001my calendar for a yes for tomorrow all right we're ready to go i guess okay welcome everyone to our uh policy meeting this afternoon uh hope everyone is doing well uh can we we'll go ahead and get started uh dr james um oh okay so this time we have uh both of the previous uh meeting summaries the one from october 5th which we were missing at the last meeting and then the one from november uh okay any questions from anyone on the meeting notes from the last two meetings no questions okay we'll move forward all right so at our last meeting um we decided when we got to um the recruitment screening uh hiring uh retention part of the document we were gonna look at that and try and you know get that to find
002i know um i had some comments on that uh as well and then also on the implementation monitoring and board equity committee i had comments about that and then if we had time it was also about the supplier diversity as well so i think we should just start with the hr piece on recruitment screening hiring and retention and yeah i can go ahead and kick us off um on the conversation um so uh based on our conversations at the last meeting um uh we some of us have discussed this section and we've put some other language in here for discussion so the first sentence is basically the same as it was that echo public schools will employ equitable processes to recruit higher and retain employees from racially diverse backgrounds the second sentence is the goal
003is to diversify the teaching force so that it resembles so there's a couple changes that didn't make it into this document so what the sentence is supposed to say the goal is to diversify the teaching teaching staff and force workforce so that it resembles the student population instead of i'm sorry i'm saying it backwards reflects the student population the new sentence that we added is as part of its work to achieve this goal the district will review its current recruitment screening and interview processes and procedures and where necessary we'll implement updated processes and procedures that are racially equitable across the district and the reason i just put were necessary in there is just because of some of the restrictions that we have with civil service in the city of akron and that we're going to
004work with them on that separately but there are some processes that are defined and determined by the city of akron that that we would be tied to so that's why i put in where necessary so i think in the whole discussion about whether this section applied to best teaching staff or to all staff and i think from the conversations that we had for last week we wanted it to apply to all staff hey miss mcveigh i said a quick question for you um could you just give just just one example uh you mentioned that there are things that we have to be um congruent with the city on can you give one example of what you're talking about there yeah so um for example our support our group of employees our support staff secretarial staff
005we hire them through the civil service commission so civil service will um runs a test so candidates apply to take the test and then they are scored on that test and then there is a top 10 a list of top 10 applicants and then we are required to choose from the top three and then that's who we have to interview and then we select from one of those top three okay and there are also union contract provisions too that require us with regard to staff bidding on other positions within the district and we move support staff around that way and it's the same for our custodial staff um and uh some of the other support staff positions roger that thank you quick question didn't the uh charter changes that were just voted on change the
006rule of three to the rule of ten yes that's when i admit i did mention that at our last meeting as well so that instead of looking at the top three candidates we should at least be able to you could have any number of people that actually take the test and pass the test you could have 20 30 40 people on a list they will we work off of a list of ten but we currently we have to look at the top three the language with the city with the election has changed to the top ten so that we can take a look at so we believe that that's going to apply to us as well so i already have my office checking into that um to to converse with the city of akron to
007make sure that's going to apply to us as well right thank you okay i think my only comment on it is um you know going back to the point that kathy mentioned before um uh highlighted in bold the goal is to diversify the teaching force or is it just you know if because it's more than just teachers it should be diversifying the workforce so um or how you want do you still want teachers in there how do you want that to read well it does say force and staff isn't that pretty much everybody then it it it appears yes yeah and the so in order to so it's gonna it's difficult to um how do i say this what we don't want is that um we're looking at the student population and we look at
008our [Music] um our our percentages we don't want to get to a point where we're looking at our percentages to be equal to the student population and yet the vast majority of those individuals are non-student-facing positions so that's what we don't want to do so i don't know how to get her i think the way it's worded now it's fine but i just wanna is the uh primary uh priority but also but keep in mind too though that um when you're talking about teaching force and if you're talking about like to make sure that we know what we're what we're referring to there are we talking about you know teachers in the classroom but also um school psychologists school counselors the therapists um the physical occupational therapists interpreters and those are all groups of employees
009that are um face-to-face with students all every day so um i think we want to make my suggestion would be that we would make sure that we include all staff so i mean maybe everybody then i mean maybe a way to get at this is you know is you're diversing diversifying your educational um staff and support and support staff educational and support staff i like that you know i'm sensitive to to dr akbar's point about yeah about the teaching force i know in healthcare we have this we're having the same conversations you know i mean and i'm gonna be really blunt but you know folks don't so much care about whether or not the back office is diverse is diverse as much as they care about the patient facing folks our nurses our physicians our
010pt's our occupational therapist like is it is that part because because that's the visible part of that that's the visible part of of the organization is that part right there you know yeah not the that's the visible part right you want to make sure that it includes our educational assistants because they're working on a daily basis with our students also so right if you do educational um educational staff and support staff like what you said something like that yeah it's fine yeah yeah and and and uh kathy i think we want to make sure we include everybody i know we're talking about the teaching staff and those who face basically with uh our kids our students but we also don't want to forget those in in the uh uh offices as well because i think
011when dr akbar and i we're looking at this and we're looking at the diversity everywhere especially with our kids but also with support staff those who are not supporting staff administration the entire gamut of everyone being diversified and having uh look look at all those areas not just at the those who are working with our students something like diversify the district staff particularly educators or something like that because don't you really honestly want the entire staff to be diverse but giving but was a special emphasis on the teachings and support staff educational support staff i mean i agree and this is what i want to say about you know why i feel strongly i'm making sure i like the way it reads now but just making sure that we're very intentional about all of our
012staff and i've said this in the past you know a bus driver can make or break a kid's instructional day and some people don't agree with that but that bus ride and how you can relate to our students and if our bus drivers better reflect the students that they're picking up you know a lot of times those relationships can make or break a kid's day because if you have a problem on the bus before you even get dropped off at school you know that can be a problem for many of our custodians to be honest with you they're highly visible in our schools you know around kids even though they're not doing direct instruction but you know our students will see those folks um or whether it's the secretary you know in addition to the
013teacher so i just think we need to make sure when we're implementing you know our plans that our policies reflect that the expectation is all of our staff are going to better reflect the student population that we serve correct right then how about the goal to diversify the district staff so that the workforce reflects the student population then i do think it's really important for us to showcase and sort of highlight the educators though i think you know that has to be the main an educator's any of that staff who has that direct contact with students in and around that classroom so that could be the counselors and psychologists and folks like that and that's the term we always use in the district for that broader category beyond just the teachers but i think we
014have to we have to showcase that separately and then say all other staff otherwise i do think it's too easy especially when we're all not sitting in this room that we're just going to be reflecting data that lumps everybody together and i feel like it's critical that our educators are reflecting our population i think it's important for everybody else too and the bus drivers just like the superintendent said that's critical too but i don't think we can let them get lost in the whole staff data yeah and that's exactly what i was saying so thank you ellen um so if we want the i i think what we are trying to say is in each category of staff we want it to reflect the student population perhaps so again it's important that we look at
015these things too from a disaggregated lens as well yeah um and so yeah the teaching force is very important or educated enforced however we whatever that broader term is is very important the individuals who have that direct contact uh with students um around the classroom right because when you look at when you comp when you look at data that that broad data that comes out um you know from ipeds or wherever um you know the national education statistics uh center it's going to show you the diversity of the teaching force is going to say actual teachers i'm assuming um in that they don't include everyone else and then they do student population and that's what when other districts are looking at us and when you look at data that's how the data will be looked
016at and analyzed so if we want to be it pay attention to that if you put the word district wide following the word staff so that it would read the goal is to diversify educators and staff district wide so that the workforce would reflect the student population that still gets to the fact you've encompassed the district but it helps you to cover all the aspects with still the educators to dr james's and dr mcwilliams woods issue that they are truly in the forefront of that i'm just wondering does that help i think we all diversify educators and all staff district-wide yeah i think that captures it that at least make sure you're not just talking about school level staff you're talking about the staff yeah to kathy's point this you need the word all in
017front of staff is that what you were trying to say kathy yeah yes okay okay what do we think about that so far i think that looks good yeah i agree and i think um it also helps when we have to develop plans to implement it that it does call out uh the educators as uh dr akbar stated so i think we're good there okay can i ask something cathy where you added the where necessary and you referred to the city charter and the rule of three instead of where necessary can we change it to where possible change it to one i didn't hear what you said change it to where possible instead of where necessary because i feel like it's necessary everywhere it just may not be possible everywhere yeah we i think it
018could say that instead is this am i in the right place where you added that kathy up at the uh two sentences up on or two lines up where a net where it says where necessary yeah is going to your right where possible oh i see okay it's already there okay i thought you were adding it right now i see okay yeah that's better actually okay anything else we need to add or any more comments questions for this section for this part okay dr james go ahead um so at our last meeting we were talking about the supplier diversity and finance and resource allocations and we even talked about having a separate meeting for that but um can we skip that for now i wanted to go down to the one uh below that that
019talked about um yeah implementation uh and monitoring so as as we've revised it from the last meeting does anyone is there an issue with what's included currently yeah um i i would like to change the word reviewer to auditor i think it says auditor and reviewer here i missed that sorry all the strikeouts it gets confusing doesn't it because i was thinking like didn't we have auditor there last time yeah okay you know if i could just just mention something i mean some of what a lot of what's in here is sounds like um language that would be in a job description um i just just wanted to throw out there do we do we really want to do that here in a policy if it's things that go into a job description it would
020be difficult for us to revise and change job duties of a of a position and change the job description if we have this kind of language in the board policy because then it would require us then to go back and change the board policy before we could update and revise a job description and once the job description is approved by the board you know there are times where we go back and basic will revise a job description based on changes to a job and um and they all always have that and other duties assigned by the superintendent is exact permits you know that goes on our job description so that it gives the superintendent the the ability to change job duties as jobs change over the years so i i just thought i'd bring it
021up for discussion on how much do we really want to put in here and maybe it could be something more general i have been looking at other uh job descriptions and have been passing those on to cafe most of them reflect you know that i've seen reflect this language there may be some you know um there may be some minor differences in that you know i actually don't have a problem with including it because what i'll do is just have kathy take this out and put it in the job description or copy that you know use it for the job description but it may need to change and if we're gonna do that um then we'll have to come you know to the board for uh approval uh if it's not going to be in
022compliance with the policy which isn't a problem it can it can happen yeah dr james i agree with you uh because this language could be put into the job description and then uh say for example if if we uh need to amend this we can always just amend the policy couldn't we come come back to the board and just make that small amendment versus rewriting of our entire policy that's true yeah yeah and i think it's important that it stays in there because if i i see these as core functions of the role and obviously they're uh in the job description there'll be much more than this um and so if there is any discussion around changing the core of this these these uh responsibilities then i think the board should be apprised of that
023and that there there should be a conversation a larger conversation stuff yes what about what about what about this um and i hate i hate wordsmithing but um so after we get the in the first um section it's like um line four that the district's practices are aligned okay um and then maybe it could say i don't know if it will go there or maybe later but at a minimum the chief diversity officer will serve as co-chair and keep all that other stuff because there could be some duties that we will probably add to that um you know not taken away from those core functions yeah i like the at minimum but remember we did we did also agree earlier that the superintendent i think would be the co-chair the equity committee so we just
024need to change that here too yeah and just maybe start at serves as district level uh auditor so not at the superintendent part but just the cdo instead it will serve right yeah um as district level auditor so we'll just take that first part out so okay i'm confused uh let's make sure that i'm keeping up with the with the changes so the the cdo would be on the equity committee but they would not be co-chairing it that'd be coach would be co-chaired by what a board member and the superintendent let's make sure that i have that right i think part of our discussion last time was that regardless that i think no matter if this is a board level committee then uh the superintendent just like he is at most of the other committee
025meetings would be a presence at that committee i'm asking the question diversity officer would definitely be a part of that committee and then the superintendent and the chief diversity officer would also have to have an operation an administrative kind of team in the weeds doing all the implementation too so i think we talked about those two functions just to make sure we were clear on what was what um so i think superintendent you had said no matter what you would be at this team meeting anyway we're right right right yeah so that's why i was asking the questions i was thinking like well if it's like if if this is a board committee then it would be then it would be co-chaired by board members yeah okay okay okay so that's that's why i was
026confused when i looked here said that that the cdo and or spread it will be would be coaching chairing or coaching because that's that isn't because this is exactly that isn't consistent but um just for practical matters like with finance um you know we'll typically have the treasure as the primary and you know yeah it would be very similar right right no no no i'm on board with 100 okay okay we got you uh and then my other question was on so the the the monitoring part right so i want to say that one two three four five six seven eight nine line nine um we're talking about monitoring strategies to meet that you know for me and this is just sort of my own sort of um thought process on this um i would
027expect anybody that would fill this role to do more than just monitor right i mean like i would expect this person to be a part of the creation of any strategy and uh and or tactics that we are employing or deploying to um to meet diversity hiring and recruitment you know and this is where you know i mean there can be an auditing an auditing component to that um indoor and auditing and or monitoring so i'm not saying strike the language i'm saying but i would add an addition to it that that person needs to be somebody that is adding something to the conversation about hey you know i have expertise in you know diversity evidence inclusion and your strategy is flawed um and let me be a part of the team that actually creates
028a strategy right and so so and and this this role to me also i would think has to be has to be interacting as a peer with uh kathy mcveigh you know um you know so um because because to me the hr piece like you know just as kathy doesn't want the you know the and nor should she you know you don't want the diversity officer drafting or determining your strategy around diversity but that person but that person should be partnering with you in the creation right around diversity you know um so because because everything that we do this i mean i've seen so walmart was really bad about this you know at times right where um a lot of this work was siloed you know um and and and you know and so for
029me i'd love to see us be a bit more um really sure that whoever's in this role is sort of dialed in and sort of partnered from an org chart standpoint um and has it would have joint creative um uh accountability and you know um around because you think about what what a strategy is right secretion of unique and valuable position which is what we're trying to do here you would want this person to be at the table and be a part of that value and candidly if you hired me just saying if you hired me for it for a run i would say well i want to put the table and create the strategy i don't want to just be sitting back monitoring it let me and be part of the discussion because because
030it's less you know it's less uh you're less likely to step on toes when you're in the room when you're creating it as opposed to kathy you create it and i come back as a cdo and i'm critic and i'm perceived to be criticizing your work product right that's just culturally that's not that's not the way i want this person to be integrated into what we do which really i think miss chapman is masterful at that at um miss chapman what do you always say that you you said it in our last meeting you go creating i actually use screening co-creating strategies that ensure equitable practices across district divisions and departments it actually reflects more of a design thinking point of view where you're right there's those you know kind of starts out and defining
031the problem and having those empathy interviews where you're actually leading to that co-creating a prototype get implemented and our internal conversation has been exactly what you were saying dr hall how do we organize it and structure it so it isn't this you know um situation where it's i mean it isn't you know how it you know sometimes you need to have the bully pulpit to make sure people do things but you want to make sure they're invested in the creating of it and the ma you know and the six overall success so those are some of the things that we're looking at in terms of how it gets implemented uh so that everyone has buy-in and everyone is actively engaged and it's not just it's not just their responsibility it's everyone's responsibility and from a
032leadership point of view you know how do we um you know empower that person and all of our uh department heads and all of our employees is it shouldn't really be top down it should also kind of uh you know there's some work that has to be done at top but a lot has to be done at the bottom and they gotta meet somewhere in the in between those two and i think the net section emphasizes that too because the next level of the actual action steps then beyond the bigger strategies now what are the action steps i think i like the wording of that you know facilitating with the department and the development of specific action steps right so to that point let me just add one more point so i'm on board with
033that but but what i don't want to have happen is i don't and i'm this is a hypothetical i'm just i'm just just just walking i'm not saying it would be this way but i wouldn't want somebody saying well like i own this like you can you can be in a room i'm happy to hear what you have to say but i'm the one who owns this and i'm the one who's ultimately going to make the decision so so to me i just make sure that we're emphasizing the shared decision-making part of this as well you know because co-creating one thing shared decision making is something yeah different you know yeah yeah wouldn't that be part of the job description as well having a job they're going to be doing these things and working in
034collaboration with other individuals in the in the district to our department heads or maybe to make sure things are monitored and make sure they're implemented and we're moving forward with them yeah yes that's a good point mr alexander that's where that really gets spelled out in detail that and the goals that the um superintendent lays out for the person so i don't i don't want this to get too too descriptive but i do want to provide the framework got it and so if we if just going back just really quickly instead of saying code creating can we say co-constructing and monitoring and then i think i think we're good as far as creating the the basic parameters okay i do think though that that we would be remiss if we didn't you know make sure
035that that that this person is has shared decision making authority with regard to this stuff too yeah there is somewhere where the person it says something about authority but i'm okay with that being added i think the word authority is important but i feel like we are going to say we're going to say shared decision making i mean again i just again you know right now we're all the people that are on board this right in years to come our successors are the ones working with this right and so so my comments are from the standpoint of people who you know a full new full newsletter people that are based trying not who are following this you know what what do we intend with this document right and so um so i just i would
036i just don't want to see this in years to come where this person's role gets more and more kind of marginalized and kind of pushed into more of this style like you're the equity and diversity person you know um that that i've seen that happen in organizations you know and so i really which is why focusing on like let's get as much as we can it's a balancing act right so i'm with you dr akbar like you know we don't want to be overly descriptive here um you know but the same time i don't i don't want to i want to strike a balance because again in 10 years when none of us are are in these roles you know we want the folks who are who are our successors to be able to point
037back this time and say this is what they intend you know i'm fine with that yeah i am too because i think more would be in the job description stating more of this here what we want to do i think this is a guide is the policy and like you said dr hall so that future board uh members will look at this and say here's what it is but also when they go and look what the job description is for this individual then they would see here's more of what they do as well so they were kind of to me they kind of go hand in hand well yeah and you know there there are certain policies you know that you can i think you can air on the side of being less descriptive but
038this is a big this policy is a big deal like if i'm gonna err on any side i'm gonna err on being too descriptive you know again i want to strike the balance but but if i'm gonna but if i'm going to air on one side of the other i'm going to arabic towards being overly descriptive as opposed to maybe not being as descriptive as maybe i would have wished that we were 10 years down the road got it okay anything else with that what about the next uh paragraph is that okay which which paragraph are we looking at decision making um i think it was about the um equity the committee um wait a minute it's gonna go back up right yeah i think so is it the one on the district-wide racial equity
039plan yes yes there we go okay okay can we talk for a minute on because in our equity policy that speaks to the equity plan that gets developed and reported out to the district or to the board into the district really um and is this is this a separate racial equity plan that goes with this policy so there'll be two there'll be the general equity plan and this or are we looking at one equity plan but that has components specific to racial equity yeah that's what i thought we were so that's why we're looking at that we're having this one specifically to racial equity first okay that right dr akbar yes but this isn't um yeah yes the equity i'm sorry i'm looking at the wrong thing so that the racial equity plan now the
040racial equity plan can be a part of the greater equity plan which makes sense but basically what we're saying is there has to be intentional uh focus on racial equity right correct do we want to say as a as a component of the district equity plan or just leave it let's this way and then miss chapman or the future cdo can figure out how to combine them i think it's okay either way [Music] yeah the superintendent the superintendent can decide the more you know if there are concerns about how that because the way it reads now i would say it's going to be a separate plan and i think if we want this as part of the overall equity plan we should call that out here and be very clear about that instead of leaving
041it up to you know uh another superintendent you know six months down the road let's just make sure we put a nail in that coffin and this is how it's going to go i agree i agree okay i said as a distinct component of the district equity plan after that word says was clear of network money and metric clear accountability metrics do we need the and in there that's yeah yeah good call val thank y'all no well i see clear accountability and metrics as two different things uh clear accountability is who whose job is it to carry out the responsibilities of the different components of the plan the metrics is what goal are they seeking to achieve yeah i agree i see those as two distinct things okay okay anything else we need to add
042to this paragraph or we we're good there all right continue on dr james all right and then um scrolling down um the uh district decision making tool were there any other changes to that and they're actually from the osba conference i think bruce was in one of the sessions that i was in about you know diversity equity and inclusion and looking at some of those resources i did forward to carla there was one tool out there that we can look at but i'm sure there are others as well and some other resources yeah yeah yeah i mean there's more than one equity decision making tool out there right yeah it can be yeah equity decision making tools plural that's the only modification i make for that sentence and then again below the decision making tools
043should include blah blah blah or should it count for race english esl socioeconomic yes i would say it should account for i wouldn't say i wouldn't necessarily should include but should account for the following thanks dr hall i can just add on to that shrine the decision making tools could also reflect the different compartments uh represented throughout the district obviously from operational to academic setups that we use are all different so this will give us the flexibility to implement more of a financial rubric obviously through forecast 5 or something like that and we're working in the financial arena and also work through the committee on hiring practices software purchases or application tracking materials i'm not sure if that's where you're going but i just wanted to add a little background to that okay just really
044quickly um where we have english as a second language and then as socioeconomic levels if we keep the s at the end of level then do we want the s at the end of all levels so ability levels grade levels achievement levels or do we want them all just socioeconomic level ability level etc again just for consistency yeah got it well i wouldn't even say level i would say economic status and should we have on after deliberated and many other factors that should be deliberated on before making a decision we have a woman that does all the final editing and word smithing of all that good grammatical and punctuation stuff so hope she'll help us clean up all those all the things that we probably are not being greyed at right now she'll all right
045i'll stop no that's okay okay because i'll be able to share them with her right it's okay to bring it up but it's always she's amazing she's a former english teacher of ours that helps us with these things all right because we have a queen somewhere else that should be in a mom so i'm just saying which one what did you just say i said there was a the word before and it should be a mom but i'll just stop now yeah and i'm not sure if we shouldn't add english i i don't know that the tool accounts for race it accounts for impact yes on race english as second language social economic status or the impact on race yeah yeah yeah that's good well i guess what i meant by when i said that
046was to your point i mean um like when you're yeah yeah i mean you know what i'm i know this is the lawyer right i'm being too fine with the language as well um yeah okay is there anything else i think that covers and then um moving up to [Music] going back to uh supplier diversity and i think we have some more some more work to do on the uh the part that was struck out on the goals i believe i don't know if deborah folk has anything to add to that uh the discussion was mr james that we certainly always up uh consistently update our vendor list and we discussed at the last meeting that we are capable of certainly activating a section in our munis program that can check off and ask our
047vendors for if they have minority business enterprise status we one of the issues was as a reminder if we just do the state of ohio that may limit us to the number of people that are available for us to meet that 15 percent and many of our corporations and vendors that we deal with are national and they some of their seals and mbes etc come from other states that equal to ohio but i don't know that you just want them to meet ohio because their corporate offices may be in texas or nebraska and things like that but that doesn't mean they don't meet those statuses now mr um leonard and i already have a variety of ways to add that encouragement we've always encouraged minority businesses to be part of our bidding process because many
048of our federally funded programs such as child nutrition require that so that is actually already in the bids and we tried that previously with our construction projects as mr dr james alluded to and unfortunately we had it struck down at that point we couldn't you know we couldn't mandate it because it was against a revised code so i want to make sure that we write it in such a way that it was attainable that we're out there making sure that we can supplier diversity is important to us but we don't want to also limited us to not meet what your goal is here so that was some of the comments that i was making on the side to just give you an idea since this is lada go ahead dr akbar i'm sorry i'm sorry
049um basically so instead of striking this whole thing what we're saying is to do this the district will set a goal um or plan which i don't i think we have planned but it looks like someone want to go but it could either way um a goal to achieve 15 of all vendors within the district instead of saying we'll meet the state of ohio minority business enterprise we can just say all vendors will be a minority business enterprise and then if you want to put um with credentials from a state or the federal government or something like that um within five years of the passage of this policy uh i think still makes sense so instead of saying meeting the because really the gold comes from the state of ohio which is 15 percent um
050but obviously there's also an apparatus that tells you who those uh minority business enterprises are who have you know achieved that certification level so we can just take that out if that's the confusing part about being a state of ohio minority business but just saying the the goal is to have 15 uh minimally of all vendors will meet state and federal minority business enterprise certification but again there's several different dr akbar several seals that minority businesses can get it isn't just an mbe there's an sae there's other ones it's a i i would be considered a minority women's business that doesn't necessarily mean i'm a minority business so there's a couple of different ways to write it i just want to see that we include all the possible ways that a business might be considered
051acceptable meet our 15 percent okay i get what you're saying so this is a racial equity policy so we're focusing on race with this one so what is the appropriate um seal or a way to say related to race do you know i honestly can't tell you that they are only race related because they're not and even the federal dispute that is reflected in our 63 25 federal grants and how we move them says that we are to encourage women minority etc etc to business it's very specific they consider a minority women's business a minority business so think of the young lady that recently you awarded the dmt cleaning and accepting of the building she had that status it was out of texas but her particular issue is a minority women's business it wasn't a
052racial minority women's business and that's going to be i i get what you want i don't know that we can restrict it so far dr akbar that we wouldn't want to encourage minority businesses because the state of ohio wants all types of minority businesses to be considered whether they are minority by race minority by gender minority by ethnic group it is it depends on how they look to do it that's all i'm saying i don't want to certainly restrict us from meeting a goal that's important to us right so i i hear everything you're saying i guess i'm trying to figure out what the solution is so what is the what way so we can't do that what can we do if we said that we wanted all vendors to um what which we did
053nbe isn't the broadest term what is the broadest term i'm sorry go ahead dr james i was going to say maybe this is something where we need to bring that information back like on the ohio mbe program and what some of the definitions are what the federal programs are look at those different classifications so you know number one everyone has the same knowledge you know going into this so we can define it and then you know um legally making sure that what we do put in here is going to pass uh muster that's a very tricky just knowing from our own construction program how tricky that has been with companies that have that mve you know identification but when you look at the actual company it might not meet our definition of what we would
054truly consider an mbe and maybe it's something if we can that we need to define ourselves which is why you know i'd like to see all of us look at some of that information from the state and also from the feds i just looked up uh dr james the the mve on the ohio department of administrative services the gov website so it is i mean it's 51 minority owned and they're defining just this the ohio minority business not all the other ones that um mrs folk mentioned but it's blacks or african americans american indians hispanics or latinos or asians are in that are in the category of this state the ohio minority bid business enterprise just as an fyi i don't know if that resolves for now you know we probably still need to work
055on what that wording would be but that's who's included in this this particular mbe um yes my thought was uh and this is my thought only uh is to table this section here uh get all the definitions that dr james is talking about and what we're all talking about see what where where the criteria is then come back and or or be able to try to implement some of that and then come back and look at it again to make sure that we're on the right track and we may need to make sure our legal looks at it as well and then we construct our our language what we want to put in here and meet the needs that we're trying to meet uh for this policy the chamber also offered some language through the
056greater cleveland partnership and uh greater akron chamber on supplier diversity that might be helpful as well got it okay yeah i would agree with mr alexander so um i know there's another meeting later on this afternoon and a couple of us have a meeting coming up shortly is that can we call it for today so we can come back and work through the supplier diversity uh one and we'll have some language and some more information yeah diversity and the uh yeah financial resources yes yeah okay so i think this will be good for now and i don't want to hold anyone else up for meetings but i think yeah we can go ahead and table let's get the information and we can come back and schedule time uh to uh make sure we have all
057of what we want and we've done our research and then go ahead and add this information okay all right okay another meeting on the calendar after some of this information we'll get that quickly turned around great thank you all right thank you bye-bye thanks you