001All right. Good evening everyone and welcome to uh the legal contracts and board policy committee meeting uh this Monday, April the 21st. Uh thank you. Um we will start by having our um pre our viewing of our previous board minutes. Is there are there any um questions or concerns we have or changes corrections need to be made on the minutes? Uh chair I move uh make a motion that we accept these minutes as is. Okay. Thank you. Minutes accepted. Um next we have any public participation? Anyone to address the board? Anyone to address the committee? I'm sorry, I said board the committee. Anyone to address the committee? No one to address the committee. Okay, we'll move on to our topics of discussion. We'll talk uh start with Miss Carter. Okay, back on for discussion and
002um the committee met and we feel as though the nepotism policy may be ready to now move towards a first read unless um anyone on the committee sees any other updates or changes that need to be made. We were looking at it to fit under um conflict of interest because we would have to assign it a number and we would just have it fit under each area that addresses uh each policy that addresses conflict of interest with the 0.01.01 basically whatever number is next available under conflict of interest. Thank you, Miss Carter. Any questions? I'm just trying to clarify. So, so are we doing will this be a new policy or this is an addendum to each of these? Oh, no. It's a new policy, but it will live in the area of where the
003conflict of interest. So, a lot of our policies are like 4113 and then it'll be 4113.01. So, that's where we would put the nepatism policy. Okay. Any other questions, concerns in reference to this policy? If not, we'll move on. Next, Miss Carter. Next is the vendor relations policy. And is Miss Folk here? Okay. If you could come up and just talk about the vendor relations policy. There were only like a few grammatical changes as relates to the pro some of the pronouns that were being used. You can see some of the things in black as relates to the changes um that were made and I'm going to let Mrs. Folk do an overview. The vendor relations policy is a long existing policy and Neiola did come up with some grammaticals such as the first one
004you see which is in two and they changed it from he she to persons. The second last two lines of the first paragraph are an addition by us that we felt were important to add which basically says previously that an author if I was writing educational materials we wanted to make sure they were properly approved to be in the schools by the district. We added the following. Providing the authored educational materials were not created during the employment with the district or created using board materials and funding associated with the district. This was something that did come up previously. We had a grant provided to the district. We had some very crafty, wonderful teachers who made a curriculum and we found it was on the outside the district for sale. So we want to make sure
005that if that occurs that the intellectual property re rights remains with the district because it was using funds either awarded to or you uh provided by the district. So that's a new addition to the policy on behalf of the district. Then as you go down, you will see some of the other areas that it went from his and her to either they or their um which was not a it was a grammatical update. Now the salespersons regardless of the product the word the was added shall make contact with the superintendent. So these were Neiola updates to make sure that the legal issue was appropriately addressed. The next section of this is the requirements for certain technology provider contracts and this came into play when the state of Ohio made their changes and Haley I always
006say it wrong. It was Senate bill not house bill. Am I correct? 129 I think. 129. Yes. Last time we were here reviewing this, I said House Bill and I wanted to correct it. So these are items that come legally to our attention through Niola because of Senate Bill 129. And these were vetted by our technology department. And as you can read it, we have very specific conditions we must now meet as we would do different technology provider contracts. Most of this is data exchange. And I'll give you an example. Sometimes when we're doing testing or we're doing data transfers back and forth, we want to make sure that the data transfer is not only correct for the vendor and us, but it is housed and secured properly. And that's what house senate bill 29
007really talked about is to how to make sure it is secured if there were breaches to it etc. But we had to make sure that it also met the federal statutes as well. All the contracts between the district and the technology must ensure the appropriate industry recognized security measures which I just discussed and this also was vetted through our technology team as well as Dr. Hodo has seen it as part of our new communications and technology person. And by August 1st of each school year, the district will provide to parents, students with direct and timely notice by mail, electronic mail, or other method of direct communication of any of the contracts the district has with any of the providers of these curriculum testing and assessments. And we've been going down this road for quite a
008while. So we just are it's more of cleaning up items to meet the actual drafting notice that came out from Senate Bill 129. All righty. And then Senate Bill 29 was part is its drafting notice is what was came out of the 135th General Assembly and it took effect in October 24th of 2024. So we wanted to make sure you understood that as well. And then the criminal background checks was just an area that was added to this. We it was a change in title only and it also relates to the family educational rights and privacy act that was a new add to the bottom so that we can follow exactly how this works. Any other questions? Any questions? Madam President. Uh thank you chair. Yes. I have um a problem with these last two
009lines that you added concerning the teachers intellectual property. Mhm. Um and I understand what you're what you what you're saying. Um and I'm just I just don't agree with what you're saying because if a teacher has a certain expertise and she's hired to he or she is hired to teach science, that's fine. And if a grant is pro is provided where they get additional information on silent uh on science or to provide something their ingenuity of creating a curriculum developing a curriculum that is their intellectual property. Um I understand how you worded this as if it's because of the district secured grant that they were able to develop. They actually developed it while they were on duty during being paid. So it came out twofold. They were they didn't do it offline on their own
010time. They did it as part of their workday and use the funds of the district. So if I stated it incorrectly, I apologize. No, I just know that some of this even within a workday because of the very task that they have to do that they're doing some of this work outside of work hours. And so I just think what were there any teachers at the table that when this to kind of unpack this um this was something that we brought up in the review of the policy. I will not ask I don't know who else would have been contacted. I'm sorry I can't address that. That's all right. I just when cuz people are coming up with like retirement plans and they are coming up with excellent curriculum or innovative things and I'm just
011not a fan of them not able to be compensated or because you said once you saw that they were selling it on another website uh materials that they created and you you it was seen for sale on another website then the hindsight was we need to do this Um actually legal at the time wrote a a um legal in-house council at the time wrote a cease and desist letter to advise them that they could not do this and this is the first time that NEOA has brought it update to 6460. So if it wasn't already a policy how did they get a CND? because our legal counsel in house at that time felt that they should be advised that what they had done on time and using district funds was inappropriate to be able to
012sell and make profit of it. Maybe it's another way to vet it. I rely on Haley to maybe make it better than I am. But no, because Barbie Mattel does this a lot. Organizations do it. I'm just um it irritates me because then what can happen is if I'm a teacher, okay, okay, I'll do because I can teach science and I can come up with something creative, but the extra hours that I know as an educator on top of what they have to do on their work hours to develop a full curriculum is going outside of the scope of their daily hours and to really understand how could this be advantageous for district and for the employee. the teacher whose intellectual property it truly is and they're rent because they're not getting are they getting
013additional funds from the grant? Are they getting additional payment on top of the grant or is it a grant and they're provided the funds to create the curriculum or are they getting paid as well on top of their original salary? They got their salary payment and they got the materials and supplies from the grant funds to actually do the um writing and the materials. And that's my that's my problem. because then that's the job. You're providing me materials, but I'm not getting paid for my my work, my my mental capacity, um bandwidth, any of that. Y'all providing the material materials like if you provide me with crayons or something from the art room, but my intellectual property where I'm innovatively thinking of things, look, coming up with assessments and all different type of curriculum for
014students and then it the district owns it. I I just I mean I'm just going to put that out there because I just at this point want to be a voice for instruct for a classroom teacher that is going to be excited about getting a grant to help kids and create this dope innovative something fun that kids like that they know cuz I'm a teacher and so I know how to relate to my colleagues in the profession. So you want this curriculum, too. And then the my district has me in a choke code where I can't benefit from it. And I'm not getting paid period. I'm just getting materials for to buy the grant. So I'm going to let that lay there cuz this is my I this is I'm one upset. This is my
015own issue. So I'm going to let it go here at this moment. But I'm still processing because it seems like it needs to be another some type of caveat where even if the teachers are the teachers positive with the position, okay, you'll get the funds to do this and the teachers can say, "Okay, this may take me 22 hours to develop this curriculum." And I'm a teacher. As a teacher, I'm like, I do this after hours and I want to own my rights. I I would I would commit as an educator. I would and I know to in order to own my intellectual property. Okay, I'm my contractual hours is from 7:30 to 4:30m and I won't work on it during my that's what I'm saying like were any of these considerations made um before
016this is just would impact how I feel about this policy and how I would vote but again I'm one in seven that don't mean it won't pass but I just wanted to have this conversation because as an entrepreneur as a person who develops curriculum and and you see people's um intellectual property stolen from them all the time and that could be part of their legacy and everything. It is something about this bothers me when we talk about engine ingenuity in being innovative and even for our students when they're intellectual property is robbed from them where what they come up with classrooms. So this is why my mind is going to how can we better serve all parties where we all win not saying I'm going to say where everyone wins. the be kind event that
017resulted in the poetry book. Remember that event that was at the civic? There was an actual agreement that legal helped put together where the students retained their intellectual property rights, but the publisher could go ahead and publish the book. So those were some of the other things to your point about exactly who owns what. It was just a way to understand how we would use our dedicated funds that are expended through our district. Okay. Thank you, Miss Fog. And thank you, uh, uh, Mr. Chair. You're welcome, Mr. Harrison. Um, thank you, uh, Mr. Chair. One one of the things and and and you hit it at the end. I think the law really dictates um, who owns the property. However, the district can release the intellectual property to the teacher if if that's an agreement
018with both parties. But the law says if you create it on salary, on duty using this, it belongs to the district. But the district can um re release that intellectual property in some cases. So I think that's a consideration because I know you talking Cadillac Records here brothers. Um so um when we're looking at the vendor relations and I see we added some stuff to the policy. Do we have a clear policy or a clear um when a vendor has um some type of issue, do we have a clear path of dispute resolution? It depends on the contract and sometimes the contract actually gives you an idea how you are allowed to dispute or rectify and it's called cure legally and Haley knows this better than I do. Um, it often is something that could
019be cured easily by just talking it through. It could be also a cure that is through a mediation or an arbitration. It depends on the actual contract with the vendor. And some are very specifically vetted. That's why we have legal look at those contracts. Yeah. And I understand some are some some just are boilerplate information in the contracts and those are usually larger contracts that are getting into a lot of money. But if we're talking about just a let's say the IC the van independent van contractors independent contractors we're talking about the van drivers or we're talking about um someone who supplies let's say hot dog buns or something I mean something that's not large enough that the vendor would have to secure legal we would have to secure legal but just a process where
020if the boards if someone comes to us and say Hey, we've been treated unfairly and we can just see, okay, well, you need to go this person, you need to do this and this and then if that doesn't come, then you can come back to me, right? And as an example, we have certainly gone through the process with our legal department to vet any kind of notices to vendors that would be necessary to make sure that we are meeting those requirements. to your hot dog bun issue. Sometimes it's just a matter of notifying the vendor that the hot dogs didn't come in fully baked and they usually very often rectify them and and give you credit for what is not usable, etc. And and I guess I'm talking about the vendors with APS. Do we
021have a process where the vendors can seek relief or dispute resolution with us? So, this is a question that I Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Are you asking Miss Carter? She she referred. Sorry, Miss Carter. Go ahead. Oh, so um I had the same question as you actually as it relates to um what would the process be? Uh I know one answer that I received was um well it wouldn't come through human capital or labor relations cuz they're not our employees. And so, um, I was told to tell the person to write a letter to the department that they have the contract with, but other than that, that is it as it relates to them being able to explain their side of whatever the um, situation may be. But we don't have a process in
022Akran as it relates to how an individual person that may have a contract with us can um dispute a termination of a contract other than going to court. So there's no internal process. They would have to go file something with with the courts. Yeah. And that would be if if we're looking at these if we're looking at updating policies or um you know when some of the updates come from outside of the school. But if we're looking at vendor relations, we we probably need a dispute resolution before it gets to the board. you know, there there probably should be some type where the vendor will know, okay, I followed this process, but there doesn't seem to be a process. And I think we kind of got into this last year and we kind of we
023get stuck here. Um, but we we we we need to add some type of resolution to this. And it may not be a policy, and I would defer this to Haley. It may be an administrative guideline to the policy. I would like a policy. Um and Hilly can advise on that m Mr. Chair and when we when we start talking about administrative guidelines, those administrative guidelines sometimes become subjective and then they become uh arbitrary. Okay? And so the policy really doesn't give you that arbitrary application. So, you know, and I'm not saying that we should be the vet, the the board should be the veters of the process, but there needs to be a process. Um, there there just needs to be a process, Mr. Haley. Yep. Yes, it's something that we can look into.
024Yes. And if I'm correct, just make sure I'm correct, too. Administrative guidelines are the step by steps of the of a policy. Correct. That is correct. Okay. So, if that administrative guideline is pertaining to the specific policy, hope hopefully it'll have a step by step saying what they're supposed to do. If it doesn't, then it is a a problem because it it it does come from the policy itself and then going to Pastor Harris. Yeah. You have to have a policy though, right? Yeah. So that's yeah, you have to have a policy to follow the administrative guidelines and and I guess that's the um I I guess that's just because we're looking because we're updating this, you know, like President Jackson uh you know her line. Okay. Well, yeah, legally this is how it goes,
025but we can in an administrative guideline add a release. So say a teacher want to request you know a release. Mhm. Um so that's the difference with me with the policies and administrative guidelines. Okay. The administrative guidelines should be the some exceptions to the policies and to navigate the policy but we still need the policy. Okay. Any other discussion on that madam president? I thought the vendor relations was the policy. That's the one thing. And so the administrative guidelines will go with this policy is that because I had another part I was going to add. That's why I'm trying to get clarity. Haley, the vendor relations is the policy we're referencing and administrative guidelines that uh Faulk reference would align with this policy if they exist. Yes, that's correct. So the the AG would be
026in reference to this policy. Okay. If that was the route that we ended up taking. But that I'm sorry I didn't mean to cut you. Go ahead. Go ahead. So I think the question is because it doesn't seem that there's anything consistent like SOP standard operating procedures that should be under the administrative guidelines. It's just like with parent complaints, um student complaints where it hops over to where I know like I as a board member I think a lot of times we see the board getting um entranced into operational business which we not supposed to be into. But when you are elected official and you part of a community, it kind of is almost like you force into certain areas um because you when you're trying to follow policies or you're directing people to policies
027if it's not a structured um system like since I've been here I've asked because everyone know I'm student focused. So, I'm asking questions like, okay, when students are referred to the board and I'm at church or I'm eating my salad and someone comes to me about this student being referred to the board and how they were done wrong, they're assuming referred to the board means they seen us seven in some capacity. And us seven often don't have a clue about the issue or what happened. And so my question was a few years back that if there is a grievance process you know they go through principles the principles go I mean sorry like the executive leadership over principles it's a whole structure that there will be some form to where us as board members we
028could see that like just it's like a report not that we're responding to it we can talk to our superintendent about it but where we can see this is the allegation a kindergarten threw a tissue box at ex school and now they're being referred to where when we hear it on the streets, we can say we're already in front. we have some knowledge of it. And as far as the process, how the process is playing out instead of as a board member on the tail end when actions have been taken, we hear about it and we're like, "Well, yeah, that doesn't seem like it aligns with this uh this state mandate about kindergarteners being suspended or, you know, it's like it get lost in the sauce." Or when vendors come and talk to us and
029they're saying, "We I wrote a letter. I did this. I did that and person A told me this and then when I did this, person A then told me something different or they keep moving the finish line. So when I'm trying to cross the finish line, person A keep moving the finish line and so where do I go? So then they end up on the mic and then it's all in and then Jen got to write about it. Then we got to go be at our our lunchons in the community and people talking what y'all doing about you. I'm being facicious, but you guys get it. And so y'all understand so I understand the point like what the cleancut processes not just I'm all this vague circle talk is becoming a bit annoying. It's clear
030processes. So it's a standard operating procedure or not is what's being asked and if not then sketch something up because I'm in year four and I asked about this for students and it still don't exist. And every time comments come up like this I bring it up again. So to Harrison's point, to everyone's point, a clear structure, even if it's aligned to the policy, that we can click and say, "Oh, it's a grievance about these drivers. We know it before they have to come down with signs at a board meeting to where we can do the back, we can do the front work through our employee, not getting operations, not get telling our employee, whatever. Hey, what is this? give us a update before the next board meeting because if we can get resolution that
031something clean clear like that is what I'm saying. So answer. So just as a point of clarification, President Jackson, are you um referring to like kind of like a reporting structure that would be in an administrative guideline? Is that what you're envisioning? Okay. Yeah, that's certainly something we can look into. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And just to add to that, President Jackson, I think this is what we're you're saying too is and correct me if I am wrong. We had talked about a whiteboard for board members so we can get these different things beforehand and that way we would know, but we still haven't gotten a whiteboard. I know it's a lot of stuff that's been going on, but that whiteboard to help give board members that information so they know what's going on,
032can follow the process, but we do also need to make sure that we always have a process uh um pecking order for lack of better words of here's the person should contact this person. If they don't get this person, who's the next person, next person before they get the board. I think if and you guys have to correct me too about this here. I thought we had in our a couple of our policies or a definition of board who the board is and who the board of education administration was. And I don't know if that's still there or what. Someone have to help me with that, but I know at one time we did have the the we identified who the board was and who the board of education was, but I don't know if
033it's still there or not. I haven't seen it. So, somebody have to help me or look for that. Go ahead, M. I know that in our um like when we have individual contracts, like for instance, our ICO contracts um those are definitions in there as relates to who do they mean when they say vendor, board, superintendent. So, it talks about those definitions, but I will look up to see if we have those in our policies. And then we'll also make note that we want to put a procedure in place as relates to um vendors when they have if they may have a concern or if they have a disagreement regarding um some contractual issues. Yes, I think that would help. It sounds like that's what everyone is saying. Is that correct, Madam President? Because we
034don't have anything right now and for parents and students like not just like if you're going to do it just do go on and do it. Mhm. Do I guess I could have said that more professional? Let me take my time on my words. So, if we're going to do that this um Haley said this procedure like for any grievances, so like where it will be a general stop like uh vendors click here, student parent click here. But it's a centralized system to where it goes to the various department but the board can access it. Does are you are you following me? Does that make sense? It does make sense. It's something that like I said we'll have to we'll have to look into it. Excellent. I just wanted to that is different like it's
035one for vendors, parents, students, something like that. And it it can be if even if names is not just scenarios or whatever, but so that we can see that that's kind of what I'm saying. Uh right. And that should be part of our part of our process period for everything. So every every policy everything that we do we'll know what the the anyone would know what the procedure is. Who do I follow if I have a problem with a principal or I follow if I have pro problem with administration? What about a contract and who do I contact? So that's pretty much what you're saying. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Miss Carter, you have something? No. We'll go back because we have a process in place as relates to um parent complaints and parent concerns. Um,
036but we'll go back like you said and look at students and then um add on the vendor. But we have a we have an email actually that our parents use if they have school concerns, school concerns atapslearns.org and it goes to our um executive directors of school leadership and if it's a concern outside that particular department um then they will forward it to that particular director. But concerns from the schools go first to our exec directors of school leadership. Okay. I think we so we maybe we can talk about a little bit more. Maybe you guys can bring that to the committee and we can kind of look at it and see the process and I think that might make it a little more comfortable people understand what the process is. So if we say
037here's what student referral, here's what you do if you're teacher, here's what you do of a vendor, you know, so they would understand that. And we we have had we've had students use that particular um process as well with our school concerns uh email address. But I like your idea about actually having a place on the website that says if you're this person, click here. Right. Just to give more guidance and let people know that we do want to hear from them and help address whatever their concerns are. Right. Madam President, you have something else? Yeah. No. Uh thank you, Miss Carter. and you uh um vice president address what I was saying because we know these system exists but I got emails, text messages, calls where it ain't it's not working like into that
038level or had executive principal hasn't gotten it like didn't know about it. It's not that building level a concern. So that way if it's something that we can access and click on like, oh, it was a grievance at this school. This this teacher cussed this kid out and the parent was up at the school. The parent ain't just get kicked out. The parent got kicked out because they came to see about this disrespect to their child. And all we have is that the parent is we have a the parent a non-transpassing order on the parent, but not all the backstory about what happened when it when things like that happen. If we can just click to your point like some from the website to see this is the grievance. We see executive director of early
039education is is investigate. It's at it's on their desk. Okay, cool. We see where it's at. And so we know that it's being we can tell the parent, oh, I'm aware of that and I know the right department is handled. I did see that or let me get back with you and I don't have to wait or email you to call you. I can go right to that system, click, see that it was filed and know that the executive director is aware of it or they don't know. So, let me make sure that I follow up. We're in real time because sometimes things get lost and people are told that it's been brought to central office and then come to find out it has not. And I'm just saying that from a firsthand experience because
040things have been shared with me from parents at building level or even teachers and when I come to administrative to this office and I say it there are people here like who were not aware but when they became aware it was handled. So that's why I'm trying to be like adamant on that. Thank you. I think that would include our whiteboard again madam president that we can see what's happening in real time. A young lady had a question or comment. What What happens now if a vendor has a problem like now? There's no policy for right now. So what happens in the now? So go ahead, pastor. So So uh that's that's what we're talking about. And so it probably won't happen right now. And so the process is what what what you did last
041week or the week before. No, but uh we we will get a policy. We will make sure we get a policy and if there's something that's happening right now. Um Oh, that was a good May I ask that in the absence of the um administrative guidelines that um all concerns be directed to me personally and then I'll be able to quarterback them to the necessary parties to make sure they follow up. Okay. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for that question. All right. Any other questions on this this uh particular policy? No more questions. Okay. Next. Next we have our electronic equipment. Um Haley's going to speak to this. Uh there really were no specific changes other than we did spell out uh we had PCD in that last line and we did spell
042it out um personal communication devices policy 5136 and I believe there was a suggestion to add the actual wording from the policy and Haley's going to speak to why the committee felt like you know we have to be careful with adding wording when we um refer to policies in a policy. Go ahead. Go ahead, Haley. Thank you. Um so, uh as Miss Carter just stated, there weren't really any major change besides some grammatical issues that were fixed within this policy, including this, uh personal communication devices being spelled out and sort of referred to as PCD, which was confusing. Um, Reverend Harrison had suggested that we input uh policy 5136 into this policy. Um, pretty frequently we have uh policies or um statutes that will uh reference another policy. The issue when we start to input
043uh policies into each other is they become cumbersome and they do not change together. So, if we had a change that was to um the personal communication device policy, um it's just is it keeps things a little bit cleaner and a little bit tighter um to not input other policies into others every time we reference them. I think that was the only problem that this committee had um and that was a a consensus that we came to in our internal committee u with the administration. Um, and I don't believe that there were any other um, issues at that time with this policy, Pastor Harris. So, so I wasn't asking to put the policy in the policy because there was only two sentences that related to. So when it says when it referred you to another
044policy and if there's only one or two sentences then instead of sending me from this policy to another policy then just put that part whether you put it in a footnote or you put it somewhere that is accessible accessible to me. So that was my um that's what I was referencing. Not the whole policy in the policy, but whatever you're referencing of that policy, make a footnote. So I'm not going from a policy to a policy and then coming back to this policy. There was only one sentence in there that that that related to this. Do you remember what sentence that is, Pastor Harrison? No. or or or you want to get it for her later and give it to her. Either way, well well the the sentence, you know, at this point is really
045irrelevant. It's the practice of if I'm going to reference this policy, if I'm reading this policy and I'm going to reference another policy, then let me know the part that you're referencing. So, I'm not saying put that whole policy in here, but this particular one, uh, because if you read this one, it says, um, students shall not use personal communication devices, possess electronic equipment or devices, uh, on school property or at school sponsored activity without the permission of the principal or as referenced in the personal communication devices policy 5136. Okay. So, when I go to 5136, it lets me know because if I read this, I'm thinking, okay, well, they can't film at basketball games. They can't film at sporting events of any kind, but 51 the the policy that it references says that they
046can. And so, that's the portion that pertains to this policy. So, if there's just a footnote that says except for as prescribed in policy 5136, instead of telling me to go there myself, just make a footnote that that's what it says that I can. That's the exception. It's reading one policy instead of reading two. Think about that, Haley, and what he's saying. I think I have an understanding of what what what pastor Harrison is saying is that if if it whether it's in bold or we just say this is referenced in such and such policy so no one has to really go and look at go to this policy for one or two sentences in another policy. Is that correct? Okay. All right. Whoa. Does she understand? I do I do understand what you're saying,
047Pastor Harrison. Um I I uh would have to take a look to see how much language. I think when we reviewed this it was like a pretty decent. This was the way to um keep it clean. But if we can see how we can pull that language from the personal commun communications devices policy. I think the larger concern is more so in terms of when things get updated and when things change that they'll they will change together so that they won't conflict. If one policy is changed for one reason um and it's a quick change um when we get into putting words in policies we just don't we just don't want to create a conflict between the two policies. So that's the that was the reason for the recommendation. But I understand what you're saying.
048Yeah. Um Mr. share and I think sometimes we do things for expediency but it it's more convoluted in the end. So there is an exception to this. Okay. So you can film at basketball games, football game, cheerleader competitions. And so in those types of things to be slower and be clearer except when you're at this event or except as authorized by the schools and that's where the administrative guidelines come in that you can take your phone out and if you're at a basketball game after hours, you can, you know, take pictures or whatever. So sometimes we want to keep it clean, but it becomes more cloudy. So if we're going to change a policy, I'd rather change it to make it cleaner and make it more user friendly, not for us, but for the parents
049that reference the policy that needs to read the policy. Understood. Thank you. Is that um the consensus that we uh bring this back with a new iteration? Yes. I was going to ask come back the next meeting so give us maybe example or something to show that how you know how we're going to do this and that way we know it will be done in all the uh policies moving forward. Okay. And that way we can discuss it a little bit more if we need to at that time. Okay. Any other questions on this policy electronic equipment? All right. Let's move on. Um, next, uh, before we move on, I want to go back to vendor relations. Were we ready to send that on for a first read or you want to take that back
050and look at the uh, first line or were we going to address that in administrative guidelines? We have time so we can uh, keep it on discussion on discussion and then we can once we get it ready then we can move on for the first reading and then move into the second and third. Okay. This is not one of the policies that we're in a rush. Okay. So, we have time for that one. All right. Okay. Electronic equipment. We'll go back and we will look at adding the wording to this one. So, right now, the only one we have for a first read for right now is the nepotism policy. Next, we'll move on to the independent contract operator and service provider policy. the committee um went back and looked at the original policy that
051was written by board member Molinar and we did um go through and added some nuances from that. Again, it didn't change a lot. We did reference um Ohio's Public Records Act um under number six on the back as it relates to compliance and oversight. And then as we continued to talk more and more about this particular policy, um the committee then began to talk about would this best live in administrative guidelines under vendor relations because each contract with an independent contract operator or service provider is different based on the service that's being provided. Any questions? Um I I I have a comment. Um same with the um in this policy as far as the um a a policy or a procedure of grievance, right? And I think that's where this would live. Yeah. Well, I
052guess I'll speak to the administrative guideline part of it. I think the that I think this is a policy by itself and then the administrative guidelines um feed from the policy. Uh something that is this important and something that we use this often. Um, and certainly when we update administrative guidelines, I think that this is is something that, um, I would like to see us kind of move a little slower and make sure we get it right. Mr. Carter, are you saying this is this will be part of administrative guidelines to the vendor policy, this piece here, or this would still be I can't remember. Um, I don't know if you remember why it was suggested that maybe this be administrative guidelines. I know that uh member board member Harrison is saying that it should
053definitely be a policy, but I'm going to have Haley just since we're in discussion. All right, go ahead, Haley. Yes. So, and um I don't know, Miss Folk, if you have any um comments as well, um we'd appreciate your insight, but um for the reasons that Miss Carter stated that because the the um contracts are each different that this would serve as an administrative guideline as opposed to a policy. Um I don't think that that necessarily means it cannot be a policy, but um Miss Spoke, do you have any comments? Um our original thought was and to me to do pastor Harrison's 6460 is the policy if if we do it as 6460.01 it is a sub policy it's not an administrative guidelines and then the dispute resolution we're trying to put into this could
054be part of this part of it. So, I'm not saying it's not a policy, but to uh Haley's comment, these independent contracted service provider contracts are also different. They could be a minimum of a dollar. It could be multiple dollars involved and they get very, you know, large in the service depending on what you're looking for. They are some of your service contracts that deal with not as an example your transport is your occupational therapy, your physical therapy, your um language therapy when we do not have enough or is very specific to the child's or students needs. So that's why we were saying it's probably still 6460 is the main vendor relations policy but 6460.01 1 was a sub policy under that. It's not that it is an administrative guideline. Person, thank you, Mr. Chair.
055The reality for for me is, you know, we still are a service organization and we we deal with taxpayers dollars. So, we're spending taxpayers dollars and we want to be not just um efficient from our end. you know, sometimes we can't have everything. We we can't make all of the rules and then interpret all of the rules, you know, so we want to be user friendly and we want to be fair, you know. I I I I think that we need to allow vendors um the opportunity to whether it be appeal or bring in some sort of grievance and it needs to be clear. so that we can look at it and then they come in and I say, "Okay, well man, hey man, you on you on step seven. You still got to go
056back to one and two because you may be able to resolve it at one and two, but we don't have anything clearly that shows that." And so when when whatever policy we're doing um that we're dealing with vendors or we're dealing with anyone who is we're we're giving them taxpayer dollars. We need to be able to not just do it in an administrative guidelines because again administrative guidelines are arbitrary. They they they become arbitrary depending on who's reading them. A policy is more concrete and it holds us accountable and the vendor accountable. So I I would just like to see that as a Yes, ma'am. Oh, I'm sorry. I would just like to add that the administrative guidelines really should tell us how to carry out the policy. So, they should not be arbitrary. It
057should help hold us accountable to the policy because it goes into detail saying these are the things you have to do to make sure you're doing this policy. Haley, you can correct me if I'm not right. Yeah. And I So, and that's one of the things I'm going to say this on the record. I I do like administrative guidelines. I think most people should have administrative guidelines because it's part of operations manual. And we talk about operations. Operations tell you here's what you're supposed to do. Here's the step by step. And so, if our administrative guidelines are telling us step by step, we should do that. If this is going to be a an addendum to the other policy, then we could add the dispute piece under there as well as the administrative guidelines. I
058think if so everyone will be clear. I don't want to get messy either, but so we can be clear of here's the policy. Here's what's going on. Here's the dispute. If you need dispute, but here's the process, administrative guidelines on how you go about doing the process, the dispute. So is that clear enough? I don't know if it is. Please let me know. Anybody, Mr. Harrison, you know, and I I'll keep going back to the policy, you know. Yeah. The administrative guidelines tell us how we should do the polic how the policy should follow but again we need some uh we need a strong policy and so we we won't get away from the policy whether we want to carve this part up and move it to this we won't get away from a sound
059policy and then how are we going to fulfill the policy um so you know trying not to put things commit things to a policy. I I me I I personally find that troubling and especially when we are using taxpayers dollars. Right. So So Padam President, go ahead. Yeah, I I think that's a moot point. Miss Faulk said that 66 6460.01 would be a sub. It still would serve as a policy, not administrative guidelines. She said it like three times that this is not administrative guidelines that it still would serve as a policy. Correct. So we know this what is being described is not administrative guidelines but a part of the policy and then on top of that as uh uh Miss Oddley has stated those and uh chair Alexander that the administrative guidelines and the
060grievance part will come as part of that's the add-on part when you um to use the step example. So, what's clear to me as I said here and this keeps going around that this is going to be a part of the policy and then the add-ons is the dispute and to sh up those administrative guidelines is a dispute process and administrative guidelines. Pastor Harrison, go ahead. Yeah, it it it's not a mu point and it it wasn't clear to me and it it went around and around and three different things was said. So I'm I'm I'm going to bring it back to whether it's a subpolicy. It it needs to be a policy. Thank you. So question I'm going to bring this up just for a comment. This piece here since it's part of the
061subcontract can this be part of the policy that policy itself then you can do the dispute piece and then you can also do your uh administrative guidelines attached to it. Can we do that in or do we need to have a another policy and then do the same thing with the dispute and the um guidelines? That's something we don't actually we may not have to answer that today but maybe when we come back at another time too before we move this policy on to come back and say explain it so we can get a good understanding and that we know that we have the policy or the sub policy or this combined is one policy and it has administrative guidelines to go with it. Okay. Yes, Miss Alley. Just one final thought to try to
062align with what I'm hearing with um board member Harrison. So in the policy it could reference if there's a concern that they can um there's that they can have a way to address it but how to address it wouldn't be in the policy. It would be in the guideline. Yes ma'am. That's exactly what Yes. Okay. Any more discussion on this here? All right. Let's move forward. Time is ticking. Okay. So, the um ICO policy. I think the committee understands that we're going to keep this as a policy, not move it to administrative guidelines. We will keep this in discussion. Next, I'll have Dr. Lash come up to talk about the parents bill of rights. And I believe that we don't have any other significant changes to this from the last time and we believe we're
063ready to move this on to first read, but I'll let Dr. Lash take the lead on this one. Okay. Yes, that is correct. Good evening. Um, chair, president, co-chair, interim superintendent, chief of staff, attorney. Good evening. Wanted to get everyone. Um, yes. So, we I believe last month went through um the parents bill of rights and I'll just kind of um walk you through it again. Uh you know, it it it starts with the fundamental right of our our parents um you know, to know what's happening with their their students educational experience. And so, um, you'll see that it defines age appropriate and developmentally appropriate because where it pertains to sexuality content, it'll use those um terms. It also talks about a student's mental, emotional, or physical health and well-being. What uh some of the
064components that are included in that definition. So, when you see um those phrases, you kind of have the uh context behind it. and then sexuality content. So, the first section again um just really talks about for students um that are in grades kindergarten through grade three that there is no instruction that contains sexuality content. But for any sexuality content, ensuring that it's age appropriate and developmentally appropriate and that prior to that instruction, families um would have um the right to to review those instructional materials. The next any questions on that section? Any questions? Nope. Continue on. Okay. So the the other the next section talks about mental, emotional, physical health or well-being. Um and essentially that if there are any substantial changes in the students services which include counseling services or monitoring related to a
065student's mental, emotional or physical health or well-being that um the school will promptly notify the the student's parent and that information will not directly or indirectly be withheld from parents. again regarding a student's emotional, mental, physical health or or well-being. Okay. The next section uh procedure for authorization from parents for health care services. This speaks uh and you see that we did uh click the box there for providing an annual notice. So this will become uh part of our annual notification of items to families. But this section is making sure families are aware of the services, health services that are provided um in the schools and that before um any health services would be provided that uh authorization would have to be uh obtained from the the parent. And then there's also I I know
066there's been conversation already this evening about a process resolving uh parental concerns but this section in this policy is germanine to the topics in this policy. So any um parent concerns um around sexuality content or um health services, anything that's related in this policy that there would be a protocol or a process for families to file that concern in writing to the principal. Um the principal would have 30 days to resolve it. If um that resolution the the parent does not agree with then there would be another uh step to the superintendent or the superintendent's design and then so on. Um so there is a that is outlined there and then the final um section in this policy is about the right um not the final I'm sorry but the right to inspect instructional materials.
067Again this pertains to sexuality content. Um and then the last section, the right to inspect technology provider contracts. Okay, any questions? Pastor Harris, and I asked the last meeting the the um outside providers, the um what what comes to mind is Red Oak or um Minority Behavioral Health. um we we don't have anything to do with them, but because they're in our buildings, do we have any um responsibility um based on their services that they provide? Right. And the services, you're right, you did bring this up last time, the services that those organizations provide, um the parent would have to open open for services. And so there would be that communication that would not happen outside of a parent authorizing that to to happen. I I guess what I'm saying is we don't take we
068don't bear any liability from the services. Um I I'm assuming that they're mandated by their code of ethics or but we because they're in our building we don't or do we encourage liability for their service based on this bill and so yeah I'm I'm going to look to that's a good question. Yeah. Basically what happens if Wanda was my daughter and I had asked that Minority Behavioral Health work on a contract to service her. But how this came about was we wanted to do it during a regular day, not after the office. So the contract if I do that and you are the provider, you bring the contract to now Haley's the principal and you bring it to the school. You're asking for you to help Wanda while she is in school and it becomes
069the principal's determination if time is available in the schedule because it does not come out of core instructional time. To your point, they have their mandates on their contract to provide that service to the student and all we are is providing this space. Are we held liable? We are not held liable for what they do because that is a contract between the parent for the student. They are just in the space. It's just like the building that minority behavioral health actually houses their offices in is if it is owned by some other company other than minority behavioral health, it isn't liable for them at that time. And that's how it became created. Okay? So you are there to provide the service under a contract that releases the parents permission to allow you to service during
070the day. President Jackson, member Harrison, thank you. That was an excellent question. That's to have me dump into something a little deeper. Now, I've seen red oak on our agendas. Yes, there are some agreements that you approved and it started last year where um there are specific contracts for them to do specifics, but it may not be an individual contract with Wanda. No, I understand that. Oh, I'm sorry. To member Harrison's point, I I mean I don't want to I'm going to say to my point because when member Harrison asked the question which I thought was a great question. I took it generally that any these people that's in our buildings rendering these service do we have any liability and so I know you did the example about the individual child because parents can have
071counselors crisis management come into schools and then we sign off as principles administration during their lunch break. they can sit with kids or something like that if the principal decides. But I'm talking about the bigger scope where we have certain services being offered in our building and we see these on our board agendas. Are there any liability to that? And then I want to put a pin in that is are we liable for that? Are we tracking member Harrison? Is that kind? Okay. Then my second part is to the point um what when you use Miss Dr. lash, excuse me, for example, and you said they're just using a space. The parent is granting permission and the principal is finding a space. The principal does not if they cannot find the space during the time
072or not and that doesn't exclude we have the right to say we sorry we can't service you during the school day. No, I get that. You didn't let me finish my statement. So that's why you don't know what I'm saying. So what I'm asking is if that was to be done when we talk about using space, right? So say a parent comes in and um the principal agrees on the spacing between these hours of like a a period of um like if we say cheer cultures with cheer competition when we were talking about the use of space and if you had a teacher it do y'all see what I'm saying like the example if you use that if the principal is okay and say we have this space available from 3:30 to 4:30 is a
073study or this space is open and so these kids cheer you know, it's available. So, for competition in this window until 5:30, they can use this space. Are you saying then the principal could say to that coach or that Oh, like, yeah. Well, the space is available and we will allow you. I was talking during the school day only from the hours of say at an elementary 8:30 to 2:30. Okay. All right. Thank you. I'm going to comment on that too. I I I um work with a lot of these organizations. I think from what my my uh uh my recollection of it was in the in the past and I assume this is still now these individuals red I've used red oak since we talked about red oak. Red oak has a contract with
074the the the parent and the parent is saying it's okay for the them to come into the school to render services to my kid at a certain period or certain time or whenever they have available time for them to come in. We're not responsible for anything that goes on with that um kid. what what goes on the counseling far as counseling with the kid and uh the the the counselor because they're not ours. That's between the parent and the parent and the agency. Okay. And only part that we would be I'll say liable probably is that if something was going on happens while they're doing counseling in our building to a kid that's when we'd be liable. Correct. That would be correct. Okay. So otherwise we wouldn't be reli wouldn't be liable for anything else.
075Want to make sure that's correct. Okay. All right. And the service is done during the school day. Okay. That's how this got started. Madam President, so we do have liability if if that's what the question is. Yeah, there is a liability. I I assume and I'm let them answer because I don't know for sure, but we would have liability if this individual came into counsel uh say they come into counsel Bruce Alexander and they come into council me and something happens between me and this individual during that time then that could be possibly be a liability for us. We you'd have to prove negligence that we knew about it in order for us to be liable and that doesn't usually occur. All we do and I'll give you an example. You could have a outside
076organization feel that something happened. They we wouldn't have known. We just rented the space. So if we're not proved negligence or had knowledge that we would be negligent, we are not usually liable. So okay, Pastor Harrison and Madam President. Okay. Okay. So I want to go back to the parent bill of rights and and and I guess that's what I'm looking at. Okay. So my child tells someone from Red Oak, "Hey, I'm feeling this kind of way." And I find out I'm mad at Red Oak, but you told him in the school during this school day. And so if I read the parent bill of rights, if you know, and I I guess are we indemnified from whatever they talk about, whatever happens, they're in our building, they're on our time, um they're using our
077space, and we go kind of go back to the um intellectual property, you know, time, space, you know, resources. So all of this counseling is going on in our space during school hours, during school time. The child was transported to school on the bus. Child go home on the bus. The child is in our care. This parent bill of rights, are we responsible for any of this reporting based on it was the conversations occurred at school and and I guess that's the maybe I'm not saying it right. No, I think Well, he is. Yeah. I I and it sounds like we might have that's why I keep looking at attorney KPAR. We might have to have some additional kind of conversation because I heard two things and um Mr. Alexander when you brought up like
078what's happening in the confines of the counseling session versus something happening in the context of like we're in the building you know those kinds of things. And so um we might need to figure out those nuances but then I hear like a larger of any of these service providers What's our Yeah. In our building. Yeah. And and and and this bill was intended to make us mandatory reporters. Well, we are. Yeah. I mean, you guys are in some areas. Okay. But this bill was intended to make the school mandatory reporters of anything sexual. Well, we know why it was intended. I mean, it doesn't read like it was, but okay. Um, so you know, my son is not feeling like my son anymore and he tells one of the counselors how he's feeling. Okay. The
079school, do we have any responsibility in reporting because it happens with him and the counselor, him and the outside. And I guess that's the only thing I'm asking. Do we have any responsibility? Well, and again, I think we have um have to have some more conversation, but so some of that uh conversation probably is protected with the counselor and the student. Yes. And so if the student shares something with the counselor, um just like you talked about their code of ethics, just like we're mandated reporters when we are aware of, you know, information or what have you. So, as a counselor, um, depending on what's reported to the counselor, they likewise would have expectations around what they bring forward. But if they're in a counseling session that is protected between that counselor and the client,
080um, I don't know how we would know information to report unless I'm not following. Carter, that's a good answer. You know, wait, Miss Carter. Oh, so I'm just wondering um where you were getting at as relates to if they're in a session one-on-one with their therapists, their therapists are mandated reporters as well, right? Um do they have to tell us that they did a report to CSB? I don't know if they have to disclose that information, but more than likely we would we would know because then they would be contacting us to get more information from the school if the report is substantiated after they made their mandated report. And and and I guess I'm just speaking of the this particular parent bill of rights, you know. So I I I mean I know the
081well I don't know the whole CSB process, but that that process of you know their investigation. I'm just speaking of this parent bill of rights, you know, do you know and maybe it's a conversation with Red Red Oak and Minority Behavioral Health. Maybe it's something that the school says, "Hey, you know what? You have to sign this release that we're not responsible for what happens in the counseling session, but they're using our building. They're in our space." And so I think we need to make sure that we're not responsible as a reporter, not just if we knew, but should we have known? Yeah. And let's let's get more information. Let you guys come back with that. I think I'm going to say this, Pastor Harrison. I think that if that happens between the kid and
082that counselor is between them now if this kid tells our counselor something now our counselor has to get involved because now it's it's they've said something to our counselor that can be that can be harmful or something needs to be reported by our school counselor but if not then I don't think our school counselor or school period has any responsibility but let's please don't hold me to that check with legal to make sure we're right and then come back and let us Yes, Miss Ali, I just wanted to add a layer that we also have that's called the access application and that's how different um vendors can get access to our students. Um and part of that lives with Dr. Lash's department. Um especially if it's mental health uh with Dr. Merkel and Ivonne Culver.
083So there's an application. And so they've also the liability for us is that we vet them also before we just give them exposure to our scholars. They we we make sure that they're qualified, you know, that they have the appropriate license and things like that. and then that they're on this list and then the principles know, okay, because they're on this access list. If a parent asks for the sessions to be held at the school, I have permission by the district to allow it to happen at my school. If the provider is not on the list, they should not be hosting any sessions at the school. That would hold us liable. Thank you, Miss Ali. Okay. Thank you, Miss Lash. Um, let's do one more because we are past our time. Let's do one more
084and then we'll we'll have to bring the others back for the next meeting. Okay. So, we'll do the first we'll do the first Neola update and then we'll put the other one back on next time. So, this one is purchases Neola updated policy regarding purchasing and bidding. And um, Mr. Leonard, were you going to come up and talk about this update or Deb was going to come up and talk about this this particular update? Let's do several of them. Not I didn't put this one up. The one with the They didn't put up 3020. No, only the current policy, not the in the packet though. Yeah, we have the paper copy. Yeah. Let me see if there's a way to get to it from here. I thought you said clicking wouldn't work. Um Oh, there
085it goes. Okay, good. Then you just scroll up. Yeah. Okay. So, you have a copy of the original and these are the updates for Niola. Um it changed 6320 and it's now called instead of just purchases, it is purchases and bidding. They have gone ahead and taken the word quotations and bids out and replaced it with price quotations for items not required to be competitively bidded because there are are certain items you are not required to competitively bid. They had um excuse me while I try to get this to come down. Okay. Oh yeah, there we go. So it was pretty standard which has been around for a long time. As you can see as you go through there are limitations as to what you are authorized to do they discuss the then and now
086certificate which is a operational procedure and basically it's amounts less than 25,000 may be paid by the treasurer upon completion of a then and now uh certificate. A super blanket certificate is another one that they can go ahead and also complete and those are standards. This is where it started to change when you got under after it was contracts for development improvement. It's now under the competitive bidding and the area that you will see is a change in the revised code and it has to do when the board determines to build, repair, enlarge, improve or demolish a school building. So, you're really into construction at this point, the cost of which exceeds the amount to be determined and published by the Ohio Director of Commerce. The drafting note is as of October 24th to 24.
087They've increased that from 50,000 to 75,000 and it allows now a new nuance to it and automatically increases each year by 3% thereafter. This allows us to have the flexibility to know that as an example, if the revised code says 75,000 and you get two years from now out of that beyond that, you could then take that 75,000 and multiply it by 3% for one year and 3% for the next year. So as an example, the threshold then for bidding becomes say 77,000 79,000 and this allows to keep up with the actual standards that are in the construction. So that was one of the updates and as this we started actually working on this last fall um after the um legislature approved it on October 24th of 24. That was the only change to it.
088It all remained the same under that section. It was just the amount in the fact that you could do this. The soliciting of bids actually stayed the same and the awarding of bids stayed the same. So, as an example, it talks about the purchase of school buses and certain other motor vehicles. The reason these are listed is they are considered items that will be longer than 5 years. So this is why they are put out there. It also tells you what you can do with a lease and purchase agreement. Some districts, as an example, do lease their buses. Um, Akaran has certainly purchased them over the number of years because we are able to maintain our fleet. Then it gets into the quantity of purchases. It did not change the requirements. It was a just
089a grammatical change. It went from a he, she shall check, it's to they shall check whether the proposed purchase is subject to bid. And again, under C, it is strictly a grammatical change. The reverse auctions did not change. Now, to Reverend Harris's other comments, you get into per procurement using federal grants, you will have a cross reference, and the cross reference is the policy that we're not going to look at tonight. It's 6325. Um, but that was that's always been there because you basically do your purchasing with your own general funds, but there are more detailed requirements for the use of federal grants monies as to micro purchases, macro purchases, and others, and we can go over those again, but those are the only changes. And the last time that we actually had this vetted
090and updated was 2019. And this is the most recent update from Neiola in 2024. Okay. Any questions? Any questions? M. Carter? No. I was going to say if there's no questions, are we okay with moving this to a first read or you want to keep it in discussion? I think we can move it for a first read. Go ahead, Pastor Erson. I was going to ask I didn't have a question. Well, I do have a question. I was going to ask if we could move it to the next meeting because there there is one part of this that I want to get clarification on. Um, and it's the awarding of bids. Uh, I just want to get clarification on that section. Uh, Mr. Chair, um, that reads, "The board shall approve all contracts resulting from
091competitive bids prior to being awarded. the board reserves the right to reject any or all bids. Um, and that's a point of question based on something um, a contract uh, dispute last year. I just want to get a clarification if we can just move it to the next meeting. We'll go ahead and move that to the next meeting and we'll clear it up next meeting and we'll move it into the hopper to get move forward. Yep. Okay. Uh, thank you. That was it on our agenda and then we'll bring the other procurement and purchasing policies back at the next meeting. Perfect. Perfect. Uh is there any other questions, comments or concern before we adjourn the meeting? Anyone have any questions, comments or concerns? Mr. Chair, very quickly is playing. I just want to reiterate the
092fact about those policies, the vendor policies, and that they are two policies and um not the additional administrative guidelines, but we're working on the policy and the grievance portion to where they can grieve so that we can also not just cover the administrative portion, but the people that we're working with and who we serve. So, which the policies protect pro protect as well. And that grievance portion, I just want to reemphasize that since we've been waiting some time. Okay. Uh let's make sure we bring that next time too so we can get get that taken care of if we can. Okay. Uh anything else for the good of the order? Yes, ma'am. I'm going to save my comments after the meeting for you. Uh all right. If not, that's it. We'll close the meeting. Thanks
093every Thank everyone who was here, those who participated via uh uh TV. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening. [Music]