001good evening the time is now 5 11 p.m it is September the 9th 2020. I would like to call the meeting of the Board of Trustees of Goose Creek Consulting at ISD to open call to order uh this regular meeting will be held via video conference due to health and safety concerns related to the covid-19 Coronavirus this meeting will be conducted by video conference or telephone call and at least a quorum of the board will be participating by video conference or telephone in accordance with the provisions of sections 551.125 or 551.127 of the Texas government codes that have not been suspended by order of the governor however on March 16th Governor Greg Abbott granted a request by A.G kin Paxton to temporarily suspend a limited number of open meeting flaws to the extent necessary to
002allow telephonic or video conference meetings in response to the coronavirus covet 19. for more information about the suspension see tasby Legal Services article Texas governor suspends certain provisions of open meetings act due to Coronavirus covid-19 in accordance with those suspended rules we certify the following um Mr Sampson as secretary can you certify the notice of this meeting has been posted online for at least 72 hours okay that was a yes we can't hear you but and also certifying that although members of the board may not be gathered in a central physical location we do have a quorum in attendance at this meeting by video conference or telephone call can you certify such secretary Samson thank you we are meeting by use of Cisco WebEx software application which allows two-way communication for members of the public
003as we would at any in-person meeting members of the public who have followed the instructions on the meeting notice for registering to speak during the public comment portion will be unmuted for uh one minute to speak if you um would like to provide public comment and written submission format please follow the instructions on the meeting notice all other meeting procedures will adhere to board adopted procedures to the extent practicable an audio recording of this meeting is being made and will be available to the public at a later date the software application allows for 1 000 people to view and interact at a time we apologize in advance for any unforeseeable difficulties and ask for your patience as we navigate unprecedented conditions if you have questions about these suspended laws please call the Office of the
004Attorney General at 888-672-6787 or by email at t-o-m-a at oag.texas.gov and we are called to order at this time we will take up agenda items related to the level 3 complaints regarding trustee Cotter and trustee Laredo referenced on the agenda before convening the grievance hearings the board will adjourn to closed session to obtain legal advice regarding the grievance process and related issues from the school attorney under section 551.071 of the Texas government code trustee Cotter and trustee Laredo will be excused and not participate in this closed session the date is September the 9th 2020 and the time is 5 15 P.M good evening the time is now 5 36 p.m on Wednesday September 9th 2020 we are back in Open Session and will now proceed to agenda item [Music] agenda item yes 4A consider level
005three grievance complaint regarding trustee Cotter and related actions related actions under Goose Creek CISD board policy GF local trustee Laredo has recused himself from this hearing and will not be deliberating or voting on this matter several complaints have been filed against trustee Cotter related to the hearing tonight since all complaints are sufficiently similar in nature and in remedy sought the complaints are being Consolidated into this one hearing to include a group of complainants versus trustee Cotter each individual complaint and related supportive material have been made available to the board for review and consideration regarding tonight's hearing on behalf of the board I am asking our school attorney Mr David Hodgins to assist in facilitating this hearing and to serve as legal counsel and advisor to the Board of Trustees if either side has particular legal
006questions please direct them to Mr Hodgins on our behalf Mr hodgin if you would please proceed thank you madam president and good evening uh tonight is to hear from the complainants as well as any response from trustee Cotter as the grievant the trustee has requested that his hearing be held in Open Session and the presentations will accordingly be held in Open Session since the complainants have initiated this proceeding tonight they will have the responsibility of presenting their claims and requests to in for any relief to the remaining Board of Trustees the five board members that will be uh participating uh tonight which are all the board members except trustee Cotter and trustee Laredo the board has final Authority from a decision-making standpoint on this grievance and in doing so may determine facts and interpret and
007apply board policies related to the concerns that it expressed uh in in the complaints uh this hearing will be conducted as an administrative proceeding uh based on the individual complaints and the support of material and the response by trustee Carter uh there's no strict rules of evidence this is not a court hearing uh it is pursuant to board policy GF and there's no cross-examination between uh the police no no questioning of the board members hearing the complaint although the board does preserve the right to ask questions of either party as a as appropriate so we're going to try uh and and just encourage everyone we're working through uh technology and and WebEx and uh and the unique challenges that come with that we're going to do our our best to proceed in a traditional fashion
008and so I'd like to ask uh the complainants and look to Mr flood will be assistant technology wise if they would if they could come on and be and state their name for uh for the record it's confirmed that they'll be present any tonight here we'll just do that in just a second let me go ahead uh and and state some of the time frames for tonight's hearing and then we'll come back and make introductions may this probably be easier uh the complaints tonight uh because it's been Consolidated or as a group will have collectively uh 30 minutes uh up to 30 minutes so I have to use them all but you can up to 30 minutes to make their presentation to the Board of Trustees on the issues and information that allotment of time
009will be divided among the complainants unless they selected a one individual to present on their behalf which we'll confirm in a second I believe that's the case and during the presentation complainants would encourage you to identify your specific complaints and in particular your requested relief uh the remedy that that that that you're seeking and following the presentation of the complaint uh trustee Cotter may also present information in response and he will likewise have up to 30 minutes to make a responsive presentation to the board after that has concluded uh then uh the complaints again will have five minutes to make rebuttal or closing sort of statement uh in response and then this and trustee Carter will will have the same uh five minutes allotted in order to provide an accurate record this uh hearing is
010being recorded uh again please avoid talking uh over each other if there happen to be several uh together at one time uh so that an accurate recording can be made uh again there's no cross-examination between the parties uh and um and board members may ask questions although the intent is not to ask until if any if they're not required to but if there are any questions at the conclusion of the uh of the presentations made by both of the respective parties tonight so appreciate your courtesy and all of this as we go forward in these unique times and unique process so uh Mr flood if you could assist we'd like to go ahead and get introductions of the complaints who are here tonight and uh and if they will be allocating all of their time
011individually or uh or in some collective fashion if they'd share that with the board and with me I'd appreciate it thank you yes sir they have the ability to unmute themselves and I will make uh Nicholas rice I believe is going to prove him so I will make temperature here if you would can you hear me [Music] I can and that Mr rice uh I see Miss that's Miss Gray's one of the complaints correct that's correct thank you uh I do hear some Echoes just to be aware sometimes when you have two devices on at once the feedback uh kicks in uh and then Mr rice you were offline as well good luck trying to read it uh Mr rice or you I I okay what do we unmute Mr rice if we can Mr
012flood and then can you hear me yes you're on muted okay uh this is Nicholas rice and we I also have on my device two other um grievance that are with me and they are they're here they can speak all right they're they're they're they're with you through oh oh present with you at the same time they're on my device okay and could uh so we'll identify uh with rice and would you go ahead and identify uh the other two individual complaints that are present with you tonight please Holland and Brandon okay with Terry and Holland all right that is that's three and I believe uh Miss Graves uh is also was also plugged in and Miss crazy is that correct your present tonight just checking your sound yes I'm present thank you uh are
013there any other complaints besides the the four that have commented that are are present this evening to participate in the hearing I should have a Janet Janet Hughes thank you Miss Hughes Mr flood is misuse on misuse can you hear me are you good yes yes I can hear you thank you that'd be five um any other complainants that were notified for tonight's hearing Cindy Foster is also with us uh Ms Foster good evening that would be six all right so that appears to be our our group of complainants um have uh that would if if you individually spoke to address things that would be uh five minutes each or it have collectively have you agreed to split the time in some other fashion that's it's certainly up to y'all um if not we'll just
014proceed one after another for five minutes uh Miss rice can you share with us yes we to take a few minutes and we will yield when necessary we've divided our time accordingly it may not be an equal amount of time but we will yield to each other when needed all right and we'll do our best to try to keep time which is challenging when you leave but we'll try to uh uh you know accomplish that as best that we uh as we can along along those lines and so who would like uh from the complainant for their first five minutes um like to begin or is there someone else that would like to begin we're gonna I'm going to hand it over to weibra Holland all right Miss Holland uh thank you Ira for being
015here tonight and um if you'll go ahead and proceed with your five minutes you hit the floor okay we are here tonight to present evidence supporting the Grievances that were five trustee Cotter I would like to point out that the district received a letter today from an attorney requesting that Mr clotter and Mr Laredo recruit some their votes and that after this meeting and their investigations are completed filing charges with the D.A to remove them from our board is imminent if they're not something that do not start or stop at school board meetings establishing character is important for example Mr Carter recently received a loan to pay at a high answer stray for a judgment that he had against him for property taxes for several years past due he also owed back child support uh
016one may wonder why this is important for this it is because he has a legal requirement to financially care for his children and instead of contemplating spending the money of the community our taxpayers money for what he wants to do everything that will be presented tonight that took place in a private setting although some of this may have not been cottered directly he should be considered Guilty By Association as he was active in the groups in these forums that were restricted from public viewing I wish to yield my mind to Nick rice okay can everybody hear me can you hear me yes please proceed okay uh good evening everyone um I'm going to start tonight by reading um policy BBF local and the tasby social media guidelines for school board members and once I read
017these I'm going to present our evidence that we have to show that trustee Cotter has violated these policy and guidelines quoting from Goose Creek board policy BBF local says equity and attitude I will be fair just and impartial in all my decisions and actions I will encourage expressions of different opinions and listen with an open mind to others ideas I will be responsive to the community by seeking its involvement in District Affairs and by communicating its priorities and concerns I will share My Views while working for consensus I will base my decisions on fact rather than supposition opinion or public favor I will refuse to surrender judgment to any individual or group at the expense of the district as a whole and I will be continuously Guided by what is best for all students of
018the district then I'd also like to share with you the tasby Texas Association of school boards social media guidelines for school board members that was printed in April of this year guideline for avoid posting content that indicates that you have already formed an opinion on pending matters number five ask for Community input to be provided through appropriate channels but do not allow your social network to direct your decisions as a trustee yes number nine immediately report suspected illegal activities and harassing our defamatory Communications that involve school officials staff students our district business to the superintendent and number 10 realize that by using a personal account to official School District business your account may become a public forum under the First Amendment this is the policy and guidelines that I believe that trustee Cotter has violated
019and now I'm going to share with you the evidence that proves that trustee Cotter has violated these policies and guidelines to start trustee Cotter is a member of the private Facebook group Unity alumni this group is about listed on their About Us section of their group says that they have this group was formed in solidary with latinx and black alumni alliances that have formed to change the name of Robert E Lee High School that is the that is a about a section of the group that Cotter is a part of trustee Cotter is also listed as a founding member of this group indicating that he joined very soon after its creation trustee Cotter is also a follower on Instagram of the make Lee history page this indicates that trustee Carter agrees with this group that
020the name should be changed and thus has already made an opinion on changing the name in the unity Facebook group there have been multiple attacks against the superintendent that trustee Cotter has not reported nor asked for these posts to be removed this is in violation of the tasvey social media guidelines for school board members that says that you will report immediately any harassment or defamatory uh conduct immediately to the superintendent this group has also attacked the board president again trustee Cotter has not reported any of these defamatory or harassing comments to the superintendent there is even a picture that is quoting Jessica Woods the board president on a defamatory photo that has her name on it foreign ER has also used his social media page to promote changing the name of the school trustee Carter
021has been very active on the unity Facebook page is liking comments and he also posted on his own Facebook page on on June 24th an article from the Houston Chronicle titled opinion it is time to rename Baytown Lee trustee Carter said quote what a timely off end written by my longtime friend and classmate Shane Stansbury many of you remember Shane we all went to school together from grade school through graduation please read his thoughtful words and share this far and wide Facebook friends do your thing trustee Cotter posted that on his um public Facebook page on June 24th trusty Potter also indicated on the unity group on Facebook that he is already proposing a new name for Lee High School he says quote I'd be happy with Baytown Gander High it's posted in the unity
022group on Facebook [Music] and trustee Cotter has also had input on this group that says that posted on June 24th and people have commented about leaving the name alone he also posted on June 24th an article titled the myth of the kindly General Lee at the end of his post he says how long do we continue to whitewash and repair this man who led a failed Insurrection against the United States [Music] and trustee Cotter had a comment on his Facebook post on June 24th that says they should be put to a vote by the people of Baytown not the school board what gives a right of you appear you the right to make this decision there was also defamatory and racist comments posted on this that trustee Cotter did not address one that says he
023forgot to wear your clan Hood in your Pub profile picture another very important proved that trustee Potter is impartial and is biased is that trusty Cotter donated 100 to the GoFundMe account set up by the unity Facebook group that you can see here on your screen trustee Cotter his wife donated one hundred dollars to this cause and trustee Cotter also responded to a quote from Orlando Mara that [Music] Orlando Lara put on Facebook great research that we need to all listen to All Points of View strategy has been tried before this is not about a number of letters polls town halls or public relations workshops [Music] this is about ethics Mission and values and above all reason this humiliation and symbolic violence for Generations cccisd's Mission and values have already been drafted through some sort
024of community process presumably all the board has to do is apply them trustee Carter replied to this comment and put Orlando Lara as my buddy Robert Medina would say looky looky trustee Cotter on June 24th uh and his post on the unity group us responded to a post that the lease should be renamed should be renamed to Carver and trustee Cotter responded saying quote I love that idea thank you foreign okay and at this time I'm going to yield to Brandon Terry Miss Terry you may uh you may proceed with your your time okay I'm gonna focus on Oma violations I'm sorry sir I'm gonna I'm gonna focus on Oma violations [Music] was that in your original complaint yes it is because not not ethical or the issues of the guidelines you have separate complaints
025on LMA that are actually presented the original complaints it was uh Amendment guidelines okay [Music] it's just on the guideline there's not the actual complaints should go ahead and reference guidelines and in the tasky guidelines which were part of your complaint okay and one of my guidelines that uh that we might protect them from the guidelines protect them from any military [Music] guidelines protect them from Oma violations it was cited in your original complaint before this grief yes put that in your complaint [Music] I'll stop the clock here [Music] okay I'm pulling it up thank you very much if you could screenshot is your screen share are you is that Miss rice you're done with screen sharing can you release that no huh Mr flood he's the presenter for the whole meeting oh this is
026the share for the whole meeting thank you I'm sorry I misunderstood okay [Music] okay such actions also violate the purpose of the Oma which requires board deliberation to take place in public meetings and any final action decision or vote to be made in an open meeting is Texas government code well I'm gonna I'm gonna stop you again sir you're you're complaining The Grieving presented against the trust and that's what I'm asking you to show not to state I'm asking you to show you see what I mean I I I I I'm just trying to be to be fair that of the notice of what the challenges complain tour and familiar as has been articulated in reference the the alleged ethical violations of BFF and as well as uh tasby guidelines for social media let's see
027in the in the complaint I've heard you say it but for notice of of an open meetings violation challenge Mr Hodgins yes board president Jessica I I have a quick question about the binder that we were provided from the complainants is there somewhere in there for us to look at the Grievances as they were filed well I guess we should start with that from a a presentation of those binders I guess I should ask the complainants initially Madam president there appeared to be some binders that were provided and you know oh that's a courtesy copy of these materials okay thank you Mr okay so Mr Hodgins I know that board secretary prepared some binders as well that have the original grievances in them but we don't have them in front of us right now is
028that what you have there are those original grievances in there okay but it but these binders obviously have the attachments but those have the Grievances so Mr Hodgins would it be uh fair to say that if we got those in front of us right now if Mr um Mr Terry is is trying to reference something that we don't have in front of us but we are available Mr Terry found it and I appreciate him doing so Madam president it appears and it's just when you started I didn't realize or understood that you were referencing a guideline and and the quote so please proceed Mr and again I'll start the clock go right ahead okay sexual actions also violate the purpose of the Oma which requires board deliberation to take place in public meetings and any
029final action decision or vote to be made in an open meeting moreover such written exchanges like it also create public records that require retention and are subject to disclosure under the Texas Public Information Act adding additional administrative burden on the district [Music] foreign [Music] okay also uh publishing on a pro a private Facebook group did not report they are active and they were guilty by associate Randy Dunn I knew we couldn't trust Jessica Woods to do the right thing what is wrong with her Orlando I heard that as a result of all that Augustine had to school Jessica on how to conduct a school board meeting okay and again he's showing bars on his social media uh trustee Carter on his statement on social media June 24th he's already made his decision it should it
030should be Carver and Carter's reply I love that idea [Music] he he also talks about other things that it could be named like Armstrong agreed I think we need a thorough look through our school naming policy across the board Shay Carter or maybe stop naming schools for people all together or for mascots but instead name them for ideals or something else [Music] thank you [Music] in the black alumni group [Music] trustee Carter says that's their loss glad to hear you are a part of the change glad to be a part of it he's already made his mind up and on the GoFundMe again in documentation trustee Shea and his wife Jess Carter donated a hundred dollars more proof mine made up yeah more social media these are Shay Carter's words Ken Augustin and likely Howard
031are our largest allies they make no mistake about it those from whom we need to hear the most are our friends of color especially African Americans for this issue my African-American friends were afraid to express their pain during my years at Rel as they Stood Beside Us in the band and watched the Confederate Battle Flag being run across the field this small we played Dixie those days of the oppressed not being heard need to be long gone there was a private Zoom meeting on Sunday August 2nd please join us for live forum [Music] and on the post he's tagged in it uh Kevin Trevor shed and trustee Carter is on there [Music] okay here's another post and this shows his mind was already made up this is Jay Carter on June 24th [Music] again discussing
032outside of a board meeting what a timely op-ed written by my longtime friend and classmate Shane Stansberry many of you remember Shane we all went to school together from Grade School back to school through graduation please read this thoughtful words and share this far and wide thanks Facebook friends do your thing and again outside of a board meeting there's further comments from Tara Burkholder Williams tag Shea Carter trustee Carter is in this group and he's on the GCC ISD School Board just FYI Augustine Loretto is also in this group he's also on the board uh another post again mine made up and offering ideas Shake harder I'd be happy with Baytown Gander High [Music] thank you we also have a comment about Brian molenta attacking a teacher does this guy really teach U.S history at
033Lee with the uh angry face Shay Carter replies he does foreign ER recruits himself from any vote involving the name change and we asked for his resignation [Music] thank you Mr Terry are you still proceeding sir or do you want to in time to miss grades [Music] yeah we're wanting to show you that more community members wanted the same thing [Music] I yield back my time I think it looks like we have about five or so minutes left it would who would be Max Graves I'm the rebuttal so I'm not so sure I'm next okay who would be next then as a complaint for the remaining five minutes or so we're done with Cricket point [Music] I'm sorry I didn't hear we're done we're done with our complaint okay so that that completes the presentation
034since that completes the presentation at this time go ahead and stop and reset the clock uh Mr Flo could you go ahead and mute um uh the Thrice [Music] this project I think we'll go ahead and proceed with uh they're all good okay oh sorry it just didn't show that they were but thank you for now I see it okay thank you very much all right that uh that that completes the complaintance presentation and uh the copy the curse of copies of the materials have been provided made available to the board uh for consideration at at this juncture then we will proceed with uh the hearing and uh we'll turn to trustee clotter who has likewise 30 minutes uh up to 30 minutes to provide information and response uh and so trustee Carter that you
035have uh the floor we'll start the clock all right let's thank you can you hear me yes all right great fantastic uh Mr flood um while I wait uh okay here we go gotcha should I be able to toggle back and forth between the presentation and just the camera stop presenting okay all right yes if you stop sharing it'll go back to camera great all right um you know let me say in the beginning there's a there's a lot in there um that was just shared and uh some of it I saw in a lot of it I saw in the materials some of it I I I didn't um I saw that I thought most of the or all of the Grievances in their remedy were looking for my recusal from this uh vote
036tonight as well as the committee I did not see any of them that specified uh part of the remedy they were asking for was my resignation did I miss that somewhere Miss Woods oh okay um so one of the first questions is both um the complainants and the board attorney specified in the beginning that the the governing document for this is GF local is that correct is what um Mr Hodgins I'm sorry yes the governing policy for tonight's hearing is GF local okay for process clarification but again uh not really a question and answer format trustees just presentation okay all right thank you um so my opening question and I guess it's a it's more of a rhetorical question if this if this isn't really a question and answer back and forth um GF local
037specifies a time frame by which uh grievances have to be filed and I believe that time frame is 15 days from the time of the incident and and some of these uh incidences we've been receiving emails over and over and over uh for the last couple of months um so I just want to remind everyone that it's highly unusual to have a grievance that's entertained far outside the time frame of the grievance process I don't know that that's ever happened but I'm happy to do it um because I believe that these are important things to discuss um one of my most driving principles throughout this entire process and and I don't mean just the process of the the public conversation about renaming Lee but the the process of me being a board trustee has been
038four motivating factors for me personally one is a reason both to have a reason but also to speak with reason and to communicate with the reason another is compassion compassion is one of my biggest guiding principles professionalism um and and finally transparency and and I hope that by going through what I've prepared in my defense you'll see over and over again that those have been my guiding principles in each of these examples that we've been given um you know I would say at the beginning of all of this that the the thing that if I could could put these in any sort of order that would be very difficult but my first one would be compassion for sure um and and partly that's why this this entire procedure makes me sad um because I believe
039that we should be able to sit down at a table uh and talk to one another um these are this is our community and and this is our schools uh these are where our kids go to school together and to be able to sit down and discuss these issues without slinging mud and and throwing uh things around I think is is one of the things that I I really hope that we can get to in the community um foreign so moving forward from there another motivating factor for me is the power of listening one of the things that I've heard over and over tonight is that I'm not listening to the whole Community I'm not listening to people um and I really I I I I differ with that opinion um because I believe that
040I am listening I'm listening to all members of the community um we've we've all gotten emails as trustees that have said these are some of the quotes I've pulled from our emails that this has never impacted the community in any way another quote that I pulled up from one of the emails is this recent movement to change the name comes from very Outsiders that do not understand what an honor it was to grow up in Baytown another quote was please don't please do not put on blinders and follow be a leader stand up for our community and these are all emails from people who want us to not change the name and and and quite to the contrary um I am listening I am standing up as difficult as that is this is not an
041easy thing um I knew that I signed up for this when I began to speak up and I spoke up anyway because I believed it was important because these are the other things that I've heard over and over and over again these are some other quotes that we've all received as board members in our emails I was pretty shy and felt invisible I cannot imagine how the few black students felt it was sad to watch them that was Hilda Martinez class of 1967 from Robert E Lee another quote I lived right there in the moment the first day of school a KKK flag was waving in front of the school to let us know we weren't welcome we attended a ball called the Confederate ball trying to fit in I was I was in a
042choir called the southern belles and we felt awkward I was devastated because it was my last year of high school there were riots in the cafeteria almost every day we lost our identity since it was only a few of us Priscilla Wilson class of 1968. and in fact this is an email that uh Miss Calico Hopson one of the teachers that was there when I was a student Robert E Lee and just retired after 40 years she said I began teaching at Lee in 1979 until my retirement in 1929 which was 40 years I've seen and experienced many thrilling exciting events as well as many painful racist mishaps at Lee I almost didn't take the job at Lee because I've always been so passionate about my feelings about Robert E Lee it took much work
043for my family to teach me that maybe I could do some good at a place stuck in Antebellum while at Lee I fought to do just that and I pray I did make a difference however small I love the school and its people but have always hated the name and the connotation it carries these are not stories that say it never bothered the community these are not stories that say people weren't moved and upset with this and so quite to the contrary I have been listening I've been listening to all sides of this argument I've been listening for a very long time in fact today we just got an email today that said we need to stand up United and listen to the marginalized when they are offended this this actually spoke my heart on
044this whole thing to listen to the marginalized I mean I know that a lot of you in this room are Educators um not all of us but we're those of us that aren't educators are parents and we've seen those moments when there's somebody in our midst whether it's a friend of a child uh or or a student and and that maybe this kid has has always been told their voice didn't matter or maybe this kid has always been told that their their opinion uh didn't count and the first time they hear that their voice matters and their opinion counts there's this fire that's ignited and and when I sit and I talk to people and I start hearing stories like this and then they hear somebody stand up and say that their opinion matters and
045that their voice counts that ignites that fire um so this has been my pervading thing since since day one to listen in fact it's been the very thing that I ran on even though these folks have have talked a lot about how you know I'm not fulfilling the promises that I made in my campaign to listen I have I've been listening and it brought me to this road now I want to get to the point of um the policies that they are saying that I violated and the the examples that they've given um because I want to handle those straight on I I I believe that the very policies they are saying that I uh violated I hope to be able to show you that I've been upholding them pretty strongly um they they chose
046some things and didn't choose others so I just want to show the entire policy and then highlight the sections that they chose to highlight equity and attitude uh I will be fair just in a partial in all my decisions and actions I will Accord others the respect I wish for myself I will encourage expressions of different opinions and listen with an open mind to others ideas they they chose to highlight those first two that they feel like somehow I've violated these two things that I have not been fair and I have not encouraged expression of different opinions um I will prove that I I actually have uh trustworthiness and stewardship they're all here they they pulled out I will be responsive to the community by seeking its involvement in District Affairs and by communicating its
047priorities and concerns again I will I will show that I've I've done actually that uh honor and conduct um I will share My Views while working for consensus is one that they pulled out and I will base my decisions on fact rather than supposition opinion or public favor um I think everybody knows that I'm definitely not doing this for public favor right now but I'm still here uh Integrity of character I refuse to surrender judgment to any individual or group at the expense of the district as a whole and I have not judged any individual or group and finally student-centered focused I will be continuously Guided by what is best for all students of the district and a preacher that I used to listen to a long time ago used to say all means all
048and that's all all means and I have all students so let's talk about the actions number one and and I'm just taking these not from what was just verbally said but from the written record that we were given in the um accounts in in the Grievances so some of these are abbreviated but I hope you'll you'll follow and agree that I've kind of kept the spirit intact of the the actions trustee Cotter number one trustee Cotter is listed as a founding member of the unity alumni Baytown Robert E Lee High School Improvement allies private Facebook group uh trustee Cotter has not responded to to the the attacks in there um first of all going back to my guiding principles of professionalism and um transparency and compassion I believe and and I don't know that anybody
049in here I think I am Facebook friends with every one of the trustees am I not I don't know are you on Facebook Ben I think we're friends I don't know and I know that Mr Sampson I think he's on Facebook but I don't know that he ever gets on there um but every one of you are Facebook friends with me and everything that I've done you can absolutely take a look at if I've ever done anything that you've had an issue with I hope that you would come to me um I'm always open to correction always I I try to live my life that way and I I don't know if you've seen everything that I've posted because I admittedly do post a lot but likewise I don't see everything that everyone else posts
050as well but yes I am in Facebook parlance I am a founding member of the unity group I'm also a member of the black uh alumni group I'm also a member of actually a founding member of the Baytown Raza alumni um the interesting thing though is that I was also a member of the save Ariel group um I I was I was one of the original members back about two or three years ago when that group was started uh if you guys will remember that group was initially started when the Board of Trustees was talking about having to uh or the conversation about condensing all the schools into what we kind of all called the mega school system and I was I was vehemently opposed to that you might remember I I think I I
051stood right over there and spoke to everybody um and I joined the group back then and I'd been a part of the group and it was only after all of this started that I was actually blocked from that group here is a text message from uh Jake Daniel to Russell Hammond one of the two of the administrators of that group where Jake says that he booted me from that group after he saw that I was still a member so I was trying to have conversation on all sides of the equation I was open to expressions and different opinions I was listening do I have an opinion absolutely absolutely I've never been shy about stating that to me and one of the things that I've said over and over is to me this is an ethical
052issue and and as trustees you and I can sit on that panel together and have differing opinions I have a First Amendment right to speak that opinion and issues of things that I see as racial or social inequities I made a promise to myself a long time ago that I won't be silent on those things and just because I fulfill that promise to myself and stand in My First Amendment right doesn't mean I'm not listening because again from the very beginning when we when I started talking in this I said that I really wish we could sit down and talk I I believe we can sit down and talk I I I've tried to sit down and talk to many people in fact let's talk about what Facebook calls their founding member this doesn't mean
053I started this organization and you know I realized that in the presentation just a minute ago the complainant said uh they never they never specified that they thought I started the group but I have heard within the administration that supposition that that this is my group but right here it shows that Facebook uses this to connotate somebody that joins within the first three days of the group's creation and either writes a post invites people to join or shares the group within those first three days well guess what again transparency I invited my kids and my wife to join to see what was going on that made me a founding member um action number two trustee Cotter donated a hundred dollars to the GoFundMe campaign absolutely I sure did it's right there um guess what I
054I could have done it anonymously in fact my wife when when we decided to give some to give money uh my wife and I talked about the fact that you know she she came to me and she said do you do you want me to just do it in my name and I said no no I I don't want to hide anything you know this is something that I've stepped out and spoke on and I want people to know that I'm not ashamed of that and I want people to know that I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is so absolutely I put my name on it because I I don't mind having my name associated with that I think if we are asking people to go through this process to say alongside
055them hey I'm willing to share that expense pretty good thing to say action number three trustee Cotter shared on his public Facebook page on June 24th an article titled opinion it is time to rename Baytown Lee trustee Cotter also said Facebook friends do your thing insinuating that the public should comment on his position let me bring you back to one of the very standards that they say I violated I will encourage expressions of differing opinions and listen with an open mind to others ideas I will share My Views while working for consensus these are their words that I was insinuating that the public should comment on my position doesn't that sound like encouraging expressions of different viewpoints doesn't that sound sound like sharing my views while working for consensus so they pointed to and I
056I don't want to get too In The Weeds on this but they pointed to some comments about Brian malenta and and whether or not he taught there Brian Valenta was in that very conversation and I was just simply saying yeah he does teach there Brian wallinta is very capable of defending himself and I believe he did a good job in that conversation he doesn't need anybody to take up a defense for him I don't believe that that is a violation of anything that we've discussed here in fact Ms Holland you sent us an email in the very beginning on June the 25th and and here was my response to you that I sent to the entire board where I said Miss Holland I want to thank you for taking the time to reach out to
057me our Board of Trustees and our superintendent to bring this issue to our attention your opinion and your voice is heard and I appreciate the time you took to detail your thoughts they do not go unnoticed and they never did go unnoticed I meant that sincerely and I still mean that so again these are the policies that they state that I violated that I will be fair just and impartial in all my decisions that doesn't mean I don't have an opinion that just means that in the way that I go about it I'm fair and impartial I will encourage expressions of different opinions and listen and I've absolutely done that I will be responsive to the community by seeking its involvement in District Affairs and by communicating its priorities and concerns absolutely remember where they
058talked about the foundation of our guides and our goals and our vision absolutely I will share My Views while working for consensus 100 and I will base my decisions on fact rather than supposition opinion or public favor and I stand by though I will refuse to surrender judgment to any individual or group at the expense of the district as a whole and I will continuously be guided by what is best for all students of the district so let's talk about the guidelines um now keep in mind I know that is that how long I've gone or how long I have left okay all right yep about nine minutes uh so let's talk about the guidelines for a second keep in mind that these are not rules in fact um you know the very beginning of
059this document says that we should consider adhering to these guidelines these are suggestions although I do believe they're good suggestions the first one they quoted um in their documents to us was number four avoid posting content that indicates that you've already formed an opinion on pending matters and what they quoted was the concept of due process calls for the board to serve as an impartial decision maker social media post by a board member expressing an opinion on pending matters may be considered evidence of bias or pre-judgment on the issue this evidence of bias may be used to exclude the individual board member or call into question the validity of board action however what they chose to Omit was the very beginning of that passage when a grievance contract appeal or other dispute is presented to
060the school board this goes back to June the 24th and the article that I posted this was not a grievance this was not a contract appeal or other dispute this was me sharing my opinion and I absolutely had the First Amendment right to do so just as anybody else would so would it be wrong for me to be discussing this grievance here on on social media absolutely or any other grievance or any other contract that we're talking about renewing absolutely but this passage has nothing to do with me talking about things that I would like to see happen in our community this was none of those items number five ask for Community input to be provided through appropriate channels but do not allow your social network to direct your decisions as a trustee and they
061they quoted this section maybe an enticing function of social media however yielding decision-making Authority on public matters are on matters of public business to social networks violates local policy uh board ethics in some instances the law and and that's absolutely true when someone asks me how to get to the board members how to Lodge uh their opinion how to speak or or engage the board I 100 of the time always say here's their email address send them an email I've never said send them a Facebook message I've never said tag them on a Facebook post in fact I've never tagged any of you on a Facebook post I've never tried to mix those two and this is this this guideline right here is asking for Community input to be provided through appropriate channels again they
062said over and over and over he's already made up his mind he's already made up his mind he's already made up his mind well have I made up my mind or am I asking for opinions through through social media it can't be both they're convinced I've made up my mind so if I've made up my mind I'm certainly not using this to get social media input to to inform my opinion it's it's a conversation um again it's clear from the record that I was never soliciting input or polling the community to direct my decision they've even admitted that I've already got my mind made up because I've been very open from the beginning that I believe this is an ethical moral decision I immediately report suspected illegal activities and harassing or defamatory Communications that involve
063school officials staff students or District business honestly I I haven't seen those instances um now I have seen some instances that I have immediately reported to Dr O'Brien uh where someone threatened to burn down the school I absolutely reported that to Dr O'Brien however I don't know that it is a it certainly simply a guideline but it is certainly not a reasonable course of action at all to hold me responsible for what other people say um what I saw I absolutely reported and that was investigated so that's all I can say about that um I'll yield the rest of my time and wait for everything else for my closing argument thank you trustee Connor uh for your your presentation that board members that are remaining five board members here tonight uh hearing this matter uh
064that that does conclude the presentations um at this time and board members if you have specific questions you're welcome to answer or we can proceed uh to the deliberation stage do I have any questions um Mr Hodgins yes we are finished with the 30-minute presentation period now I believe we go to the couple minutes we have rebuttal forgive me thank you madam president all right let me let me go ahead and proceed then on behalf of the World War II uh back to the complainants where you have five minutes to make remarks or rebuttal remarks again you can divvy that up among uh among those I'll just start a a clear clock and and who will on behalf the complaints who will Who would like to uh present a famous Graves at one point that
065was the plan for you if I heard you correctly will you be leading that out or will someone else I'm sorry I'm so used to court well thank you this believe that I am definitely not a judge and and this is not a a a a court hearing uh but let me go ahead and just try to facilitate again this is a grievance before trustees I will go ahead and call upon uh you miss Graves to uh make the uh a five minute rebuttal and start your clock now thank you excuse need to get my get my share screen went away we just need to get that back on first okay let me go ahead and I'll hold the clock thank you Miss Frost it's great if you hold a moment why uh share the
066screen [Music] I have it now all right thank you Mr flood for all of your assistance with uh uh the technology challenges to try to believe that's yeah and attack them first and then you can you can I do accept your pay [Music] oh yeah is that the page that you want Ms Graves yes okay then we'll go ahead and proceed with the five minutes of revital closing statement Miss Graves on behalf of the complaints uh you have the floor please proceed thank you I am going to yield my time right now to more than Matthews it's Matthews please proceed we're gonna speak about Mr shade cutter what he was stating on his principle I'm having a little trouble hearing you because there's a little bit of an echo just so you're aware let me
067stop the clock just for a second can you say hello again so we can make sure the board members and the record reflects hearing you Mr Hodgins there's a there's a question on point of order is um Miss Margaret Matthews is not one of the original listed complainants is under the processdf local for uh hearing level three hearings is she a witness being called to yeah my Ms Graves I'm understanding that you're you're as on behalf of you you're asking her to present is that right complain no I'll go we'll go back to original plan okay thank you all right so who would who what complaint will with that being miscraves okay thank you thank you board all right we'll we'll commence again so miss Graves you have the floor now please proceed trustee Cotter
068you were sworn in as a member of this board that you would Faithfully execute the duties of your Office of the State of Texas and that you would do the best of your ability to preserve protect and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state I believe you violated these this oath as previously stated and enumerated earlier you have committed repeated violations of board member ethics which also include open meetings act uh we're going to regarding the timeline it's hard to put us on a timeline when these actions are continuously and ongoing yeah we've addressed you're the co-founder it doesn't look good you're on a public group that's now private anyone against or undecided was removed or deleted in violation of their First Amendment right which we're unable on your
069groups to post anything that is on private group so I don't see how you're listening to everybody those would just have to be the people that want the name change because it's not savers of the name but censoring those you do not agree with this is not indicative of listening with an open mind you have made up your mind and you're not listening to the very people you should be listening to but to Outsiders people who no longer live here never lived here and most importantly do not pay taxes here you were voted to this board by citizens of Goose Creek ISD and while you are voted on by districts you still represent the entire Goose Creek Consolidated ISD taxpayers regardless of their District not people from Florida California Washington State Deer Park Houston this
070is our community our tax dollars not out not said Outsiders sure they can have an opinion everyone is entitled to one but they do not get a voice on how our money is or should be spent you have expressed numerous occasions via Facebook that you're potentially biased that your mind's made up giving name changes suggesting name changes you're even ignoring your own words that were written in the Baytown Sun that you want to listen to the voices of the community you're not listening and you can't listen when a page is private and the only people that can post are private or members of that private group I cannot go on and comment foreign superintendent wanting to preserve our history is not racist did you report that comment to anybody you have to know by now
071that by using a personal account to conduct official School District business your account may become a public forum under the First Amendment therefore everybody should be allowed to comment also been known to bring in this agenda to our you should also know by bringing this agenda to our community you have created Hayden division by listening to Outsiders I believe the numbers show that our community our taxpayers are not wanting to play into this cancel culture agenda a political agenda that the board should never be a part of or supporting you need to be focusing on the education of the students you've been on a GoFundMe page where you contributed money that indicates you made your markup you shared numerous articles on Facebook regarding it's time to rename Baytown Lee you know the Facebook all of
072these actions the way you handle them continue to show a violation of ethics and the refusal to listen to your taxpayers he's both implied that you had violated Oma laws by 51.102 and 551.143 often referred to as a walking Quorum is a criminal offense with penalties fine incarceration or both you spoke of your training that's paid at taxpayer expense I just question whether you seriously and sincerely paid attention to those your actions show extreme bias on the issues we're renaming Robert E Lee High School your actions feathers show along with policies you are ignoring Texas Education Code chapter 11.251 where is that policy implemented in this discussion and article 8 Texas Constitution I believe that the current remedy at this time is for you to accuse yourself from any actions relating to renaming Robert E
073Lee or a committee to investigate the need for renaming District facilities on the basis uh including the committee formation vote as well as the name changing vote we also would request that you relieve your duties based on board policy and enter your resignation it was time okay that was good thank you trustee Connor um and you've heard the response by the complainants for rebuttal and closing comments you likewise uh have five minutes uh trustee to provide any closing of rebuttable marks for the board's consideration in this matter thank you um you know it doesn't matter how many times it's said over and over it doesn't make it true um you know I base my opinion on my convictions not on outside influences uh the the quotes that I've given you tonight aren't quotes from you
074know people in California or Portland OR Florida or wherever there are quotes from our community uh they're teachers students parents to respond and again to go back to some of the emails that we've had um this has never impacted the community in any way that's that's really code for because I haven't seen it it doesn't exist right when we've seen over and over that it does exist um it's the same with bullying a year ago we were in this room and somebody uh several people talked about the bullying problems and we had we had a report that said we didn't have a bullying problem and we had to stop and look and say okay is the reporting wrong or or are the complainants wrong are the experiences that we're hearing wrong and we've got that
075same opportunity tonight to City is there something wrong here um it's the same with racial and social injustice we've heard over and over and over that people never felt comfortable standing up and saying something I've even had a conversation recently with a teacher in our district who's been contacted by parents and the parents are wanting their kids to stand up and speak out about changing the name but they feared the blowback from the coaches or the teachers or their peers um and and I'm sure some of you may be hearing that sentence I just said and you think that I'm I'm leveling some sort of indictment against the coaches or the teachers or the peers and what you missed was my comment about the experiences of the students I'm not judging anything by making that
076statement I'm I'm talking about the experience of that student we need to be slow to act and assume and quick to listen when somebody says this has been my experience we first clap back and say no you're wrong or do we slow down and stop and say wow I had no idea tell me more any of us who have a relationship with anyone in this room shouldn't find this to be an odd way to look at things right uh any any spouse or significant other or even child um you know how many times would would we be in trouble at home if we just immediately responded to something we didn't get or understand as now that's not your experience my crime if I've committed any offense at all has been in standing up to say
077hey I'm open to this and I'm willing to hear about your experience and holy moly we've heard experiences I believe the voice I believe that a vote to silence me tonight first of all would be to deny me my First Amendment right to speak out about what is my opinion never once have I stated anything that this has been a board opinion never once have I tried to at any point violate board policy but none of us give up that ride and if you vote to take away my First Amendment right it's a vote to take away your First Amendment right as well um I've upheld these ethical standards very closely as I've shown however the other tragedy would be that by deciding to silence my vote tonight would be a vote against listening to
078those very voices and ultimately a vote against the kind of inclusion and diversity at a time when our children and our community need hope we've each received an email against the names that said we should never change things because of 15 percent of the population that was an email we received so let's think about that if we if the number of people affected by an issue should equal the weight their voice is given and if we shouldn't give Credence to something that would only impact 15 percent of population then let's do away with the American Disabilities Act 15 of the population but see that's that's not how it works that's the difference between equality and Equity that Dr Cleveland so eloquently shared with us a few weeks ago this is about quality this is about
079Equity this is about making sure that each voice is heard was it the smartest thing to be so transparent and out in front with my personal opinions probably not but I firmly believe that our children and our community deserve courageous compassionate and inclusive leadership that considers those who are impacted and for those that are too fearful to stand up for themselves I ask you don't break us tonight be courageous and compassionate leader that steps up for the diversity and the inclusion and gives folks a voice we can disagree on this issue ultimately we may vote differently and that's okay but you and I represent differing voices in the community and all of those voices deserve to be represented here tonight that's thank you thank you trustee and and thank everyone for the presentations tonight board
080that completes the presentations as well as the rebuttal and closing comments made uh on behalf of both of the parties um Mr Hodgins yes if I may interject a point of order um we did not introduce and pull the board and I feel like we should possibly maybe should do that before we go any further sure let's go ahead and do that Madam president and okay just for clarity even though I announced that the five members were present let's clarify and before oh you deliberate and going uh uh let me uh ask each board member to introduce themselves and stayed in with all the different arguments presented whether they'll be able to uh fully consider the presentation and render their decision we'll start with you madam president uh my name is Jessica Woods serving as
081president of the Goose Creek Consolidated School Board I can hear and render a fair decision if they're an impartial decision thank you trustee Sampson can uh you consider the presentation and render a fair decision sir and would you introduce yourself for uh Howard Sampson secretary I can render a decision on what the uh any decision that we decide to make as a board tonight so you can render a fair decision thank you yes thank you forgot about Fair yes just clarifying there uh must be I can't see everybody so let's trust me all right this is uh Ben poppy vice president GCCISD board trustees I can render a fair decision [Music] and I'm Richard Clem I'm the assistant Secretary of the board and I can render Affair and impartial decisions thank you trustee Clinton and
082our final trustee unmute sorry [Music] check your button hello I'm sorry I'm Tiffany guy and I can render a fair decision thank you very much thank you for that clarification Madam president uh and and with that uh we are now at that stage in our treatments uh process and for the agreements that has been presented tonight by the complaints and response by trustee Cotter uh that has been completed at this juncture uh the board if you have some qualifying questions you'd like to ask the welcome to not required to all right if if I I hear none then at this juncture then the board without objection uh would like to delivering off the Record uh in closed session on these issues uh only with the board members and the boards legal council uh no action
083will be taken and then the president without objection the board will proceed into closed session under 551071074 uh for those purposes that be agreed Madam president yes so at this time 6 59 PM September the 9th 2020 the board will now proceed to close session deliberation with the attorney under 07 and 074. thank you yes I'm sorry I think you said that I didn't have to repeat right okay all right 071074 thank you very much thank you for uh the presentations tonight good evening it is now 8 21 p.m on Wednesday September 9 2020. we are back in Open Session and will now proceed to agenda item 4B consider level three grievance complaint regarding trustee Laredo and related actions under Goose Creek CISD board policy GF local trustee Cotter has recused himself from this hearing
084and will not be deliberating or voting on this matter several complaints have been filed against trustee Laredo related to the hearing tonight since all complaints are sufficiently similar in nature and in remedy sought the complaints are being Consolidated into this one hearing to include a group of complainants versus Augustine Laredo trustee Laredo each individual complaint and related supportive material has been made available to the board for review and consideration regarding tonight's hearing on behalf of the board I am asking our school attorney Mr David Hodgins to assist in facilitating this hearing and to serve as legal counsel and advisor to the Board of Trustees if either side has particular legal questions please direct them to Mr Hodgins on our behalf Mr Hodgins please proceed thank you madam president and board members and grieving to everyone
085present tonight the board's objective is to hear from the complainants as well as any response from trustee Laredo as the grievant the trustee has requested that this hearing be held in Open Session and so we're proceeding in that fashion this evening since the complainants initiated the proceeding they'll have the responsibility presenting their claims and to the board and any relief that they are seeking tonight trustee Laredo will be given an opportunity to respond the board has the final authority to make a decision on this matter and in doing so may decide facts and interpret implied board policies related to the concerns expressed uh I'd like to talk a little bit about the procedures for the hearing uh the hearing uh is not a trial not a court proceeding it's conducted as an administrative perceiving based
086on the individual complaints and related supportive material as well as any response by the trustee and this is pursuant to board policy GF local there are no strict rules of evidence to apply here this evening there's no cross-examination among uh the complainants or the trustee board members can if they elect to ask questions at the end of the presentation there's no questioning of of the board or a council in that regard but let's start with introductions if we can and and ask again the complaints again because we've just had a previous hearing but for purposes of this hearing who our complainants are if they would announce their names peace again I also have Brandon Terry with me on my on my laptop and then Miss Denise Graves is on her cell phone [Music] thank you
087Miss rice welcome to Terry Miss graves are there any other complainants I just want to correct for the record it is Mr rice just want to make sure that that is on the record thank you very much I just want to make sure it's on the record correct thank you I just I heard you and and um so Mr rice any other complainants Janet Hughes Miss Hughes welcome Miss Hughes any other complaints well thank you very much complaints and uh my understanding this y'all will be presenting uh tonight on behalf uh and we'll talk about timing here trustee Laredo you are or present tonight to present on behalf of yourself is that correct trustee hello can you hear me are you ready for me to proceed no I'm not not yet we're going to do
088a couple of of introductions additional okay thank you trustee um and let me go ahead and explain Jamie Foster is here oh but thank you Ms Foster is also uh present tonight is that one of the complaints that spoke Harvey Ponder I'm hearing you sorry Harvey Ponder and were you one of the original no sir okay well this is only for what we're asking for right now are the original complaints who are present over the hearing that we'll be presenting that's all in our style that's it okay uh thank you thank you very much and with respect to the uh hearing tonight the complaints will have uh 30 minutes to make their presentation to the board uh the 30-minute time along again will be divided among those complaints the original complaints who are present and
089presenting this evening they can reserve time uh if they elect to or share it how they would like to do so as a reminder during the presentation it's important to make sure and clarify what your complaints are and especially what remedy or relief you are specifically requesting with respect to this grievance this evening uh following the presentation uh trustee Laredo will have the opportunity to respond and provide information that he would like the board to consider in response he'll likewise have up to 30 minutes to make his presentation after the presentations are made or the complaints this evening will have an opportunity to provide a five-minute rebuttal or closing statement in trustee Laredo will have the same five minutes after that in order to provide an accurate record we are recording this proceeding tonight please
090be careful uh not to talk over each other if there happen to be a couple other folks on the laptop or in the room so that we can definitely hear uh and the board can hear clearly the presentations do speak loudly enough that of course it's clear along those lines and with respect to introductions I want to go ahead and take a moment before we get into the presentations themselves to ask each board member who is present to introduce themselves for the record at state if he or she is able uh to hear the presentation in her Fair decision so we'll uh we'll start uh with introduction Madam president if you would lead us off good evening my name is Jessica Woods president of Goose Creek CISD School Board of Trustees I can be fair
091and impartial in my decision tonight the president trustee Poppy I see you on the screen would you introduce yourself please you could make a fair decision this evening yes good evening my name is Ben poppy uh vice president GCCISD word of Trustees now I'm able to render a fair and impartial decision thanks for trusting Sampson would you please introduce yourself and state if you can make render a fair decision tonight name is Howard Sampson secretary I can make a fair and just a decision tonight thank you trustee Prestige Clan which self and state whether you can make a fair decision on tonight's uh proceeding sorry trustee I had control of hearing you for the record just to keep on restating that's because my button was pushed okay all right Richard Clem uh assistant secretary and
092I am able to render a fair and impartial decision tonight thank you trustee we have one final trustee render a fair decision tonight sure my name is Tiffany guy and I am able to render a fair decision thank you very much board members for your introductions and comments uh at this time we will now proceed uh presentation which by the complainants and I believe the share screen is operable it appears tricep that does seem to be working so that they'll have the ability to share from that and that will be granted in 30 minutes and which complaint will be uh will be leading off tonight this is Nicholas rice I will be starting first and then I'll be yelling to Grand and Terry all right so please proceed thank you very much sir hey good
093evening everyone and the first thing I want to mention is all of the evidence that is being presented tonight is on the safely public placement group the next thing I want to mention here is a letter that was sent to the board attorney that is saying that once the investigation and the decisions made tonight that plan to present findings to the Harris County attorney into the Texas Education we want to be referencing the uh board policy BBF local that trustee uh Laredo has violated and I'll be sharing evidence of how that uh how that is says I will be fair just and impartial in all my decisions and actions I'll encourage expressions of different opinions enlisted with an open mind to others ideas I will be responsive to the community by seeking its involvement in
094District Affairs and by communicating its priorities and concerns I will share My Views while working for consensus I'll base my decisions on fact rather than supposition opinion or public favor I will refuse to surrender judgment if any individual or group at the expense of the district as a whole and I'll be continuously Guided by what is best for our students of the district also represent the tasby social media guidelines for school board members that was published in April this year number four avoid posting content that indicates you have already formed an opinion on pending matters number five ask for Community input to provide the appropriate channels but do not allow your social network to direct your decisions as a trustee number nine immediately reports suspected illegal activities and harassing or defamatory Communications that involves school
095officials staff students or District business to the superintendent and number 10 realize that by using a personal account to conduct official School District business your account may become a public forum under the First Amendment I want to start off while by giving the board some history regarding trustee Laredo trustee Laredo was elected to the board in May 2006. that means he's been on the sport now for 14 years that means that trustee Laredo should be setting an example for the other board members and likely has received the most training that any of the other board members has received so in 2016 trustee Laredo participated in a interview where the naming of schools came up and trustee Laredo said in that interview we have Robert E Lee High School young slaves we have Rosa Sterling for
096a member of the KKK uh we had we're going to we were going to name Sam Houston Goose Creek Memorial um he said there was no way we're going to have another slave owner and he put I don't care well what he didn't yes he owned slaves for a while and he was tired of that so he also mentioned they didn't have a lot of African-American names yes we have Carver Elementary but that was because of the old George Washington Carver High School that was for a second grade high school at the time so back in 2007 he told the African-American uh board member at the time he kind of nudged at her and said hey make the motion to name it Victoria Walker now and I'll suck it and she goes what I said
097just make the motion so she made the motion and I seconded and the other board members are all caught up guard and they all voted yes and we got our first effort one of our first first local African-American hero teachers schools well that right there is a clear violation of the open meetings laws if he is at a public meeting and he is nudging over to a board member and telling her to do something or passing a note or whatever and also he also said the all board members voted yes that is incorrect it was a four to three vote so not all board members voted for that name so that was back in 2016 uh interview that he did the next interview that he did with a local radio station at the Tino politics
098of today with Tony Diaz on July 28th of this year first trustee Laredo in the advertisement for this um for this podcast as you can see on the screen use his official School District headshot that is posted on the board website so that may indicate that he is speaking as a board member and on behalf of the board trustee Laredo also at this um at the during this podcast was answered was introduced by the radio host as being of the Pres as being the president of the school board trustee Laredo failed to correct this information it is known that only the appointed board president may speak on behalf of the board and trustee Laredo did never say that he was speaking as an individual so one could believe that he was talking on behalf of
099the board so during this interview there was a dis with covid there was also some discussions regarding um the name change of Robert E Lee well trustee Laredo made statements that implied that he has already made a decision about the about renaming the school and we're going to show you that on the screen so trustee Laredo said that he believed that it was time for uh Lee High School to really re-renamed he said he said they keep asking when are you going to stop them when you change all that he said maybe if it's possible we're starting with Robert E Lee somebody asked me he said well he weren't that bad and I said you're trying to say he might have been a good man yeah he was a good man he knows in the
100Confederacy and then he talks about referring um to the Nazi party he also mentions other schools like Ross says Starling he says that this Ross Sterling was a member of the KKK he also referenced Ash Bell Smith and they're the Asheville Smith Indians trustee Laredo refers to that as a double whammy so it is clear in this podcast that trustee Laredo has already formed an opinion about changing the name he has already shown that his mind is made up he also talks about um the opposition he says that a large group wants to keep the name and that people think that just because their family's been here for 50 60 years that they should decide and try see Laredo goes into talking about his family's history in Baytown so the radio the podcast person asks
101when will this might come up on the agenda and he said that the earliest state that he saw was August 3rd and he said mention that the other side was getting a little frisky he also says that he's that he's been threatened along with another board member yeah Tracy Laredo has produced no evidence today that says that he has been threatened by anyone that concludes trusty laredo's um July 28th podcast trustee Laredo has also involved in several social media groups trustee Laredo is involved in the Instagram account that says makeley history as you can see among the 23 followers trustee Laredo a follower of that page that clearly wants to change the name trustee Laredo also posts on July 19th a post about doing the right thing but never doubt that he'll stand up and
102do the right thing for all and not a few trustee Laredo also did a an interview with NBC News and trustee Laredo says that he agrees that the current name hurts students and communities he says quote we're going to do the right thing because that's what we're about and we're about educating kids he said at least my opinions were not going to continue to perpetuate this kind of discrimination based on something that happened in high school this was an interview that trustee Laredo did with NBC News again clearly showing that he has already formed an opinion his mind has already been made up trusty Laredo as I mentioned is also a member of some several social media sites Tracy Laredo is in the unity alumni Facebook group again trustee Laredo is mentioned is um noted
103as a founding member of that group and trustee Laredo has made comments and posts in that group he's also made comments in another group that is the Baytown black ganders alumni and he he's commenting on a post that refers to a quote made by trustee Sampson on August 3rd it says until you quote until you walk in my shoes Mr Howard Sampson trustee Laredo said that hit my core thank you Howard Sampson for always fighting this was in this private Facebook group that nobody else has access to unless if they are a member and they have to be in order to be a member you have to be on their side so this is not a public forum where anybody can freely comment on trustee laredo's um position um I also want to reference a
104comment that was made earlier that trustees should not it's inappropriate for them to be um discussing or commenting on the grievance that that is exactly what trustee Laredo did just last night and a post in the unity alumni Facebook group which is in your which is in your binder he liked uh hit the like button on a few comments um one reference to how trustee Sampson got a pass or how they know that we can't win on the merits so that right there is shooting that trust Laredo is responding to the complaint that we made in this in this group on July the 10th I want to show you a post here this was made in the uh Baytown black ganders alumni group trustee Laredo said on July the 10th from what I understand we
105are going to see this on the August 3rd agenda we need a massive amount of letters to be sent to all the Board of Trustees and superintendent from here to then we also need people signing up to speak on the WebEx or the meeting on Monday July 13th as well as the third you can sign up now to speak with Miss noahman Garcia the board secretary as soon as today you can also ask your letters be read aloud during the meeting have to sign up otherwise the other side will the time is now everyone change is happening right there that proves that trusty Laredo has already formed an opinion by asking people to come join his side and to avoid the other side from signing up at this hearing and he also made a comment
106at a poster so amazing one prepared to speak early as Monday he put we won't know until the meeting but we need people to sign up Monday morning and if there are no slots left then please sign up for August the 3rd trustee Laredo has made similar comments on these groups and it clearly shows that he has already formed an opinion on the matter and I also want to talk about a few things on the timeline as you can see here that trustee Laredo um is used you can see on July the 1st he refers to the Farnsworth letter the former principal of Robert E Lee that was sent trustee Laredo is mentioned in that letter you can see on to uh July the 10th would you discuss the post on the private group promoting
107change of the name sign up for the meeting on July 13th trustee Laredo on his personal Facebook page encourage people to attend the meeting on July 19th a post that we discussed makes a post about doing the right thing we're also aware around July the 20th um where he was listed as the founding member of the unity group July 21st so I see Laredo promoted his podcast on Facebook um to the public July 28th you can see trustee Laredo record the radio interview again he was introduced as the board president he didn't correct that statement same day the radio interview was published online so all of these podcasts all these social media posts clearly show that trustee Laredo will be fair cannot be fair just and impartial in all my decisions and actions and as
108we discussed trustee Laredo made false statements it says in their policy I will tell the truth there were some instances that trustee Laredo did not tell the truth okay and I thank you for your time at this time I'm going to pass it over to Brandon Terry thank you and we're going to leave this screen share on for Ken and Terry okay well as I'm going through this timeline I just want to make it clear that a school board member May voice their opinion publicly board president is the spokesperson board president uh board members from talking about school management should clarify their statement reflect their own views not necessarily the official position of the board again avoid posting content uh content that indicates that you've already formed an opinion on pending matters and as this
109timeline shows how this all gets ramped up uh the initial six six gen six there's already talk about name change and they know this is a pending agenda matter coming up um there's also uh uh due to this page being private and that it's geared to one side of a very emotional agenda item trustee Laredo is not getting the opinion of the people he represents in my opinion he's deflect uh deleting my what my view is on the subject he is constituted an explicit policy that discriminated against users based on viewpoint also uh and the black alumni group uh both trustee Carter and trusty Laredo were tagged in a private Zoom meeting the night before a board meeting and again as noted previously by Nick this is one of our more experienced board members he
110should know better this was a clear violation again uh conduct yourself online at a manner that reflects well on the district I have to I can't even be in on the NPR interview where he he Compares our founders to Nazis and he represents all of us here and he reflected poorly on our community and again another violation uh members of the on the unity page are using obscenities that are vulgar uh that contain defamatory statements contain hate speech and scrimmlessly attack ethnic or racial groups contain content aimed at creating hostility and or violence also I want to comment about the 15-day period wasn't even a week after the NPR interview I contacted the superintendent's office and I I also emailed the superintendent and Jessica woods and asked them to condemn his hate speech and I
111was told by the communications director they had not even listened to the interview I don't know what kind of leadership we have but that is unacceptable it should have been condemned when approached by a member of the group with a concern the board members should direct that person to an appropriate administrator foreign okay sure thank you here's another Unity attack Orlando Laura the task that may be overlooked right now is the work of reaching out to Pacific Swing Vote board members and asking for group meetings with them to see what it would take to persuade them to vote yes that would best be coordinated with the different alumni groups no no member is giving them easy out to vote no or keep delaying of course these could be respectful conversations that the different groups would
112need to be on the same page in terms when it's being asked for sneaky board members will uh will try to use these as opportunities to confuse and divide play the victim get undeserved sympathy Etc on the issue Facebook does seem to be concerned about entity spreading false information and it is worth it to identify and kick out trolls in this community but not go too overboard with it to where everyone becomes suspect foreign [Music] I believe we've already proven tonight that trustee Carter should recruse his vote I'm sorry that's not relevant we're just a trustee Laredo tonight sir please any consideration timeline at the end of each board meeting where he was violating Oma laws everything that we posted tonight is available on the save Lee site I would like to yield back my
113time thank you Mr chair there are it's uh about nine minutes left who would like to pursue any other complaint would like to address the board [Music] okay and that's going to conclude our opening arguments and we'll defer until rebutton thank you very much thank you the complaints uh have concluded their main presentation subject to their rebuttal and closing statement opportunity as such at this time uh we will turn to a response by trustee Laredo regarding uh the issues uh and remedy requested tonight trustee are you let me go ahead and stop and reset are you prepared I am can I go ahead and start okay thank you it's a little hard to follow what they're what they're trying to say I'm sorry I I'm trying my best um in regards to what what they're
114talking about I know that before I get started on what I do want to say and I have 30 minutes I'm gonna use some of that time and just some notes that I've been talking about that I've heard one of the things that that uh upsets me a little bit in regards to this issue is the bully tactics that this group has used um especially when it comes to attacking uh personas um and one other com in one of the post uh they used uh in addition to making fun of my my lack of hair follicles they uh and said that uh maybe I don't know what they meant by making my hair grow back and call me a turkey I think that the one of the things that most upset me of this because
115I'm I teach high school and and one of the things that most upset me in in regards to the way that they express themselves about people is is they use the homophobic comment they call me a fruitcake in one of their in one other posts and and it kind of disappoints me a little bit because as adults those aren't things you make jokes about and especially if you make jokes about people that have been marginalized historically uh this includes minorities this includes people of their lgbtq Plus and apparently nobody thinks twice about those comments you know I have a little bit of an issue with the grievance procedure I've read GF local uh the legality of of trying to gag uh board members vote but I'll get that into a minute into a little bit
116and including some of the new material today um quite honestly um I'm actually thankful that that you guys were able to provide this book for us today with the transcripts today because there is a there's something here that when we do go to rebuttal I have a couple of comments to say about that but let me go ahead and just start my statement my statement won't be near as long as Mr Carter's my statement's gonna be uh quite a bit shorter um I want to start off by saying that I am disappointed in the process that I and another school board member are being put through due to the situation while I understand the why I cannot understand the justification these people are accusing me of violating an Ethics policy that does not exist because
117we live in a country where where we are allowed free speech and why they believe that they may enjoy their privilege they think that others do not that do not agree with them should not the Constitutions for all not just for a few they have tried to contact my job and when that and when that did not silence me they tried a tea and then they said I did nothing wrong and they wanted and if they wanted to continue with this route the only recourse was the local ISD it is here where they found some ground the district that I have unselfishly served for 14 years is where they found voice they accused me of not being allowed to speak my mind and that I am biased we're all biased because we're human I have
118never expressed my opinion on any social media platform they claim the fact that I am a founding member of a Facebook group makes me the owner of the page that is simply not true all that means is that I was added to that group the day it started originally I was put down as an administrator but I quickly told them to please remove me as an administrator I did not think this was fair in order to remain open to comments I intended to join their page but instead of accepting me they ridiculed me on one of their posts on the say Robert E Lee group currently I'm also a member of the Baytown historical preservation Society page the organization that Ms Holland is in charge of I've been a member of that group for many
119years in fact I've given money to their fundraisers in the past as a way to support local history in the area but of course that's never mentioned and none of these posts have I ever written my personal opinion on the renaming of the school all I have done is answer general questions their concerns over a post embalming my language I believe I said something to the effect of take a gander at this in fact the post was post was the picture of the young African men in Chains is supposed to disregards to and it's in regards to the evils of slavery and where it is and where it says how slaves were treated by their owners and it ends with the young black man in Chains I have seen the article Mr where Mr Terry
120omitted the most important part of that post in his interview in fact the fact that children and families suffered under slavery nonetheless nothing of the name change was mentioned on that post on my personal Facebook page it was deeply disturbed by that Mr Terry that you would not take the chance to explain to people what that post is about but I think people have gone into my Facebook enough because it's completely open there is nothing closed about my Facebook page to be able to know what that Facebook page was about perhaps this is par for the course for what some of the people who frequent this page think while I understand that the vast majority of members of this group are good people who are just passionate about their alma mater I cannot condone some
121of the comments that have been connected with these posts some of the members and have made comments in other Pages comparing Kamala Harris to Aunt Jemima yet I've never tried to suppress their ability to have their voice no matter how inappropriate it may be I understand that the people who are here may have not made those comments but it is a blaring example of how it is tolerable for them to allow some type of hurtful and hate filled speech to be okay but my post on the treatment of black men women and children is seen as obscene and repulsive in fact the only two times I have publicly said anything about this issue has been on the radio interview for which I was invited to be on and was presented as board president because the
122gentleman in charge of the show simply took it off the website which had not been updated when we began speaking I thought so little of what it of of the idea of correcting him at that moment that it slipped my mind to correct them later I believe then as I do now that speaking on schools and covid-19 is much more important in that interview I said a few things including that it should not be up to only a group of people who graduated 40 50 60 years ago let me repeat that for clarity not only up to them no I did not say that they did not matter another thing I mentioned in that interview was that the Confederacy was comparable to the Nazi party because both groups were guilty of committing cultural and physical
123genocide of a group of innocent people during the course of the interview I do make reference I believe twice to the fact that I was speaking for myself and not for the board the second time I was I was asked about this issue was on the NBC Latino article that appeared two weeks ago once again I was I mentioned that I was speaking only for myself one of the members of the group also spoke to the one of the members of their group also spoke to the reporter and was quoted as saying most of them haven't even read our American history blacks this black lives matter all they want to do is tear up stuff and then she says I'm not racist at all and I have intelligent black friends while simultaneously claiming that instead
124of getting a job black people steal Rob bust into stuff and sell it how convenient that we are sitting here determining whether I spoke out of term by speaking about changing the name of a building while never speaking negatively about anyone but they have no issue with this no issue with this kind of rhetoric I am dumbfounded at this last digit this last-ditch effort that they had to download a form shows that they had no course of complaint based on their words instead these good people who I understand wanted to step up for what they believe in were used by someone with a Google doc just as they have the right to express themselves I do also did anyone bother to tell them that the suggested polish from tasby suggested policy the practice says I
125cannot have an opinion on matters of personnel this is not a matter of personnel the attorneys listened to the show I broke no policies I broke no laws I did no wrong this was a large ditch effort by a group of people who have never even bothered to have a conversation with me but instead went on the attack initially going as far as talking negatively about my children stating how heavy they would have to live in shame for the rest of their lives I realized that most of these people did not do that but I feel they were put up to the task by by this group doing this now at the end of the day it comes down to one thing I have the constitutional right given to me by the First Amendment to
126free speech I'm not yelling fire in a theater I'm not spreading hate I have simply given my opinion on the historically proven facts of the Confederacy and Robert E Lee the most disappointing part of this whole charade is not even that they're excuse me not even that they're trying to gag my right to vote but who else they are attempting to gag my constituents this is what truly and actually angers me how dare they try to quiet down my constituents my district which is predominantly prominently Latino and African-American and in addition to having some strong parts that are low social economic have the same right to democratically elect someone who will represent them in these types of matters it's called a republic that is our school policy I swear to uphold the laws of the
127Constitution when I took office and yet here I am fighting to for to retain my sworn Duty this is America my constituents have a voice just because someone does not agree with you does not mean you take away their voice and this group has attempted exactly that my duty as an elected official is very sacred to me because I represent my community I have talked to many many people over this issue that sit on both sides and the majority say to change the name these bully tactics of attempting to silence a group of people who have historically been made to be quiet cannot be tolerated we have improved as a country we are better and we must respect the laws that govern the United States thank you thank you trustee Laredo for your presentation um
128I take it that concludes your presentation uh and therefore we will now proceed to the five minute uh closing statement or rebuttal remarks and we will return to uh the complainants at this time for whoever would elect to uh proceed on that we will commit uh for five minutes so with that Miss graves will that be you or will there be someone else to present okay Mr Hodgins it appears to be just myself okay then you may proceed we'll go ahead and start the clock please proceed thank you okay trustee Laredo you two is a member of the board executed an oath that you would withhold excuse me that you would Faithfully execute the duties of your office within the state of Texas and that you would be the best of your ability to preserve
129protect and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States we believe you have violated this oath as previously stated and enumerated you have committed repeated violations of board policy on board member ethics you are a CO -founder or not you are part of unity alumni alumni black alumni and other groups that are strictly private groups and express no other opinion but the opinion of changing the name because you don't want to hear nobody wants to hear leave it alone on a public group that's now private if you're against or undecided you were removed or deleted in violation of a First Amendment right that goes both ways by censoring those who don't agree with you this is not indicative of listening with an open mind you have made up your mind and you're not
130listening to the very people you should be listening to but to Outsiders people who no longer live here never lived here and most importantly do not pay their taxes here you were voted on this board by citizens of GCCISD and why you were voted on by districts you were represent the entire GCCISD taxpayers regardless of their districts again not people in California Houston or Deer Park this is our community our tax dollars not set Outsiders sure they can have an opinion everyone is entitled to one but they don't get a voice on how our money is spent you have allowed attacks against the board president and superintendent we're not aware of if you've reported it you're wanting to we're wanting to preserve our history and that's not being racist or a Nazi you have expressed
131your opinion in numerous interviews your position is no none other than to change the name you have my own accounts you represented yourself as a president you could have done the ethical thing and corrected it you just didn't want to you chose not to and you gave yourself a position of power that you no longer possess and the appearance that you were speaking on behalf of the board you have stated in another interview we always work for the community are you working for us now you have stated that one of your proudest moments as a board member was nudging that fellow board member tell them to make a motion a motion that you told and reported was unanimous when in fact it was a four to three vote which is not a unanimous that must
132be that new math because old school math says that's just a majority you continually acknowledge comments on Facebook which indicate that you are biased your mind is made up there's no if ands or buts about it and like your fellow trustee Cotter these points and actions imply that you have violated the open meetings act 551.102 and 551.55 1.143 often referred to as a walking Quorum which is also a criminal offense with fine incarceration or both as members of the board you go to training I'm just and taxpayers pay for this training are y'all really getting the full benefit of these training sessions your actions and interviews show an extreme bias on the issue of renaming Robert E Lee High School as well as other District facilities your attitude comes across as arrogant and it's my
133way or the highway you are not speaking on behalf of our community when you go into your interviews you are only speaking for yourself I'm not even saying this majority you mentioned because most of your majority just Outsiders people that don't pay taxes here your further actions show that along with board policies you're ignoring the Texas Education Code as well as article 8 of the Texas Constitution you have to realize that by using a personal account to conduct official School District business your account may become a public forum under the First Amendment and therefore both sides should be heard I believe go ahead I believe the current remedy is for you to recuse yourself from any actions relating to the renaming of Robert E Lee or a committee to investigate the need for renaming District
134facilities on the basis of your extreme bias on this issue you could also ask you to relieve yourself of your duties based on board policy and time and provide your resignation thank you Ms Graves that concludes the complainants of rebuttal remarks uh in closing remarks then we will now turn to trustee Laredo for his five minutes of rebuttal and or closing statement uh trustee Laredo are you ready to proceed yes I am thank you thank you I'm going to take these uh I guess I'll go start with Mr rice and what he was mentioning um you talked about setting the example uh I've said I set the example I have children I have my neighbors children's I am a teacher I set the example by standing up for what I believe is right there's nobody
135pressuring me nobody putting words in my mouth everything I say comes from me I'm open enough to people to come find me I will say this several times in this rebuttal my Facebook is open I don't need to go and go behind a save Robert E Lee a Unity a black or latinx page to hide and sit there I don't hide behind anything you want to find me every social platform is open my phone number is not hard to find it's it's on my Facebook so to sit there and say that I don't set the example that I'm I'm running away from this or there's no running away nothing of mine is more open than the way of getting to me he talked about the 2016 interview where I nudged Miss Barnes to make a
136motion yes I did I did because there was no established there was we were going nowhere fast and I thought and I was sitting extra said hey if you're going to make the motion make it now and she made it and I seconded uh to my best recall it was seven over but it's been a few years I've I've slept a few days since then I'm pretty sure it was more than a 43 vote but we'll keep it at a 4-3 vote I'll have to look up to that um you also mentioned that when you try to tell me that my comments on Facebook but then you said I put a like on a comment I don't understand how a like me is this same as a comment to push the little Thumbs Up Button
137same as a comment Mr Terry you talked about reflecting your own views and and what was done on the radio and that I'm I'm not showing that I'm picking my own personal opinion I want to thank you guys seriously for providing this transcript of this radio interview because I found two instances while y'all were going off and hitting pause on your on your explanations there and I'll read you one of them honestly the school board I can't speak for any other of my board members I know there's there's one and there's but my for my fellow four four members and I talked about Shea Cotter but at that point and then there's one in the back right behind it where it says my personal opinion is I have never spoken for anybody other board member
138trust me they don't need me to speak for them they're more than capable of Defending themselves and you talked about me being invited or being tagged on a private Zoom how do I get control what people tag me and attack me or don't I was not at that Zoom I don't know what was it set at that Zoom I was tagged in the zoom I guess but I was not at that Zoom Sundays I don't have any meetings I spend the day with my family he talked about our Founders our Nazis are not that I compared to our Founders to Nazis the Confederacy is not our founding fathers you need to go back about another 100 years to figure out who that is and I didn't make any any statements on any of the pages
139that when in regards to say Robert E Lee because I was not allowed in I told you earlier that I was I'm on Miss Miss Hollins preservation page and I have been for a bunch of years I don't people add me on pages and I get on pages from everything from school board stuff to my my soccer team to Pokemon because if people buy me the pages and short of them being questionable on ethics which seeing some of the comments that y'all made on your page I'm kind of glad I didn't get on there I'm not gonna I'm gonna join them it's a way a lot of times it's my friends or my constituents or my neighbors inviting me to be a part of something and I've always been about my community Miss grave you
140said that I swore to uphold the Constitution I told you that I swore to uphold our constitution we live in a republic where I make decisions based because I was democratically elected and most of the people I've talked to have told me they want the name changed first amendment I have one minute okay thank you um once again I don't understand what your definition is a walking Quorum is because a walking Quorum is not committed and I just would like to remind the board that they are trying to circumvent the will of people you cannot hush people down we have we are following a process short of me having some more some sort of mental deficiency which I'm sure is going to be out there in a few minutes or me committing a major crime
141a felony you physically cannot ask me to step down from my position it is something that I've done very proudly for 14 years and will continue to do so until I think it is time thank you trustee that concludes uh the rebuttal and closing statement by uh degree by trustee Laredo so at this at this juncture then the presentations including closing remarks and it's now a time for the board if the board has any particular clarifying questions of either side or members you're welcome to ask them not required to but two are there any clarifying questions before we proceed to deliberations Mr I didn't get a blue binder and I don't know um all the details but is there any way that Mr rice can share the timeline that he had up on the screen
142before that he was referring to yes and I would I would say complains Mr rice the uh there were some blue binders in the previous um grievance are there other other information to be that you've referenced that well I don't I don't know if that that page was in the blue binder or not I don't we only had five and I shared mine Miss Woods that was not provided in the blue binder but I'm happy to share my screen again and I'll tell you but it is in the Google Drive that was posted on the slavery group I'm happy and shared with them previously earlier today I'm happy to share my screen again if you'd like to see me is it in the Google Drive that was in the email grievance that is correct Miss
143Woods okay well I think what we're trying to clarify Mr Ross is is if the the timeline was I mean exclusively presented to the school district uh for purposes of this hearing you could email it I think he was saying that it is in the Google Drive that we were emailed but there's not a physical print copy okay that if you go back it was that was the one I was referring to asking about a president you were asking about the the timeline piece yeah Mr Ross thank you for you had it there a second ago yeah bottom left [Music] it is in there it's also the main evidence I think that was sent to you with the complaint Okay so um on its shows here on 7 1 2020 uh Laredo used that in
144the article what article is that referring to because I don't see that that's on the Google drive over here [Music] okay which one uh seven one twenty twenty go ahead met a president it says Laredo and then it says Farnsworth letter Laredo used that in the article and I'm not sure what article you're referring to and there's no link to the right if I if I see that word is referring to the letter that Farnsworth wrote okay but it says Laredo used that in the article I don't know what article you're referring to foreign [Music] it's just an article is it a meme or an article uh the one uh the take a gander oh no oh but I did that's funny and accelerator so my question was all right so my question is you're
145referring to Farnsworth letter on 7-1 2020. and then it says Laredo use that in the article dates don't add up so I'm asking I don't we don't know where the link is currently right now miss Woods but we will try to update it okay is that all you needed any other questions Madam president board members have a a question at this time [Music] okay uh as such now the board has uh heard the full uh grievance presentations in the board with that objection would like to deliberate off the Record in closed session on these issues alone uh with the board's legal counsel and no act no action will be taken in the in the private close section session so uh Madam president the recommendation is without objection the board will now proceed to closed session
146under 551.071 and 551.074 is that agreed Madam president yes sir that is agreed we will now proceed to closed session under 551.071 and 074 you may stop the video recording we are recessed The Time Is Now 10 12 P.M September 9 2020 and we will reconvene into Open session at this time we will move to uh agenda item number four action items action item 4A consider level 3 grievance complaint regarding trustee Cotter and related actions do I hear a motion [Music] unmute okay can you hear me Madam president I move that the board denied the complaint and any relief requested but further move that the entire Goose Creek CISD Board of Trustees receive legal training regarding social media Communications and the First Amendment [Music] I have a motion on the floor do I have a
147second [Music] I'll second that motion I have a second I have a motion by Mrs guy and a second by Mr Clem is there any uh question or conversation concerning motion on the floor hearing no discussion all in favor of the motion presented please raise your right hand or say I was it I Mr Samson okay any against said motion any abstentions are you refused okay three abstentions we have four well Madam president if I may the only this is Mr Hodgins the only the only uh trustees eligible to vote on this item are the five trustees that heard the Grievous hearing okay so would they not be abstaining from the vote no okay they were not involved in the vote as you declared earlier in the grievance they were they recused themselves from the
148matter so they're not even a recorded vote okay it's the only members voting and if you wouldn't mind you know yeah stating what that total is for those five or or maybe just re-clarifying from each of those five this is only limited to the five that heard the agreements yes sir so we have four for the motion one abstention zero against [Music] moving to action item 4B and could you note just for the record since we're also uh who the abstention was okay the abstention was trustee Jessica Woods thank you all right moving to action item 4B consider level three grievance complaint regarding trustee Laredo and related actions do I have a motion president Woods I move that the board did not need to complaint and any relief requested but further move that the entire
149Goose Creek CISD border trustees received legal training regarding social media Communications and the First Amendment I have a motion on the floor do I have a second I'll second I have a motion by Mr Poppy and a second by Mr Clem [Music] as presented are there any discussions or questions on the motion hearing none all in favor of a said motion please raise your right hand or say I I [Music] any against the motion please raise your right hand or say I any abstentions by abstain so we have four for the motion four Trustees for the motion zero against and one abstention for the record Jessica Woods abstains [Music] all right so now we will move to agenda item number five opening exercises and I'm going to turn it to you Dr O'Brien for opening
150exercises do we have anything on the agenda at this time any pledge or prayer too late Mr Sampson did you say you would leave us in pledge and prayer [Music] okay so we'll move on to agenda item six citizens participation um at this time on our agenda citizens participation which I don't have a script for Miss Garcia but I I do know that we're going to I would like to make mention that the board received written submissions through the web portal for public participation these were provided to the board in [Music] that earlier today and Madam president pursuant to the procedures those were those were in lieu of a of a appearance of speaking here tonight correct they were in lieu of a public appearance yes so um these these written submissions were in lieu
151of public appearance via video conference or telecommunication and these emails were provided in print format to each board member electronically and printed um prior to tonight's meeting prior to tonight's agenda consideration there was a total of 44 emails asked to be considered by the board before taking any action on the agenda tonight and I would declare that all emails were provided for the board to consider prior to tonight's agenda consideration in addition to these 44 emails as written submission we also have the option of signing up to speak via video conference and I will turn that over to Mr Matt flood who is the guru and can unmute you uh if you would if you would uh mention first to us Mr flood how many do we have signed up to speak in public participation
152we currently have about 60 individuals about 60 individuals that signed up prior to the deadline we had 75 and some of those have backed out and so we're down to around 60. okay roughly so I'm going to turn it over to you to queue them up for us and allow them their one minute secretary Samson are you um ready to time keep for our speakers so speakers will be allowed one minute to speak on agenda items or items not on the agenda that wish to be brought before the board no action can be taken on any items spoken about that are not related to agenda items tonight but we will hear all public participation comments via video conference uh registration so Mr Sampson will give you a 30-second warning but you will have one minute
153and he will notify you when your time is expired so back to you Mr flood all right our first speaker is Cynthia Pizano you're now unmuted hi my name is [Music] of schools class of 2014. um I just I'll get straight to the point it's time to change this name it's trying to change the name of Robert E Lee High School uh it's not the time uh to delay this decision by forming a committee uh the people of Baytown past and present are watching you and your vote tonight you'd be surprised how many of the students that you serve are watching this live stream at the moment right now um changing this name of the school uh named after this confederate general is an overall block look for the City of Baytown and also a
154bad look for you um should you vote against this item um thank you for your time that is all foreign Mr flood if you'll cue the next speaker [Music] next speaker is Susan Cummings Miss Cummings you're now unmute [Music] Miss Cummings I'm sorry can you hear me now yes ma'am okay thank you I'll be brief I just want to say that I uh I agree with Mrs paisana we do need to change this name we do need to come into the 21st century this is not erasing history this is reflecting correct history and there's no way we can take away the amazing uh memories that people have of their time at Robert E Lee High School that lives in your heart and Minds what we will be doing is making a better place for students
155to learn thank you thank you Miss Cummings Mr flood our next speaker my next speaker is Randy Dunn and you're on here twice I'm going to unmute both I'm not sure can you hear me yes go ahead history tells us the name of Robert E Lee High School is essentially chosen by the powerful Goose Creek Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s during the Jim Crow era as an intentional symbol of white supremacy comprehensive General bigotry and hate so that people who were not white and other minorities would feel unwelcome at the new whites only segregated School those who want to perpetuate the intentionally racist oppressive name of the school can no longer claim innocent ignorance as we all now know the malevolent history of that school name a symbol of hate long used by the
156KKK and other white supremacist groups the school needs an honorable new name that respects all people eliminating the oppression humiliation and disenfranchisement by large segments of the student population and Community black students matter black education matters use your power to improve education in Baytown for all students by changing the school name thank you thank you Mr Dunn our next speaker Mr flood Victoria Marin is our next speaker she's now immune can you all hear me now yes ma'am okay thank you good evening Dr O'Brien and board members I'm not an outsider but a lifelong baytonian my heart weighs very heavily as I know many of yours does as well the action you take tonight will set much precedent and we'll leave some feeling of a sense of Brokenness and the dehumanizing language the false accusations
157the public comments of wantings to set individuals on fire wishing quote the guy speaking that says it makes him physically ill will ask God to take him end quote and attempt to have people lose their job has caused Great damage all of that behavior is a result of discomfort and change rooted and structural racism power dominant identity and privilege no matter how you look at it as a leader of the Baytown Coalition for change we care deeply about this community and pray this division that has been rooted in this community be repaired anything around the Confederacy and racism often elicit defensiveness and overall pain discomfort for most people Robin D'Angelo States the key to moving forward is what we do with our discomfort please consider your own social positionality and how it informs your perspective
158and reactions is avoiding discomfort seeking to elude conflict and wanting to be like more important than standing against threats in the negative acts we've witnessed please stand true to your moral compass thank you [Music] thank you Miss Marvel okay Mr flood our next speaker our next speaker is Amanda Talent you're now unmuted hi can you hear me yes ma'am perfect hi I'm Amanda Talent I'm a proud alumni of Lee High School class of 2013. I graduated as a valedictorian was Varsity Cheer co-captain and tonight I'm speaking in support of renaming Lee High School I urge board members to vote for renaming tonight let's move the community forward and finally stop honoring the hateful and harmful symbols of the Confederacy the time is now to face the uncomfortable revised history we were taught so that students
159don't have to be reminded of the confederacy's Legacy each day please do not wait for every baytonian to catch on and catch up the school should serve its students above all not a name that twists our dark past as history worth celebrating racism is perpetuated by people who refuse to acknowledge its reality you have the choice time thank you Miss Talent [Music] foreign our next speaker Mr flood [Music] our next speaker is ginny Grimsley and muted Jenny Grimsley and I'm a 1985 alumni of Lee High School and I live in Tallahassee Florida I speak again for all those who've been quieted by the intimidation and harassment that's taken place by those opposed to changing the name of the high school it has been rabid and cruel it is telling we hope that you're ability to
160others will lead you to in this Vote many on the opposition side have stated that the racism that grows under the name of Robert E Lee is over and done now yet the ad for the rally head and held at the high school just last Saturday has to state and quote and I quote no references to the Confederacy the Confederate Battle Flag slavery or race of them should be on signs or T-shirts if the school was Baytown high school for instance there would be no need to tell people not to bring racism and systematic oppression into its activities it is the right thing to do for all past present and future students at our school and for the healing self change this name please thank you oh thank you Miss Grimsley oh okay I guess
161oh every time our next speaker is Rebecca Brown you're now unmuted hi um I'm a resident of Baytown and I'm asking the board uh to remember that we have a high unemployment rate here people are losing their homes they're being evicted and the amount of money spent on changing names is I've seen please vote no uh the money can you can remain neutral and vote no as you have fiduciary duty to the Financial Health of this District we're in debt it's not Magic Money the restaurants we're gonna have to pay this back and foremost your fiduciary duty to education hundreds of thousands of dollars that will not raise one test score oh it will not buy one school bus it will not buy a brake pad for a school bus it will not give a
162teacher a raise we we need to vote no just on the financial aspect alone thank you for your time have a good night thank you Mrs Brown Mr flood our next speaker our next speaker is Yer Soto you're not limited hello good evening trustees I'm a Baytown tax paying resident Any teacher in the district I hope you read an email I previously sent to you I want to express my full support for the name change of Robert E Lee High School Robert E Lee was not an honorable man and while removing the name one eradicate racism it will serve as an example to our students that we care about each and every one of them a quick check of Baytown demographics will reveal that it's diverse 35 Hispanic 35 white 16 black in other races
163the opposing organized group is comprised of mainly one demographic and therefore it's not representative of all of our community please do the right thing and make all students feel welcomed thank you foreign thank you Mr Soto but thank you here yes we hear you Howard [Laughter] wasn't sure my next speaker is Ruth Henderson you're now unmuted can you hear me yes ma'am I'll begin I'm not politically motivated nor do I engage in social media I'm speaking as an advocate for some of my students at Robert the Italy high school students who believe if they speak for themselves they would be judged by people adversely and it would be perceived as disrespectful agitation students are offended by the name Robert E Lee because it is used by some to represent that the Confederate South will rise
164again these students are self-actualized enough to feel offended and wounded by the inference of naming a school after the confederation of our country's most divisive War in closing I would like to respectfully ask the board to consider renaming the school after the beautiful City of Baytown and preserving history in baytown's Historical Museum students could be giving given the ability and honor to raise the funds for this project themselves I thank the school board for your service and your student and your steadfast commitment to the development of the whole child I yield the floor thank you Mrs Henderson our next speaker please my next speaker is Lillian sockwell you're now unmuted Dr Randy O'Brien School Board trustees in regards to the Robert E Lee name change it is apparent focus of changing the name is a
165political one I will say to those board members that are set on changing the name of our district facilities if you would like to be a political activist resign and go be your political activist sit on the GCCISD school board and push your personal biased agendas that have no place in our district you were elected by the people of this community to speak for the majority and not a select few voting against the desires of the majority goes against everything you agreed to when taking your seats like what the majority of this community feels is right but that does not mean you get to ignore us that is the exact definition of abuse of power the best decision at this time would be to allow there to be a committee to gather all the facts
166and then put it to a vote so the community can get an informed educated decision please vote Yes to agenda item 90 and vote no to agenda item 9e thank you for your time foreign thank you Miss sockwell Mr flood our next speaker my next speaker is Sarah Graham you're now unmuted hi guys it's Sarah Graham um I just wanted to tell you no more experts no more stories no more fact checking I work at Lee High School and I am begging y'all right now to vote Yes for the committee and no to real name change temporarily I need you to listen to me please allow the community the time to calm down put the name change on a ballot Baytown is only 38.7 percent white if it's truly a systemic racism issue then the
16761 minority majority will vote and the name Will Change without all this divisive 30 seconds you all did a terrible job of keeping Peace during a very hectic time right now I'm teaching at Google Classroom high and my son is attending Google Classroom Junior High I am a mother of a multi-racial black latino culture child and I am telling you yes to a committee and no to the name change just for now until the community can calm down please thank you all very much thank you Miss Graham our next speaker Mr flood my next speaker is Terry Stevens you're now unmuted good evening hi can you hear me yes ma'am all right thank you so much I know this has been a very long evening for all so I appreciate Dr O'Brien and the rest
168of the school board listening to me Robert E Lee has been a part of my family for decades beginning with my father-in-law who graduated in the 30s and then fought in World War II for our country next my brother-in-law sister-in-law graduated in the 60s Lee grad had they not built Sterling my sister brother and I graduated in the 70s my nieces and nephews in the 80s and 90s my dad had the privilege of coaching the famous Robert E Lee ganders for 20 years when my mother cheered as proud as as our most loyal supporter 1967 I was a freshman the infancy of integration I recall students of all Races in all activities I went back and checked my yearbooks and found them thank you Miss Stevens Mr flood our next speaker please Johanna McKay is
169our next speaker and you're now unmuted good evening my name is [Music] such as prom graduation Senior Skip day and many more all because of covet not because of our school name is Robert E Lee and Robert E Lee's students have been murdered and classmates murdered a woman just a few weeks ago not far from Rob really when kids get mad at each other or even in the 80s and 90s or now is not because of property lien or that our school is named property I challenge you to leave the name of the school alone and focus the energy and money on helping students achieve the district Mission developing the whole child thank you foreign thank you Miss McKay Mr flood our next speaker our next speaker is Harvey Ponder here now unreaded we can
170hear you Mr Ponder yes ma'am we can hear you you can speak now yes George Washington Carver was born a slave he worked his way up through school and became one of the leading agricultural scientists in America because he cared about people wide earned black if you go down to Lee drive down to his Monument of the school honoring him and his work ethic right now today right this very minute you'll see his Monument covered in Poison Ivy and knee-high grass the bricks are falling off and the sign bearing his name leans against the base that's cool and money were built 30 seconds oh men are to treat other men it was built in tribute to a former slave who worked his tail off for America and this school board allows it to be in
171such disrepair it is unrecognizable from the road whatever happened to looking at a man's character instead of the color of his skin thank you thank you Mr Ponder Mr flood our next speaker [Music] my next speaker is Alan Green you're now unmuted I'm a proud graduate of Robert E Lee High School class of 91. I loved my time there I loved everything about my high school experience but I I never loved the name of my high school the irony wasn't lost on me that I was attending an extremely integrated High School named after someone who literally fought a war to keep us all separated over the years as I was recalling some funny story from high school inevitably The Listener would say wait you went to a high school named after Robert E Lee a
172drug and smile and say yeah that's a thing in Texas well now here we are in 2020 we're the only school left in Texas that hasn't done a Robert E Lee name change 30 seconds and changing the name does not erase our history it changes how we choose to honor our history it's simply a case of when you know better you do better my senior year I was voted by the student body president as Mr Robert E Lee our homecoming King so there I was a tall black young man in shorts and a blazer holding a trophy that said Alan Greene is Mr Robert E Lee Robert E Lee would have been horrified at that image even though I was proud of it it's time to change the name of my high school Robert E
173Lee himself would want us to [Music] thank you Mr Green Mr flood our next speaker my next speaker is Cindy Foster you're now unmute can you hear me yes ma'am hi I'm Cindy Foster I'm 1976 graduate of property League changing the name of Broadway lead High School does not change history we will still have the fond memories and precious memorabilia of our time at least this is true but it also will do nothing to change the future because no matter what people would like to say to better suit their personal agendas our Robert E Lee High School has not is not divided races racism does not run rapidly in our league our teachers faculty and District as a whole do a wonderful job of teaching and implementing including a second the only thing the Chase
174Bank group has done is cause division among the community there are ones that introduce the exact issue that we are claiming that existed we didn't have this issue in 2014 when Lee was made a historical marker in fact many of the folks advocating for the change name spoke at the ceremony and worked tirelessly tirelessly behind the scenes to make the ceremony of success please vote Yes to the agenda item 90 once again thank you Miss Foster foreign if you introduce our next speaker our next speaker is Angel Brazil you're now unmuted hi um good evening trustees and Dr O'Brien you know to some of the citizens the name change it has nothing to do with history and it has more to do with the community being afforded a democratic process especially for a decision of
175this magnitude I believe everyone can tell by now where the majority of Baytown citizens lie on this issue we wanna and yes we did vote for you to speak on our behalf but I can promise you had we known you would vote on such a topic despite the community outcry to not do so without fully understanding the impact of such 30 seconds we would have never voted you in office the least you can do is allow the name to be changed after there has been sufficient Research into how much it is going to cost the taxpayers and and how many schools will be included which will increase the cost I mean we can change the name but can we not just do it responsibly I don't see why this decision needs to be made right
176now I don't see why we can't be responding possible and and understand the financial impact of it so please uh vote Yes on agenda item number do you know on agenda item 90. thank you very much thank you Miss Brazil Mr flood our next speaker please our next speaker is Kendall Merritt you're now unmuted hello yes do you hear me yes ma'am okay good evening members of the board my name is Kendall Merritt I'm a former student and an older sister to six other siblings in the district I'm also a recent graduate of the class of 2020. my senior year was filled with one tragedy after another we kicked the school year off of tropical storms and flooding a few other unexpected disasters and to kick it all off uh did you do and to
177kick it all off um was when covid-19 broke out this virus took away precious memories from me that I looked forward to my whole life there was no prom there was no senior Festival 30 seconds no more lost to raws and goodbyes to add to it my grandfather almost died of congestive heart failure and my three my three-year-old brother has become severely ill along with other tragedies this district's main focus should be on the students this unnecessary stress that the district is bringing upon themselves is purely their own fault it is deeply affecting the children I have siblings that have been rescued from troubled homes and it should be the district's priority to serve them and to set them up for success I have other siblings with mental physical and social disabilities that the district
178is not focusing on it has made me Furious time it is at The District's best interests that they reevaluate um thank you Miss Merritt Mr flood our next speaker please my next speaker is Edward Hildebrand you're now unmuted can you hear me yes sir the patrons of Goose Creek and the citizens of Baytown have overwhelmingly rejected name change this demand is a stalking horse for Jacobins Who hide behind locked computers and secretly plot to ignore the will of the people read for yourself their plans and their ad in the Baytown Sun you cannot however read their deliberations behind their locked and private Facebook changed and GoFundMe accounts there clearly have been several violations of board policies of the open meeting Act renaming Lee is not about a trustee's feelings or his rights but about the
179will of the people board listen to The Citizen and reject this tyranny of the majority of minority thank you for your attention thank you Mr Hildebrand Mr Matt flood our next speaker [Music] my next speaker is Jacqueline Marino you're now unmuted can you hear me yes good evening GCCISD school board members and Dr O'Brien my name is Joaquin Daniel and I am alumni of the soaring Gander class of 2020. I am present before you in support of the name change of the high school times are changing either we fall into the ignorance of the Southern sympathizers that have promoted or be Progressive through the change by bringing a positive light to this controversial name it is more than his name we cannot forget the Jews of the people who built it and name the schools
180near the times between 1896 to around 1937. the entire Confederate Memorial statues and schools were made to try to glorify the Confederacy who betrayed the United States of America I am happy to graduate from the school shadowed by the sins of a past of a mental inflict pain which still dangerous to this day as a Latino boy whose ancestors were told that they were too dumb to learn English graduating from a school named after a man who fought for white supremacy really proves that all the racist people of the past even though even of today who did everything in their power to oppress people of color they cannot and will not dominate us so now is the time to make it our own and put a name on a school that represents hard-working students of
181color and wake up every day in the underdog thank you our next speaker is Margaret Matthews you're now unmuted okay I want to know where's the data survey on racism we need a committee to have the resources to inquire have this data available to make any consideration on any drastic name change also it's very unethical that some members of the board have openly joined groups and discussed the name change from Robert E Lee and also donated money this is what happens when board members are arrogant and self-serving and paying Goose Creek policies do not pertain to them the community is asking for a vote on the ballot in May so the community as a whole can vote on the name change if there's not going to be a committee 30 seconds players as a whole
182not just a few the only racism is coming from the people that want the name change I'm offended of all their comments why do they hate a man that is not even alive I don't like Obama which makes a racist remarks on people do I want his name and race for the streets of science because he divided all people what about the ones they love all not just some y'all just keep listening to people that just bring hate into this community and I'm sick of it because people are sitting down there laughing at her on the board things they can do and everything that they want to do and don't even give anybody a voice I'm sick of it y'all need to stop it foreign thank you Miss Matthews Mr flood our next speaker my
183next speaker is Katia Smith you're now on mute hi my name is Katya Smith I tend at Robert E Lee High School in my opinion because we are so wrapped up on the name Arielle High School I was unable to call in for my first day as a sophomore the fact I have to add spend the last of my freshman year virtual was hard but I was told this year it would be different knowing this and being unable to go to school has made me very stressed and left my imagine imagination to wonder if I would be able to catch up in time being so focused on the name 30 seconds has caused a major setback for me and a few other students I miss going back to school and I wish that we could
184settle this matter quickly so us students could get back to learning thank you for your time thank you Miss Smith Mr flood our next speaker my next speaker is Judy uh Stanford you're now in needed to me yes yes in Stafford a 1971 graduate and was very active as a student while I was a student the Confederate flag removed by Mr Henry Armstrong because the black football players were not going to play this is not the same school today as it was when I was a student the brigadias have not existed at Lipa over many years this is the fourth time the community has tried to change his name demographically has changed you have 72.6 Hispanic 15.2 percent African Americans 10.3 White you have a student body of over 80 plus percent minority board members
185the decisions are changing to be based on the demographics of the school so I said that you make the right decision to change the name based on the current demographic thank you for your time thank you Miss Stanford Mr Matt flood our next speaker my next speaker is Lisa Crawford you're now unmuted his names are suitable to be celebrated and remembered in this country prior to 1950 who cannot be faulted in some way or another for not living up to current day standards on these issues going down the path of removing people's names from our history is like playing with fire it's very likely to get out of hand and burn everyone in some way before the demand is satisfied our Robert E Lee High School is not just 30 seconds like others schools of
186the same name but a Town's 92 year old school is a historical landmark and a diverse Community full of Pride and spirit we've moved Beyond waving Confederate flags and playing Dixie at school events and the General's portraits have been removed if we've learned anything from cancer culture it's that nothing is ever enough let's keep the name thank you Miss Crawford Mr flood our next speaker [Music] my next speaker is Jacob kosek and I think you're with Abby I believe someone unmuting Abby you're a muted yes sir okay go ahead hello everyone my name is supposed to be enrolled but because of this process the school has been more focused on protecting their name Mr flood can we turn up the volume I'm sorry no did he get closer to the phone or the mic please
187I come from um because I was told how amazing the schools and opportunities are I wish that schools could focus more on the things that I need to be successful rather than the ways they can change it for the worse thank you Mr Kosik Mr Matt flood our next speaker [Music] my next speaker is zanadia Flores yes can you hear me yes ma'am yes good evening board members um we have people in Baytown that say the Latinos and blacks are being held back at Lee because of the name you mean to tell many that the name of a building is causing students to feel discriminated you mean tell me that the name of a building is causing people to act races towards others so if tomorrow we change the name to ABC High School will
188that make all the racist people magically change and everyone else will be treated equal if we have issues that leave where students and faculties are being racist or being discriminated then the name of a building is not going to solve the issue don't speak for me don't call me don't view me as a seller because I do not go by radical ideas we need to tackle the real issues firsthand and then maybe we can talk about what's going on with the school name if you if you say you talk for the people look at the Baytown Sun that they have a poll calling a poll going on right now 73.1 percent of the people are saying no to the change 25 says yes 1.9 says they don't care thank you Miss Flores Mr Matt flood
189our next speaker please [Music] my next speaker is Steve cybeck you're now unmuted can you hear me now yes sir all right good evening Dr O'Brien I'm bored I feel the most bipartisan way to handle the name change issue is to leave it to the community if the district didn't have pushback from the community then I could understand proceeding what the name change of Robert E Lee but you do you have a ton of pushback from your constituents an entire Community is pushing back a community that elected you to serve and speak on behalf of the majority by voting to change the name today you were not speaking for the majority 30 seconds voting yes to create a Community Committee will restore the community's faith in GCCISD and allow all the questions to be answered
190prior to making a blind decision please vote Yes to agenda item 9d for Community Committee and vote no to agenda item 9e for changing the name of Robert E Lee thank you thank you Mr Civic Mr Matt flood our next speaker [Music] my next speaker is Rebecca Boudreau you're now unmuted thank you Dr O'Brien team board members I'm speaking as a parent of a GCC ISD student and for anyone who walked the Halls lead proudly wearing the title of being a gander we've been told that racism exists at Lee High School systemic racism is a blanket term that constitutions policies or practices of any sort that create disparate or unfair outcomes for racial or ethnic minorities but this does not exist within our institution these children are helped as much as they possibly can 30
191seconds if we give in to cancer culture we will be taking a step backwards in our society change can exist together the students have left behind the idea of Robert E Lee and who he was in history the name change will not do anything but teach revolves around race and it doesn't do not make the race or the past hurt the future of our students we are better than that and we in this matter not just a unitarial change board time [Music] thank you Miss Boudreau Mr flood our next speaker please our next speaker is Tracy Fuquay Fuqua you're now in muted Tracy you're now on muted Tracy you're now unmuted [Music] let's move to our next speaker Mr flood we can come back if Miss Fuquay is able to join foreign [Music] Lopez you're
192now unmuted hello can you hear me yes ma'am hello testes and Dr O'Brien I strongly support changing the name of Robert E Lee High School there are those on the other side of the issue that said there was no racism or oppression when they walked the halls of Lee High School ensure a racial oppression isn't simply a matter of a bunch of white people waking up each morning and saying to themselves today I will do what I can to oppress a black person system and our complacency in the system that gives racism its power not individual intent slavery was not an accident racism isn't a bad joke that just never went away it was all on purpose we'd like to pretend that all those white faces who carry who carry protest signs and batons who
193turned on their Sprinklers and their fire hoses who wrote against demonstrations and preached against the changes just disappeared we like to pretend that that they were won over transformed the moment King proclaimed I have a dream we don't want to acknowledge that just as black people who experienced Jim Crow are still alive so are the white people who vehemently protected it let's be truthful about how we got the name of Robert E Lee because only by being truthful about how we got here can we imagine anything better please let's change the name thank you Miss Woods uh Mr Sampson's battery on his timer is dying so I'm going to take over the timing now okay sounds good thank you Mr Clem and thank you Miss Lopez um we will now have 30 second warning from
194Mr Clem for our speakers Mr flood if you'll cue our next speaker [Music] our next speaker is Abby kostek you're now unmuted hi my name is the girl caustic I'm a student at Baytown Junior I used to go here when I was younger I really liked it because they not only gave us good education that we needed but they also gave us the support that every child deserves it is sad to see what our community has gone to just to please the needs of a few adults I come from a troubled past where everything was taken away from me for others benefits I went to school counselors and told them everything that was going on that that's how I entered back in Texas us children need to know that we can trust the school 30
195seconds decisions based on us not based off the needs of adults that don't even go to our school I hope the schools will focus more on helping the kids that are scared to speak up instead of trying to change the name changing a name of a building won't change the fact that there's stuff going on at home with many kids someday us kids will grow up to be leaders that we can that we need to look up to people that need to set an example for us thank you and have a good night thank you Miss kostek Mr flood our next speaker please [Music] speaker is Barbara Holland you're now unmuted yes can you hear me yes yes hi uh in reference to gender item 90 I am for forming a committee in reference to
1969 E I am against the renaming of Robert E Lee High School and find it extremely unfair that the topic of renaming was allowed to be started by non-view Street CISD taxpayers and a few are selected School Board trustees have considered it at any other time in history people who live out of town would not have been the loudest voices in this situation they were only heard via WebEx and emails that were read from coveted 19 situation 30 seconds chances meet the taxpayers would be present in the boardroom to show our support or leave I doubt including in California part in Washington would be flying in for a board meeting at no time is spending money to destroy the name of a 92 year old reported Texas Historic Landmark in the best interest of the
197students there are many more important needs in the community for students and teachers such as raises to catch up with neighboring districts so Goose Creek does not continue to be the training district for Mars sale ISD I'm requesting that reuniting of Ral to include on the night ballot time is up thank you Miss Holland Mr flutter next speaker please speaker is Andres Flores you're now on me hey can you hear me yes sir how you doing Mr O'Brien Mr Laredo um I started anytime yes oh okay uh I've been I graduated in 2019. uh throughout my four years of high school I done every sport you can think of and many extracurricular activity not once did I ever get any type of racial slurs from any of my black friends Mexicans whites you name it
198because they didn't care we all were recognized as the famous Robert Lee band and did anybody ever criticize this for a name no I'm just gonna be real with y'all I don't think it's the smart decision to change the name like my mom says 30 seconds you need to get like the facts straightened out before we start worrying about the name about these racial things I just wanted to say uh coach droves and thank y'all for us time thank you Mr Florida flood our next speaker our next speaker is our next speaker is Hannah fudge you're now unmuted my name is Hannah fudge and I am a sophomore this year I would like you to vote Yes to form a committee and no to changing the name of Robert E Lee many students I have
199spoken to were not even aware that Lee's name may be changed and all of them are against it the teachers in our district keep education and tradition the top priority I hear the claims other people are making about Lee and it is just not the experience any of us students have had there this year has been so hard for me and many of my friends and I cannot imagine 30 seconds of our school taken away from us without even asking what we think I love Robert E Lee and the Traditions there please do not make this school year harder for us keep your focus on us and getting us back to the school so we the students can continue to thrive and learn so I say no on changing the name and put it up
200for the vote for the for a com vote by the community thank you good timing thank you Miss fudge Mr flood our next speaker please speaker is Robin Garcia you're now unmuted thank you thank you for allowing me to speak tonight my name is Robin Garcia 15-year resident and taxpayer with no delinquent taxes a few members of this board have gone out of their way to make this name change an issue most important when there are far greater things that the district needs to be dealt with as I was seeing all these beautiful first day of school pictures it just hit me so hard are we worried about the name of any debate on schools when our kiddos can't even walk in the front door yet as of today all the schools are in Virtual
201School golden or Smith 30 seconds just depending on what your last name is our Focus has got to be these kids getting them back inside the walls of these schools I urge you to please vote Yes to a community committee to determine our next steps while you focus on opening our doors safely I urge you to please vote no to not rename Robert E Lee yet let the community do its job the committee do its job and properly evaluate the need for such a costly undertaking thank you for your for hearing me thank you Miss Garcia Mr flood our next speaker our next our next speaker is Brian Patterson you're now unmuted Mr blood can you hear me yes sir thank you uh to the GS GCCISD School Board my name is Brian Patterson Robert
202E Lee class of 1999. and I'd like to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to address you once again we're not three months going on more than half a century for seeking a goal that so many have fought so hard to get done it's time to right or wrong let's not be on the wrong side of History it's time to do what's right Lee aligned himself with his Brethren that believed that slavery as an institution was not immoral nor political evil it's not the type of man he was he had the opportunity to change the narrative to right the wrong but he chose to represent the army that he believed would be the destruction of the Union that so many good men had worked so hard so if I were you I would opt
203for the right thing to make a strong yet impactful difference in the lives of students alumni Educators and community members to make it obvious the choice to rename be so clear to act upon thank you and I yield my time to the next speaker thank you Mr Patterson Mr flood our next speaker please my next speaker is Michael Palmer you're now unmuted [Music] can y'all hear me yes sir hey everybody this is Mike so I am totally against the name change of the my dad worked for Goose Creek he just recently passed away if God change it he's gonna be rolling in his grave check this out if y'all want to put politics in it give it to the voters and let us vote for it politics has nothing to do with this right now
204throw it out the window and just leave the name of thank you IO back to the floor thank you Mr Palmer Mr flood our next speaker please [Music] my next speaker is Harold Thomas You're Now unmuted hey as Hank Thomas hey mister yeah I'm a long long resident of Midtown it's sad it was still discussing the renamed Robert Lee High School we know this issue is based on ignorance and racism um was a trainer and part of his ideas that America's founded life and the pursuit of happiness Freedom protesters for all I attended Lee for one day in 30 seconds the Confederate flag and the Dixie song I wish I was in the land of Titan how offensive for a 15 year old child I went home and told my mother I didn't want to
205attend Lee I was helping my grandchild come from social studies but today a subject was a static Statue of Liberty which stood for freedom and entitlement we should we should correct the ills time is up thank you Mr Thomas Mr flutter next speaker please my next speaker is Sonya Carr you're now unmuted uh yes I am a 1985 alumni high school and a lifelong resident in b-town I live my voice containing the name I was a cheerleader and attended every football game I watched the running of the Confederate flag the brigadier's Performing Rebel uniforms and cheered the name of a man who led the troops to keep my ancestors enslaved every day as I walked through the school halls I was reminded of my Heritage of slavery and segregation this daily reminder was oppressive and
206hurtful at the time I kept quiet I thought reconciliation would come with patience and politeness but it hasn't worked as a business owner I'm nervous to speak up tonight I know many people including a great minute white people who support the name change 30 seconds but are silent out of fear of harassment persecution and economic retaliation I understand their fear but I will not give in to it anymore Robert E Lee may be a hero to many but he's a villain to me please rename the school so that everyone not just some can cheer with pride and we as a community are unified in the present not divided by the past thank you thank you Miss Carr Mr flood our next speaker please foreign [Music] ER is Kathy Graham you're now unmuted Miss Graham [Music]
207Mr flood you want to proceed to the next speaker and we can return if Miss Graham joins us thank you my next speaker is Hillary Hobson you're now unmuted [Music] yes ma'am okay hi my name is Hillary Johnson I'm a graduate of Lee High School class of 2012 but I'm actually more than that I literally grew up in Lee High School as my mother was a teacher of 40 years there which to note is longer than most of the Court most of the current building that is standing I literally took some of my first steps and first words and have also received some of my first acts of racism there as well but in spite of the bad I went on to be an educator I've been in the classroom and now I serve in
208administration so I know that as Educators it's our job to protect a child's learning environment unbeknownst to them or not children need to feel safe 30 seconds that's been proven we can't have campaigns against actions like bullying both in person and cyber send them to the offices for hate speech or vulgar language and then make them go to a school where they're reminded daily that the institution that they're expected to excel in is named after a person that they thought that thought that they were two-thirds of a person um that thought that students that now Walk The Halls ultimately didn't have the right to an education it's in the best interest to change the name once again they're always a gander they're never a racist time is up thank you Miss Hopson Mr flood our
209next speaker my next speaker is Joe Theory you're now unmuted all right can you hear me okay yes sir all right thank you Dr O'Brien and board members my name is Joe Theory I'm a class of 1988 graduate of property Lee tonight I speak not only on my own behalf but on behalf of employees staff it's current students I'm the supporter of name change uh I believe after 92 years it's time to recognize the truth about Robert E Lee this was not a man of diversity and inclusion nor was he man to be honored his name and Battle Flag represented America at its worst it still does for me keeping the name tells people 30 seconds get over slavery uh leave it in the past and others say disrupting the history and Heritage this is
210sustainable hypocrisy because memorializing this individual and flag fought under is a constant reminder of all this it is equalness and those who've suffered under it as a black man I've never felt comfortable walking in the establishment randerson the federal flag I beg you those Creek board that's believed thank you Mr Theory Mr flutter next speaker please my next speaker is Kevin Craven you're now unmuted in 1928 GCCISD substituted his moral Authority for more popular voices such as the KKK and so naming this high school after Robert E Lee another sad history lesson documented by the sun in a very religion of skeptical responsibility in 1978 black members of the nearby community wrote the board to address not only Humane but other injustices that existed at the campus cries were mostly unheard while the district has
211discontinued the distance of fan Dixie and waving the Confederate flag the man who was assembled of both 30 seconds on this school building I have spoken previously as a former student tonight I speak as a black man the continued marginalization of our community must stop we are important even during the pandemic our cause is worth every penny it may potentially cost lamenting over the cost to rename Lee is akin to saying we cannot afford to do the right thing I ask that you vote with courage and signs of what is memorial right for the community thank you Mr Craven Mr flutter next speaker please our next speaker is Charles Cruz you're now unmuted mic check yes sir here we go recap of historical facts 1861 February Texas secedes racist slaveholder Robert E Lee runs home
212to Virginia 1861 March Robert E Lee appointed Colonel of U.S first Cavalry Regiment by President Lincoln swearing an oath to the United States of America 1861 April 20 Colonel Robert E Lee dines from the United States Army to become writer Robert E Lee 1865 April 9th Robert E Lee surrenders to Grant to be 30 seconds Sir Robert E Lee 1927 March Goose Creek School Board decides to build a new high school 1927 November 21st Goose Creek School Board the new segregated whites only no people of color allowed high school after racist slaveholder traitor loser Robert E Lee the choice before you continue to honor a racist slaveholder traitor loser or change the name foreign thank you Mr Cruz Mr flood our next speaker please our next speaker is Oliver carne you're now unmuted yes good
213evening Dr O'Brien and members of the board My Name is Oliver Carney and I graduated Robert E Lee High School in 2017. it just so happens that I'm an African-American man who currently resides in Baytown at Lee we were family and we were always and we always will be and the fact that people are saying minorities are being mistreated is absurd even worse is that they claim we're being oppressed by the school's name to infer that we'd let something as simple as a noun hold us 30 seconds thank you hold us in bondage is offensive because it implies that we're weak people minorities will never Prosper if we continue to be treated as weak-minded also one can't be done for this whole race we speak for ourselves by voting I have numerous black friends leftly
214and constantly try to find a way to come back at least we didn't think of race because it wasn't an issue people didn't refer to me as black time is up your time once again Mr Carney Mr flood our next speaker [Music] our next speaker is Serena Dennis you're now in music hi thank you I'm part of the league class of 1997. I grew up here I'm not from California but he lived right here in District Four um this name should have been changed a long time ago it's part of a gym it was a Jim Crow error choice that was chosen on purpose to intimidate our black citizens and changing this name is the right thing to do and I realize and you probably all realize especially after what we saw tonight that voting
215to change this name is a huge risk you could simply get voted you could very likely get voted out of your position if you vote to change his name and I'm asking all of you to take that risk thank you I yield my time thank you Miss Dennis Mr flood how many speakers do we have remaining I'm sorry about eight or so eight or so okay let's proceed our next our next speaker is Felicia young you're now unmuted Miss Young [Music] Miss Young can you hear us we don't hear you Miss Young [Music] Mr flood do we want to go to the next speaker and come back if we can make contact [Music] foreign [Music] speaker is uh Herman Hobson you're now unmuted hi can you hear me yes sir okay the save the lead
216protesters have said tonight that they believe our board members should set an exempt for the rest of us if that's what they require of our school board members then why isn't the same for the people that our schools are named after unless it's that Robert E Lee is the example that you desire for our communities the save the lead members have tried to convince the public so diligently that they have they haven't lost their credibility but their argument is simply backed by the fear that their Heritage will be destroyed their childhood memories ruined and tarnished personally 30 seconds I was raised to believe that the home that only God or Alzheimer's can destroy those memories those memories are in their hearts forever in that same vein the heartaches struggles and pains of the African-American students
217that go to and formally went to Lee exist just as profoundly as those precious memories from the other side of the tracks you school board members have the duty and responsibility to make sure that no other children of color have to endure them thank you Mr Hopson Mr flood our next speaker our next speaker is Brandon Terry you're now unmuted earlier this week Exxon Mobil announced it was facing a huge budget shortfall for 2021 and will announce a restructuring in January why is this important there are largest taxpayer every week parents are at home doing virtual learning with their children instead of going to work the budget deficit grows and here we are talking about names on buildings it's a coven is destroying budgets federal state and local 30 seconds We cannot put this on
218the on the ballot for May 2021 now then we should know what the budget shortfall is and the true cost of the facility name changes please vote Yes to agenda item 19 for Community Committee and vote no to agenda item 9e on changing the name of Robert E Lee our own board member tonight said we need to slow down well let's see if he'll stick to his word thank you Mr Terry Mr flood our next speaker please my next speaker is raelyn Dempsey you're now in music hello my name is raelyn Dempsey I'm a 2020 Robert E Lee graduate graduate kovid came and took everything I looked forward to away from me since I was in the sixth grade I look forward to be able to dress up and have a night of fun at
219the prom but I didn't get a chance to do that I also didn't get to wake up I also didn't get a chance to walk across the stage that I worked 13 years of school to be able to accomplish I also didn't get to step foot into a show arena with my livestock animal it was heartbreaking please do not change my school's name I've already lost enough once again they're always a gander thank you thank you Miss Dempsey our next Mr flood my next speaker is Kim Costick you're now unmuted good evening members of the board and Dr O'Brien I'm here tonight and I'm so sad I'm just heartbreaking our community is sitting here fussing about this when we should be focusing all of our time all of our attention and all of our resources
220on safely opening schools having a blended family with Children of two last names in my home I am frustrated this is what we're talking about the evening of our second day of school it wasn't a success to start because I still have two children that have yet to receive their schedules however when we do go in person I will go home at both eight and 30 seconds and and it would Lee and Baytown Junior I requested them to be Consolidated but was denied wouldn't the point to reduce points of contact from 7 15 to 5 30 will be between schools 10 times for schools and sports allow a committee to investigate all facets and get the data and make sure that it is accurate and that we have investigated everything let's do it again we've
221done it before and you can direct all of your focus on creating plans to get our kids back in the classroom foreign Mr flood our next speaker my next speaker is Tracy Fuquay you should now be unmuted hey can you hear me now yes ma'am hi thank you thank you we should not be worrying about getting everyone back to school safely and not creating a crisis about school names many people have lost their jobs and everyone has increased Financial hardships we can't afford astronomical taxes and new school gear because of name changes trustees do not have the right to create an issue drum up support for their side of that issue and then they say that they can or will vote as an unbiased trustee also commence Fuquay Mr flood do we have a next
222speaker my next speaker is Kathy Graham you're now unmuted can you hear me Mr Claude yes ma'am okay I'd like to thank the school board for allowing me to speak I do have an opinion on the name change but my main concern is the money it will cost to not only change the school's name the sports fan corn Orchestra uniforms and signs in this economic time you can justify can you justify the cost of making the name change there are students whose parents are worried about having money for food lights rent mortgage due to the possibilities have lost their job as a school board do you ever see that 30 seconds are you doing this wisely that's the question I'll be praying for your vote tonight thank you thank you Miss Graham Mr flood do
223we have another speaker were you able to make contact with Miss Felicia Young I yes ma'am she's uh she did not want to speak I do have one more Rosalind Hobson you're now unmuted foreign hello yes you're a muted okay change is the point of this issue change as a precursor to a deeper more penetrating system of racial equality and a part of the struggle is that change means we'd have to put in the extra work because we know that it's a step towards Shifting the burden of proof and change from the people to the system that's hurting to change the name then policies and habits need to be changed to do that we'd have to pursue Expose and actively destroy both the clear and subtle racist systems that have been a part of baytown's
224History 30 seconds and it's hurting us plus everyone funds are allocated to so why not this show minority systems citizens that growth Community collaboration Innovation success and determination equally applied to us with something other than short-lived programs that try to fix a group of people that aren't broken but living in their broken system thank you Miss Hobson I think that's it okay all right so I had 51 recorded speakers is that correct Mr flood that that's what you you okay sorry all right I recorded 51 speakers um and okay so uh 51 speakers and then I believe I mentioned that we had 44 written submissions that were also considered prior to the start of this meeting for public participation I thank you all in the public for reaching out and sharing your comments and posts
225and um opinions with the board tonight and they will be taken into consideration before any relevant action items are taken at this moment I would like to take a brief recess for the board we will reconvene in five minutes the time is now 11 34 PM okay so the time is now 11 41 PM September the 9th 2020 and we are reconvening into session Open Session um on completion of citizens participation we will move to item seven on the agenda approval of minutes we have 7 a August 3rd 2020 regular board meeting and there is also Item B August 10 2020 board workshop and special meeting I believe everyone was in attendance for both so that could be could be made okay can't hear you I make a motion that we approve both of those
226as stated so I have a motion on the floor by Mr Cotter for August 3rd and August 10 2020 board meetings for approval do I have a second for the motion I'll second I have a second from this guy is there any discussion [Music] hearing no discussion and no objections we will move to a vote all in favor of accepting minutes as provided 7A and 7B please raise your right hand or say I I see seven approving the motion leaving zero against and zero abstaining motion passes agenda item 8 discussion items and yay Dr O'Brien welcome to the board meeting tonight I will turn it over to you for superintendent reports check your button still still can't hear you sir check your button again how about now absolutely you are with us thank you all
227right yay [Laughter] okay we do have two reports tonight I've asked the presenters this evening to keep it under an hour each uh so our first presentation will be the Goose Creek CST robotics facility presentation by Dr McCall uh we may need to send security up to his office to wake him up no there he is Dr McCall you're on sir please uh proceed with your presentation yes sir thank you good evening president Woods School Board Dr O'Brien I'll be speaking with you uh very briefly about the proposed robotics facility for booth Creek Consolidated Independent School District so just kind of give you an agenda on what we will be discussing we will first start with the purpose and vision for the robotics facility we'll highlight some key action steps that we've taken based on
228the purpose and vision for the robotics facility as well as facility plans and then discuss some next steps with your approval after this presentation so when we're talking about the purpose and vision for the robotics facility I'd like to start with the initial vision and our initial Vision was to provide a practice design and exploratory learning space for high school students in the robotics program the proposed site was Robert E Lee High School approximately 6 000 square feet of a facility adjacent to the agriculture building so that'll kind of help you envision the location and one of the things that we discussed is that it would have limited student use the initial Vision was a design to be built at Robert E Lee High School for robotics program students which typically consists of 25 to
22930 students a year after discussing the initial Vision um and kind of looking at some of the benefits and the opportunities we also discussed a larger vision for this facility that will provide additional opportunities not only for students but also for staff and so as you'll see on this slide we begin to look at an explored vision of providing an exploratory learning facility designed to promote the robotics program at all grade levels to support vertical systems and instructional alignment I'm really working with our elementary age students and kind of having them grow through the robotics program which is you know certainly established at our Junior schools as well as our high schools but just continuing to build that those programs through vertical systems and instructional alignment we also looked at a new central location on
230YMCA Drive which is neighboring the steward career in Tech High School and instead of a 6 000 square foot facility we explored the vision of a 15 000 to 20 square foot facility which will allow for increased student use for competitions maybe between some other robotics teams and also serve as a field trip destination for our lower grade levels very similar to The Wetlands Center where grade levels May rotate uh they're seasonally throughout the year or you can compare it to how our library systems work at some of our campuses where students are scheduled to go into the library for the purpose of being in that learning space and so we were thinking that this could be an opportunity as well to have a Innovative schedule to make sure that as many students in the
231district as possible get to do some exploratory learning right here in our district also it'll have a multi-purpose field as well for professional development opportunities and then with the potential site that we were exploring it could lead to some growth potential as well as site expansion so are action steps we started with our initial Vision which started with the site visit to uh the proposed location at Robert E Lee High School we looked at the current facilities that the robotics team are using just to get a feel for the space that they would need we also worked with the City of Baytown because we know that it is uh located near Goose Creek and so we know that as a result of Hurricane Harvey a lot of the detention requirements have been increased around Harris
232County in general so we just wanted to make sure we you know started having conversations with the city to get all the variables and the details on if we decided to build on this particular site so what we found is that if you look on the left hand side you will see a visual there of option A or B and both of them are at the Lee High School site and you will also see that it is adjacent to the current agriculture facility no matter if we build in the location of site A or B we would be in a 100 year or a 500 year flood plane which would require additional detention requirements for that space so as a result of that there were some concerns about land usage that could even impact agriculture
233facility that's already been prior to of course hurricane Harvey and the new requirements that are now a part of Harris County in the City of Baytown and so there will be some extensive detention requirements uh no matter where we built the facility and just some information that was shared with us no matter if you build it at site A or B if a part of the facility falls in the 100 year flood plain you have to follow the requirements for that extensive detention and so we received that information and began to study that just a bit more for our initial vision going to the explored Vision action steps you will see here that we also did a psych visit and a phase one map of YMCA kind of gives you an idea the robotics facility
234um if we go with the Explorer vision of it being a 15 000 to 20 000 square foot facility it'll be facing to the north um as stated on a previous slide it'll be across the street from the Stuart career and Tech uh high school and if you notice it is right across the street from the main entry of that campus and so as you see it does leave opportunities for expansion and plan growth in the future and we also went about the detention study as well and what we found with this of approximately 15 acres of land is it will require detention but it's not in a flood plain so the requirements are certainly not as extensive once again um lending itself to having opportunities for expansion and plan growth uh in the future
235so moving forward with the explored uh Vision we wanted to provide just an opportunity to get a feel for the facility program and so on the left hand side you will see the function which breaks out the different spaces of the facility and on the right hand side you'll see the proposed space allotment for those areas so at this proposed facility we are looking to have an Administration and secure vestibule space because we know that there will be visitors coming whether it's from our campus or or some of our campuses I'm sorry or if it'll be from other campuses that may be coming to participate in competition and so we will have an Administration space because there will need to be a district level administrator that is responsible for that building since we will have
236students coming in and out of that space with the secure vestibule anywhere from 600 to 900 square feet the arena competition space and seating for 100 Spectators which we believe is very important not only for competitions but also for exhibitions if we ever want to invite our parents in community in that will be 4 000 to 4 500 square foot and that is that are those are specifications that are based on the first robotics requirements for competition which are the guidelines that are used by our robotics program and so we certainly want to make sure that we're in compliance there the construction lab and project Bay those are the spaces that have been designed for construction to take place for their projects uh that's the dirty spaces they call it that's where the drills and
237the saws will be that is a true lab environment where the students will be able to construct their projects in addition to that we looked at General classroom space one of those classrooms will be identified as a computer lab and then the other classroom will be used for some of our elementary or Junior school campuses when they come for Lego based activities that may be more so far elementary students Junior robotics as well as Makerspace activities for junior schools and it'll also have flexible walls that would lend itself for professional development space and demonstration of projects with nesting and stackable Furniture so really looking at this as an opportunity to not only be a robotic space but also that multi-purpose feel so having those collapsible walls will allow for us to get the maximum use
238out of that space when we're talking about support we're talking about mechanical rooms restrooms uh data of course for any sort of technological needs that we will have and as well as custodial space and so that will be four thousand to five thousand square feet of space and then circulation in hallways for a facility that size there will need to be a 10 foot perimeter on each side of the arena and that is at the recommendation of the committee to make sure that there is coaching space as well as space for the seating which will take 3 800 to 4 500 square foot and including the hallways that will need to get to the different places such as the classrooms hallways mechanical closets things of that nature so as we move forward our next steps
239with your approval will be to continue our work um and really begin working with an architectural firm for the planning and programming as well as the schematic design and development which of course will allow for us to get into greater detail as far as the scope of work and the schedule schedule for the project of course from there we will get into bidding and negotiations and you will see later on in the agenda that we are asking uh for your approval on a delivery method for CM at risk consideration which will allow for us to move forward with the bidding process for construction we are looking at a completion of fall of 2021 and speaking with members of the committee which I will show those members um they're giving feedback we want to make sure
240that this space is available and ready to go for our high school students as they're preparing for next competition season which typically takes place at the um towards the the beginning of the spring spring semester and so if we are completed by fall of 2021 we can ensure that they are in their space and ready to go once they receive their new project directions and begin working for six weeks of in intense preparation um and then once again that'll also give us an opportunity to have that exploratory learning space for our students at all grade levels so it will certainly meet the timeline for competition season I want to um share you know just some special thanks with some individuals that have worked um together to get us to this point and of course we
241will continue uh to work together with your approval to keep moving forward with this project um these individuals have provided feedback me being new to the district it was very important for me to understand uh where we wanted to go with this facility as well as getting uh direction from Dr O'Brien and so I'm really thankful um and excited with the Opera for the opportunity to continue to work with this team as we move forward through this project that pretty much concludes my presentation for today just wanted to give you some information on where what we have been working on as far as the initial as well as the the vision that we would like to pursue which is the explore vision of having a larger facility that will provide more of a multi-purpose feel
242and meet the needs of more students in the center realized location thank you Dr McCall board members may have questions momentarily but just to highlight a couple of points that you made you alluded to this is proposed as a standalone campus and you made reference to an administrator needing to be in charge of the campus would you uh cover that just a little bit more and furthermore talk a little bit about the number of students that would benefit from this program as it's the new design versus the old design absolutely so with our as stated before with the current design or the initial vision of it it would be able to serve maybe 25 to 30 students with the with the explore design we will not only be able to potentially grow our high school
243team due to its location and maybe removing some of those barriers there and also working with our transportation department on certain measures but also will be useful for all of our students in the district I'm at one point in time throughout the year through you know scheduling to explore that learn learning facility and so maybe there are a couple of schools you know in a particular day that may come through that space and also working with our Junior schools to provide them a space as well because I know their competition seasons are opposite of one another um and so even our Junior schools will be able to participate in that space and have a dedicated space for them to work so we are you know talking about as many students as we can get through
244that space um being able to have opportunities for exploration and then even for our more organized teams having a space that they can test their projects and construct their projects at our Junior School and High School levels and so to answer your question Dr O'Brien we really do believe we can impact as many students as we can get through this facility in an academic year I'm also with the administration space we are looking at our CTE administrators potentially our director of CTE being in this facility space as well as maybe some somewhat of a coordinator or a specialist that would manage the day-to-day operations of this facility with this location being close to Steward careertech high school we believe that this would be somewhat of an organic fit to make sure that this facility is
245is being supported and managed by the career and tech department so not an added position existing staff would would man this facility yes sir that is the plan okay board members would be glad to answer any questions Dr McCall or his team [Music] thank you thank you for all the work is the intention to move the program away from Lee High School and get that into Stewart career center as another Academy possibly um no sir Mr Clem we would still uh have it you know of course as a part of the the district we're looking at more so of a district vision for the high school now we do understand by Lee being our stem high school that more students may still come from that particular area but we certainly want to open it up
246um to our Comprehensive High Schools as well as our more strategic focused high schools Early College High School things of that nature to increase participation We Believe with the central location we will to attract more students from other campuses potential thanks uh also um I noticed on next steps you're planning on visiting similar facilities is what we're looking at right now my question or my encouragement maybe to you and the committee would be to make sure you look at I think you mentioned a hunt seating for a hundred for competitions whatever just make sure that's enough I don't know if that's a heavily attended competition or even if it's just the other students from the other team sitting and watching a hundred seats sounds a little shy to me but maybe I'm wrong because I've
247never been to a robotics competition a little bit more specific Mr clamlin when we're speaking of competitions more so on a smaller scale of course if you have you know a lot of schools you would more than likely go to a competition size gym but you know if you're hosting maybe one or two schools that'll be sufficient or also if you have the robotics team there and maybe they just want to do an exhibition for their parents or or family members that's what we were more so looking at okay thank you very much yes sir [Music] I might note that the the regulations for competition are at this facility so that when they go to an actual competition like the George R Brown or something it's set up exactly like it would be at the
248competition but we probably at this point aren't looking at hosting multiple multiple schools probably be as much intramural as anything did you have a comment you wanted to make just that I appreciate all the work I actually had a daughter that uh was on the robotics team in junior high and I have been to one of those competitions and uh it's an exciting thing so it could be good thank you yes Dr McCall I want to thank you for your presentation tonight that was awesome I've been looking forward to this for three four years now it's something that we've been discussing in the district through different different Avenues of some way this could come to fruition and certainly include the district as a whole I I remember on Highlands Elementary campus how excited and with
249baited breath the students waited to try out for the team so they could be involved in robotics on the junior high level and I look forward to expanding that program so more students can make the teams and make the programmings and extend those programmings down into the elementary level start earlier all across the district so this is an exciting project I look forward to more details more numbers and data that you can bring to us and and some design uh choices and and options um great project to cut your teeth on in the district thank you very much sir thank you Dr McCall our next presentation is a follow-up from last month's training uh by Dr Roger Cleveland of the board on equity and Equity concerns and issues throughout the district and uh presenting this
250evening on that will be Mr Bollinger and Mr Choppa I believe will be joining together to present an update on AE local gentlemen okay we're waiting for the there you go can you all see the screen yes sir okay very good good evening Madam president and Dr O'Brien and board members uh Mr Bollinger and I are here tonight to give you an update on AE local our educational philosophy we currently have an AE local board policy and in our current policy we essentially have our mission statement for the district it also States our vision statement and our core values as most of y'all are familiar uh with our statement the very short uh brief mission statement is that we're developing the whole child but there's more to that the district develops and enhances each learner's
251intellectual social and emotional well-being being facilitated by a highly qualified team committed to growth Community collaboration Innovation success and determination our vision statement states that we Empower every student with the Knowledge and Skills that they need to succeed in the whole community our core values that are listed in our policy are that we will graduate every child Children First in a safe nurturing educational environment collaborative community and parent involvement Integrity respect humility and transparency service before self diversity respected and as we move forward what we would like to recommend to the board is that we look at including in our policy uh including our district goals to also include an equity policy that Mr Bollinger will be sharing some highlights from and also the development of an equity Council so I'm now going to turn
252it over to Mr Bollinger and he'll complete the presentation okay once again good morning everyone at that point now so to talk a little bit more um this is just a projected timeline of what we will come back and present to the board at a future board meeting but as we looked at examples of AE local what we noticed that it was common for school districts to include District goals and that's one thing that we do not have in our AE local so one consideration is to include the Strategic plan goals currently we have five major goals in our strategic plan centering around the five topics listed here on the slide including academic performance Community engagement operational excellence one-on organizational development then also Financial stewardship So based off board feedback that that is something that
253we would we would want to consider including an AE local also um we would want to propose an equity policy during the August School Board Workshop it was recommended by Dr Cleveland that the district adopt an equity policy and so we believe that that under the educational philosophy of the district that would fall under AE local the district plans to present a draft Equity policy to our ilc for feedback and then once we get feedback from our ilc to present a recommended Equity policy as part of AE local too to the school board at a future board meeting some examples of a sample content of what may go into an equity policy include some of the following points here such as to talk about education equity and develop a common understanding of that to make
254sure that the policy addresses promoting values that reflect Equity diversity and inclusion we would regularly review data and our practices that that may result in inequity in certain areas such as advanced academics or academic performance disciplinary referrals or attendance and so that would be part of the policy is that we regularly regularly review the data in these areas also that we prioritize our instructional practice to include educational equity and and CRT or culturally responsive teaching we would also look at data in HR that looks at hiring employment promotion practices to ensure that we are operating in an equitable manner as well in that area and then also to develop an equity Council to to implement this Equity policy and to provide recommendations to the board and so the the equity Council would be in charge
255again of reviewing data throughout the year monitoring District practices and providing recommendations to talk a little bit more about the equity Council just to be clear this is this is something also that Dr Cleveland recommended this is not a since it's come up in citizens participation again just to be clear this is not a renaming committee this this is an equity Council specifically to look at the policies um that are adopted by the school board and making sure that those are being implemented with Fidelity and so this would be a council that would be comprised of multiple layers of the community including staff from from the district from the campus community members parents as we've researched several equity councils in other districts some have even included high school students as part of the part of
256the council they would meet periodically to review data and that they would also identify areas of inequity and then provide recommendations at least once a year to the board to make sure that that our that our students are receiving a safe and respectful learning environment where they're being valued and that includes cultural value race value and ethnic value so that's that's the purpose of this Council and so so our proposal here is that this this is the timeline and so if the board approves we would like to again take a draft to ilc and then at a future board meeting bring bring an actual policy to to the board for approval and that is our presentation if you have any questions for us at this time we will be glad to attempt to answer those
257foreign Matt I think your presentation is the first one possibly in our history that that took two days does he get the trophy does get the trophy trophy [Laughter] thank you Mr Bollinger thank you Mr uh for your um presentation on the equity workshop and the outcome and how we can better Implement those policies in our district for the future so I appreciate your time and effort and your two-day presentation and keep moving forward thank you I broke my chair I believe Mr Sampson has a comment for you all mister uh Bollinger and Mr Chapa yeah I wanted to know uh was this gonna be involved also with the board uh uh Kavanaugh equity and diversity outly amongst us for us like we had the training but will we have a chance to develop our
258own equity and uh policy for the board also uh this is going to just be for the uh uh the district well it's a district policy I haven't seen that I had a similar comment I was going to wait till future boardage and Adam where I was going to ask us to at least at the very least have an agenda item if not a workshop where we would discuss what we want that to look like I've been looking at some of the the different school districts as well and some of the Google sports not only have a policy but an equity officer that's employed to the district that specifically targets these kind of issues within our community within our school district and community and that's something that I would at least like to discuss either
259in uh well preferably in a workshop Workshop setting but I was gonna leave that to his future board agenda item but since Mr Sampson brought it up yeah something that is the board itself do we have our own diversity and Equity uh just like our master plan and everything else do we have our own diversity plan for the board itself yeah I think it has to extend beyond just the training for the board that's something we'll have to talk about maybe in a workshop just like we develop our mission statement just like we developed the goals for the district what are our diversity and Equity goals as a board and whether we I know that met them having uh theirs for the district but what of us for us our diversity and Equity goals for
260a board yeah I think I've seen that where the board would adopt a equity resolution that has the equity philosophy and priorities for the district so something we could look at to where we would uh pass a resolution of kind of hard sequence that so it is they'll be presented to you and it'll be presented prior to adoption or prior to so uh we'll have that opportunity once the ilc is met and convened with the with a cross-section of our stakeholders they'll present it to the board for up for edit or review at that moment in time and then like Mr poppy said adopting a resolution to endorse that policy would be rewards action right I would think that also the equity Council would include at least one or two board members as liaison and
261and representatives that would um engage the board in the active process of the council's oversight and evaluation of the implementation of that policy across the district so that's one way that I would see the board having a stake Mr Sampson in in that Equity policy for the district and one way that it definitely would tie the board's goals the board's position and and resolution on equity to what what we're expecting in the district as well that's good oh let's see I would agree with that but in addition to that I I understand that the ilc would have a would have a hand I I just think that the board should be more involved in the creation of this Equity Council I don't I don't have a problem at any time in fact I would encourage
262us working with the ilc if that's what's going to be although how many people are in the ilc currently about uh two dozen yeah that's a lot of people to create this thing and I think the board should definitely have a and in creating a vision for what the equity Council should look like and the equity policy we do it for things that are Maybe as important I think this is one of those issues that is as important that we need to be directly involved in as well okay an Administration just for your knowledge we are retaining the services of Dr Cleveland to also provide us coaching and counseling through this development yeah um as far as getting bored and put it throughout the development absolutely but when you asked what is the board equity
263in inclusion policy not this District not but what is ours but we can talk about it another time um but that's what I'm saying is that you're saying it's two different things right yeah what is ours like we have the uh rules what we have for the district overall but what is our goal for us Equity inclusion the board itself but as I said we just have to pull that up on another time okay if there's no further discussion on this we can come back to that Mr Sampson when we're talking about future board agenda items or board trainings possibly another session with Dr Cleveland that would further Define uh how the board can be actively a part of the goals uh and and possibly developing resolution for the board on Equity training okay so
264um this time I would like to move on to uh item nine on the agenda action items we have um item 9A consideration of approval of resolution adopting an order approving The Goose Creek CISD property tax roll for 2020. Dr O'Brien was there any comment on this I know Miss Piggott is probably for you she's still here questions and she's welcome to join in and chime in but uh unless the board has questions Administration recommends approval for approval a second pushing on the floor from Mr Laredo in a second from Mr poppy to move for approval on item 9A on the agenda is there any discussion or question or objection that this is hearing none I move for a vote on section 9 a all in favor of approval of 9A please raise your right
265hand or say I hi seven affirmative zero to object and zero abstentions item nine eight passes okay okay item nine B Dr O'Brien consideration of resolution of and Order fixing and levying School District ad belarum taxes for the fiscal year 2019-2020 I would only ask that Miss Grimes um report the findings of this uh resolution uh Miss Kraft if you're able to inform the board of what our findings were on this proposal for recommendation um yes good evening um we after much uh hard work Charlene and I worked the the calculation has changed uh greatly on this our property values for uh 2019 were are for for 20 uh 2019 20 school year uh actually like last year we're a dollar 35 this year for the 20 tax year we're going to go down uh
266about a dollar uh and at 1.3 um since um and that's because our values were slightly higher than the state's average value increase at about 4.1 percent so it forced and compressed our rate down a little bit which is great news for the taxpayers it's good to save the taxpayers uh and have an actual reduction given that we sold the second tranche of bonds by actually closed on those tomorrow of over a million dollars or so to have sold and incurred more debt and still be able to reduce the tax rate is really good news for our taxpayers and Charlene I want to acknowledge her for all the work she did this year on that um man it's been it's been a trying year a lot of new requirements all the templates all the formulas
267have changed and it was a lot of work but we're glad to have a decrease in the tax rate thank you Charlene thank you just wanted to give let them give a shout out that were through this we realized the penny savings there for our taxpayers so we're actually taxing at a lesser rate than what we had originally proposed with the budget so I'm going to put that up to them but Administration does recommend approval not for a second so I have a motion on the floor from Mr Clem and a second from Mr Laredo right okay to approve action item 9B is presented any discussion objection conversation hearing none I move to vote um all in favor of action item 9B please raise your right hand or say aye seven seeing seven in favor
268leaving zero to abstain and zero to object motion passes in Nancy consideration resolution in order approving The Goose Creek CSD chapter 13 Revenue protection payments and supplemental pilot payments to Capital Improvement fund Administration recommends this as a vessel to allow for non-bond projects to be completed through the supplemental payments move for approval I have a motion on the floor from Mr Laredo and and uh a second from Mr Cotter is there any discussion objection questions regarding motion 9C Ms Woods yes sir I just got one question uh the payments of uh what this 313 is for non-bond project can we get a list of the non-bond projects that are going to be taken care of by 313. yes sir okay yes is that not listed under cover I don't have my cover with me so
269Brian can you answer the letter if it's on the cover I can get it off of we just not had the specific projects listed here it's uh you're approving the method by which we would fund those projects but it doesn't have the specific projects but we can provide that to the board absolutely okay [Music] um okay so um we have a motion on the floor to approve item 9C any further questions at this time please raise your right hand if you would like to vote for 9ac 9C all in favor say aye raise your right hand okay so having seven four leaving zero against and zero to abstain motion passes um moving to action item 9d Miss Woods I would like to request and make a motion that we reverse the order and take care
270of e and then D because I believe if if then we can still vote on D absolutely but if D passes if then that changes the nature slightly of what we would need of how we would the word to to Really increase the work of that committee [Music] they do e first and then d second that motion I have a motion on the floor for Mr Cotter to reverse action items T and E uh in a second from Mr Laredo I would like to recess at this time and have conference with a board attorney on this process recess at 12 25 a.m to be returned once conference with well man are you going into sorry Mr Rogers I mean did you go ahead yes let me clarify Madam president you want to go into are
271you are you just taking a brief recess are you are you going into closed session under 071 I can't hear you madam president sorry sorry unmute okay so I would think under 071 to consult with board attorney on procedure okay on legal issues okay thank you all right and the time is 12 25 a.m on September the 10th 2020. thank you 12 38 a.m September the 10th 2020. we are now reconvened into Open Session no action was taken by the board in closed session we have a motion on the floor from Mr Cotter to okay so we have a motion on the floor from Mr Cotter to reverse action items nine T and nine e for consideration there's a second on the floor on the motion by Mr Laredo are there any questions or comments
272or discussion on this issue I would just comment that the formation of the committee has been something called for by a majority of the speakers and individuals that have reached out to the board and considering this committee is of great importance in the investigation of naming current educational facilities so considering the vote for renaming one of these facilities before expressing um our opinion on the committee formation for that purpose I find is out of order that's my comment so at this time we will move to vote on Mr cotter's motion to reverse although it's in favor can you hear me not really okay all those in favor of the motion on the floor please raise your right hand or say I all those opposed to reversing the order of the items please raise your right
273hand or say I any abstentions an unseen three in favor of motion four against the motion motion fails items will stay in the order as presented on 9 D we will move to we will move to consideration of 90 which is consideration to form a committee to investigate the possible renaming of current educational and auxiliary campuses Dr O'Brien uh cover for this did you have comments or that the administration will put together a committee to consider as it's mentioned here [Music] okay do I have a motion on accident item 9d to form a committee to investigate the possible renaming of current educational and auxiliary campuses [Music] foreign [Music] the possible renaming of committee educational and auxiliary campuses is there a second I would second that motion I have a motion and a second on the
274floor is there any conversation or questions or comments yes go back to 90. um is Mr uh winter handy I have a question I believe he's still online Mr Bollinger yes sir in a previous meeting you gave us a figure of approximately a hundred and forty five thousand dollars to change the name of a high school is do I remember that correctly um give me a second to pull that up real quick okay I believe it was a range yeah there was a range but I think I'm picking the high side I think it I think it went up from there I think it went up to 300 000. that's the low side okay that was the low side that was the low side okay uh did was that considering facilities or like top-down complete
275change okay so um I'm sorry I'm pulling it up the um so that considered so so the the range was was up to about four hundred thousand dollars four three four if if everything had to change and so that that includes the building Marquee the the Jim Wall Graphics um repeating the gym floor not necessarily all these items will have to be replaced if for example Lehigh School were renamed but so the high side would be if everything had to be replaced including athletic uniforms Fine Arts uniforms it would range up to 400 000 and I received that from our construction Department the low end would be more of what you said I think 150 to 200. okay I'm sorry go ahead that's okay the reason I was asking about the low end is uh
276I did a information request just about athletic uniforms and Fine Arts uniforms and specifically the ones that had school names on it and the average between uh the three high schools that I was given is about 186 000 and change just for uniforms so I wanted to be sure that that was included in that range because that's a significant increase if we didn't the other thing that came from that information request was that our cheerleaders are spending 16 to 18 thousand dollars of their own money to be cheerleaders and that's a discussion for another day but it really Disturbed me but if I can continue I think we all agree uh I shouldn't say all I think there is a large number of citizens in our country that agree that systemic racism exists on many
277levels and maybe some of the reasons why are because it's built our systems if if you're doing the senses right now the first question is what's your race not who are you not where do you live it's what you race that's what they want to know first and if you fill out a government form of any kind you have to declare a race or they won't accept your form that's that's part of the systemic problem that should be addressed on a national level on a state level just in education we have to report all of our data by race and sub pop groups we can't register a kid in our school without putting a label on their race or many labels nowadays so that's a systemic governmental problem that a school board and a school
278district is forced into complying to or we we result in getting funding if we don't comply so those are some things that might ought to be considered by the people who are I'm going to use words that other folks have used tonight have been bullying the school board about changing names of schools the problems not just down here on the Grassroots level it's Nationwide and needs to be addressed that way um just the little bit that I've sounded off about this issue over the last few months I've been told through emails and phone calls that because I had to look some of these words up folks but because I'm a white straight cisgender married middle-class male that I should have no voice in this matter now I'm part of the problem Hilda Martinez told everybody
279on Facebook that I'm a racist and I'm privileged because of the name of the town I grew up in that's the epitome definition of bullying I've been called names and threatened because I requested more local participation in our discussions and I got chastised by an alderman in Chicago because he said you don't want to hear my voice I said no sir I want to hear from our local people too that was early on when we hadn't heard a lot of our constituents through this I have learned that um I guess my question is when is it going to end where does it end because I can find a reason to change every single name of every single School in our district that's named after a person and some of them by the places for example
280Alamo Elementary can be found potentially harmful to our threatening our students of Mexican heritage because between 600 and 1600 Mexican soldiers depending on what version of History you read were killed and their bodies were left to rot at the side of the Battle of the Alamo Stephen F Austin helped to introduce slavery into the Texas territory and he himself was a periodic slave owner throughout his life James booty Bowie was a documented slave owner David Crockett was not a documented slave owner It is Well documented and written about his sidekick that was a black man at all of his bidding he's always with him could be said that Lorenzo De Zavala is a traitor to Mexico and many people tonight have called Robert E Lee a Trader as well should we be honoring him B
281Lamar believed the total extinction of the Indian tribes in Texas was necessary to make the land available to whites and he led numerous battles against Native Americans Sandra Sanderson Elementary is supposedly named after the battle of San Jacinto but like the yellow that should be harmful to students of Mexican heritage because of the slaughter of their Mexican soldiers that day let's go spel Smith was a slave owner at his Evergreen plain Plantation near our our area it could be said that Johnny Clark bunny Hopper George Gentry Horace Mann Peter Holland and Jon Stewart that we know that you were all white married middle-class man and that probably used their white privilege to oppress the marginalized citizens under their respective tenures and careers Victoria Walker George Washington Carver and Eddie green are all strong reminders of
282segregation and education in Baytown and indeed in all of America Dr Antonio Abuelos he's a reminder of segregation at our all-mexican school he wasn't even a segregationist himself that she had all boys bands and all school all girls orchestras and never allowed the two to meet in my 21 years at Ross in Sterling High School as the band director I never once heard anybody tell me that he was a member of the KKK not one student ever brought that up not one teacher ever brought that up it was never a point of discussion in any school board meeting during those times but because of research we've now found no evidence that he was a member of a KKK but we do know he was associated with members that were uh and I guess I want
283to conclude with since we live in a time where many people look for the faults in others maybe quit naming schools after people or and this is my biggest point of the night or maybe it's time to look past the faults of people and look for the good and the way they all shaped our lives our school our country and our history minority that we if you'd like to make comments I'll listen to them but I don't have to answer your questions fair enough I'd like to make a comment in regards to that um you're right we we should be more careful who we are and how we honor them it doesn't take away the fact that we have heard from the community I I think a lot of times we don't hear from people
284not based on them not feeling uncomfortable but based on them not having a voice to be able to express what they feel why you are correct you might have not heard it before it doesn't mean it didn't exist and just didn't have the people didn't know that they had to like mind to be able to express what they feel and I think that's what's happening now I've mentioned it before for 14 years I've been on this board every year one or two per people have talked to me about me and Sterling and every year I said I can't bring it up with one or two people and it's not been the same one or two people now there's way more than one or two people some people want to say because of our current situation
285in our country for whatever reason it is it's more than one or two people that's more comfortable then and feel uncomfortable now we heard from a handful of students that felt one way and a lot of it's scripted in the way they felt so I I fear that they were put up today I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say no but it was very scripted at the same time I hear from other kids that feel the opposite of that and kids that have recently graduated that before Felton high school they had no voice I mean oftentimes how long did we have ridiculous policies in regards to hair or earrings or beards that have no real measure on academic achievement in regards to some of the people you mentioned you know
286for example um Peter island who was a good man Antonio had the orchestra and actually they did practice together and work together it's just the type of bands that we're creating I think we we need to be a little bit more consistent in how we do this I mean I'm I've heard people let's just name it basic high school name it whatever you want but enough people have come up to me as a board member at one time to say I don't feel comfortable in the name and it's my obligation to listen to them too foreign if there are no other comments at this time I would like to make final comments before the vote um I think okay Miss guy did you want to comment please I did just really quickly and for a
287lot of the reasons that Mr Clan talked about you know there are a lot of schools that are named after people that have done not so great things in their lives and I feel like we all have things that we could be ashamed that we've done um but I feel like we can't pick and choose which group of students we're going to say that we we care about how you're feeling and we care what you're thinking if we're gonna if we care about what our students think and we care about those students and community members who are offended by names of our buildings or our schools I think we need to consider all of them and so I think that that's why I feel like a committee should be is important um I I concur
288Miss this guy that a committee would be a choice Avenue for the community as a whole to weigh in and then we could possibly stop accusing one group of having scripted emotions while another group's emotions are genuine I find that offensive so on that note I would wish that a Community Committee of representatives from all sides of the issue be there more than two would have the ability to have a discourse a healing conversation come to a understanding of one another's feelings and emotions as they relate to this and it could possibly lower the temperature of the very politicized and diverse con conference that we're having at this time the discourse that's surrounding this issue right now is so emotional and so angry that the committee could serve as a venue to lower that temperature
289and come to a consensus that both sides would be able to agree or at least accept how would the committee decide what we're gonna name on that name schools I mean well the committee itself Mr Sampson the committee is to uh investigate the possible renaming of current educational and auxiliary campuses Dr O'Brien was there anything in the cover of that that would speak more to Mr Sampson's question no other than uh We've committees in the past and it would be similar to that same formation when we have rezoning we will be having rezoning again this year for our new Junior High campus and a new Elementary campuses coming on board in their future uh so the same process we've used in the past could be used where each board member selects two citizens from their
290district and then campuses that are being impacted select uh two parents from that community that representation and then we also generally go to our local Chamber of Commerce to ask for stakeholders across the community that represent financial institutions other um potentially are um industry and and people who represent our whole Community would be a part of the stakeholders that represent this uh Community generally speaking the Committees can range from anywhere from 20 to 30 members even more if the wish of the board I do know that in the past Dr O'Brien when we formed our strategic planning committee we actually opened up the membership to anyone and everyone interested in the community and being involved in that conversation being involved in the formation of our strategic plan and once attending those meetings they were able
291to sign up to either stay on the committee or serve in a capacity as representatives in in different groups divided into several smaller I understand that and so it's a process that would need to be refined but I also don't feel like there's a reason to exclude any Community member that wishes to be involved in the process of that committee um of course we have used third-party facilitators in order to keep these committees in line make sure that both or all sides of an issue are represented and discussed so that was also something that was talked about for another conversation we've had administratively is in the appointment of a designee uh third party has absolutely been part of the conversation we've actually talked to a couple of third-party entities without confirmation until this board meeting
292and then also with our citizens Bond advisory committee and oversight committees for example we allow the committee to form and then to nominate chairs and then there's a chairman over that committee that is of the citizens uh because at the end of the day this committee is formed or you can have more information it's still a board decision but the committee gathers information deliberates and makes a recommendation or an endorsement to the board to consider uh in regards to these it's going to be railroaded I mean that's the bottom line I can already see it because everybody is not going to be uh equal you're not going to get two people from shade two from him too from him two for them two from everywhere else and weeds aside on an equal basis if you
293got five on one side and five on the other side then how are you going to break the tie that's that's the bottom line how many people are you proposing to be on this committee yeah generally it's between two dozen and thirty we went from having two members from each board to having 24 to 30. that was not what he said when he originally discussed what he told me no no sir it's not yes ma'am yeah I talked to him and he said to each board member gets two members in the committee and that's how it works and wherever it was two people in the community that's what he told me I did not expect that to you that's what he told me then then then I misspoke when assuming what he said to you
294but in conversations that I have had with Dr O'Brien and in conversations that we've had in these board meetings concerning committees the committee formation at the last meeting was proposed to be the same style committee formation that we have used in the past to form committees for items such as Mega school for items such as Bond proposals for items such as um the strategic planning committee citizens Bond advisory all of the processes that we have in place to form committees that come and represent the diverse and District as a whole would be the processes that we would put into place for this and then using the third party administrator to help keep this uh unbiased mediation between objectives objections from either side it could also be put in place to ensure that there was a
295balance of individuals on the board speaking from both sides or multiple sides of the issue itself and I did just for reference I didn't mention it similar to the cbac which was stakeholders across the community as well but the Mr Sampson to your point if the community opted to appoint its own chairman or spokesman administration's recommendation would be to have one representative from each side be a coach there in conversation to facilitate if if it was to be done that way versus having a third party outside consultant come in yeah this you can see already the railroad and the train coming okay well we have a motion on the floor to form a committee to investigate the possible renaming of current educational and auxiliary campuses and I moved to vote at the time all in
296time let me ask you a question let me ask you a question this committee idea came up after we was talking about renaming Lee right yes am I right or wrong you are right [Music] am I right or wrong now you sitting up there not saying anything but am I right or wrong but I can't say that you're right or wrong because it came up after it came up after okay so it came up in response to a request by you to discuss renaming Robert E Lee High School on a future agenda when we were then um and treated by emails from the public the idea of a community involved Community Committee uh whatever they talking about was brought up after we had talked about doing Lee and changing Lee's name forward going forward or
297the item that's on the agenda sir well but it was evidently put on the agenda wrong in the wording what's wrong well you'll have to Lodge a complaint because it's on the agenda may I say something one more time I hope that this committee has a lot more courtesy for each other than we've shown tonight because we continue to speak over our trustee our fellow trustees fellow trustees with line art like they're supposed to and say the real truth you know the real proof as I as I responded to your question leave it alone okay we're still voting where I'm calling for a vote we're still voting on Lee after this I'm calling for a vote on action 90 all in favor of forming a committee to investigate the possible renaming of current education auxiliary
298campaign please raise your hand or state I your right hand foreign [Music] I have five in favor do I have any against forming a committee is that I Mr Sampson do we have any abstentions we have five four that's an abstention Mr Sampson and zero against and two abstentions motion passes to form a committee now we will move on to action item d in light of action that was taken on item nine e I'm sorry an action of in light of action taken on item 9d if there's no objection I will move past and cable item nine e or computer oh agenda to table something means that there's something else that's come up and we table it from for a minute and then we come back to it that's not what we're doing here I
299do object I think okay so let me reword and use the proper terms that you're indicating I'm misusing in light of our previous action regarding action agenda item 90 without objection I recommend no action on item 9e [Music] given an objection on this I moved disabled this item for future agenda if needed following completion of the committee process from action item 9d I have a motion on the floor do I have a second would you restate the motion please I moved to table item 9e for future agenda if needed following completion process that's point of order sir I will complete my motion and then I will call for discussion my motion is to table this item for a future agenda if needed following completion of the committee process from action item 9d foreign do I
300have a second we can't discuss yet right no we have to have a second to discuss the motion I second the motion okay having a motion and a second question that's on the floor as an example we're in the middle of discussing something then the superintendent comes in and he's got more information we have to table that to take care of this new information or we table it to the very next one or it does okay what you're saying according to Robert's Rules of Order Mr Cotter is correct but if you would replace the word table with postpone then it would be a correct motion but we still have to vote on this motion um Mr Hodgins is there a is there a problem with the wording in my motion to table this item for
301a future agenda if needed where the board generally follows rules I mean I believe that that the the input of the of the language that to table she's saying stating to table to a certain time period which follows the the completion I mean I would interpret that to to to be appropriate or it also means postpone so that's that's what if I heard the language correctly so if that language is not problematic move forward with that motion and I take amount of President you're clarifying that the intent of that language is to postpone the action pursuant to that timeline per person to the timeline of the completion of the committee process from action item 90. did that clarify enough for you uh trustee Clem yes sir and I think the objection was by trustee Cotter
302y Cotter okay hearing no other questions on the motion or the language having a second all in favor of tabling item 9f for future agenda if needed following completion of the committee process from action item 9d all in favor please raise your right hand any opposed please raise your right hand Mr Sampson is that your right arm I would say I should say left hand also okay any abstain from the vote so Mr Hodgins we have three four of the motion three against and one abstention motion dies because it's an action yes it would require affirmative vote of those present in voting and therefore a tie yeah a majority of the department a majority of those president voting the majority was not need to take the motion would fail okay so motion fails so moving
303on to action item nine e consideration a vote for renaming Robert E Lee High School any comments on the coverage a second comments on the item undercover Dr O'Brien no ma'am hi second okay so now you may make your motion sir I made the motion do you speak the motion announcer I made the motion already okay you spoke over me while I was asking Dr O'Brien if he had anything approved for approval thank you sir wait a second there's a motion on the floor by Mr Laredo and a second by Mr Cotter or any questions or comments or discussion on this action item 9e I would simply comment that in light of the formation of the committee to investigate the possible renaming that this item is a moot point I would at this time call
304for a vote to rename Robert E Lee High School all in favor please raise your right or left arm all opposed please raise your right or left arm any abstaining motion fails three four four against zero abstain so now we move on to action item nine F consideration of consent agenda Dr O'Brien yes for consent agenda this evening before we begin with my presentation of consent agenda Administration would request to pull item seven as interlocal agreement with Harris County has not been concluded waiting on signatures on their end so that will be forthcoming at a future board meeting if you wouldn't mind pulling that item please consideration of consent agenda uh F1 Innovative courses principles of community service and introduction to instrumentation and intellectual number two revise board policy CEO annual operating budget number three
305resolution amending fund balance policies in accordance with gasb 54 number four select construction manager at risk cmar as the delivery methods for the robotic facility project number five second option to extend CSP for spirit wear and apparel number six award cfp for audiological audiometric equipment supplies and related Services seven eight tax refunds as presented Administration would recommend approval of consent agenda okay are there any items on here with questions or comments any items need to be pulled at this time I'll entertain a motion to consider consent agenda items one through six and eight so moved move to approved sorry oh second I have a motion by Mr Clem and a second by Mrs guy any further questions or discussion all in favor of consideration of consented items consent agenda items one through six and eight
306please raise your right or left arm any against any abstaining we have six four zero against and one extension motion for consideration of consent agenda items passes now on to nine the consideration of appointment of delegate and alternate alternate to the Texas Association of school boards delegate assembly for Brian [Music] a recommended action to approve the appointment of delegate and Alternate to the Tasman delicate assembly virtual Saturday October 3rd vertical the Texas Association of school boards delegate assembly held annually in conjunction with tasby tacit convention will be virtual this year this is the foundation of the association's governance structure and provides spiritual direction as the association represents members interest before State and National policy makers the district's representation at the delegate assembly is of utmost importance it is vital that a representative understand the processes
307and the issues that for the assembly for action the recommendation of administration is to delegate Jessica Woods as president and Alternate Ben papia's vice president to represent Goose Creek CISD at the tasbi delegation I believe you do hearing no motions I moved to approve the recommendation as presented thanks um okay so any objections come on all right um if there's no conversation or questions or comments at this time I will ask for a vote on the motion on the floor to consider me and poor Mr poppy as a delicate and Alternate to the taspy delicate assembly all in favor raise your hand either one any opposed same sign any abstentions motion passes six four zero against one abstention moving on to 9h future board agenda items board training and board meetings I just wanted to
308once again say that I would like double workshop on the equity committee formation and planning and any goals that we have to do to make sure that this kind of committee gets formed the count the equity Council yes the council okay so I believe Dr Brian we are engaging You said Dr Cleveland to help us in that process and that we are asking that board members be included in the process to guarantee that we can have a Equity resolution for the board and be more active in the formation of the equity Council and the equity policy for the district yeah okay so that would include for training and agenda for the future any other future board agenda items I'd like us to quickly discuss whether we feel like we need to meet prior to September
30928th when our students return face-to-face instruction and review coveted data as it applies to our kids features we may very well have Personnel matters between now and then so it would be Administration would be in favor of a secondary meeting um and kind of as a add-on to that I think there are some issues with our return to face to face in a hybrid model that may need to be better understood or better uh explained yes Madam president I was planning to present that to you in a weekly update just letting you know that we have our Mantra has been throughout the coveted crisis has been flexibility and as we get cranked up with virtual learning this week we've discovered that there is some overloads at some of our campus levels particularly the junior highs
310being Revisited uh for the evaluation of its current hybrid model but as we've suggested all along this is a flexible model from pre-k to to seniors and we're going to make the adjustments in the best interest of our kiddos so that recommendation would be for forthcoming potentially by the end of the week and on a weekly update to you to let you know what's going on okay and I would ask that in that process that you examine the policy for families and their attendance at hybrid face to face it was brought to my attention that we are not grouping household students in the same pod of learning if you want to call it that for example campuses that have 8B schedules to decrease the point of contact and transmission for possible Coronavirus but yet we
311have students in the same household that are split because the split is based on their name and not their their living arrangements so we had a speaker that spoke to this tonight as well in our public participation that half of her children go to a and the other half go to B which to me might completely defeat the point of having an A and B we are evaluating all this one of the points of data that we were able to get this week with the startup handed to each board member this evening Miss Garcia placed it at your showing percentages of virtual versus Facebook the hybrid model that we had planned would in essence was planned based upon uh earlier survey data that showed about 70 to 75 percent of students go face to face
312we're now looking at actual registration numbers which indicate closer to 50 50 districts if in fact we're practicing the social distancing hybrid model under the premise of only 50 face to face we're actually setting up delves to a 25 ratio of face-to-face for it you're so uh we obviously planned it with a projected higher percentage of kids coming face to face now with that being lowered doubling our efforts through that hybrid model um is count them you are objective so the likelihood of the Junior High Hybrid model would be more like the high school model is uh very high we're looking at the possibility of aligning the junior high with the high school model so it won't be that Standalone different different thing that we anticipated because of the high number of students now I
313need to make sure everyone knows that in three weeks we go face to face a few weeks later and ADP 80 of our students are showing up face to face we'll make another adaption and another recommendation so we've known all along it was going to be fluid and it's dependent upon who actually shows up who registers show up and then who actually does show up and those types of things things that we did not want to have happen with our plan was it to vacillate back and forth day to day and week to week we did set the six week Mark as the consideration for changing from to face to face and vice versa we're also looking at uh how that's working with other districts that have had have about three or four weeks of
314this under their belt and seeing how that's working for them as well so all these things will be forthcoming and in one weekly update from the superintendent and two uh with consideration from our campus principals reporting back to the central office what's working and what's not working okay so are there any other board trainings or board agenda items at the request at this time and future board meetings we may um I believe it was suggested by Mr Clem that we may need to have another board meeting in September do we want to look at the calendar now or wait and see what the needs are the The Return To Face to Face will open on the 28th Mr Clem's comment was before that date so the calendar date we would look at or consider would
315be a Monday night which would be the week prior to that the 21st that's only a couple weeks away um but we think it will give us time to have any personalities that may have to take place between now and then and also will give us some measure of what's happening at the campus levels as well Okay so um we don't want to set that date at this time or wait and see if it's needed I'd rather wait Mr Carter as well any any other comments on that we'll wait okay so Dr O'Brien if the need arises we'll consider that date at that time yes ma'am um Mr Poppy do you need to bring up yes option item 9B yeah motion to reconsider action 9B second motion and a second to uh Mr property and
316Mr Clem to read an item 9B resolution in order fixing and living School District ad valorem taxes for the fiscal year 2019-2020. now just clarifying that it should be fiscal year 2020 2021 okay so that is correct all right so do I have a vote to reconsider action item 9B all in favor raise your hand seven four leaving zero against and zero abstaining so if you will reconsider action item 9B [Music] Mr would you like it would recommend uh making the edit oh okay oh yeah so Administration recommends that we edit and correct the fiscal year from 2019 2020 to 2020 2021 exactly give the oversight correct Mr puppy that's correct okay so we consider the resolution and Order fixing and living School District ad group alarm taxes for the fiscal year 2020 2021 thank
317you okay so I have a motion on the floor do I have a second second I have a second from Mr motion by Mr Price second by Mr Clem any discussion questions clarifications then heard all in favor please raise your hand seven four leaving zero against and zero abstaining motion passes on the reconsideration of the resolution uh not be being said I would move back down to 9i which is a closed session miss Woods because of the lateness is there anything that we have to take to close session or is it just Personnel can we go ahead and and do that Dr O'Brien I believe there is some consultation with the attorney there is there's one item that needs to be discussed okay so at this time the board will now recess into closed session
318pursuant to the following sections of the Texas business government code 551.071072-073074-075-076-082-083-084087 no action will be taken while the board is in close meeting the time is now 1 28 a.m September 10 2020. okay at this time 1 45 A.M board returns to open session no action was taken while the board was in closed meeting let the record reflect that Mr Cotter left the board meeting at 1 35 a.m September 10 2020 and Mr Sampson left the board meeting at 1 44 a.m September 10 2020. I would recommend that we move to action item oh I have another page somewhere it's Garcia okay yeah action item agenda item 9k okay it's 9k uh consideration of personnel Dr O'Brien Administration would at this time recommend that the poor approved my previously approved elections and resignation retirement as
319presented number one and two I do have one little question uh some of the resignations happened effective May 22nd and it's August now so what was the hold up on getting those to us you've got 40 seconds Mr Chapa Mr Chopper would you know why we have a May 2nd retirement or resignation that is not being confirmed until September is it possible there were several May 22nd effective May 20 seconds like more than two more than three Dr O'Brien or seven right Dr O'Brien can you hear me yes we hear you Mr chap Mr Chapa it will allow him as they have an appointment and they haven't worked since then and so we have to go back to the last day of their contract day that they have worked so these are basically no-shows yeah
320right or I'm not coming back because I don't want to right and so we just marked our last day after appointment is the last day that they had of their contract period that is a perfect answer thank you yes sir thank you no do I have a motion I move to approve I second okay so was that approved uh one and two k one and two in the second by Mr poppy any more questions or conversation none heard all in favor of approving K one and two is presented please raise your hand any opposed uh five four zero opposed and would that be two abstentions or just no there's only five of us here okay correct motion passes motion passes majority of board members present five four the motion zero against zero abstention Administration Network
321approval of administrative elections first of all high school counselor Kristen Reyes Robert E Lee High School move to approve second I have a motion on the floor from this guy and a second from Mr Laredo to approve high school counselor item k3a any questions conversations none heard all in favor please raise your right hand none opposed none abstaining motion passes five four approval Administration then recommends the approval of support administrator at James Bowie Elementary Javion Taylor a move to approve second motion by Mr Clem in a second by Mr Laredo to approve uh action item K 3 B any questions conversations none heard all in favor please raise your right hand all in favor zero against zero abstaining motion passes five in favor finally Administration recommends the approval of CTE specialist Shannon Ramirez Dr Ramirez
322to approve have a motion to approve do I have a second second I have a motion by Ms guy and a second by Mr Clem to approve k3c Career and Technical education specialist all in any conversations questions none heard all in favor please raise your right hand five four leaving zero against zero abstaining motion passes five in favor and final item on the agenda action item number 10. adjournment I moved to adjourn yep so motion four by Mr Clem seconded by I think that was Mr Laredo yes yeah anybody objecting all in favor raise your right hand we are adjourned 1 51 a.m September 10 2020. thank you assistance Mr Hodgins and thank you Mr flood and Mr Hodgins getting adjourned