001all right hello okay all right how you doing NJ okay let's go ahead and uh call the meeting to order all right Dr James you want to oh I'm sorry Mr Rittenhouse I'm sorry okay all right welcome everyone and uh to this evening to our policy legal policy meeting uh today um we're going to go ahead and get started we will with uh since Ryan Pendleton our treasur is not here tonight Who's normally our secretary uh Dr James will be sitting in for him and we will let him go ahead and start the meeting yes I've already taken attendance so we can move on to the first uh item which is approval of the October 5th meeting summary which would be fine but it's not in board doc so we may have to approve that
002at our next legal and policy meeting yes we can do that that's no problem we'll get uh that from Mr Pendleton and uh Mrs Perkins so we can do that yes okay next item um it's a revised policy 5611 regarding due process rights um it's presented for an additional second reading staff did make a few changes in the language regarding appeals of suspensions and expulsions as we discussed at the last meeting and that is in uh board dos okay so this will be considered our second reading of due process which means we will have our third reading at our board meeting uh is there any questions or comments or concerns anyone has in reference to Due Process before we move on to through this I think in summary of our last discussion regarding this there's
003a couple of items where there was some questions about whether it should be the department of student services or the superintendent in terms of notices of suspensions and appeals for the most part those have been changed or the board's designated okay perfect okay okay the other change or anything else we need to know for update I think that covers most of the changes in that policy okay so we'll move on to uh our next policy which is uh the naming policy and where do we stand on that am I looking at the right thing you're still muted you're muted Dr James sorry the uh next item is is um there's a release of an update from Neola um okay I see it okay special update special update right and there's a link to it in
004that uh in the agenda and they'll be reviewed and edited by the finance department before they're presented for first reading at a future meeting okay so there's really nothing that we need to do in no action we need to take tonight we just corre the information okay correct and then as an update you mentioned the naming policy I did send a draft of that naming policy and administrative guideline um to members of committee I have not heard back I don't believe on um whether though there were any additional comments on those well we have something in section four sorry um yeah I didn't get any um comments back on the naming policy were there any additions or changes that you were uh interested in making I tried to keep it very simple and also included
005administrative guidelines for that and I think I captured most of the comments um that I heard from a previous policy committee meeting yes I did see that and I I thought most of it was covered I don't know if anyone else had a chance to look at that and have any comments on it this is Patrick I may have missed that most recent version and need to go back and look but I will do so right away unless you guys need to keep moving forward but I may have missed that so um the the same here I I so what I think you're talking about May uh I thought this was something it was something different the Comm commemorative facilities or something like that uh that you said same yeah okay um it seemed very
006different than what um we had did um submitted so I wasn't sure that that was the same thing I'm sorry um I actually thought we were just going to talk about that today so uh basically if you look at what you did there are you you basically saying that you want to streamline the policy and then I saw in the administrative guidelines that you put um you added the pieces that we had in the aiming policy originally so yes yes okay I mean I'm I think I'm fine with that um I think you had a deadline I think December yeah we we still have a little time board members or anyone else have any comments we still have to request we can look at it at and the other thing is if we're changing it
007to facility commemoration um or I can't remember the exact way you put it uh Dr James but if we're changing it then maybe we should um change it in the agenda as well yeah that's the that's the proper name according to Neola for that particular policy thank you okay so we'll we'll uh get the that out to the board members and uh so they can look at it again make sure they have don't have any more comments if there's any more senior staff or any other individuals who need to look at it Dr James we'll get it out to them let them look at it and I assume with our next next board next policy meeting we could uh uh have this Justified and be ready to uh uh approve it move it on for
008Improvement okay uh so I guess next would be the uh our proposed racial uh Equity policy and we have some Fe feedback from uh staff we can go ahead and discuss discuss that Mr James or Dr James yes um so on the first item under 4.02 um these are comments from um student services U the one thing in terms of uh any changes regarding discipline we need to make sure they're in line with our current contract language with uh the acran Education Association there are a there's a section in the contract that covers um suspension and exposion and how we handle that um so these are just some of the things that uh Mr Rambler from that department um wanted to point out but we also need to make sure they don't run a file
009of our contract uh with our teachers our agreement okay uh is there anything you want to add Mr ramler to this in reference to this I'm sorry no I I would just a couple little things I think Dr James pointed out really well I tried to provide some in put um in areas of some work that the district has already done um to try to um look at the racial equity and and a more broad Equity as well for student discipline and how we keep trying to more proactively preventively and positively impact student discipline so we tried to align some of that work that we have done and some of the work that I think we still want to do um and I I did try to con consider the contractual language to as Dr
010James pointed out but I think that as we look at that if that's something we want to keep moving towards within this policy I I do think there would need to be some conversation with uh AA leadership to make sure that we get their involvement in it as well okay anyone else have any questions in reference to feedback student services okay thanks Dan I appreciate that uh we it was uh good when Josh was here last meeting when he talked about uh this policy to to have you guys look at it because that was a uh something we talked about having you guys maybe look at that and and give your feedback because it would affect you guys when it comes to uh discipline and and suspension and expulsions from from student services so we
011appreciate that anyone else had any comments on for for Dan questions questions okay if not there's a lot of echoing you guys yeah I'm sorry can you hear me okay all right all right so we'll move on to proposed racial Equity policy feedback okay think we wanted to go uh line by line is that correct Dr abbar yeah I think so um that makes the most sense unless there's um just bro things we want to consider I know um so the one thing here similar to um the naming policy which is short you know for the commemorative thing is to also look at should items that you know be listed in a policy but also should there be items that are listed in administrative guidelines and we're still U mulling uh that over the other
012just overarching feedback uh which are in the document if you click on review at least what's listed in the um in board docs and if you open it in word you can look at the comments but it was um consistency is needed in the language so where we say uh racial Equity policy are we going to say racial and ethnic policy or racial ethnic disability orientation you know um just the terms of the language and then um you know just the relationship between the racial Equity policy and then our overall Equity policy just to make sure that they line up the other thing that I'll say is in terms of um some of the things in the policy um which I think are fine there are some issues with other policies and with laws that
013we need to make sure that they're um you know for instance like with purchasing rules we have to follow um some of them are different like for the federal level versus the state and then um another one in terms of um you know hiring you know when we do applications there are certain questions we can't ask and we may not know the um you know the ethnic background of someone until we do an interview or when they're called in but those are some things that um staff work through work through okay I have a question about that so um you know I I so when a person applies say uh basically saying that there's a law against um you know not being able to disclose your race uh when you apply for a job um
014in L there's one that just governs Public Schools uh I don't know how that is a law per se so uh most entities even public entities ask you when you apply but there's supplemental questions that are not really attached to your application so that you can get an idea of what the pool looks like so that you can ensure that it's Diversified as well as um can see what your hiring Trends are um so if other entities public entities can do that I'm trying to figure out what's the law that prevents public schools from doing that well the two people here well well I can I guess I could I could start and then I'll let um Diana can um chime in actually with title seven uh discrimination laws um we are prohibited from asking
015questions with regard to race or age or ethnicity um country of origin marital status and those types of of questions there is um at the um through the application process an EOC uh dis disclosure statement where an applicant can indicate um their race if they wish but it's it is totally voluntary and but that information does not tie back to their actual application so for example I can go into our into our application system and I can run reports for specific positions that will give me a breakdown of how many applied for the position and what was the race or gender uh makeup of the candidates who applied for example but it doesn't tell me who of those uh candidates it doesn't tie back to an actual candidate and so I that's why don't know
016when someone applies for a position uh what what their race is and I'm not I'm not aware of any circumstance where that you know possibly it has changed and we could certainly look into that but I'm not aware that that has changed but I if Diana could maybe speak to that a little bit too I'd appreciate that yeah no thanks Kathy and I think Kathy summed it up and I think the issue is that it it can't be mandated right it would be optional um and so then you would have a situation where there's people who are are disclosing that aren't and we really would have no way of knowing um and and like Kathy said the the under title 7even we can't make decisions based on age sex race things like that and so
017by having someone forcing them to disclose at the application process and tying it to their application could raise issues under that particular statute yeah I don't I think uh what you're saying is exactly what the policy is asking is just to track the trend so you have a position like a teaching position at one school and you see what's the racial breakdown of the those who have apply then you see who has actually been hired uh with the information that you get so far you should be able to do that that's what um that's what I uh that's what the policy is saying it's not saying track it back to applicant a back to position no one wants that right and so I think that that's why I'm that's why I was wondering if uh
018like what Kathy said she already has that information wondering why that's uh is difficult I know when we talked before about about getting the trend data for um the res when we did the resolution of our hiring practices I was told that we don't have that information level of information so that's why I'm I'm there seems to be a disconnect yeah maybe what I mean we don't have like we were just saying it we don't have that information with respect to each candidate but I can go in and pull out with respect to different positions um now but also keep in mind when someone applies for example an elementary teaching position they're applying for an elementary teacher position that could be at any any of our number of Elementary buildings so they're not in most
019cases not applying to a specific building um it we could pull out maybe for example for a particular if a building is an interview only building for example bookto high school or Miller South aan Early College and I can I could tie back to that um but in many cases teachers applying for many different positions also on one application so I mean it's we could pull some of that information out so they may apply for an elementary position but they may apply for something over at Miller South as well or at the I promise school for example and so it would be pulling them out by various job postings so not fullprof but we can get it some of that data okay you have anything any follow up on that Dr AAR um I might
020but I'm trying to look at the actual section where it's at no Patrick said he had a question so yes I G see if why we move go ahead to Patrick you go ahead with your question Mr Bravo and then we'll come back to Dr a thank you guys I would just if I could just comment I mean we have um tracked a lot of that a lot of that information Within our hiring processes then we track that every year and we have um over the last several years have presented at board meetings uh probably at least two or three times that that data that shows where we are at with our minority teachers in classrooms compared to other districts in the state of Ohio and so we we're working on updating that data after
021after the beginning of the the school year once we have all of our hiring done and most of that's in place then we run those reports and that's what we're doing right now okay Mr Bravo yeah can you hear me okay yes okay um just and if if we can great if you can't or you'd prefer not to fine but as we were starting to go through or get ready to go through line by line on the policy would someone be willing to share their screen so that we can all make sure we're looking at the the same document and we're all in the same place looking at the same thing and not individually if if possible and if if you don't mind but if You' prefer not to that's okay no let's uh let's
022try and do that sorry someone else I couldn't do it work out just based on our um the meeting that we had this morning because it isn't my main screen that I'm presenting at will be another window so let me find and see I don't know if I can do that with this because it's actually in another it's in uh it's in Word and it's not giv me from my end it's not giv me that option is that something maybe Howard could do on his end no I think Ellen's gonna try there she is there it is there it is thank you sorry about that ah okay can you see that Dr James yes okay do we want to go ahead and start and go by line by line and someone's gonna have to help
023me because I can't see this okay you can also pinch in Zoom like you would on your phone Bruce if that helps I'm trying Patrick it won't let me yeah there we go it's a little better okay we're goingon to start line by line Dr James I think so okay Dr James I'm noticing that the strikeouts aren't coming out when I right might just have to um I have them on the version that I'm looking at um and in the so like in the first paragraph well it's highlighted there and I can well you just so if you right right so that first comment that one was just kind of an overarching comment that I mentioned before about you know should some of this be administrative guidelines versus the policy but I just say let's
024just go through um the only item that I had a comment on was the language fluency I think we got that taken care of I think it was marked as resolve by uh Mary Perkins okay then um and actually it looks like in the second paragraph on the version that I'm looking at it looks like those items were taken care of where like in the first line the second district and then you'd see bold and wow actively eliminating policies and procedures um the second so the last line in that paragraph towards the end or right in the middle dedicated to ensuring Equitable access and then um yeah that one was fine and then the other one that was was it looks like was added was um allow students to reach their greatest potential and Beyond
025so it looks like that was that those were the only things I believe were in there I think in the third paragraph uh there [Music] were questions about whether so in the second line you know equity for all students regardless of race uh should it just be limited to race or should we be talking about some other items and let me find those comments I think it was um equity for a should it be regard right should it be regardless of race andth diversity or do we want it did you just want to leave you know like should it be race and eth and ethnicity um I think uh one per Carla wrote uh she likes race and ethnicity it's more inclusive particularly of our foreign born students okay I see that that that does
026make sense so we include because we we want to make sure it includes we're talking about racial Equity so we want to make sure we have race I think that would include include that any other comments the the first paragraph also has the last segment of that first paragraph the it's and that's why we listed it as one of the overarching to kind of figure out is this going to be a is it just even the name is this just racial Equity r and ethnic and then in the first paragraph it talks about all of the other right their ethnicity sex so I think that's that there's comments that are going to be throughout that sort of hit that same theme that maybe we should is this all um the the different classifications in that
027first paragraph or is it just race and ethnicity you'll see some other comments as we go through them once we pit once we've made that decision so on that first paragraph I I can't see where see the first paragraph yeah I'll go back sorry um so at the title you know it talks about a racial Equity policy and then it talks about all of the race class gender ethnicity sex sexual orientation that group it talks only about race and then other places it it uses the term race and ethnicity so I think we need either any way is good but it Focus deciding on what that focus should be it's a any thoughts for anyone I have a have a thought I think it maybe go racial and ethnically that's my thought anyone else well
028but then the question Ellen are you asking too then the question is you know do we leave all of these things in that first paragraph but then only refer to race and ethnicity or do we somehow come up with something we can also do a defined term too but you know I I don't want that to take away from from the intent that this is a racial Equity policy since we already have an equity policy but right I think that's more that's the the overarching at the top said depending on the answer to right is just race then that then we do look then at the equity policy is the equity policy the broader policy and this is more focused on just race or more focused just on race and ethnicity I think it's a
029it's a great conversation you know to have in terms also might say whatever Focus whatever we like from here if we if it's going to be two separate policies but this one is going to be race and ethnicity uh and sorry for jumping in I apologize if if um if it is though going to be those two separate policies one equity and one that's more focused on racial and ethnic Equity then whatever we like from here we should save because it might give us an opportunity to to tweak and improve our general Equity policy just a suggestion yeah and and I think and Dr agar you can can jump in and whenever you want let me know I think that what we were talking about was this this a standalone policy for race uh because
030the equity policy deals with a lot of these things and maybe this area this what we're talking about here what talks about the bearers procedures that is more of of of a uh Equity piece but not of the racial equity P I think so that may we have to look at and then and be able to uh justify and move it around need Dr arar your thought correct me if I'm wrong um I mean you're not wrong obviously we've been in this together this entire time but um I I I do uh in some ways agree with what um the the logic that Patrick was going on initially which was um that first paragraph was really just acknowledging that we understand that there's barriers that exist broadly and then honing in on race from there
031so we can't I'm okay if we looked at race and ethnicity I will say that I'm more partial at just focusing on Race but I'm I'm okay with that because of the populations that we have um of adding ethnicity as well so I can go either way can I say something yes go ahead please um and when I added ethnicity to that paragraph that was just to further Define groups of students marginalized along a racial or ethnic um descriptor while the other terms are more of those dimension of diversity who also can be marginalized right and I don't think that racial Equity policy negates that we're also including ethnicity I just added that ethnicity to further describe that particular population in that paragraph okay thank you very much Carla okay so sounds like maybe we
032should just leave this piece in here and this this first paragraph and as we move forward I guess to uh streamline it to race and ethnically ethnicity is that what I'm hearing sounds good okay capture that Miss Chapman could find all the areas where we say race add the ethnicity that's okay I I actually heard her say something different but maybe I thought I heard her that we were just adding ethnicity to the first paragraph to okay to be more defined but to focus on Race throughout um as uh focusing on Race doesn't negate uh our focus on ethnicity in the broader Equity policy that's what I thought I heard I could be Mis understanding that that's correct okay got it got it okay all right let's move on let's see here okay okay let's
033see this okay um let's see under purpose wanted to look at the comments that I'm can you click on that box Ellen it may have yeah thank you okay so we're are so I mean like here the same question I guess are we just gonna you know is it just going to be racial diversity is how we're going to do it throughout the document I think getting into your point doc about you know uh what Carla said uh in the first paragra give race and ethnicity but then moving forward should it just be racial diversity with the understanding that you know ethnicity is included in that um I I agree I'm not ethnicity is not necessarily included in race so I'm I don't think that that's what Carlo was saying either they're they're two distinct
034Things One deals with you know cultural differences and one deals with you know race around the construct that we've created in society so um you know there are different things I think what we're saying is that maybe starting at P purpose um even though this is where her comment is maybe at purpose is where we just start to focus on Race got it unless Carla has um wants to share anything different no I think that's it we just you know so a lot of folks think race ties to culture but it doesn't right it's what you said it's the social construct it's it's what we check on the census application but the ethnicity gets into how we honor and respect culture and so you know I like both of them together in the paragraph I'm
035not tied to the title I guess is what I'm okay all right in the second paragraph under purpose um even I didn't understand the last because we have it crossed out so but nothing was repl so the gaps between the highest and lowest performing students um so we would have to replace laws performing students with something or leave it in there I don't I can't it looks like it might have just been a formatting error because there's no comment with it senior staff I think it just accidentally when some other strikethroughs were coming out I think it just was missed or something I'm not sure got it um the next section eliminate uh system disparities is that supposed to be systemic or systematic I think it should be systemic it's systemic so that needs to
036change right in the title of the paragraph as well there we go goodrick Patrick all right so that first number one is fine um I don't think there was any comments on number two but number three I mean typically the board itself will develop and Revis policy so and how the board does that is you know up to the board umop content and curriculum so you know you probably want to keep it at the highest level the board and then from that an instruction from the board it can go to whichever uh committee or however the board wants to do that is that okay we I agree and it may ultimately go to a new committee if we do creating yeah or parts of it could go to another committee depending on the topic area
037like this one I'm sure instructional policy and student achievement absolutely will be involved in that area but it really should be the board okay and I think that's what we were trying to to put in there because there were some things with instructional policy and student achievement would need to do when you start looking at the the academic part of it all right and do you want me to write that kind of edit in here or just leave it develop and or revise add the board in there I would just say add capture it and while we're all here okay okay and then in number four um I think the recommendation was to uh remove predictable and just put uh eliminate practice is that result in lower academic achievement that's fine and then one person
038said should it be identify and eliminate uh practices which personally I like it's I I like that too I like that because you're identifying now you're going to try to eliminate it if it's something that you see that's uh predictable in in in playing into lower the lower in achievement yeah and it doesn't necessarily suggest that there are you know that we're in a very bad spot it's but we do want to identify and eliminate where we find them right right okay moving on um there's another systematic yeah systemic okay um you want to click on the there we go um I think we already talked about that we can fix that um collaborating there I don't think there was a change there was it number five that there were some is that okay as
039it's written what if we just offering cultural culturally relevant courses because we have the in at the beginning of each one requiring collaborating ensuring what if we say offering offering culturally relevant courses Etc I like okay sounds good sounds good I'm just trying to maintain that same structure throughout that's all got it right yeah we just want to keep the each building part so should it read offering culturally relevant courses specific to race and ethnicity of black latinxs and immigrant status semester at all schools there in each building or at all schools right all schools yeah I would tuck that in at the end yeah at all schools I would prefer to to meet the requirement of each semester that sometimes the way that we even do block schedules and things like that courses aren't
040always offered each semester so if we could take that term out and just say in all schools and then based on their unique schedules because Early College is very different than St schedule and that how it works into the schedule is can then be unique to each school that's okay I'd recomend that that makes sense can we and instead of saying that uh can we say each year at least each Academic Year um so one of the one of the reasons for having each semester is that there's been you know um in some schools where there's they've offered them they offer them every three or four years instead of having it consistently and so we want to make sure that um it's more consistent these courses just in terms of um and I just this
041is just the earlier discussion to make sure we're consistent are we good with the race and ethnicity of black latinx and immigrant status are we okay with that you or should it just be that race and ethnicity if there's a purpose uniquely to say that I think that's fine I just wanted to make sure consistency wise yeah so the only the the only thing I'm GNA break away from my earlier statement is that since we're talking about culturally relevant uh courses I think having all of those in there Mak sense okay uh however if we just want to stick to race we could we can go to race but that would probably make us change from culturally relevant courses to racially relevant courses or integrated courses or something like that okay yeah I agree it's
042yeah yeah I think it's fine the way it is just wanted to make sure that was the intent just to be consistent so I think may I ask this is Deborah is it possible that listing those are wonderful but are we eliminating anything by not saying or adding to that statement black latinx immigrant status where we don't limit ourselves to that when somebody think that we're missing something that is relevant to them you know sometimes you write a sentence where it says not limited to will include but not limited to or something like that I just don't want anybody to think that they're not part of this does that am I making sense I I you I get what you're saying and yes um but I I'm I'm okay with having um to include but
043uh there by having a racial Equity policy you are intentionally including ensuring that uh certain groups are included who have traditionally been excluded so in that some people may feel as though that they're being excluded but when in actuality they're not so I I could go either way I'm okay with including not limited to um it's fine but um yeah and there is a danger I I was thinking more of a line of our uh competency for people that of American Indian Heritage because obviously that has been very important in this conversation um so that's why I was trying not to eliminate something that has been important there yeah definitely I mean we can even go in include indigenous I think that's important as well I agree I I think that needs to be included
044yes I may too for for as long as we've had refugees we certainly now have uh American Born uh certainly diversity of American uh born races here that are in acam public schools now too and it would be a little ironic I suppose to have someone feel someone of another race feel excluded by a racial Equity policy so it is a good point then in that case we want to stay Asian and not immigrant that's that's where I was thinking so so should we just include all those in there so we don't miss anybody or make anyone anyone feel slighted so because we're not we don't want to we shouldn't so may I ask is number five for high school or for kindergarten first second for an elementary school building or only for a high
045school building are you thinking that there would be a separate course that's offered that's a great point because I was thinking I just assumed high school but it doesn't actually say that so that's a really good point Karen yeah that that's a good catch on course because I my bra didn't even read course I was thinking culturally relevant instruction and be more encompassing right of any grade level or content area right espe because it says all schools so then we need to qualify it by saying all high schools or all you know what I mean right right says all schools then it means all yeah way so um I want to lose sight of courses but I think that uh the point is well taken Ken um and it makes sense but you you can
046and and have courses culturally relevant courses in middle school so I think uh with it becomes a little more constricted is the elementary level um and so perhaps we we say something along the lines of um instruction in all schools and then in parentheses courses in high schools or something like that instruction and or courses I was going to say culturally culturally relevant courses slash instruction which would then cover the the gamut you know yeah because I think we you know this could include Elementary we don't know down the road it might include Elementary because it could be a a certain specific elementary school that is going to who have some instruction or maybe some courses that are culturally relevant to to those students so I I I think it can be element middle and
047high school I mean when you look at this and we read you think more of but then you think of some middle school but this could include Elementary as well yeah I was more so probably in the same area where Karen and Ellen was around um you know the state standards and the way elementary is guided a little different with less a little less flexibility than middle school and high school so I I understood exactly where they were going when they said that but we do have um mean an other you know we talk about collaborating as teachers and administrators to have responsive instruction Tes we're addressing instruction pretty heavily up in one through three that maybe this is just unique for secondary schools in terms of course offerings for number five since we've already
048addressed instruction it is we don't have separate courses in elementary you know we're teaching reading across so that's where you would embed that culturally relevant instruction in everything you're doing there which I think is addressed in these you know first areas so it it you know it could go either way I think what m mckitrick is saying that I adding the courses SL instruction you kind of give the flexibility of both like at elementary it'll be embedded in that struction because we don't stop and do a course like we think of secondary and then the courses would be at that middle school high school level I agree so could I mean I'm comfortable either way Karen do you feel like one is better than the other no I'm fine with the the way that it
049is but I I appreciate what Dr akar was saying so this wouldn't allow a school to just offer it once every four years and say they have offered you know [Applause] so um I have a comment back on number four should it is practices the verb or is it Prov iding practices that lead we don't have a verb such as requiring collaborating Etc to start out number four does that make sense right you're sounding like an English teacher Mrs folk instead of business Affairs person very good she's just showing you that she's the Jack of all trades that's right what Dr James always says is we've baptized them into the academic world they can never leave right andj can you walk me through what you're what saying in number four where we just put providing
050yeah I was struggling with the word providing too so um number four is it eliminating or providing yeah want eliminate though right yeah you're right you're right you're right you're right you're right and under representation yeah sorry for the wrong verb guys yeah there you go good job Val yeah I was about to say something about it too thanks Val because I'm like I don't think that makes um yeah it's about the reduction of those practices here all right okay uh next one under leadership and it looks like what we have crossed out looks like it might need to be replace with some so she already did I think she changed the word competent to sensitive Miss Chapman you want to talk to that you say that Dr James I'm talking about the one above
051it oh I'm sorry about the lead in sentence Ellen I see I see it says inure I don't know and then it goes to one two three four five I'm not sure how that where that's going because these here actually to me it should you know look like they're more regarding what the board's expectation is for administrative guidelines you know administrative practices I agree David but I also want to say we also for at least for me I'm looking at it as saying that we want to ensure that all these things are are happening that we're recruiting that we're looking at recruiting supporting you know all those things so do do we need to take that out of this here and I'm thinking it should probably read the superintendent will ensure the creation of AD
052administrative guidelines or or whatever you know I'm not a good word Smither but um and then leaving those um leaving those four sentences in there it's right okay I got you so oh sorry uh we probably was going to say the same thing uh Ellen maybe the last version that you sent us uh Dr James had this sentence that I think just captures the essence of what we were trying to say which is about the um administrative guidelines but making sure they're there's something focused on the racial Equity uh implementation so it says we'll ensure implementation of this policy by engaging in the following practices there we go did I get that right Dr akar yeah yep that's good yes thank you okay um the next one is the creation of an equity committee yeah
053I think um the question here that we had was what type of committee this is going to be whether this is a um an I think Miss Chapman also had someplace down here you had a similar question or maybe it was any here it is um is it is this a community District committee is this a or is this a new board committee because the way that it's written it looks like a new board committee which would probably get into your bylaws then if this is which I'm not sure we could put it in here that there will be another committee because you'll have to follow whatever your bylaws are or the process that you use to create a if it's a board committee if it's the fourth one or is this a committee that's
054more that working committee where there's board representation but there's also community members the superintendent you know staff is at that committee so we just weren't sure where this was going the my comment in here is um and I if I can go back and find the study and I know I sent it to Miss Chapman and we talked about it this but this was probably six to eight months ago there was a study on um looking at it wasn't unique to districts but it was those highest levers in terms of getting senior level staff to act on on Equity work you know what is that and uh the findings of the study was that whatever that committee is whatever we call that committee was the most important strategy to have that accountability put in place
055but it specifically said to have the CEO share it to give the signal to all of the staff who are there whoever is represented in the staff that this is of the highest level importance so it could be the board members and the superintendent if it's one of those working committees if it's a board level committee that this would be the fourth level committee that's different and then um the superintendent would probably have a working committee anyway to do the work you know the daytoday kind of nuts and bolts work so it could either be two separate things or if it's envisioning one thing then I think it wouldn't be a board level committee yeah and if it is a board level committee do we have to clarify who has uh who's able to vote
056and who's not so that it would say it's a non-voting uh member because if it's a committee or a sub a committee or subcommittee of the board that carries a little different legal connotation than right right and Mr Pendleton you know was talking about that that that is covered under your um the bylaws or the um practices document that you have you know it's in one of those versus a board policy saying that that you'll have a another committee so I think you all would just have to work out how the depending on the type of committee you want to have how that gets captured probably within your own board level practice documents okay yeah because I was looking at that to be be part of uh is a it's kind of like a working
057committee outside of the board but You' have a board member on it and You' have the chief uh diversity person there to work with these individuals to make sure everything is intact to a certain extent for a lack of better words uh what's being done so maybe it's just an committee and take out the board level yeah docar help me on that one too I thought we're looking at a working committee there's two ways of looking at it so if it's a board Equity committee then you know just like our other committees various people actually report the information that that committee requests from the administration so on finance we have the trees CFO report so on Finance on the legal and policy committee It's a combination of myself and Mr Pendleton on the um you
058know instructional policy it'll be Dr MC Williams wood so I I think what Ellen was talking about you know in because I I remember her talking to me about that report across the district just in terms of making sure that you know the policy live in his support it has to have highlevel you know administrative support and the the actual article said it's important for the CEO of the organization to have their Equity committee because remember we have all you know like we're doing employee resource groups they have to get all of their um you know a lot of that's ground up but there still has to be executive level uh leadership on that which really isn't a board issue because those are all the people who report to the superintendent and so we just
059have to decide you know at what you know where do we want you know who's going to come to the board Equity committee and report and I think that's one where it could be the chief diversity or equity and inclusion officer and or the superintendent but the thing where all the staff report to and we try to get these practices you know throughout the district is an administrative committee um which I think of the superintendent and that's something that Carl and I have been talking about and talking about yeah I agree with everything that David just said um and I think that what we were trying to do here um is to elevate the uh importance of equity within our district by making it a board level committee now um maybe it does after looking
060at what you wrote and what you just said maybe it makes more sense um for it to be a board member and the superintendent and um as the members of that committee to show joint uh commitment uh that might make sense or you could have two board members the one thing that I was one thing that I was thinking about when we were talking through this [Music] was thinking about the number of board members we have and the number of committees we have and two people would have to serve on two committees which probably isn't a big problem because there were people who served on their own committees for years um so maybe not but that was the thinking so I think we could change that to Super super intendent if we want to but
061I think it's imperative that we keep it as a board level committee and according to our bylaws unless there's something I'm missing the bylaws does not State the names of the Committees in which we have so yeah I I like the idea of having it elevated to the board level and having uh if that's a fourth committee then that looks at that or maybe through Evolution it gets combined with another committee somehow if if it gets too difficult to have four but that that enables then two board members it would be Miss Chapman would be the the key liaison for that committee and then the superintendent you know he goes to all the finance committees he would probably want to go to this one all the time anyway he moves around to all of the
062Committees um at some time through the year anyway so it gets to it meets that same requirement I think and then no matter what we're going to have a working committee that to be able to present the information to the board right I think that works great I think the only question and maybe Mr Pendleton will have to help us work through this and Mrs fidal is the authority to have it listed in here or whether that has to be captured somehow with the board leadership with your um because there's the bylaws and then um I think Mr Pendleton said that document that had the practices that not all of that had moved over to the bylaws yet so he was looking into that but we could research that you know in the meantime to
063see how to handle just the actual language I think the intent is we understand now right right yeah and and are currently our committees nor does it uh are not listed or outlined in our bylaws nor is there any reference to how many committees we have so right yeah Mr Pendleton I believe his early research was that that was an error that that didn't that there were there was a section that didn't move over somehow and I he didn't give the details of that he was still researching it so we'll we'll have to follow up with him since he wasn't able to join us yeah and just chiming in on that I mean if the bylaws will have to be reviewed to see if they need to be amended they may not need to be
064amended um and then regardless I believe even if the Committees aren't named I believe there's still a process for the board to add additional committees I think they call them like ad hoc committees and for the board or the board president to to staff them and choose members who will be on them and so on and so forth so we would just need to to smooth that out to make sure everything fits together right yeah but this wouldn't be a ad hoc committee so this would be a standing committee that that would not be governed by the ad hoc uh committee uh um section of the bylaws and I did review the bylaws and it it does not prohibit us from having a policy and it actually makes it stronger that you have it in
065this policy so that no time down the line can someone change it without actually intentionally changing this policy sure all right um can we move to family engagement well before we do that then do we need to change how often the committee will meet because the standing committees meet at least monthly that's a good point yeah that could I mean that can actually be taken out that was added yeah because if they're going to follow the procedures the standing committees and it really you know those are up to the the people the board members who are on the committee because they have the you know they call the meetings and they can schedule those agreed because that could also limit how many times they could meet so good catch okay family engagement I see there
066was a recommendation to strike out for and with our it just should be um developed and Implement Equitable practices and collaboration yeah makes sense okay um and then um number two there were some strikeouts as well like just saying all stakeholders any problem with that no I don't see problem so just only thing is I don't have a major problem with it but I also um want to point out that uh I want to be very intentional about being specific about who we're talking about uh because all stakeholders um and this is a philosophical um standpoint so briefly go with me here um historically when we say a when we think about the the who we're talking about when this uh with this racial policy uh people get left out so is not that important
067in this specific location but I just wanted to say that uh about um you know as we go throughout about you know taking out certain things if that well yeah right I agree but when we look under so we have a title of family engagement and then the first sentence there talks about you know we're developing we're going to implement Equitable practices in collaboration with students their families and other and other community members so I felt that covered it and um but if you I don't have a problem if you want to leave at number two leave the strikeout uh take the strike out away but I think it's cover is defined under the area that opens it up because it lists you know it could be community members and or groups but it's it's
068in that first uh sentence right after family engagement but I know what you're I I know exactly what you're saying you know we could say all stakeholders but we as Dr abbar was saying to we wanted to be intentional about these individuals being part of it as long as we're say we're saying it up front here at the beginning and then we're saying all stakeholders we're meaning these stakeholders that we we mentioned up front so I think that's what we we're trying to uh capture here what if we said all stakeholders comma particularly families Community groups students and staff almost what we did in the earlier section where it emphasizes that but it doesn't exclude anybody else right that sound okay let me read it again okay so it's just okay got okay yep yeah
069all right moving on to um recruitment screening hiring and retention I can uh start off this um the conversation um um so where we um struck out some sentences there um and for discussion that that this commitment will require the district to change its current practices um and diverse candidates will not be subjected to arbitrary normative values based screening processes these processes do not value diversity nor diverse cultures and perspectives um and so so right I think if we could think of something that would be more of what we will do than what um this is kind of talking about I think a current I believe a current practice I'm not I'm not sure um but if we could just say something that and actually the in the first sentence I think covers what that
070sentence is trying to get at that we're that we will employ Equitable processes to recruit hire and retain employees um and then our other comments are related more to to um indicating that diverse candidates would automatically be sent to the hiring manager for an interview um gets back to um on applications again we don't know we can't ask the question about someone's race or ethnicity or any of those things and so we don't know when someone applies but also there are times where there are reasons why we we don't move someone forward to an interview because of maybe what's in the background perhaps maybe a criminal conviction that is makes them unemployable perhaps um um information from prior employers that maybe someone was uh previously terminated or non-renewed based on poor performance um there actually
071there have been times where some you know people have falsified applications with regard to a number of various things on an application so there's just any number of reasons why at times we would not be able to move forward with someone and this would be basically saying that we would have to do that and so I I caution Us in doing doing something like that that could have some other adverse effects or liabilities down the road and so that's why we struck out those okay so um I I hear some of what you're saying I think that uh I I think it's dangerous to um to talk about diverse candidates and and and begin down a path of you know Crim criminality I think that's a little dangerous so I don't I'm not talking Cates
072that it's it's any candidate that we have right right so I just wanted to make the point because we're talking about diverse candidates now and that was what was brought up I think that um what you said May made sense about all candidates uh we just want to be cautious uh because this is live stream that that people don't take that to to be associated with diverse candidates spe exclusively so that's that's what I'm saying I wasn't attacking you I was trying to I just I just it wasn't that's a little bit my thinking and I just wanted so is this something where is this something where maybe we could um Dr atbar and Mr Alexander were maybe a couple of us could meet with you and go through this one you know because I
073think we need to you know we want to hone in I understand what you're saying there are some you know every I think many companies have um issues about how do you want to talk about your vision for hiring people and how can we clean things because we don't want to have you know look I I've been doing this maybe too long but we you know there are people who complain about they feel maybe they haven't been hired because of this that or the other okay I mean um and maybe we need to really sit down and kind of work through through this one Dr James I agree with you because I I think this is an important part of this here uh policy so I think we should sit down I don't think we
074should you know uh maybe try to muddle through it now but maybe sit down come up with what we want to uh have and then come back and present it to the again so we can have a clear concise right I actually wantan to pick Doc's brain about you know some of this stuff um just so we can you know maybe have uh Kathy and some of her staff maybe di fin we can all get you know together and and really go through and maybe we can bring some examples of what some other you know we have I think you know some resources here uh locally we could reach out to you know some of our companies I mean like you know some of the work that um oh Carla helped me out that Billy
075was doing with uh yeah tlor at Good Year and some of the HR audits that are happening across the the region this is a really I mean this is a really you know particularly as we try to diversify like our teaching Force which is something you know I was just reading an article I'm going to be forwarding some you uh a webinar about how um some places are trying to do that um you know so this is something I think maybe we need to devote a maybe a little deeper dive you know into it um with some folks but we need to do it quickly because you know we don't want to delay um getting our policy uh you know implement it but you know I think maybe something we can do a quick turnaround
076and sit down and um you know have some good conversation and come up with something that's going to work I agree if I can just add I I like the idea that someone said I think they were getting at sort of that Vision focused language and and maybe you know the first sentence about the commitment requiring us to change our current practices and uh that diverse candidates will not be maybe something that focuses just some language I I agree with the the sentiment of that that whole paragraph is and this is possibly in my opinion one of the most important paragraphs of the next couple that talk about where we're trying to really increase diversity but without necessarily using language that could be taken as inflammatory or accusatory or suggestive of some really negative practices
077or something that could be happening that maybe aren't so just something that gets more at the vision and what you're looking to achieve but maybe isn't um and maybe just in more of a positive like here's what we want to accomplish just my thought just my thought uh Dr Jam um this is Deborah in one of my side comments had to just remind everybody that one of our hiring practices is the use of the Civil Service process and therefore that sometimes also affects how you can have a candidate uh forward because we post the jobs through civil service that doesn't allow they do the testing the candidates that are eventually given to us come off of the test we have no idea what those kind of backgrounds are either so therefore that might open up
078a conversation about that process that is used to hire many of your support staffs as opposed to your professional staffs because it doesn't necessarily me meet the goals that you'd want to get I'm not saying we don't get divers candidates through it but it limits the ability to understand the process so that was what my comment was regarding this paragraph as well well and just I mean to add on to that just as an FYI the city of akan in the election on Tuesday um are they changing some of their their rules with regard to their hiring practices and I have already talked to the person in my office that deals with them to contact them to find out how that might help us out with bringing in a wider pool of candidates to interview
079for positions so um we're we're already actually um on top of that from that Tuesday's election and it's part of Mayor Horgan's initiative too to to have a more diverse Workforce quick comment the very the second sentence there the goal would be I would like to say um see would be taken out and the goal is and and make it a little more straightforward and maybe just say the goal is to diversify the teaching staff so that it resembles the student population what happened to yeah I think that's uh that's perfect yeah yeah did I get that right diversify the teaching St or teaching Force so that it resembles the student population right Ellen I'm no it's no longer on my screen so I can't see it I don't know what happened all I see
080is I see it I see the V for V that's the does everybody else see see it yeah I can still see it I'm fine Mr Alexander you might sometimes when you have an internet not quite as strong a signal then all of a sudden you'll lose part of the screen so maybe that's okay it might come up come back up in a minute I'll wait and see okay if not try changing your view again maybe you accidentally pinned like a thumbtack maybe you pinned the speaker or something so I do want to uh so may I ask may I ask does teaching force mean teachers exclusively or is it the faculty that you're uh further about because it really is we want to diversify really our entire Workforce so it more it's more reflective
081but there's some conversations I think we need to have about you know our teachers and other staff and how all those different classifications are hired is a little bit different and Deborah brought up a good point with h civil service so I think that's why you know have a smaller group of us sit down with the two board members who form this committee and and work through that yeah that makes sense to me um the the priority is those you know who are the front the Frontline individuals um which will be the teachers and the assistants and intervention Specialists who are also teachers I'm sorry but um you know those that that category of individual uh I will say though and um we can talk about this in our meeting but uh in order to
082have real Equity you have to focus on what what won't happen as well so you can't just you you you say what will happen but you also have say what won't happen so I just want make that clear because I know that I don't want to and I'm not sounding negative so don't take it this way but uh um in in the work that we do we're shifting cultures we're shifting behaviors um and in order to do that um you have to be able to call out what shouldn't happen uh because you can always say all people will be receive equable uh employment opportunities which has always been the case but we see that that does not happen right uh in the practices in which we uh uh put in place so I just wanted
083to point that out so so no one thinks that what by pointing out the things that won't happen is a negative or making it sound as though um we're doing bad things uh some of these things aren't things that we're doing it's just things that we shouldn't do right right got it right yeah all right so I'll have my office reach out we'll get something set up quickly then on um can we move on to Supplier Diversity yes go ahead all right so this one I know there are some other policies that um I know Deborah referenced here and I think I'll turn it over to her because she went went through this one since it covers uh purchasing which reports to her all right so there's a couple of different things one of the
084goals that you put in your Supplier Diversity is that you wanted to achieve a 50% of all vendors to meet the state of Ohio minority so when you get into the purchasing we need to go back to 6320 which are your purchasing policies and then 6325 is the actual purchasing using Federal grant money make sure what that when we finish this up that we refer to those policies as part of this policy and this policy gets referred to them so as an example 6325 already has in it a reference to minority women owned businesses Etc so we went out as the finance group and started to put a reference in there and then we went into 6320 to start and put this in here but I also wanted you to realize and there's further comments
085down that currently we have over 12,000 vendors here in the district so I ran the numbers at 15% that comes out to 1900 that your goal would be we would get to well I also went out to the Ohio Uh current uh minority business amount there's only listed 1,300 minority businesses in the state of Ohio so one of my other comments was because we deal with businesses that are also National businesses many of these minority seals are at the national level so we should not restrict ourselves to the state of Ohio MBE seal because there's other seals so I'll give you a recent example the board approved the use of minority company who did the uh application of the sanitation and disinfection process they are a minority armed business but the seal comes out of
086Texas but they still meet the qualifications so I didn't want us to restrict ourselves in that possibility that that we couldn't meet it because we put a standard in I just want you to have a reflection on this at this time so some of this may be to the other comment that Dr Ellen MC Williams would put it is the goal that we do do our diversity but some of this may be an administrative guidelines as opposed to just being part of the policy guidelines would change easily depending on what's available so these were some of the reviews that we did we also started to look at some other procurements or other Financial policies that Mr Pendleton asked us to review on actual expenditures such as 6111 6112 and 6114 and believe it or not
087the board recently approved a revision to 6325 and Neola just gave us another update to 6325 this week these will be um contining diversifying our suppliers is easily possible we just want to make sure we do it so we're as flexible as possible as well thank you thank you thank you very much uh Deb I think that's like spot on I think the intent of here is not necessarily to to hold us to Ohio standards um just we use that because that is Ohio standards um but if we want to say and I think that we do want to give some type of minimum percentage so if we want to say at least 15% of all vendors will be minority owned um either nationally or state or however we want to put it we can
088we can add that sentence but I think um having that goal of of it being at least 15% in the policy is important yeah that that was the goal to make sure that overall whether it be National or locally whether it be Statewide that it would be 15% regardless of of who they may be of course we want to use most of our as we can local but at the same time you know there are some we don't want to eliminate ourselves uh limit ourselves to uh just those local or those in the state but Nationwide so that 15% would be just a a standard and to help you with the data actually in our munus program there is a field that we have started to activate it just wasn't active before that when we
089put a vendor in if they have one of these minority seals whether it's women owned minority business Etc we will actually be able to add that to the field and start running the data and I've already asked Mr uh Leonard who deals with getting our vendors into our system to start active as well and we do already have in our purchasing uh rfps that we put out very specific statements that are required either federally with grants such as Child Nutrition because that's Federal money that comes into the child department and our uh sped items things like that where our federal money is that we encourage diverse vendors to bid so therefore we are have had those statements a long time and this will help make sure that we capture that information into our munist system
090at going forward great great thank you okay David we can move forward I think yeah also on that one I think we'll you know when we look through the Neola policies we'll probably have some you know additional uh information to provide and if you want to add that to our you know um if you want to cover that in the individual meeting we could probably make that happen as well and just because my uh earpiece died and so I missed a few seconds at a conversation I just want to make sure I'm clear it sounded like Dr Akbar was still um interested in at least seeing maybe a goal represented uh overall we may also want uh just from the legal side too because I ran into this recently with a project that I was
091working on on you know the ver the difference between being able to set a goal but uh legally not necessarily in Aram public schools was part of litigation previously about enforcing so the difference between setting a goal but being able to enforce uh above what the state sets which I think was about 5% which we all know is uh sadly low um uh I just said and we're talking supplier here so this is a lot wider than just you know maybe a a contractor so I think these are easily met goals but Dr abar were you also still advocating for at least setting a goal even if it was yeah we did talk about that okay I'll just that go language in there that you're talking about sorry if that was what you guys were
092talking about when I cut out if it was I apologize thanks it was exactly what it figures it figures okay um then what about on finances and resource allocations I know um you know we'll probably W to just make sure that Ryan touches base with um Diana and Dr Hall because I know that came up um earlier today about equity in finances and and allocation of resources um let's [Music] see so I think that's another one that we can work through with that you know with that group any questions about that one just on finan if I could and I don't know where this comment fits I just want to throw it out there because it's on my mind as I again just recently worked on a project where we are actually pushing the envelope
093a little bit on uh not just enforcing uh minimum diversity requirements but also incentivizing them um so there's there's one Avenue to think about as well as um is the incentive incentive ation of uh meeting uh diversity requirements but whatever goal you set something else to keep in mind is there's seems to be a a push recently not just in MBE but also in fbe female business enterprises uh veteran uh business veteran business enterprises disability uh business enterprises and so as you're setting goals you know even though this is a racial Equity policy just keeping in mind that there there are some other diversity requirements that are also uh sort of being pushed a little bit right now and just however that factors into the conversation around what goals we set as a group for
094our racial Equity policy um just keeping in mind too that there may be some Equity efforts or that may get discussed at later dates for other groups that may be disadvantaged on this particular one um is the word Learners need to be readded should the sentence in the middle read this means that schools that have lower income Learners and higher racial and ethnic diversity within the student I it it looks like it was missing what was supposed to have lower income because the schools didn't have a lower income did I make thank you yeah um I think maybe if we use a different word than Learners um that might make sense I see what you're saying though but it's um I guess really what we're trying to say is the student population is from a
095lower income neighborhood so so that there a large lower income student population instead of specifically saying that the student is lower income does that make sense is it high poverty rates or socially economically disadvantaged it's yeah yeah and higher yeah so that all stays St up like that is that okay Dr akar do that work okay it I keep forgetting that uh my thing is on mute and that there's an echo which is why I keep trying to put it on mute right okay implementation okay I will say this usually I we don't put in a board policy like the like appointing an executive that's something that I work out with you all as a board those could be part of my you know um goals for the year and I've already started looking at
096how that will fit into um you know our uh organizational structure and how we can make some changes to get that accomplished and I'm not even sure what we're going to call it and so I have to provide some recommendations to you all because you have to approve the board approves the job description or adding a position um you know of something that we haven't had before so I don't there's no problem of doing that I'm working with Kathy to come up with a draft of a uh job description for that um that I'll be sharing with you all soon yeah I definitely appreciate that um the one difference um and one reason why I think we want to make sure we keep it is again we're talking about intentionality uh and level of importance
097and so having uh in the policy that there will be a district level person at that you know higher District level position I think is important uh to elevate the importance of I think we can probably take out the part about being co-chair of the equity policy um and maybe we can come up with a different word than Inspector General but the the intent around that is to truly have true Equity to to make this shift um when we we have when we make decisions this person has to have the ability to uh actually create change right and so right um a part of that the reason why I chose Inspector General specifically was because it's something that we're all we're we're pretty familiar with what An Inspector General is it's an internal uh uh
098reviewer so one who has the the authority to uh basically tell different department heads and even the chief um in many cases where they're used that this practice or this action is you know not appropriate or not where we should be going so that's the why we could change the language but that's the thought process behind it right would it be possible we're talking about a senior level administrator who is also an um budsman right in Inspector General for me at the federal level you know that's what I immediately think of is something different than someone who takes concerns and complaints about something that's going on in a particular department and facilitate some resolution Inspector General you know is more of an auditor than a right in my mind here is what would be placed
099or some version of it that's what goes in a job description and that's where you get that Authority you know for that administrator and that's something that happens between the superintendent and the board in terms of saying this is the position that we want and these are the duties that you know that person so you can still have um however you want to title the position but it's those items there are what we would put you know similar to like any of my uh administrators like Kathy McVey or Carla Chapman or Deb folk um have very similar types of descriptions in their job description that would be like the opening Salvo of that telling them what their role is um and those main duties and those are things that you all approve anyway right but
100if and and this is why we're looking at systemic change is you know you're looking at broader be than Beyond in the current board makeup or the current superintendent and administration you're looking at 20 years from now 10 years from now setting up the structure that that makes it less arbitrary or makes it less of something that uh can be consed you know watered down or what have you or Consolidated with another position is making that it's elevating the importance of it and the the last thing I'll say on this is unfortunately when you when you're dealing with Equity you kind of have to go against the grain of what has always been done and the way we've always done things and I know I keep saying that but that's that's kind of why I'm
101I I'm thinking you know I understand that that's the way we typically do things with the administrative guidelines and job descriptions but we have to be very clear I think in this policy um on some of these things maybe there's some things we can look at reduc but some of these things um with the Inspector General comment or what uh Patrick said that's exactly what this position needs it needs to be an auditor uh it needs to audit the practices and policies in which we have and be able to say that these practices or these policies do not uh align with our Equity goals and worked with the system to get them changed I think that that again we can change we could change that word to auditor but that is perfect perfectly uh explain
102what we were going for Patrick the way you saw that word so as I propose how this policy gets implemented it may actually be a completely additional position than just what the executive director is that's that's the relationship that the superintendent who runs the district and the Board needs to have that two way communication so I understand the sentiments but how it gets implemented you know that may be the what when I'm hearing like the auditor piece yeah the chief diversity officer would be responsible for that function but that actual auditor may be a com maybe another position that reports to that because I have to find you know it's it's one thing to put the policy in place but then when the board puts the policy in place I have to implement it and
103provide the res ources with your concurrence and so it's not just about the diversity officer it's about the whole system and structures that have to be in place so that we actually meet the goals outlining the policy and a big part of that on every job description the board I have to bring those to you all for approval basically particularly when we're adding you know a new position so there is a lot of um you know there is a lot of control you know with that but that's you know this is something we we can you know Wordsmith of you know the um language about you know auditor versus Inspector General you know with um again I hate to make a small meeting a bigger one but th if those are some things we need
104to talk about we can discuss them as well there's one section here Dr James just in the training component um it said by reviewing and approving all trainings and because we do thousands of trainings I uh talked with Miss Chapman a little bit about you know that that wouldn't be a possible to do all reviewing and trainings but could be the Consulting with other District presenters on ensuring the culturally relevant material and diversity equity and inclusion themes are included because the there's trainings that go kind of all the way throughout principles are doing trainings every day instructional coaches are doing trainings every day that the central office doesn't we don't sign off on that and I'm assuming you didn't the intention wasn't every single training like at all those levels um um it's it's really
105the trainings from external um vendors that we're using was really the the main intent but really uh if you want to be 100% honest um which I typically am uh at some point the goal has to be that um you know all trainings follow the same framework which I I'm not saying that um we decide what that framework is automatically you know spelled out in here but there has to be someone you know responsible for for ensuring that we you know we have some consistency in in the messaging and and and the framing that we're using so that's what I was and and Dr AR I'm sorry Carla that Dr arbar he just said is to have someone who making sure that on all levels that this these uh uh trainings are going on not
106that they're going to specifically look at all them but make sure that the the diversity the uh uh the the the trainings that that are we're having as far as on race it is being policed and monitor to make sure that every level is getting trained in in in areas like that I'm sorry Carla go ahead that's okay thank you um Dr abar do you see that as being captured with the work facilitating with department heads do we need to add there that through the work with other department heads we are ensuring that we're running that diversity Equity inclusion processing through our training work right so it could be in collaboration with many different departments around training and professional development namely Karen jjek and I and Dr MC Williams woods and lots of others too
107on the work that they do I think that's actually the the most important thing is is Miss Chapman's continued influence on all of the department heads so that that framework and that lens gets embedded within everyone who is approving and bringing in the district presenters and and then uh Miss Chapman can monitor that but it's her impact on getting everyone to always have that framework in mind and not as an afterthought that you're developing designing from the beginning through that Equity lens that's the that's where then the spread will be tremendous versus you know trying to only have her be the keeper you know of the knowledge which I'm sure that wasn't the int of here but that's where the power comes from that last sentence and and not forgetting the accountability systems that go
108along with that too right this monitoring piece right well that was I guess that's specifically with the diversity right I mean the HR pieces [Music] mhm yeah I think that makes sense um I think no nothing in here even if it says superintendent or um executive or whatever Chief diversity house whatever we're going call it uh no none of it is done in a vacuum so yeah that makes perfect sense I think I think the main purpose of this section is really to help kind of give authority to that position um to do those things so for example if the chief diversity officer um you know asks to review the hiring practices then that then then basically they they should be able to review them offer you know recommendations if we're looking at training and
109uh professional development you know Karen G does a great job in that area but those should still be reviewed and if there's areas that we need to uh you know tighten up or do a little differently you know that that should uh be done I think that that's that's basically what we're trying to say maybe there's a better way of saying it but it we're just saying that that person and or their office or what have you should be able to work the different departments to make sure that um recommendations don't just sit on the shelf right I think that's perfect because I do think Miss Chapman has been incredible in terms of her influence with our practices but I fully support the elevating that to that point where yeah if she comes in and
110says here's a hiring practice or here's a professional development practice she does elevating it to a point where yes that means we need to act on it that she's seeing something within that framework she's got to work with us to make that change you know see has done that now but giving that Authority regardless of who's in what position I think is is really important I'm sure miss Chapman wouldn't mind that whatsoever in that position I prefer co-creating systems of accountability and I say go tell them what to do no I'm just kidding yes yeah that's so that's why it's so important you know um you know just from a implementation point of view like some of the things that have been put in here you know like the um the committee structure and and
111and and working through and making sure executive level leadership you know are um you know uh showing the way forward and making sure we're putting the appropriate systems and structures in place so it gets implemented all the way through you know the organization not just a few steps down but it has to be a complete you know uh vertical alignment and even some horizontal alignment with some of the other uh departments in the district which is why that next section is the um is important with the equity plan um that we that next uh uh which section I'm sorry um I got it decision Mak oh right right and then that last paragraph I think we didn't need it because it was done someplace earlier at the formation of that committee yes we talked about
112earlier right and then um District decision making oh yeah that'll be the person who's doing all that'll be their responsibility to come up with that tool and notice I didn't say any names I just said you know the person's going to come up with that tool that's awesome all right were there any other change was there anything with this last uh or this paragraph here not for me I think um the only thing we would need to do is meet on those two or three um and then we would just need to add a section on student discipline right which may take a whole another meeting and consultation with um you know it may be in consultation with Ellen and Carla um and um Dan Dan yeah so it may it may require us to
113do a meeting with the you know the three of you to to you know fine-tune that based off some of the policies and laws that um he mentioned in his recommendations so okay okay well it looks like that was the last piece on our agenda if I'm missing anything let me know uh do we have anything else for the good of the meeting I don't believe so and I'll get that meeting schedule with the small group to sit down and go through those sections that we've uh discussed okay anyone else have anything for the good um just one more comment when you guys are talking about the committee and if I'm not there when you talk about the formation of the equity committee um I wouldn't worry too much about having um just sort of
114that fourth committee um and how we're going to split up board members because I think um in order to protect the board also um from a Sunshine Law perspective we're going to need to add some additional folks to committees anyway with the only problem with having three committee members on each committee is that any two people discussing any of this at the same time automatically makes it a public meeting anyway and it makes it really difficult for example for even Bruce and NJ to even pass something back and forth and say what do you think about this without it technically should have been done in a public format so I think with that fourth committee it might actually help anyway with us to start assigning people to more than one committee and adding some numbers
115to our committee membership so um so just wanted to throw that out there okay thank you yeah thank you I would like that that may make sense I don't know but since we don't do any voting or have any voting capacity necessarily in our committees I don't to me that doesn't make sense but I'm not a lawyer so I don't know I mean state law is pretty clear that any committee or subcommittee of the board um that has any meeting it's it's a public meeting and a and a quorum is automatically out out of three people is automatically two and Diana can jump in if you know if she wants to correct me in any way but that automatically means that two people getting together at a predetermined time to discuss public business automatically you
116know since we only have three on our committee it just makes it a little small and I think a little possibly unmanageable from that standpoint but correct um board president is correct and then in addition it's not just about voting it's also about the deliberations so all this discussion now I mean you guys are deliberating on what will ultimately become come before the full board and ultimately become a policy of the the board of education so the deliberations would need to be are in open and and open to the public under the open meetings act as well and again with us only having three anytime the two of you are deliberating together it automatically means it should be noticed and be a public meeting and you know that just may be so just something to
117think about okay all right anything else for the good anyone else have anything going once going twice okay well I guess we'll call this meeting adjourned and thanks everyone for participating very very good discussion uh on a very very important policy so thank you very much and have a good night no thank you thank you thank you no executive session [Laughter] NOK hey Diana can you uh call me really quickly did you hear me