001um so he probably needed so yes bob you can tell us when we're live i would like to call to order the july 19 2021 regular board meeting of the snow monroe falls board of education um at this time i'd like to appoint lisa johnson bowers our treasurer pro tem until our treasurer arrives roll call please right here whitaker here video here brown here and johnson bowers is here okay if you please stand for the and to pledge republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all it may have a motion to adopt tonight's agenda so moved second any discussion roll call please right aye whittaker hi video hi brown hi johnson bowers hi okay the first item on our agenda tonight is a presentation regarding a covet
002update i'm going to turn it over to ms pro for that all right good evening and it's not going to be necessarily a presentation just a couple of more of an update yeah more of an update just to share uh with everyone we are aware of the information that's come recently from the cdc also we know the american academy of pediatrics put out some suggestions today regarding masking for students so i just wanted to let everybody know where we're at today also with the caveat of things are changing and you never know if the ohio department of health or the summit county public health department will give us additional guidance so as it stands today we are currently planning to open five days a week for all of our students masks will be optional for
003students and staff we are going to try to maximize space as much as possible but we cannot guarantee that we will be at three feet or obviously six feet within any of our settings throughout the day we are going to continue with a lot of the things that we put into place last year so the hand washing opportunities the hand sanitizer will be available for staff and students throughout the day we're going to continue with our enhanced cleaning protocols it just makes good sense for everyone's health and safety outside of covid you know just to continue with those as it stands and we have enough supplies in order to be able to do that we will allow volunteers parents and student teachers and interns within our buildings this year that was one of the things
004we weren't allowed to do last year so for those parents that have meetings we'll always offer that zoom option we know some of our families liked that because they didn't have to leave work and they didn't have to take time off for driving and it was more convenient for some of our families so that'll be an option that will remain available um just one thing to note um the quarantine and isolation rules do remain the same so in the event that we do have an exposure we're still looking at you know being out for eight days unless you have a negative test if you don't if you decide not to test coming back on day 11 or um it's always an option for people to take that full 14 day in quarantine if they need
005to so the one thing that is currently required and we're waiting on additional information from summit county public health in regards to this and also a legal opinion the cdc order for masks on public transportation we've been told by the heart of education applies to school buses so we are going to be sending an all-call tomorrow so effective tomorrow anyone riding any of our school buses for any reason including staff and students will be required to wear a mask while they are on the bus and once we get additional information on that we will definitely share that with everyone so um and again you know we'll communicate with our families as we receive additional information um and that would require us to make a change in our health and safety protocols but these are our
006plans as they currently stand with the information that's available all right any questions yeah so i mean i've been pretty consistent throughout since at least i think i have anyway where i you know i understand that the various different health departments kind of change their rules as they come and go and and sometimes it depends on who's in charge or who's yelling at them at that moment but the account the the american academy of pediatricians has been pretty consistent throughout and i was on record last time with wanting to keep the students within three feet because that's what the aap said was okay cdc came back and said six i'm kind of health said six um to kind of take the other edge of that sword i i read the aap's recommendations today i know
007they're new but i would have a hard time going against the american academy of pediatricians and saying that you know we should allow students especially ones that are less than three feet away to be unmasked and staffed to be unmasked i i think that's i i have a lot of heart i have a hard time processing that um you know again it's one thing to say that the bureaucrats control various public health options various public health entities but as far as the academy of pediatricians they have been pretty consistent from the beginning of this pandemic about what the risks are and aren't for staff and students and so um just one person up here hopefully that guidance gets heated i know i know it's just guidance at the moment and the aap doesn't have any
008legal authority over anyone but um i tend to listen to my kid's doctor pretty i know what i don't know and that's a lot when it comes to public health of my kids i relate you know i really rely on my doctor and so i have a hard time with maybe going against what they say at this point well i've heard that it's optional when you send your kids to school whether they wear a mask or not well it would be up to the school the school could say the school can't mandate vaccines but the school can certainly mandate masks well that's not the guidance that i had heard about that you know they were making it optional that you're you're right mrs betty the aap's guidance came out just this morning right so it's
009new so yeah and and i know that came out today so we have resumed our weekly meetings with summit county public health with all the area superintendents so i'm imagining that'll be a hot topic on wednesday so and again we could get additional information i can definitely share that with you and that's definitely a document that we have to review in depth this is pro what percentage of our staff is vaccinated it's pretty high isn't it we're around 90 okay good and and that's just the ones i'm aware of because they came through the vaccine clinic i'm not aware of everyone because we don't ask um and i'm the only one that has access to that information i just want everyone to know i'm not we don't share that but i just happen to know
010because i arranged it good and then we're keeping an eye on the numbers because the numbers are starting to creep back up so with the delta variant and even there's some breakthrough infections of those who are vaccinated so we're keeping an eye on that i assume absolutely right thank you and i think it's important too to ensure that we're following our local guidance rather than national guidance you know what's going on here in locally summit county and all that and ohio department of health yeah and prior to this meeting i did check the summit county public health website for the for our numbers just to see like what's happening in our stow zip code and we had three cases that were reported last week and so regardless all of this is subject to change absolutely
011at any moment i think it is really really important at this time in the school year for us to sit back and trust that you are working with a group of physicians and for us to trust your decision and for us not to all try to micromanage what you have discussed with a group of physicians and you know that you are constantly on top of this researching looking at summit county you know i think that's really important that we learn from last year thank you we are i'm hoping this doesn't become my entire job again this year yeah me too any other discussion okay the next item on our agenda is uh public comments uh those in attendance are reminded that this is a meeting of the board of education conducted in the view of
012the public any person while being heard at a board of education meeting may be called order by the board president or any member of the board for failure to be relevant to the business of the board excuse me for vulgarity or for personal attacks of persons or institutions citizens have an opportunity to bring their concerns before the board of education all comments should be directed to the board individuals presenting concerns and or questions to the board may not receive complete answers this same evening the board will study and consider your concern and will either have a board member or a central office administrator contact you as soon as the information you require is available we do have a microphone here i know we have a little bit different setup than we have in the past
013so if people are going to line up i please ask you to make a little more space than if you were at the last meeting we people were kind of congregated together so if we could spread out a little bit so at this time if anybody has a comment they're welcome to come up to the microphone my name is sarah ashley cook my son gavin harris is an open enrolled student at the high school you will be entering 11th grade our address is 2195 tallmadge road ravenna ohio 44266 the last school board meeting we heard a lot about how the board members weren't the type to climb up on a pedestal and shout their beliefs for all to hear that you weren't the type to put a t-shirt on really then how did you campaign
014oh that's right you slapped your names on t-shirts yard signs flyers note cards and anything that stood still long enough you went from event to event pumping hands climbing on stages and telling everyone who would listen every thought that was in your head you had an opinion on everything and anything now that it is time to stand up for our children your heads are as empty of thoughts and ideas as a sawdust doll you suddenly have no voice and you are shy as a wallflower at the eighth grade dance as you literally sit on a stage with a spotlight and microphone so everyone can see and hear you you know what else i have noticed you all care to claim about education but have not educated yourselves about anything concerning education it's almost like you
015ran for office purely for the looks and the attention like it's just a popularity contest while our children don't need wall flowers they don't need popular people and they don't need sawdust headed dolls they need adults willing to do the hard work to protect them and make their schools better places for all of them to learn if you don't get that then why are you here because our children deserve better they diverse they deserve diversity equity and inclusion for all of them and they deserve for you to look up things like critical race theory and find out what it is and a whole host of other things that you seem to have not done your homework on just remember dei saves lives hello my name is sonny matthews i live in at 2515 kagga falls
016i'm here because i do a lot of diversity and equity work and some of it is done with people who are a part of this district one quote that i wanted to share with you all that sums up who i am and what i believe is i am not different from you i am different like you this was a quote by dr lorraine kaminsky this is what di dei teaches you get to learn and grow to be your authentic self it empowers students to know who they are to love themselves to love their neighbors it is about encouraging our students to learn everything not just pieces dei is about affirming the humanity in us all focusing on a community of learning geared at supporting all students it will help to increase the connectivity and the
017productivity of our students it will also help to prevent unintended harm it is about equity and justice but it is also about recognizing that i am not different from you i'm different like you and i want to learn your differences i want to learn all of history i was a student of constitutional law and i loved thomas jefferson's words when he wrote we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that all are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among those are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that is great news that's a principle that set a high standard and a code of conduct in our country it is lofty and it is idealistic it is the promise our government has made has made to us all
018it's kind of a promise that you guys as school board members have made to the students it's a promissory note but there's bad news when he wrote it we can tell the truth during that time there were issues it was a declaration that was far from what was going on in our country we were suffering in a crisis of humanity and for me dni diversity equity and inclusion will teach our kids we overcame but we still have so much more to go honesty we're teaching our kids to see themselves as who they are honesty we're teaching our kids to fight for better i believe that the silver lining in all of this is that we the people still have a will and a fight to keep working towards our goal we are going to be
019our own heroes and we are creating little heroes i want to make sure that our kids know that they can celebrate themselves on the 4th of july because that flag stands for them as well i want them to know that they can celebrate juneteenth because that is a day for them i want them to know that they can celebrate cinco de mayo and the day that women got to write the vote and they can celebrate everything and we as a country have fought so hard for because dni is not just about race dni is so much more than race dni is about affirming the humanity in us all uh just this moment i think i forgot to mention we are going to limit to three minutes and i'll try to give everyone a thirty second
020go ahead please my name is anitra jones i live in 1809 b hickby drive in stowe ohio four four two two four the definition of diversity is the condition of having or being composed of differing elements diversity means more than just acknowledging and or tolerating difference diversity is a set of conscious practices that involve understanding and appreciating interdependence of humanity cultures and the natural environment practicing mutual respect for qualities and experiences that are different from our own recognizing that personal cultural and institutionalized discrimination creates and sustains privileges for some while creating and sustaining disadvantages for others building alliances across differences so that we can work together to eradicate all forms of discrimination the concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect it means understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing our individual differences this includes
021race ethnicity gender gender identity sexual orientation socioeconomic status age physical abilities religious beliefs political beliefs or other ideologies dei is about more than race thank you i'm jennifer morris 5022 pebblehurst drives to ohio our board of ed has too often used the terms racism and bullying as having the same meaning although they are both serious offenses and are detrimental they have two different meanings and impact people differently racism is defined as prejudiced discrimination and antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group typically one that is a minority or marginalized while bullying is seeking to harm intimidate or coerce someone who is perceived as vulnerable these issues need to be addressed separately and equitably lumping racism and bullying together is harmful and offensive my
022name is linda picarillo smith i live at 175 silver valley boulevard in monroe falls when i attended last month's meeting i'm looking at people who serve on a board of education i think the term education is important to remind people we're here to sponsor education and i assume i make the assumption that people sitting on that board have been invested in have a vested interest in education and in being educated i did send some materials out after the last board meeting but i think it's important to educate people against the lies critical race theory did not start in germany it has nothing to do with socialism communism or nazism neither does diversity equity and inclusion i serve on the task force for diversity education equity and inclusion at kent state so i've been familiar in
023working with these terms for a long time i am familiar with critical race theory because it's something i teach at the university not something i work with here not something i would teach to five-year-olds a critical race theory was started by a law professor derrick bell who was trying to explain how our legal system can can be used adversely against people of color but intersectionality which came as an offshoot of of critical race theory and has also been discussed here as something completely different than what it is it's very simply the intersection of two things so when you talk about diversity equity and inclusion you're also discussing things like intersectionality how somebody can be discriminated against not only because they're female but also because they're trans and not only because they're of african descent but
024also because they're they're a woman and so how those two things play together that's all it is these are not scary terms but you have to be educated you have to be educated on the facts rather than some kind of misinformation the other thing that i will take one minute and try to explain briefly although it would take a longer time to really get into it is that the expression all lives matter doesn't mean what it sounds like it's supposed to mean to people if we were living in a vacuum and you said our lives matter we would understand that all lives matter but the all lives matter saying did not has not been around for hundreds of years the all live matter came out of out of the black lives matter movement as a
025response to it and so when someone from this group says all lives matter what it does says what it you are saying is that that means that you don't support and affirm the view that black lives matter black lives matter is not about not having other lives matter 30 seconds it's about black lives mattering as much as other lives and when you say all lives matter you're denying that fact black lives matter diversity equity and inclusion matters and these words are not dangerous good evening my name is pamela wind and i reside at 4558 chatwood drive and stowe and i have two students in the high school i want to return tonight to my concerns about student safety and inclusion what portion of our students are under age 12 and are therefore not eligible for
026vaccination i would like a thorough and public explanation for not requiring masks for unvaccinated students given the american academy of pediatrics guidance and the proportion of unvaccinated students that we have i would also like an explanation around the apparent lack of an online only option so that we can include students and families who are unable to be vaccinated or otherwise are vulnerable our students deserve to be safe at school and to receive a free and appropriate public education even with medical disabilities and during a pandemic finally i am still waiting for the board to commit to working on di initiatives regularly during meetings every student deserves to feel safe and included at school neil hess 4113 osage street i don't have a prepared speech for you this time if you want that i'd refer to
027the last meeting i gave a great one then but we're still light on answers here what i need to know from you people is what is the level of tribalism you're about to inject in the student curriculum what is the lesson plan where is it going it's obvious where it came from it's obvious that uh blm inc had a lot to do with it the same blm inc that tweeted rest in power when raul castro died and i think about the cubans right now that are fighting for freedom waving our flag to have equality of option and equality of effort not equality of result so i need an answer on that i need an answer on the comment that was made about well we can't mandate vaccines but we can mandate masks what does that
028mean if the vaccine becomes available to children under 12 and we ignore bodily autonomy and they don't take it are they othered are they put in a corner with a mask are they uh disassociated what is what is the thing here it seems like there's an awful lot being done to divide us not a whole lot being done to unite us i've been here seven years i've had three kids in the school system and it's been on the decline on every single measurable metric ever since and i don't see how this is going to improve any of it it's going to put kids in competition with each other and the obvious ties to where this leads maybe the curriculum needs a real boost in terms of what history really is my name is david jenkins
029mr jenkins because you're a minor it is up to you whether you want to give your address okay um my name is david jenkins i live at 160 north river road and today i'm going to be explaining the difference between black lives matter and all lives matter i know some people have already covered it but i kind of just want to give an example so we say black lives matter because um african americans are not treated equally in america for the last 400 years we've been fighting for we've been fighting to be treated with dignity dignity and respect and clearly it's gotten better but we're clearly not there yet but um basically black lives matter is just saying that we matter as well so you have say you are in a neighborhood and a house
030is burning down the firemen would go to that house and they would they would they would spray water on that it would be pretty silly to say my house matters too why aren't you spraying water on my house when that house isn't on fire we're trying to help the people that are in need of help it's basically saying we matter too and when you say all lives matter you are disputing that fact you're denying it and you're just trying you're trying to cover it up you're trying to trying to brush it off like it's nothing that's basically it thank you norm weaver 1376 mockingbird i'm here to remind you that you cannot legislate uh white people think and people are children and therefore you're in the violation of the 14th amendment that's all i have
031to say thank you okay seeing no other comments we are going to go ahead with our consent agenda um the superintendent agenda mr pro do you have any comments before we so i would like to recommend that the board of education approve the consent agenda items b through j also at this time i'd like to read the name and information of the donation listed in the consent agenda and personally thank them for what they do for our students and us so marilyn walker made a 200 200 donation to our rocks program and we thank her for that okay may i have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second any discussion okay roll call please hi betty oh i brown aye johnson bowers i and right i um okay so mr gummery has
032told me he will be here around 7 35 if we wanted to adjust the agenda we could go on to number nine but that would be up to you up to you yeah we're gonna uh yes so i guess i need um i need to amend it to just i think i can just we just move to table item seven and eight until the completion of item nine and ten okay i have a motion to move to table item seven and ten do i have a second second any discussion roll call please right aye whittaker aye video i brown aye johnson bowers okay all right so that takes us to item number nine superintendent's recommendation regarding bus purchases yes so i'd like to recommend that the district purchase five 78 passenger buses with the extended
033warranty for the amount of ninety one thousand one hundred and ninety nine dollars each from rush truck center and this is based on the bids that were received through the ohio schools council bus purchasing program and again this is part of our our efforts in order to get our fleet up to standard okay may i have a motion please so moved second all right any further discussion on the bus purchase um it just seems like we bought five buses a couple months ago am i correct in that i believe what we did last time was send it to the through the bid process i think these are the same five buses we've been working with all year yeah that's correct yeah but yes it's been a topic on a lot of agendas yeah all right
034i just wanted to make clear that you know this is not an additional five correct okay any other discussion okay roll call please all right mrs betty oh i brown aye johnson bowers i write i whitaker hi okay item 10 our agenda is a discussion regarding locations of regular board meetings for the 2021 school year the rest of the year um so just you know in the past we've gone through you know we've done our rotating basis through our buildings so um especially considering you know if we're looking at the possibility of covert protocols you know and if we're going to have you know a wider audience participation remaining in the auditorium might be a good option for you but it's your meeting so that's your decision but we wanted to add it on there
035to give the opportunity to talk about it while i think it's nice to go to the other schools i think there's a there's a reason why we've stuck with that particular location and as you can see our meetings are getting to be more popular i think we should stay personally i believe we should stay at the in the auditorium as long as there's not a conflict it's nice to go to the different schools and most of the time we enjoy the kids presentation and whatever they have to offer and then the parents get up and leave so i don't know what the purpose of having them there so i to me it doesn't make any difference um i'd like to see but with the way things are right now maybe we're just better off if
036it's possible to stay at the auditorium i i absolutely love going to the elementary schools going to kimton and lake viewing and seeing what they did i love it when we go to kempton and they do the hands-on i love it when the we go to indian trail in the choir things i just love that but i think maybe they could bring that to the auditorium because in essence a board meeting is a business meeting this is a business meeting that by law we have to have in view of the public uh so it's business that we're taking care of um so i want to and i really think that's done best in the auditorium but i don't want to lose the connection that we have with the elementary schools and that however that's probably
037an additional work task you know and they're probably relieved when the meeting's over but i do i do adore adore them when they do that and it really opens my eyes to everything that happens to make those things work so but but i prefer the auditorium i just want to bring them to the auditorium well i think we can definitely have that discussion with our principals about bringing those student presentations to the high school auditorium i agree it's it's always fun to see them and it's a great opportunity to get our students in front of you on a regular basis so we can take that back to our administrative team meeting and we can come up with some strategies in order to incorporate that i just want to give a shout out to bob byrd
038and his crew for always being at these so that they can continue to be live streamed because i know that's become very popular and for good reason and i i don't want to put bob on the spot but i would assume having it in the same location time after time makes his job a little bit simpler he would probably go wherever we are and make it work i know and i knew that would be his response but he just does a great job and an unsung hero in bringing this to a live stream every time but i also like being in the auditorium it gives us space to accommodate crowds and i i like the idea of the kids coming to us because that's fun too and it's it's important for them you know they
039that's a big deal to go to the school board and perform well i'd like for us to consider having it at the auditorium and then see what happens after the first of the year and if things clear up then we can go back to maybe a schedule yes so the proposal was through just the remainder of of this calendar year not the school year through december 2021 right so we'll just to clarify also sorry for the audience that's what i mean i mean if at some point the administration decides the protocols are in place and we can go back to one of the other schools it doesn't have to be all of them but some of the schools are larger than others lakeview is pretty large kempton's pretty large my bigger frustration frankly isn't maybe
040not the intended point of this is like tonight's meeting is not even in the school district and so um i would have preferred if we could have gone to kimpton or lakeview or somewhere within our school district than coming to neonet well but neither here nor there are the meetings here now but you know i i would just prefer the the well i think i'd like to see it set in stone for a certain amount of time so that we don't confuse the audience that perhaps wants to participate so we don't have to send out a notice two days before that we're changing it to a different facility so i think if we just cut it cut and dry and just say hey we'll look at it after the first of the year and i
041do apologize the high school auditorium wasn't available for it's under construction currently and then um lakeview and kempton we their cleaning schedules we weren't going to be able to access their spaces safely without completely turning the custodians schedules on their on their heads so um but i agree we could have planned ahead better so i apologize for that okay guess it seems like we're all in agreement with at least then you're saying okay okay we're back to seven all right so back to our previously tabled item number seven mr gumry are you ready for us sure am okay number seven is our treasures consent agenda do you have any comments before moving forward okay if i could have a motion to approve the treasures consent agenda so moved second uh before we go i'd like
042a discussion on on this um resolution that's not the conclusion that's the second that's the next item or the a b and c that's not under the consent in the wrong place then sorry that's okay this is just to do our normal consent all right so discussion mr gumry uh anticipation of uh during the year that we've essentially spent a little bit more than anticipated we're going to end the year right as uh right as targeted with about 90 days in cash um unfortunately we didn't spend a little less but that's where we're at covet is a very interesting thing and it was a very i would say it's a long year and we're starting now the process of building the new fiscal backbone for the district so we're in that process with neonet that's
043going to go forward that's what i have and then i can talk about each of the other items separately any discussion on the consent agenda okay roll call please uh video aye whitaker aye johnson bowers hi brown aye right aye next item on our agenda is treasures new business item a mr gumry item a is the use of the tech time engineering for building project uh and we need to approve the contract as as presented this is more to do with operations and they're going to go through the presentation um i believe august 6th at the next meeting yeah may have a motion please so moved second um any discussion okay for those who are here today the reason we aren't having the presentation this evening is simply because it's the middle of the summer
044and we have administrators out on vacation so they will be giving a larger presentation on this project um next week or our next meeting which what what was it august 5th yeah i think it's august 6th it's whatever that monday is the 9th august 90th okay okay roll call please johnson bowers aye brown aye whitaker hi betty oh hi right i and it's august 2nd okay um next item number b number b is the proposal new fund of class 2025 that'd be 200-9025 you may have a motion please so moved second just a creation of fun of a new graduating class what's the fun for the graduating class of 2025. what will the funds be used for they're fun they'll be multiple events between now and the end of the four years their student activities
045it's their class fund so i think it has to do with with prom is that yeah so each senior class um has a fund to for they help plan activities and and they really take the lead on a lot of those and this is the money that they're going to be able to use to in order to fund those so like the senior breakfast some of the activities the help with prom all those wonderful things that our seniors do yes item c was supposed to be approved tonight but i didn't roll call on the item please okay whitaker hi patio hi brown aye johnson bowers aye right aye thank you item c we were supposed to prove and what we're gonna be doing is a tax anticipation note um for the speeding up of the
046roof project and the other projects that superintendent operations have unfortunately we didn't receive the paperwork back from the auditor certifying a cert a number that is on that so we'll have to do that in august i have to receive a piece of paper before we can approve it i didn't get it it's summertime end of fiscal year at their office as well [Music] so so there'll be no action on this item no action on that item okay i believe that takes us to the end of our meeting i have a question though um new business yeah thank you um what is the board's pleasure for hearing from the dei committee at the next work session is there a topic of certain interest because we can do this one if we can do this a multitude
047of ways they can be board driven we can say this is what we're interested in we would like to hear it can be committee driven by they can be saying this is what we're really working on and we have some updates to provide and a combination thereof so i wanted to ask at this meeting here's what i'd really like to know if i get to put my voice in what i'd really really really like to know is the results of the panoramic survey without numbers i i don't want a powerpoint that says look at this i want them to step back and say you know what generally the majority of the kids feel this some i just wanted the whole thing done without numbers and i want i want to know their whole perspective of
048what the results of the panoramic was and sometimes i think we use the number the data as a crutch i i want to i think without the numbers the data is meaningless i don't understand how yeah but they're looking you look at numbers right you look at numbers and from the numbers you make your own you know summary of what what it is you would like them to put together a summary yes of exactly i don't want them to get rid of the data i want them to synthesize from the data and give that to me a summary and an analysis kind of thing well it's my understanding too that they gave this diversity equity and inclusion well i don't know what you want to call it but they gave a survey to the kids
049and if i'm mistaken i apologize but i i understand they gave that and they also gave you know the other assessment and i would like to see how many students were involved did they have the parents consent how many parents opted out i have a number of questions that i would like not to ask the people that are here i want to talk to the committee i think i think they can they can certainly answer those questions um the panorama we did get a presentation with regard to all that um recently a few months ago well we didn't get results and i understand that they went you know and i looked at the panorama survey from grades three to five and i'm really disappointed in the questions and um i'd like to see exactly what
050came out of it are you saying you never saw the questions on the survey we don't correct we were not given so the panorama survey is a proprietary product so as such we can't release all of the questions from the survey this is their product this is their business so we are not permitted to release all of the questions now there's a sample that we were permitted to release but we cannot release all of the questions well i got paid it's grade three through five and i got it from the panoramic survey people exactly what they are asking these kids grade through three through five so if that's the case i'd like to see what our children were asked and how they answered i don't need names i don't need that i need data as
051far as um what they came up with sure and i can we can definitely provide that and i just a point of clarification the panorama survey was actually something that came out of my office um and in my concern for um looking at the mental health of our students and our efforts at suicide prevention and in in increasing the protective factors of kids there is a diversity a couple there's a diversity component to that but the um the administration of the panorama survey in and of itself isn't isn't just for the dei committee well um i understand that but how many grades were given this test sure so we can we can program yeah we can provide all that information for you okay i think right now to answer your your question about uh what
052to do every meeting i think it's very early because i think the dei committee is still establishing its foundation they haven't even approved bylaws and they have a big thing on their plate and they're doing great work but but i want to make sure their foundation is strong before we start doing little pieces because i really want this to make a change in the district i don't want this to be a fad and so i i'm really concerned that that we need to let them get their feet underneath them because while they're getting their legs underneath them with all due respect the committee's been in existence for a year now i think that they have a pretty idea pretty good idea of where they're going where their needs are um and i disagree well maybe
053that's why we need to have some of these presentations have people come in but back to what your actual question i think committee driven would be more appropriate simply because if we're telling them to present on something that they're they don't have right information on it or not or it's not part of the scope of what they're actually doing that's not going to be helpful for anyone so i would say committee okay that's fine and it but i just want to keep putting that out there that we're going to be inclu including this at our work sessions and if there is a topic that the board is very interested in that does fall specifically under dei if we give them some notice say okay in october we'd like to hear about such and such or
054even september that does give them time to put that together so my position on that is the same as it was the last time which is unless the board feels like that committee or any committee within the district isn't doing its job isn't following up with what it's supposed to be doing i would rather wait for them to come to us when they're ready to present something i just i just think if the board starts saying okay in october we want you to present on this issue now in november i want to hear about this issue then their meetings that are full of a lot of community volunteers and their meetings start becoming can we fulfill the board's desires at that meeting they would come back to us and say we're not prepared on that
055can we push that off a couple months i'm just saying they want they want to be available to the board of education that if there's an area that the board is specifically interested in that they're able to come and share information and keep you updated on that specific area so i think you're saying what i was saying i you're just doing saying it much better um it's it's a committee like we have a lot of district committees and when they have stuff prepared to present to us is that what you're saying you want them to come i mean it's it's really to the at the end of the day it's a superintendent's committee yes um and as much as i would like over the past three and a half years to sometimes interject myself into
056the middle of the superintendent's committee and say i want to hear from you now on this topic um it tends to kind of subvert the flow of information and i would prefer to leave it to okay the superintendent the administration to say look we're ready on this if the board has questions about what they're doing with their time that that's one thing or you know if it's not moving that's one thing but yeah i think that's a separate issue but something is not happening on a particular topic that needs to right be happening but but otherwise i i feel like the board is interjecting itself yes i agree with that and i'm and i'm very cautious when i when i say these things because for 30 years i've seen these things come and go in
057districts i've seen the committee's form everybody's on the boat if you're not on the boat you're a bad guy and then all of a sudden it's gone and it it's every single it's this happens and i don't want this to happen i want us to be able to look back in a year and say wow look what that committee did look with the change i want that to happen so that's why i keep on saying let's let them get their foundation and that's is kind of what you're saying get their foundation and when we're looking for something we can ask for it or if they have something they're so proud of they want to come and present but it's kind of like we need them to be able to work without interruption well let's keep
058in mind that the work of dei in our district is not solely put upon the dei committee it is upon us as well so if there's information that we as a board in our dei efforts that we should be embarking upon need from the committee to help us in our efforts well the commitment along that is available along those lines i'm sorry nancy um one of the things that i know i i talked to the superintendent about quite a bit was that prior to the formation of this committee there was no mechanism for keeping data on race-based issues or other types of specifically we were talking about that topic but other types of issues related to differences and we weren't keeping the data so we didn't know and one of the things we were talking
059about is that now we have a mechanism where people can bring their concerns to to this committee to the executive board and it can be investigated properly and go through the change properly and now we're able to keep that information and look at where we need to improve or where we're doing well and so that might be something that i'd be interested to hear about where we are as far as that type of information and data collection with regard to those type of those things and because it's been a year i think they'd at least have some very basic information on that i have a little bit different outlook on this um i'm not against totally what they're doing the thing of it is i think as a board we should be updated periodically as
060to what's going on and what they're doing with the kids we're here for the kids we're not here for the grownups we're here for the kids and we want to make sure what they're doing affects the kids in what way so i think that they should come every so often at their pleasure and tell us hey this is what we've done this is what we're doing this is the results and we're we're going to go forward with this um that's my opinion well that we should hold all of the committees to that standard i agree i mean frankly we have plenty of committees where we don't hear from regularly on very important issues too so i agree committees that should be held to that standard well yeah i don't know if they involve as many
061kids in our system as any other committee does but all the committees impact our children all of them i mean that's the whole purpose of them yeah and i think what we've been getting now is the committees don't come to us until there's some project or some big item there's not we don't have regular updates it's but we should milestone issues but i would like to see maybe we should have a list of all these committees so we know what's going on in this district after all we're the ruling board i would agree with that we could have them on the agenda and if there's no update from a specific committee that month then we just say no updates but i would agree but we don't when it comes to dei we we don't have
062to be passive and wait for the board the dei committee to come to us we should be proactive in taking action and taking the lead and saying this is you know where we need to start looking at policies can the policy committee of the dei committee inform us what they have found so far so we have the opportunity and also the responsibility to take the lead on this nancy what policies are you talking about we have all kind of policies about bullying and harassment and everything else so why why what is it that you want to include in a policy that's why the dei committee is looking at policies and will be making policy recommendations i can't speak for the work that they'll be doing so and we need to be open to that and
063there's certainly difference between board policy and right district policy and and right the dei committee will not be making policy they will be making recommendations so it is up to us to make the policies i could be permitted to inject just a tiny bit of levity today i would like to remind our treasurer that this is a meeting in the public professional attire especially our shirts the vulgarity the vulgarity present on that shirt is just not acceptable is that where you came up with number because clearly been a michigan fan all my life and it's one in 17 i think so i have two i take my beatings every year in november yep i married one so yeah she has lots of empathy all right are any other comments all right i'll entertain a motion
064to adjourn so moved second any discussion roll call please betty oh aye whitaker aye johnson bowers aye brown aye right i you're adjourned 754. i think i get to say that a list