Board of Education Meeting

001my allergy is just my you're welcome good evening the February 13th 2024 regular meeting of the Menor Exempted Village board of education is called to order this meeting is being held in accordance with section 33131 15 of the Ohio Revised Code please place your mobile phones on silent mode for the meeting Mr Wade please call the role misso here miss JN present Miss marazza present Miss Pay Here Miss Cook here thank you and please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all I would like to welcome everyone to the February 13 2024 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village Board of Education prior to this evening

002each board member has received for their review and consideration the agenda and materials associated with each agenda item for the board's approval via the district's paperless Board of Education agenda system board docs the public can access the agenda through the school district's website and the agenda is available through the district's website for public viewing this Sunday prior to the board meeting board members have the opportunity to call the superintendent and Chief Financial Officer for information concerning agenda items and to request if needed additional information there are two places on the agenda where the board entertains comments from the community the first hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board on agenda items only the second hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board

003on any subject whether it be an item on the agenda or another topic to participate in the hearing of the public section interested speakers must sign up prior to the start of the meeting signups are available online through the school district's website or onsite prior to 7 p.m. you will be called to the microphone when it is your turn to speak and at that time we will ask that you please state your name and address questions to the board president each person may speak only once per segment and comments are limited to 3 minutes the purpose of the hearing of the public is for our community members to address the board the board continues to welcome feedback from the community as an important component to conducting business this is an information gathering opportunity for the

004board and administration so that we can work to best serve our community if at the end of the public participation we do not make a statement please know this does not demonstrate a lack of care for comments shared by our community rather we want to be thoughtful in our approach and we will provide a response in a timely manner when appropriate this meeting is being televised live and on a delayed basis and will be shown on Spectrum cable channel 1026 in Menor and channel 1025 in Menor on the lake this meeting is Al so being recorded and can be found on our YouTube channel Cardinal TV Menor Ohio thank you we have our district highlights and recognitions which we don't have any tonight and so we'll move on to the approval of minutes do I

005have a motion so moved second any discussion Mr Wade please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss Payne yes misso yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5 Z next we have hearing of the public on agenda items only there is none all right thank you um next we have the superintendent's report and recommendations good evening everyone um couple of things here this evening uh first at our last meeting there was some conversation around uh the uh discontinuation of our Esser funding after this year and what our plans might be so I do want to uh go through a couple of things with everyone here this evening on uh those particular items um due to the increase numbers of students in need of academic intervention tier 2 and tier three the district decided

006to provide students with tier 2 literacy Gap closing interventions districtwide this past year 20 three long-term Esser intervention Specialists were hired to provide tier 2 research-based interventions three intervention teachers were assigned to each of our seven elementary schools and two intervention teachers were assigned to the middle schools additionally we have used Esser funding to increase our student Mental Health Services through Crossroads because this is the final year for Esser funding there is a plan for next school year to Ure sure that student needs are still being met despite the dis uh despite the decrease in Staffing uh first we will have a reduction of 24 intervention teachers 20 at the elementary level four at the middle school level tier two along with tier one student interventions will once again be provided by classroom teachers and

007Par professionals this is part of our response to intervention model at the elementary level instructional coaches will provide embedded professional development and support for the implementation of small group tier 2 interventions and how they can be provided within the classroom on an ongoing basis at the middle schools the number of literacy and math coaching classes will be decreased and these students will be added to existing coaching classes which will increase the number of students in these classes our teachers will continue to use computer-based programming to differentiate instruction on a daily basis using things like I ready reading and math and math Exel building principles and our building uh level teams will continue to monitor building data to determine specific student needs and how to best address address these needs with given Staffing the district leadership

008team will continue to track student progress using our district Benchmark data three times a year we utilize star and I ready for those purposes these will uh allow us to determine needs for future professional development and programming student mental health supports that the district provides through Crossroads with will continue and the expense will be absorbed by the general fund we have been working closely with our new routing software company and our transportation department to get our procedures for bus routes in place earlier than we normally do for the 2024 25 school year in order for this to happen we're going to be adding a transportation component as part of our annual up date we will be asking families that have students going into grades K through 8 to opt out of Transportation if they will

009not be sending their child to school on a bus next year we did a little bit of that this summer but we're just going to be a little bit more purposeful with that process this year we will be asking families that have students going into grades 9 through 12 to opt in to transportation if their child needs a bus to get to the high school next year we will need this information from families here in March so we can start running our new routing software to make the routes more efficient and more accurate moving forward we do understand this is a shift in practice so we will be sending out numerous communication pieces to families now and through spring break to try and get the this process completed we know the transportation needs may change

010between now and the beginning of next school year but we will be able to make immediate adjustments to our routes to make sure students get can get to school utilizing this new software program I know we will have uh more conversation around the cell phone policy during unfinished business this evening but I wanted to share a few items with everyone that we have been working on here administratively to pre uh to prepare for our next steps in our quarterly meeting with the Menor Teachers Association on December 6th the topic of cell phones was discussed it was primarily a high school discussion topic so Mr Crow began working with his Department facilitators to brainstorm some ideas on how to implement what we currently have in our policy when Mrs IO brought up uh this topic at

011our January meeting we started digging into the language we have in not only our policy but also in our high school middle school and Elementary School handbooks to see what direction we might need to head we had additional conversations with our administrative team and with the MTA executive board last week to talk through some potential next steps I've created a draft of an administrative guideline for this policy that that incorporates much of the language that is in our handbooks for easy reference and implementation I believe there is consensus on the philosophy regarding the use of cell phones across the board so once we finish our discussion this evening and get the exact language we will want to use we can quickly communicate the policy the guideline and the handbook language and begin enforcing the rules

012in Earnest across all of our school buildings and finally we are very close to kicking off our new strategic planning process we have finalized two different organizations to facilitate our work this spring Triad research is going to be helping us conduct the community survey portion of this process they have done previous surveys of our community in the past and are highly respected for their professional approach and data analysis Mrs Estus our director of communications and I had our initial meeting with them late last week to give them an overview of the topics goals and action steps we currently have in our strategic plan so they can begin to create a comprehensive list of questions that we will ask our community once we have that draft we'll be sharing it with our administrative team and our

013board members to ensure we have all of the topics we feel are important for our final survey the survey will be completed electronically and will be completely Anonymous we will send it through email to all of our staff and families with the contact information we have in our databases we will have it posted on our website and distribute it through our normal communication channels so it will be available to Our Community Partners our support organizations and our business and industry groups we have elected the learner centered collaborative to facilitate our strategic planning initiative they come to us out of our connections nationally with the league of innovative schools we selected them because they bring a student centered approach to strategic planning and will push us to think more innovatively as we identify the goals and

014action steps for our new plan as part of their process we will create a portrait of a graduate that will identify the skills knowledge characteristics and traits that we feel a student should develop through their prek through 12 experiences here in Menor schools this will be tied closely to the academic components of the Strategic plan that we develop as well the most important part of the plan that they will also help us create is a scorecard that will identify the measurable outcomes for the goals we develop they will also come back and work with our teams as we collect and analyze the data from the scor card so we can adjust any action steps that are not having the impact that we expected our initial uh meeting with their facilitation team will be next Friday

015as we determine the steps we need to take to create our partner groups of students staff parents Business Leaders administrators and community members their facilitators will be on site for five full days of interviews collaboration sessions and go creation meetings throughout this process as I mentioned previously I absolutely love this type of work and can't wait to see what we can create through our process this spring good evening Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade I have the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda and recommend approval of items 6 A1 through 6 A5 so moved second Mr raid please call the role can we have discuss that's okay any discussion I just had one point to make um especially because of discussions we had around ohsaa for the last two years so

016I just wanted to mention that due to House Bill 68 they will be updating their uh bylaws and rules uh to align with that and that's effective I believe in April so just wanted to mention that and we've been in conversation with our athletic director too who serves as Secretary of the Northeast region of ohaa so uh we've got a direct conduit right to them to get those updates perfect thanks any more discussion all right seeing none U Mr Wade please call the rooll Miss Cook yes Miss chesing yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss pay yes motion carry 5 Z Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade I am recommending approval of the eppel certificate related to the retention Pond easement and access easement so moved second any [Music] discussion Mr

017Wade please call the role Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5- Z Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade I am recommending approval of the shared Resource Center agreement for payroll Consulting and Training Services so moved second any discussion Mr re please call the role Miss Payne yes Miss aapo Excuse Me Miss jessing yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion is Carri 5 Z Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to certified Personnel so moved second discussion Miss call the roll Miss pay yes Miss Jing yes Miss AO yes Miss maraza yes Miss M cook yes motion carries 5 Z Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I

018am recommending approval of agenda item C2 related to classified Personnel so move second any discussion please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss aopo abstain Miss Payne abstain Miss Cook yes motion carries 30 Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade I am recommending approval of agenda items C3 related to uh non-contractual compensation and C4 related to supplemental contracts some second any discussion please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss Payne yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5 Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade I am recommending approval of agenda item D related to administrative staff so moved second any discussion Mr Wade please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss aapo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion

019carries 5 Z this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you next we have the Board of Education report and recommendations the first item under board business is the first reading of the Menor Board of Education Neola policies and because this is a first reading no vote is necessary couple of comments on that just uh for the first reading of board policy 3242 there is a slight adjust M to what was uh originally posted um where it says curriculum liaison Committee in the last sentence that was actually removed and replaced with local professional development committee when that was added um that should still say curriculum liais on committee so the only change to that policy should be in the fourth sentence where we're changing the local professional development committee and replacing it with the curriculum

020liaison committee hold on did I say that right yes replacing the curriculum liaison committee um the reason for that change is that the lpdc establishes the guidelines uh assesses and approves the professional de development plans uh for staff members um when we sent out that email communication we ended up deleting both of the sections in there and that last sentence is still something that we do where uh during our curriculum liaison committee meetings um we do share the professional development plans from an overall standpoint with the uh uh with our board leaon there so that part stays the part in the fourth sentence is the part that changes because that's done by the local professional development committee so just wanted that point a clarification on that one okay any other discussion is this about the

021first reading [Music] on no 173 yes so when I looked at 173 and then I did a a term search in our policy manual I could see overlaps that would be impacted if we make changes to 173 it would impact 152 154 and 155 excuse me so just looking back when we've had our organizational meetings in the past it was a a little different process than we had at our organizational meeting in January where it was more of just kind of a a looser collaborative decision about roles that folks would play and they were appointed then by the president of the board so if we are removing that in number three in 173 then we would have to move from aoin E those things in 153 that are remaining over to 154 for where it

022would use a vote and then the other piece that I recalled was several years ago on that organizational meeting one of our um board members was absent due to illness if you had a tie on something if the board president doesn't have like a tiebreaking ability will have a problem because as I understand it all of those roles and positions must be assigned in that first half of January each year so we need to consider how we can prepare ahead in the event that something like that occurs so that there's consistency and Clarity I too found that um this is hard I can't see everybody but um I didn't actually notice in 0152 and 155 but I saw probably something similar in 153 and 54 where we have kind of both you know language appointing

023and voting and so um I can definitely see where we ran into confusion there um so but yeah I I'm glad thank you for pointing out the the additional policies that we should update as well I don't somebody else had something they wanted to did we um I think we we discussed a couple of policies that needed to be update that was in January did we end up updating those or is is that for a future meeting so we did the first reading um we knew that there was one more that needed another first reading which was 173 and then we would vote on all of them for the final approval at the March meeting are some of these the same ones that they're referencing that are being updated or are these different okay I

024thought so so there's there was a lot of subtle changes to to the language um and just as a reminder for the ire board um so in 151 which is the organizational meeting there's a sentence that's added at the end of that policy that will now read at the organizational meeting board Liaisons to administrative committees may be appointed by the superintendent so that gets into um those committees that are actually administrative in function as a as opposed to board committees themselves could you repeat that again that's y so that's 051 that's in1 the the additional language says at the organizational meeting board liaison to administrative committees may be appointed by the superintendent and if you recall from the organizational Meeting those were the curriculum leaon committee and the School Safety Committee um which was the

025new that we added so that we have a couple of uh members of our board sitting in on some of those administrative meetings with us so that's one one addition Craig just so um the other board members know too if you go to the January meeting um it's under the first reading so you could pull it all up all of those other ones are mentioned just to follow along if anybody else wanted to it's under 7A so the other changes when we look at uh one 53 which are the appointees that is where we eliminated several items um the school safety Lia on committee members the curriculum Lia on committee members which are now covered in 151 so we're covered there we removed the citizens Financial advisory committee members um because that one went to

026um policy hold on uh 6836 which which is the citizens Financial advisory committee policy uh we got rid of um H which is a member to serve as compliance officers a member to serve as hearing officer uh we got rid of and then a designate to attend public record access training required for board members for each term of office and then we also got rid of a general legal advisor so so we eliminated several things out of the appointees policy can I make a further recommendation around language though maybe Jenny you said this and I missed it but um at the very top it does say the board shall appoint when really we're not appointing the board President appoints or the superintendent appoints what we did was vote so if we don't change this from

027appoint to vote perhaps we consider moving it to yeah 154 I would agree with too I think it was very confusing because what we've always done in the past is the president would appoint and the president always appointed the legislative liaison student achievement and Menor schools Foundation board and in the current policy 0154 it actually states that that the I'm sorry it's not oh I have it it says the board shall at the organiz ational meeting vote on The Following uh this is 0154 yes yeah and then on0 one the one that Jenny just mentioned was 051 173 173 is the one word that's the one we're reading today 0 173 for today our current policy states that the president will appoint all committees and this is where it got really confusing because as we're

028going into an organizational meeting we have policy that says the president will appoint um I am thinking I'm about to appoint in a couple days I am calling people and saying I would like to appoint you for this position are you interested um and this is this is where it gets murky because we have 0173 that clearly says I have the authority to appoint and then the other one says that the board appoints and when the board appoints it really calls for a vote um so when we didn't have consensus we just decided let's go ahead and have the discussion let's be you know in the issue of team building let's have a discussion let's vote um and you know it's unfortunate that we had a lot of you know kind of issues that that

029resolved around that but I think that we really need to clear up this language so it doesn't happen again um we want to make sure that we know when we're going into it that I think what we're deciding right now is that we would like to vote in the future and we can just go ahead and make sure that that language is clear um but to Mrs jessen's point we do need to have some provision if there were to be a tie that's a good point and I think um we have for the curriculum and the Safety Committee I think we had decided that Mr Heath would kind of appoint those if there's yes you know um more people than positions open and that's kind of how we did so I don't know if that

030language also needs to be um I thought we talked we've got that yeah we've got that included in 151 okay that's that one additional sentence there so that that part's taken care of so maybe something like that needs to be add for um the scenario that they were speaking of in the event of time yeah in the event of a tie um for for board we wouldn't have a tie for the superintendent appoint no Ms just for the for the board appointments we need to come up with a way that we would break a tie and then those all have to be moved to 154 so that they become voting voted items rather than just appointed so really what what we're saying is everything out of 153 would just go to 154 yeah I think

031we'd merge those two right that's my understanding with the exception of e through K because those were already struck in a first reading right or proposed yep does that make sense to everyone at the table yes yes is everyone okay with with that because we'll see it for a second reading at the next meeting if we change that from appointees that we now wanted to be voted on so we would change it from an appointment to a motion and a vote yes yeah yes okay and then in the event of a tie what is our proposal so the tie would only happen if we were missing an a member right I think it would be very rare Mrs Jing did have that occur during her tenure so so I guess we do need to have

032a a safety net well and how so I have a question about that whole scenario if somebody's not here for the organizational meeting then do they just not get any position because there's they don't get to vote you know or can they still be nominated I can still be nominated and appointed okay you don't need to vote to appoint somebody it doesn't but just because you appoint someone doesn't mean you can't vote because for example we're appointing members to the CI and financial advisory tonight and the board is voting on it one doesn't break L the other okay so just to make sure I've got this right then because I'll get this written up um and just as an FYI I'll probably run it through legal councel just to make sure to that we're we're

033still covered here um so under 153 letters a through d and then letter L will all be included in policy 154 under motions where the original sentence reads the board shall at the organizational meeting vote on The Following and then those will be included there so 153 goes away all of those move into 54 and then the other items that we had already uh eliminated out of there letter e was already moved to 154 letter F was already moved to 154 letters g and H are no longer needed uh letter I is moved to 6836 and J and K are actually covered in 151 everybody got that yes there's a quiz afterwards so make sure everybody's ready there's also in 155 under committees it goes back to that same language member shall be appointed by

034the board so we need to correct that so it's a voted motion yes yes just the language right right right so just which one was that 155 this is 155 after the big paragraph and the little one and the one below that says members shall be appointed by the board so voted on I don't so change she be selected so members shall be voted by the board appointed by the board through a vote that get confusing again I mean for for me it would be um I don't know the board shall vote for shall vote to appoint nope that's two two verbs not work the board shall vote for members to serve on the committee members shall be voted upon by the board oh I like that I think voted upon works yeah the best

035words are hard it's clumsy to put it but as long as it doesn't say appointed okay so members shall be voted upon too sounds weird by a vote board will vote to confirm no it's appointment I'll take whatever you get when you're talking to the lawyer this has to be good with maybe he'll have some so I'll get the clarification from from legal and we'll uh we'll make sure that that's out there um so we'll see that um the word appointed will be removed and somehow the word voted will be in and uh and we'll make sure that it's a uh a clean sentence there I me per something could be added here to in the event of a tie okay um and I'm I'm trying to think of where that would live maybe that

036would live under committees in the event of a tie at the organizational meeting a tie shall be could you put it in 154 where the vote is occurring oh okay that might be it would live wherever the tie could exist so if it could exist in multiple places have to yeah so we'll get some language around ties how to break ties from legal as well thank you okay um so then going back to 170 three yes so are we still okay with removing appoint all committees then out of there because we've got everything else covered in all of the others now yeah so yes okay yeah that sounds good okay so these are moving to 154 okay I think I got it if if the president you could I've reserved comment for a long time

037so you could hear if the president's going to be the person who is the tiebreaker you could replace appoint all committees with the president will if if a tie exists you could put it there because that could be the role of the president which is often the case in many presiding officers that makes sense to do that you could do that there yeah that makes sense so we could consider that and have have legal weigh in on that for thank you okay I'll get that uh get all of those updated and and sent out to everyone so we know what we're voting on in March we will be very prepare next time the second item under board business is the approval of the the resolution to approve board member expense reimbursement and um these will

038be called out separately as each board member requesting reimbursement will abstain from voting on their own resolution and the first is the resolution to approve reimbursement for Mrs iapo so moved second please call the role Miss pay yes Miss Jing yes misso she's abstaining she has to say it though obain Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 4 Z resolution to approve the reimbursement for Mrs maraza so moved second please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss Payne yes Miss AO yes Miss maraza abstain Miss Cook yes motion carries 4 Z next we have the reappointment of the citizens Financial advisory members for 2024 Mo second any discussion Mr Wade please call the role misso yes Miss Jing yes Miss moraza yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z and the

039last item under board business is the appointment of a citizen's Financial advisory member for 2024 so moved second any discussion just very grateful for that whole committee and their their selfless service to our district absolutely we had many candidates for for this round and they were excellent we just had an excellent pool of people um a lot of talent willing to serve on the district and that was really exciting so I thank everyone I'm excited to um welcome our new member a lot of talent so Mr Wade please call the role M just yes Miss maraza yes Miss AO yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z next we have the legislative report Miss maraza yes there's a lot happening I will try to move quickly though um for starters the state

040board and Dew updates the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce had their first public meeting with their new director Steve dhan uh they proposed some rules for the Ohio Administrative Code uh they propos or put them open for public comment that time period has since closed but now they're going to review public input and make any changes before the director approves them the State Board of Education uh launched their Ohio teacher of the year nominations those are open through March 31st I highly recommend folks nominate their favorite teachers um that's pretty much it for those two bodies on to uh activity in the state house which is is dense um I'm not going to cover everything as I mentioned in my last report there is just so much happening around education it would be impossible

041to go over all of the bills so I'm trying to give you the highlights on the latest activity in motion on on some of these bills uh but for starters a governor activity Governor dwine signed hb101 uh which is uh it modifies the law regarding Village dissolution which doesn't sound like it would have much effect on school districts but it actually does because it makes some um education related budget Corrections related to primary and secondary education uh this was signed by the governor on January 20th and that goes into effect on April 30th um it also clarifies some responsibilities around the State Board of Education and other changes since um the Dew has taken over and those transitions have taken place um I think very importantly I want to just mention that Governor dwine assembled

042uh quite a while ago if you if you all recall there was um a a bus accident back in a August of last year in which a little boy passed away and after that tragic accident uh Governor dwine assembled a school bus safety working group um to kind of not just you know think through the issues related to that accident but just do a big um kind of not an overhaul but a deep dive study into what we could do to improve our busing systems our buses and and make them safer overall so um Governor dwine announced the report's conclusion and recommendations back on January 31st and there were six main areas of concern um one is Statewide bus driver shortage which is something I know I have talked about a lot personally um and

043that the the report acknowledges that definitely there is one Statewide and that puts a strain on our drivers as well as our overall systems um it uh another area of concern was professional development and training and education for drivers and also safety education for students um helping them understand what it means to be a safe bus rider and to respect the driver those sorts of things um school bus safety features was another area of concern road traffic and safety um emergency response you know better preparing drivers to respond to emergencies so they can you know help folks who are in crisis before uh emergency responders get there um and then kind of making the connection between those drivers as well as the Ohio State Highway Patrol um and commercial bus services was the last area

044of concern so there were believe 17 total yes recommendations I won't list them all here um they're easy to find online but those um those 17 recommendations were um they they came up with these using uh actually osba did a the Ohio School Board Association of which we are members um did a number of studies to help inform those conclusions which are really appreciated by the governor so I do um highly recommend you checking those out they were very insight ful um and I'm happy to answer any questions and any point about those recommendations on to State House updates um the house had a session on February 7th uh there were some committee hearings today which included the primary and secondary uh education committee and then there is an upcoming Senate session uh on February

04528th at 1:30 um right at the top of the list is something that was already mentioned tonight which is hp68 hp68 prohibits gender affirming care for minors and also um requires school districts to uh and state institutions of higher education and private colleges to designate separate Single Sex teams and sports for each sex that was uh vetoed by Governor DWI on January 3rd as we all know overridden by the House of Representatives on January 10th as well as the Ohio Senate on January 24th this now goes into effect on April 23rd um I think that's all we're going to say about that for now um and we're just sort of you know going to I think work with as we mentioned earlier work with our legal counsel and really it's not in effect yet so

046um we're just we're not really really ready to make any motion there just as an FYI to not to interrupt but we we did ask our legal councel uh for some advice and guidance on that um and he and his team are working through that for all of their member uh schools so um there's there's a lot St to come obviously because there's so many impacts to public education there too thank you Mr Heath um Senate Bill 217 this one is U moving along pretty quickly this passed both the house and the Senate it's now heading to the governor's desk for Signature um it will incorporate free market capitalism content into the high school financial literacy standards uh for the state um so what this is is basically we already have a finan financial literacy

047standards there are 27 of them currently so this would add 10 additional standards which is a lot um so this is expanding it um and and you know just for reference financial literacy has more to do with um you know how to set up a bank account how to manage your checkbook how to manage your finances so this is adding 10 Concepts about capitalism into that there are some other pieces and parts to this bill as well um but it's important to note that you know it's moving to the governor's desk so we could see changes on this fairly soon and we would have to um consider you know what that means for our own standards and how we're going to have teachers um Implement those in the classroom House Bill two um is is

048the actual formal title is to create local jail facility funding programs which again sounds like it has nothing to do with education but this one actually uh contains $600 million for the Ohio facilities construction commission to use for school building Improvement uh across the state so that actually could be be relevant for us um this one passed the house 75 to9 and now heads to the Senate but we're folks that I've spoken with aren't really sure whether this will pass so to be determined House Bill 214 um relevant to school districts because it would uh require each public school to adopt a policy regarding certain expectations related to the performance of staff member professional duties um so this would require us basically to create new policy so that's why I'm keeping an eye on this

049one um and specifically it would it would um it would ask that schools not require employees or job applicants to offer an opinion about specific beliefs affiliations ideals or principles this one already passed the house um and it had a Committee hearing in the Senate education committee on January 23rd uh where they heard testimony uh House Bill 348 this one is to establish pilot programs to increase student attendance with financial incent incentives pretty uh controversial from what I've heard so far this one still has a ways to go but just should be something that we're all aware of um it had a Committee hearing in January House Bill 339 uh this one this bill is intended to establish the non-charter educational savings account program um these are basically savings accounts that would be eligible uh

050for students attending schools that basically have opted out of any state oversight so that's um you know certainly something to to watch in house primary and secondary education committee two hearings so far um only for sponsor and proponent testimony House Bill almost done House Bill 344 um this one is really important to watch this one would eliminate the authority uh for Levy replacement property tax levies so it will eliminate replacement levies um this would affect you know some school districts not ours since we don't have any but also things like libraries any institution that uses that relies on replacement levies uh for funding would be affected um but where it would be be relevant for us is that this bill would actually make it harder for us to challenge um property valuations which we sometimes

051do um when it comes to these are commercial properties mind you not Residential Properties um so that is something that we need to watch it's gaining a lot of speed in their in committee hearings it actually had three just in the last month or so um so just for some reason it's gaining steam we'll want to keep an eye on that um The Joint Committee on property tax review uh they met recently on let's see the second time on February 7th um this group is tasked with making recommendations on how to proceed with bills related to property taxes um to and to really just avoid tax burdens on individuals and as well as um you know they're trying to see how these bills might affect uh or cause issues for uh Public Schools school districts

052and their funding um so at that most recent meeting they they met with the County Auditors Association and the board of tax appeal so we we don't really know uh when they're going to meet next um but they do say that their work will be done sometime between March and June finally new legislation was introduced House Bill 402 by representative Jean Schmidt she uh proposed this bill that would authorize a property tax reduction in 2023 for properties with increased tax liability relative to 2022 and House Bill 387 um this one would dissolve existing academic distress commissions repeal the law that creates new commissions and declare an emergency that one's currently in house committee so still a very long way to go on those two and that's it thank you very much it was thorough very

053helpful it was thorough but you explained it really well for a a summary um next we have the student achievement report from Mrs jine yes thank you a balanced education means providing multiple ways for students to experience explore solve problems and meet challenges most of these happen in the classroom but Menor also offers an abundance of activities to support the development of well-rounded successful students ready for life after graduation here is a sampling a regional Deca competition was recently hosted here in Mentor the distributive education clubs of America is one of the Career Tech student organizations that provides invaluable opportunities that build soft skills and preparation for the real world some 400 students competed and the winners winners will go on to the state level contest the Menor High speech and debate team has worked

054hard and competed well this season we especially congratulate team captains senior Casey gray and freshman Ellie Coleman who've qualified for the Ohio speech and debate associ assciation state tournament that will be held in March last month we missed the chance to recognize the Menor High model un who traveled to compete at the Chicago International model un conference before winter break at the awards ceremony Tatiana saby one delegates choice and best delegate Isabelle konas one outstanding delegate West Matthews Charles partlo Theon Christus and Juliana Nichols w honorable mentions and Zoe baringer one outstanding delegate in special negotiations Mentor Junior High model un participated at the Cleveland Council on world affairs conference at John Carroll University and the ccwa just celebrated its Centennial season and that photo at the bottom was one of The Originals the Menor

055High School Mack trial team participated in the district competition held on January 26th before judges of The Common Police Court at the Lake County courthous students who won awards are senior vea Roberts for best witness freshman Atlas Copley for best witness and freshman Alexis goek for best attorney the team one and team two defenses both won their trials our Menor High School musicians had a stellar outing last Saturday at the Ohio music Education Association district 7 solo and Ensemble contest more than 100 events represented our band Orchestra and choir programs at the adjudicated competition district 7 serves Lake giaga and Eastern kayoga counties a selection of Shore and Memorial vocal and instrumental musicians has been invited to join the Oma Middle School honor band and Honor Choir this season the choir performed together at Solen

056High School last month and Menor is hosting the honor band here at the end of this month Bravo to Menor High School teachers Mr Byam and Mr Novi for their engineering and Home Improvement students participating in the cardboard canoe race at the Menor Community Recreation Center For the First Time The rata tested the student designed and constructed boats made of cardboard and just two rolls of duct tape participants had a paddle across the pool and back without sinking here's Hands-On learning with real skin in the game the one school one book program is underway at Sterling Morton Hopkins Orchard Hollow Ridge and soon at Fairfax the whole school reading a book together brings the added Joy of building and expanding a sense of community among students and staff and expands family engagement Mr poppers Penguins

057Charlie in the Chocolate Factory and charlott's web are three classic titles that have been unveiled so far a student initiated ated sign language Club is new to Shore Middle School thanks to eighth grader Colette sudell and Mrs Megan lageni we love to see a student propose a great idea like this and are happy to see if it can be offered the annual Menor schools Foundation readathon has just ended each year the foundation sponsors this fun reading program for our elementary students through the dollars raised the foundation funds K through2 Mentor classroom grants as well as scholarships for more than 50 years the national PTA has sponsored the fine arts program Reflections Menor students have again participated particularly in the area of visual art and winners will be announced soon last week the Menor High School

058theater continued their Centennial season with a suspenseful play Wait Until Dark the performances were sold out the spring musical will be the school edition of Steven Sim's Sweeney Todd with performance es April 18th through 21st congratulations to our 2024 District spelling be Champion Shore 8th grader Tyler greno he went on to represent Menor schools at the February 1st Lake County Spelling be and finished first runner up out of all the schools represented over this semester our third graders across the district will be making the trip to the James A Garfield National Historic Site lawnfield the presidents or the 20 president's home right here in Menor is a unique opportunity to walk in the footsteps of History during their father's campaign the two youngest Garfield Sons attended the original Menor Village School at the corner of

059Center Street and Menor Avenue our fifth graders will be taking a field trip to tour the Cleveland Museum of Art this semester its vast world-renowned collection is sure to Delight speaking of the Arts Menor Middle School will present Aladdin Junior on stage February 23rd and 24th so get your tickets the memorial art department is designing its new logo winners are Ella kosher and Ellie noblock scheduling for next year for grades 7 through 12 is well underway expanded course offerings and diverse electives aim toward the district's goal of meeting the needs and interests of every student to that end a career tech expo was held on January 24th so students could look at an array of options and ask questions in collaboration with Lakeland Community College and the Lake County Commissioners the Menor school district has

060announced the launch of Lakeland at Paradigm for fall 2024 the college credit plus courses are planned to include composition one and two basic economics college algebra US national government psychology trigonometry and effective public speaking this will expand opportunities for students students without the need to travel across town fifth into sixth grade transition presentations are being offered this month for students and families to help make a seamless move from the elementary to Middle School levels students will work with their parents in selecting their electives for fall and speaking of fall kindergarten registration for the 2425 school year will open on March 5th for our newest Cardinals all children who will be 5 years old honored before September 30th 2024 are eligible and we look forward to welcoming our fledglings in the nest next August thank you

061thank you so much it's it's always so nice to see everything that's going on the wide variety and very well done thank you next we have the chief financial officer's report and recommendations thank you madam president uh looking at our overall picture um our Revenue collections indicate about $130,000 favorable compared to our forecast in November our expenses are down uh about $740,000 so a net positive impact on the cash balance of about $88,700 th000 if we look at our actual revenue for the month in comparison to last year revenue is up about $22,000 uh mainly because our investments are up uh in comparison to last year uh if we look at it year to date our local taxes are down $1.2 million again we predicted this based on the collection split that we saw um

062but to offset that we've seen an increase in Investments to this point up $823,000 so overall again looking at $130,000 uh positive variance which is really uh immaterial because it's about a 0.12% difference from what we were forecasting so we're trending pretty close on our Revenue very to our forecast looking at our expenses uh expenses are down this month uh comparison to last year uh at about $1.4 million this really comes down to timing um we did not receive a tuition uh bill that we received last year or typically in the month of January so there's a difference of about almost $800,000 um we are down in purchase Services of about $400,000 and supplies we're underspending by about $100,000 now um so those trends will likely continue based on some of the changes that we've

063made uh based on recent discussions that we've had as a board uh based on decisions Mr Heath has uh made with his administering team um year to date we're down $1.6 million 11.7 million again the majority of that coming from the fact uh we did not have that large transfer out that we've had in the past uh Mr Lynch is really trying to mooving along he's skipping slides at this point um expenses are within a 65% variance again immaterial that we're down $740,000 which is good you know when we look at it in comparison to the forecast it's only about a0 65% difference uh so again trending very close on our expenses uh so that's positive you can hit that last slide now Mr um just kind of summarizing he loves it when I call

064him out um he if you look at the slide this is a summary of our work session and discussions that we've had that I've shared with the board um I would just add that we did confirm that our maintenance Fleet Maintenance plan that we proposed at the work session uh is feasible after talking to our director transportation and her coordinator of uh Fleet Maintenance uh today um so we will do that uh and we will actually are going to take uh 11 buses uh was decided today with Mr Heath's approval uh based on their recommendations off the lot uh effective at the end of the month um the board did give us approval to auction off five of those so you'll be seeing another request for approval to auction off six additional buses uh which

065would bring our Fleet down to 72 and give us uh 22 spare buses 18 of those buses would be regular Ed buses and four would be special ed buses um that's going to save us hard dollarwise about $1,000 a year in Insurance um which I'm proud to announce that you can see some substantial savings with our update in property and liability insurance savings that I shared with the board uh last week uh we are switching carriers from Liberty Mutual to go to what's known as the Ohio school plan um the Ohio school plan is actually cheaper this year than our current rate that we're having um so with that uh our coverages would be relatively the same our total District protection from a liability standpoint is uh theoretically larger on some level because of the

066way that they fund uh the various different categories and um we're seeing some about $90,000 a year in savings if we forecast that over based what we were projecting based on our current rates um we also had uh our gas contract is uh expiring at the end of June uh we locked that in so that we have uh don't see variable cost with gas uh so as much probably many people in their own home do uh we were able to utilize a uh contract through TPI which we've had over the last few years to lock in um rate of about 3.25 mcf uh which is about a170 less than the next closest bid that we got from Ohio school council um so those rates actually came in a lot lower than we were even projecting

067back in November uh gas has really kind of come back down uh because of the mild winter which has been to our benefit so we're actually only seeing about 8 or you know 80 cent increase on that you know from going from 3.14 to 3.2 so about you know not even 0.8 actually uh increase so that's a pretty good sense on us we're only seeing about an 8 cent increase per uh mcf that we use so um not huge savings um but when you're trying to get down $5 million by 2026 I know the guy to my left always appreciates it when we can find ways to do that without having to really affect anything with Staffing so um put that on there just so that the community knows that this is just another way

068that we're looking to save costs um when we look at our contracts for even things as simple as this with regards to gas savings um and we did lock that in for a year um so we will reevaluate that coming forward so those numbers in the out years could change um that brings our three-year total savings uh to $3.75 million um our goal again is a $5 million goal uh for the three years by 2026 so we're we're just shy of 1 .2 um I am proud to announce though that uh Mr Heath and his team have worked very hard and they've reduced our expenses by $10.5 million since the failure of the pi Levy in November um so again finding ways to continue to tighten our belts uh for that so that savings just

069to kind of reiterate on the property and liability will actually probably go up about $10,000 a year um once we get the update quote was the reduction of the fleet um again because we ensure our entire fleet um and we have to do that before that starts because with our new policy we can only reduce or increase basically one time a year so after the policy starts on March 1st if we reduce after that we don't see a savings but at the same time when we add Buy buses that come in during that same time we don't see an increase uh they only do it at the term of the adjustment so it was important for us to meet today um um and I appreciate Miss weisen she wasn't feeling well she was actually out

070of the office to to still jump on that call with Mr Heath and myself and Mr zanor so we could get that information to our insurance company and they'll be giving us a revised quote that'll be approximately 1010 to 11,000 less that concludes my report any questions I I just I just had a comment I know that we are all you know really dedicated to saving money and I want to especially thank Mrs Payne for asking those great questions with right sizing the fleet um it's really exciting to be able to see um like we found money thank you and and I know it was um you know because of the great questions that you asked so thank you thank you so much Bill's always really good with digging further so yeah I you know

071I talked to Mrs Payne about a week ago you know just thanked her as well because you know great board members have good questions and we have great board members on this uh committee across the board and you know when people ask good questions that allows us to challenge our thinking and kind of do things and I always say that that's the biggest aspect of of board is to challenge and ask good questions so um this is a great example of that team effort to uh make some substantial savings so um glad we're able to do that okay do we have yep Madame President members of the board uh I ask that uh we approve items B through H in one motion please so moved second any more discussion all right Mr Wade please call

072the role Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss AO yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5-0 that concludes my section of the agenda all right at this time we do have some unfinished business we have um an appointment of two members of the Board of Education to the Board of Education scholarship committee so every year the Board of Education gives a scholarship away to a student at Menor high school and we did have um everyone is in on the board so the board scholarship is funded by by us as board members we donate part of our salary to this scholarship fund every year and because everyone is in on it um everyone has has said that they want to be a part of the scholarship we do have um we did have

073some people say that they wanted to be a part of it so um Mrs Payne and Mrs maraza if you'd be willing to serve look at the scholarship applications and absolutely awesome right um any discussion or questions with that really the scholarship nope okay so this year we are hoping to um to announce the scholarship with the rest of the scholarship that are at the senior awards ceremony which is the beginning of May so we're looking at maybe a end of March deadline would that be enough time for you both to review the applicant do you have any sense of how many applicants we might get 700 i' I've done this process before and I was we really didn't have a whole lot but that's because we only posted it with the guidance counselor so

074if we post it elsewhere we might get yes we should share this out and talk about this in the past it's been about 10 to 15s I know I think I've done it a couple of times and it was 18 or 20 okay so that' be a few years ago so classes back could be or or late time very doable yes I think you and if um if there's a way we can send those out is there like a link to the application that we can there is an application and the guidance counselor have a scholarship board that all the students already on a daily basis it's in their announcements with the link okay great so it'll go on that form and then we can also um advertise it yeah to to go onto that

075scholarship board the guidance counselor scholarship board um and from there we'll have so if we're looking at end of March I can put that on as a deadline I'll send that to guidance and then sounds great go from there all right thank you thank you both if we could get those put uh the results digitally the way the Min schools Foundation does that expedites reading things you can easily redact the names and it gives you a nice unified crosssection then yes we will ask guidance to redact the names um just so yeah there's privacy there and it's also why Mrs iopo and I are not on this committee because we both have seniors so we would know too many people okay um our second unfinished business is a discussion of policy 5136 which is personal

076communication devices and um Mrs aapo did bring this she wanted to discuss this so if we we could start with our current policy um on the screens and we can just go through what we have currently and then we can disc discuss where we want to go from there because I know that we've all felt like yeah let's let's bring this forward um okay do we do we want to read it I can volunteers all right um 5136 personal communication devices for purposes of this policy personal communication device the PCD includes computers tablets um example iPad like devices electronic readers e-readers um Kindle like devices cell phones smartphones iPhones Android devices window mobile devices SmartWatches telephone paging devices such as beepers or pagers put those away Mach and [Laughter] or and or other web enabled

077devices of any type students may use pcds before and after school during their lunch break in between classes as long as they do not create a distraction disruption or otherwise interfere with the educational environment during after school activities extracurricular activities or a school related function um use of pcds except those approved by a teacher or administrator at any other time is prohibited and they must be powered completely off not just placed into the vibrator silent mode and stored out of sight students may not use pcds on school property or at school sponsored activity to access Andor view Internet websites that are otherwise blocked to students at school students may use pcds while riding to and from school on a school bus or other board approved vehicles or on a school bus or board provided vehicle

078during school sponsored activities at the discretion of the bus driver classroom teacher or sponsor advisor coach distracting behavior that creates an unsafe environment will not be tolerated during after school activities when directed by the administrator or sponsor pcds shall be powered completely off not just placed in the vibrate or silent mode and stored out of sight except as authorized by a teacher administrator or IEP team students are prohibited from using pcds during the school day including while off campus on a field trip to capture record and or transmit the words or sounds audio and or images pictures and video of any student staff member or other person using a PCD to capture record Andor transmit audio Andor picture video of an individual without proper consent is considered an invasion of privacy and is not permitted

079students who violate this provision and or use a PCD to violate the Privacy rights of another person shall have I'm their PC being confiscated thank than you they're PCD confiscated and held until a parent or Guardian picks it up and may be directed to delete the audio Andor picture video file while the parent Guardian is present if the violation involves potentially illegal activity the confiscated PCD may be turned over to law enforcement pcds including but not limited to those with cameras may not be activated or utilized at any time in any school situation where a reasonable expectation of personal privacy exists these locations and circumstances include but are not limited to classrooms gymnasiums locker rooms shower facilities rest bathrooms and any other areas where students or others may change clothes or be in any stage

080or degree of disrobing or changing clothes the superintendent and principal are authorized to determine other specific locations and situations where the use of a PCD is absolutely prohibited students are expressly prohibited from using covert means to listen in or make a recording audio or video of any meeting or activity at school this includes playing recording devices or other devices with one or two-way audio communication technology such as technology that allows a person offsite to listen to Live conversations and sounds taking place in the location where the device is located within a student's book bag or on the student's person without Express written consent of the superintendent any request to place a recorded device or other device with one or two-way audio communication technology within a students book bag or on a students person shall be

081submitted in writing to the director of student services The District representative shall notify the parents in writing whether such request is denied or granted within 5 days students shall have no expectation of confidentiality with respect to their use of pcds on school premise property students may not use a PCD in any way that might reasonably create in the mind of another person um the oppression of being threatened humiliated harassed embarrassed or intimidated see policy 55171 wow I keep thinking it's getting close here bullying and other forms of aggressive behavior um in particular students are prohibited prohibited from using pcds to one transmit material that is threatening obscene disrup disruptive or sexually explicit or that can be construed as harassment or disparagement of others based upon their race color national origin sex including sexual orientation transgender

082identity disability Age religion ancestry or political beliefs and two engage in sexting which is sending receiving sharing viewing or possessing pictures text messages emails or other materials of a sexual nature in electronic or any other form violation of these prohibitions shall result in disciplinary action furthermore such actions will be reported to local law enforcement and Child Services as required by law students are also prohibited from using a PCD to capture record Andor transmit test information or any other information in a manner constituting fraud theft cheating or academic dishonesty likewise students are prohibited from using pcds to receive such information possession of a PCD by a student at school during school hours Andor during extracurricular activities is a privilege that may be forfeited by any student who fails to abide by the terms of this policy

083or otherwise abuses the privilege violations of this policy may result in disciplinary action Andor confiscation of the PCD the principal will also refer the matter to law enforcement or Child Services if the violation involves an illegal activity for example child pornography or sexting discipline will be um imposed thank you imposed I was those two words imposed on an escalating scale ranging from a warning to an expulsion based on the number of previous violations Andor the nature of or circumstances surrounding a particular violation if the PCD is confiscated it will be released returned to the student's parent Guardian after the student complies with any other disciplinary consequences that are imposed unless the violation involves potentially illegal activity in which case the police department May PCD I'm sorry the PCD may be turned over to law enforcement

084a confiscated device will be marked in a removable manner with a student's name and held in a secure location in the building's central office until it is retrieved by the parent or guardian or turned over to law enforcement school officials will not search or otherwise tamper with the pcds in District custody unless they reasonably suspect that the search is required to discover evidence of a violation of the law or other school rules any search will be conducted in accordance with policy 5771 search and seizure seizure if multiple offenses can you roll up just a little bit for me I'm on the line thank you occur a student may lose his or her privilege to bring a PCD to school for a designated length of time time or on a permanent basis a person who discovers

085a student using a PCD recording device or other device with one or two-way audio communication technology and violation of this policy is required to report the violation to the principal students are personally and solely responsible for the care and security of their pcds the board assumes no responsibility for theft loss or damage to or misuse or unauthorized use of pcds brought into its property parent and Guardians are advised that the best way to get in touch with their child during the school day is by calling the school office students may use School phones to contact parents and Guardians during the school day okay there's a lot of information there so let's let's break it down and if you wan to well I'm happy to follow that because that was really interesting no so that's a

086great policy I'm glad that was I didn't expect it to be be read so I think that's really nice to for everybody to hear it it is a good policy um unfortunately it's not um being fully enforced to so we can reap the benefits of it so that's what brings us here right now um I first want to just talk about what I want to change or what I'm proposing to change and just a little bit of tweaking a little bit of the language um and let me first just explain what I what I mean by it so um my goal is not to completely remove the cell phone out of the building I know a lot of area schools are starting to do that um and that is not my goal um I think

087that I would call it from Bell to Bell so anytime walking into school students can have their phones in the hallways in between classes um in your classroom while you're waiting once that Bell Rings your phone's out gone in your book bag zipped up not to be seen until the bell rings to end the class and the students welcome to use it in between classes at lunch and I would even say study hall but that's I guess debatable um um of course there are going to be extenuating circumstances we have um students that need their phones for medical reasons that of course would be exempt from this um Mr Heath brought up a good point that we have English um learning students that use it as a um I hadn't thought of that um that

088so those that would be of course exempt as well as um a student that needs it for um an IEP so there's certainly reason like students that could be exempt from that and so and I certainly respect that so I'm when I'm talking about the language in there those exceptions would have to be in there um 100% um and I think that putting those exceptions in the policy and being very um just we want to be able to cover exceptions because as it was pointed out to me you know there's going to be unforeseen educational or medical advancements and we don't want to have to come back to the table and change the policy over and over so I think if we make sure we're careful with tweaking the wording a little bit so the

089really the only thing on there that I think would we would tweak besides pager I think nobody is a pager anymore um would just be the um removal of the teacher discretion and um before I go into that um I have spoken to multiple teachers in our district outside the district principals um parents I I haven't had anybody say to me that they think that removing that um discretion is somehow um a sign that we don't trust them or anything like that and actually um I had I mentioned that I had a member from of MTA come to me saying thank you for bringing this up um I've had um principal in the high school mention that this is something that that is needed so I just want to kind of set the record clear

090that um you know this is to help teachers just as much it is to help students it's to support teachers just as much to support we want to support students so so um I believe that making a district policy change sends a message um that we admit the old way isn't working um so that we're doing something about it and that we're serious about this initiative um so I don't know it sounds like we have a lot of um a lot of a lot of us are on the same page in terms of knowing that cell phones in the classrooms are not very good but I'm just for um maybe anybody that doesn't hasn't done their research at home I'm going to go over a couple things quickly um studies show that this will improve

091student engagement in the classroom improve Behavior decrease disciplinary issues improve academic performance improve classroom management reduces their exposure to inappropriate content builds interpersonal communication skills students begin to engage with their peers this improves the work environment for teachers and their ability to control their classroom and cultivate relationships with their students this reduces time wasted on disciplinary issues strict policy allows teachers to feel confident in knowing that administrators have their back when enforcing this policy so I had um some students at the high school I think we all had um their PowerPoint shared with us in the 10th and 11th grade and they had to do reports their reform project that they do every year and I would say half of the groups all um did their report on removing cell phones from the classroom so

092any thoughts that students are really against this I think there are many that that really deep down understand the benefits um as I had mentioned um I've spoken to teachers and member of the MTA one of the um on on and this is some something that I wanted to just share um with his permission um that on the topic of cell phones teachers are very frustrated with the lack of consistency and enforcement of current policy so that's coming from the MTA so this is something that that teachers do support um I did speak with the principal um excuse me in another school and previously when he was a teacher and for and he was implementing removing the cell phones I thought this was interesting he had um all of his students they were in Block

093scheduling so 90 minutes and he had all of his students create a list on a poster board of all of the apps that they get notifications for and then every time in that 90 minutes they had they got a notification they had a mark tally by the end of that 90 minutes the students all were able to see there were over 300 notifications just from a 20 22 um student class in 90 minutes and he said the students were in awe at at how just how much these phones were actually distracting them so I think that might be a an interesting thing to implement in each class um so why am I asking for policy change um why remove the discretionary power for our teachers um I think if we are able to see real

094effects from removing phones we have to we need consistency and currently I know a lot of teachers are um starting to implement this but we need it to be consistent um I think that's the best way to help students adapt to their new norm and effectively wean them off of their smartphones which is what we have to do um it can be accomplished if this could be accomplished with guideline and handbook changes only I'm all for it um I just don't know that that's enough um these have been around for quite a while um you know you can't enforce a rule that is vague and I think when you just put on there teach just it you know unless the teacher approves it's pretty vague and again consistency is is really key you know you

095don't want students to know oh I'm going to this period and this teacher lets me this teacher's cool and lets me have my phone um you know what do they say you don't want to give an addict a little bit a little bit of their of their drug so um we just need stronger language and that would remove any scenario um of gun outside of those medical or exceptions that I mentioned where students feel like they can pster their teacher um this would remove the possibility of even discussing it I know that when I sub I don't even I just leave it alone unless the teacher gives me um direction to say no they these kids know there's no there's no cell phones and when I have that when I have that blame I guess

096you could say I can blame it on you know um this is the rule the kids listen and they and they put them away um if if when I'm when left to my own viices I I can't win a battle with the teenagers they're just they they're Relentless so I think that that's one of the the stresses that te teachers um are having with trying to enforce is that it's a battle every single class every day and it's that's takes a toll teachers didn't sign up for that um so why is this worth our media attention why is it need to be changed um again I said the the policy language is vague um and which is why phones are still an issue in the class um let's just all assume that teachers require that

097phones are are put put away during class but then allow them to pull the phones out even for the last few minutes of class you know um if we want to truly see the benefits of no phones we must remove that option or that instinct to grab their phones um even if it's for free time uh the last few minutes of class might be the only opportunity for students to interact with each other removing that teacher discretion portion of the policy will create the expectation for students that phones are not an option and teachers aren't made to look like the bad guy um you know this effort stands to improve school safety academic outcomes discipline issues mental health issues um so you know I did have some people say that I was wasting the the

098board's time and you know this is exactly what we're here for so um I just wanted to make that clear so again I'm not I understand the need to or the desire to maybe want to just change the administrative guidelines but you know if something if we're going to ex continue with the same thing and expect different results I'm not sure that that's the best route so I'm interested to hear what everybody what everybody else's thoughts are thank you any discussion so thank you for bringing this up I think it's a an important topic um sounds like you did some some leg work there and some background research so that's really helpful to hear um I think what I heard you say and some of what you hope to change um in the policy forgive

099me but I I think I I read some of it already in there so and I and I know too that my son when he go he you know he goes to Memorial he understands the phone goes in the bag does not come back out except for in between classes um I can't remember if it's study hall or not I know you mentioned study hall um but it stays in his locker and he tells me Mom don't text me don't text me I I I won't respond um email me that's what that's what everyone tells us to do do and so that's that's why I have some level of familiarity so I think that in some ways what you're hoping for does already exist that's that's good I guess where I'm I I I I

100agree that they are a distraction um I I that's obvious I think they're distraction not just for our kids but um for ourselves um there's no doubt about it um and and we all need to learn to live a bit better with our cell phones at our sides um where where I'm I'm struggling a little bit is um especially in light of you know all the things that I've learned so far far about the the role of a board member in light of our conversation with Mr Bennett from the ESC last week you know what I've understood so far is that the role of the board is to handle the how and the why um and the role of the administration the superintendent is the how is is you know exactly how to do it

101so if we're talking about you know why we're doing a thing that that's that's the B board's role whereas Mr Heath and his team they're going to handle how to implement a program how which building to do first you know all those sort of drill down detail type questions those are those are what what he and his team are going to deal with and for me this policy is long it's quite comprehensive and to me it goes even a little farther than I think I would have of course I wasn't a member of the board when this policy was developed so I think it goes Super far um and and I'm fine with that I'm fine with it the way it is um but I I do think you know evidence of of going too

102far are these exceptions that have popped up for you Mrs Zopo where like oh I didn't think about you know students who speak English as a second language oh I didn't think about this exception for healthc care reasons you know all of those examples I think are illustrative of the fact that we're we're getting into that that how space into and it starts to sound like we're we're I I hate to say micromanaging but it does start to feel like that a little bit for me so I'm not sure what your thoughts are about that but that's kind of just based on what I've learned so far about what we're supposed to be doing what we're asking our our um Mr Heath and our his team to do you know that seems pretty clear to

103me so thoughts on that well first of all I did I I did think of the medical ior okay I just because that is a very important one um I didn't um you know we the board handles the what correct and the administration the superintendent handles the how and I think that's what we're doing because it's not working you know what what we have this beautiful wonderful detailed policy and it's not it's not working so what I'm trying to do is figure out what can we do to tweak this policy so that they can enforce it so if it's not being enforced now how does REM you know removing a line about teacher discretion ensure that it will be enforced later so good question because right now it's it's a teacher's discretion so if um

104my child was to have get yelled at for having their phone out um and go and and maybe they get in trouble and they go home I as a parent I can say why are you giving my kid why is my kid in trouble because according to your policy the teacher it's the teacher's discretion and my kid says everybody in the in the class has a teach you know has it out um or the teacher might say sometimes I let let him have it sometimes I don't and that creates confusion for the kids so so what I'm saying is if that teacher knows this is policy now this is very specific um you know there's no questions asked it and and it relieves that teacher from having to negotiate it Rel it allows that teacher

105to say this is the rule parents are aware of it students are aware of it and I and she H that he or she has to abide by it and it really I think in just saying that it it kind of puts the the question you know there's no more argument it's just it's black black and white I don't I I guess to follow up on that I mean I feel like this is very black and white what we have so far um but I I do think you know get getting into the classroom tends to feel out of bounds for the board um in in my feeling um you know I I have talked to teachers and I want to emphasize that I don't think anecdotes are evidence I don't think you know this

106teacher says that therefore we should make a decision I do think um it's important when we make policy to make it based on data and information that is from the population we serve right so so for me um you know I've talked to teachers too and some have told me hey I've got a system that works really well I've got a parking lot I've got a crate I've got a bowl that's where the phones go so you know to me I feel like we're kind of venturing a little too far into the classroom for my own liking but that's my point of view I'd like to ask a couple questions um I think everybody has really good points kind of going back and and forth and there's been a bunch of different uh opinions on

107this subject and it's kind of funny being on the other side of this because when I went to Menor I'm going to date myself here and I got my first cell phone in my senior year here and uh the security guard took my cell phone so and so they weren't allowed and it was after the bell rang um at the end of the day and so my mom kind of fought to for us to be able to have our phones on us because of the um mass shootings that were happening so um it's kind of funny full circle you know now being here having this discussion but I do have a couple questions uh first I do think that there is value in the board having this discussion and I see Miss apo's um points

108about removing that section in the policy because if our practice is going to be that we don't have teachers who do have um who are using that part of the policy who are allowing kids to have their cell phones in the classroom then we should ensure that our practice is aligning with with our policy so I want to kind of speak about that but I also have some questions is there a is there uh a specific example Mr Heath maybe you could provide it to me of teachers that use this um policy in their classroom and say you know it's okay to have your cell phone out we need you to get out your cell phones and use them for this purpose especially if it's something you know is there an example of something that

109can't be achieved already on their laptop on their iPad the only thing that i' I've witnessed here recently um a lot of uh teachers in our science classes when they're doing experiments they'll ask them to pull their you know pull their cell phone out and use the timer on it um you know again could there be other pieces that they could use yeah probably um and then the other thing is just some of the video features and trying to um if they're doing some sort of recordings or video projects in a class um just a quick easy way to to take some video that they can use in a classroom project okay thank you for that so the timer thing I think would be you'd be able I mean we do it here for board

110meetings for public commentary so I think that would be resolved with a laptop um or an iPad the uh other one that you mentioned about the Bas yeah project video yeah video recording question I guess my concern with that kind of situation and I'm not trying to dig into the classroom I do think that our role is to set policy and I just want to make sure that whatever our practice is is aligning with our policy but um my question would be you know for that scenario what if we have children who don't have cell phones their parents can't afford it or their parents don't want them to have a cell phone um you know we talk about Equity sometimes and how how is that Equitable you know we should be providing those tools to

111our students so I I I just don't see I don't see where a teacher would allow except for those extenda circumstances that was that were already mentioned I don't see where a teacher would allow you know cell phone usage in their classroom and it where it would be beneficial um but I do see different points I mean I've had teachers retired teachers uh students I've had parents and not all of their opinions align on this so it's um it is a tricky one to kind of go through through and and to come up with compromises I just want to make sure that whatever we're doing is going to align with our policy so that there are no questions it's not vague I'm all over the place on this one too I I see the point

112um I don't I think it does make it more difficult for the teachers when you have that wording in at the teacher discretion I work at a school that has had a policy that all cell phones were were hidden we we didn't have access to cell phones until we had a mass shooting and um we used to have an award even the teacher who confiscated the most cell phones was we had a trophy and it was coveted so I we we really um felt that it was important to not have cell phones that it was a distract distraction and and I see that now as a teacher I see uses for a cell phone um a lot of students will use their cell phone to put dates in there and that's how they track their

113homework that could be you know the end of the class type of thing too and could they use their computer yes it's just it's a different tool um you could probably link your phone with your computer and your calendar and I'm sure that there's runarounds around it it's just this is what I use to keep track of my things and I I think that some some students do too um I was on I was one of the people that worked on this exact policy so I remember seeing the different options and one of those options was not to say teacher discretion but it had them lined up like it would say you know except for medical and um a translator and you know all of those things so that is something that I think could

114do the discussion I feel the reason that we didn't decide that at that point was more because it seemed so restrictive and at that come back to the table um what if they wanted to teach kids how to access their emergency information or teach a calendar or take a picture of a science project or make a video in class like using tools of technology technology is a part of our life and so teaching kids to use technology too might be valuable in the lesson and if the teacher feels it's valuable it wasn't really meant as well if the teacher says it's okay to chat on your phone you can chat on your phone but more at the teacher's discretion if you were using it as a learning tool so we could possibly even delineate that

115like at the teacher's discretion as a learning tool in instead of just you know fun um to the equity point I that is a good point not all kids have cell phones for various reasons if we reverse that though and the only kids that have cell phones are kids with some kind of a medical issue or a disability then it it's also a little bit stigmatizing so we have that as well I know so it's a tough I I see there's so so many it's it's a tough issue because I do like inherently I like don't use your cell phone in class it's distracting we want you to to focus but I also want to respect the teachers um discretion and and their you know their academic freedom to manage their class the way they

116see fit to teach lessons the way they see fit their classroom management and their classroom discipline I I want to make sure that it is supported by the administration and that feel that whatever their policy is that if they say Hey you have to put it in this box or you have to keep it on you that if they create that policy and a kid isn't following it I hope that it is enforced I I would have to point to that as well you know I heard Mrs aopo say enforcement several times and it sounds like this is an Enforcement issue um and I I don't know if we can ask you Mr to expound on that a little bit and and is there something that we're missing you know where teachers don't feel supported

117in enacting the policy and enforcing the policy in their classrooms and and again I I would go back to we've got a policy in place that just simply isn't being enforced right now right and even at the beginning of the school year when we first made the transition to our niola policy manual there were probably seven or eight policies that we tried to reiterate with our staff um this wasn't one of them um at that point in time it um you know it wasn't one of the one of the Hot Topics so to speak and and when it hit in early December coming out of that MTA meeting um you know we started to look at it and as we looked at it I'm like well yeah what why aren't we enforcing this and and

118that was my initial question um and and I think that's where uh Mr Crow at the high school um working with the Department facilitators kind of started that process of hey how do we do this and you know they've talked through some different strategies um it it would be a very quick easy set of communications for us to say hey we've got this policy we need to reiterate it with staff we need to reiterate it with our administrators then we need to reiterate it with our students and our families and say this is going to be implemented and there are consequences if if you're in violation of the policy um so I again I I would go back to you know let us try to enforce it first and then if we need to tweak

119something that isn't working between now and the end of the year you know let's let's revisit this and kind of talk through it a little bit more um like I said the other piece to to this puzzle is looking at our our handbook language which um again I I've taken that and and written the draft administrative guideline that we haven't even published yet um that that really spells things out for grades 9 through 12 what does it look like in grades 6 through 8 what does it look like in grades prek through five pre know pre wait a second um but but again you know there are some little things there and how each of those uh levels approach how do you get in touch with your student as well and and and that level

120of detail is spelled out in the in the draft administrative guideline as well um yeah I think that would be a good starting point um I do I do agree it's one of those things where you know we've got that teacher to discression piece in there if we took it out would it would it help the teachers probably a little bit yeah um does it limit us a little bit more because it's in policy yeah um where we can make adjustments on a dime with administrative guidelines um and again that's why we're kind of moving forward with some of that pending the outcome of our conversation here today anyway so that we don't have to wait for a first reading a second reading and the approval you know we want to start making some adjustments

121now and I know um at the high school level they're they're ready to roll on a couple of things here as well um so that's kind of where my head space is right now um I think the one other thing that I'm not sure we've talked about yet but again as I'm you know walking Halls at the uh at the building level um and I know this has been something that was brought up um from our MTA reps as well was the uh um the the use of earbuds and wireless headphones and those sorts of things too I so if there was something that we wanted to tweak in that first paragraph of the policy you know we kind of chuckled a little bit with the paging devices and beepers and stuff um you know

122I could see taking some of that out you know and do we replace that with you know wireless devices like earbuds and wireless headphones um just to be more specific there and a little bit more up to date um and then again let me talk out of both sides of my mouth for a second too that's the other piece with this technology changes so quickly um as we're going through this process of of tweaking policy the the the beauty of policy is that it's uh it allows more flexibility um than the administrative guidelines would um so we keep those a little bit more open-ended and it if we're being specific with the earbuds and the wireless headphones you know do we have to come back in a couple years and and we get a good

123chuckle about oh yeah we remember when earbuds were a thing um and have to change policy again so you know again kind of talking out of both sides of my mouth there but I I think there's some things that we could eliminate some things we could add if we wanted to tweak and be a little bit more specific um or we could just take that out period and not have that uh that part of the uh the policy either so I'm wondering um like you mentioned we we have to go back in anyway and get rid of those cool Pages um so we we're taking the time and and I think definitely should update the the headphones on mean the kids you think they were on a conference called of Germany with walking around with

124their headpiece in um it's not needed so um look how quick we just changed policy 0153 that some of those words so this is something quick so I just feel like if it can help the teachers we know it will help the students and it will provide consistency and I think I like I like what M cook said we we should have a list of those exceptions and maybe make it so we're not since technology and everything changes so quickly and so we don't have to come back here we make it so that anything that might fall under you know a new advancement we we can give that superintendent approval but what that would do and especially with those exceptions outside of the medical and those are you know um a teacher is really gonna

125you know a teacher would have to then um do some kind of application process or you know reach out to the superintendent to get things approved so you know those are not going to be they're not going to be doing that to give the kid five extra minutes at the end of class you know it's going to be for something that really has um an academic value to to their class so that's going to limit the amounts of exceptions that are just for really for fun so um still giving the teachers the discretion because they can still go to you um go to Mr heathan or even just the building principal whoever um just to say hey this is this is the act you know educational purpose I want to use it for and then

126we're I think we're covered they still have more control over you know the use in the classroom if they if they really feel that it really will add value but again I think Mrs pay said most of the things on their phones can be done on their computer and maybe teach our kids how to sync because then they can teach me how to sync my phone and my computer that would be that's something you you need once you graduate would would um I good discussions I me there are so many good points but would you do you feel like you have enough I know you've talked to some people and and I've had people talk to me too I think it is a real issue so with um should we get a more formalized view

127like maybe using plc's or BLTs so that so the professional learning communities or the building level teams so they can kind of say well this is what we do and this is what we work and they could share amongst themselves to see what is working or not working and then help inform us of what if we wanted to go with exceptions what we would want to include or if they're better off leaving it at discretion like maybe a a bit a broader look might be I I'm not opposed to the to addressing that because I don't think cell phon are the best use of school time at all but there may be times that we're not thinking of that teachers are using it productively and they don't really have an alternative is there a way

128we could um do like a survey or something to GA you know possible um I have it's like both sides you know there's just so many things to look at here but I do think they are a distraction I do think that there's been feedback from multiple um perspective about it it is an issue but what do we do about it is kind of hard to to decide but I do have a question about if we update the administrative guidelines we still have to make sure they match the policy so like we can't have in the administrative guidelines that teachers won't have the ability to have that decision if it's in the policy we would have to have it match the policy um yeah you would but you could say you could set up in

129the administrative guidelines how they could use their discretion right there could be an approval process for that discretion to Mrs I point I mean you could write that the administrative guideline pretty much however you wanted so you're saying if we kept the policy the way it is now taking out the pagers and then in the administrative guidelin that was more at the discretion under these reasons is that is that is that yeah I mean again yeah yes I'm glad we're having this discussion this is something that I know all of us have felt concerned about if you've raised a teenager you look at your own phone more than you think you should it's easy to fall into bad habits and my biggest concern with cell phones is how ubiquitous social media and that Obsession for

130especially for adolescents the opportunities for harassment or bullying in subtle ways or even just the feeling of being left out I don't get any you know likes on my social media and and it can sound sort of like well how could that be but you know put yourself in the the mind and heart of a 14-year-old it's a lot harder than than it would be for an adult and sometimes that's pretty hard for us so I I know I see kids with earbuds all the time sometimes that helps a kid Focus study MZ art was my Preferred Choice when I was in college but you know the smart watches also bring their email through and and it's hard because they're so immersed in all of this and one of the things that I like that

131I think you said Rose had to do with at the end of class if everybody takes their phones out they are solitary people they're not interacting with a classmate learning to make a little small talk or or whatever that might be so I think if we can dial back their use of social me or of the cell phone for whatever purpose at least in the time where they're with us that it would benefit them and you know it's funny um I think Annie did you mention I think you mentioned about the phones and school shootings and all of that and I had a conversation with with a a parent who whose uh kids finished in Mentor and she talked about she told her students or her daughters they were to keep their cell phones in

132their purses they didn't she didn't want to believe that there could be a time where they couldn't communicate with her for her peace of mind for their peace of mind and how do you make an argument against that in this Modern Age so I like listening to all these excellent points the idea that between now and the end of this school year Mr Heath and his team look at tightening and formalizing the administrative guidelines to capture the spirit of this policy and I know there's a difference between spirit and spelling it out but there's a lot there a lot of detail and if if every staff member is encouraged to consider the wisdom of leaving the phone out of their classroom experience to the greatest extent possible that maybe you build that common purpose and

133then standardize what everybody is doing because they recognize that for mental health reasons along with a whole bunch of others you know cheating and the and like you wouldn't want a translator in your foreign language class that would be very chat GPT chat GPT that's another good point yeah AI coming up so that we can help kids use their own organic ability to be in the world without the crutch of a device I'm all for that and then if it turns out that that can't be accomplished well that we could revisit tweaking the policy in some way to formalize it if you feel feel that that would be valuable Mr Heath that sounds very reasonable and you know I I of course again wasn't here on the board when this was written but it sounds

134like from what Mr Heath is saying it's quite a departure from what it was previously especially we were talking about pagers and such but um so with that in mind I hadn't even thought of that you know that this is there that we could be in this transition phase of you know we we're in the wild west of Technology where we're trying this and that's not working we're trying this and maybe this is working um but it sounds like I'm I'm more inclined to give Mr Heath and his team some time to to roll out proper Communications to um you know get together with teachers and stakeholders to understand what's working um in terms of enforcement because again this this sounds a lot like enforcement is is the issue ra and I I'm just disinclined

135to go back to policy and the that you know the house they said the foundation and change something there when we don't even really know how whether why what's working and what's not um on the ground so that's that's my feeling about things so far you know that's that's a good point but we have to ask ourselves if you know an MTA doesn't certainly doesn't represent every teacher but a large a large amount if they're saying this is not being enforced we need help I mean I can read the do did NTA provide you with a yes a statement president yeah that speaks for the entire membership yeah oh um I I would be interested in see perhaps you could share that with everyone so he also reached out um I I forwarded you some

136of his he he made additional statements and I forwarded that to the board um that they you know that that's this is something that they they they recognize we have a policy it's not being enforced help so I feel like the longer we wait I mean certainly we need we need I would be interested to find out the different ways teachers are using um the phones so that we can add that to our list of exceptions but I I feel like time is of the essence I have a freshman I she is competing with other students in other schools and that are already have very strong um tight policies that are are in forest and many other around here that I've been speaking to are in the same boat we are they're frustrated we have

137a policy it's not being enforced so let's let's start doing something about it so you know I I I'd like I feel like time is of the essence if we're going to make these little changes anyways um I think we could it would make sense just to make you know this has been around for Craig you said I think we knew for sure seven years but then there was a policy like it back 18 years ago so it's it's been around a while and so you know it might be time to make a little bit of an adjustment to see more results yeah I think um I mean I appreciate everybody's points this is kind of back and forth you know there's just so many angles to look at it um just some other notes

138that I kind of had on this I think there's also a greater discussion to be had about electronic usage um in our schools in general I know we've kind of talked about it in the curriculum liaison committee before too like what is the right amount of time for the iPads what's the right amount of time for the laptops I do have concerns about you you know that as well as the phones and I did provide it when um Mr Heath asked for our comments and you know our insights um there's a lot of things that we do to to try to help the social emotional intelligence of our students um and I do think possibly removing you know phones from just kids being on them and for social media purposes and things like that also

139electronic usage you know I want to make sure that we have the right electronic usage for Elementary versus Middle School versus high school and I know the curric curriculum um team at the last curriculum liaison uh committee that I was on they kind of were going to dig into that as well so I'd be interested to hear you know what the research was on that um but I do have concerns about interpersonal Communications I think it's really important that kids get face to face and I don't I don't want to see them at lunch I know Miss iopo said you know at lunchtime she'd be okay with them having it I don't know how I feel yet on that because I want them to talk face to face and I don't want kids immediately going

140on social media during their lunchtime I want to see kids have that interaction because there's a lot of non-verbal communication that's not given when you're doing it electronically um so I those kind of concerns too so yeah I I don't know it's just a lot of different things to look into so would you be open to gathering information on how staff feels about that for lunch yeah how might we do that I'm just curious how would we survey the staff and and indeed if the MTA is pro voted on a statement of support of some sort that's something I would absolutely like to see and include in in whatever survey or research we conduct at the schools how how might we do a survey such as that anybody certainly people who have been on the

141board longer than myself couldn't you just do a simple go Google survey with each building I would think local questions and local data because each Administration each student body may have small variations that that would asking the staff is this a concern what are some of the things that we could do to make changes make improvements is that something that could be done without Reinventing the wheel yeah true true I think the only building that we really need to have true conversation around is going to be the high school when you look at the middle school policy students are not permitted to use personal technology technology devices during the school day in the elementary buildings students are not permitted to use personal technology te ology devices during the school day right all we have to

142do is just enforce what we have in our handbook at the high school level it says students are permitted to use cell phones during class exchanges and in the student center so Student Center would be lunch and wonder who wrote that um probably Mr blame me for all this Circa 2012 you're welcome he also wrote in there about pagers and beepers too I still had that afford an unlimited data in 2012 the the other thing that it says in the high school policy is students are not permitted to make phone calls text and or any other use of a personal electronic device during class time um which again I think gets to you know what we've been saying here as well um and again that's that's handbook current handbook language that again when we we've

143been saying this over and over again it's just not being enforced right now um so if we yeah I I kind of think of this like the NFL you know every year they okay they've got their Rules book and okay what slides what doesn't you know okay what's the point of emphasis here this year okay if we need to make this a point of emphasis let's make it a point of emphasis and enforce the rule and and clean it up um and then you know if it's still not working for whatever reason after trying to reiterate the enforcement of this then okay then we need to change the rule which is kind of how the NFL works too so that would be I think our our next step then and we've got a couple months

144that we can play with this here at the end of this school year to get our arms wrapped around it and and see if the enfor forcement is actually going to be worthwhile and then um you know let's revisit this in you know when we get into May June and and figure out if we need to make those adjustments um and and specifically what are those adjustments based off of um you know some of those exceptions um some of the things that maybe teachers are at and and again I I think teachers should be asking administrators for you know for some sort of guidance and and how they might be utilizing some of these things in their classroom anyway so that way we can collect some of that information from them you okay what what

145were teachers coming to you and asking you to use those for um so that we can kind of report back a little bit more on what uh what we've seen here towards the end of the school year um but again I I think just using that handbook language which again is what I'm doing using for the administrator guideline basically says students aren't to be using these things during class time Mr Heath just a quick question on that because if we have in the Middle School handbook that students are not permitted to use personal technology devices during the school day at all but then we have a policy that says they can use it in between classes and during lunch doesn't that isn't that like kind of not meshing they don't match and so we need

146to do something to make the match yeah Mrs Payne that's something that we learned about at the conf well that I learned about at the conference um the osba conference they mentioned that that there's there has to be a line especially when you have a big policy overhaul like we just did that you have to ensure that there's alignment from employees student handbooks um you know any District procedures protocols that has to be aligned and that was one going to be one of my questions for for you Mr Heath for our meeting eventually is do we have that alignment it sounds like maybe we don't because but we do we do approve handbooks at a board level so inherently they are policy gotta so yeah I we could be more specific in the policy to

147to have it broken down by grade level if we needed to do that well this policy is certainly new I I think we can all agree it's it's not a year old and we have some things that we need to work out with it um with the enforcement of it and making sure that everyone feels that they realize that it's a priority and I think to Mrs ao's point it it's not a waste of time because bringing this discussion it it brings it it makes it a priority and everyone has heard that we are all unified in this right now we are all saying hey this needs to be enforced right now this is a this is a priority to us and let's I'm I'm kind of proposing that we would give it the time

148to make sure every everyone realizes hey we've just all said this needs to be enforced that we really we get this as a young policy let's enforce it let's see how it goes and if it's not workable the way it's written to if it's not enforceable the way it's written then we do need to come back and and change it so that it is but I would like to continue to gather information of what's working and what's not working and maybe ideas from the staff and what they need and and I'm sure that our administrators can do that for us to to get that information let them manage those types of things you know ultimately the teacher is the adult in the room and I want them to feel empowered to enforce the policy and

149to know that they're supported by it but they they have to set the parameters in their classroom the discipline in their classroom and and um and and enforce it and know that they're supported Mrs cook that sounds really reasonable to me I would just ask ask us if we're going to you know if we're going to embark on this let's see how this goes with enforcement and changes we should probably do that sort of data collection or survey so we can establish a Baseline and and you know just to see where teachers and staff are uh in terms of their feelings on things and then you know after a certain agreed upon time passes we have the ability to survey them again so that we can measure progress in a in a sort of realistic

150and data backed data supported way I I just I don't know it's my it's really you're going to hear this from me a lot in my tenure I think but I really need those numbers and that data to show us that yes we are making progress yes we're making decisions that are supported by evidence so that's that would be my suggestion and ultimately no matter what the policy says if it's not enforced doesn't matter that's true you know so we have a a very substantial policy a lot of De detail and I have faith that our Administration team our excellent superintendent can pull things into alignment so that there is um consistency so that it's clear for kids you know the speed limit's 35 the speed limit's 35 not 40 not 43 you know I

151mean we're all guilty of pushing things for me it's always 40 for you know and and teenagers are an absolute version of [Laughter] us um really quick I just wanted um Miss maresa I didn't I don't you mention a vote with MTA he the president came to me with saying here's the message from us from their meeting I don't know if there was any kind of vote yeah I just there's a difference when you know one person who who is the president of sure but the way the Union works is they they tend to vote on things before they offer their full-fledged and formal support for such a thing so that's what I was asking about but you do believe that statement came out of a meeting it was a discussion that they said we're

152we're bringing this forward right right did you want to share it or you shared it with us I shared it with you you okay um and then also you know like like I said time is of the essence I I I'd like to do this sooner than later but um if you guys are hopeful that that you think that suddenly because of the will of wanting it enforced is magically going to be enforced I I want to believe um I'm okay with like if waiting and seeing how that goes and then revisiting um but I you know I'd like to you know really um I I like to be able to see results and be able to and then come back to the table because you know it has even though the this specific NE

153update is new it's basically the same policy has been around for for a while so um I like I I like the that we're hopeful um it it just you know it seemed that teachers didn't really feel that it is enforcable but um whatever I'm I'm willing I as long as we can come back to the table with it and I think too just having this conversation people will see this meeting people will be educated teachers it's going to be out there and we're going to get a lot more feedback just from having this discussion so and I think what I can do then is just give like a in my superintendent report each month just hey here's the update on on what we're seeing out of that and again like I said I the

154majority of this is going to be high school Centric at this point but um you know we'll make sure we're reiterating that prek through 12 but um you know we can give those updates and you know if there's if we need to Pivot sooner we pivot sooner um but uh yeah let us uh let us get through the uh kind of that enforcement communication piece to the puzzle um and and see how the next couple of weeks go here and as we're starting to implement some of that and uh and we'll just give some some updates on a monthly basis as we're going through the rest of the year here Mr Heath would you also be able to run it by our attorney about the handbook versus the just to make sure we're covered yeah

155and and so Annie what I'm looking at specifically because I wrote this down too is uh taking a close look at uh paragraph two of the policy itself um and seeing if we need to have some specific language regarding the grade levels based off of what our handbook language says okay thanks yep okay um under new business we had two members attend our Ohio School Board Association training if there's anything you want to share about that which one whichever if you want to go first or new member training oh you can go ahead okay sure thank you um so yes first I want to thank the board and and the community for uh you know allowing me to attend and and um and supporting me in that effort I learned a lot I met a

156lot of good folks including a couple of men are alumni so it was always it's always good to see cards out there um especially serving in similar ways serving their communities um some of the big takeaways I did mention earlier and many of many of these points are actually very relevant to the discussions we've had today roles and responsibilities certainly of the board where the board handles the what uh and the why whereas Administration handles the how um asking good questions which we actually talked about today as well um and communication and public participation um we we addressed all of these issues on the first day legal issues and governance um especially like layers of governance so similar to her you know we need alignment with all of our guiding documents um you know governance

157and and legal issues that that that comes into play for things like the Constitution statutes the Ohio Revised Code Court decisions you know board policy n these things are not always an alignment either and that was really interesting to think about too and way that ways that can cause complications and Conflict for for board members in their discussions um another really important takeaway I thought was interesting was when we discussed ethics Schoolboard members out of you know folks who are elected into office are actually held to higher standards than many other elected fishal officials because we have to comply with education statutes ethics laws and the criminal code as well as our own osba code of ethics which is in our policy as well so that was really interesting to think about um day two

158was chalk full of policy and school funding discussions I learned a ton there as well it was good to have that very mapped out conversation about school funding which is highly complex um that I learned a lot about policy too so that was helpful and going into this conversation today um big points not everything needs to be a policy you can also go into contracts handbooks District procedures everything we talked about today but that alignment is really really important and that was something that I took away from the conference um I also took away that we should not include to as a best practice not to include too many details um in policy because it does tend to tie the hands of Administrators and staff in doing their day-to-day business um it was also recommended

159not to create POS policy impulsively or based off of one incident or issue that occurred um to to you know making policy changes based on like a single incident is is is bad bad practice and then finally something I mentioned already today uh collecting data that will inform our policy changes and also consider the far-reaching impacts of those policy changes before you make make them and and consider whether or not it supports U mission and vision of course at all times so again thank you for supporting me and going to the conference I really enjoyed it I look forward to the next one I know that was thorough is there anything you wanted to add oh yeah I I I only got to go to the Friday session um I was able to look at

160and review some slides from Saturday I was disappointed to miss it but um basically everything she said talked about boardmy um that really went in pretty deep into all of the wonderful things osba provides and I actually um they talked about their Legal Hotline and I actually used it and it was it was very efficient just as they advertised and um and very informative and I and I was able to reach out um on you know as I was doing my research for this policy so um thank you to everybody for allowing us that opportunity great thank you um I know Mr Heath wants to bring up one more thing just one thing for new business and and just to put this out there um looking at CU I talked a little bit about Transportation

161earlier um but looking at policy 8600 um one of the things that will need some uh some guidance from the group on um here probably sooner rather than later since we're dealing with the routing system is uh we currently have as our walking limits in our board policy for kindergarten through grade five it's uh anybody that is within 1.3 miles of the school um and in grades 6 through 12 it's 2.0 miles um we we believe yeah it's a yeah can you imagine a kindergarten walking 1.3 miles um so one of the things that uh I think when we are looking through this possibility is that this this may have originated back when we were in um fiscal emergency and we're going to um some of the the the state minimums or at least approaching

162the state minimums on things just from a cost-saving measure um really over time and again this goes back to aligning policy and practice together again um we we've kind of been operating under the practice of um K through 8 being um within a half mile not 1.3 miles um grades 9 through 12 is still a 2 Mile uh piece to the puzzle but um one of the things as we're digging into this a little bit more is uh we we saw some research out there that um really it's like 57% of freshmen actually take the bus um and I think it drops down to like 10% of seniors take the bus um on state average so um that two miles doesn't really concern me too much but um just some guidance from this group whether

163or not we feel like we need to um adjust that 1.3 miles um down to 0.5 miles um in our policy um because if that's uh the case we can get a first reading here at the next uh meeting for that as well um if everybody's agreeable to that I know one of the concerns that I recall from the fiscal emergency time was teaching at that time and the walk-in zones were greatly expanded but then you have to make sure you got crossing guards appropriately so it's not without some cost but the bigger consideration was safety based on in some cases individuals who are on the police radar as being unsafe for children and small numbers of children walking down the street it it caught everybody and gave pause and so um when you don't

164have a lot of kids kind of walking together that's a much different scenario in the old days you know once upon a time almost everybody walked or rolled their bikes but that's changed so much and um if we don't bus students in parents especially in inclement weather will be motivated to drive their children maybe carpool their kids and the line of cars poor Mr Hammond over there knows the the misery of of the long line and and I just think common practices have changed for families and to not take that into consideration would be a mistake so I I can see the half mile being um a more reasonable threshold so just to clarify currently it's K through 5 is 1.3 miles and you're proposing K through 8 a half mile yes and then 9

165through 12 would still read as 2.0 okay because that is our current practice still thank you is there anyone opposed to that that doesn't want to see that the next okay all right I'll I'll put together a first reading for us in March thank you okay I I think that is all for new business um hearing of the public or for first speaker is Lindsay wall our second speaker is David Lima Dave Lia Lichfield Drive board members his Heath Mr PA Black History Month uh provides all of us with the opportunity to learn and reflect on black history we are fortunate and greatly appreciate the staff and teachers within the mentor school system who provide that same opportunity for our students as a gesture of that appreciation our group support public education and Mentor wishes

166to present a book for consideration as an addition to the school's collection poem hood are black Revival history folklore and the black experience is a rich and thoughtful Anthology exploring centuries of poems from 37 writers that encapsulates the depth and diversity of the black experience through poetry verse written by contemporary and ancestral poets an intergenerational collection of black poetry reveals the importance of folklore community and tradition the poems helped the reader to acquire a new sense of insight and sensitivity into the black experience as it did for me the editors follow each poem with information about the selection including the historical context and Analysis giving the reader insight into the meaning of the poem the book is recommended for those 6 13 years of age and up and can provide a rich learning experience for

167those who read it I'll share that with you after the meeting thank you m mccor again I'd like to share some excerpts from inappropriate books available in our schools for our children Empire of storms by Sarah Mass the hardness of him pushed against her and she bucked her hips needing to grind herself against him to do anything to ease the building ache between her legs she slid her hand between them and when she closed her fingers around and marveling at the Velvet wrapped steel Rowan groaned again pushing into her hand she pulled her mouth from his staring into his Pine green eyes as she slid her hand along him he lowered his head not to see her not to kiss her but to watch where he where she stroked him but Rowan gripped her wrist

168drawing her hand away she opened her mouth in protest wanting to touch more to taste more let me Gran Rowan groaned onto the sea slick skin between her breasts do your worst Prince Rowan's smile was nothing short of w wicked as he pulled away to run broad hand from her throat down to the juncture of her thighs she shuddered at sheer possession in his touch her breath coming in tight pants as he gripped either thigh and spread her legs bearing her fully for him Rowan kissed her navel than her hip aen couldn't take her eyes off his silver hair shining with salt water and Moonlight from the hands holding her wide for him as he his head dipped between her legs she moved her hips undulating begging him to go go go so Rowan did

169sliding a finger into her as his tongue flicked that one spot oh Gods she was going to explode into Starfire this book was challenged was challenged August 21st at the August 21st meeting regarding sexually explicit materials so when exactly can we expect to hear your recommendations for this book perhaps this new policy isn't working as efficiently as expected let me read some excerpts from a book in the elementary school that was taken home by a second grader called right now real kids speaking up for change it states when she was born the doctors thought she was a boy it happens sometimes but jazz is a girl call her she although she's faced many harsh words and wasn't allowed to play on girls sports teams for a while her activism led to trans kids being allowed

170to play soccer on the US soccer Federation teams Jazz continues to speak out on behalf of transgender kids and people everywhere this book goes on to talk about how children need to become social justice Warriors and transgender activists since when is this type of book appropriate for elementary students it goes against basic biology and parental rights not to mention the fact that house bill 68 was recently passed in Ohio that makes it illegal to allow a boy now to play on a girl's team and to use their bathroom or locker room why has it taken months since it has been challenged and we have no answer this book like many others that have been challenged in our elementary and middle school calls for children to become activists how about we choose wholesome books and leave

171the activism to their parents you have forgotten Your Role you will see an active anti- Levy campaign this time around if you don't start responding to the community and parents' concerns stop sex sexualizing our children stop trying to make them political activists if you don't we will actively pursue an anti- Levy campaign and ensure everyone is aware of your agenda and what you're using our text pair dollars for we will support you the way you supported us by voting no on any future levies we will ensure Representatives on this board know our stance and remember you need a 4 to1 vote in order to put a levy on the ballot thank [Music] you Dr John Sanford good evening thank you for your time um I'm relatively new to the area so I was in anticipation

172of beginning to come to these meetings I was surprised when I went to view the first um video of the first regular meeting the vehement within with which the board was attacked for being biased and so I went back and I viewed the special meeting that was sort of the organizational I would gather and was surprised to see how well the process of that attack was orchestrated um by the the the discussion around the vice president's position and I really would encourage the board being coming from a social psychology perspective myself here that the members of the board I'm encouraging you to pay attention to how you present your information otherwise because in in the way that that information is presented the way that you make your positions you stimulate such tax as what we

173just had and what we had on the first uh board meeting and I really hope to be able to comment on those things further as we go along I've got a background a degree in education and we'll be sharing with you my thoughts as we go you five individuals have control in many ways over what you get from your audience as evidence by the attacks that happened at the beginning of uh at the at the first meeting so just wanted to share that with you thank you thank you Miss snck here miss Mazika Madame President members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening I was pleased to hear Mr Heath say that he has studied the cell phone policy and will be making some recommendations

174I am sure that reviewing the administrative guidelines will prove a solution it seems the policy itself is appropriate and a review of the guidelines with staff will be all that is necessary I see no reason to take the decision away from teachers phones may have many positive uses in the classroom consistency can be achieved by Administration reviewing the guidelines and supporting teachers who have problems enforcing the policy if we were to do this what would the board consider next what a teacher puts up on their walls or doors thank you that concludes second session of public participation we have an executive session on the agenda this evening there will not be a vote following the executive session so when we reconvene we will adjourn the meeting of course you are welcome to stay if you

175like um do I have a motion to move to Executive so moved and a second Mr Wade please call the RO uh Miss moraza yes Miss Jing yes misso yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes we adjourn to Executive session 9:34 [Music] p.m. want to take a quick break yeah for sure