Board Meeting 9-20-21

001awesome thank you all so much [Applause] and dr pretty thank you for coming tonight and bringing those awesome students and that is like i say one of my favorite parts of board meetings is recognizing our students so thank you all parents y'all did a great job raising great kids so thank you very much now this time we're also going to move up i just want to acknowledge my babies georgia and joseph in the zero dead college project y'all just look to make her proud [Applause] all right so now we're gonna move item um from the item 7d from reports superintendent uh the 2021 2022 professional learning advanced academics program update we're going to move that up to very now all right so at this time she's already making her way up there um we have

002our director for professional learning and advanced academics uh mrs amanda ball she's going to give a brief update on where we are with professional learning and our advanced academic program so amanda take it away thank you president montemayor board of trustees mr gallagher thank you for your time tonight and i'm going to share a few highlights just a couple of updates with you this brief presentation is going to update the board of trustees and our priorities to engage each student and learning experiences that lead to increased post-secondary readiness using and to engage each employee in meaningful learning experiences that support student success so of course everything we do is focused on students but you know we have to do our jobs to learn you know as adults before we can impact student success so this

003is just a little snapshot about the learning that our teachers did from may to august off contract so on their own time our teachers earned 5519 cpe hours um from may to august on their own time and you know this is this is so they can be prepared for our students when they come back to school in august and this doesn't include does not include our fall kickoff so this is before they even came back on contract um we're constantly learning during the school year and that's the kind of professional learning that is in response to what teachers ask for but in the summer we do our summit and called sketch or sched depending on who you ask um and we got some really good feedback on this platform so we're going to continue to

004use it highlight certain speakers and to be able to search by the strand and this is a snapshot a screenshot of what it looks like when you're in the platform we use our own teachers as 75 percent of the conference speakers and so it builds capacity within our own teachers as as conference speakers and as adult learning specialists so one of the other things about our summit is that building building capacity is it's not just kind of like a one of the things that we call edubabble it's important because during the school year we need our teachers to be able to lead professional learning on their own campuses when we talk about job embedded professional learning that's what we're talking about it's about learning during the day so we're not pulling teachers from from their

005jobs you know pulling them from instruction so during our summit 75 of our conference speakers were our own educators our own teachers principals um and you know the best way to know to truly know something is to teach it so another way that we do professional learning is through our mentor program and we hired a lot of people this year and you know thanks to a lot of the work that you guys have done we're able to hire a lot of people and we provide a mentor to here in the profession and so beginning teachers beginning teacher academy they're being trained in things like becoming an effective teacher managing the classroom environment maintaining positive student behavior and relationships and then our mentors are being trained in you know the role of a mentor building relationships

006with teachers and students the role of listening prioritizing work dealing with stress things like that and we've partnered with lead forward this year to be able to offer that training to them in a new way so let's look at the student aspect of this students get from advanced academics and we just saw a couple of our ap students that were up here being being honored it's it's not tangible regardless of what a student makes on the ap exam they're four times as likely to stay in college so a lot of the stuff's not tangible but we like data and we like to look at those hard numbers and so this is just a little snapshot here 682 students at the high school last year for this is 2020 2021 earned 2046 college credits saving 2.8

007million dollars in tuition and that's based on current unt cost of attendance so that's something that we do want to celebrate and then looking at our collegiate academy we had 26 students enrolled last year earning 216 college credits and we've more than doubled that this year so we've got 42 students now earning 471 college credits that they can earn so you know we continue to grow we continue to reflect we always want to get better and a lot of the work we do is because of the work that you're doing and the support that you give us so um i appreciate your time i sped through that but i just wanted to you know not take too much of your time but if there are any questions i'm you know happy to answer this i

008think with the agenda we're also going to move up item a input i know we have a lot of people in the crowd here that may not want to stick around for all the other agenda items so we will move uh item eight up so miss florence do we have those sign ups first hit us input um okay that's fine so in addition moving item eight up to now we're also on item nine j which is the agenda item right let's probably be spoken to a lot in citizen input we'll move that to right after citizen input as well yeah just so the audience knows i think it's important one that everyone has an opportunity to express their opinion on the input but also it's important i think for you guys to see and not

009wait for what the decisions are so that you guys know where everything is staying so we're going to move those items up to give you guys that opportunity what's going on all right so for citizen input audience participation should only be permitted at regular board meetings or at a meeting involving an action of the board and shall be limited to the public comment portion of the meeting designated for that purpose at at all other times during a board meeting the audience shall not enter into discussion or debate matters being considered by the board so we do have online as well as in-person sign-ups i'm going to do the online ones first and so first up we do have a christina escobar shorter um so this question just say your name and uh you have three

010minutes and i'll give you a one minute left warning good evening my name is christina escobar shorter i live on lockside in the colony and i'm a proud parent of two children who attend prestok elementary and i'm also part of the presbyter elementary pta our scientists our doctors and infectious disease specialists tell us that there are three things we can do to stop this copic spread number one get vaccinated number two is social distance and number three is wear a mask i spoke at last month's meeting august meeting strongly urging the school board to implement a mass command date because our kids under 12 are not yet eligible for vaccines to date the board has not implemented a mask mandate at the time of the last meeting there were two particularly prospect elementary there were

011two student covet cases and one staff case as of today after four o'clock it's just four weeks later and we are at 16 student cases and four staff cases this is a nearly sixth that is right check the map is a 600 percent increase in covet cases and we are only beginning the second week i'm sorry the second month of school so my ask again to the board is that you implement a district-wide mask directive for all staff and all students dr thompson mr english mr olsen i believe is not present how many more students need to fall ill before you act mr blackwood miss myers and mr flores how many more teachers need to fall ill before you act how many more families will need to watch their child or children suffer in the

012icu before you act and mr gallagher do students or a student need to die before the board acts thank you i think this is good all right next up we have ari wallace just give your name and then you'll have three minutes to speak i'll put my hand up when you have a minute um hello everybody my name is ari wallace and i'm an 8th grade student at walker middle school even though i won't be able to take these classes now i'm still interested in them for the future i feel that students should be taught about this rich history that is very critical to american civilization i also think students should have the opportunity to learn about the contributions of people who look like them so they can have role models to relate to i

013feel that during the african american studies class students should learn about change makers other than the mainstream people we talk about each year in february maybe sometimes we don't even celebrate black history month it's always optional when it should be mandatory there are many historical events involving black and brown people that is conveniently left out of or left out or skipped over when teaching american history or test history it's time for that to change i fully support and would love to see african-american and mexican-american courses offered in leicester by the way in latin x his it's latinx history month and we are currently learning about the 13 colonies thank [Applause] you you miss wallace uh we have a tear of ellis so then just say your name and you have 30 minutes i'll put my

014hand up when you have one left i'm so proud of you ari that's my baby y'all good evening my name is atera wallace and i've been a little elm resident since 2007. all three of my children have attended to currently still attend little elm isd i fully support the addition of the two ethnic studies courses thankfully i grew up in a city where african-american studies was interwoven into the curriculum from pre-k on the reason for that was because there was a need for it the demographic supported it and also the leadership there understood the assignment they knew that to teach a child about their history and the positive contributions to society by people who look like them would only serve to empower that child to be the best version of themselves this is something that

015i always felt was lacking in our district little elm isd continues to fail us in terms of honoring african-american contributions and history two quick personal examples that i have when my 16 current 16 year old was in second grade um his teacher gave an assignment during black history month to reenact the underground railroad it still kind of took me when i think about it because it's very upsetting she had a whole classroom full of six-year-olds turn out the lights hold hands and pretend to be reenacting like walking around the classroom if they were on the underground railroad i found that to be very upsetting my seventh my eighth grader who was in seventh grade wallace who you just heard from last year at walker walker middle school was given an assignment during black history month

016to imagine what it was like being a slave and to write out what the slave living quarters would have been like as if as if all there is to discuss in terms of our history is slavery this has to stop it's time for us to change this when we talk about the potential for these courses to be divisive we have to realize that the vision stems from fear fear of the unknown we have an opportunity to educate on those unknown people places events in order to eradicate that fear once we're educated we just we realized just how similar we are and we can begin begin to appreciate the similarities and those differences this brings about the connectivity unity and obscenity that comes from understanding one minute it is your responsibility as leaders in this community

017to seize those opportunities and do what's best and what's right for the people you serve personal feelings and fears aside and when it comes to deciding on books and teachers and all those things they'll work themselves out that should not deter you from moving forward with implementing these courses materials are approved and vetted by the state teachers are certified to teach those vetted materials the same is the same as they have excuse me for all the other courses that have been implemented in our district so i just ask that you please consider those things and look around this room that's representation that lets you know that there's a need for this movement for these courses not to cause the vision but to educate so we can come together thank you [Applause] thank you miss wallace

018next up we have jason salisbury should have unfolded earlier my name is jason salisbury i've lived in little over 20 years all of my kids have attended leisd i'm here tonight because there's some concern about electives electives options these electives have already been approved the curriculum hasn't been created but it's going through it's there's an outline it's good there are many people apparently that don't want to have these options they're concerned about what they might be or what they might teach they fear a future they cannot see what they should be afraid of is not learning from the past and realizing that taking options away from people it's not a good thing this therapist is a terrible waste of time and money there's no need for concern for something that might happen i've spoken to

019quite a few people who all feel like i do stop wasting time the residents of little elm are watching leave this in place but teach our children let's learn from history let's leave the option it's a choice it's not a requirement choices are always good i would recommend these to my two younger kids and i would hope that they would take them and learn they're still in little schools and it would be great if they had that option just like it would be bad to have these options taken away do the right thing thank you [Applause] thank you mr next we have darren moore mr merch state your name and yeah a few minutes thank you my name is darren moore and i am not a long-term resident but i've been here for about five

020years now as a resident of little elm and i just want to stop by just saying we're here talking about electives electives when we should be making this a mandatory class why are we why is it that this history is an elective it's divisive it's a choice maybe so maybe not but we're comfortable with american history we're comfortable with texas history we're comfortable with the history of you repeat europe but when it comes to teaching those who have been the most impacted were afraid well oh there's somebody it's something going to happen how do you ever do anything if you're so afraid of what might happen you can't be afraid of something that has not even occurred and and react to it in advance that does not make logical sense we have to be willing

021as leaders as parents as teachers as educators as community citizens of this community we have to stand together and say all history is good history to learn and we have to be willing to teach that history and not be afraid of what has happened in the past what we do here is we teach we're showing our children now that will oh no no this is not going to be a good thing so we better not do it because something might happen and then that something doesn't happen and where are we we're worse off now let's not sit on our hands and be afraid of the possibility of something negative happening let's act now let's make this a part of the curriculum we should be talking about instead of an elective we should be talking about

022making it a part of the permanent curriculum so that it's taught to all students and it's required instead of it being an elective where you can pick and choose when you if you do when you don't want to learn this this information this these ethnic studies are culturally rich they are there's a lot of information out there and we should be willing to teach that information to all students not just those who choose to take it i ask that you vote yes for putting these in place thank you guys for your time god bless thank you mr moore next we have lizzy lucky so again look at just you know stay with three minutes hello my name is lindsey lovett i am here to address the board and community members regarding african-american mexican-american studies electives

023these classes have been on hot topic at multiple board meetings and honestly having a hard time understanding why we're still debating whether or not to allow our students the opportunity to choose to learn history in our high school as i listen to the board meetings it's painfully clear that some people are unnecessarily criticizing these courses at the last board meeting we had nine community members that came to speak out against these electives and demand that you take back the previous vote to add mexican american and african-american cities to the 2022-2023 class catalog this group echoed the concerns of mr english and miss myers about critical race theory marxism and divisiveness these ideologies are not in the teaks of the ta approved courses and will not be allowed to be added into the curriculum that our

024district will be writing dr mika and mr gallagher patiently answered some questions and concerns about the process of creating elective in our district these courses are anything out of the ordinary and need to be treated as history classes instead of being a part of a political agenda i came this evening to hold the board accountable to the decision to add both african-american and mexican-american cities into the october catalog the board has been aware of requests for these classes for over a year there is no reason to continue to delay the process of allowing students to take the courses that they requested dr mika said that over 50 of the students that participated in the interest survey said that they would like to take these courses if you continue to delay the process then you will

025be denying access to an education that the students overwhelmingly requested continuing to deny this process also shows that the board does not trust our curriculum committee our teachers our admin or themselves the process of creating curriculum and adopting resources has numerous checkpoints along the way to ensure that these classes do not include content that is not approved these are history electives and should be taught as such without the addition of radical ideology and we have been sure the teacher outside of the approved vehicle or teaching with us will be immediately stopped and dealt with this is our district standard for all classes please put political and personal opinions assad long enough to see these courses for what they are an in-depth look into the people and effects of history that belong in our classrooms thank

026you [Applause] thank you mr kid next where isabel looking okay hold on uh okay hello i am isabella oh wait can you guys hear me yeah okay sorry um i'm isabelle lucky and i believe that we should have the african-american and mexican-american history electives added to the high school course even though they aren't in our current history textbooks they are part of american history and we should be given the opportunity to learn about them i as many other students my age were asked in a survey if we wanted to take this class i would prefer if i were able to take this course before i graduate high school thank you for your time [Applause] thank you mr next we have ty phillips so mrs phillips just state your name you have three minutes i'll let

027you know there's one left okay my name is ty phillips and due to the limited time i have to speak i will post my references later on the voices of little elm isd it is absolutely appalling to hear a school board member say that she and her constituents would find the study of anyone's history to be divisive it's as if the 1915 movie called the birth of a nation is taking place right here right now it's on youtube it's history go watch it ethnic studies is about teaching historical events and documents not about the indoctrination that they claim the issue is not about teaching history but more about those who seek to control the narrative of history for their political benefit slavery was abolished in 1865 and it became increasingly harder for the south to

028justify their purpose in succeeding in starting the war it was only natural for them to want to view the felled confederacy in some sort of positive light the united daughters of the confederacy became the dominant force in perpetuating the lost caused narrative it was their intent to downplay and completely dismiss slavery as a factory in the civil war it was their narrative that slaves were submissive happy and faithful the uec was instrumental in controlling school textbooks to reflect their narrative they did not want to teach the cornerstone speech by the vice president of the confederacy because he states our new government is upon exactly the opposite idea its foundations laid its cornerstone rest upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man that slavery subordination to the superior race is

029his natural normal conditions they also didn't want state succession letters including texas to be taught since slavery was specifically mentioned yet 11 years ago the texas school board was controlled by a more extreme voting bloc their goal was to line study of history with their political agendas and without the input of actual historians they changed social study standards to minimize the separation of church and state it changed america from a democracy to a constitutional republic said that mccarthyism of the 50s was later vindicated united nations became american sovereignty or threatened american sovereignty and of course they took out slavery as the primary cause of the civil war without mentioning the kkk or jim crow but in 2018 texas finally reversed that and began teaching slavery as a primary cause this year house bill 3979 was

030signed by the governor and was set to become law this bill requires certain historical documents to be taught in public school classrooms but the senate bill 3 attempts to remove those things so let's be clear texas senators do not want to be law that we teach the fugitive slaves acts of 1793 and 1850. susan the anthony the jakar movement women's schneider act 1924 the american labor movement the i have a dream speech the civil rights act 1964 brown versus the board of education emancipation proclamation the 15th the 19th and the 26th amendments of the constitution and that the vice the klu klux klan was a white supremacist hate group how is teaching these historical events and documents divisive or somehow descending into marxism it is your current actions and speeches that will create further division

031[Applause] next carol ash my name is carolyn nash i live in the winfield farm community in little elm i wanted to come and address the board i know that you have an agenda item tonight brought to you by um mr daily on english to remove the ethnic studies course um i want to appeal to the rest of you and just read a little something i want you to ask him before you take your vote ask him why would you launch such an argument or why wouldn't you launch the same argument for the ap euro studies course um ap euro studies has a six weeks course where they actually teach marxism and division for a literal 20 to 30 percent of the students grades why didn't daily on english move to strike that class before you

032vote please consider these things ethnic studies as you can see is needed it'll keep our children from having to endure things like reenacting slave marches or trying to consider what a slave quarter was like i've actually been in slave quarters it's nothing imaginable it's terrifying it's heart-wrenching it's ugly there the holes that are built into the building for sunlight for the slaves because they didn't have windows but those little holes that were cut into the buildings are lined with glass still to this day because if a slave were to try to escape through that hole he would get he or she would be cut up and bleed to death while they were running away i just wanted to make that clear so the next time a teacher in this district asks our children to reenact

033something like that they'll consider that please consider voting no on de leon's proposal to remove this agenda item thank you [Applause] thank you next we have jenny wiese is jamie williams with us okay i'll come back to that uh next we have wherever i mispronounce this amy kangaroo did you state your name and you have three minutes good evening my name is amy kangarati and my husband and i have been residents of loveland since 2006. our children are currently students in the district and i would like to make a statement in favor of keeping the african-american and mexican-american studies courses on the 2022-2023 course guide i've thought a lot about what i would say tonight i've decided to make a personal appeal as a young girl coming of age in the 80s and 90s in

034arlington and it's very rare for a woman to admit their age but i'm 45 years old and i would have loved to have a course that reflected my history and my culture i was fortunate to have a to know my great grandmother who was born in 1892 and she was fortunate fortunate enough to be on this earth for 98 years the things that she loved to do was gather up all her children all her babies and she considered my 45 year old father her baby and tell us stories it's not until i realized and became an adult that the stories she was teaching us are telling us are not stories this was history and this was the history that she knew that i was not learning during the week in my in my history courses

035and so you know most my cousins and i were complaining grandma nancy would tell the same stories over over and over but it was important to her that we knew our culture we knew our history because we were not learning it it's 2021 my children are still not learning their history i supplement their their history and i'm fortunate enough that my parents who are in their late 70s they're able to bring to life the civil rights movement they came of age during jim crow they tell my children what that meant and they can tell them what it felt like but it's not important that my children and children who look like my children know that history every child needs to learn that history we have the opportunity to turn the corner and to make a

036change in correct history and to do the right thing please do the right thing me on the right side of history on this it's important thank you [Applause] thank you very much next we have doraletha troy paul try that again later um we have next we have gibson so just state your name and i'll let you know there's one in the left hello everybody my name is cliff kimson um i have two children high school age uh came through little elm school system um and i'm here uh first i'm just happy to see everybody here uh to just i don't care what you're here for i'm glad that everyone's being engaged right um but the reason i wanted to speak today was just to just to say that this is not just for the hispanic

037and the african-american kids i love this i love this community i love the school system but this is for everybody this is the to bring more understanding that if a child is interested in learning about the history of their uh their mexican uh american or african-american friends or neighbors that they have that opportunity to do that that they have opportunity to learn something more about something that they may have interested in and that's why we're here i thought it was interesting that i saw it says engage equipment and power what better way to engage and equip and empower our children than to make sure that they understand the history that they came from that their neighbors came from they it it it is very very important um i don't want to believe this overwhelming home

038said that a child's education to start at least 100 years before that child was born and we have to embrace all history we need to embrace the history of what's about 40 of this community because they are going to be here and told everybody so we need to embrace everyone's history and make sure we're able to move forward holding hands together that's all i have thank you thank you mr kim next christy miller state your name in three minutes i'll give you a one minute warning my name is christy miller i live on sunday drive and thank you for the opportunity to speak again tonight last month i was here talking about personal uh responsibility and freedom and i'd kind of like to continue on that i'd like to start by thanking the board again

039and the administrators for continuing to allow ask choice people need to understand anyone can wear a mask if they choose to but the decision to mask our children should be up to the parents i'm truly thankful you are allowing parents to make this personal health voice for our own children thank you very much tonight i want to add to mask discussion by talking about vaccines which is not an agenda tonight both recent announcements from joe biden i'm sure that these things will be discussed very soon have you ever heard the phrase california my texas um we've heard that a lot since we've moved here do you know how california went from a beautiful prosperous place to live to a sad expensive graffiti garbage and homeless villa place a place that has nearly no freedom and

040has declined to the point of no return i'll tell you how california's have basically handed over their freedoms almost willingly they have voted for their own downfall and they've allowed their leadership to chip away at their rights i'm here tonight to give you all a warning i've seen what it's like on the other side i want to warn you all that accepting these unconstitutional mandates like masking and vaccinating our children is a very slippery slope these mandates might seem like a good idea to you but i can assure you they will be the start of our decline i'm not saying don't wear a mask or don't get vaccinated it is your right to do so but please don't force these things on others especially children that have a 99.98 chance of surviving covid some people

041already carry natural antibodies some people are at risk for adverse reactions some people simply want to wait for more information we should not be forced to do these things to earn back our privileges that is wrong on so many levels please don't hand over your freedom i know the president stated that this is not about freedom but i would respectfully disagree we need to start voting for people that will protect our constitutional rights all the way from the president to the governor down to the mayor and even our school board members the people we choose to represent us matters don't you want leaders that protect your personal and medical choices this is very important please don't hand over your freedom the power is in our hands and lastly please don't california or texas [Applause] thank

042you miss miller uh next we have uh colina fulcher state your name and you have three minutes i'll give you one minute thank you hello my name is sholina fulcher i know it's a tough one it's okay um okay i'm a parent of two students little m students one eighth grader and one kindergarten um i think the offering of african-american and mexican-american studies is an amazing amazing idea and long overdue for little elm to be honest that has been one of my biggest issues with leisd the lack of representation for minority students within the schools and teachings so much so that my husband and i even contemplated moving before my kindergarten my youngest child i'm sorry started school so that she wouldn't have to endure that same lack of representation within her education that my

043son has the information that will be covered in these courses are just as if not more important the information in these elective courses i'm sorry is just as important than texas history which is a required course i feel this would help our students to become more knowledgeable compassionate and well-rounded individuals which is something i hope that we all strive for it's been shown that the parents want this and our children need these options i hope this is just the beginning of ethnic courses that will be taught within elliot leisd thank you [Applause] thank you miss fulcher we have henry johnson hi mr dodson just state your name and you'll have three minutes good evening i'm henry johnson i've been here in little elm since 0-5 i believe we had to go to little the colony

044for walmart so i've been here for a while the high school was i think the football team was one and nine a year old and 10 the year before that that's when i decided to involve myself in the community um i want to start off by leading with a quote our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter september 20 it's sad to know we're still in a society that wants to control what we know or don't know about our history a history that wouldn't let you move wouldn't let you move up to the out of the eighth grade without passing american history texas history or government class without a 70 or higher the same american history that tried to erase a culture of people label them starve and

045oppress a whole race of americans americans the same american history that burned down a whole tulsa community that wasn't bothering anyone the same american history that ran a syphilis test on american race of men an american race of men the same american history that chose a hateful that chose someone hateful to call an america to call other americans rapists thugs murderers because that fit the agenda and it was a popular opinion are we talking about the same american history that now has that has become so divided by the past leaders that if the information didn't come from a political party of their liking is fake news why are we hiding the things that america did to the americans why is this why is this lesson what is this lesson to this what are we learning

046from this lesson what are we really telling or teaching our youth if it's not us the whole truth so help us god one minute it scares me to know that we have a board member that can hold up that can hold up his right hand and swear to swear to tell the whole truth in court and hear but doesn't want the whole truth told in our schools to our youth we are hiding why are we hiding history shows us that a certain race of people that a certain race of people have happened to look like that happen to look like the board member have been begging and protesting for equality and justice for all for all before george floyd trayvon martin sandra bland ahmad aubry emmett till and of course we know that list of

047names goes on have we not been reminded are we not reminded of the history of our movies of our history in our movies and music popular artists and basic men and women like you and me have told store that have fallen on deaf ears for centuries story of american history black hit which is black history time which is mexican history vote to have this god we should our students need to know what history is [Applause] thank you mr johnson next we have uh katrin moore this won't state your name for the record and you'll have three minutes my name is katrina moore and i'm a resident of ali elm been here for five years i'm an immigration attorney for 20 years and i'm also a prep llc that i'm owned by my husband and my

048kids we teach life skills to kids and the idea is to help them be the best version of themselves i came out of my bed today y'all i had surgery as you can see i still have the line but it was that important to me to be here tonight because i was just i couldn't believe it i couldn't believe that this is a conversation that the fact that we have an item agenda tonight and to the board members because i know i can speak longer than three minutes i've sent each of you my email to trustee english so that you can read my comments and i've also included it because you guys have said everything pretty much that needs to be said but i want to give one more perspective so hurry up so one

049of them is that ethnic studies you know came out of the movement in terms of protesting and the idea was that the curriculum the main base curriculum wasn't inclusive of everyone that was the whole idea of protesting to have this information included a long time ago i'm going to myself too 1998 in college was my first time i ever had an african-american histories course that's the last time i had an african-american history course are you telling me 20-something years later we're debating whether or not our children have the option to include this history which is american history all history is american history we all contributed the fact that we are excluding and not having to incorporate it says a lot about i'm sorry where some of us still are i don't believe that the majority

050of us are majority of us are there i don't believe that i refuse to believe that it's inclusive excellence that's what this is about cold collaboration with students we don't give students enough credit they are intelligent kids they don't need to just be knowledge consumers they should they are intellectual thinkers analytical thinkers who have the ability to create history as well and if we treat them that way we do that by showing that when they ask for something that they want to learn that we give it to them we give it to them in the framework under the support the guidance and the rules and the law to be able to do so one of the things i think is really important is that this gets an opportunity to reclaim historical memories that's what this

051does it's already there i also have the mom that taught thank god taught me my history i am the part of the history that people don't talk about and where my one side of my family we don't have a slave history everybody talks about slaves when it comes to that that's one piece of of african experience i'm coming from the my grandfather was a revolutionary war i can take it all the way back all the way back no they were free i bet you don't even know how i don't have time to teach that today my mother could come and teach that class for you because we can use the different resources to make sure that the information which is i mean it's amazing that we all can know about it so the name of

052the video is calling your past calling our past i've given it to you guys to look at if you guys want to see what it looks like when it works when ethnic study works at a private uh private all-boys predominantly caucasian school in salisbury connecticut where my family's front if you want to see what it looks like when it's done right go look look up color in your past my kids my two boys uh co collaborated and co-directed that and it is now in the film festival right now because it voted on the best historical documentaries [Applause] thank you jenny mccullough stay good evening my name is jenny mccullough i live in little elm i'm hoping to bring my grandchildren here when my getting my sons to move here also i wonder why it is

053a good idea to divide students into subgroups to what end is it to build up those subgroups what what then does it do to the overall student body we live in a time where it seems that people are pushing us away from each other with this type of division why we are not endeavoring to unite ourselves rather than divide ourselves into groups we are personally have no control over how we are born it just doesn't make sense i'm trying to remember to remember when i was in school what did i learn about american history it's been over a half century ago and honestly i can't remember it accurately is it possible that what i learned was skewed to the dominant group in the country the group that is still dominant in population today it could

054have been why in the world should or could american history still be in that same box i wonder is it still or is it inclusive of all of those that have made this country and continue to make it what it is the greatest country that the world has ever seen the questions i offer you as the school board and i believe that they are worth contemplating maybe we need to look at the history that was written back then maybe it needs to be rewritten to include all the histories maybe we didn't learn it the right way back in those days and and write it differently in my own personal life i have jewish grandchildren i have bolivian grandchildren and i have mexican grandchildren i have never seen them as anything but my own relatives my

055family my loves i don't see them by the melon melanin in their skin by where their parents came from or by a particular religion they are my family i for one believe that this is the way that all of us should feel about each other as americans first i believe that all americans are part of my american family and do not in any way countenance the division that is put upon us by political operatives we need unification solidarity and love of our fellow citizens to heal our country we do not need division separation uplifting other segmented groups in our society at the expense of others we do not need ethnic studies for that very reason i propose that you the vote on this timely issue please consider voting for all inclusive american studies curriculum that

056will replace the ethnic studies program please consider unity rather than division please consider that we as a country need to stop the current trend of division we will certainly suffer a fate that is most hard to even contemplate we are all americans and we will in short order no longer be if we continue on this horrible divisive road to perdition thank you very much [Applause] thank you mr color george mccullough state your name and you'll have three minutes my name is george mccullough and you just heard my wife um the board approved ethnic studies a few meetings ago at that time there was no outline no textbooks no information on what these studies would look like we were told that there would be two curriculums one for african-american studies and one for mexican-american studies there

057was a discussion that ensued that indicated some of the members on the board considered picking these two ethnicities would be divisive to the student population as a whole consider this there's a very large contingent of people here from the subcontinent of india what about them what about hispanics that live here that are from central and south america why are they left out what about the native american indians that live here don't they get their own course too we have a wide diaspora of people originally from different cultures they are now americans that brings up the overwriting point here today why don't we just have american studies a course that brings everyone together one that does not separate by skin color religion or any other preference a course that would not be divisive at all it

058would be inclusive and would also give everyone in our schools something that would bring them all together they are american and there's much to be proud of in a rich and diverse history learning about how the chinese and sikh indian workers were building the first transcontinental railroads how the iroquois indians confederacies assisted in the thought process of forming our constitution how black americans fought bravely in the civil war for their freedom how the buffalo soldiers helped conquer the west how the scots came over and brought their shipbuilding talents to create the first functional american navy how the irish came here entered servants and later became an integral part of society notably thoughty murphy the most decorated soldier who fought in world war ii doing his part to save the world from tyranny this is just

059a small sample of some of the history that could be told in american studies courses along with the countless other achievements that many different people accomplished as they became americans the history is very enlightening very inclusive and very unifying something that our society sorely lacks today thank you [Applause] did jay williams jared heath can you state your name for the record and you have three minutes hello my name is jared heath and i want to say that uh i actually agree with you um i my uh senior capstone class in college was african-american literature at the turn of the 20th century and my senior thesis was on the use of glass bottle trees as a literary trope in james waldon johnson's uh the autobiography of an ex-collared man i've really loved and enjoyed the history

060of all peoples who have passed through and helped to build this great nation i would hope that such a curriculum would actually sound like what has been discussed tonight i'm actually here to oppose the ethnic studies class not because i'm opposed to the ethnic studies class but because we passed something we don't even know what it is i hope it sounds like that but what's in it it just seems really irresponsible to say yes we're going to do it we have no idea what this is like let's let's get the curriculum let's dissect it let's look at it make sure it's everything that we hope it is and then let's pass something when we actually have something in hand can you hand me a copy of the curriculum right now no so what are we

061doing like it's just not it's not there this is it's procedurally not correct to do and i agree with what you said and i want it to be that way um some of us have tonight have portrayed anyone who's opposed um to the ethnic studies curriculum or the idea of this class as inherently um see i wrote some of these down bigoted backwards simple-minded racist um like let's not let's let's not be drawing those that's all that let's let the speaker speak good i'm interrupted please let's understand what we're doing here i'm not here to oppose the the class the curriculum it's something that's important to me and in fact it sounds like mr mccullough uh if you'll forgive me for mentioning your your white hair um you've been around a long time and it

062sounds like you've actually learned history you know i'm not sure that we aren't learning history there are things that we could improve and that would be great so when you can hand me a copy of the curriculum and we can actually talk about the curriculum let's do that but until then let's take it off the table let's make sure that we're making a vote on something that we actually have instead of voting on the idea of something and trusting trusting something like what are we doing it's a waste of time speaking of things that we trust let me see if i can find my spot now one minute um one of the concerns with trusting the state school board um to follow the law is that schools all over texas are already trying to defy

063mask mandates or anti-mass mandates so who's going to guarantee that they're going to adhere to critical race theory laws either um you know this this isn't coming out of a position of fear this is a position this is looking at history like what's happened in america what's happening in america right now what's happening in the states right now patience is not fear patience is wisdom it's measured it's rational if the curriculum is all that we hope that it is then that's that i can't really say that i would oppose that but we don't know what it is let's let's pass something while we have it thank you thank you mr heath [Applause] next we have kalyn johnson i'd state your name for the record in three minutes give you a minute heads up just name

064it my name is kalyn johnson sorry if you can't hear me in the back um i have two students at hackberry elementary and two more at home first i want to thank the board for maintaining their stance on not making massive requirement for our children my children have thoroughly enjoyed this school year in total honesty i've been a less than involved parent in the classroom uh sure i've done the room mom thing and dropped off items when needed but other than that i've been not too involved what happens in my kids classrooms i've been part of the problem so i'm sure before this school year this these riveting school board meetings were nearly empty and now you have a sudden uptick in community participation that seems to be the case across the country and why

065is that for me personally this journey started with the at-home learning of co during covid i was way more hands-on than i ever thought i would be but i realized it was nice to see my son's curriculum and to be involved and know what he was learning fast forward to the present our country's educational system is a hot topic it has been building up to this for years but that has gone unnoticed by most parents including myself social emotional learning has been seeping into curriculums and has been overshadowing academics and in many districts across the country i've spent hours reading california's curriculum for their course also entitled ethnic studies which is now a graduation requirement in their state you find it on their government site it was paraded as a cultural studies course which we

066were all we're all hoping for and but when you get into the meat of the lesson plans you will find the more radical tenets of critical race theory embedded into it i've read these lesson plans and they're for k to 12. um these ethnic studies courses are foot in the door it is an opening for crt to make its way into our districts you say it isn't crt but i haven't seen a curriculum has been mentioned i'm skeptical because other states have been fighting the same battle in california the front runner in all of this is implementing crt studies and it spread from the high school to elementary i'm not against teaching this country's history the good the bad the ugly all the players as the couple before me so eloquently put it um but

067you can see why when you say this isn't crt in any way and it is sorry i'm only against the radical tenants that are tending to be packaged with it in other states um so i'm asking that we not make this a battle in the future i'm asking you to remove the approval for this forerunner to crt i'm rectifying my lack of involvement here and now my vault i volunteer weekly in my kids classrooms this year and just this last wednesday i spent a whole day constructing a heritage to hispanic bulletin board and showcasing what my kids classes were learning i do believe in all incomprehensive or all-inclusive history class thank you [Applause] thank you ms johnson mike peterson and state your name for the record and you have three minutes hi i'm mike peterson

068uh at 3913 shadewell street here in this area um and i'm grateful to talk about a topic um that i've had a lot of experience with uh in my profession i'm an hr business partner i'm overlooking about 30 000 employees this has become a very hot topic in our group we've had to become experts at least you know at least make an attempt to be the best we can as we develop and we focus on our unbiased or unconscious biases that are taking place this is a very divisive topic i've had a lot of conversations and usually as an hr pers i hope to provide a neutral perspective that at least bringing different ideas as we're looking at you know these ethnic studies and understanding what our unconscious biases are so usually from an hr

069perspective if no one likes it i've done my job so um but i one thing that has really worked in the corporate world is we haven't even trusted professionals um to come in and to and to teach something similar to what uh you know race studies or ethnic studies really are we we put a team of professionals together with multiple viewpoints that have a lot of perspectives and a lot of backgrounds and i can say i've i've had a privilege of working with some very smart people of different uh they're very different than me different perspectives and i've learned a ton in that end and it was a pleasure working with these professionals that we were able to control what the message was that we want to have within a company right the message that

070we want to go to our employees and i hope as a board the discussion's happening if if we feel this is a topic that needs to happen our area as a board in our education i i would hope that we're not relying on a single or a handful of educators to who are very divisive um topic right owning that message for instance you can own the message of making it an online course or at least a video course one minute thank you an online course where you can own the message that everyone can get approvals of it because as a board you put yourself at risk with an administration you don't oversee it quite as often i know you have a lot of things going on we've seen it in something as simple as a

071chemistry class right in a very conservative state talking about very controversial topics right with students that was recorded i don't want this board to be put in that situation or in our community so i think there's opportunities that we can look at we're not relying on individuals but have a lot of different viewpoints that are put together as a team and have something like just you know a a video training that takes place that multiple parties can have a say in and make sure that our voices are heard is different and a large variety of diversity that's within here so i hope we're considering that and not relying on those individuals for me simple methods from students i have three and hacked myself home and act like china's the best country in the world right

072the teacher is not trying to teach childs better but that's the message they're taking right so i want to make sure as a parent i want to be included in what materials being done so i can i can guide them directly i feel this country's great and why we get god-given freedoms an opportunity thank thank you [Applause] thank you mr peterson uh tom seismore just state your name for the record in three minutes i'll give you one minute heads up good evening my name is tom sizemore sorry for the raspiness i coached a little on baseball so i've been yelling at little boys all day and keeping them in line which i love doing um i've got four children i've lived in little or really i live in frisco i'm one of the blessed ones

073in frisco that gets to enjoy little home schools um that's how i like to say it so i've got four little children eight seven five and two um we talked about learning history i think we all agree that's good to learn my heart actually aches that we're sitting here divisive and speaking about this topic but ethnic studies as it's been as it's being shared and pushed is not what we are being led to believe it is it's not focusing on the amazing civil rights movement it's not focusing on the amazing man mlk was it's not about those black families that served in the in the revolutionary war all right it's not about the true struggles that our black brothers and sisters went through it's not about the positive impacts of cultures from around the world

074it's a study focused on separation division oppression victimhood and oppressors it's very very divisive i want to read a scripture if you're familiar with the flax and cord it's a very very thin piece of string that can easily be broken i'm going to analyze this and focus it on ethnic studies heather as they're and there are also secret combinations even as in times of old according to the combinations of the devil for he is the founder of all these things yea the founder of murder and works of darkness yay and he leadeth them by the neck with a flax and cord until he bindeth them with his strong courts forever for behold my beloved brethren i say unto you that the lord god worketh not in darkness we don't have a curriculum we have no

075idea what's going to be taught we don't know what teachers are going to teach we all know that it's being politicized and the teachers often times take and push this dear sister you talked about learning of the slaves and them teaching the slave march that is an example of a teacher taking it to an extreme what's going to stop a teacher from doing something else you can make your own african studies class who's to say that teacher is going to follow any curriculum that we approve that's why it's so divisive we should teach american studies we should teach all studies as christians we are instructed to avoid false philosophies the apostle paul tells us see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition according to the

076elemental spirits of the world and not according to christ this directive suggests wrong ideas will tempt believers away from jesus false philosophies will delude people that's why we should be aware of the deceptive world views and our victims for devotional christ will be ended up hindered this does not mean that we shouldn't learn about the great history of america and blacks and mexicans and indians and every other culture that participated in it but what we're trying to approve is divisive teams we are all one country we're all trying to come together why do i now need to teach my children how divisive we were 40 50 60 100 years ago let's teach about us moving forward right let's teach us about us going forward right i want them to learn about black strip i want

077them to learn about mexican history but breaking into its separate group is only going to be divisive last comment here is critical race is is ethnic studies three racist yes ethnic study begins by asserting the importance of social significance of racial categories rejection thanks thank you [Applause] thank you mr sizemore next we have mary suffered where's the seaford effort yeah so just a name for the record and okay then you have three minutes i'll give you one minute yes okay um let me get this hold up okay i graduated high school in 1963. don't engage at all please don't don't there's no now okay yeah yeah yeah i graduated high school in 1963 in texas i was born in texas and raised for the most part in texas i married at 18. i graduated at

07817 married at 18 and left texas at 19 to go to yankee land yay uh as time passed and as an adult i began i don't remember learning to read i don't remember not knowing how to read so i've always been a very enthusiastic reader i began to read about the truth of the history of the south including texas i began to wake up to the fact that what i had been taught in school and history classes about the cause of the civil war was lies i was told i was taught and tested that the civil war had absolutely nothing to do with slavery it was all about power between the north and the south and i found out that wasn't true i don't want that to happen to our kids today i do agree

079with the fact that maybe we need to know what's going to be taught i do i was impressed that why are we making this an elective and separate well it's it's all american history why is it not all together why is it not required um it definitely needs to be a part of little elm high school i've lived here for seven years but i've been in north texas a little bit longer than that and i had kids grandkids who went to school at little m a very good school um i also hope that sometime in the not too distant future as it has been mentioned that one more minute as well as bring all the history together that it's all together instead of separate and some of it elective and so of it required that

080we include the history of the native americans they have been they were horribly treated and they still are neglected horribly and that needs to change um this generation and the ones to follow may be willing and able to improve our present and our future for everyone no matter their origin as a nation we have accomplished much there's still a lot of work to be done thank you miss seaford next we have zachary and buchwa hopefully i didn't butcher that too much just state your name for the record and you have three minutes i'll give you one minute and heads up my name is zachary bogua been a resident for a little while since i'm a proud parent of two kids in high school i'm here my daughter she's in uh she's doing a basketball uh

081volleyball practice and she wanted to be here to voice her opinion on the subject of including the african-american history and native american history my wife also spoke and she the views that she has is the same views that i have so i'm not gonna dwell on the same information i'm just gonna represent my daughter who she asked me to do that and this is in response to we had sent a letter to uh mr english and he did uh take the time and responded to that email and uh we are open at home and we do we do discuss these things with our kids they i love to get their input and i like to share what my daughter wanted so i'm gonna read this mr mr english thank you for your response to my

082mother's email your response to my mother's email was beyond disappointing this is not to say that i'm angry though i am this is to say that i'm i'm farming my beliefs and not only as a young african-american woman but as a student of little m high school this is my reasoning race and culture are not sensitive topics unless thought to be unless thought to be education on race and culture cannot be can cannot only get rid of the sensitivity and con controversy you say surrounds these topics but also brings about the unity we all want and lastly ethnic solidarity is cultivating unity it is also the freedom in the american spirit you should be advocating thank you everyone [Applause] thank you mr muga next we have uh dr don krutka state your name for the

083record and after three minutes i'll give you one minute notice all right this is fun huh um i'm dan kretka and um i'm an associate professor of social studies education so i'm my doctor in teaching social studies this is kind of what i do it's actually just like class we talk about this stuff all semester long and so i'm just here to to kind to talk about a few things um i mean i could talk about how research has continually shown that ethnic studies is beneficial for the students who choose to take it that's been consistent research is consistent over and over but i've only got three minutes so i'm not going to cite all the research i'd be happy to leave my email if you want me to dig it all up for you

084i'll be happy to send it to anyone um you all are in a great position right you get to tell me to quit after three minutes that's something my students certainly would love to be able to do sometimes i think when i go on my little rants here but my college students continually come to our classes at the university of north texas not ready we have to re-teach them history because they learn inaccurate histories in high school ethnic studies courses have continually been real well researched um to people worrying about the curriculum don't worry we've got 50 years of ethnic studies being offered in this country there are plenty of models and there's plenty of curriculum and i do trust our teachers to make good decisions i don't think they're going to go in and

085do harm to students i think if we have concerns we can always communicate those to teachers you know there's also just a lot of misunderstanding here critical race there is not taught in elementary school unless they're teaching interest convergence to third graders or something that maybe i missed it um i teach and understand critical race there which come into critical legal studies this is something taught in graduate schools right so anyone that's citing critical race theory has been relevant to this it is just completely i've never met anyone i studied social studies in this whole country never even heard of an example of anyone teaching it in schools although a lot of us would do better from better understanding it and quit using talking points and so one's teacher from the earlier from the district

086said that you all need to build capacity here sounds like you've got some problems with people doing simulations of slavery and things in classes i've got an idea how you can build capacity offer black ethnic studies black american ethnic studies and mexican-american ethnicities sounds like you'll be able to start building some capacity to make sure these mistakes don't happen and students don't come to the university of north texas and other colleges in the area and need to be re-educated about this nation's history i was invited here by my friend dr earl levingston um if you can tell earl's black and i'm white one of the things that has brought us together is our interest in black history it has not been that but divisive for me at all right in fact that's why we are

087friends we are friends because i care about black past black futures and black presence and i thank earl for being here and i hope you'll consider it i grew up in tulsa oklahoma where they hid what happened in tulsa for 100 years and i didn't learn it in school and i had to grow up and learn how i can be a better person in this country through going to college and being re-educated by people so i hope that we won't follow i know texans don't want to follow what oklahoma's doing right so teach black history here let's be honest about ourselves and then we'll bring us together to all my white friends that are worried about black history you're going to make some black friends once you start learning black history because they're going to

088want to talk and engage with you once you start showing them that you care about their past present future thank you thank you dr uh dr earl livingston just take your name for the record and you'll have three minutes and i'll give you a one minute heads up take this off so you can hear me um first of all did you hear the children did you hear the children did you hear him i'm dr livingston i'm a veteran i'm a member of this community and i'm a volunteer but today i come to you as an expert i have a bachelor's degree in history i have a master's degree in history and i have a phd in curriculum instruction i don't think anybody on that board so be careful because somebody's sitting in my seat somebody's

089sitting in my seat you need to start looking at the demographics and your curriculum should match the demographics look at this room look at walmart when you walk around and look at the changes that have taken place in the last seven years i've only been here for four but i can tell you this right now i'm really considering if i'm going to send my son to private school or public school and what this board does will help that decision but i'm not here for me because i can afford to send my kid to a private school everybody can't so i'm here to speak for them and what i'm here to say is don't lean to your own understanding trust the experts bringing bring in experts i'm sure that people like dr dan who's a national

090scholar would come and help you i have already come in i've been in office and offered assistance to no avail [Music] bring in the experts and to the constituents because that's what i'm calling you because we vote it's not up to them one minute it's up to us we decide if they're there or not you want to remove curriculum now let's start removing some of these people from these seats that are even bringing up the discussion of not having african-american history or mexican history do i have any african-americans up there any mexicans just want to make sure instead of being anti-history maybe we should just be anti-english [Applause] all right did we get any other forms or anything in that time okay i would like to like to break for a couple minutes yeah so

091we're just going to take about if we're going to take about a five minute break yeah just quick breaks come right back is 8 35. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] i had to run and go grab me i'm good two screen calls he never give up is and with that we're going to move on to what's on the agenda item as as yeah are we just getting folks back in session please could be silent please yeah so we're back in sessions we're gonna uh move on to what's currently on the agenda as action item 10 j we're going to move up to discuss right after citizen input so no that was that was it well wait mr g i have a question yes parliamentary because this item very closely resembles what we voted on in july and

092um my question is since the motion tonight is so it's so close to what we already voted on how can we move on this when we've already made a decision in july yeah i mean the current um the rules that the board has set up for the court operating procedure does allow as long as two board members agree that an item needs to be put on the agenda that we put that on and i have standing policy also that i'd rather have more debate and discussion than less so you know usually even if i don't agree with something i'm still going to agree to put that on so i know in this case we at least had three members that agreed to put this on so that's why we moved forward it was you know

093mr english myself and mr flores i know we're wanting to have it put on the agenda for discussion how would our decision tonight not undo the decision that was made in july if it is if it prevails how will it not undo the previous motion that was approved i think that's what it would do it would do it who brought it before the board was not part of the majority vote right but again he he's one of two members that agree to put on the agenda so he can come up and come up i wanted to point that out for many reasons so for clarification this is board policy it is not parliamentary procedure as usual and so we probably at some point also need to look at the board policy that's allowing the undoing

094of a previously approved motion right so i want to clarify it's not board policy it's it's your board operating services no that's a good point that's something that we can that we can take up to see you know establishing some sort of connection between bringing up an issue that's previously been decided yeah and having a more firm um so one i want to thank everyone for coming this evening to to this board meeting um and this is a very very touchy subject and a very difficult subject for me personally on a lot of different levels originally when this was brought forward my biggest concern was crt into the school system that was a huge concern and the reason why is a huge concern is i do not and still feel not that no one should

095be discriminated against any regard i don't care what race color creed you are from you should not be looked at as an individual one is a victim or someone should be looked at down upon i do not and i will always fight against that period so it was very concerning to me when this came up on those ideas i'm going to back up a little bit um just a little bit so you guys can get a little bit of a history about some of this and a little bit of history about me but some of you maybe making the motions yeah no no no no i'm staying before it because i'm into something this is a presentation um there was an event that happened to me oh 25 years ago um i met a woman

096who was not in my race from a completely different country and i remember saying to her and seeing her as we got more serious in a relationship thinking in my mind coming from los angeles california born and raised in compton watts having lost family members numerous times and here he actually knows this of what it would be like when i went to meet her family what are we black a black kid from los angeles california growing up in the hood going all the way to the netherlands to meet a family what it would be like i remember going there in that first trip seeing that family and meeting her and meeting her father and we had a really really good discussion he couldn't speak english he was dutch and as we had the further discussion

097i remember saying to her what did your dad think about this and she looked at me and said what do you mean i said well i'm black and you're white and she's she laughed at me and smiled she goes honey do you understand the history of our family i'm like not really you've never told me she goes my father is a concentration camp survivor and my mother-in-law has no family they were completely killed it's very interesting to me when i think about that i asked him i said papa do you hate german people he looked at me and he says no he doesn't and at the time it really hadn't set into me years ago after that after my father-in-law passed i am a big history buff coming from the marine corps and i remember

098sitting in front of a tv watching at the time called century warfare love history i studied it constantly me and that's me and mrs gallagher talked great deal about it and i remember my mother-in-law came to visit us and when she came to visit us um i was watching a video series about war and i remember mother-in-law walking into the room and she looked at the tv and i thought and i seen her face drop i thought huh that's weird as she left the room later on in the evening i told my wife i said your mama came in what was going on she goes you know that video you're looking at i said yeah she goes that was a battle of arnhem i said yeah there's a battle for him going on she goes

099you know that building that you you were looking at i go yeah she goes that was a building that she lost her family in here it is 50 years later i am looking at a video of a home that is on fire that at the time she was a eight-year-old or a real girl in that building how ironic was that very very ironic but what it did it taught me that division is something from our country we can no longer stand for many here tonight believe that ethnic unity is something that that would help i don't believe that i look at this couple right here and look at my wife and my family we're black and we are you know that but you don't look at your husband like that neither do i look at

100my wife either i look at other people as that way so when this course came up it concerned me because it was a black horse and hispanic course that was my concern when do we provide unity when when do we know racism is done when do we know to stop when do we know it's over do we keep going or not going do we keep separating and separating and separating and then that's it that is a question that i often ask myself that's what comes to mind and that's important to me these kids are important to me this community is important to me and the minute i saw that i thought wait a minute hold on a minute one we should not teach that one is better than other and crt was a thing that

101came into place and at the time there was not a default from the state on that which we do have now we do have that now and then there was my other concern and me and actually dr dr thompson here had a very good and long discussion and talk about it and i shared i shared my my ideas with her and she shared her ideas with me and many other board members we've talked numerous times prior to these votes and parties about years past about race and ethnicity and the importance of this stuff that goes on and how important it is to us how really really is important to us many of you have written me and i've written you back and saying hey this is my idea my personal personal preference personal preference would

102be a multicultural class that would be my personal preference the reason being is because we don't only have black americans and hispanic americans we also have asian americans indian americans middle eastern americans native americans putting students inside of a course that allows them to study all of those at the same time while studying african-americans and hispanic americans allows an opportunity to really understand each other allows an opportunities to bridge and hold hands it allows them opportunity to begin to understand each other that has always been my hope my hope is never to look at look at this and say i don't want to treat history because history is the most important thing we have without it we fail we truly truly fail so i am torn on this one i really am torn i see

103people who in the crowd who want to have it who don't want to have it who think this will help i think it won't help and it's hard it really really is hard and this is a tough decision it really is a tough decision because i'm torn on both sides in one side i don't want division between courses and kids and sitting in classrooms i don't i don't like it i love our kids sitting together at all courses will it only be the african-american kids the citing this course and only the most african-american kids are all the only hispanic kids in this world are the only spanish kids who really understand this or will it will it be a mixture of all kids coming into place that's that's that's what i want for everybody quiet

104please so this is this is really really my my ultimate goal is to really understand and bring this bring this course together and so i'm going to just disappoint some people and make some people happy etc but here's what i'm going to do i'm going to request a district to look at ideas for multicultural course to think through how do we work this out how do we start unifying our kids how do we begin to really address history as it is for and not not half history not the bad history but to all the history the true history of what goes on in our country and why it's important that we hold hands together so with that i am going to request that we pull this item for now for further on so we pull

105this for now and table it so i believe you're making a motion mr english is that correct so i'm making a motion that we table this for now for another later discussion i second that motion all right um all right there's been a motion and there's been a second so now open for questions or comments yeah absolutely mr english thank you very much uh for bringing this forward again i was not present in july when this vote was taken and i did watch while i was on vacation and uh quite frankly i was disappointed in the way the vote turned it out turned out so i'm glad that i get to speak my voice it is my voice and if i get voted out of my seat and that's what it is but i do

106need to speak up okay my father and my mother came to this country in 1960 both immigrants that came here legally number one number two had a high school education and worked their way into a situation where they could support their children and put all four of their children through college all four of us have been successful in our own fields and nobody held us down nobody has ever told me that i can't do anything because of my last name yeah my color's a little quiet but nobody has told me i can't do anything because of my last name we've worked hard and i've earned what i've earned because i've worked hard miss wallace i am so sorry that your child had to go through that situation but that is an exact prime example of

107what these courses would do it would open the doors for teachers to teach their own personal agendas we let you guys speak right right we let you speak i have already had that situation with my own child and i won't name the teacher because she still teaches english at our high school last year she was required to debate whether black lives matter organization was a positive or a negative she she was frazzled she came to me frazzled because she was one of the ones that was unique to the rest of the group she did not know how to indulge in that conversation in that same class she was forced to have a discussion with her pro-life or pro-choice that is not a discussion that we take in those classes when i went to school and

108we talked about role voice versus wade they explained why that happened how it happened and the consequences of what happened but we did not have debates as to whether it was good or bad and when you bring these courses in here you're simply opening up these windows i can show you a video right now of many professors i mean we had two great professors back there that spoke and i'm sure they do a wonderful job at the university but we're not guaranteed that just because we have a curriculum that's all buttoned up and says everything that we need to see to make sure that dr thompson did a great job at posting on her site everything that we do in the district now what we will do what the law is regarding crt she did

109a wonderful job i appreciate that dr thompson but it doesn't account for the teacher who will be hired to teach that course it is not monitored on a daily basis and you do not know what they're going to teach when someone is not looking and that's why i support that we table this discussion so just as a note when you table it that means the course continues to move forward it means it pulled into another time yeah and i can i i just want to be real clear that the next board meeting is i don't remember the exact date but the course guide will be printed so these courses will be in the course guide for 20 23 for next school year so i just want to be clear that if you do pull this

110agenda item and you don't vote on it that the district is moving forward with these two courses i'm sure that's right respect yeah i want to say one last thing right we all know that crt is illegal in texas yeah right we as a board need to consider the fact that if we do have somebody teach any crt in that classroom and somebody gets a win of that video that we're subject to the lawsuit and that's that's public funds that now we're going to dip into to try to defend our case because that will happen someone will record there's phones everywhere just a couple points i'd like to i'd like to make with uh in response to what some of the some of the folks spoke about earlier uh a couple of comments mr daily

111mr english uh stated earlier um i understand the want for including other ethnicities and other and other groups um i'm half native american my wife is indian uh she's actually indian from india not us um as it goes right now my history is told in extremely negative terms okay so i understand the one for it the problem being as it is right now and point blank this is the only problem is tea and sboe have not approved any other ethnic courses doesn't mean it's not going to happen in the future if and when that happens i would assume at that point in time the board for little misd would consider approving courses for those ethnicities so having a multicultural study course is never going to happen until tea and sboe approve that and we could

112be talking 10 15 20 years down the road i'm not willing to wait that long um thank you uh please hold on um second um as was stated explicitly in the last meeting when we voted to move forward this was for the approval for our administration in our curriculum department to start writing curriculum we were not and mr gallagher and our curriculum department stated explicitly if we did not approve it they would not write a curriculum so to those folks that want a curriculum before we approve it it's not going to happen we're not going to spend thousands of man hours and tens of thousands of dollars writing a curriculum that has not been approved and would potentially not be approved so our vote vote last time was for the qriket department to start writing

113the curriculum we knew when we had that vote and it was explicitly stated that this is going to be the gift that keeps on giving it's going to come back to us several times we knew that at the time once the curriculum is completed we asked and we stated explicitly that that curriculum be presented to us so at that point in time we could review it and consider whether or not we wanted to move forward we as a board were the ones that were going to have to make the decision to spend the money to write the curriculum if the curriculum is something we don't agree with we'll pull the plus i promise you you pull the course we'll pull the course we'll pull the play even if it's in the course catalog if we

114don't want it we can take it out okay that's what it comes down to so the curriculum being presented before we vote on it this was the vote two months ago was simply to write the curriculum that's what it was um i just want to make a small correction to mr english we had our vote on july 19th the governor signed the anti-crt law into effect on june 15th okay so actually a month beforehand there was log in crt so the idea that crt is going to be involved in this again is not not a point where they went back remember they went back and forth twice already i understand two sessions on it so i understand um without getting a lot more into this i've actually done a lot of looking and everything into

115this um just i'll just leave it here for mr mr english to go and look himself he stated in an email communication that i saw that he had with uh one of our constituents that he was very concerned he did a lot of looking into the teaks uh and a lot of concern about what is going to be on the reading list what does not give under reading list well last night at about 11 15 i went and i looked on the ta website for the teaks it's there yeah it's there okay and by 12 o'clock i was asleep but in that amount of time i found the takes and the teks on the ta website states explicitly this is in 2015 when it was written actually this is from mexican-american studies because tea past

116mexican-american studies where they passed african-american studies at that point in time they stated the curriculum did not exist there was no approved curricula at that point in time however houston isd was going to be was going to be offering this course in 2015-16 and they would adopt houston isd's curriculum and curricula list it's on the forum from 2015 including the reading list and they also stated this houston isd was willing to share its curriculum and curricular list with any other district that was that was wanted it so within 20 minutes last night i had the full curriculum and the approved reading list here's a funny thing about approved textbooks in the state of texas tea and sboe are the ones that approve textbooks there's no law no rule no regulation anywhere that any district has

117to use those textbooks we could have approved textbooks all day long it depends on what our curriculum department we as a board choose to use so those wanting an approved textbooks list it doesn't matter what's on an approved textbook list because we could use the items that we feel most represent our students um the only final question there's a direct question for mr english you pulled your you pulled your motion so it's this may not be uh may not be valid but when you bring this back up to have it removed from the course list in the future i'm assuming if it fails what are we to expect then i don't know two months later three months later four months later you bring it back again and again and again until you win no that's

118okay as a board in the state of texas almost every single scoreboard any school board trustee any school board member you go to even the legislature city council anyone the unspoken rule is that no matter what your opinion is no matter the way you vote once something pass you stand together hand in hand lock step and you back the decision of the board this is the first time i've been on this board that a sitting trustee has gone back and decided to question the board on a decision that was made two months earlier yeah that's i have an issue with that well other than that that's my piece so thank you yeah go ahead doctor um i mean i don't want to echo a lot of what dan brought up um you know and a

119criticism that i that i've received a lot directly is the you know you've proved something before you've seen what it is and you know you're expecting us to trust well i do trust our administration i do trust our superintendent i do trust our teachers i wouldn't be on this board if i didn't we did make a decision two months ago to move forward on the development of this curriculum and that's what our administration is doing it's going to be on the course catalog at the next meeting and we all we all voiced our concerns very clearly two months ago on what our concerns were and what the risks were and i do trust that our administration is going to take that to task and into consideration when they come up with their curriculum so our

120job at that point i think should just shift into a monitoring as mr flores pointed out there's there can be there's example after example of teachers hijacking a curriculum and putting in their own spin that exists with our current classes as we have some examples tonight that that can happen and it does happen at any point in time so it's the administration's job it's superintendent gallagher's job it's our job to keep questioning the process and see what's happening and monitoring that um you know the risk of there being an enhanced legal exposure or something i just don't think that risk is high enough to not move forward with this process i think there's far more good than bad that can come from this um not to say that there's no bad but i choose to

121not not to focus on that bad and i do have the trust in the people in this in this district to make sure that the good far outweighs the bad so i am happy that the motion is being tabled um i am concerned now that yeah it's just going to be a recurring topic every month yeah until that so yeah that's my piece i have a similar primary concern is that you've tabled it why not take it off i'm asking well like you said we've tabled it now the idea is that we will look at the curriculum that comes through and review curriculum like say i told you i'm torn on a lot of this and it's it's really my original issue was do we look at crt and the crt coming into exposure in

122our course line that was my real original issue my other issue was can we come up with a multicultural um course study that is more inclusive for kids do we have to start somewhere i believe we probably do there is somewhere we have to start so the idea here is you know what you know let's pull this let's go back and and then look at it let's wait till that course line comes out let's see what we have if we decide we don't want it anymore and is there an issue yeah then we can look at that down so we're just reverting back to what we decided to exactly exactly so this course will will have the opportunity to move forward it'll have opportunity to get the curriculum set in place for us to really

123understand what's been taught and then we make a decision from there if there's any issues going forward all right thank you so i'm sharing my thoughts here um mostly that i totally disagree with pulling it tabling it instead of setting it aside because that's putting you in this position of dangling this removal of the course if you don't like what you see we have a full curriculum department we do not make up things we're following the state law we're not going to over scrutinize one class we're not doing that i can hit all y'all know that tonight we're not doing that we're not unless y'all gonna go back and find a teacher that was messing with your baby go find a teacher that was go scrutinize them go get a camera monitor them 24 7

124365 find the people who've been doing this and monitor them but what you're not going to do is pick the african-american studies class that doesn't even exist and over-monitor it because what they might do when you have people who've already disappointed you find people that disappointed you including you go find people that disappointed you monitor them get a camera sit there and let them quit their jobs and file a lawsuit because that's what we're really asking for is a lawsuit you're worried about crt from the history teachers for african-american studies class we don't have african-american studies class but you've had this problem with all these other teachers go ahead and worry about them we don't have a teacher for this class yet but you're already ready to scrutinize somebody who doesn't even teach a class

125yet that is complete nonsense i'm not going to sit here month after month while you dangle something over our heads after we made a decision in july that is completely ridiculous that didn't follow basic parliamentary procedure i have spent all weekend trying to figure out how in the en entire did you even come up with this to side track this class and to disappoint these people who elected you yeah and i want to be clear because i'm up here and i can talk freely because the only thing people could do is not elect me again but i'm not worried about myself what you need to worry about is that you're talking about it please what i'm saying right now is that the representation that we have up here needs to represent what people really want

126we do the survey on this class we i have looked at everything that we could possibly have from public opinion a small group talking loud does not make public opinion we've had children coming up here to say they want to take the class it's an elective we don't have the class that you're wanting because it hasn't started all the way up here people in the back who want to complain about things that happen at the state board of education level at the ta level you're bringing it here to this level when your complaint should have been taken all the way up there so let's do some education tonight about the procedures and policies of how classes come into existence in the state of texas i'm not worried about california we're in texas i'm actually not

127worried about frisco dallas plano we're in little and we got one high school we are not in the fog about who's going to teach these classes we have 26 teachers you trust them right now to teach world history american history ap url history get a microscope and go check them out right now if you're worried about crt go check them out right now since we're so concerned about them misleading these po babies and taking them down a path of darkness go squirm right now you know why you're not scrutinizing them right now because it's not the african-american studies class that's a mess and i don't stand for miss especially when they come to children not my children anybody's child anybody's child this foolishness has got to stop we have voted these people have spoken we

128are not going to overscrutinize this class we're not going to make any child feel uncomfortable about taking it these teachers are not going to be concerned about getting hate mail that's not going to happen none of that is going to happen people are not going to be accused of saying things that they did not say which i saw tonight i saw that tonight it's recorded and we could play it back this whole group of people got accused of saying something they did not say and got talked down to like children that has to stop but some of their stops will bring an african-american studies class into our classrooms because some of this is just straight up ignorance i'm disappointed by my colleagues letting this foolishness go on because if this foolishness has been going on

129what else have y'all been doing before i got here who are you talking to while i am talking please let her talk no need to let me please our top no need he continues please help him escort it thank you i have a position here to make decisions off of facts off of data there are no facts there is no data to suggest that there is some wayward teacher waiting on the african-american studies class in the middle of their day to pop in and lead everybody astray we got 26 teachers which one of them are y'all worried about doing this because if you have serious concerns you need to go ahead and bring them in now they need to meet with ms brown right now if you got 26 teachers you trust none of them

130then go ahead and deal with this right now why we waiting on curriculum if you got serious concerns deal with it right now i did a complete community update because you all did not these people are completely misinformed completely misinformed the truth is not being offered to anybody so i went ahead and wrote up something to make sure people got facts and details and the actual understanding these people walking around thinking that we could possibly teach crt in the classroom you had a college professor come up and explain to you that we literally don't provide that in k-12 and it's against the law in texas it was against the law in the meeting that you brought up all the issues about crt so if you're misinformed how can you inform us this part of our

131role as leaders is to inform people of the truth and the facts and when we tell them we're going to over scrutinize this class we send a horrible message we cast doubt on this class we've approved it we need to support our teachers support our director of curriculum support our students and move on if we're not going to do that then we need to go to ip history and all the rest of these classes the english teacher the kindergarten teacher and sit there and scrutinize them the same way i want to scrutinize this class if we're not going to do it for one at all then we do it for none this is ridiculous i'm disappointed in the leadership for letting this go on how did we even get here tonight these people are here

132because they're concerned and trying to push us to do the right thing why do we literally need a room full of people to do the right thing i know the right thing to do i would expect that we would not have to have an hour and a half on this topic in july a whole room full of people and i understand people need to share their concerns but the reason they're sharing their concerns is because they're misinformed in the first place demand the curriculum before we would ever have it available not just for the african-american studies class that's just how it goes this is not something special the way it goes is the way we're doing it now nobody's had information nobody's failing to be transparent nobody has a secret drawer full of things to

133teach kids that they're going to pull out during african-american studies class so we're not going to treat our teachers like they are mysteries to us we know who these teachers are we have hired them we trust them so then we're going to let them do their jobs like we're letting them do the job every day so when is the monitoring going to start when are you gonna stop doing this you have to stop these people specifically and i'm gonna be transparent because i can sit up here i'm not worried again about being re-elected i'm sure this seat is mine i might sit down on that end on this thing because you know y'all move my names around and stuff but so far i sit right here probably because i need to be close to you

134let the lord touch and agree some of these people voted for you because they didn't think you would do what you did they didn't expect that at all and that's not right and today i work on i wrote my words down in tension and integrity i operate off that i don't promise things that i'm not 100 sure i cannot deliver and because of the questionable situation up here i hate that i can't promise you all that i will make sure that our teachers are not over scrutinized and that our students are not made to feel uncomfortable but you know who i do trust to have integrity is this wrong don't y'all let us mess this up don't y'all let us treat these babies different they want to go to the class don't you let us

135treat these teachers any different they want to teach the class don't you let them run over dr america y'all check on me if you want to but i'm fine i'm not worried about my seat i got somebody looking after me a light in darkness so i'm not worried about my seat but y'all make sure if i'm not in this seat the only reason it would be is because he wanted a part of his life somewhere else that would be the only reason so y'all make sure that all seven even though we got one missing tonight y'all make sure all seven hear from you with your integrity with your facts you hold them accountable you hold me accountable you remind me that we're not gonna do this we're not going to roll that time to 1960.

136we're not going to roll back to 1930 but we are going to teach it in african-american studies class and we're not going to keep snatching it from the curriculum put it back in snatching from the puerto rican we're going to stop that too so y'all just keep coming up making sure we are held accountable make sure these seats fill up i don't have to talk in code because i'm saying what i really mean make sure that you see stand up video tape it get a whole good look because all the integrity that you see will hopefully fill up some spaces where there have been lies deception and confusion let some light come on through your video make sure you get plenty of light because this is on fire for integrity and for leadership that we

137can count on this is ridiculous i've never seen such yeah thank you dr michael i appreciate it first and foremost let me say this this seat i sit in to see she sit in the seat they sit in is not my seat none of these seats are these seats are your seats every single one of these at any point in time when a vote comes up you can remove us i don't take that for granted i don't i joined this board 10 years ago because of the issues that were rising in that district there were serious issues financial issues that were going on teacher issues retention issues and god knows whatever else when i joined this board we were that near a d district now we're a b district we have things going on in

138this district that no other districts have going on we built two heists two middle schools we expanded to high school so one of the things that happened to the seat i do have a right to say you know what i don't agree with that i have that right whether somebody doesn't like it or not i do have that right i have the right to actually change my mind too by listening to people in the community we didn't have this many people coming to community when we spoke last time now we do at the time of the meeting i wasn't there unfortunately i still bought a illness so this is something not only saying is important to me but it comes up and when i see or think or even incline the idea of potential racism

139or potential issues coming to class i will stop because i don't want it to happen to any of our children it's important to me and dr thompson is actually right there are some procedural things that we probably shouldn't do but i voted last time they're not approved and now it is here again this is an important topic i want to try to get it right for you not for me i'm not in school anymore it's for the kids i want to take it right so the idea that we have in course in place and my thought is wait a minute should we include indian americans should we exclude asian americans should we close middle eastern americans there's a thought behind the idea that wait a minute we should include all people yeah you're right state

140board education doesn't have it doesn't mean we can't have it it takes effort i saying that we shouldn't have african-american citizens by no means regards not at all that would be foolish be foolish not to have african-american studies be foolish not to have his uh uh hispanic american studies so the discussion tonight made me really think about that it made me think where do we start where do we end did we start out of multicultural studies or do we started african american asian hispanic american and then we move forward we have to start somewhere and i agree with that idea i totally agree with that will i look to hold this overboard no no that's not my purpose the purpose is not to hold something in in some kind of back channel pocket to pull

141out and yank on the board that's ridiculous don't intend to do it and we'll never do it if it comes off the vote it fails then we move on so this is hugely important to me it's usually important to the board and i don't think any of these board members here don't desire our students to learn i just don't believe that i think they just have like many people concerns we do it's a concern and i voice my concern say hey wait a minute what about this have you thought about that should we consider this or consider that and yes to your to your point are teachers should we be scrutinized teachers those courses are in place don't know if any screwdrivers goes down since they're already there do we need to go back and

142pull those where they're already there why do we need to pull them now sitting on this this position these are hard these are hard questions because there are a lot of implementations that you guys as the community don't understand and we have to deal with and we try to educate you as much as possible because it's important that you guys educated on the process and what happens and how it goes on and so you guys can make informed decisions are we perfect no we try to get it right yes we do sometimes it doesn't come out the way we want it to or sometimes it doesn't happen the way we like it to so i'd say this let's pull this course we've already talked about it we didn't like what was in the course quickly

143and we would pull a course at that time or we could do something else i want an african-american hispanic course asian course middle eastern course etc in this community i think it's important i think it's important to the community so that's why i'm requesting that we pull it we pull this request let's go forward let's see what the district provides force and good report back to you because you deserve to know this will disappoint some and maybe not and this is hard so just pulling an item actually doesn't require vote so i mean if you're choosing to pull the item then we pull the item and that's it okay i'm in the pull it so it won't be tabled but i will be monitoring it very closely you're withdrawing the motion yeah we had a

144we had a first and a second to table so we need to have i make a motion to reverse the tabling and to go forward with de leon's suggestion of withdrawing the motion yeah and like i say there needs to be a second on that yeah second okay this is hard this is really really hard because i hear everybody here and it's really hard when the state board of education doesn't allow you to do certain things because this is what i really really would like to see a multicultural into the system we really need that because i think as children sit inside of a classroom and they come together inside a classroom and learn about each other's cultures in the classroom they begin to get an appreciation for each other i never have liked the

145idea of segregating kids never saying this for one this is for the other just never have like that idea so so so this is my personal thing but this is this is important so i hear the community hear the voice let's continue to move forward okay all right all right thank you mr english um i'd like to promote just a break as well another break just to kind of stretch legs sorry oh we need to have a vote okay four to two the motion passes all right again i think everyone just needs to take a breath and stretch their legs yeah before we move on to some less so back into session at 9 47. uh so with that i think we're going to fall back into reports of the superintendent uh curriculum and learning

146update all right president montemayor board members at this time i'd like to ask dr cindy mecca to the podium for a quick update good evening board uh president superintendent governor and board of trustee members tonight i'm going to come to you with our monthly curriculum and learning update so the first thing that i want to speak about is our blended learning grant that we were approved by tea over a year ago and just to remind you about what this is is that it is a grant that was a very competitive grant and it is a three-year grant and we did after the pilot year after submitting our data we won the final three years of the grant so this is the even though we worked on it last year that was a pilot and so

147we started year one of the actual grant this year and so um we have kinder third and sixth grade teachers learning and doing professional learning about blended learning in the area of mathematics next year we'll add first fourth and seventh and then in year three we will add second fifth and eighth grade so when we um started the development over the past year uh we decided that there were five uh areas of focus for our teachers and they're here in the graphic um once teachers have the choice to decide which of the five they want to work on first they will work on all five over the year but they get to choose which one that they work on first and then we begin a data-driven learning cycle and if you look at this graphic

148it's very similar to our commitment to excellence community a continuous improvement plan that we execute at the campus and district level so the teachers pick their goal they do their goal setting then they design their tasks and they practice it with coaching and feedback they have reflection and then they develop their next steps looking at this let's say a teacher chose targeted instruction as their first focus we have developed rubrics along four steps for each of the five goal areas and so it's very laid out for the teachers to determine where they are in the process as they work towards attaining that goal in their classroom and so we're really excited about the blended learning grant opportunity and you'll be hearing more about it as we continue our journey in the process over the next

149three years the next thing that i wanted to talk with you about today was the nye stem certification as you know a reminder we have six campuses to date who have received their campus certification and the remaining three are looking to obtain it this is a graphic you've seen several times in order to for a campus to receive their nice campus certification a minimum of five teachers have to receive their teacher certification first working alongside that the campus team develops their campus plan and at the end of a year then they have uh when all of these steps are are taken and the five minimum of five teachers have obtained their certification the campus is named a campus nye's certification status this year for the first time we are going after the district stem certification

150currently there are no school districts in the nation nor the state who have attained this and we're in the running with two other districts that are furiously working like we are to obtain it first um and so we've already started on our journey our district leadership team and our district guiding coalition have already met and have are working towards these steps here our district plans in the first year to finish through 3d and so we have laid out what our steps are going to be so that we can move through the process with fidelity and ensure that the district is supporting the campuses through their stem initiatives and the last thing that i wanted to speak with you about today was remote learning in little elm isd as you know the the legislature passed senate

151bill 15 which would allow full funding of ada if a district chose to stand up remote learning the past since last wednesday we have been taking applications for remote learning here in little um isd and the decision was made this evening to uh that we would not be able to sustain remote learning in little misd because we did not have the interest that we needed in order to stay within our staffing allocations we only had 51 students across the entire district who requested remote learning at our highest grade level we only had 13 students and so that was not enough for us to be able to offer remote learning within our staffing allocation because we would have to remove a teacher in order to to fulfill that and so we have notified those 51 students

152families this evening by email to let them know that remote learning was not going to be an opportunity here in little um isd and so that was going to also include in an action item 10a a resolution which was part of senate bill 15 if we offered remote learning we first had to have a board resolution policy um about how we would take attendance and so because the decision has been made administratively that we cannot sustain that with the low interest that we had for the remote learning we will not be pushing forward for the resolution and that is it for my update this evening are there any questions for me yeah one real quick dr mecca and i just want to make sure that that uh the the base of the uh the public

153is completely understands sorry throw tickle um we made the offer for the online learning uh we had it open for i believe it was four days uh yeah the application yes sir okay and we received a total of 51 people inquiring for interest okay and the largest grade level which i believe was kindergarten was only 13 people so just to break that down as you stated there just was not enough interest at any grade level for us to consider pulling any one teacher from any campus across the district trying to teach that correct okay i just want to make sure that we are abundantly clear on exactly what that was all right thank you any other questions thank you dr michael all right uh thank you dr next i would like to ask our executive

154director for human resources ashley brown to come up and give our board a an update on uh our annual update regarding human resources all right good evening president montemayor board of trustees superintendent gallagher i'll start today with the class size report for our district so we are off to a great start for the 21 22 school year and we have some data some numbers for you to take a look at um okay so let's start with elementary um as you can see from these numbers we've broken it down from pre-k through fifth and and by campus so probably the thing that jumps out to you is that there's no numbers that are higher than 23. so that's fantastic so yes you're probably deducing that we don't have any class size waivers at this point that

155would be a correct deduction and we're super thrilled about that yes and really give yourselves a round of applause because it's because of um the staffing that you guys supported us through last spring the positions that you um supported us with approving that we have eliminated class size waivers at the elementary level for now um you will see um you might see notice at fifth grade at prestwick um is over 22 it's at 22.7 um the waiver though if you'll recall doesn't that excuse me the ratio of 22 to 1 doesn't apply to fifth grade um but that doesn't mean we want for our fifth grade classes to be humongous so we will keep an eye on that but we're our at our elementary level our staffing is looking really fantastic and um i think

156that we have we did do a little bit of reassigning i'll mention that there were some numbers that were higher um at three of our campuses hackberry oak point and brent we had to do some reassigning within the campus meaning for example at brent they had some really high fourth grade numbers but they had some really low first grade numbers so we reassigned one of the first grade teachers to become a fourth grade teacher so we kind of took care of some of those things internally so that we could level out the classes so that's that's the great news about elementary moving on to middle school then with middle school um we have uh several of our two campuses we've divided it up um into content areas and you'll see the first couple of columns

157are the average class sizes for each of our middle schools then the sections the number of sections for each of those content areas and then like the lowest enrollment world class and the highest enrolled class in each of those content areas um so when you look at secondary you're really kind of you aim for like about a 26 to 1 ratio and so um we're hitting at that and or under that um the only one that's a little high is the history at strike and so we'll continue to keep an eye on that but a lot of that high number at strike or higher number at strike history has to do with you'll see a couple of columns over that they have fewer sections of history and that has a lot to do with coaching

158and coaching assignments so all in all i think that our middle school staffing looks really fantastic just as an fyi walker's current enrollment is 944 students and strikes current enrollment as 1012 students then moving on to the high school which their current enrollment is 2513 students um so the high school has really got got a large number of kids which is which is good but look at our class size ratios there across the content areas again when you're looking at secondary we're shooting for around 26 to 1. so our staffing is looking really good when you look at math science history english and spanish at the high school level um so and i again i think that's a testament to the work that we did last spring and to the support that we got from

159the