001is that what you're saying that's a good word you know I only say things I I mean Rob behind closed doors in public recorded or not so it's all right I'm not worried all right kidos actually you you're talking to Ben all right two minutes who's there I can see Ben I saw Dan hi Dan you're somewhere right hey hey friend hey Stephanie hey Ben or Dan and hey caddy what's up hey how's it going good to see you again yeah got email appreciate the concern uh we'll let the board figur it out let my the back and made up hey phis out I can do it right here hey Mr we are live by the way so thanks for the I also have not realized that in I Mike where are you again uh
002I am in San Francisco right now it is 6:30 in the morning and uh I've been up for a few hours probably longer than some of you actually which is crazy but you know um so I'm ready to go it's 9:30 right all right I'm not usually on this side of things for these meetings this is kind of weird uh all right so we'll do start as we always do with a quick round introductions welcome to the April 19th uh edition of policy and Equity committee and uh uh we'll start with the man behind the curtain Rob Wilson technician and Phyllis Davis for administrative assistant phis Davis thanks for being here and our friend representing uh Jewish Federation in cincinnat yes or did I get that wrong or coun I'm sorry I I got no
003no it's a long formal title and you got it mostly right I am representing the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati's Jewish community relations Council Rabbi AR John great we have a few uh Jewish agencies in my chamber for my real job and so I get the uh I get the acronym screwed up uh Miss vogle always reminds me she was the original JFS uh is one of her favorite things to say to me Soh all right uh board member Lindy morning board member Lindy I stole his Thunder Kendra good morning board member Matt there's no Thunder Mike Dan hoing nope the superintendent's here also superintendent right was not there the last time I looked so that is not my good morning uh aretta Wright superintendent Dan ho general counsel Stephanie Scott assistant general counsel awesome thanks
004so much uh for being here you all uh it was kind of you to leave the the center seat empty for for me um I am out of town which I'm sure uh you can tell if you are uh piping in from afar uh we have a brief but mighty agenda um and I was going to ask first uh if my colleagues uh miss m and Mr Lindy had any objection to just starting with the anti-hate speech uh piece which is last on the agenda but move it first so that our friend Rabbi can get on with us today good Ben seems okay is that all right with you uh Kendra um you were breaking up a bit um so you could just restate what you were saying I'm believing you're asking if we're okay
005with the agenda starting with the hate speech and if that's what you say that I'm okay with that cool well that's what that is what I said um so uh to start with I believe the way we were gonna um kind of proceed um with phase two of this um be I I kick it over uh and defer to uh general counsel and assistant general counsel um have there been updates I believe the rabbis uh met with some folks but could you just update us uh first please um so yes in the packet we have a um currently a draft um a he speech policy know at the last meeting um we were this was given as an assignment to kind of start um kind of use this draft as a discussion Point jump off
006as far as developing a full policy um for the district and so we've attempted to um incorporate some of the discussion that's already has taken place um with uh some of the people in the community that this is of interest to which well it's of interest of all of us but I know that um as you mentioned um Rabbi Ari is here we've had some discussions and trying to work um with various communities to make sure this speaks to um you know the district's commitment to making sure that um hate speech and hate motivated behavior um that it's very clear that it's not acceptable within the district and so again we've drafted this policy we've in some ways tried to um emulate the framework of the um anti-racism policy as far as specific call outs
007um but also just tried to address um some of the concerns that have been expressed so um welcome um any questions that we may have great well um as always I'll start with uh my colleagues um and I can't see them so I'll just defer to you since we're all friends and get along to just kind of go in whatever order you want to go in so Mr Lindy or Miss Mt if you have questions not at the moment but give me a little bit of time um thanks Mike I was just gonna ask you know with Stephanie or Dan um is there is there anything in in particular here you wanted to voice over that felt particularly important having read it um I don't have any concerns and I'm I'm glad we're going to
008have something on the books but you put a lot of thought into this is there anything you want to make sure we notice um well in the first paragraph I did just want to call out I mean as far as um again we're trying to make sure that this is um in um Community with some of the policies we already have so we call out the equity Pol policy and the anti-racism policy um so again as we um call out the specific areas that we want to protect that those classes mimic our other policies so I just wanted to call that out and then specifically um under the conflict resolution I know that there was conversation before again about again making sure that our response was is consistent with our the district's current restorative practices
009so have a paragraph there that kind of calls that out and kind of the approach um in agreement with the policy enforcement as well so I think again we attempted to try to summarize some of the concerns and approach that the district would want to take but basically making sure that it was more explicit um so when these incidents happened um the people would have a more direct kind of framewor to work from but still leaving some you know discretion for Administration well as um you know the principles and so on and so forth who would be responding to these situations you anything else uh Mr Lindy I have a I have a couple comments um unless you have a couple more or Miss map does I I do uh I have one question pertaining
010to the training and professional development um do you all kind of have an idea of what that would entail at the moment or is that something that needs to be fleshed out a little bit more I think it's something that needs to be fleshed out a little bit more we did meet with um chief chief of staff who actually oversees um kind of the um the the the Dei things within the district already so we actually had a brief conversation with him and I know that's on his radar as far as kind of incorporating this with also the training that we already do for the anti-racism and Equity policy but making sure again that there's more of a specific call out for this Behavior as well included in that thank you for that um I
011want to uh uh give our guest a couple minutes uh as well um you know been grateful that Rabbi you know brought uh some of these issues to our attention at our previous meeting and has been working with folks and I really appreciate general counsel and assistant counsel uh working with other groups uh similar again to your point Miss Scott um like we did with the anti-racism the one thing I wanted to call before uh I'll kick it over um to our guests that I'm exceptionally fond of and this came up at the last meeting quite a bit is the last uh the second to last or penultimate if you will paragraph under policy enforcement um about how all these opportunities are opportunities to work with a young person to let them know the history
012social ramifications of the speech Etc which without making too many assumptions I'm going to you know assume a lot of teenagers um and younger um may not be aware of um you know what the things they are saying are tied to where they came from Etc and that that goes for all sorts of um groups uh that have been belittled and demean for years so I really really really like that piece the only other thing I would draw attention to just for you know the public edification if anybody's watching or reads these minutes later on uh we we talked about this a lot Miss Scott and I know Mr hoing and I did a couple years ago with the anti-racism policy that you know most policies are not that prescriptive um by nature and you
013know to the training and professional development piece uh you know that feels pretty prescriptive which I think is great uh you know we talked a lot with anti-racism that we all felt as a board it was so important uh that it deserves to be a little prescriptive in nature um this one is not very prescriptive but I think the pieces like the training professional development and then the paragraph I called out a second ago are warranted and I just kind of wanted to say that for the record um and I really appreciate the hard work so thank you and then uh Rabbi would you do you um have have anything to add uh we appreciate you showing up um to our meeting so I just read through this very quickly now um I first of
014all I want to thank you uh this well I want to thank you all you you did the the leg work here to draft this um and I appreciate you taking the time um to create a policy that to me looks very thoughtful um and appropriate um I should also say hello superintendent right you were here when I popped into the room but it's good to see you um there are only a few things in my quick uh read through that I had questions about uh the first had to do with the training in professional development my question questions actually were remarkably similar to yours um about what this could look like I'm given the season of the year we're in I'm specifically wondering if this is something which could be appropriately integrated um into
015training for faculty during their um start of year um in Services um because I imagine this may they may have questions about this policy and uh how they're meant to be able to help uh enforce and counsel related to it um I will I'll flag one other question actually um that came to mind for me um Visa the the ultimate paragraph the the final paragraph under policy enforcements um I'm curious uh what particularly is in mind uh uh you know these Anonymous means and things like that I there are any models that would just be included here I'm just not personally familiar with them um and then I guess the related question that I have then I promise I'm done um is about how we ensure that our families are aware that these mechanisms exist
016so I think May if I may uh was that the superintendent that was trying to talk it it was but I can I'm Ki it I'm G to kick it to you in a second um if I may so this is why I said what I said about the prescription Ive piece those are good questions but those those are not really questions I think for this committee I mean this committee we want to talk about this policy once it gets pass then I think those first two questions I'm going to come back to your third one though those first two questions are the questions I think every board member will have after we passed this but then that's the superintendent's uh job with her team to figure that out so we we're not we won't
017talk about that here with us the superintendent um if I know her and I think I do pretty good will reach out to people to help with all of that so I don't want to like if it's okay I don't want to spend really any time talking about that because that's more her house not ours so that that that's and this is why policies don't tend not to be prescriptive because our job is the policy and the framework I don't know if that's what the superintendent was gonna say I don't want to I've already stolen Thunder once today I want to do it again you just did you did it again you did it again but it's perfectly fine I still I'm on fire I want to go hang out in San Francisco and get
018out of this meeting quick no um that's not true I want to hang out with you guys but the third question and again I'm not trying to shoot down the question because that's the right question the third one about the communication um I think if that's okay superintendent I can kick that one to you again I wasn't trying to interrupt but um as long as we're fine with these I think those prescriptive pieces are good but not that we spend any time talking about them here the superintendent thank you and so in terms so thank you um board member moraski um chair moraski today um in terms of the last question around parents um we it's kind of like we would do last year we had a change in our code of conduct and so
019as a part of that we did a video that went out to All Families all students we put it on our on all of our social media sites um there was also an acknowledgement that went to families that we asked for families to to sign off on as well and we had we scheduled for specific um responses and for specific uh presentations to be done with students as well so taking a three-prong approach um to making sure the information gets out I appreciate that thank you so much and of course I'm not surprised that you have um thoughtful ways of anticipating integrating this I just wanted to make sure to to surface um the questions I had when I saw this uh appropriately not too prescriptive policy that was wow that's you can chare this
020meeting next uh yeah uh no I again I appreciate the questions I imagine we'll have them but um really what we want to do today or what I I would like to do today is I haven't heard anything substantive uh regarding uh the the language of the actual policy that at least my colleagues um Miss map and Mr Lindy have issues with so I I want to bring it back to y'all too because if you don't um and while there's no hurry I mean something that's important I tend to as you all know I want to kind of get this done because I think it's it is really important um if there if there's nothing substantive about the language we could put it on the next full board agenda at the end of April but
021I want to give it back to you too and if you want more time with it that's fine too I I'm not that's okay we can talk about it in may as well but Mr Linder Miss map if you don't then we could move it forward to the full board so um I'll say my upon my initial reading of it it does look um good is nothing that's um blaring to me at the moment but if possible I would like to just spend a little bit more time with it um just to make sure that I'm certain about the details that I'm reading but again looking at it initially it does look really good so thank you for that great uh and and Mike it looks it looks good to me I'm I'm I'm happy
022to move as quickly as folks would like cool and so am I um which is two to three so you lose Kendra um but that's not how I roll as everybody knows that's not how I do things so we will wait um that's not that's not how I I like to do it in this committee so there's a reason I think we've gotten so much done and I think it's because uh we we always have you know uh unanimous on this team so uh Miss map take your time and then you know what you know we have plenty of days uh uh to the next meeting so we could really you know meet meet in the middle um if you want to spend some time if you feel good and next Friday for examp you
023know what I mean uh or next Wednesday yeah um you know shoot it to the committee and Mr Ho and superintendent we could even get on the agenda that but again no hurry if not we can look at it again in May if you'd like if you have substantive changes no problem yeah I mean I don't think it will take that long but um I definitely think we can meet in the middle so thank you for offering that space yeah I know thank you I appreciate it um then Rabbi do you have anything to say in closing again I want to give you uh out respect to you know uh coming to these meetings and helping uh helping us to make us better you know uh our our job is to listen to the community
024and try to and try to do good with what we hear so um is there anything you'd like to say before um we move on in the agenda no you're very kind to give me the opportunity I would only express my gratitude um thank you for moving so quickly on this right on well again thanks for the inspiration and thanks uh uh uh Dan and Stephanie since I'm in a hotel room with two unmade beds behind me I'm feeling very informal uh as opposed to normal when I'm very very formal uh so thank you Dan and Stephanie for being here and thanks Rabbi on the first two items on the agenda thank you all very much um were uh a conflict of interest policy um 11:30 um which is the current a current uh and
025then board bylaw 01411 uh conflict of interest um we talked about both of these um but and if it's okay you'll recall at our last meeting or the meeting before either way um Mr Lindy had assigned uh this conflict of interest um idea to the agenda excuse me and then at the last meeting I believe it was in March that March 8th one um uh we had talked about wanting to talk about this with um think about it a little more bring it back Etc so I if Ben is okay with it um do you mind if I kick it to EU Ben to give some framework um after I look uh to general counsel and assistant counsel to see if there's an update on this 11:30 or 01411 I don't I don't imagine there
026might be but I just want to make sure so uh I'll kick it over to the our attorneys first to see if there's an update before I go to Ben if he's okay with that yeah no update um the board packet included both uh board policies 11 30 and then 0140 which essentially incorporates the same language into the board bylaws as well we included the form that the board has been using and asking board members to sign uh regarding potential conflicts of interests um uh and and I think that was uh the ask from the board was to include these three policies I think that was right thank you thank you so much Dan and then Ben are you uh are you okay if I kick it to you to just kind of uh uh
027frame this up um yeah Mike I'm happy to um and I'm gonna hand something out in a second and I'm just realizing that I need to send it to you because I can't hand you a sheet of paper in the ramp so give me just one no we haven't figured out how to do that yet um but we're we're pretty good man we're not that good uh so yeah shot whichever mail you want I'll get it all right so give me just one second Mike and I will send this your way hey by the way while we're waiting uh Rob I know a couple meetings ago or last meeting even uh I think policy was the guinea pig for the new presentation stuff uh from this end it looks great good job I just want
028to tell you good job thanks Mike appreciate you buddy yeah yeah I kind of like I kind of like the graffiti on the brick wall that I'm looking at it's like a nice you know uh anyway okay all right Mike that's on its way great um uh and and thank thanks everybody uh Dan and Stephanie for the documents and thanks for the time on the agenda this morning I I really appreciate it um I've been thinking a lot about the the moment we're in as a city as a board uh and and I've just heard in in in a number of different contexts and I think this is right um that's an important time to continue strengthening public trust between the public and the Board of Education I think there are a lot of reasons
029why that's the case um my first couple of months on the school board my first year uh was uh the schools closing for covid um and an enormous amount of um tension and difficulty around whether we should have schools open whether they should be closed who was going to make those decisions what was going to happen in a given board meeting uh and I think trust was low um as a result of all that and I I said that descriptively and with no blame it was an enormously challenging situation um but even after covid you know we we've had any number of challenges around Transportation uh particularly last year uh I'm so delighted that that's gotten better um but I still think there's a chance to strengthen trust with the public um certainly our budget
030process that we're in the middle of is is enormously challenging uh and even more recently um we've had an enormous Community response um to the idea that some schools might be Consolidated or closed uh and so for a number of different reasons I think anything we can do to strengthen trust between the public and the board is a good thing and so one of the things I think we could do to strengthen public trust is to strengthen our conflict of interest policy uh and so I have an idea here that I'd like to share with everyone but but I I think this is um this is particularly important not just because of our own efforts to strengthen trust but if we widen the aperture slightly wasn't that long ago that uh a large chunk of
031city council was embroiled in some very serious corruption concerns uh two of the last three I think maybe two of the last four speakers of the house for the Ohio General Assembly uh were it investigated by the FBI are now in prison uh and so whether it's whether it's the board whether it's the city or whether it's the state I think things that we can do um to show publicly how squeaky clean we are and how much we care about doing things the right way uh I think is a good thing um so what what I wanted to do is introduce today um and then Phil us to dis um yeah oh thank you philis I didn't you sent it to Rob that's great and so Rob whenever that comes through if you want to
032pull it up um but what I'm introducing today is something that would be an addendum to our current conflict policy uh it would not replace it uh it would go on an addition at the end of the I like the policy we have I think this is a way we can make it stronger and what it does is it requires board member recusal from discussions or votes that impact groups or individuals who have made major campaign contributions so again I think the idea here are ways that we can um strengthen uh the trust that we have with the public um and um I'll give folks a chance just to put their eyes on it uh and then we can we can talk about it together for a second I'm just reading now and then I
033uh we're rereading um and then I'll kick off the conversation to miss map or actually miss map you can just respond whenever you're ready that makes more sense and Mike I'm happy to give it a little bit of a voice over too if that if that's all right sure yeah please yeah so so again I think I idea opportunity to strengthen public trust um I think context again with the corruption challenges we've seen in the city with the corruption challenges we've seen in the state um I think this feels like an easy win uh to show how seriously we take our votes um and that we're going to draw a line um around uh campaign contributions of a certain size influencing the way that board members vote on issues uh and so what what the
034what the proposal does um is say that if a board member has received above a certain threshold um here it says $5,000 uh from any individual or organization the board member would recuse herself or himself basically over over things that impact the donor or discussions about things that would impact the donor uh and I think that's the right thing to do I would say that I think I think um at least some of my colleagues I think do this already uh and choose to make a real Point um not to vote on things that impact people who have contributed to their campaign um and so you know I I I added here a piece in the next paragraph that says I guess the next two paragraphs are like what happens if someone doesn't recuse on
035one of the things in that first paragraph and I would just call call people's attention to um in that second paragraph first of all it says this has to be intentional or knowing um I know sometimes our Treasures reports are very long our superintendent reports can be very long and it's possible folks miss something and I think this this is this is good faith errors are not what this contemplates um but but but if there's an intentional or knowing failure to recuse um then basically it's saying you got to retake the vote uh without that board members vote in it uh and then the very last thing it says is um if there is failure to recuse and again this is a knowing or intentional failure to recuse um it it's it's pretty clear that
036the The Proposal uh names this as a reason why a board member could vote in favor of a center motion um there aren't that many disciplinary tools that we have as a board um uh they're you know um kind of non-cps related news stories that have covered this in great detail recently um but uh what our bylaws do is set up uh censure uh as a tool and um this is also pretty clear that that you know um failure to recuse isn't an automatic conveying of censure um there would still need to be a vote and the board would need to decide that that's what they do it just says in The Proposal really clearly that this is a reason why a board member could choose to vote that way so um again zooming out
037big picture um I think this is an easy win on the public trust front um and I'm very eager to hear what feedback people have uh thank you board member Lindy um I really appreciate uh the context that you provided with this um possible agendum to the policy um and I do think that it will help to you know build or continue to build the trust and I'm always in favor of anything that is going to align with the ethics um and upholding integrity and so um board member Lindy was referencing myself in terms of recusing um from from different votes um because I do think that is something that's very serious and again Optics are important and so you always want to make sure I think we will always want to make sure that
038we are doing things that um present to be trans transparent as well as ethical so so I would be in favor of supporting this right on thank you Miss map um no uh additions or uh you know regarding working or anything no not at the moment not from what I'm seeing great um all right well then I will go um thank you uh then for bringing this up um I uh do not disagree in fact I adamantly agree and vehemently agree that any efforts um any public body can make to build trust you know at any time whether it's via policy Behavior Etc um with the public is is a good idea and warrants a lengthy discussion um and I appreciate you for bringing this to us um a couple years ago Mr Lindy was
039on this committee he uh uh did a whole lot of leg work regarding uh uh some some labor issues and it was wonderful and so I see this as another potentially transformative sort of thing um and I think this will lead into my questions and they're for uh the the uh attorneys in the room um the the smart folks of whom Ben is one um uh so uh for uh Dan and Stephanie um my only questions the wording uh I think is is sound my only questions is first um and this one I should preface this by saying this is not going to sway my opinion on this one way or the other because I think it's a good idea I'm just curious and then I have a more substantive question I think so for
040my edification is there a precedent uh for this kind of this kind of thing again not worried about it necessarily because we love being first and we've been first in a lot of ways already we're about to be with anti-hate speech but is there a precedent for this I'm just curious and any kind of elected body I have no idea whether there's a precedent right on all right well then can I jump in for a second yeah go for it please so so um uh this was inspired a little bit by a recent policy passed by the Albuquerque School Board um that uh I think may even have a lower threshold I think they may have had 500 or a thousand I'm not I'm not totally sure um but they they recently passed a very
041similar policy um so I I wish we could be first I like being first too um but we could certainly be first the side of the Mississippi um which is something oh well that sold no okay so okay great um so Albuquerque New Mexico um cool um and then for the uh uh uh Council or it's you know Mr Lindy's done his research which I shouldn't be surprised so any if you have if you have JD after your name you're allowed to respond to this okay I think that's you three there might be another one um um is is it and again I don't know um but uh just as a policy guy and I I like policy um the the the vote piece like obviously uh the second little uh s or paragraph sentence
042here the intentional or knowing failure to recuse shall invalidate that board member's vote um I'll just make a statement and tell me if I'm right or wrong I assume like regarding voting and how our votes are counted and what they mean I know there's like Ohio Revised Code and there all these statutes and things that give us authority to do this in our representative democracy um if you encode something like this in your own policy in your own in your own house so CPS um then the you know negating votes that's something we have the power to do then as a body I assume correct I've just never seen something like that and again I have no no problem with it I'm just curious because i' never seen it it's interesting to me um I
043don't think it's a bad idea but that's something we have the power to do if we encode it in our own policies uh chair morasa that I think is the Crux of the question probably with the policy so um I I I don't think there's any question that this go this would go further than Ohio's current ethics laws in terms of what a board member is allowed to participate or not there are certain votes that a board member may not participate in because it it would be personally enriching to the board member it involves a board member's family you know we've talked about that in terms of the the the basic ethic rules in Ohio this goes further than that and so then I think the question is what what would be the the Crux
044of the question would be what can be the consequence of the board's own Rule and and this is something we talked a little bit about when we were in the bylaws discussion because um there was an interest I think in the board in putting some teeth into the bylaws and saying what what would be the consequence of a board member violating our own bylaws and and one of the things we did a little bit of research on at that time is like there's no opportunity for example for the board on its own to vote one of its own members off the island you you can't do that like everyone was elect duly elected by the uh by the voters and and so even even a violation of the board's own by bylaws would not allow
045the board to somehow kick a member off um we we on the other side of the spectrum we determined it was I think well within the board's rights in censuring a board member to say we're going to remove a committee assignment as a board we're going to remove an off officer position uh if you violate our own bylaws I think those are clearly within the um powers of the board to enforce its own bylaws and and that those would be appropriate sanctions that no one would sort of second guess I think negating a vote or prohibiting a board member for participating in deliberations on a vote that that's I think the Crux of the question as to whether or not this would this is a okay policy a policy that would pass muster or not
046that that's it's a it's a question I I don't know the answer well yeah that was the interesting piece to me too um and I always I always uh feel uh like 10 times smarter when I ask a question uh that Dan doesn't know the answer to so I I've won for today for in my mind anyway so U Mr Lindy do you I know again you've looked into this um way more um have you seen anything about this do do you know or or was this just kind of like aspirational or do is there a precedent or could we ask you know the council's office to look into it more yeah I think I think it's um what matters I think to me Mike is is the like the intention uh and the the
047ethical bar that it's setting I'm I'm less tied to like a specific like I'm less tied to many of the specifics within it um and you know maybe it like I first of all if this is something that we are allowed to do I'd like to advocate for it um like if if if it if it's if it's very clear that we're not allowed to do this we should do something else um but if it's gray and it it might be construed as fine it might not be constru as fine I think we should set a high bar um and then let someone tell us that we need to have lower ethical standards than we have um but but if um and I think as the next step Mike I 100% agree with you like
048to do some ask council's office for some research and and we'll out um and I I had forgotten actually the piece um Mr hoing about the um loss of committe assignments or leadership positions and like if this needs to become instead like that instead of what's currently on there I I still think that makes us better than we are today um I just would say again unless there's some reason why we know we are not allowed to do this I'd like to Advocate that we set a high bar I agree with that um uh before I have kind of a wrapup sort of comment Miss map I want to make sure um you've said what you want do you have anything else to add I do not thank you for asking though um superintendent do
049you have any comments I I I don't actually I am um I am um I think that all of us especially as we think about trying to define or continue to further Define um ethics and what ethics looks like for us um I think it would be really pretty interesting um to see where where this direction leads us so yeah thank you thank you for asking yeah no uh you know Ben you know 33% of our city council went to jail you know a couple years ago and uh you know uh if the if the state of Ohio had its way uh you know I'm going to we we would be allowed to do whatever we want it's like the wild west up there for God's sake um and so again I applaud my colleague
050for bringing this to us and holding us to a higher bar uh in a state where it is literally legal to lie in campaign ads um and like encouraged at times so if I heard it correct for general counsel and I'm going to ask Mr Lindy one last time to just confirm or add anything um poke around on this policy see if that piece about the votes is even legal um and then bring this back to the May policy meeting and maybe not just that sentence but I guess the whole thing in Ohio um and and see if it passes muster Etc um but then I'll give it to Mr ly one more time before we move on to make sure that that sounds right that's exactly what I would have said thanks cool um
051Mr Lindy specializes when he's on this Committee in finding very interesting gray areas uh this even though this is very different than the last the last policy we did regarding Labor uh it's a similar kind of issue right like we're not we're not really sure if we can't so um I look forward to seeing what happens so General Mike just for the for the historical record that the the labor policy was a responsible bidder policy uh so so for people who weren't here are trying to make sure that we we were um trying to bring to the surface when people submit their bids do they have a strong apprenticeship program do they offer Healthcare and retirement benefits to their employees and if and if we can um but it's it's like we were looking at
052with the um guard rail report on Wednesday if we can find a way to use our resources as a really large Organization for good you know I think that's a good thing purchasing power speaks in this country um council's office you guys good guys and gals good with the assignment that's we have the direction yes thank you cool all right moving on good stuff um all right so the next thing and uh the advertising of clubs so this was uh I I don't know that this needs to actually be on here and if it is if it doesn't that's my mistake um I'm going to look to Council Office I I think we kind of covered this but if if there's an update let me know if not we'll move on sorry that's on yeah
053we discussed this briefly at the last meeting and I don't I don't think there's any need for further discussion on it okay that's my fault then um student fees we know um thanks to superintendent's leadership um I'm going to kick it uh to the superintendent if she's okay with that just as sort of a general reminder that we're only uh and I got a question from a board member it was a good question I thought about you know some schools have uh special fees for special things that enable able them to do special activities with kids and and I reminded our board member that this is just about the base fee that we're going to wave from the state and and cover it uh because we think it's the right thing to do we're not
054going to wave all student fees even though that's something that we would like to do someday maybe um so superintendent just if you want to reiterate that that fact great um if you're good with what I just said fine too and then I'll see if Council has anything to add about the policy itself in language I don't know if there is but just how respect thank you um um chair moraski so yes this is about the so the the last policy was around with starting with next year waving the state fee around not having the state fees um that students have been paying yearly and I would like to call out um at this point Mr Marvin buts I really think we should call that the Marvin buts policy um if we can we know
055that last year Mr buts paid over $65,000 for student fees for our students uh for students that were having challenges getting those done and that was born out of his own graduation time I want to say 1977 that's how long it's been around that um he was not he was he was told that he could not graduate at that time because of student fees so that's a part of his interest in that space so I just wanted to definitely share that in terms of the policy that we're looking at today um this gives the opportunity or gives the guidance around what else happens as we wave fees so under what conditions uh we are able to continue to wave school fees um and what that waiver process looks like thank you so much um and
056so would it be good then we'll go to the council's office and and or get an update there or not also I just want to point out for the public certification if you don't know Mr butts he's awesome and uh he is the proprietor of the greatest car wash and Southwest Ohio Mr Bubbles in the Pendleton neighborhood sorry okay point of privilege go ahead Dan yeah just want to emphasize what the super superintendent said uh this is a policy that is still used and and shared with principles to say you know as as you get closer to graduation there there is always the opportunity to wave fees if uh you know if a family is in need or or a student um uh has a need for good reason to to wave those fees so
057this is a policy that's still used right it's definitely one um and correct me if if I'm wrong anybody can just with a nod or whatever uh that would probably be a good idea to just remind everybody we have I guess it sounds like especially this time of here actually um chair moraski we where this comes where we see it the most is with with high schools around the time of graduation and most recently um we did have conversation uh reminder conversations with our High School principles uh around um this specific policy and where we're looking at waving and how we're looking to do that so we're start we've already started that process and then next year we know we will put the process in place across you know the K12 system so that we
058the 2425 fees that's awesome I love when uh we're all on the same page thank you superintendent thank you general counsel and um my colleagues whoever wants to go first can if they want if not um feel free we can move on but Kendra Ben I'm good to move on nothing here Mike thank you right is almost too easy um crowdsourcing uh this was carried over uh 72302 this this this policy pops up every couple years um uh I'll kick it over to the council's office are there any updates from y'all end on this at all uh no this this is the policy that the board has been working on a along with the um receipt of gifts um and and shortly before the last board meeting I think uh the the gifs policy went
059forward and was adopted by the board uh this one uh there was a board member who I think had some additional comments and I'm not sure our office received them I know it was pulled and not passed at the last board meeting it was me oh okay yeah yeah it was me um sorry I probably didn't need to tee up that way I apologize Dan no that's all right I I um no it was it was me and um and it was it was L notice and I really appreciate um uh everybody uh you know offering Grace to pull it a little bit I don't have for myself any necessarily any real uh or any objection to it um I was just uh Curious uh what had been um I had heard from some from
060teachers um peras and others uh who who I know in the district whether you know casually or working uh in the schools uh where my kid is or other kids um they were curious what it was because they hadn't seen it and I was just wondering if there had been um Gathering of any kind of information from practitioners in the field on how they use the crowd sourcing and I asked that because last year when this came up at the end of the year uh Mary Weinberg was on the committee who had taught in CPS for 10 years and had a ton of feedback about things that I per to be perfect honest didn't even really fully understand I remember Dan one day especially um you two got in a great conversation where you were
061like oh jeez I hadn't thought of it this way and that way anyway to sum up I was just curious before we passed it um had we gathered information from folks in our buildings or excuse me input um regarding this policy before we put it on the agenda so I'm sorry I'm sorry I didn't give that cont text first not at all I'm I'm glad I'm glad you teed it up that way so I I would say yes we H we have received feedback um and just to give a brief history of this policy again so in 20 I think it was 2018 the auditor's office put out a notification to all school districts saying school districts should have a crowdsourcing policy didn't didn't exactly say what it should include didn't exactly you know there
062was no model policy uh to my Rec ction the first policy that came out in the state was from Dayton and Dayton put about a two- sentence policy together that said there will be no crowdsourcing used in the schools and we had a discussion with the committee at that time and that raised a lot of concerns from teachers and practitioners in the field saying no no this is an important source of funding for our classrooms um so after I I would say you know again five years have passed since that sort of notification from the auditor's office there were a there are a lot of policies that we sort of Drew on to try to put something together for ourselves CFT was in the room I would say for the first two or three discussions
063of this uh policy and saw it we did incorporate uh board member weinberg's uh I thought excellent comment her point was that to the extent feasible we can uh sort of earmark funds for the teacher who raised them and so that's incorporated in uh section four on the second page to the extent feasible and consistent with board policies and ethics laws the board approves funds raised to be earmarked by the district for use in a specific classroom or teacher or Department consistent with the campaign so I I think we've heard from lots of folks on this policy and u i I think I think we're ready to move forward uh but glad to take any further comment yeah well then we can put it back on the agenda for passage I didn't necessarily want to
064throw all that out there at the meeting um so again apologies for not uh giving the framing ahead of time um so I I'll look to uh uh well metaphorically speaking I can't see them but uh Kendra if they have any comments about this um yes just a quick question so I'm reading the um beginning of the policy and it says the board of education is appreciative of the additional school funding that can be raised through external donations from internet campaigns so is that limiting is it just limited to internet campaigns or is it any type of I guess fundraising initiatives so so this policy actually works hand inand with another new policy that we passed at the last meeting 7230 gifts donations and bequests so that's the all-encompassing one and this is specific on
065like crowdsourcing over the Internet essentially that's all I have thanks thank you for that clarification nothing further here Mike thank you right on um yeah excuse me we'll toss that on the agenda for p Mage then I believe it's the April 28th if I'm not mistaken um and then we will for the next meeting Miss Davis uh obviously we'll we'll bring up uh the anti-hate speech again unless Miss map gives us the green light between now and the 28th and if not again there's no hurry um so that's that's fine take your time um then we'll have the conflict uh of interest uh addendum or whatever we want to call it uh we have our uh council's assistant General and otherwise report uh on you know the feasibility of this vote piece and everything else
066see how it fits within uh our Lawless State um and right now that appears to be it for carryover I'm going to look to my colleagues and the administration to make sure I didn't miss anything as far as carryover to the next meeting it's it's really a I think those those two pieces and potentially one if anti-hate speech m is that right those two yep that's it yep great um well then other business um and then this um could since we have so much time um could either happen now or get moved over if uh people want 40 minutes of their their time back um so I don't have other business uh right now um but obviously I'll look to my colleagues to see if they have anything they'd like to bring up Mike I
067can give us 35 minutes back maybe even 30 seven minutes back if I can have two or three minutes yeah go for it so so just um some of you know this but I I last weekend I had this really fascinating trip to a conference in San Diego that was about artificial intelligence and education um and uh I learned a lot um there's a lot I don't know um but uh schools are doing really interesting things on this front and I know our superintendent is one of the most techsavvy people I've met and knows a lot about artificial intelligence likely more than I do um but the one of the wonderings I came away with was is there some role for us to play with an AI policy in the next blank number of months
068I don't know if that's six or 18 or two um like this there's no urgency on this but I wanted to at least plant a seed um one because I think there's a lot of potential to to to tailor things to for individualized students needs ways to make the lives of teachers easier ways to get much more powerful analytics from District data but there's also a lot of risks involved too um and and there's also like potentially uh what Mike to your point earlier about being first in the being first in something I don't think a lot of districts have passed AI policies yet I'm sure there are some out there um but I'd be willing to bet we could be first in Ohio um if not first in a broader area so if if
069that is of Interest to to to my colleagues the administration you know um I might put it in the queue for something for us to talk about this year um but there's no there's no urgency on it on my end yes yes yes yes um my wife's old job she just switched jobs but her old job she was working with this National kind of techie campaign firm and all all she talked about the last year in the job was AI um and people are talking about it all over the place um and we had some consternation already um uh with some AI software regarding attendance this year and um I'm going to go ahead and speed up that process and see if we can't just put um AI whatever I don't care how it's worded
070on the agenda for next month um and then I'll do some poking too I'm so glad you brought this up uh I'll use my extra 35 minutes because my family said they'd leave me alone till 11: so I'm GNA I'm going to capitalize on my 35 minutes and and and it start poking around now um so if the council's cool with it um if you just want to look around a little bit you don't need to you know don't take up too much of your time we'll get the conversation going um is that okay with you uh Kendra does that sound like a good use of our time yes that is totally fine um and I would definitely have interest in it in terms of the ramifications and and the risks associated with it if
071if I may may I add um um chair moraski so this is very timely U thank you for sharing that we are currently um working with EIP right now um to do presentations and protocols around Ai and so the next this is really the The Next Step I would imagine to that um there are several school districts um right now um um board member Lindy that do have ai policies um several of the schools the schools the the fellow superintendant that I work with have ai policies already and I've noticed just with the reference that U board member um moraski made there is a lot of fear around a and a lot of consternation around it however it is here and um I'm very familiar with the conference that U board member Lindy referenced I
072was actually asked to be a panelist on that at that conference um and just wasn't able to make it work this year but it's really important for us to do that we H we have some of our schools right now Walnut Hills for example that has their own protocols around AI so they do so it's so so it's important that we um that we do look at that as a district so I'm really glad that this is an area that we'll be spending some time in and I definitely look forward to giving some feedback so when I said early what I meant was late um right on time right on time uh yeah and you know I'll just speak for myself I'm one of those people I am by I am by no means uh
073a lite and I like technology um but yeah I maybe I watch too much sci-fi I don't know what it is but the AI thing does kind of bug me out a little bit so I would like just for my own uh pece of mind you know have some parameters um and it's nice to hear that there are there already some policies I'm not surprised the superintendent already knew about this uh Mr Lindy already brought it up uh she's way more techsavvy I'll speak for myself than I am certainly um and so uh you can probably assist general counsel it sounds like superintendent with some of these things already exist and then we can slap that on the agenda Miss Davis sound good for May cool um Miss map any uh other business do you
074have any other business I do not all right um well then hearing of the public uh if uh if you want to speak you can go ahead and raise your hand it looks like we have five folks watching I see some friendly names hello friendly names um if you want to speak go ahead and raise your hand you got a couple minutes um Rob will get you in here just be sure uh you know to put your name and uh affiliation with the district we'll give you a couple minutes to do so um while you do so uh I will tell all my colleagues uh was sorry to miss you on Wednesday as superintendent knows um I had told her a long long time ago I was going to be gone when it was uh
075I don't want to say just a committee of the whole but I you know I know it was elevated to a different status Wednesday so was thinking of you all um but not too much don't take that the wrong way um but I definitely once I found out I could still chair this meeting remote I was like I'm all in uh and since I've been up since 3:30 you know maybe I'll go back to bed now um anyone raise their hand Mr Mr Wilson no sir all right well uh friends who I see uh in in the who came thanks for swinging by the meeting this morning uh Team thank you so much here's your 33 minutes and uh appreciate you kend appreciate you Ben superintendent council's office Phyllis Rob have a great weekend thanks
076Mike to you