board governance in some way a bullet perhaps added or um training on the adopted board framework for governance so that there is really clear language that indicates the need for an incoming board member to fully engage with the adopted governance model so it would we'd have fewer disruptions I think um and maybe I don't know if there's a way that we can ask them to go through training of some type or an introduction to the training that we've all had in that process I don't know what that's going to look like at this time um but I think for continuity sake long after we're gone you know I actually think that's a great idea because I think it would definitely help coming on board um I know um it would have helped

061me honestly it would help and I know would help others as well so I think that is definitely a great idea for anybody coming in to do that training first and then go on with the other training that we have um set aside for for the for new individuals coming in I definitely agree with that go ahead um commissioner Santiago yeah I um I don't disagree with anything that's that's been said I know for me as a new board member coming on um it was it was good to be able to uh to see the functions of the board including the executive sessions but I do think that as you said there there could be possible uh concerns when it comes to that certainly seeing that that we don't unless we have the uh the

062onboarding from legal counsel beforehand you know the legal requirements you know as you sit in these places and sit in these rooms and so I think it is something to be discussed but also um with the the discussion on adding into the policy for new board members to be um to be included into a training from our governance Partners I think we also have to keep in mind with that um the financial aspect uh cuz I remember having that discussion um and and how much the the our governance people would charge you know for us to do that um and then also sustainability if we write into the policy um how open do we have to leave it seeing the fact that we may not always have you know the the partners that we have

063now as our governance Partners so if I may that's exactly where I was going with it it wasn't so much um having the great Council for Council for great City Schools doing the training because I definitely hear that this was for long-term sustainability around how we do it so I know when commissioner Malloy what policy were you or um I just simply what I simply said the adopted governance framework whatever that is or whichever organization really is not important it's just an agreement to uh develop an understanding of an adopted framework what I was trying to say I'm sorry guys is when when commissioner Malloy what I was trying to ask her was she was over a particular uh onboarding process when Commissioners came in and put together pretty um good um structure around how

064new Commissioners were on boarded and what we were introduced to I forget what what lens that was from now in hindsight there are some additional opportunities that we I think it would fall on us as a board collectively to identify some of those learnings and teachings so not so much the council doing it but us and what we've learned and and extending that so those are two pieces that piece of the onboarding and removing the exec of language or if other Commissioners um agree with that those are the only two things I'm saying I just want to say I I thought that we were speaking specifically to our governance Partners um but I think it is a good idea because governance is something that has to be taught coming on to the board we had

065the onboarding on the administration what the administration does um but not much on exactly what a board member can do what governance looks like what budgeting looks like what the audits look like and so I think that um people will be able to come in better prepared if we did have something like that um commissioner I mean president Elliot I'm sorry and then um commissioner Malloy okay oh oh thanks oh I'm sorry I'm sorry State monitor um no problem thank you I can wait ahead I didn't see you and I got my I was gonna piggy back on what commissioner Santiago was saying simply that understanding like the difference between management versus government is a critical skill for any board member uh thank you for the opportunity I just want to say that I agree

066with commissioner Simmons uh this uh commissioner elect they're not official uh Commissioners yet they don't have to follow the rules the things that are discussed in executive session most of them are Personnel matters and should be confidential so I do agree that they should be invited to board events board meetings committee meetings and all that but executive session it is a is confidential discussion that take place okay I'm sorry um commissioner Malloy I know that it has been past practice for Commissioners after the general election they have been allowed to sit in on Executive sessions after that November date and I think uh some of our prior leadership who are no longer here had encouraged that but I would sorry obviously I'll defer to our general counsel on this but I think it it sets

067a dangerous precedent and the potential of leaking of information and um always better to wait until someone actually takes office I I do think that that is going too I think knowing knowing how the executive sessions are ran and what they govern I don't think it would be a good idea for someone to come in Prior I just I don't I have to agree with commissioner Simmons that that's that's something that that should not be done at that time that's that's just too much I think we all agree with that no well well can I have the floor no go yes go ahead no we don't all agree um so I think that if you wanton an election and you want to get started ahead you know um of uh taking a seat in January

068you've already won the election if you're going to go into executive session there's something that we can draw up or have drawn up that they could sign indicating that um what is said in here is very private and Privia to the individuals in the room it just gives that individual an opportunity to you know see exactly what happens in executive session see exactly what happens in the board meetings and then make a decision thank you I'm sorry can we go to the I'm sorry who's on is that um vice president would you like to speak I'm sorry can you hear me yeah I just agree no it's okay I just raised my hand thank you I just want to agree though that I do think um it wasn't done commissioner's elect should not be allowed

069into executive session even drawing up a contract means nothing what are we going to do sue a a fellow commissioner because they leaked ex you know went public with information from we can't do that that doesn't even make sense we can't um put someone under a contract as a school district unto a oncoming commissioner we can't even really hold each other accountable around that piece right now as electeds we we have a commissioner who went on wxi and leaked executive session information and this board could even come to the vote to give that individual consequence so I absolutely equip unequivalently support not having Commissioners elect I think it's messy I think it becomes a legal Nightmare and and there's not a lot of um repercussions that we can take to protect individuals and some of

070the conversations that take place and my my biggest concern would be confidential information about kids and their situations or families or staff um and so no I would not be comfortable with that I've actually never been comfortable with it never have agreed with it but to commissioner malloy's Point previous leadership operated that way thank you very much um vice president LeBron I do apologize uh commissioner Patterson had other words you know like I said um I wasn't I finished with my statement but um uh they're going to take the seat anyhow um individuals as we know that are sworn uh to keep uh things Privia in executive session have have leaked things out yes that's true so if you have an individual that he's going to be in that seat in less than a month

071you know if they want to come in and you know see exactly what they're getting themselves into maybe you know knowing what happens executive session May prohibit them or not prohibit but maybe they'll say hey and I want to be a part of this and resign who knows but the point is is that it's all on your character it depends on you know you yourself you know are you the type individual that you know um is going to um do things or say things an executive session or release information or you're not um so it's just the person itself so like I said I always thought it was good a good idea um to have on boarding and um anything we can do to help another board member understand his his or her role which

072is governance so if we can give them a head start for me you know I I don't have a problem with it I know certain board members do and you're welcome to your opinion but my opinion is I don't really see an issue with it thank you um is is anyone like to say anything okay president Ellie now you want to speak okay I wasn't speak before but I was gracious to go ahead go ahead for being so patient I just want to make sure that it's on the table I I uh I support this um but all of us come in with our own backgrounds to this and we have to be who we are until we learn to be uh a governance till we learn to be a board leader and we have

073to give people Grace I know how I came in 19 years years ago right because I come out of the fight organization um and so uh but it is important that we're allowing people the time to transfer from being a community activist not that they give that up but then understanding that their role as governance uh has to also be as um as equal to their uh governance uh to their Community activism and then that it exceeds it some because now we're in these official uh positions and so it's just important that we're anytime there's a new board there's going to be op you got to be able to work together and there's going to be conflict in the beginning of this there's you know that whole thing around the stages of you know uhing

074Norm perform of Performing you know you start off you know on a rocky uh in a rocky space and so giving each other time in order to come on in um is uh is is important and so I just want to ensure that while this is good and this is going to mitigate some of that you know we still have to allow people to come in from who they are and then to be able to be uh transformed to uh this leader in this role absolutely thank you um I have a question I I just want to put out that this these are just up for review these are just put going moving forward out of policy so we do have time to vote on them and make changes but this is a very good

075discussion and we could take that into account um commissioner Simmons you had another statement yeah and then I saw General council's hands but I'll let you I'll agress to you to call on him but I do want to I wanted to know what the process is for tabling this or whatever we need to do to have additional conversation so that we're on a UniFi page because I do want folks to come in well prepared but I also want to make sure we're not um creating landmines so like you like you just said we are we do have time to review this and make the changes and update I would like everyone like tonight from what you said I did jot a lot of the things down I'll send an email out to just to go

076back through with everyone to see if that's what was covered and if there we need to tweak anything and then we can we can go through the policy to see what things need to be changed um based on the vote and then we can do that accordingly but this is just the review of the policy so we do still have time to make the changes and it's not it's not set in St set in stone yet um councel you have a question um statement right so so so um uh to to to that point um uh this is and the board cler can correct I'm mistaken this is just a the these this policy is going to go through its readings right before it's finalized so the board will have an opportunity to weigh in

077and make tweaks to that the policy before becomes final right correct so the policy is now in committee for you all to have discussions and make uh changes and recommendations to the language so that once it's forwarded out it is representative of what the board seeks to um amend the policy too so if you all are now having discussion and based on what I've been jotting down it seems that there's a majority who are in support of removing the second Clause uh from that policy that would be done um so they could be forwarded out and you all would then go through the readings um and and thank you very much because my my next statement was going to be uh as I know the board Clerk and team were taking careful notes on on

078the board's uh position and statements on this and in the next iteration I know that will come um as it pertains to the law on this the law essentially says the any anyone authorized by the board can go into an ex session right so whether or not this is is spelled out in a policy the board can invite pretty much any individual they want into um on an um executive session um however as a state monitor also pointed out there are certain things that are covered in an executive session that a person could not be privy to right certain things may confidential by state law like certain Student Records or Personnel uh discussion so um maybe this the the Clause is is as I read it is over broad because it kind of says all

079um but it sounds like it will be moved anyway if it is completely completely removed but in any event the board would still have the power to invite individuals on a whatever basis caseby case basis to an appropriate executive session like the board has now is would that be it okay so I just want a motion to move school board part two 21 20.1 through 2325 um and part 3 2440 through motion excuse me before you all do that just just for Clarity on 2510 as you're forwarding it out are you forwarding it without Clause 2 or as it currently stands so so we should we remove I'm thank you Rahim should we remove that one or should we go I I I I thought there was going to be some more discussion discuss so

080so I think I think I think what be more appropriate to see another draft okay at the first reading and and then act on it then okay so you want to just table these no it's not you're doing it right so it's going to be forwarded out but my recommendation in regard first question is to forward it out as is and then at the first make make okay thank you so I I still do need a so moved second motion thank you commissioner Malloy and commission and commissioner Simmons thank you all in favor I any oppos oppose to 2510 we're just we just we're going to make the we're going to revie L discuss that's it we're still making this is just to move it out of policy into review he voted okay I just

081want to make sure we understand what going okay all right all in favor hi any oppose motion carries sorry now refer this over uh to rahimo for the board reports and deliverables very clear uh commissioner Patterson you changed your no vote on 2510 to yes or is it still no I change it to yes I do want to vote um on 226 60 it's a no for me but we're not changing anything understand okay yeah I understand what you're saying you have to explain it to me uh again uh president Elliott I'm learning here so why was I not allowed to vote no on what was it you're okay with it um moving are you okay with it moving on forward for the discussion I'm not even willing to move it forward for a discussion

082to tell you the truth got all right that one was okay that was 2260 you said president Elliot 2260 thank [Applause] you okay thank you everyone so and commissioner BFF we've moved on to board deliverables and reports correct yes yes I'm sorry yes that's correct you're fine thank you uh so at our business meeting each commissioner was provided with a print out um of the document that is attached to board docs and this document is reflective of all of the current policy deliverables that you all expect the administration to um either provide reports on do some kind of data um dive or other work related to the policy this ties back to um our August conversation and it started in finance around the amount of board reports that the administration um generates for you all

083and at that time you just received a summary of all of those report names the associated policy and the timeline so this is an expanded look at that um summary list and this one additionally includes what the reporting requirement is as well as if this is just from um board policy if it's a state or federal requirement um and some time frame information and so the hope is that there'll be discussion around what board uh deliverables and or reports you all feel are no longer necessary so before I I just want to add that the these deliverables are included in every um policy review so for instance every time that these policies come up you all have an opportunity to address the deliverables that has not really been done through any of the policy processes

084so that's why it's kind of being brought to you all separately um and for discussion around how you would like to move forward commissioner Griffin commissioner Santiago has a question okay I'm sorry commissioner Santiago yeah I so I was looking through this and it looks like majority of these deliverables are coming from from from State requirements um and there are there are some of course that from what I've read so far um that are required by the board but some of them are are literally the board's responsibilities so one of them I saw with the the financial accountability and that that's one of the board's uh responsibility then the the other um you know on some other things so I'm still looking through but I see majority of these are State federally uh required and

085so I'm just wondering when it comes to that um which ones specifically are holding the administration back for these these um not holding the holding back the administration but creating more responsibilities for the administration um that's not required by the state that may be able to be removed but at the moment I haven't seen many is that are you finished I didn't okay does anyone else have any question or statements in reference to the code of conduct uh commissioner Malloy thank you I just wanted to agree with commissioner Santiago um I'd love to know if administration had any concerns about um some of these asks like for instance I'd like to know more about the civic education or former values education as well as the service learning or Civic engagement they don't seem to be

086state or federally required um so I would love to know more about what that's entailed how much time that takes people to prepare such reports um if anything and that's all for now okay um anyone else have any questions or concerns uh superintendent inter super sorry Demario I do apologize do you have a question uh no questions I just wanted to acknowledge the two thoughts that were brought uh to the Forefront um I would honestly say the majority of the policies that are not in line with the board goals is too much in my book um not that I am scared of additional work or anything of that nature it just takes us away from the actual actual managing of student outcomes um not to say that there are some things that we cannot just

087simply you know let you all know in a presentation and things of that nature however does take us out of our way for instance that Civic engagement policy I mean I mean education policy we've been talking about that for three years that should not necessarily be a policy um as that's what every uh class let me just give some historical background yeah that that was something that was um advocated by the um Community particularly particularly um Bill Benet um who um was very very um a leader in this community at one point and something that will former board member Powell also um supported as well so that have that's some of the history that's behind that so absolutely can I just make a comment I'm when I'm gathering here is a lot of these policies

088we we don't really know the history of them which makes it trying to understand to understand why why the the reporting requirements are so I think we just need to know more history of behind them and why they're actually here as president Elliot does have histor history behind her she was able to advise us of what it actually meant which gives you better understanding so there's a lot of things here that we probably need to go back to the drawing board to really figure out go ahead commissioner Simmons yes thank you you're welcome commissioner Griffin and you know I think about policy and measurement you know the saying what gets measured gets done right and sometimes policies are enacted to ensure things actually occur and spaces where you think best practices should should suffice and

089and often times the idea of best practices is just that the idea and so sometimes people draw up policies to make sure you do what is expected of you right and I think it's it's taken us on this road to over policing a lot of things so I'm still in um support very big support excuse me I have candy in my mouth shouldn't have done that of a policy diet um but I I would think that's where a lot of some of these policies that are not making sense or why did we create one people were trying to make sure things get done so how do we create the culture of best practices that will actually be followed right because that's that's where we run into trouble well I think we need to challenge ourselves

090to to understand which e each one of them mean and how they play a significant part and I think coming back to it again we will probably be able to say okay now I know why this should be here now I know why they put that in there to uh president Elliot's Point um commissioner Santiago yeah I just wanted to uh to quickly say um I look through a little bit more um and I I will say that there are some of these that may be um maybe not needed but I'll say majority of them are you know student focus and focus on the goals of the upcoming year um and the and the plans to to finish those goals um there's a couple like um possibly 4095 um 43 111.2 and 51 53 that

091could be not required as much of course there would still be discussion about it certainly you know parent preference and managed Choice policies and stuff like that um but I don't think it has to be required through a policy if the board wants to hear about that I'm sure that you know they could they could uh we we can hear about that on our own without a policy behind behind it but many of the other ones you know like let's say for example 14.2 uh school to Career or postsecondary education uh transition initiative like that's something that's extremely important for our students um and of course we we we would love to see what's being done on in the district level uh to ensure that that we are supporting our students while they're in our

092schools and preparing them for when they leave after hand and a lot of times you know in this that hasn't been done and so I I know and we speak about the historical context of a lot of these policies and and a lot of it is is simply a board trying to find ways to ensure that they're knowing or holding accountability to what's going on seeing the historical uh context of this District fing many students um but there there's a couple on here for sure um that that I believe that can be removed um but I think there's also some that I would say is justifiable because it's focused on either student outcomes or the board uh the board's uh responsibility which is the financial oversight um thank you commissioner San I would say to

093your point I think that if you see things on here that you feel there are a need to stay I think that would be your initiative to to write down why you feel that should stay and to brend it to us to other Commissioners so that we can review it and and go forward with it to see how would be relevant to um to the district so I appreciate that um I have we have somebody on on the zoom or the teams I'm sorry I do apologize because I can't see your hand but is um vice president LeBron it's okay I if I'm if I'm like anxious I'll just speak but thank you you're welcome um I just want to add that so one I got a little bit confused where the conversation went so

094seeking Clarity that's one my understanding is we're removing the requirement of the administration to give these reports that one by the way um really only sort of get dumped into board docks we we don't really have discussions about any of these reports that are sort of tied into our policies two I do believe that it did come up with the governance training that um they are not in agreement either that these are aligned with like other what other districts do practices and how we should be governing and so I just want can I get clarity on this before because I think I'm a little confused as to whether we're discussing actually removing these policies or removing the report requirement back to the board excuse thank you um vice president um LeBron for the clarity I

095didn't think we were removing anything but I could be wrong go ahead rahimo or Council so the discussion is around how you all want to address the number of border reports that are required through policy so not necessarily to remove the policies at least that's not a discussion at this time um but it's just for you all to review and have a conversation about how you want to address this one of the ways is to look at it in this report and mass and make a decision there or as policies continue to come up that you all look at those deliverables and if those things make sense I will note that um a number of these you all have not gotten reports like to the Civics education for instance but it's still there that requirement

096and it consumes a lot of conversation around thank you rahima is does that answer your question vice president LeBron or do you have another question thank you so no I do want to then clarify my comments to go back to that I am in support of just removing the requirements in the format of having it tied to every single policy I think it's I you know when I think about even the workload of having to do that and I want to give context to even the community listening if I'm at my job on a single basis I know that I am serving um a specific number of individuals that I have to get placed into a shelter versus them going to DHS if I had to stop and turn around every single month and that's

097just two examples and I just want to give that there are thousands of things happening all the time across the entire District at any given moment but if we had to stop every single month to just someone have having to sit down to type of a report that's coming to us where some of us may not even ever open it it's they've been on board dos we don't even discuss these things and to the board clerks half of these things don't even come to us at all ever they've actually never come so it's it goes back to why have a policy or requirement of a policy that we ourselves are not even enforcing or participating in right what's the expectation that we're setting even for the employees down the line so for me I would

098love for us to have further discussion on this but I would love for this further discussion to be tied with the people who are training Us in governance right now because I do think that this conversation ties heavily into how we move forward in that role in those roles with that training thank you thank you president um vice president LeBron we have a question from commissioner Santiago no I I just wanted to say um I believe I believe some of these can certainly be removed as far as a requirement certainly as we're going down the board governance I I think some of them should stay um and I stand by that but I think that some of them can certainly be removed and some of them are kind of like redundant when we're speaking about

099the board goals getting presentation on the the interim goals you know in the middle like that stuff that's that that are is now becoming our norm and so to have a policy requirement behind it doesn't make sense um but I do believe in some of these that they should stay there and I also believe that the the board you know and this is not just for the current board but also past board boards um of course should cut it down as far as how much we're requiring but also stand on top of what we're requiring because we are the board and to hear that for all these years a lot of these reports never came through it's a board policy and so the expectation is that is being that is being done and so I

100think that it could certainly be cut down some of these are redundant and and shouldn't be required um but I also believe some of them should stay and the board should should do our job to stay on top on top of making sure that we get those those reports thank you do anyone else have any questions or concerns president Elliot so just to I'm speaking out of both sides of my mouth to what you also said commissioner Griffin around historical data um and a lot of those people are not around right right so there is no information because those people are are not around what I'm hoping that can happen is that we begin to there are um written documentation so that we understand work flows and so when other people come in that they

101don't have to try to figure it out on their own that they have some kind of written documentation that will help to to drive that but um I'm also I'm sort of betwix in between in terms of uh the reporting because I do think um that it's part of our oversight right um on one hand but um I'm also understanding that this can be a humongous amount of uh work um but some of this is some of this is required right you know from other um stakeholders that has to be done so I'm looking forward to U more discussion around it yes um because there's certain things that I would like to know and like to have to report now because I have been here a long time uh I do know that historically what

102has happened is that a lot of people have given us all this these reports and they know that we're not going to read them and they bury things in the reports so that's been the game that has been played also you know historically you know uh so to sort of just to move forward what they would like to have move forward so so I'm looking forward to more discussion on it but I I do think it's important that there are checks and balances and that there are reports the number is something that we can discuss further thank thank you president Elliot and I have uh commissioner Simmons and then commissioner Malloy um I I love and appreciate what you just shared uh president Elliot and just brings me to a space of sobriety where it

103it it's basically on us that's not new we know that but again we cannot allow past practices to to Prevail any further so it's on us to make sure we are asking the questions that need to be asked that we are doing the work that needs to be done and that we are monitoring the things that need to be monitored cuz some of this looks like it it sounded like a good idea one day and I think we're all guilty including myself of of saying that you ask for or something you're like yeah I want to see that in a report and it was great in the meeting and in the moment and and and you don't follow through and so um it's it requires us to move forward with some very um with some

104intentionality I would say so and I just wanted to add that I completely agree with everything that's been said and ultimately I can't wait for us to have more discussion with the Council of great City schools with our coaches um when we start talking about our policy diet in the spring um you know whatever report we're asking for and we won't get into specifics here is it helping us drive instruction ultimately and get those student outcomes are we seeing achievement increase across our district and if it's not directly related to student achievement and uh improvements um we might heavily consider not having a report on that but that doesn't um doesn't mean that we don't have specific oversight that we need to keep track of which we should be doing but do we need to

105take an administrator away from their charge which is you know our charge is a board here we're here to educate kids um and we want to make sure that Administration has every available moment to to meet those goals that we've set thank you thank you I'm going to go to the superintendent and then I'll go to um commissioner commissioner Santiago just uh I was just going to say I do respect uh what each and every single one of you have said but I do want to reiterate and it would behoove me not to say any report that is not going to yield those goals that we have is taking us away from our jobs and as much as I like the beauty of a report and I like presenting and things of that nature if

106it's not going to ultimately yield 3 through eight student achievement or grade five or more credits it's not that it's not important it's just not as important right now uh but I would like to make a recommendation U Madame chair if I could actually bring this uh document to my executive cabinet for us to actually all look and and offer recommendations as to what is viable and what is not for instance Personnel authorizations I don't think that's something you all are willing to not have come as resolution uh as of right now so it's something that probably wouldn't be taken away um it's it's it's on here um but you know Civic engagement or uh instructional goals like certain reports could possibly be just Sunset um and we can include it in some other format

107in some way shape or form you're very welcome and commissioner Santiago yeah and and so I I wouldn't disagree and of course we have to do our best you know to uh to allow the the administration to do their work and and not to pull them away uh Too Much from the work at the same time while having a balance of accountability and a balance of knowing where the changes are being made um and if the changes are being made in certain areas and so uh you know as I said before and we're speaking a lot about you know student achievement and a lot of what I'm seeing you know throughout these uh throughout these policies are student achievement but like I said you know some of them aren't but majority of them are student

108achievement or financial oversight which is one of our responsibilities um and so I think some of them are redundant to the new governance model that we're going to and so of course that can be removed and we should have a a a small list of of you know a small small list of the presentations that we require just as the state has a requirement you know just as you know the the board still is the oversight for this District um and so we we still as a board need to have that and have accountability to ensure that the policy is being followed and I think the problem with the the past few boards is you have so many of these requirements how do you make sure that those those requirements are being presented or those

109requirements and the the information of those requirements are coming to the board in a way that is digestible to us in comparison if we bring this down to a small small small list we know what we're expecting and we can hold accountability for the administration to to bring that to us and so I I think it definitely needs to be cut down because these are a lot um but there has to be a balance and I just want to make sure that that like that's what we're going into while we're going through the governance training not the board shouldn't be doing anything but the board should be focusing more on these areas but there's a balance of accountability and allowing the administration to do the work and so uh I just want to make sure

110and I'll be a big Advocate as we go through the governance training of a good balance between both between the board having you know it's its oversight and what the Board needs to be doing as we sit up here to represent the community understanding where our education is and where our education has been and the relationship between the superintendent in the board we have you know a good relationship now but there's past superintendents who have misled misled this board who has led this board in the wrong directions and led the district and failed many kids because they did that and so we have to make sure that we're our accountability so nobody so there's none of those areas where we're fing more children and so I just believe that there has to be a balance

111um and I do agree that some of these have to be cut down but I wouldn't say all of them yeah because I'm still feeling some I'm sorry I'm president you want to say something some pain for some past decisions so I think that we've all been able to express um our views on this um collectively we all received it we U we all appreciate everyone's voice and vision on the the board going um in the right direction um State monitor Hae alah do you have anything to say uh thank you I just want the board to be careful with all these uh policies uh these should be policies to increase student achievement and focus on student outcome not to micromanage everything that is happening in the district because you're not going to G be

112giving the superintendent and the staff the opportunity to do their work to get the student achievement up in the district with that being said um uh the state monitor I would love to knowing that you have a knowledge based and understanding of a lot of what is what is being said here I would like to have an opportunity to sit with you and meet with you to to go over that as well as with um um the superintendent to see where we would fit in how this would how we could address the commission all of us as Commissioners and not over overstep ourselves and removing something that would be beneficial to us and moving forward so I do appreciate that thank you all is anything anybody else online want to say anything at all okay

113thank you no thank you if if I could very quickly say like some of these decisions the board has to make hold on one second hold on one second we're going to move forward because we've been on this a little long I don't want to I don't want to keep any other statements so rahima that that's it right on this one I just want to go ahead and move forward we still got we still have to go on to problem um the unfinished business so um yeah so I can Jump Right In if you like commissioner Griffin uh going to direct everyone's attention to policies 9110 and 9260 there's a couple of slides just to help guide the conversation um so if you are recalling your eight and excuse me related to policy 9110 which

114is the employment opportunity policy in your August 6th um committee meeting there was a discussion related to a specific clause in that policy at that time it read anyone who believes that they have been subject to unequal treatment shall notify in writing either the superintendent of schools or supervising director uh to human of Human Resources so there was board um discussion and response related to this uh and you all had voted to keep this into committee you wanted further research on the actions of the affirmative action officer to ensure that it was in alignment with the intent of the policy um because at that time it was recommended by Administration that that position be removed because it does not actually um exist in our district the administration uh came back with updated language proposed language

115and that reads now anyone who believes that they have been subject to unequal treatment shall notify in writing either the superintendent of schools or chief of human capital or design the administration's response was that HC has embraced the principles and objectives of equal opportunity diversity equity and inclusion and that are aligned with what the law allows this work has happened without and does not require anyone to be designated as an affirmative action officer so the Board needs to decide how you all want to move forward with the language for that policy okay um I just want to I just want to say something quickly about that policy um for me um I believe that we need to have a directory a Dei in place for that I still do not believe that um we should

116have that verbiage removed and give it over to uh the superintendent or the h a human capital I think we need a middleman in there I think that it would be unfair for one to or bias in my opinion to not have a Dei person in place um that has equal grounds and and is is unbiased to the HR um person and to the superintendent so that is my take on it as um chair that I think that we need a Dei in place and that should not be removed that should be put in place we've had it before prior and I think that that needs to stay I'm open for discussion I'm just confused on the Dei part it's not in the policy so I if if there's anybody who can explain well it

117it is noted what they want to do is remove that section from it they want to remove the verbiage and and then have it just for the superintendent or the HR Chief to decide you know if somebody has some type of um um a problem with with a issue there's no middle person you either speak to the superintendent or the human capital and I don't think that that's somebody she would feel comfortable doing that President Elliot also just um um in addition to our discussion around this language um we had gotten um there is this group this uh political group that's considering suing our district because of our um emphasis on uh ensuring that we have people of color that are in our district so I I would just um I I just want to

118put that on the table now does that bother me they could sue us if they want to right because we're going to do what we have to do and ensure that we've got people of color in our district right right um but I'm also concerned about this uh this climate that we're in and and that this actually this that particular position of affirmative action um was was illegal am I correct with that General counsil was it not it's not it is not it is not yeah so the Supreme Court ruled that in uh College admissions uh race based um College admission College admissions race based um decisions are are basically unlawful now the the the the the truth is the implications for everybody else's still being figured out again it is my recommendation that the

119language is unnecessary because it it really has it doesn't have any actual effect whoever is going to be in that position is going to report to the superintendent uh the and the in in some ways it's the the the language of the policy is duplicative of other processes that we have like the Z 100s there's multiple ways to complain about any equal and lawful treatment um and those would end up with the superintendent the chief of human capital or your your general counsel right who would who works on those type of issues um every day and so um I I don't believe that the language adds anything the position doesn't actually exist I think the chief of human capital provided a um a very um thoughtful um and um extensive uh uh response um uh

120in in the question log which was basically reiterated that that he leads the div diversity um uh and Equity kind of initiatives and and um and and does so in a lawful in in a lawful way and so I I don't think the language adds anything um and I and in any if anything I think it potentially again attracts um I I heard the president if you know people people Su us for all kinds of things um but because it doesn't add anything um um I don't I don't believe it's necessary and I believe the edit is um is the right one for the district to make thank you commissioner Griffin vice president LeBron has her hand raised as well yes thank you U rahima we do have uh vice president LeBron I do apologize

121again uh was signal by our um the tech over there so go ahead vice president LeBron i' apologize again go ahead no it's okay I actually am glad I'm getting to speak after Adrien because um I do agree with general counsel and his position and the why and to his point you know there's a lot of things we have written in policy that are either already addressed in other policies or the law addresses and really practices and culture address it too because I know they're referencing that if people have a complaint they can go to general counsel to the superintendent or to Human Resources but as board members we all have experienced those issues coming to board members too so it it doesn't stop or start because of a policy either that's just sort of

122Community Practice and culture around here so to Adrian's point and then to president Elliot's point I would caution that I do think we are going to have to get more information from our state electeds about what's happening at the federal level and the impact coming down and to General council's point that was one particular case but I do believe that we are actually in open litigation around a case around this right now so that's all I'll say for now and I'll act General counsil I'll do a followup with him to debrief all of us in an executive session but I do want to caution that there's a lot of rapid changes happening not just because of a new president coming in but it has been slowly happening with laws being overturned and decisions being done

123by the Supreme Court so um to that end I just would uplift and support that and still encourage people to speak up and speak out and to do it as they feel comfortable to going to the people that they do thanks thank you vice president LeBron is there any other questions or discussions regarding the Dei I would just say um commissioner oh commission okay just want to say commissioner Griffin that [Music] um um this lost my train of thought take your time that that um in my gut I I I I wouldn't mind having that role in there but um but I'm looking at uh it well this is this is what I was going to say there's also the recourse of going to the EOC so if there's some if there is uh if

124if anyone feels that there is some discrimination they also have that um uh vehicle um as well um but understanding that we don't have it doesn't seem to be a push to necessarily have that position um you know I think that um I I I'll submit to what my colleagues and what the superintendent and the general counsel is U recommending so well I I just want to say this I guess I I would have to base my decisions on what do we do we have a lot of would we know if we have a lot of cases that have went to the E EOC in reference to our our biasness or not being able to be uh forthright and getting just and being justified in the actions that are be have people been how people

125been treated so I think that that that to me would would uh be an issue you know do are there people that have been wrongly accused attacked and of things of this Nature by Administration within this district and that is why you know they went to the EEOC and things and that I so this is this is these are my concerns so if we have somebody in there that is bias it's not the superintendent that is that is run by the board and then we have the human capital that you know it it brings about some type of relief to someone so um I'm going let commissioner Simmons speak and this is is just my opinion go ahead no understood understood and so this this position can exist but it doesn't necessarily have to exist

126in a policy is what am I am I understanding that right the based on the conversation that I I heard and I'm sure that um I believe that Chief Miller said the position that that title does not exist that's not a job it is a role that is taken on by the entire HC and their commitment that's where the Dei Parts we've got this an affirmative action officer and so I would have to say you know um I don't know oh that that that's an interesting conversation um and and I would have to say that um we need to we need to continue this conversation and I don't even know if it needs to be an executive I don't know how this conversation goes but let me just say tokenism is real let me just

127say that um di can either be real or it can be a a a game right and so it depends on where where you're walking in at and so that that's a tight one for me because um and I'm trying to be careful with my words so I'm going to caution myself cuz I I can probably go there right about now I respect that de and tokenism is real and so we you know we can put all the pretty words together and we can even put somebody that looks like what they say it is and it doesn't mean that it's being honored it doesn't mean that it's being uplifted and so it takes a lot more than just a title and a role to actually execute Dei right so um we have continued conversation yeah

128we can table it I just want to make sure that I get commissioner um Patterson in and then president Elliott and we'll end it with you I uh can't remember exactly where I read it but back in 2014 uh when I worked downstairs um that was a requirement and I don't know who it was through whether it was through title whatever um again it's been many years but um I brought that to the attention of Lori Baldwin when she was the director down there that uh wherever it was written that it was almost like mandatory that we had a um diversity equity and inclusion officer and uh that was uh pushed to the side but um yeah there was a requirement that you know and I'll dig through it dig back and and I will

129do that for this board um to see exactly where that was I know I disregarded a lot of my information from 2014 but I'm sure I can dig it up but that was a requirement that we had we actually established an office or a person that had it up you know di Griffin um Simmons just triggered something for me uh and I mentioned this in a in a documentary that I was being interviewed for last night we have to keep in mind also that Rochester is the most racist city of its size in this nation that's what the report says it is the most racist City and so um to to commissioner Simmons you know what she's feeling um and then you know um you know do we need this position um but we I

130just want to put that out there on the table for discussion as well Rochester the data shows Rochester is the most racist city of his size in this nation thank you commissioner okay I'm going to let it in with uh superintendent de Mario strickman thank you chairwoman Griffin uh two things that I just wanted to say prior to ending the conversation one um the functionality of Dei and protecting the rights of workers so on and so forth should be a function of chief of human capital in general we have to look at the position and not the persons uh in our decision making um that's one and then number two I want to uh I I have your note about uh capturing how many uh different cases ended up going to the E what is

131it EOC EOC EEOC um because I would like to know that data too so um I'll definitely uh get a response to that question so thank you you're welcome um and I'm going to request that if we could table this for further discussion maybe in um in another meeting um not necessarily today can we can we do is is that possible can we table this or can I ask for some clarification go ahead go ahead yeah uh so the discussion or the vote that was supposed to happen tonight was in relation to the highlighted portions in the policy language around removing the affirmative action reorganizing that CU that position doesn't exist you're saying that you want to table that specific conversation or you want to table a larger conversation around Dei in the district because

132I'm hearing a lot of interwined conversations want to be move if that's part of that policy because that's that's going to be that's going to be an issue that's the verbiage that's in there and we want to make sure that we understand what what this is going to entail before we remove it I from my understanding we want to that if that's removed that's going to be a problem because that's going to now put that under the purview of the superintendent in the H human capital committee if if if an issue of that such comes comes comes into play so I I hope I didn't misspeak I I wasn't suggesting that Dei was being being removed I was just referring to the terms in the specific title affirmative action officer which is a position that

133does not exist but it was it's still it's still it's still present but it's not it's it's still an open it's it's title that's there just hasn't been failed that's from my understanding I'll digress as the superintendent on that one then cuz that yeah it hasn't been and we've had that discussion prior if you go back to the other meetings that we had regarding the affirmative action it's a position that just has not been filled it was never has not been removed and that's that was when um Dr paloo was present we can go back to that meeting and review that meeting and that's what that was all about we I I clearly remember this actually being discussed prior and that's what it was so maybe we need to table it to make sure that

134we have the wording correctly because I do remember in the previous meeting about this affirmative action and I'll go back to my notes as well that this position was there but it had not been filled as far as I'm aare the position does not exist um and and the the the current language says chief of human capital or designate I mean so this person would report to someone um and and who would that were we talking creating a new position that would be a direct report to the board uh because again the position doesn't exist um and I I don't even I don't believe there there's a civil service title um that has such a position so um I I again the chief of human capital assumes those responsibilities as as the chief of human

135capital should um and it also says or design um and and you know if the board wants some increase or different emphasis I think that is a conversation I have with the the superintendent um and and you know maybe come budgeting um you know that those conversations happened um but it's it's it's not a position that currently exists I think it was a uh an oversight when the you know to the last iteration of the policy that it wasn't struck out then Adrian I I this was before me and you um when this when the affirmative action part piece was here so I I as far as this position is concerned the AFF it didn't have de Dei but if affirmative action was here in in play at the district I've spoken to people in

136reference to it so when I here again when I'm what I what I would what I would like us to do if we could is to table this and come back to it and maybe we need to speak to it outside of this Arena but I think it is important for us to address this and not and not lose sight of what it actually means and what and what it is conveying and and to superintendent I'm sorry uh de Mario's information he's going to gather that information once we have more information I think we can make a a a decision I think we need to base our decision on data facts on what what how much do we have how many people are going outside of to resolve issues regarding uh issues that that go

137on in the affirmative action I I do see a hand raised for uh vice president LeBron and I want to end this I want I want this to come full throttle because we've been we've been on it a little bit too long but go ahead vice president LeBron no I just want to I'm I'm I support tabling this again I I just feel a little confused tonight but I'm also not feeling my best okay I appreciate that um the I just want to I and I support table for one for more information and two for clarity because I don't ever recall this being a position either especially since I've been on the board um and then also if an employee goes outside of the district to report um an EEOC or like a human rights

138you know division of Human Rights issue that actually goes to legal and legal then informs us through an executive C through executive sessions I do think like this is a conversation that can also be had for clarity around that okay um and maybe that's more of a question that goes to Legal okay because they would know the answer of how many you know um employees have gone and filed so I I support tbling it so we can get clarity and then also even Clarity on what meeting you're referencing so that we all can review it okay to get clarity there too thank you this the August I appreciate that thank you I so I'm recommending that we table this and um if you want to get the show off hands to see if we can

139if everyone agrees to table it I do a motion moot you need to I need a motion have a motion to table motion okay thank you hold on second I got um Patterson and I Malloy I think General council is trying to wait in so is it to a certain to a specific time or is it indefinitely right to like the next policy meeting next board meeting meeting okay we because we still we need to get the information we need we need to make sure we have all the information so thank you if I could share the Commissioners that um currently on your calendar the next policy meeting is in February however remember you're reviewing committee diets and so it may not be at that meeting if you all don't move forward a policy would

140be in a work session or otherwise okay thank you but is that the just for clearity on what the motion is though right to table it y to the next policy meeting that'd be fine thank you um or did you want to see it sooner than the next policy meeting if we have the information that we need CU I'm going to I'm going to research it as well so if we can get all the information needed that that you know for you and we can speak and email then absolutely we can bring it up before then that's fine with me that's fine with me I just want to make sure that we have all the information before we make a sound decision and then have to backpedal I don't want that us to have to

141do that that's that's my main concern is it referencing the Dei because I don't want I don't want to address that anymore because we're going to take but you didn't take a vote and after the motion there's a question period so you never take a vote and there's a question to table we did move to t you never took a vote okay um we have a um can I show a vote to to table this can I ask a question before we table no we I don't want question my vote is Isaiah Isaiah please I we want we're trying to as a chairperson I'm asking for point of privilege I'm asking you I'm asking for a question after Commissioners please I'll allow legal Commissioners Commissioners please is is is there a I'm I'm hearing a

142motion and after a motion there is an opportunity for discussion so I think you make the motion to postpone until the next policy meeting that's what I heard so motion we did we did the motion already was there clerk did you get a motion in a sec did you hear the I I heard a motion to table it it was not specific and that's when you interjected and asked about dates and so I'm just trying to get clarity on a couple of things to the next date and if we have if we have the information before then um me and coun Council ask we said that he was sending me an email we just want to make sure we have all the information address it at the next do you want to do the next

143policy meeting or the next um upcoming available like when did you want to do it we have all the information does it matter to me as long as we have all the information then we can address it I just want to make sure that we cross our te and DT our eyes I'm sorry I don't have my mic I just want to make sure that we have all the information so that we're like where vice president LeBron is saying we all just want to have Clarity so I'm just want to have clarity as delling the others so that we are not backpedaling that's that's our biggest concern so commissioner if I can assist then with the the motion it's a motion to uh bring it to the next available meeting um and but no later

144than the next policy meeting that's correct okay that's the that's the motion clerk is that does that work for you that that would be fine so I heard commissioner Malloy second it commissioner Patterson's not here I didn't hear him second he second the second motion he just went to I guess to the men's room he walked out I made the motion excuse me it was Patterson and Malloy and then there was no vote taken though okay and so now that now the commissioner of Santiago does get an opportunity for discussion okay go ahead thank you uh so for tabling I'm just wondering for the administration is this going to be holding anything back you know when it comes to to this policy not being passed in time no um if you look at some of

145the contents those are things that we're legally obligated to do if someone makes a complaint we have to move on it we can't retaliate against um workers uh this is not going to stop the work I did say that I was interested in uh you know the EEOC process and how many uh different positions actually have gone through uh but just know that um if we go deeper with you know another report I mean more than welcome to get that but something that's taken away from our student goals yeah and and so I also with that I'm seeing that there this was tabled before before August 6th um where there was a question about the the officer the answer is here and now we're back to where we were in the beginning and so I

146don't see why we have to table this in any way um because it looks like the question that was asked on August 6 which might be the policy date the the committee meeting that she was talking about that we have to go back and review um the answer is there um of course we all want you know affirmative action off you know we want people who can can uh work with our staff but between the proposed the previous proposed policy change and this policy change the only difference I see is chief of human capital or or design and so um I think there's just been so much shot out there at this moment between the the uh affirmative action officer and you know I it's confusing but I also don't see why it has to

147be table Yeah so so can I get some clarity too real quick because I think I'm like slowing down and just trying to absor absorb this again so the response from the board on August 6th was saying something about boom an affirmative action officer to ensure something aligned with the intent of policy 9110 and the reality is the response from Administration is to let us inform us that this particular position never existed this work has been happening and this is the commitment we do not have an affirm ative action officer it has not so that's that's what I'm hearing the response say right but it has not been happening the no I'm not I'm not questioning that I'm just talking out loud I'm I'm speaking to yes of course I'm speaking out loud but I'm

148speaking to the point of the information on the screen and so I'm just trying to have an intelligent um understanding and comprehend when we talk about literacy what we're reading and that is telling me that the board at one point made reference to an affirmative action officer and the administration was informing us that position does not exist the work regardless of where we stand with that has been happening but we don't have an affirmative action officer right that's my understanding the again the position may have existed a very long time ago but it is not I I couldn't tell you in any not since I've been with the district um it's been been um several years I've never encountered it can I interject for a moment just to provide some clarity so the response you're

149seeing I I see why there's some disconnect right the response that the board had on um August 6 is because the original policy back all the way to 19898 version included that statement you see down there related to an affirmative action officer when the policy went through revisions the recommendation was to remove the term of affirmative action officer because one does not exist in this District not that the work is not happening but specific title that is called out that policy does not exist in our district and so it was to make it an align to make it align to what happens now which is where you see that it's the superintendent and the chief of human capital so the conversation you all are having right now is around if that affirmative action officer is

150removed as was proposed back in August can you update the language to reflect also the correct titles um which would be chief of human capital instead of you know supervising Director of Human Resources I honestly speaking I just I just want to say this the administration would be that of the purview of the of the superintendent and his staff we are we are the board so let's let's put that in into play here the administration is saying to remove that not not an Administration falls under the superintendent purview so what do we as a board want to do is a question so how do we want to address this as a board what can we foresee happening if something happens in reference to affirmative action what how how are we going to address it if

151if it's going from it's coming from the superintendent or human capital so I think we need to put that in perspective as well because if something comes up and we're not addressing it from the board perspective and it's an admin Administration that as making the response and they're saying this is what they feel we are not the administration we are the board so I want to make sure we understand that so go ahead rahima what you going to say something no I just see commissioner M's hand I was I was done okay is it okay I speak go right ahead follow the rules um I actually would like to withdraw the the motion on this so I officially I don't know how to do that officially I withdraw the motion um I think that it

152I'm in favor of removing that language um as general counsel has advised so so the so commissioner I mean technically once the discussion has happened you know the motion shouldn't be drawn okay so I think I think if you change your mind you you vote not to postpone okay um and then then you would the board would have to have an actual vote on it uh so the the motion currently in front of the board is whether to postpone this to the next available meeting um or but no later than the next policy meeting and so the the board can now vote whether to postpone it or uh and and if that that vote fails then the board will have to vote on the the motion um as is it's so hard because there's two

153conversations happening one is the technicality of an of this position that didn't exist and moving forward with this vote the other part is I think a more uh institutional conversation where we there's con concerns around diversity equity and inclusion or just racism or whatever is is being put out here right now that's a deeper conversation that I feel like I'm hearing folks who are looking to have yeah it's a two separate conversations my concern is that we have to look at it this is an Administration response the administration is separate from the board so we have to make sure that when we say something and we are governing this that this is what this is what um we what uh we want if we remove this this is not under our purview this will now

154be under the purview of the human capital and the superintendent if something happens and something comes across our room we have to go into executive session hold on commissioner Malloy one second if if we if we have to go back in executive session to address any concerns in reference to after this policy is removed that's going to fall on our shoulders so we have to be very cognizant of what we're doing here we are removing the responsibility from us but it can come back and bite us that's the bottom line so I mean you vote the way you want to vote but I'm just putting it out there as how it is how it's going to be looked at we can remove this and not have somebody to be the middleman if something come up

155and then we're gonna be oh oh we got to pay out more money we got to do this so these are the things we can we are privy to okay go ahead M commissioner Santiago I just I just think to an extent there's a lot of just miss information that's going out there because at the end of the day there's laws that we have to follow there's discrimination you know tactics that we have to stay away from and if it's not stayed away from we're getting sued and that and that's just what happens and so of course it's our responsibility but the responsibility isn't going anywhere as far as the affirmative action the the affirmative action is still there because there was never a position in the first place is what is from what I'm

156hearing and so and so we already have a responsibility legally and this is what we're talking about with the policies of rewriting policies or putting words in policies when there's already legislation that's exists out there that that that we have to listen to anyways and so for me it's just I feel like there's a lot of misinformation that's that's putting out there that saying that if we vote against it we're saying that we're against affirmative action and that's just not the truth the truth I'm speaking um but the truth is that that we are we are saying that we still have to do the responsibility but we don't need the language in there so I don't see much changes here as long as it's still being done and if it's not still being done then

157it's going to come across our desk and we're going to hold the accountability we're going to hold accountability to the administ okay I I just want I want to definitely end this I'm going to go to vice president Leon I mean I'm sorry um Vice not vice president LeBron but um commissioner Malloy vice president LeBron and then we're going to we're going to try to wrap this up I want everybody to say what they want to say but I want to be fair but go ahead commissioner Malloy yeah thank you so much and similar to just what um commissioner Santiago was saying I think that by changing this language and removing that verbage does not mean we don't care about what you're talking about and I think that um this is really an important conversation

158and I agree with you entirely on that and I think that's where our guardrail discussions when we are working with our governance coaches we still need to come up with guardrails and it sounds like that is a value that we need respected and that we want to monitor as a board and not just leave it up to Administration if I'm hearing you correctly and I I value that and I think that that is something when we go to set our guard rails that that is going to be encompassed perhaps in one of the guardrails that we said um I respect I respect guard rails but sometime sometimes guard rails and policies are too different things taking something out of a policy for me that is privy to some things that we can get sued about

159is privy is is is very important to me so I don't want to keep debating on whether it was in in our district or not in our district District it's written in here so it came into place somewhere so at the end of the day I think we're beating a dead horse cuz we're going around in the circles I we all have good points and good value to what we're trying to say nobody's trying to say that the district is racist we are just saying we want to make sure ensure that we have people and things in place that are going to govern everybody and make people feel comfortable in speaking and not feeling retaliated against or anything else so let's make that very clear we're not saying that so I don't want nobody in

160the public to think that I want them to make make sure that we understand we trying to make something balanced in the district and whatever works for our our district as a whole that's what we need so let's let's move forward after um vice president LeBron speaks thank you for being patient yeah thank you I just want to add um I agree with both commissioner Santiago and malloy's points and also commissioner um Simmons as well tonight I but I also oddly enough do agree with commissioner um Griffin tonight as well that we and I just think that there is some confusion tonight around this conversation I think it can easily be confusing to the public listening to it about what we're actually discussing and how critically important the conversation is as well and I support

161still tabling it um I I can't go on camera because I'm sick y'all but I am here tonight participating as much as as possible but um I do think we should table until at least next week and I don't think we should drag it on either but to give opportunity and time to clear any confusion and bring Clarity to the points that remain unclear tonight okay and I think that will also help the public as well because it is I'm I'm watching it tonight like I'm watching you guys like other people are watching out tonight and so I'm not there and it is a little bit in a different context when you're watching um and I just want to point that out thanks thank you very much uh vice president Le um LeBron um and

162if we can go ahead and and vote on this now to table it until the next meeting um in hopes that we can get a resolution I motion to table this okay I motion sorry I'm sorry not the motion vot toot motion we want to vote can we show our hands vot somebody can say vote voting to table this I nay I I okay thank you the eyes have it thank you very much and the next the next uh topic would be the 9260 and that has to do with um go ahead raheim I'll go ahead and let you read that out and then I'll let you I'll let everybody know what I think about it about the change in the in the in the um wording Griffin so policy 9260 is the conditional appointment

163and emergency conditional appointment uh and this is related to student safety so you had this conversation back at your April 25th um business meeting uh there was no discussion this was a new and required policy however it was sent back to the committee um at the request of general counsel for further review he was able to review that and the proposed language you see on the right is uh General council's recommendation I'll read it and then Adrian you may want to chime in uh paragraph 3 should read no District employee who excuse me no District employee who holds a conditional or emergency conditional appointment will teach a class or provide services to students in a space without a vision panel on the door unless the building principal has provided Express P prior permission to do

164otherwise okay I just want to add and uh president Elliot can jump if she'd like I was at a uh the the uh conference in in Albany and we had a gentleman there that lost a son um and part of that was a window that they were able to see through um and seeing the children in there so this verbiage on here would bother me with the vision instead of it being blurred because he is requiring that this the doors have a and I want to make sure president Ellie if I'm correct that it be blurred it shouldn't be something what you can see through because of the pro of something someone coming in and maybe doing it shooting and they can see the IND visual through the window and I think I was there

165for that part I I it was a pretty intense and I couldn't stay for most of it but I think I do this verbiage can't be in here like this we should not have a vision window it shouldn't be Vision uh where you can see clear it should be a blurred window it it should right um um if I well that's what he was recommended for down there but I I need to make sure I'm understanding the context here about that that was a recommendation from General counil so so so this was actually this comes from regulation it's part of that the code um so there there does have to be that panel there uh person one to to building code so um in in my opinion this is this not and it's it's actually

166a safety thing so they don't have we're talking about conditional appointments so they're not in closed rooms that you can't see into with the students so it's actually it's supposed to help with student safety not not prohibited okay now is this in is this in a room with just like a social worker or is that type of setting or is it class I'm just trying to make Clarity of how these panels are work it says no emerg will teach a class or provide services to students so it could be because it's multiple students so I think we need Clarity to know as far as the safety and what is as far as that concerned is it multiple students or is it just one student and one teacher because if that's the case that's something different

167but if you're talking about a classroom full of kids according to what I'm saying the safety issues they that they're recommending that we have a blurred vision panel and not not a not just a Clear Vision panel so do we have Clarity on but that was also Florida's law let me put that out there to it is but I'm just concerned because you know that brought that brought something to the when you when I see this because of how how intense that meeting was with him I want to make sure that we are doing we need to do you know God forbid we have a situation like they did go ahead I'm going to start with um uh commissioner uh Simmons and then commissioner Santiago and then to the superintendent um I'm I for one

168personally believe that we should be able to see in two classrooms at all times and that's individual that's Collective I do recognize what you're saying as far as external um you know threats thank you for that language um external threats wanting to have some um definitely some safety procedures and making sure that we continuously look at how we can enhance those but as far as um Building Safety even when I served inside school buildings it was always practice of myself staff members that I served with that we kept the door a jar if you're one-on-one with a student anyone walking by should be able to see you clearly because you don't want any room for questions or confusion even with my own um son working in the district you know I I often emphasize those

169rules to him like make sure if you're with a child that people can see you that you know so that that is just definitely a necessary measure and including the classroom the teacher that may have 20 students in in their classroom yeah you should be able to see and I think that actually would help with safety on some levels but that's a good point to to commissioner Griff and I think that you know it's got to see that to understand what we well the the other piece about that is because if if there is if it is covered if it is shaded for external threats that would help to prevent that from happening but at the same time on the other hand you know having clear uh vision of what's going on in the classroom

170is also important too because you don't know what may go on in the classroom that um you know something shaded May prevent us from really seeing so I understand both sides in all honesty because I went through a simulation with the city real quick and I'm I'm get off the mic but I went through a simulation at the city and the gentleman walked through the and they did like a simulated gun threat or what have you and the area that I was um in was all glass and so that you know they basically said your you your whole team was would have been gone if there was a a viable threat and my office did not have any windows and and the door shut I could hide in the office and maybe if I got

171the team in there so I do understand what you're saying in that regard but yeah and I also want to note that I think too that it was the position of the window so the window the glass the vision panel um Council was also it depended on where it was actually at on the door but how they looked in to you know to see the class like so that also played a part as well but I just wanted to just just note that for the record that that was a concern go ahead commissioner Santiago yeah I just want to say I agree with commissioner Simmons and president Le uh president Elliott uh because there there are two sides to it of course but I think in in uh correspondence with having these visual Vision panels

172which are important for the classroom that when we're making our safety plans that we also have plans when we are in those circumstances on how to keep our children safe uh when those circumstances happen so whether that's having you know something to block that area or having us certain part of the classroom for them to uh to huddle in I I I just think that it's needed on both sides but there's a way to meet both needs by ensuring that we have a safety plan be behind the other side and ensuring that we have the vision panels to ensure that there's safety in the classroom um I'll just just add one more comment so so again with with the these policies we do uh you know typically before they come to the board typically they're

173shared with Administration and we have experts in the in the field that provide input and feedback and and uh you know we have a a coordinator health and safety coordinator who um you know provided specific input um on a building quote requirement as required by S for there to be Vision P so not only is it required statutorily but I think to alleviate which is which uh the you know some of the the concerns raised the the the following language says unless the billing principle has provided Express pission to do otherwise so it sounds like in the in some exceptional circumstances that it it wasn't necess necess necessary then the principal has you know a little bit of autonomy to to make a call as needed so I I think I think both things are

174uh accounted for in the in the policy language as is okay thank you I'm I'm sorry I'm I'm on set I just that was just my oh I'm sorry uh the superintendent I'm sorry I do apologize no I just wanted to let the board members not to lose sight of this actual uh policy it's not necessarily talking about like outside threats and things of that nature it's talking about internal mechanisms um as to you know keeping the child safe as well as keeping the staff member safe in the event that they're behind closed doors but I do want to let the Commissioners know and our safety uh safety procedures and whatnot we do have lock down procedures lockout procedures Windows have to be uncovered um and in the event that there is a window in

175a a room uh there's procedures where students and staff have to hide or get out of plain sight of those windows so that it um you know you can't tell that folks are in okay I I just for clarity for the public I was not in no saying that we we're that's not what we were saying and part of what the superintendent was saying I was just clearly making a statement in reference to the vision panels and how it can play out in both aspects so I don't want the public to think that I was trying to say anything different than that um there there is the the vision panels can play a role on both sides of the of the fence and we do have things in place for our children and for our

176staff to be safe in the Rochester City School District thank you commission so we need to um do a motion on that I want a motion to move that a motion motion a second okay let's move any discussions all in favor I any oppos motion has been carried and then we have the next one would be uh policy 2300 board bylaws is that uh rahima you want to jump in please yes ma'am so Commissioners as you may recall uh you all have postponed several components oh I'm sorry prior to jumping into policy 2300 just to provide Clarity of the next steps on 90 uh on the policies that you all just discussed is that they are going to be forwarded out and they will follow the policy adoption process and should be voted on at

177the February business meeting okay thank you moving along um policy 2300 you all have uh tabled different components and portions of this policy so at this point um I'm just going to go through some of the items that were expected to come forward for this meeting that have been previously um tabled or postponed so uh next slide Tom thank you um at your 86 policy meeting you had some discussion related to this uh 2300 and the following language was tabled by you all for further research um into options in relation to interpreters so the policy stated that individuals requesting an interpreter should sign up to speak at least five business days in advance to allow the district sufficient time to secure an interpreter and should be cancelled excuse me and should cancel request at least

17824 hours in advance to avoid the district taking on extra charges after recommendations from general counsel uh the policy language uh the new policy language will provide more flexibility and it would read if possible and individuals requesting an interpreter should try to sign up to speak as many days in advance as possible to allow the district time to secure an interpreter for their specific language and should cancel request at least 24 hours in advance if they become aware they will not require an interpreter or will not be attending the meeting in any event the district will do its best to secure interpreters as necessary to facilitate Communications with speakers any questions on that anyone um commissioner Malloy uh not so much a question but just a comment that I support the proposed policy language okay

179any other questions regarding that change this is the one that we're saying that um to get a uh interpreter within 24 hours as opposed to um up to you know five business days that's correct um well just note that um if if it's only 24 hours we may not be able to have someone that quickly so I just want to point that out I mean we can't if we can we can but also understand that if we can't because there's not sufficient time provided then there will not be an interpreter so I want to just make sure that we open that up for discussion as well so they can and particularly if I say this particularly if it's uh in if it's um interpreters needed for um you know some of our non-hispanic speaking or

180not English speaking you know our um am I not saying it correctly is am I incorrect I think it's saying that you that if you require an interpreter make sure that you sign up five business days to your point so that they have time to plan however if you're not going to that you should cancel the request at least 24 hours Y in advance I'm sorry Comm that's that's not what it says that that's what it said before in the board the board did not want to advance did not want that time limit and and so therefore we came back with a version that provided a lot more flexibility it doesn't set a specific time it just says in um is as many days in in advance as possible so president Ellie is actually uh

181very 100% correct in what you're saying okay now that also they can also bring their own interpreter is that correct Rahim they can also bring their own interpreted they don't have to we' never disallowed that no one's ever asked okay so so just for for the record to the community they can have they can bring their own interpreter correct they could I don't see why not okay I just want them to know that yeah there may be um adults who don't speak the language but the children may yes so it may be that opportunity for them that is an opportunity for you to still speak if you have your own interpreter so I just want the community to know that thank you so there's no questions on that at all right any other questions regarding

182that okay go ahead rahima okay so regarding um the planning meetings with the superintendent so this is under the officers uh of the board the president so it's section 3A the current policy language States the president shall meet with the superintendent of schools on a regular basis at mutually convenient times to discuss and coordinate the presentation of resolutions for consideration by the board at business meetings and to review the implementation of board directives and policies the board May designate other board members to meet with the president and superintendent of schools on a on a regular basis excuse me minutes of the planning meeting with the superintendent shall be provided to all board members proposed actions um excuse me proposed board action options the super excuse me the president shall meet with the superintendent of schools

183on a regular basis at mutually convenient times to discuss and coordinate the presentation of resolutions for consideration by the board at business meeting and to review implementation of board directives and policies the president or superintendent May assign a designate from their St to meet on their behalf the board May designate other board members to meet with the president and superintendent of schools on a regular basis board members will be provided the meeting scheduled prior to the meeting minutes of the planning meeting with the superintendent shall be provided to all members of the board okay so the addition would be the highlighted um portions for discussion I don't have any discussion I don't have any questions on that does anybody have any questions no no discussion all in favor do we have a motion for it

184I don't think we sorry we got one more to do sorry my fault we got one more go ahead right I do apologize one more to do so Committees of the board this is under Section 4A the current policy states that the following committee shall be standing committees of the board policy development and review community and intergovernmental relations finance and resource allocation audit human capital and equity student achievement so the proposed option based on your October 28th work session with cgcs and your committee uh diet discussion the following committee shall be standing committees of the Board of Education audit equity and student achievement policy development and review so just to go back for a second um oh go ahead commissioner Griff um we discussed these these uh removals pending sunsetting them pending Clarity and and

185getting everything in order to Sunset them not to not to do it and move this swiftly on it because there are still some open open and unanswered questions in each one of these committees so to move this forward without resolution in each one of these would not be would not be feasible for us at this time we have still things that need to be addressed under each one of these communities these committees were created because of the not having transparency within the district I know we are trying to move forward I do understand that but at the end of the day we still have issues in each one of the each one of these areas that need to be addressed before we can Sunset any committee so that is just my take on it um

186I will go to commissioner Santiago and then move down yeah so I I just want to also say that during the work session when we met with the governance Council I think that we came up with a pretty sustainable and and detailed uh plan of course there's still some background DET detail tells I have to be figured out but you know we agree that finances will be focused on in the main business meeting or or work sessions we agree community and intergovernmental relations that the agenda will continue the breakfast will continue but it will be a responsibility instead of a committee and we agree that human capital wasn't focus on student outcomes and so I think that uh this makes a lot of sense to me um and I'm in support of it anyone else

187have any questions or concerns about um these this this uh issue in reference to moving this forward if I could just comment for a moment or ask for clarity I can't hear you I'm sorry Rima if I could just for a moment um so in last month's excuse me in the um November business meeting and in the prior meeting I indicated to you all that the recommendation form that was sent to you based on the 1028 policy conversation that kind of mapped out how committees could look moving forward that that is going to continue continue to be on your agenda um for discussion so it was on the business meeting agenda we didn't have any discussion about it it will be on the agenda next week at the special meeting and then again at the

188December business meeting where if you all want to move forward with a different format you would need to vote because these are contained in your policy like in your bylaws and so you need to remove those committees if you don't want to have them come January so that's why this um conversation is here and so there's hopes that there will be discussion when that item is on the agenda to answer and resolve the questions you're referencing commissioner Griffin yeah I guess the my only concern if we review back go back to that meeting is that there was a lot of areas what we still need to cover in order to Sunset these committees and we have not addressed any of that I don't know what meeting we addressed any of those issues the concerns that

189we had as board members to to to move forward and and to remove things when we haven't even addressed the issues and concern in each one of these committees that we still have so I I have problem with shutting things down and not res not resolving them we we never said that we were not going to address the issues and concerns with each one of these committees before we shut them down so I guess my question is when do we address those concerns before we Sunset something are you asking me directly continue to close something out if we haven't I'm sorry president Ellie go ahead I think your uh commissioner Santiago was um his hand was raised before well I only went to you because I was going down I was going down this way

190and he already spoke so you're next all right so I think that um uh it is a way in which through the work sessions that we're going to be creating in order to address some of these issues if we want to do these uh these particular um minutes uh these particular committees then the ones that we don't want to do that we are are sunsetting I think the chair can also respond to the work that is uh to be done and we can do that work in those work sessions that we're talking about creating uh so that nothing is missed and nothing is lost but we this is also to the state monitors recommendation that we reduce the number of committees that we have and I and I I I get that you AG with

191that and that you want to look at this other work but it doesn't have to get lost we can do it through those work sessions whatever is left okay I just for me and I I respect what you're saying president Elliot once we once we shut something down it seems like it goes away so I I want to make sure that we're addressing what is needed before we move forward just get swept underneath the rug we don't want that to happen so I think the best thing to do they were created for a reason so we want to make sure that we don't lose focus of why they were created because if we do then we're going to miss something yeah I'll take the responsibility to making sure that we we don't let these go

192that's my biggest that's my biggest fear we have to make sure that we're addressing everything whatever and I I'll I'll um uh reach out to each chairperson to see what um along with u the our special assistant to the board to see how what work is needed and how we can address those yeah I would definitely like if we could get together and do that I really would appreciate it because that's my biggest concern because there's a lot of open things that we need to address commission uh commissioner Simmons I apologize and I I think we also had some pretty good conversation with our uh with the council and so on around um how we were going to go sunsetting it so there certainly was no conversation of we're going to Sunset these they're just

193going to go away and there goes the the baby you know with the bath water um the conversations we had actually mapped out a viable plan of action to not only Sunset the Committees but um look at um what needs to remain and where it would go and so we have an understanding of equity and student achievement once that committee is sunset there's going to still continue to be report outs and mandatory pieces that we focus on I think that the better or the other part of this conversation can just be around identifying some pieces if there's some concerns that you feel you know around some things you think might get lost kind of identifying those but there are plans of action that I think we we're actively working on and so um the the

194committee going away doesn't mean the work goes away thank you commissioner s I respect that I'm sorry thank you commissioner Simmons and then we have um commissioner mooy great thank you uh I just want to say I agree with all the sentiments expressed so far um and I understand the concerns we want to make sure that we're still engaged in that work as you said um I really liked the robust conversations that we had uh during the work session and some of the plans that we came up with um there could be plans to Sunset two more of those committees right I think that what we finally agreed upon was that or I actually learned at that last meeting was that uh the only committee that's required by law is is audit see I I

195learned something at that last meeting um so there're going to be a number of changes that we go through with our coaches um in the future that work still needs to get done but I think we all had come up with a an agreement or an understanding that that work is going to still get done in um other meetings like at our business meeting Etc um and I would support that I just want to make sure uh vice president LeBron doesn't have anything to be say at this time I don't know if her hand is raised her hand is not raised it's not but thank you you're welcome and commissioner Patterson yeah I think what the commissioner Simmons was trying to do and I'm G say real quickly is uh there's just different ways that

196the um the council uh advises that we can report out Council of great City Schools is there any other questions regarding um this proposal it would be helpful to to board staff if I had clarification around what items you're suggesting are not addressed uh I will just bring attention back to the um calendar that I created where you all can move to a work session and a business meeting included every item from every committee uh as it exists currently that would show up there including a revamp policy calendar that will allow you all to review all of the policies through throughout the calendar year no more than five per month um so per meeting so um I I just need some clarity so that we can do our due diligence and bring this item back

197to you all for decisions um so you want us to just for clarification right here you want us to um provide you with the information and Clarity of what issues and concerns we have with the with the different um committees is that what you're asking you made a reference to those concerns I I didn't hear anyone we brought it up at the business meeting no one um made any recommendations related to that or brought those up so it would just be helpful to know what those concerns are because I'm not sure I do I I I apologize I wasn't at the board business meeting um due to um a family emergency but I I I will say that at the meeting with um Dr har har he we at that meeting where there was a

198lot of issues and concerns that were addressed during that meeting and reference to the different committees and what uh what we thought should be addressed so um there was and it wasn't just myself speaking of that I know president Elliot said some things we all said different things I can't remember verum everything but I will I do know that each each committee there was some form of concern not saying that we don't want a Sunset and to president Elliot's point there was concerns there was issues and we need to address them if you want them specifically I would have to go through and you know we actually you know listen to it again to refresh my memory but I know within some committees I already know what what I would like to address there were

199other issues andur concerns as well though a suggestion then um perhaps you could share what your concerns are and if other Commissioners have some they they could chime in um you mean today like right and not at this moment no I again I wasn't at the last meeting I was I was I I was I did not attend the board business meeting so I would have said something then I didn't know this was on the board business meeting because I did not attend I had a family emergency so this is the first time I'm seeing it because I did not attend that meeting so you said it was addressed at the board business meeting right it was uh email that went out to you all and then it was in the in I had a

200family emergency I wasn't focused on that at all so I do apologies ol but I I do there was con some concerns I had and I'm going have President um I'm sorry commissioner Santiago he has a question um no I I don't have a question I just think that uh during the meeting that all seven of us were at uh around the policy um diet or the committee diet I'm sorry um we decided and we had a robust conversation on where the responsibilities would go moving forward and so um I think some of the information might be lost um from certain Commissioners but it's an elongated conversation for a conversation we already had and this happens a lot and uh so I just think that uh the conversation's already been had and we move forward

201with what we got is there anything else from anyone else yeah thank you president ell with me um working with um our board clerk Special Assistant to the board I like to use that title with with her as well um that if there's any remaining agenda items from these committees that we need to discuss we could do that now so I'm let me ask you commissioner Griffin is that what you are speaking about that whatever agenda items are left with each of these committees that we follow through on those agenda items is that am I hearing you correctly the the agenda items and then there was certain concerns with just individual transparency with the within and things that needed to be that I that personally I had concerns with and like I said I didn't

202hear the meeting last um the last meeting so I do apologize because I did have a something you know going on in my family that was more per at that time definitely so if you if you would be willing to put those for each of those committees I will we'll we'll and then we can take it from there thank you and I think we said that just a minute ago that I would we would speak thank you president Elliott is there any other questions or concerns in reference to this okay can we have a motion go ahead um you question the last component of this is just a reminder that the next steps is after this is forwarded out that it will follow the regular policy adoption process and be voted on in your February

203business meeting um if the policy committee continues on your next meeting is February 4th and there are two items from uh policy 2300 that you are slated to discuss it would be um the section on leadership resignation and recalls and then um assuming that NIS has provided an update to the student representative policy to align with all of that new legislation would we have to do that so that is slated to come up in your February policy meeting or in a February meeting should you dissolve this committee okay so can I have a motion and that would be for uh 9110 9260 and 230000 commissioner you already took I'm sorry that doing right just 2300 just 2300 I'm sorry guys motion motion motion have a second second all in favor I any oppos it carries

204thank you he said I he said I okay board member surve so um I would just request everybody complete the board survey and I just want to add one more thing um just one just for the public and just for everybody um we have Dr Rita Gaither that took a group of students from uh all over to Africa from Rochester City School District in other area in other places but I just wanted to give her applaud her for taking them on that Journey um to Africa to experience um um the culture there so I give I give Dr Rita gther a hand of Applause for for doing that cuz that was very very very uh uh good of her to do that I know as a child growing up I had the privilege to to

205be one of those children to to go on different trips with her and she defin definitely takes the bull by the horns to give our kids and our children The Adventures of a life time so again I applaud her and then now can I have a motion to uh end the meeting so moved so moved we have to do our board member surveys yeah we yeah and I did mention that I said we have to do the board member surveys before I mention um Dr Rita Gaither um can I have a a motion by Malloy and second a president Elliott all in favor I okay this meeting has any J thank you I swear I heard you