001good evening everyone thanks for joining us tonight for our Board of Directors meeting to begin I want to introduce myself I'm board chair Julie Bocanegra the time is now 5:30 and then under governor enslie's Proclamation 2028 in response to the coab in nineteen outbreak temporarily suspends portions of the open public meeting Act the proclamation requires that all attendants at an open public meeting not take place in person that occur remotely including the board directors and the public our meeting this evening is conducted via Zoom Auto webinar so I want to tell everyone who is on the zoom webinar so we'll go ahead and take a roll vice president Bradford here director Rob Perkins here director Ginni Grunwald you're you're at the Rachael Rogers here superintendent might really know here administrative assistant Laurie stroll here we
002also have with this brain grim stem and gills bowler who will be joining our meeting here great thank you all right at this time I will go ahead and recite the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right so our first order of business and just a reminder so the people that are listening in know who is making the motion just make sure that you identify yourself so our first order of business this evening is to adopt our agenda do we have a motion for that Victoria Bradford I move for adoption of tonight's board meeting agenda director Grunwald seconds okay second all in favor say
003aye and I will start hi for me Victoria I rob aye Jimmy I and Rachel hi great thank you all right so next order of business is our board consent agenda and again we'll entertain a motion for approval miss Rob Perkins I move that we adopt the board's consent agenda as presented decade from Victoria it's been moved and seconded all in favor say aye aye for me Rob hi Jenny hi and Rachel I Freight thank you alright so then we'll move on to the superintendent consent agenda do we have a motion for the superintendent consent agenda run well moves to pre superintendent superintendents consent agenda second all in favor say aye some I for me Victoria I rob hi Rachel aye I'm Jenny I great thank you alright next we're moving to the superintendent report
004and I think Mike you have an update for us tonight yes I do I've got a few things the first thing I want to do is with approval of the superintendent consent agenda one of the pieces of that consent agenda is a personnel report certificated classified personnel report and within the certificated personnel report we have appointed a we've appointed Clarissa Hightower to a new position of executive director of equity and inclusion which is the cabinet level position and we are at present probably have just pushed a button to send out an all user to our staff and then I believe it's tomorrow morning that there's going to be a letter message to all of the parents in the district through student messengers so I want to read the email that's going out as we speak
005and tomorrow morning as well dear Evergreen family's equity is ensuring that each member of our evergreen public schools community as the opportunities access resources and support they need to be successful this core foundation of the school board's beliefs about education embraces equity and inclusion for all students while we have had equity efforts present in our district over the years for our English language learners students with needs and students in poverty we have not yet embarked upon a collective district equity effort for students of color that journey begins today we stand with our communities of color against racism social injustice and inequity we recognize that we too have our own work to do so we can close the racial opportunity gap as well as cultural linguistic gender socio-economic and ability opportunity gaps in Evergreen Public Schools
006in order to do so we must transform our organization lll at all levels we know that this transformation will not occur overnight but we have taken some immediate action by appointing Clarissa Hightower as our executive director of equity and inclusion she brings school level and district equity work experience from her time at Portland Public Schools as a teacher administrator and assistant director of English as a second language plus two years in Evergreen as an associate principal she will lead our districts equity transformation building upon the work and outcomes of the previous efforts phase 1 equity transformation through data input and focused learning EPS will undergo a district equity audit including but not limited to the following areas student academic success instructional practices curriculum materials discipline practices board policy hiring practices employee diversity community engagement EPS
007will hold affinity group forums for our communities of color so that they can share their concerns around inequity as well as suggest possible solutions to these concerns EPS will form an equity committee that is representative our districts of our districts underserved populations with an emphasis on student and parent voice along with board teacher and district staff representatives this equity committee will help draft our districts equity transformation plan with measurable outcomes phase on information from the audit as well as the community forums EPS will provide professional development and training to board district and building level leaders that focuses specifically on race-based equity anti inequity and cultural competency EPS will establish the first round of schools where we will provide staff with equity professional development that focuses on race-based equity anti inequity and cultural competency every green
008school every public schools will not be complicit in the perpetuation of inequities we have a responsibility to our community to be anti in a inequity to seek out inequities in our own system and actively work to disrupt them that is the charge for all our our staff moving forward I'm personally very excited that Clarissa accepted the position and will lead the work in our school district it's I it in the statement our board has for a long time an equity focus in in many different ways socioeconomic the things mentioned and we've had buildings that have done a lot of work on racial equity issues but I think that this is a good it's a great start actually for us as we move forward our district I we've talked about this at previous board meetings board
009workshops I think about 55 percent of our students are white and 45 percent are students of color and this is a wonderful start for the work that will be ongoing and it's across the board all staff will be part of this as we move forward so really excited about that and I know each of you will have comments under board comments to discuss this as well Clarissa is gonna be great she's really a great person and excited to have her lead the effort the second thing I want to mention is last Thursday we I should say we actually I had a zoom meeting there we had scheduled to kind of talk about options for next year and we didn't anticipate necessarily having the OSPI guidelines to be put out that day we kind of thought
010they were gonna be put out the next day but it just so happened that they went out on Thursday which made everything very timely I would apologize in advance to those that including I think four of the board members that try to log in to the zoom meeting I think my understanding was that it was unlimited but it was capped at a thousand we obviously will fix that in the future for future meetings where we have these type situations I think it was within maybe the first 30 seconds that we hit a thousand viewers I'm very thankful to Gale who's on the this webinar with us and her staff or I think within about an hour of the conclusion we had it up on YouTube I haven't looked at it today but as of yesterday
011we'd had I think somewhere around 9500 views of that YouTube web and webinar the meeting that I had the other day so we've had well over 10,000 people's view that to ten thousand people view that already that that was that was great the thing about what we're all going to experience in the next little bit of time is that seemingly every day we're gonna get new information because we had the guidelines from OSPI on Thursday morning he had a press conference I think around noon by 7:00 something that night he had added new guidelines to the document around SML and I input that had been received particularly around social distancing and we'll talk more about that in the workshop but I still believe like I did Thursday that our goal of having all of our
012students in school full-time in the fall is achievable through the guidelines that are being presented from OSPI I believe that it will take a lot of work on our part in terms of coordinating and making certain that parents are comfortable with the implementation of school I think that we heard I heard information today that kind of confirms that our preferred option of providing the option to parents of distance learning if that's what they chose either distance learning or a le as an option through home choice or legacy but the distance learning would be at a distance learning 2.0 that it what have we learned from the spring what what areas can we improve on that option would be available for families addition in addition to the on-site option for for parents one of the questions
013was around funding and how OSP I would handle enrollment and funding and super data right doll had a webinar this afternoon that I feel confirms that our our roadmap to that type of situation where parents would have the opportunity to have options is is the way we will go obviously you as board members will have a lot of information to weigh in on we will have a lot it is like I said it's what four five days five days since that came out and even once it had come out there was updated information by that night certainly the science around the the coronavirus the the data over time I think also will weigh in on how things move forward but I'm pretty I'm pretty comfortable that we can create a system that gives parents options
014and one of those options is full-time school when we come back in the fall of course we've got a lot of conversations that we have to deal with internally in the in the process of making that happen and as I said Thursday our district has always been very interested in transparency in community involvement so that's another conversation for the workshop tonight is how do we want to manifest that when we're working with especially when we're working in a situation where we have difficulties getting people together because of the social distancing requirements in the phases and and even there's the technology so anyway we'll keep talking about that I want to talk a little bit about the end of the school year so Friday is our final day of school and I was talking with Lori
015earlier today about you know from the perspective of we've got a lot of staff that are retiring that this time of year they have opportunities to have going away little celebrations for careers that they've had and celebrating the the friends the families all the good work that's occurred over their time there unfortunately unable to do that in the way that they've been able to because we had school closed and when we were talking about it so both yeah it's no different than the students really that on March 13th I think it was the last day of school that we had where they just found out they weren't coming back so you know we have a lot of and then on top of that you got the the virtual celebrations that are occurring this week for
016our class of 2020 so this school year 1920 is a real example of perseverance and and fighting through difficult times and being challenged to do things that you maybe never wanted to be challenged to do whether that was creating a distance learning system in a in two weeks whether that was learning from home whether that's having to get along with your siblings for an even extended period of time over a period of time whether it was our parents becoming a different type of partner than they've ever had to be in terms of delivering instruction at home while teachers were supporting that teachers delivering instruction so it's just been like a crazy year and I just want to say thank you to all of our staff for everything that they've done I want to say thank
017you to all of our families for everything that they've done and I want to say that I have hope that even with a different look when we come back together in the fall that we will come back together in some fashion in the fall and and have some new normalcy to our lives like we need to learn from what we've done and and and improve what we've done and work hard to enhance the partnerships that we've had with our families we've done a lot of work reaching out to families and and spending time at home with them and and the conversations and the communication we just need to keep growing that and that's even in a difficult year it's been a great opportunity for us and I want to say in particular to the seniors
018that are graduating this year understanding perseverance and getting through very difficult situation difficult times we had talked and we've talked from the beginning about the effort to have some sort of a in-person graduation event I don't want people to think that we've ever backed away from that we're still looking at the logistics of something either on in person from modified modified graduation at McKenzie to even a drive through type of a graduation opportunity on a different piece of property so we're still working on that our target though in working for that is early August for something and I'm hoping that this week asap we will have more they're working on some details around that and we're hoping to have more information out about that it's it's been quite a spring and I'll leave it at
019that anything else Mike no do we have any questions for Mike at this point my understanding was there be no questions okay I'm just kidding I I need covered it so broadly that I think he answered my questions just in the process of presenting it all and we'll talk later to about the plans exactly more details yeah no I have some questions but we'll say that for workshops it let me express appreciation at least if you don't mind Julie for talking about the thousand user limit that got hit in the last meeting it's the kind of openness that gives me confidence that we're solving problems and that we will stay aware and continue to solve problems as I understand it there's a 1,000 participant for the free use of that and you have to pay
020for a greater and honestly we just missed it there's no question that we don't have concerns with paying for it and we will in the future I most people say they don't necessarily want to hear me say anything and so the idea that more than a thousand people would want to hear me say anything was somewhat foreign but that won't happen again and again apologies to those that like I said I think there was 80% of the school board I was texting me as I was reading it I didn't get in Oh what is going on I'm trying to do the thing while I'm trying to answer that question at the same time so I apologize for ignoring you at that moment well I was at work and so I was as soon as I
021got home from work I was able to watch it from the Facebook link that community relations and girls team had blown up right away and so if people an opportunity that they could watch it and you know really the message was there was no Q&A during the webinar so right and we're actually Gail has a document with the QA that should be up live on our website within a day or so so we did receive questions and we're working on the answers and we'll have that posted real soon great thank you thanks Rob for mentioning that all right so we will move on to the next portion of our agenda which is textbook adoptions so the Board met at an original workshop on May 19th to review the curriculum adoption proposal we had several members
022from the curriculum team that presented the materials to us the first reading of the adoption was that our 26th meeting and what you thank you and then I believe and I'm going to clarify this with Mike but no questions or concerns have been brought forward since no really either time right correct okay so at this time I guess they would recommend that we approve the text adoptions for the following the AP US government politics AP environmental science principles of floral design horticulture today and the Calkins reading units of study for the middle school reading curriculum so at this time I guess we will open it up for a motion Julie do we want to move to adopt all to just do the whole adoption second reading in one motion I think that we can unless
023I guess there we if somebody feels like think we need to pull one out for any reason or if we want to talk about them individually or if we want to just talk about them all together we can brinkley it open it up for discussion I agree let me make the motion that we move to adopt on second reading agenda item 6a through 6e here and then open it for discussion on any of the items is what I think so so so moved okay so we have a second I can drink a moment all right any discussion centered around the approval I know that I'm really excited to get the middle school reading curriculum I think that's one of the highlights and this in this bunch I did see a couple of I guess linkage
024concerns expressed but I don't know that they officially got to any of any of us it just saw it on social media about I guess the work for teachers who connect font insist on tests and pinnell pardoning mispronunciation to Calkins in the transition for fifth or sixth grade but I have a lot of confidence that there's going to be PD and training and and a way to figure it out I think we covered that in workshop very least that part of it so and I was satisfied with the answers to the questions that's all the comment that I had about that is that I saw that there were a few teachers expressing concerns and I want to make sure that they feel welcome to continue expressing concerns and and apply all the professionalism I've always
025seen to solving the problems if they come up any other comments or discussion all right then we will go ahead and take a vote all in favor say aye it's an i for me Victoria hi Rob hi jinny hi and Rachel hi great all right so that textbooks have been adopted I'm excited that the team can move forward and start ordering those books as I know that they are anxiously awaiting this adoption so they can get movie and I'm making sure that they have everything ready to go for the Fall correct all right so next is matters reserved for board action and this is our operational expectations OEt which is the org chart superintendent succession delegate we had a first reading at our last meeting and so this really is the operational expectation where might
026name somebody to be I guess the person routine emergency superintendent in case that Mike was away or something you know happened some horrible happened to me I think thingy has had several examples of things that might happen so so so what we have is we've got janae Gomes named as the emergency superintendent our chief human resources officer and that's really the only change to that yes and I'm not sure if she's went through and at this as initial everything yes yes he might be initially it as we speak and she would have done it I'm not positive but I would I would recommend that the board accept the revision to OE to emergency supernet succession as presented for I guess second reading it's already been brought to you for first reading but this would be
027the second reading and approval yes correct it would be the second reading the final approval so I guess we'll call for a motion Dorian Rachel Rachel Rogers I move that we accept operational expectation OE to the amendment to it that's been presented to us on School Superintendent mergency superintendent succession as presented open it up to the board for questions or comments the document that janae was to initial and sign has been initialed in sign and it's in board das I just knew it it was right there so I just click it on it as the question is being asked actually it's nice there must be all those dual monitors that you have only three I just I guess I would just add that I think Jame is a great choice honestly she's got some you
028know super strong organizational skills and you know if it was ever anything never happened I would feel like we were in good hands with that but it's not going to so alright any other questions or comments all right so we'll go ahead and vote except the revisions for OE to emergency superintendent succession is presented and move it forward for approval so all in favor say aye it's an i for me Victoria hi Rob hi Jenny I and Rachel I great thank you let's get some good news yeah I heard you got some good news for us I do do you believe it's been four months since the last time we had good news it's been way too long it has so Mike asked if I would do it four times as long as I usually
029do kidding so starting at the top of the document you'll see a picture of two of our students I believe that's assist in school parade Craig and I have been out visibly covering the craze I think we counted yesterday and without reverse parades which we're heading into we've been out at 21 school parades and so I hope people have enjoyed seeing those post it on Facebook and I know that the students and the staff really enjoyed seeing each other from afar so I'm just showing you a little photo there so as you scroll down meals for students and as you know we started kind of just really really quickly within three days of the closure we had meals up and out and served we had remarkable leadership with our child nutrition folks Chartwells our transportation
030staff and pulling that together and getting meals out and school is ending the meal program as it stands right now is ending on Friday serving over three hundred and forty thousand meals during that time period we are opening it up again on Monday with limited sights I think there's nine schools plus some additional sites that share will be doing but three hundred and forty thousand meals in that time periods just remarkable and you'll see some of the photos that went along with that as you scroll down to one of the things that I know the staff was very very concerned about is what was happening with our students in transition who really didn't have a lot of options even some of the community options were closed we've always been very excited that those students had
031you know the ability to use the youth opportunity pass and while they could still write C Tran first numbering a Marshall Center wasn't available to them some of our libraries things that they can access and find other services so our students and transition folks jumped in tracked all of the families down and that was she can imagine a difficult job and not only did they track them down they really inventory what they needed and went out and provided that worked with est 112 to make sure even our students that were out of the district were able to be served as well so good job with them and of course I don't have to tell you about camp evergreen lots of our first responders and health care providers essential workers use that service and usually about
032sixty students a day were there what was surprising to us and really not when you think about our community is the number of community partners that step deficit that they wanted to assistance so you'll see a list of some reference to donated food both for our staff and for the students toys craft items two of our student stories even said hey we've got merchandise in our student store that we closed and and we aren't going to be able to use can we go ahead and provide that so not only did we provide the service but our partner stepped up as well we also again just had a number of partners wanting to assist throughout the school district so you'll see photos share came in and provided extra assistance at a number of our food meal
033sites mod Pizza came in one day and surprised a hundred families at Harmony Elementary and just passed out pizzas because they wanted to help but in turn the district also did some donating as well and if you scroll down you'll see general Kashia standing in front of home Troy's the Academy we knew that we had a lot of personal protective equipment in our schools whether it was for some of our CTE classes or we had them in some of our shelter and placed kits and so staff really went through the school's rounded up anything that they could face mask gloves other things like that and we donated it was well over 12,000 pieces of PPE that went here in Klerk mean to cross the fur distribution throughout our health care providers moving ahead now let's
034talk a little bit about student success we had two of our students at Mountain View High School are in a first-place recognition in the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair at WSU Vancouver they did a research study investigating racial bias and teen violence and adolescents through association and that was risky Gore potti and Rohan Yan two juniors at Mountain View Henrietta Lacks we had a student who is interested in aviation and won a scholarship from Delta Airlines Junior Achievement of Oregon and she's going to attend girls in aviation at the National Flight Academy and so then you as you scroll down you'll see a Mountain View High School project that started with one of our art teachers they she had a class that sent Joey pouches to Australia for the kangaroo population and between she
035and her mom and her students they made a number of Joey pouches and sent those on to Australia so there's kangaroos wearing crocheted pouches in Australia from students at Mountain View we're very proud of Shari Sherman on a student at Mountain View High School as well she is our National Merit Scholarship winner she was selected out of a pool of 15,000 National Merit finalists to receive this award and if you watch the KATU special for graduates a week or two ago she was one of our featured speakers as well F boa still went on at the state level they had a virtual state competition and we had a number of students who placed in FBLA what you'll see Mountain View sent us a number of their photos but we also had placements from several of
036our other high schools as well moving on to some staff news early on within the first week or two we talked about the Mountain View High School Thunder Academy and their effort to reach out to students that were enrolled in their credit recovery program what they noticed is as soon as school shut down on March 13th those students that we're doing online credit recovery also just decided that they may not want to participate so they got on the phone they email they even did some in-person visits to get those credit recovery students back on track and within just a week of that effort they had more than 80 percent of the students going online in accessing classes so the team was like by Betsy shot and if some of you know Beth says she's been
037a longtime counselor and staff member in the district and Betsy is retiring at the end of the school year so I picked up the phone today and called baths and just said hey we couldn't early on how are things going now and Betsy you know one day away from Mountain View graduation three days away from retirement was just all fired up because she'd just gotten off the phone because they had been making sure students were on track to finish all of their graduation requirements and some of those kids that maybe needed that little extra push them again for months of work and she would reported that of the 100 seniors that had left school on March 13th and had one or more items to complete to get them to graduation ninety-four of those hundred students
038have completed all of those grab graduation requirements so excellent work by that team making sure and tracking those kids all the way through to the last minute two other of our counselors over at milk Lane knew that this was a trying time for families and so they were trying to figure out how they could help those families so they started hosting a weekly family room zoom meeting that they could just open up and have parents guardians families talk about some of the issues they were facing brainstorm together and just reconnect as well and that became a very popular session think you remember right before we left in March the Education Foundation named Andrew lovin a teacher at frontier middle school as their educator of the year and he teaches culinary arts the middle school students
039well no surprise he decided he would take his show on video and did 15 demonstrations that became very popular not only for his own but for others and we actually posted several of those on Facebook and those are very popular as well in the middle of all this that was teacher appreciation week as well and and nurse appreciation week and so we highlighted both of those groups as well and then of course a program that we're always proud of is our music education program and they again for the second year in a row received national recognition and actually our community as well with the best communities for music music education from the National Association of music merchants foundation so again step you're in a row for them and we've had the pleasure or some of
040the staff members of going out and touring our under-construction elementary schools and you'll see principals also there I don't have the ability to take their staff out and tour so we did virtual tours for them and so it in on Facebook and as well in the good news you'll see tours with Darcy mitchellson and Emeril kathleen keller image and then Angie Mitchell would sift into leading them through and two other things we missed during this four groundbreakings that Ellsworth and Marion so we actually went out and did virtual ground breakings several of you participated and we've included those and the students that participated in those were very excited to be part of that and so take a look at those videos Wow so I think you're done right 22 minutes right like maybe 12 maybe
04112 well I had a lot of good news that's good great thank you so much Gayle thanks all right next is the budget update yes that would be me the first thing I will say to you is that we've talked throughout the spring about the 1920 school year and the impact on the fund balance from what has occurred in terms of the closing school and we still anticipate the fund balance increasing ooh 25 26 million where we had anticipated it being around 23 million and I've talked previously about that and using those funds to help mitigate potential reductions that we will likely see coming I still expect 1920 to end up about in that range I updated the estimates of estimates every month one of the key pieces of this is going to be tomorrow
042morning the state's revenue forecast comes out we had seen estimates I think it was like in late April probably sometime in April where the state was starting to put out their estimates for what the shortfall was between April of 2020 and June of 2023 so the rest of this first plane in the next biennium and they had at 7 billion dollars so a very large number I think it will be instructive for everyone to kind of look at what that number is tomorrow but you have to see when when they come out with whatever they come out with what is the time period so if it's less than 7 billion but it's only this biennium they have they're really going so you just kind of have to take a look at that so we're absolutely
043why that very closely tomorrow to see what weather things have gotten in terms of the guests in terms of the shortfall are they worse are they better how's that gonna look and and I will share that information with you as soon as we see that and you may see it before you hear from me but something to think about it's just that it's the time frame when they're when they're looking at that now you've heard a lot of conversations about now that the state's McCleary decision the funds are all protected I [Music] the funds have always been protected even before the McCleary decision the Constitution didn't change so we have seen reductions in areas in previous years we all are aware of that so it's just something we'll have to watch the one thing that
044was mentioned on the the webinar from super kind of rifle today was around the fact that this school year because of the lateness of the year and and kind of just being hit by a two-by-four basically by what was happening the state estimated our enrollment for the months of April May and June and kind of gave you you knew what number enrollment we were gonna have to fund you now there was some conversation earlier in the spring around whether or not the state would put a similar hold harmless in place for next year because of the uncertainty of what enrollment we may have coming back in the fall super 10 right to all indicates then that won't be the case that what our enrollment we will receive full funding for distance learning or on-site learning
045but if there isn't a hold harmless so that is something that we will have to watch and I guess the biggest thing I would mention about that is like I think we talked about it I think I talked about it earlier us being trying to be transparent and clear with the community as much as possible when we went through the budget reductions last spring I think we held six or so forums we had number of comments we made adjustments based upon what we heard one of the issues that we face when it's a situation where the legislature says we don't know what kind of enrollment you're gonna have we're not gonna give you a hold harmless you just have to see who shows up in the fall that means it might not be tell September
046first before we really actually know what our enrollments gonna look like which is significant if for no other reason then if the enrollment comes in at a lower figure than what we did assumed for whatever reason there's less of an opportunity to have this transparent conversation I mean obviously we'll have a conversation but kind of a let's get feedback because every day at that point that you don't have further feedback is one more day that you spent money so it's I'm just only mentioning that just from that perspective that will have to be somewhat nimble but we honestly don't have any idea what is going to happen with our enrollment so we're just planning at this point as if we're building our budget in any other year and with that being said I would say
047that we are ongoing in that budget work most of the work on the expenditure side is done and on the revenue side so we're just starting to merge those files together to take a look and see just exactly where do we you know what what areas do we need to work on for the 2021 budget but like with everything else it's been a full year and I guess the last thing I would mention with respect to the budget is we also heard on this webinar today there was some question around the stimulus money that cares money from the federal government the OFM had in had asked for those funds to be held until they determined whether or not they would be distributed or not we learned in our webinar this afternoon with super kind of
048Rexel that those those dollars are going to be distributed see 80% of the funding so in our district it was supposed to be around five million so I believe we'll end up being able to claim proximately four million those dollars will help us implement whatever protocols we put into place to open school in the fall with respect to PPE temperature taking social distancing options the next shield the plexiglass though those kinds of distance barriers and then anything any other funds we likely could use those in terms of our technology a lot of those elementary devices were cart devices that ended up going home with students they've kept them over the summer so they have the opportunity to participate in some additional distance opportunities through lap funds that we have I think the anticipation is that
049there may be some impact on our devices and so some of these funds would be it allow us to potentially purchase some technology device to make sure we have what we need and at the same time just help us with whatever reductions we may potentially have in the future if they get pushed out into 21 22 and 22 23 but the work is ongoing and we'll have a lot more to talk about with respect to those questions it's still real early and everything we're not sure whether there's gonna be a special session called by the legislature or not we're just kind of monitoring through Melissa Gunn boskie our lobbyist who does a great job for us so I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about any of that really great news about that
050cares act funding to help us because I know that's been a concern I mean not only probably from the board but just our you know citizens about how are we going to pay for the supplies that it's going to take to clean things to have enough supplies and they're not handled over and over by multiple students so I know part of our planning process and figure out like which programs and correct yeah we'll be able to we'll be able to use it does make it more flexible I mean the reality is this we have to spend whatever we have to spend to make sure that we're doing you know following all the protocols and making sure that everybody feels comfortable and safe with what with having their students and having staff at school but this
051does at least it takes one question mark off the table that's a good thing yeah hearing from OFM that they're not going to recommend clawing back that money it was a risk and and discussing things statewide with the Oise de folks they were advising us to be worried so that's a comfort it's a real comfort yeah we had legislative leaders like Senator Bill like I know that representative Tamiko Santos from the house that committee there were a lot of people that were speaking strongly about making sure that the money wasn't supplanted and used for other things and so appreciate all less than Monica Stonier as well so we appreciate all the work that went on behind the scenes to make sure that we are receiving and able to use those flexibly the way we need
052to use them to support opening the schools all right great any other questions for Mike about the budget update all right thanks Mike all right we'll go ahead and move on to board comments these are comments by the board does anybody want to kick us off I can okay um I I really I know we've all been very concerned about the latest current events in the world and I'm I was happy to hear you Mike in talking about the things that we've been we've been talking about and and getting those rolling I think it's really important I I'm work I've worked on a resolution that I'm going to you should all be receiving here in the next day or so I've got it with Laurie having your format it into a resolution our resolution template
053and for your review and I'd like to have Clarissa take a look at it make sure we haven't but I think it really hits to what we believe as a board and where we're going as a school district so I'm hoping to have that ready for us to vote on it our next board meeting which isn't until July 7th unfortunately but we only have one board meet meeting this month you know I've got to give thanks to rob because we were talking about the different things that we bought in our policies now and we already have on our schedule to develop a an equity policy you know we originally took the we have the position of trying to weave that throughout all of our policies to make sure that equity was included there and and
054how what we believe about our students and our staff an example is we have a statement in a policy regarding a diverse workforce and that we expect to to have you and jinae be conscientiously looking for staff and teachers and principals that that other administrators that look like our kids and that it's a critical thing and we we've had that actually as a policy in a couple different ways over the last few years so we've been working on it and we've had meetings but I think it's it's something that we really are gonna have to work with our community to help us fulfill that that mandate that the board has put out there because it's just been a tough one and but Rob Dow track down he went back to 2016 and found out and
055tracked down all the different things that we've been working on and I'm really proud of the work that we've done and I feel like our hearts are there our belief system is there but we still have a long ways to go and it's it's going to be incumbent upon us to really move forward with this like we've done other initiatives and it's going to be really important that everybody be on board not just the board putting out policy but or administration putting out their mandates but that every employee in our district be committed to this work and if they cannot be committed to this work they don't belong here and that's I feel personally I feel very strongly that if you cannot fulfill our mission of equity for every single student and to our families
056and and to our staff then we don't have room anymore for for that and so I'm looking forward for us getting that resolution out I'm really looking forward to work the work that we're going to do and thanks Mike for continuing on with what we've been talking about Thank You Victoria that was great right Rob I I'll try to be succinct and and thank you Victoria for bringing up so much of that because a lot of that's been in my heart for all the weeks that in all the years that we've been talking about equity we've been talking about it in different terms we started with the idea that if we address poverty then equity could emerge and then if we addressed equity directly if we talked about trauma-informed practice and what's happened in the
057last couple of weeks is that Tim Probst invited me to join class Alliance in an effort to form a rapid response team is what he called it and so I've been working on setting up written boiler plates and things that members of that middle-class Alliance can use when something comes up locally in the news about an atrocity or an event of racism so that those people and myself included now can very quickly extend a hand of fellowship and friendship to people who suffer like that that as I think about our work what we've been doing is sort of focusing on something but then uncovering that and finding another layer underneath it that expands the scope and we're getting closer and closer I think two root causes of the problems that our children and their families
058experience in our community and in our schools it's becoming clear that we need the decision that might made to lead on equity by appointing someone who knows through lived experience what it's like not to have it and I appreciate that decision just so much let me digress a little so that I don't forget Betsy shot at Mountain View and that worked to bring so many students through to graduation let me thank Betsy let me thank you I'm pretty sure she's not watching I don't see her name in the in the participants list but Betsy has been a family friend of ours for ever since I was a teenager and her devotion and commitment to kids is matchless she has been working on that for as long as I can remember lifetime I appreciate her work
059and I thank her for it and wish her well in retirement it was good to be at the Marion groundbreaking and and participate in that I think we talked about that already and I also had an opportunity to celebrate graduation at the touch a facility and was able to go there and call out the names of our students who touch mark honor their employees at their graduation and give them something they gave me a part in it I got to drive my they decorated my van and I got to driving the parade that they took around the facility as long as and they were very clear about that I didn't get out of my car so I couldn't get out of my car they would it just reminded me of how much our graduating class
060is missing by not having the in-person graduation I really looking forward to whatever we can do come August to extend honors to them it's been the toughest year in a hundred years for schools and students and learning and we need to do we need to figure out how to do that okay so what I wanted to do in connection with Victorious thing is read out some of the state-level work that has been going on where did it go Wazza our school directors association has been working on equity over the years in my place in the legislative committee it is always on our minds as we talked about the different legislative positions but this last fall was to became extremely explicit and about equity the equity statement that we voted on in November reads educational equity
061can only exist when a student's level of opportunity and achievement cannot be predicted based on race characteristics or circumstances therefore we must identify and eliminate any discriminatory practices and prejudices within our state's public education system the vote to adopt that as a permanent position by my recollection in that meeting I think you were there with us with me that day Julie I think it was the unanimous vote there was nobody in a school directors seat who doesn't agree with that statement tim garza the executive director thanked the association for that because he believes that it will give us a greater focus on equity in and enable us to talk statewide about race in ways that we haven't ever before to that end i in my experience have had a mother of a district student at
062my kitchen table it was in connection with some personal services that we were receiving but her son she and her son are black and as she described his story going through elementary and middle school it became clear to me that he was on a school to Prison Pipeline and our system was doing it to him so this isn't just a problem in Tacoma or a problem in Seattle or Portland this is the problem here this is a problem that emerges even though everyone means well and the people involved in that particular case which you know I'm admitting names and things because of FERPA regulations and so forth but the student is real and the surrender and her voice was real and she just so calmly explained how much the schools had failed him just by
063virtue of the way that our policies are written that makes the audits and the leadership around that so much more important to me knowing that it happens here I know our teachers are writing in to ask for this work I really appreciate the letters that we've gotten I don't care about the tone of any of those letters they're telling us to do the right thing and I'm glad to know that we're going to do it this is going to be really difficult work this is going to be uncomfortable for everybody and we have to be prepared to sit in that discomfort and wait and listen and then respond with as much goodwill and charity as our hearts can produce and it's it's going to take all the energy that we can muster it'll be just
064so difficult having said that well repeat it again black lives matter Latino lives matter do they matter we start with the fact that their kids everything else can proceed from there and we can freely say it I'm gonna stop it's wrong but I could really go on for hours about this Stefan and I'm glad to see that we have the opportunity to do that thank you well said Mary Jenny or Rachel any comments from you I yeah it's anything for all of us it's been very difficult couple of weeks just kind of watching what's been going on um and in seeing things in the media on social media on the news but also you know I I'm I'm pleased to see a lot of people starting to kind of come around and get it so
065to speak and you know systemic racism is it's not a fable it's there it's alive and well and you know as Rob said we've been getting a lot of emails from community members from teachers from students that are you know they want change and it's as board members it is our responsibility to make sure that we are you know making those changes changing the policies and ensuring that the school to Prison Pipeline stops because we are that first line we are in the the business of Education where we're not directly the teachers and I would um they're warriors I never do that job but one of the I've really enjoyed the list of the books that we've been getting from the community one of the ones I recently actually just picked up last night is
066the culturally responsive teaching and just in the first chapter it talks about how it really has to change in our walls we have to change we have to be mindful of the way that certain students of color of poverty you know of certain demographics are learning they don't not everybody learns the same way and we need to make sure that we are providing them with educational materials that engage them which means that they need to have reading material that they can connect with that people in the stories look like them and you know and I am very proud of us and the district in our last board meeting you know issuing out the libraries and I can't remember the exact amount but we we deployed a large amount of money on to our schools so
067that they could buy new books for the libraries that were diverse and that our students could relate to and those that's also those emails of things from our librarians have been coming in and so being you know the the requests for action and us doing things about those but also knowing that you know we have kind of taken steps already and we were already working on that beef before a lot of the outcry started so I just want to say thank you to the district and for everybody for already having implemented that and I am committed as I know the rest of the board is to listen it's our job to listen it's our job to take that information and to change the way our education system is and and stop this school to Prison
068Pipeline I'll stop them you mentioned the you mentioned the tech the library it's right around 460 thousand dollars I think every school got a minimum of ten thousand to try to you know weed out some of these old books that we've had and then bring in a new just just new books that that kids can relate to and that has been received very well appreciate Brian on the call working with the teacher librarians throughout the year to kind of implement this plan so yeah that's that's I mean there there are a lot of examples and I think the great thing right now is having Clarissa in to kind of lead it and it's it's not it's real clear that adding something like equity to somebody that's already got a full-time to it doesn't it's not
069respectful it's not appropriate the only way that we could really work through this and and implement the vision that you all have is through having the right person leading it and so real excited about the work that's good and I agree it will be difficult but I think it's it's great work and it's what's best for our kids and I've been saying this type of thing for quite some time we need to think about our students and and not think I'm not saying we should never think about adults but we need to think about our kids that's that's what we're here for we wouldn't exist if it weren't for kids yes and you know and unfortunately you know I have I've lived the life I have seen the school-to-prison pipeline um you know my my
070own family and it's it's a little I've been well and it's time to stop it so it's the fact that we have a team that is willing and ready and very very very much wanting to do the hard work and to listen and to hear and to make the changes because you know ultimately we're all in this for the kids you know we don't we we we don't fight an election for a place at the table for the status because we all know school board not even you know considered elected officials but you know we do this because of our hurts in the wanting our kids to succeed and to be better and for us to do better and that's in every election that we have that is always the discussion and you know and
071that's what it is we're in this to for the kids so we can't we can we can't sit back and not do anything and not make the drastic changes that we need to in order to make sure that our kids are getting the education that they deserve and that you know we can be a part of ending this thanks Jenny Rachel you want to add anything well I would echo the sentiments of Jenny Victoria and Rob I don't know that I can say any of what they've said better or you know add to it I feel like so much as everything has been shared I would really like to thank everyone who has sent us letters know that they have been read and taken to heart I also think that you know like Jenny said
072we can't sit back we have to do more we have to do the uncomfortable work and we have to learn how to be allies in the best way we can and we have to learn how to teach everyone in our school system how to be those allies as well not just our educators but our students as well and that's something that we need to figure out how to do and I think a good first step was what mike has already done which is appointing Clarissa Hightower and I'm so excited to see the work that she's going to get started and help us do the very best we can do by our students 3 thanks Rachel I guess I'll just finish and say a couple of things first I want to thank all of you for
073the comments that you made and I completely agree with you I know that you know I was thinking about all the work that we've done I know I've talked to both Victoria and Rob over the past week about you know various lists of things that we've done and how it's kind of evolved over time but I don't think we've ever really like put it all together and I think that that's the work that we're going to embark on in this journey now with Clarissa leading or leading the way on this and the board you know kind of our vision of this how we wanted it it's finally going to come together and it's really exciting work we do want what's best for every student and I mean that's the way we're in this you know
074we need to hold each other ourselves accountable or the people in our district accountable we have to commit to it it's gonna be hard work and I think we all know that but I think that we want to do the hard work and I think we want to make things better and we want to keep trying even though even when it gets hard that's when we have to work harder and get better every single day so I guess that's what I would say about that a couple other things I did want to you know I was very appreciative of the money that we put towards the libraries as Judy mentioned I know the teacher librarians are super happy about it and I'm excited to see the work that they do it with their school communities
075and building those libraries up I do I want to give a shout out a couple shoutouts one if Gil is still listening you know just listening to the good news report over the past three months we haven't had in person school none of us have had the opportunity to do they kill New York none of us have had the opportunity to get into classrooms which we all love all of the end of the Year celebrations our students haven't been together we haven't been able to be with them the teachers haven't been with them but Gail and her team have brought us together in a time that we couldn't be together and it's been super fun watching all of the parades you know the individual stories about how our schools are connecting with their kids and
076our families and really a well done job thank you for that next I want to say graduation so I've been watching the virtual celebrations it's very different I love graduation I think everybody knows that about me that there's nothing this is like my favorite week in the entire year's graduation weeks it's the only time I wear a dress right and this scene I am missing the excitement of all the kids together and I know that the class of 2020 is missing out on that right now too and I am hopeful that we're going to put something together in early August that we can get these kids together so they can celebrate with each other we can celebrate with them but I am watching the virtual celebrations and I have to say it's different but it's
077good it's kind of fun these kids are so creative and they're so funny and when you watch them because they always put these comments or they put like their feel it is like the video clip where they work they inserted something and some of the things they say are just so funny and it just like gives you hope or you know that these kids are gonna go on to do great things so I just want to congratulate the class of 2020 we're sorry we're missing you right now but we hopefully then gonna get together with you very soon to celebrate and the last thing I want to add is I just want to thank Mike for the last several months it has not been easy work you have like got your team together you did
078amazing things in a short amount of time from feeding kids to camp evergreen to get in the social distance learning and meanwhile we have this huge bond project going on you know like we don't even really think about that but we have all of these Elementary's and school projects that are being done you know and other other you know just all of the other things that go along with running the school district and I just want to thank you and tell you that I think you're doing amazing job with it I appreciate that thank you and sue Steinberger has a lot to do with the bond project Drive I see like the schools I'm like oh my gosh you know it's more flyovers so that we can see them cuz we're not out and about
079so I don't even notice that third yeah it's all coming out of the ground that's for sure we a lot of stuff going on I might be in a privileged place with one in walking distance from my house but it's been so nice to see the construction continue and get that building ready for the Emerald kids when they get here whatever it takes you know we're just really right on the corner I know that we have a lot of work ahead of us well we were fortunate to for them to say that we were a necessity to continue the construction on our buildings all other construction halted yeah yes it did all right so if there's our other board comments we'll do future agenda items does anybody have anything they want to bring forward I
080think we just list it off quite a few things during board comments of things that will keep us quite occupied over the next over the summer usually in the summer we do some planning for the next year but I think this summer we're going to be very occupied with the plan for next year and our equity work be in there resolution I have a suggestion about that resolution does and and it's more of a question for Julian and Vic as the president vice president this year but is there any reason why we couldn't call a special meeting just with that on the agenda item when the resolution is ready and not wait until July to read it out to the community I guess I don't see why not as long as we announce it I
081think we're almost to the point where we can start doing some I'm not sure about the in person because the having to keep them open but tomorrow the last day of the proclamation the open public meetings Proclamation it's the last day for certain things but at the last point I checked which was last Thursday's was to cope at 19 call the limitations on in-person meetings in the educational setting go on a different cadence then what they did was they were moved OPM a restrictions on what we can discuss it's no longer limited to emergency related things are necessary and routine things we can do anything but we still can't meet in person until they lift another rule and I don't think they need the legislature to keep that rule in place is what it sounded
082like but we're going to be meeting again at noon and any of any one of the directors can join this meeting they've structured it so that it doesn't run into open public meeting problems and listen to the presentations the last one had students talking about their experience in distance learning that was really informative so we could be doing that but as far as future agenda items go I would like to see if we can read out an equity resolution after some study sooner than next four weeks we know I think we can probably look into that Mike I don't know I mean we can visit that it we just have to do we just have to find a date that works and then just announce it and then have the meeting we just set it
083up that's not a problem we'll we want to have a meeting maybe you could do that and we can also talk more about fall planning after the next week or two I would imagine that we're probably gonna have to set up a lot of board workshops over the summer to talk about fall planning imagine it's not going to be enough just to have our July workshop and then our planning session in August we're gonna need more I think that's a given yes let me interject something procedural there's a I got an instant message from one of the people watching that says the only thing they can see is Lori's screen with the agenda on it I wondered if if she stops hearing her scream they'd be able to see our faces it's possible she's trying
084think she's trying to get it down yeah appreciate it it's more of a human touch yeah well I think if the whoever is watching if they go to their view options icon they can actually um change the mode on how they're viewing it so if they want to go like side by side mode they can see the speakers I don't know like Lori's not in the screenshot so I don't even I'm not sure she's sitting there a few different people saying they can see everything okay so it might be the individuals issue oh okay it's a card doing it this way we all need help I don't hopefully very soon yeah but we reach a lot more people this way thousands apparently yeah yeah that's true that's true all right so next is citizen comments
085so because we are doing the virtual zoom webinar the public had until 3 p.m. today to submit comments and they were in the form of a written I think written we received several well several I think 16 tall so we're going to read through these and I have divided it up with vice-president Bradford she's gonna help out with this this evening so every other one we're gonna take right Victoria yep with me I'm with ya all right so the first one that came through tonight is from bill pebble and Lori correct me if I'm wrong but you have all of their information so I don't necessarily need to read everything correct okay so the first one is from Bill bevel who is the Evergreen Education Association president and it is titled Evergreen Education Association calls
086for racial justice of every public schools the Evergreen Education Association grieves with the nation at the death of George Floyd and the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department as educators we understand the ugly and racist history black Americans and people of color have experienced since the founding of the American colonies we recognize institutional racism is embedded in the criminal justice system and all political and social institutions including public education too many students of color have been funneled through the school to Prison Pipeline and disproportionately disciplined marginalized from opportunities in comparison to their white peers we join with the community to demand every institution be held to account and being actively anti-racist and callin evergreen public schools the miss dismantle racism in our schools with the following actions one the ever drank school board partner with
087the Evergreen Education Association and a joint commitment to dismantle institutionally racist policies and practices and ever in public schools to every public schools creates measurable and accountable goals to change the culture of our schools to be anti-racist and support equity for Evergreen students for marginalized communities including but not limited to clearer anti-bias hiring practices that result in higher more education of color and from more diverse backgrounds regular educator led training and anti bias for all employees of Evergreen Public Schools equity teams in all schools three Evergreen Public Schools commits to transparency and to include students educators families and community organizations and the decision making process to advance anti racism inequity it was dated the 16th day of June 2020 by a bill level all right sorry um Julie if you don't mind I'd like to
088remind our listeners that on citizen comments were not allowed to get into a discussion regarding them or reply but someone will be in contact with anyone that has an issue that needs my connection with with us okay great thanks for trying okay this is from Chelsey Bolton a parent of students at ABC and Pacific middle school sorry okay we are deeply concerned about sending children back to a school environment with the state mandate for mass we do not believe children and staff in masks for a full school day with the additional mandate to social distance provides an environment conducive to learning we should not mandate expectations of our children that most adults would find difficult to it adhere to mass do provide protection and serve a purpose but it seems children who will spend more
089time fussing with masks keeping them on and in place and worrying about maintaining physical distance from classmates and learning the fundamentals of Education we believe this to be especially true for elementary school children we also believe it's it worthwhile to explore a mask alternative for younger children and teachers such as a shield it would be difficult to learn sounds not having a teachers mouth visible especially for k1 students as well as dual language learning students a shield would provide that visibility if children and staff are required to wear masks in a learning environment then the district must provide the option of continued distance classroom learning should a family or student feel uncomfortable with this scenario and also to help streamline learning should schools closed again due to a spike in virus cases and actually this
090was signed the Belton family the bird family this civets family the Perez family the holiday family the Lintz family and the Newberry family right the next comment comes in from Christina - for who is a speech-language pathologist at Cummington middle school she writes I would like to submit the following comment to be shared of the next school board meeting my name is Christina to foreign and I'm a speech-language pathologist at Covington middle school I like um deeply committed to establishing greater equity in our school district and ending the cycle of the school to Prison Pipeline that is a national issue within public education in order to achieve real change in the next academic year I am here to ask you commit to two specific actions one whole diversity and anti bias training for all staff
091including regular training for teachers and administrators and to establish equity teams and every building to support ongoing work at every site these are realistic steps that our district can take right now to take a stand against significant inequities that are largely the result of unexamined implicit biases thank you very much for your time and I look forward to seeing our district lead the charge against social injustice by committing to these two actions okay this letter is from Brianna Sawtelle she's a kindergarten teacher at Crestline dear school board directors I am a kindergarten teacher at Christine Elementary with four years of experience as a classroom teacher during the four years I have worked for evergreen Publix I have seen our district make impressive growth in creating more equitable outcomes for students and families by identifying and
092eliminating barriers for our students in poverty I am writing to ask that our district takes similar measures to eliminate systemic racism and promote racial equity EPS has recently released two instructional tenets of which the second tenet states equity and inclusive practices are foundational in our support of alt students to accomplish this all educators will provide culturally responsive rigorous and student-centered environments to support academic achievement and growth well this is an impressive goal it will not become a reality until teachers receive professional development and how to create culturally responsive and inclusive teaching practices training must be ongoing and help staff understand systemic racism and implicit bias and also help to develop racially equitable discipline practices in addition EPS must make it a priority to recruit hire and retain teachers of color for the benefit of all
093students we must have a staff that reflects the diversity of our community finally to create real systemic change the district should support the development of an equity committee at every school pretty committees at each school will promote culturally responsive and inclusive practices and work to identify and eliminate eliminate barriers to student success please help APs take action and develop policies to promote racial equity thank you for your service to our schools and for doing all you can to help ApS students succeed great thanks Victoria alright the next one comes in from lyndale I believe it's gommage who is a first-grade teacher at Crestline elementary school and she writes dear evergreens school board directors during the ten years I have worked as a teacher for Evergreen Public Schools I have seen our district make impressive growth
094in creating more equitable outcomes for students and families by identifying and eliminating barriers for our students of poverty it is imperative that our district now take similar measures to eliminate systemic racism and promote racial equity we need to create proactive policies to recruit hire and retain teachers of color at the school where I work Crestline elementary our student population is 57% students of color yet only 3% of our staff are teachers of color for the benefit of all students we must have a staff that reflects the diversity of our community the second of the two EPs instructional tenant states all educators will provide culturally responsive rigorous and student-centered environments to support academic achievement and growth well this is an impressive goal it will not become a reality until teachers receive professional development and how to
095create culturally responsive and inclusive teaching practices only a very small percentage of teachers have any form of training and culturally responsive practices we cannot teach what we do not know we need an ongoing training that helps staff understand systemic racism and implicit bias and that supports us in developing racially equitable discipline practices in addition to hiring more teachers of color we need our school district to more intentionally create partnerships with parents of color we can start by creating an equity advisory group of parents students and community members of color to assist with the district equity audit and make policy recommendations finally to create real systemic change the district must encourage and support the development of an equity committee at every school equity committees at each school will promote culturally responsive and inclusive practices and work
096tied in a fan identify and eliminate barriers to student success please help ApS take action and develop policies to promote racial equity thank you for your service to schools and for doing all you can to help all ApS students succeed ok this one is from jeanne Donna hey I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right she is a speech and language pathologist dear school board members I'm writing today to request that evergreen public schools invest in culturally relevant curriculum materials and a speech-language pathologists in the district over 20 years I've worked in many evergreen schools and each one I've seen diverse student population students of color low-income families higher income families LGBTQ students English speaking and non-english speaking families as educators we must provide our students with a view of the world that reflects a
097real-life multicultural diverse world we need curriculum that teaches American history that includes all of our country's history not just a whitewashed version this is vital for the social emotional and academic growth of our students please invest in curricula culturally diverse curriculum for our schools thank you all right the next one comes from Todd cannon he teaches first grade at Silver Star elementary his letter reads my name is todd todd cannon I teach first grade in Evergreen I'm making two statements and asking two questions thank you for your consideration statement one of substantial and obvious repr prioritization of racial equity at the district administrator administrative level is necessary for the start of the 2020 2021 school year lip service in terms of the prioritization of racial equity in Evergreen school district is not acceptable I think
098most people would agree and I will extend the benefit of the doubt and assume that you agree statement two in order to make actual progress that our families who experience racism expect and deserves district leaders must listen to learn from and allow Evergreen school district policy to be transformed by input from authors academics and citizen leaders who have lived experience with racism in the northwest in Clark County district leaders who favor be erotic incremental overly cautious change actions that don't match up with recommendations from equity experts should reconsider or stand aside we are looking to our leaders to lead with immediate decisive action not delay enough is enough the time is now two questions the first what are the specific district level plans in place for racial equity work for the next school year -
099who are the individuals you are listening to and learning from as you consider necessary changes to every school district equity policies and proud in response to the urgent needs of our students and families who experience racism okay I got a long one here okay my name is Margaret hunter and I teach Visual Art Covington middle school my three questions slash concerns for the board and superintendent are as follows with the guidelines that right I'll put out last week it is concerning how fine art students in our district will participate it isn't just a question of social distancing is also a question of supplying tools and materials to students CTE courses seemed to have a fund for everything but fine arts teachers are very worried about their programs and their ability to engage students with the
100right rigorous curriculum what music arts will have the question of constant breach will have the question of constant breathe in the air by nature of the playing of instruments or singing on top of this there is the extra-large class size that all secondary music teachers have in the classroom by the nature of their programs with the downsizing of choir FTE at my school because of the district maximization of programs due to the unusual enrollment numbers that the kovat shutdown created social distancing seems impossible as we don't even have a full-time choir teacher anymore number two visual arts classes are worried about the tool sharing and the idea of recycled product use visual art programs throughout the district already have parents and Families financing almost every facility in the visual art rooms currently but not sharing
101tools and using recycled materials will cause a financial stress our classroom budgets can't support because tools and supplies need to be ordered in advance it seems we need to know if the district is going to supply teachers like visual arts with extra funds that parent the money can't support the other option is to charge even more for art class art classes which already creates a huge inequity between programs and detour students from signing up for them because of costs also an equity issue before this world crisis our district isn't really paying all the fees the fine arts the fine visual arts has never gotten monies from the Arts funds that go to schools if we did we would bankrupt the music teacher programs I don't think the majority of the families at my school could
102pay enough to have every tool and material purchased for their student alone how is the district going to get financial support to programs that are already underfunded to solve this materials issue lastly having middle schools with five empty classrooms or more seems idiotic when we are talking mandatory social distancing in the fall it seems like that the 20-plus non-renewed provisional teachers could be a partial solution to returning in the fall and we should contract them before our trained professionals get contracted by other districts before fall if we are talking fewer classes with less students in them why wouldn't we be talking about hiring emergency FTE into the system above and beyond their maximum caseload of students this seems like a huge mistake to maximize programs in FTE across the district with all the social distancing
103rules we will need to comply with if we have classrooms that are empty we could add a teacher and get more kids into the school every day this seems to be one of the few things we could actually control versus all of the seemingly impossible mandates they have given to reopen in the fall now is not the time to penny pinch savings across FTE in programs if we talked about the rainy day fund isn't that now when the world is seeing the biggest pandemic in all of our lives seems like if we can't dip into the research for next year's planning it will need to be the actual end of the world before we ever do thanks for considering and possibly addressing these questions alright so the next one is from Adriana blacks I'm not
104sure the pronunciation of that last name I apologize the harmony and Pacific parent hello evergreen school district first of all I would like to say thank you for all your hard work with putting together the distance learning curriculum this spring and for all of your efforts and planning to keep school safe in the fall as we try to reopen in person my husband and I work full-time from home and it is going to challenge to continue working as well as teach especially at the elementary level but we are so happy that distance learning was an option and that the supplies were given Chromebooks for each the school district has been wonderful as well as the teachers that stayed engaged and called to follow up on how we were doing there are many positive ways that
105we all collaborated and work together as a team during the currently challenging environment we are in our family support safety measures that include desks facing forward entering exiting and separate locations and increasing cleanliness overall however we are extremely concerned about our two children in the Evergreen school district relative to the mask and what all teaching will look like we have two children our daughter is a Pacific middle school entering eighth grade in the fall and our son is at Harmony Elementary and going into second grade there are peer-reviewed journals that demonstrate it is extremely harmful for young children to wear masks they pose a high level of risk because they reduce oxygen levels to the brain and they also pose psychological effects on students this wee student I'm sorry we would like you to try
106to work on this topic with the regulators to have the mass feed optional for students that would like to wear one the CDC guidelines are recommendations and not requirements therefore there are some discretion for what each state adopts in our opinion masks will do more harm than good they will be a distraction and prevent students for learning it is clear from scientific evidence that children are not at risk from kovin 19 and that the curd has flattened the math does not support mandating children wear mouse can you please reconsider your decision in making masks mandatory for students thank you so much for your consideration okay this one is from cassia brown she's a teacher at Silver Star elementary dear our school board members I'm a teacher at Silver Star alone elementary school and have 13
107years of experience in the Evergreen school district I am also a parent of two children who attend silver star in Superintendent Mike Marino's recent letter to parents and staff he referenced Tennant two of the district's instructional tenants equity and inclusive practices are foundational to our support of all students to accomplish this all educators will provide culturally responsive rigorous and student-centered environments support academic achievement and growth in an effort to put this idea into action I ask that you remove police officers from our schools it is a small but strong step in the right direction it is long past time that our schools and leaders recognize the police do not engender feelings of safety in all our citizens including our students our students would be much better served if we reallocate the money being spent on
108police officers to increase creasing counseling staff as Maya Angelou said do the best you can until you know better then when you know better do better we know better the next one comes from Margaret Milam teacher at Covington middle school she writes our nation is experiencing a revolutionary teachable moment as a teacher in the district I have started taking another look at my own beliefs biases and practices and it has occurred to me that this is a process that would be useful at the district level as well the City of Vancouver has began holding listening sessions to lay the groundwork for how the city can respond and take actions surrounding racial justice systemic this systemic inequities and structural racism in Vancouver I'd like to suggest that our school district do the same we hold an
109incredible amount of power over the experiences and messages that our students receive on a daily cases this is not a time to say we are doing alright or we have already started the process a while ago recent events compel us to approach this with humility and an openness to learn about how our systems our practices and our own mindsets can be improved for the benefit of our students that process begins by listening to our students and their families okay the next one is from Jenny Bradley she's a first-grade teacher at Crestline good evening my name is Jenny Bradley and I'm a first grade teacher Crestline Elementary in light of recent events and the growing national and global movement for racial justice many school districts and public and private organizations around the country and around the
110world are openly showing their support for black lives matter and the larger movement to end racism local Southwest Washington educators and community members have come out by the thousands to dozens of events over the last several weeks to show their support for black lives matter and the movement for racial justice our communities are looking to our leaders to show their support and leadership in these particularly difficult and uncertain times will our Evergreen Public Schools leadership rise to the challenge and take this unprecedented opportunity to join our community and show their support for black lives matter and the movement for racial justice we can start right here now members of the eps community and I would like each school or director to share their position on equity and racial justice by publicly sharing their answers to
111the following questions do you believe black lives matter and why do you support the black lives matter movement and other cement similar organizations working for racial racial justice and equity in America what are you doing as an individual and as a school board member to learn and work for racial justice and equity in your own life and in Evergreen Public Schools what more can you do to use your power privilege and influence to achieve racial justice and equity in our schools and beyond thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing your answers in these questions and seeing a meeting immediate and meaningful action and change at all levels never green Public Schools all right the next letter comes from Kendra Haynes a fourth grade teacher at Crestline elementary school dear school board
112directors I am a fourth grade teacher at Crestline Elementary with three years of experience as a classroom teacher during my three years in EPS I have been impressed with the focus to support students through poverty initiatives and was especially impressed when you established and then revised the second instructional tenant based on recommendations from teachers across the district to focus your priorities on providing and equitable education for our students the second EPS instructional tenant States equity and inclusive practices are foundational in our support of all students to accomplish this all educators will provide culturally responsive rigorous and student centered environments to support academic achievement and growth well this is an impressive goal it will not become a reality until teachers receive professional development and how to create culturally responsive and inclusive teaching practices Rainie must be
113ongoing informed by district data and help staff understand systemic racism and implicit bias and also help us develop racially equitable discipline practices these training should not only serve to support the development of teachers but also administrators district officials and school board members in order to create real systemic change we must use an equity lens to address all decisions within the district from large-scale district policies to classroom and school initiatives in addition eps must make it a priority to recruit hire and retain teachers of color for the benefit of all students we must have a staff that reflects the diversity of our community as the only black teacher at Crestline and only one with a few within the district I see the value of providing students with staff who reflect their lived experience speak their language
114and bring a different perspective to their classroom and school community please help EEPs take action and develop policies to promote racial equity thank you for your service to our schools and for doing all you can to help ApS students succeed okay yeah dear school board directors I'm a fourth grade teacher at aleyhi elementary with ten years of experience in public school it didn't start an evergreen but earning a position in a district that values quality professional development and is a leader in teacher education is something I consider an honor and a privilege EBS has always shown and continues to demonstrate the power of progressive leadership and creativity in public education as a district we have recently committed to again prove that it's possible with the adoption of our instructional tenants which include practices that Center
115on equity and culturally responsive practices I cannot emphasize enough our timely and promising this vision and commitment is now is the time to show that not only can we talk the talk but we can walk the walk we need meaningful educator and expert led diversity and anti bias training for staff students and families as we are a village safe schools presentations helped to start building knowledge and now we need opportunities to do the work as educators we know how important it is to do something with knowledge to rehearse and practice with it in safe ways that allow us to make mistakes and learn from them so that knowledge informs skills we need in person action based not just sit and get training that allows us to struggle productively with tough issues so that we understand
116them as a staff and so we can help our students understand them and manage them constructively for the betterment of everyone I ask what action you the leadership of our district are ready to take now and what action your plantings take in the future to increase our ability as educators to Sumo serve our students equity be equitably with gratitude Kyle helm Julie would it be appropriate to ask Mike a question sure Mike could you talk very briefly about the authorship of the instructional tenants because contents of the letter seemed to be giving credit to people who didn't have it well the instructional tenants were created by the instructional cabinet this past fall which was led by Bill Allman and a number of the staff at the district office JB and O'Brien Grimstad Scott Munroe and
117building principals era Lucic was part of that and I think we had Angie Mitchell from elementary Judy Desrochers Caroline Garrett I think was on the committee at one point time Tilly Mayer Julie Tumblety who's now at the district office so it was work that occurred over the summer and into the fall at the district office just this last year okay thank you all right okay the next one the next letter is from Adam Aguilera a teacher at EPs to the Evergreen school board last Friday hundreds of educators including many from Evergreen public schools rallied on Mill plain to support black lives and call for racial justice and every institution including our school districts for too long we have witnessed students and staff being bullied by racism and Evergreen Public Schools we want change and we
118want the Evergreen school board to commit to actionable inputs to create measurable outcomes systemic racism is there in every institution in our community including every public schools it is reflected in the district's policies how staff are trained and the discipline records of our students of color there is glaringly visible implicit bias and the nearly all-white district administration that believes all decision-making towards equity and addressing racism belongs only to them that is a tenet of white supremacy culture known as power hoarding in the book dismantling racism a workbook for social change groups by Kenneth Jones and Tina oak on since George George Floyd's murder we have heard no commitment from the Evergreen school board on acknowledging that the lives of our black students and staff matters and a commitment to racial justice it is not enough
119for any of us to be non to be non racist all of us must commit to be in anti-racist we hope to see Evergreen Public Schools match the public commitment the Vancouver School Board has made towards equity and anti racism in their school district no Vancouver City family should be segregated by zip code between one school district's actions and another's inaction towards racial and social justice the educators of our school district look forward to your direction and leadership and working together for our students and community this is a note to the teachers that are on this on this listening to this board meeting I would have liked to have known about that the that event that they that was had last Friday cuz I would have I know the board would have loved to have
120participated in that and so just just a little okay thank you for last one what I just said thank you for mentioning that yeah I was kind of surprised that we didn't get an invitation since we made an agreement to collaborate with the EEA on this very issue before the Cova thing even started that was a commitment we all made to each other so okay this is from Anne Marie Walker she is an art and structure instructor at Union High School on behalf of the visual art teachers in Evergreen I want to express my concern for next year's teaching scenarios based on superintendent right dolls recommendations as you know the students share all of the supplies in our room we do not have a budget that can accommodate individual kits for each student even with
121the student fees which we rely so desperately on we are worried about how best to keep our rooms and shared supplies sanitary we definitely need additional money for cleaning supplies in my mind I'm planning on having students write down supplies and tables after each class by my count students will go through a can of disinfect disinfectant wipes or more a day the environmental impact of that is also a Paula does the district supply towels and a towel cleaning service to other departments can we get a towel service and can we be provided with a cleaner that is safe for students but also kills viruses a UV cleaning each day we are coming up with many workarounds but this is one I want to make sure is at the top of the priority list thank you
122all right and with that that concludes our citizen comment portion of the board meeting so I want to again thank everybody for submitting your comments like Victoria said earlier because it wasn't hard our agenda the individual comments that we can't respond on and right now but you know we will do some follow-up work okay all right so at this time we're gonna call for a recess I'm not sure exactly we're going to go through we're gonna stay right here and then we're gonna start our board workshop which we will discuss alternative learning environment reports we're going to do fall planning session we're going to talk about the Washington State School Directors Association annual conference and we're going to a board meeting debrief then we will do an executive session after that we will discuss the
123performance of a public employee so do we need a break or should we go straight into our or workshop can manikin come on it's for two minutes I need yeah I need a few minutes yep okay it'd be officially adjourn the meeting though well we're gonna go into recess and then we'll use our board workshop and about five minutes sounds good so don't log out right don't leave the meeting just put it on pause yeah don't log out stay in okay worried yes I felt deserted everybody left Thank You song well we still have 24 attendees in watching the meeting they're so riveting did you say makes me happy that we've had more people engaged in our board movies I think if we'd had it in person there would have been a lot of attendees
124I would think so yeah and I think I think everybody can still hear everything that we're saying too is just that why I don't know yes I know yeah I'll promise not to say anything that all embarrassed you might know nothing will embarrassed me you've been around me longer than I better at you yeah I understand how does that work out I'm not quite sure what you were trying to say there but I think you do Jenny gray and there are those office lights are you still in the office tonight here they actually are I'm still over here I don't I don't know in these circumstances which is better no frame of reference you never know what's going on in my house a little fire here I'll take that I grabbed my dinner from the
125the door and all of a sudden kids all thought I was done in there I can hear voices I like no go away any of you hear from Marty the Mulder guy who was attending our meetings was he spoken up since the emergency began he might oh we just don't know I actually have a list of names of people logged in and unless he's the one calling from the single phone call listener I don't see your name it's wonder how he's doing it's it's a tough time for everybody yeah how's the baby oh my gosh he's just cute as a little bug in a rug he just is such a good little guy and he loves he loves his lovey but that's what they call me and he's just awesome good to have the babies
126around I know so sweet so could we ask Laurie to take the agenda down or would that disturb something I think there really are it's hard it's hard software to figure out I'm saying this is a software guy it's it's a I think you just humanize the workshop a little better if we could see faces and everybody can see who's doing what not your background I think and you have to discontinues sharing your screen okay yeah there you thank you thank you all right are we all back together yeah I think so all right should we go ahead and get started then right into fall planning yeah you wanna start oh that yeah oh I'm sorry yes well right now that'd be another agenda is not on the screen I wasn't sure what order we
127were going in I should have anticipated that one lead the a le discussion yes you have two documents ones around legacy and the ones around Oh tres Academy was the annual report on this alternative learning experience I'll kind of go through legacy and then home choice and then you have questions or comments we do it at the end though as far as the program at legacy there's 230 students in the alternative program that doesn't include 129 that are face to face that are on campus and out of the 230 they're in the legacy online open doors program and then reentry so that the three programs make up the 230 and every alternative program has to have a written student learning plan a little bit about legacies they have one that's the student the teacher in
128the counselor work on when a legacy strengths is really having a lot of supports for all their students and that's how they look at it how many supports can they have what kind of supports and how does that work that includes their plan so as well as their plan they look and see and their goal is for every student to be passing every class you can see some of the ways they support that they've a two-way contract they check in monthly they have a focus on freshman success which is across the district all our high schools are focused on that with the all the research showing if you're successful and again if you pass all your classes at the freshman it just puts you in great shape to graduate but if you don't it becomes
129a lot different experience for use a student so they work on that as well and then there's another piece that I don't know it's Mt SS that's part of our instructional tenants as well but really what it is is multi-tiered systems of supports so legacy tries to look at the whole student so they'll try and look at are you passing classes they also try and see if there's any kind of staff referrals and that doesn't mean it's a negative but staff referrals would be a concern I think combined both those and that multi-tier doesn't look at the whole student and see as we often know once we know student stories if they're not successful there is often many reasons maybe outside the school or inside the school so that's really their approach number five legacy
130is their success and again like all our high schools it's always one of the things that's been about is graduation so in this last year they last year that 84 graduates that's not including their students that are on campus it's face to face program among the 80-48 for ready start students and then 11s Cadia Tech students completing things about the future as you know they're moving which they're all very excited about yes one of the nice things about this library refresh was that all our schools and all our programs all received monies to to update diversify the book collection and that was for legacy as well so they're excited about that and they're also planning and we're going to be talking about this but they're planning to prepare for the fall may be expanded as
131we know parents are deciding what option is best for their students and their families that's one of the things we've been working on is how can we increase their capacity if more people want to choose the online piece of legacy home toys so it has 201 equivalent students this year I think it started the year at 122 so a lot of growth you reach capacity as far as space this year which is really exciting they have their program is pretty complicated the sense there's a lot of different opportunities for students but it's including they have instruction days enrichment days they have as far as they're written planned they have weekly they meet with parent new students and parents and they really identify the parent as a learning coach is some of the instructions at school
132and then some of the instructions at home and then again when you get down to the the number five on them and they've had zero suspension in the last two years so one of the things they believe the strength is that home choice as a school of choice is a great fit for families and for students and there's a really a good understanding of how to support students and help them to be successful also the State Board of Education rewarded them for being the growth they've seen to the subgroup of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch program for their recognized across the state for their work with that subgroup of students in the future we are also working with them to get ready for expanded opportunities after Mike's assumed last week Janet reported
133there was a five or six people who enrolled so just hearing about it gave them an opportunity go that's that's the option I want for my student now and then as well they're moving into the will be the old legacy in a year which is great because there will be a lot more space an opportunity to grow their programs that's it in a nutshell if there's any questions or comments all right I wonder if there's been any talk given the the continuous learning and the lessons that we're all learning about what's hard and easy about that whether there are insights that came from these programs that inform teachers or vice versa whether their experience and some of their workarounds are solutions to problems the general question is what's the conversation like when you talk about
134online school inside the district among teachers and administrators [Music] they've learned a great deal and I would say the same thing for our students parents have been appreciative the day we were able to give them devices parents have been appreciative of all the different ways that we try to reach out their students same time we know we have to do a much better job so what we've been talking about is 2.0 so we've learned a lot of things this spring and then what's next in terms of connecting with students giving students feedback so one of the issues we've for example it's just giving students feedback and knowing where they're at if they're understanding the lesson if they're getting the lesson so one of the things we're doing is looking at some software apps that allow
135for in like a zoo meeting like this but you can instantly get their assessments and feedback from kids whether they get it or they understand it where they have a question one of those things that we take for granted in a regular classroom then and this kind of environment is lot more difficult so I think there's an idea that there's we've seen to work really hard to get ready for whatever the fall looks like you know the graduation rate from legacy for this year is that out yet I don't think that's okay thanks any other questions for Brian no thank you Brian welcome all right Mike yeah let's do some fall planning so the by I guess what I would start with with respect to fall planning is like I kind of led with earlier
136we are so early in the guidance and the guidelines super ten directed all had a statewide webinar this afternoon kind of getting a little deeper into some of the questions as we are creating it an FAQ to respond to questions to come to us OSBI is doing the same work trying to come up with frequently asked questions that I had mentioned that the guidance there were updates to the guidance by Thursday night as I understand it that came from conversations with L&I it was a little more direction around the social distancing and a little more explicit with respect to the six feet distances between students in a classroom so there were kind of questions Friday afternoon ended up having some more kind of direct conversation not myself but indirectly through others hearing from superintendent riped
137all of it what he intended for that further information to do was kind of to provide more flexibility for school districts in terms of being able to address the the questions around social distancing on the webinar what is starting to become a little more clear which I think everyday will get a little more information that the the state as he said in his guidelines the school board is going to be required to approve a back to school plan that back to school plan has to be done at least two weeks before school starts but realistically it's got to be done sooner than that because parents need to know what the expectation is and it actually starts it's already started from the perspective of what we're doing planning because we have to vet how things would
138come together how doable those things are and start answering a lot of these questions that folks have but OSPI ultimately is gonna create a template that we would then tap into and it feels like and I'm saying it feels like because it feels like today based upon the conversation they may look at the six-foot social distancing as kind of a mathematical calculation so if you looked at the individual they need approximately 27 square feet in order to have six-foot social distancing and if you think about the size of a classroom is X number of square feet and you look at the number of students that would be in a class multiplied by the 27 if it's within that number from OSP eyes perspective that that social distancing is doable now I would say right from
139the beginning that they have determined that students riding on buses isn't subject to those same rules and the reason that they've made that determination is that you have for the most part a shorter period of time where all the kids would be on the bus and they feel like with the masks with the mitigation would be able to mitigate through open windows and having air flow in a bus you get to the first stop some kids drop off some kids dress so they're they're kind of going into this with the idea that transport on a school bus isn't an issue not I'm not to say that they're not concerned about it but it's not an issue that would restrict things from happening so then it gets to this question of social distancing within a classroom
140you you heard a lot of questions in the in the citizen comments around supplies and how do you how do you keep supplies it's tied to students choir you know because that's it within the guidelines it's a it's a program that they kind of explicitly mentioned from the perspective of the singing and how to use social distance and in that and so within the social distancing in a classroom so if you had thirty kids in a classroom at twenty-seven square feet you're talking 810 four feet the 900 square foot classroom my belief from the conversations or the comments from super petted right doll is that if you even if you created the space within that situation that they would authorize that plan at the same time when he says that he's also recognizing that throughout
141the day you're not always going to be outside of that you know you having that six-foot baby whether a teacher's walking through or with kids or whether kids are collaborating for a brief period of time the idea would be that the social distancing is in place but there it wouldn't be strict social distancing you can never keep I mean think about elementary school kids so you you never could you never could make that happen completely so when I say this I'm saying this based on today right so the more feedback that you receive that OSPI the more data that is is learned the more science that we learn about over the course of the days and weeks ahead they're going to be changes so we have to try to plan for what it is as
142of today and then react to that as we moved forward he indicated that about every two Meek's L&I and department health would be updating their changes based upon what they've learned again they have priorities we talked earlier in a meeting the part of health priorities are around one stay home if you're sick along with that there would be procedures in place to temperature affect students and staff when they get to school there's even talk of Paris being able to have attestations through apps that might be communicated on a daily basis about their students and whether or not they could be at school so I'm saying these things based upon the conversation that he's leading and in many ways just to show that there isn't clear guidance on how these things would happen but that would
143be an example physical distancing I think the words I wrote we're not a relentless rule however it's part of the planning framework face coverings absolutely that's something that we hear people talking about in the comments he commented that he would expect that at some point there will be legal challenges to the face covering issue who knows where that will be but that that likely would come at some point the cohorting and group thing of students so when you think about an elementary school you pretty much have that class together throughout the day but when you are middle school when you go to high school you obviously go to first period then you go to second pre you've got different kids throughout the day so they understand the limitations there and then also cleaning being an
144issue we talked about the staff that are higher students and staff that are high risk accommodations for students and staff that are high risk so I guess what I would say is we're extremely early in this process what we're doing internally is taking the guidelines creating a checklist for our buildings to work on by next week you understand we're still in school and when we get done with school next week we plan on having a and Paulie and Sue from the facility perspective along with Aaron Julie Scott bill they're all working on this guidance document as well as checklist if we're thinking about temperature how are we recommending it how would you do it at your building if you're thinking about cleaning if we're talking about supplies we've already talked about buying at the district
145level individual supply carriers for elementary schools we provide the supplies but they've been kind of shared at this moving that's where every student would have their own supply box that they would keep for themselves and so we're already looking at a lot of these things I guess for me it's it's work in progress without question there isn't going to be any like obviously today there aren't answers but this is what we have to work on really quickly I think for the board the first thing I'm interested in is just the the concept of being back in school full-time now let's before I say that we've I think we really clearly have guidance that the distance learning 2.0 be in place and it would be funded obviously Brian just mentioned that we have some people already
146signing up for the distance learning the a le option but the distance learning option is ongoing the work that we're doing putting in to create that there will be that option even in the survey results we saw 82% of parents were neutral or supported their kids going back to school that still leaves 18 percent that's that's a healthy number in our district and that would be served through the distance learning option I would also say that we're already working on another survey that tried it really digging a little deeper on that with respect to the if you're choosing would you choose to go on site with these conditions do you choose this so we start getting a sense of what are the numbers around this party so there there will be newest surveys on going
147around these issues but from my perspective I think it's it'd be great to hear from each of you just your your support for the work going towards having kids back full in the fall and just kind of where you stand on this so that we know that we're moving in the right direction with the work we're doing at the same time knowing we're going to need to schedule meetings maybe once a week or every you know just so that we have these kinds of meetings that we can have a conversation about ok this is what we learned this week this is what so you have the ability to make the decision with the appropriate information as we move forward well I guess I'll we'll start I'm in favor of getting our kids back in school
148at the start of 2020 21 school year I think we know best that our kids knew better when they're in school I know there's gonna be a lot of changes that we're gonna have to you know put in place they keep kids safe to keep our facilities clean I I want school to resume with all of the options that we've always provided for students I'm not sure what that looks like but choir band art that we just heard about and they in the letters I've had some students reach out to me I think all of you got the letters from the students about choir oh yeah you know they want their programs and I want our plan you know to have programs in place because I want them to have a full experience I don't
149know what that looks like because I don't know what it will look like under the guidance of the OSPI but my preference is that we put a plan in place that we can accommodate those things and figure out those different programs and you know get kids back in the classroom and you know and work at it and I am willing to you know and I know that we're gonna have to meet often throughout the summer because we've got to have a plan in place and it sounds like preferably what beginning of August would be yeah there was a question that kind of went up two local superintendents about timelines and I think because of the fact that the information just keeps changing I mean and that's no disrespect to anyone involved in the fact that
150the reality is it's just changing I think probably the goal would be able to have an answer as soon as we possibly could but no later than the end of July for sure early August in that really we have six weeks correct yeah so there's a lot which is why we're already working on it and haven't been for the last couple weeks man yes I think what I want to do with a little bit of this time is just inject some of the comments and feedback and reactions that I've gotten from parents about the 1.0 distance learning and the level of difficulty I'm certain that other parents have offered other leaders feedback and so forth but a couple of the things that stand out for me is that Google classroom is not a learning management
151system it appears to be difficult for people to use and might be worth an investment in something stronger if it can even be done in the next six weeks but I really see this if I think about the mom with two or three elementary school kids and one of my Mike one of my sister's is Ginny it's Ginny yeah one of my sister's is also in that situation it's we have the same elementary school but we've got what's the name of the the other LMS that they're using but they've got one for like the primary grades k-12 that the teachers chose there and then three through three through five was Google classroom but the specialists were using the the non Google classroom choice and just the combination of two platforms for a parent to manage
152who was enough to create days where there was just no way if we could settle on one platform and center training around it and deal with the disadvantages that emerge from that I think that would be even if it's Google classroom even with my opinions there that would be a better outcome for kids than having their families maintaining all this extra technology whenever we can settle on one platform that does most of it we can all come up with workarounds to do the rest so I'm interested in hearing whether that part of the conversation has come in and and then just for my personal experience I know there are master teachers excellent teachers who have struggled with the technology in ways that don't surprise me this is hard it's software is hard it's it's not
153always good and once you give it put it in front of the humans and give them a chance to use it they come up with ways to break it there's a all well-meaning and it just falls apart it's so complex so indirectly I'm taking that as an endorsement of having the kids in school in the fall Rob well yeah if it's at all possible yeah and that kind of leads to the second side of this is that if the kids are there in person it's easier to manage the technology if they're all doing the same thing at the same time in a classroom then it's easier to manage the technology and you can have people close who can get them through the hard points but there was a point where my son's English teacher sent
154us a set of directions which looked clear but because there was this combination of Google classroom plus Pearson LMS plus the names and passwords that you needed to get in through there and the fact that his user interface that he used to write the directions we're not the same as things that the students could see it took us a half an hour to get to the content and I'm I've been using computers forty years I know where the frictions are supposed to appear and and how to get around them and it still took me that long it was it was breathtaking and I can't imagine for some English teacher who's whose experience with technology is not that nuanced what it must have been like to put that thing together the difficulties take my breath away
155and so supports for for them around my mind and whenever we can unify around a platform and then supply good guidance and make sure that the cross pollenization is taking place as far as good ideas and good practices we're not we're not being helped by the way the software the teachers have to use behaves and it's got to get better I don't know if you can solve that but this felt like the moment to kind of a moat a little bit in a workshop about how hard it is and an understand it is there a way for example to use the technology and the distance learning I guess methodologies but in a classroom that's spread out over two rooms like if you take the wall apart at current Y East you get two classrooms and
156you can get the thirty kids in there but they're separated more and the technology is what they can use to bring them back together into the close workshops I think of things like that yeah yeah I think that I think that the teaching and learning team reached out and got a lot of this I'm sure the same feedback from our parents understanding that everything that was done was done over about two-week period I am very difficult for our staff and varied it's just a difficult situation so all along has been a conversation about if we you know I mean at one time was are we going to come back as a distance learning for everybody certainly we need to we need to make adjustments so there's any question about the fact that we're making it's
157a it's a it is a very complicated thing but if we have kids in in school I'm not saying obviously we're still using technology but we have a lot of tools in school that obviously gets us back to where we've been and working with the proper protocols to make that happen we invest we've invested two million dollars into curriculum in the elementary schools around reading ela we would we would want to use that we would want to use the reading adoption that we just have we will be starting in the middle schools who extend in it so I mean I don't think there's any question that anyone that chooses 2.0 we need to do our best to make sure the 2.0 is not 1.0 I mean there's work that's going on on that there's no
158question about that oh and I also wanted to mention I was going to mention this to you this morning when we talk but there was an app we jettisoned in the budget cuts called thought exchange that I guess wasn't really being in use they've offered a free kovat 19 conversation question and it's it's something that entered my mind because of the way we were talking to alleged committee and Brandi Nene Upton from Mercer Island said hey we're using thought exchange for this but if it's for free and it could foster some better answers to the questions then the surveys that we're doing or complimentary different answers to those questions then I'm interested in what it could do and to that end I listened to the salesperson and I could he helped me set up a
159question that I think about asking just the community in my own person at and kind of my own expense but I want to make sure that I'm not stepping on toes or I guess going across purpose as to what you're trying to do if I ask that question in public the question is basically given the strictures around cove of 19 what would you need to see in order to be confident that your kids feel safe in school and then that software kind of sorts things out and lets people put their answers in and then rate other people's answers and you get a different kind of response than you could from a from a survey where we think up the questions we just think of a general thing and hold a conversation and part of the
160advantage of that is that it's anonymous so they're putting in their comments but we don't know who they are unless they volunteer as a teacher or as a parent and their answers would it be all right with everyone if I went forward with something like that or would you want me to hold back an affiliation if we're gonna do that that should be a district thing yeah that would be my own but that would also require us to have some conversations we did at one point half on exchange and it wasn't you significantly I'm not saying it shouldn't be we shouldn't do it I don't know that that can inform us in this shorter period of time on what we're trying to do but we could certainly work with them and reach out to them
161okay well I haven't published anything that he and I prepared I was just curious about how to get answers to I'm just saying I don't know how else feels about that and that's why I bring it up because I don't want to go at cross-purposes but if I did this it would be clearly in my own person as can I just ask question Robin it sounds like you were wanting this for a survey it's it's not a surveying so much as it is a conversation it's kind of hard to describe without some kind of visual demo but you asked the question and then you let people write answers and then the software lets you come back a day or two later and rate other answers but it organizes the answers in a random fashion so
162that there isn't like an organization imposed on Howie just kind of randomizes it and then you see like somebody might answer I prefer like in the letters I prefer that you have face shields instead of masks and other people can rate that like one to five stars and then you see the strength of that suggestion in connection with the number of people who responded and it's just a different form of feedback I think if we were going to do something like that we would need to leave it up to you know have Mike and the team and public relations decide that was an effective way to gather information it sounds interesting to me and I agree that you guys that cabinet would probably need to take the lead on it and investigate because if it
163is because it does sound very intriguing to me Rob it also could help us later on with our equity work as well that's something that we might want to think about so anyway we can we can talk about that a cabinet I mean we will meet soon and I think that that would be great for us Gail's got some experience with it and so we look good I have that conversation when we have that conversation to get back to you all sure okay Fox Jenny or Rachel yes you guys have been doing the distance learning at home with little ones so I'd love to hear from the two of you I think there are difficulties with distance learning that just simply cannot be remedied with distance learning 2.0 and inequities with it people who have
164two parents you know who weren't your parents who work and don't have a parent available to do the distance learning with them that's been exceptionally hard in my household with my children in kindergarten and second grade that we both work and trying to do this at 7:00 a.m. or at 6:00 p.m. when the kids are you know don't want take care it's not feasible and it hasn't been great for them or for our family I also think about the you know emotional and mental health consequences for our kids being separated from everyone for so long doing everything via the internet and tablets and just being you know going through you know what adults are having a hard time handling the pandemic and the quarantine you know imagine that in a seven-year-old how difficult that is
165for them and so I'm very much in support of getting back into schools as soon as we can and hopefully that September first in person I do think that masks is ridiculous there's just simply no way that we can keep kindergarteners first graders second graders with masks on all day long and I'm not sure how really you know healthy it is you know Julie you've been doing masks all day I don't know you find it hard to breathe but just going to the grocery store on my you know you get an adjustment during the daytime definitely 45 minutes at Costco was almost too much right it can be kind of brutal and I'm not sure that we should be subjecting our kids to that so you know I don't know how we can feasibly get
166our kids back in schools in September but you know that is something that's actually going to work because I don't think masks is feasible it's just like someone said in one of our comments today they're gonna be fiddling with their masks all all day it's not necessarily it's per CDC guidelines to be wearing the same masks for that many hours if someone gets a wet the mask is supposed to be replaced so you know there are all these things that can go into that type of situation you know I just imagine a kindergarten teacher trying to wrangle 18 kids with masks all day and I just you know even a fourth grade teacher I don't see how you're not gonna have kids fiddling with it messing with it and possibly touching their face more but
167there are things you know we can do like know can you know supplies a lot of washing in between or at different points in the day I don't I I don't know how we get six feet apart from each person in the classroom with keeping our class sizes the way they are the things you're talking about Rachel will be part of the plan around individual supplies and washing protocols throughout the day and I think your comment on social distancing being difficult is an accurate statement and I think that the comments you make round masks are accurate that these are just some of the difficult things that will be what we'll be working through there's no question I mean - the other thing we talk about it's an equity issue for kids to be in school
168if we're truly about equity we should be in school because kids are affected disproportionately and there's no question about that I absolutely agree I know you're anxiously awaiting the end of the school year it was been 40 minutes fourteen-year-old is that he is done 50 notes and telling me that for three months we see him I know how to log into their portion of everything so I just go that route and look as I can see the parents can't see so little tricks there um I think for me it's it's been a challenge I I would like to hear what everybody in our community has to say because like you know 80 percent or whatever won them all to go back we didn't hear from everybody but that also leaves the other 20% that have
169concerns and I want to make sure that we are being doing everything and for equity of our students and with that being said I mean I have a child with dyslexia and that's not something that I am really able to help her grow with so it's it's really a struggle and I am I am concerned that she will fall backwards in her progress but you know in the other aspects I want to make sure that our kids are all safe I want to make sure that we are worried you know concerning ourselves with the key with our students database is also the masks so wearing a masks not being able to see someone's whole face that can can that could potentially trigger a lot of trauma in our students and that's not something that I
170would really really want to want to see happen so I would like to see what their what everybody all the parents in the community and the teachers and the students have to say about a lot of that because I you know I don't want to just be selfish in my own experience during all of this because it has an interesting one although they have done an amazing job in their distance learning recording lessons video lessons for the kids and they've been very creative and I think there is an opportunity there in ways for the future as well and are proceeding through with you know doing additional equity work including allowing students maybe to make up extra credits um that they weren't able to to get you know our kids our students that struggle or in
171Legacy and need to have additional credits made up these could be providing some programs or opportunities for other students as well but yes they do need to get back into class but I will leave that up to the experts as to when we do it extremely thick I agree that kids need to be back in school I was a challenge about this is we've spent so much time changing what a classroom looks like you know getting away from the rows of desks and you know more collaborative environment that I think it would be a shame if we lose that but how we do it and keep kids safe is first brighter Minds than mine I guess I mean I'm just envisioning these little plexiglass things like when I went to get my nails done for
172the first time and I had to stick my little fingers underneath those sly but there was a plexiglass wall between me and the big owl during my nails and it's like is this what we're gonna you know is this our whole world is gonna be plexiglass between us you know and so much a part of school is that connection that our teachers make with our kids and they the kids make with each other and I just have a little anxiousness about what this is gonna do the change that we have to make but I agree with you guys that the kids need to be in school they need to move forward parents need meet their kiss revision school and we just have to figure out a way to make it as safe as we possibly
173can which is exactly the work that we're doing and that I guess the question for me then is like how often do we want to set up these meetings where we're updating what's going on and and have the opportunity for you all to weigh in and hear what the most recent okay this is the latest I mean obviously I'm I try to communicate with you whenever anything comes out I'm it's not like the oh let's say we're gonna hear from you is every couple weeks or every week or how we do it but I think it's good for us all to be there so that the people that are attending have the opportunity to hear as well and this might be the best way for people to dial into that conversation so I'm just like
174is it in every every every other week right now and then as we get closer I also understand people are going to be in and out over the summer potentially although I don't know where anybody goes during the summer because I'm not planning on any vacation I was supposed to fly to New York next week my graduation gift our trip for a kid is there in New York no I missed a scenic trip to Cleveland this month I used to live around there and I have friends and so I missed that it's better these days than you think maybe like tomorrow I think that there's a meeting I have with Julie and Victoria planning meeting maybe we can come up with the plan for those and then we can share that with everyone and get
175on the same page we don't have to decide right now but I kind of envisioned that we're doing the work we're communicating with not only the board but with the community around that work we're doing surveys or if we have a thought exchange however we're getting feedback from the community on this all the while we're monitoring what the legislature might do funding wise for us thank goodness that we do have the current money potentially to deal with some of the things that we're talking about we've already we've already bought the individual supply boxes for kids that was about an $18,000 purchase so that we're ready for that so I mean there's there's it's it's what better time to have to spend more money on making sure that we're doing any way that we need to
176be doing to keep staff and our students safe then a time that the state's facing a seven billion dollar shortfall right it's all just it all is perfect but bottom line is from my perspective our students need to be in school as quickly as they possibly can and we do need to provide options for families that are concerned about having their kids at school for whatever reason they have the ability to see how this evolves and then transition back in seamlessly whenever the time is right it's worth saying prioritizing it so that the kids with the greatest need are the first to be readmitted if we have to I think that we're yeah I mean at this point I don't think it's an actually the if there are a number of families that choose to
177social distance through the distance learning 2.0 it actually sure you know reduces the number of kids in a classroom and makes the social distancing potentially easier so that's part of why that survey is really important to see what do parents what do they really think about coming back and what would they choose to do I think we need to do well to communicate as much as we possibly can with folks so that they do understand this these are the types of things that you would face coming back to school how do you feel about that a and B if you don't feel good about that then would you register your student for the distance learning option it there there's the there really isn't any time for vacation the summer anyway because we're gonna have to
178be doing everything we can to make sure that we've got the options in place for folks just how does everybody feel about holding our Tuesday's because since we do our board meetings on Tuesdays and when we're in school we have our school improvement meetings on Tuesday and kind of keep that those Tuesday evenings free so that we can schedule anything that needs to happen on a twos we can have them on Tuesday evenings I think it sounds like a great idea just plan party I've turned Tuesday's into takeout Tuesday because we're always doing school board sounds great then we could just kind of have a meeting in in place for just a workshop for this conversation on Tuesdays okay I've got the alleged committee thing coming up at the end of the month and can
179bring back a report to everybody so that if we want to lend the official support to there were some emergency positions centered around the reopening of buildings if we want to lend like a resolution support to that kind of thing or the more official than we used to that will give us a chance to do that within the timelines needed okay sounds good thank you for the feedback and we'll keep doing our work and then we'll confirm tomorrow that we have a meeting next Tuesday that sounds good thank you all right next is some discussion for us around the Washington state school deck Directors Association annual conference registration I think just opened up this year they're doing two options in-person and virtual so I guess we as a board probably should decide of what our
180plans are there since Spokane earlier this year are we so again this year yeah I have on Thursday from 1:30 to 4:30 I think it is we have our breakout session meeting to finalize which sessions are gonna be the breakout sessions are gonna be what is the focus this year you probably know that like do they have a focus it's a reset restart yeah it's still based around equity okay it's unfortunate though that we have to go into the RFPs for the breakout sessions so early in the year is even now you know I'm thinking there should actually be breakouts that we didn't put out that I mean that we weren't really getting so it'll be I haven't seen a list of all of the [Music] proposals that we got yet but we're gonna be
181reviewing on Thursday but I'll let you guys know kind of what the theme you know where it seems to going but I'm hoping that there will be some more I would imagine that this would be the year that there would have some good topics oh that mirror imaged yeah it says reflect reimagine relaunch I don't know how to reverse the mirror imaging read it so I guess we could decide if we want to do in person my agenda huh yeah and I guess then if we decide to go in person you know I it would be I think it would be kind of nice if we expanded our you know kind of our team that comes and then we can have some conversations even it I would imagine there's gonna be a lot of equity
182workshops at this conference I'll have a better idea after Thursday the distance learning so yeah I don't know I I'm in favor of going in person I don't know how the rest of you feel about it it's a November in my opinion because of what goes on around me I I would offer in person it's hard to concentrate my experience with the virtual conferences that I've gone to for work day job work have been subpar you just get too many distractions I'm saying that as a home office guy in person it's dovetails with the back to school yearning right I don't know if we can make our reservations and then we that way we at least hold them I would guess we could yeah and if we decide to do that Lauri's hearing what we're
183saying right now that lawyers probably already got the reservations booked and I would say it would be it would be rude of me not to mention that it's Lori's birthday tomorrow I actually have a post-it note on my monitor that says Lori's birthday is on the 17th soit they didn't go now the whole world knows Lori's birthday tomorrow there are still 10 attendees that are very familiar with that fact are you excited yeah 10 we don't know 18 need a panelist of 10 attendees yep I just say that all users so now there's even more Lori no thank you Mike well happy happy birthday tomorrow Lori thank you that happy birthday ok so I will give me in Spokane in November yes that sounds good I think this would be a professional wrestling thing going
184on that weekend too so that's perfect joking I've never been to a professional ride I haven't either I was joking and then on that note and we don't have to discuss the lodging but I know that when we went to Spokane last time there were some I guess there was a preference and we didn't get the preferred choice last year or last time we were in Spokane is the conference in the Davenport or is it philosophy don't important that it's in a common convention center or whatever and then part of its in the Davenport right is that the host hotel I'm assuming I saw the thing I think the Davenport Hotel and then there's an overflow somewhere else but work to get everybody besides Ginny at the Davenport I'm just kidding I'm always the one
185that turns in early anyways yeah I'm just like this is the one longest board meetings we've had for quite a while so I'm just starting to get punchy here and maybe think about new on the team you you want to bring along too so we can yeah I'm just gonna send the team I'm staying behind it doing it virtually I think we maybe would would just like for that type of a have most of the cabinet if not all the cabinet just go to that potentially now can I have to see let's see what's going on financially to and we can talk more about it okay except in a can't mmm janae okay she's your or Jamaican go and I don't go no we just have to be in separate vehicles I think that's playing
186oh my gosh to Bombardier is this year yeah and I'm sure Laurie will get a squared away tomorrow and we can report to you guys tomorrow afternoon okay tt-to is listening so you're welcome for that Doubletree is the hotel attached the Convention Center Davenport is across the street don't remember if it has cosway's across because we had to walk outside we had to go out on the front of the because that's where we had the Chartwell dinner yeah that's the other Levin port yeah if you go out you can either go with at street level outside but there's one up like second floor or whatever there's a little walk over I just pulled it up on my app and I can tell you the number of steps it will take to get from I move
187to table second okay cool Laurie you're gonna get us all set up absolutely alright board meeting debrief moving on that's so my job isn't it sorry I think it went well tonight I think we're all getting comfortable with our Arzu meeting so we're not as clumsy with them as we were before good comments from the citizens you know good citizens comments it is of course always hard to not respond but I hope that these statements and the information that was shared prior to reading those we were able to kind of answer some of those questions I I felt that some of them we were able to address the questions and issues that they had before when I outed everybody else feel it went I think it's good for what it is I mean it's I
188really miss the in-person meetings not only just to have us together in person but also you know the different people that come to the board meetings and and that it just feels so much more personal and connected but but it is what it is and you just do it I think that the fact that we had the comments in advance was nice it caused us to think and prepare a little better and what happened to me was that instead of reading those comments with some kind of combative tone and my in my thinking you know rather than inserting my own voice and being strident to myself about it I guess is that we had this conversation well we knew what was coming to a greater extent that we usually can because of the distance and
189that and the zoom meeting component of it all but but also the conversation that we had in advance of reading the comments actually set a tone for me that helped me experience the comments with a much more charitable mindset than I think I might have in another context I it's the way that you started out with the comments and board comments Victoria that's just set that tone to the point where I was able to say I don't care what the tone of the letters are if it's the right thing to do then let's go do that and um I hadn't planned to say that so I think - what's crossing has been crossing my mind tonight as it pertains to the comments is that we have to figure out a better way to communicate the
190things that we're working on to our own staff much less the community it just seemed kind of striking to me that some of the comments are things that we directly are directly addressing and working on and people don't seem to know that I think a lot of it too is that where we don't send out press releases on things that we're doing so even though it appeared that we were maybe being silent which is it's not okay because we never want to want our community to think that but I also think it's because I mean we were doing we were doing the work we didn't send out a press release saying what we were gonna do we were actually doing implementing it with hiring clarissa and so it wasn't that you know but I think
191that a lot of people thought that that's what we were doing is that we were just kind of doing nothing and I think we were trying to wait until the board actually took action on it rather than announce something before the board had taken action on it I do think that the communication when you have someone specifically in the position is going to it will take care of itself because that work is important work and it's going to be very visible and we have to have I mean that that work entails reaching out to staff and reaching out to kids and reaching out to families so I do think that it will be viewed and and it it will I think we will communicate better that work but I hear what you're saying from the
192perspective of the board they you guys have felt that you've been doing these things for quite some time I do I have to tell you though I think as a district it's been more left to the building's to do the racial equity work there's been a district level and I'm not saying that's because of the board I'm saying because there was like I think Rob mentioned a lot of the work was focused on socio-economic and then we got focused on our equity was around technology and we're kind taking the the equity work head-on which I think all of you would we're fine with doing when this was first discussed back when John dieter was here so I think I think it's good I think that Clarissa being in the position is great it's something that
193is needed and in and it will be good work and and I think it will naturally take on this communication effort and people will see where we're at I'm very curious how many schools do not have building equity teams because it sure seemed like when we were going through our school improvement plans we were hearing a lot of discussion about equity teams at each of the you know at individual schools so I was under the impression that the majority of our schools had equity teams but the letters don't seem to reflect that like we can get that information I think it's good as part of our audit to just see where where we're at I know we've done you know the training on privilege we've done some microaggression training different ones that Karl Smith has
194been you know doing in like you said in individual schools that's another thing I think we need to when we audit all of this is inventory what training has been done and who's done it you know is it yeah that'll definitely be part of that process yeah I'm looking forward to meeting with Clarissa and yes for team I have a concern about expecting a lot of this work to happen naturally and that comes from like I've been going over some of the pieces of D'Angelo's stuff in the context of it now having red candy and having been doing some some reading just kind of outside those two books taking recommendations Monica stoner suggested a book and of course Adam suggested a book in his letter - which has got me interested that if we decide
195that what we do is install the people sit back and let the training take effect we could end up missing some opportunities - to drive intention this is the kind of thing that points you remember from reading D'Angelo a lot of this is invisible to white people the things that we do the microaggressions that we have the decisions we make to excuse ourselves from a difficult conversation so yes if we support wholeheartedly and and make a make a point to participate in the hard conversations then we can continue the work but there's more there's more personal discomfort involved that people will back away from and yes I would say is that Clarissa has been in this role you know she's done this work at port Lubbock schools we talked about the work that we've talked
196about with respect to North Clackamas their equity plan that they have and she lives it right I mean she lives this every day of her life and her comments with us were about changing cultures but we all have to be part of that she has your commitment I am no question she has my commitment I have no question she has the cabinet's commitment no question he has the leadership team's commitment to support the work no question there will be at some point where there will be resistance I have no doubt about that and that's where we all have to continue the work and continue to stand with with the work and so I don't you know I don't know that the the specifics of how it's going to work out our come through conversations with
197you and with the cabinet and with the leadership but it's from her experience in doing the work in Portland Public Schools and it'll obviously look a little bit different in in Evergreen than it and it has I'm sure in Portland Public Schools but I think what we need to do is just get her with you you know we if we need next Tuesday's part of his can just be an introduction between you and she and you can share some of your views and and but we have to kind of let the we have to let the process move forward and it will we have to make sure though that we don't put the burden of change on the people who are the victims of the situation - I mean we have to take a stand
198that obviously we have to listen correct but then we have to carry the torch as the rest as the perpetrators I guess is you know way to word it it's it's that they can't they are tired they are tired of leading these efforts they're tired of trying to pull us along I'm sorry Mike I just I feel pretty passionately about this part of it is that we have to be ready to let them embarrass us we have to be ready to let krisily to us and let's let's let that happen but we have to be carrying things for her that that's that's what I was saying yeah okay okay one of the lieutenant - and I highlighted apparently I need some sleep because I'm having a hard time the thing that they were talking about
199the most was the culturally responsive teaching so I guess I would suggest that you know we do some research on what that actually means or reading the book I joined a book club you know about Jackson book so it's I don't do the brain thing very well so I've had to read three things a couple of times to to grab it and probably shouldn't read it midnight either but um I think that we put it we there was a tenant put in and we really need to understand what that means so there's things that are passing there's things that people are talking about there's words being used but there's actually more behind a lot of these words or phrases that we don't know because we're not educators or you know the board so I just
200think that we need to be we need to educate ourselves on some of these things as well and what culturally responsive teaching actually is clear to that they want training yes and that's the thing is that we need to understand it too because they're asking for it but if we don't understand it then we don't know if we're actually giving them what it is that they need to implement this and to do it in a correct way and one that is actually going to make change within our district but also teaching our instructor teacher instructors I'm sorry they're what are they called a rug your coaches thank you yes I think it'll be great to just maybe have Clarissa it'll be good to have her be here to talk and share her views and her
201experience and then hear your passion which I'm sure she already knows but the things you're raising it kind of was outlined in the stay in the statement you know these are the things we got to do the audit we got to listen to people we had we got to create all of the same things that you're saying so I'm I'm excited for the work and I'm excited that we have somebody that is has done a lot of the work and has led a lot of the work and that's a good thing so I hear everything you're saying there's no question that there's passion on the panel there's no question about that you know Mike really caught me here recently aside from what we're seeing on TV over and over again and the horrific nature of
202it all is the piece about our whitewashed curriculum and I have thought about this and talked about it over the last years that I'm concerned that our curriculum only starts at slavery and that's about you know kind of the gist of it all and what I I was just so struck when the whole hullabaloo over the president having his rally in Tulsa how many people never heard of the worst I guess you would say slaughter of black people in our country at one time and it's a history that I know I never heard about when I was going through school I don't think my girls ever heard about it when they were going through school but that's the kind of stuff that we have to be able to talk about and you know but even
203more than that is going back beyond the slavery past that to them amazing things that are black you members of our country where they come from and the amazing things that they are responsible for that never gets talked about and if you don't really understand where you come from or were people different people come from and have a respect and admiration for their successes and you're only thinking of people from one place it's a horrible place it really changes your perspective on things and those are things that I just wonder in our curriculum and we've really taken a hard look because I personally think we can't just keep it too you know Black History Month or whatever yeah I and I I mean I think that's part of the whole process as well there's no
204question I think we've made some strides with the fountas and pinnell we've seen we've seen that as a positive but that obviously it's part of the audit as well you know what what is the curriculum that we have so we got to do the work and then you got to do the work it's yeah I think I've had several times in the last little bit of time one we got to do hard work too we got to get better every day three we got to hold ourselves accountable for we got to be focused on our kids and five we got to do with integrity every one of these applies to almost everything we do on a daily basis and and you're highlighting great questions and when we start to see the work from the audit
205we start to see were committee that's where and and you'll all be part of it so that's where those voices need to be I mean I feel the passion I feel that the urgency in moving this forward we are at a point where we're able to do this now and obviously it hasn't been fast enough that's real clear and it was real clear to me last Monday and the meeting I had with Clarissa and others we haven't done it fast enough and it's not because of you because you haven't moved it fast enough I'm not it's just the administration we we needed to step up and and I feel like we are stepping up you know it's important go ahead Victoria we have the letter here that we read from Jenny Bradley and she asked
206us for there's four questions that she wanted us to address I still have the letter up on my screen yeah it might be I was thinking that when we do the resolution um this could be that could very easily be a time that we answer those questions publicly our position so I just wanted to throw that out there oh I think just talking to some parents and other community members about how we talk about our work is that especially in terms of equity there is a tiredness to talking about what we've done because there is a tired kind of resigned fear born out of experience that we will decide that what we've done is enough enough it'll never be enough right so if we will never stop that's right that's got to be okay so
207yeah we've done this and this means that this is the next thing we have to do has to be sort of a package in everything we talked about good job evergreen you know you're great here's the improvement so that we can continue to be the people who help carry that water yeah to that in my comments that you know we you know mentioning the book deployment where the funds out to the libraries for the books because that was it was something that was on her agenda we talked about it at our last meeting but again we don't get a lot of attendance in our meeting and that wasn't something that was issued out again because we don't spend out like release infamy we don't send out notices on everything we do but that was something
208that was done before the request you know like they want a lot of people asking for that so you know if that was we just did this but it's you know highlighting some of the things that we have done but also saying like it's it's we know it's not enough and you know and in my comments that says you know we need to do better and but that we are we're not just sitting here on our hands thinking that everything is fine because it's not it's not because really we don't wait as long as we're getting calls from parents or teachers or whomever that we've got kids being treated badly in our school system because of whatever reason that means the works not done and I know you know that well Jenny you know my
209my family lived that experience too and so I think you know I get calls I mean I've had calls this year from a couple particular schools Mike you know I immediately we we talked about you know the fact that we still get those calls is not OK I mean I'm glad they're calling us but as long as people are still feeling that way we have work to do we do so lean into the feeling and acknowledge that yeah ok I appreciate it Mike yeah thank you sounds good all right so does that end the board meeting debrief Jenni sorry I just heard something slide well that ends the board meeting debrief and we're gonna end our regular school going on workshop what does that say I'm get me when you're done we will go ahead
210and adjourn this meeting we will have our executive session which we will do a separate log on so thank you I'll start that up I'll start that up thank you everybody thank you now