001Okay, go ahead. Okay, you all. I'd like to call this um special meeting of the board of education and open workshop on May 22nd to order. Um before we get into our policies, we have a few motions um to approve for minutes. Um I move to approve the minutes from the special meeting in open session dated March 13, 2025. A second. Blair second it. Okay. All those in favor? I. Okay. That is 4. I move to approve the minutes from the special meeting in open session dated April 14, 2025. Second. Okay. Ali second. All those in favor? I. Okay, that's 40. Thanks. Okay, moving on to um policy 3537, the promotion policy. Um, and let's see who we have on. Cindy, do you want to go ahead and um and start to talk about the
002the changes for the promotion policy? Sure. Good evening. Uh, Petra, would you like me to start? Yeah, that that's fine. Okay, perfect. Um, Jesse, would you be able to share the slides? I just put a couple slides together that I think will help us kind of understand the changes uh that we're going through. So, good evening everybody. Um, and hoping Maya, can you hear me? Okay, just making sure before I start. Okay, thank you. Um so as mentioned uh the first policy that we are bringing forth to the board of education for review and eventual approval is our policy related to promotion. Uh the number is 3537. And a few reasons uh for the rationale of why we uh want to make changes and adjustments to this policy is uh first we are required under
003Wisconsin reads which we formally know as act 20 is mandating all school districts to adopt a new 3rd to fourth grade promotion policy as of July 1st 2025. This aligns to the act 20 literacy work that our district has been doing. Um and so while we were afforded this opportunity to make these changes, we thought it was a good opportunity to also realign all of our policies um that are connected to state statutes for promotion. Um and with that, we wanted to ensure that we are creating efficiencies and reducing the number of policies that are all connected to the same topic. Uh we also want to move to a more proactive policy and we want to ensure that we're unifying our communications with families. Uh currently, as a reminder, we have an ontrack to graduation
004plan that requires communication to families. We have a promotion from 8th to 9th grade and we have a promotion from fourth to 5th. So, uh, this policy will be, uh, what I would call an umbrella policy, and it'll be all-encompassing for all of the transition grades that were required to, uh, have promotion criteria underneath. Next slide, please, Jesse. So, uh, in addition to everything that I just mentioned, um, a little more in detail around some of the specific changes, um, we are, as I said, wanting to have a one umbrella policy that, uh, has everything that is the same topic in, um, 3537. Uh we have had to make some changes. State statute transes changes for our fourth and eighth grade promotion policy. Most specifically uh changing alignment to current uh state assessments and other
005requirements. As I mentioned before, the Wisconsin reads uh were required to have a promotion policy for third to fourth grade. And then we wanted to also uh take this opportunity to uh adjust our language to ensure our language was gender inclusive uh while we were making those changes. Uh so those are um kind of the pieces related to this policy uh kind of from a a big picture standpoint. Um we have a redlinined copy of the actual policy um in the uh board docs for you as well as a clean version. Uh so Jesse, could you take us off screen share uh for these slides for right this minute? And so I don't know if it's helpful to see the red line policy up on the screen. Maya, I see you shaking. Yes. Okay. Uh
006Jesse, are you able to pull up the red line policy? Yep. Thank you so much. So this is uh what you're seeing in front of you is the current 3537 with the red line. Um again in some of the narrative it is uh changing language. It's being more specific around criteria for promotion and also indicating uh what you will see below. Could you scroll down Jesse for me? Um much of this is crossed off because we have made changes to the overall policy to be proactive uh to align across our system. Here comes state statute language and then it's organized into these three sections. If you could pause right here, Jesse, for one second. Thank you so much. It's organized into our on track to graduation, our eighth to 9th grade promotion, and our third
007to fourth and fourth to fifth promotion. Each one of these sections has similar content but has different expectations. And so we chunked it out that way. Um, overall streamlining having the same type of communication for all families and really trying to think about other ways that we're ensuring we're proactive. The uh one other thing that I will call attention to is um this is all about promotion and it is not about retention. Uh we know the research says that retention is not beneficial for students. DPI has also put out pretty strong language about the research as it relates to promotion versus retention. And so the safety nets and the supports that uh we currently provide and what we're going to continue uh to strengthen in the district will be uh some of the content below.
008I'll pause there and Petra I don't know if there's anything you would like to add in otherwise I can uh Maya can keep scrolling but I'll turn it over to you Petra for a minute. Yeah thank you so much Cindy. I think one thing I'd like to elevate is just that um much of the language that we've used in rewriting this policy is coming directly from DPI itself. They released a model policy and so the language that you're seeing here is consistent with what um DPI is expecting school districts to adopt. Um, and I would also underscore, and I know Cindy already touched on it, um, under PI25, which deals with, um, at risk youth, um, MMSD frames that as being on track to graduation. And there's an actual program that is, um, linked to
009in the policy. And so that framing is really embodying, I think, the way that MMSD is approaching this. And so I just wanted to elevate that. um because I know that was important as staff were uh different stakeholders were reviewing the policy. Thank you, Petra. Um and so just as Petra indicated, we tried to take the language that DPI put into their model policy um and make the changes here as well. Uh Jesse, would you mind scrolling down a little just so that we can continue to go through components? Um all of this is part of our on track to graduation which is uh as Petra mentioned PI25 that the board has seen um in the past in terms of the plan that exists for that and the supports that we provide for students based
010on those indicators. The next is our 8th to 9th grade promotion. Um and again this language is aligning to district um DPI expectations. Uh what you'll notice that is different from our previous policy is the naming of the Wisconsin forward. Uh for a few years now, we've had to make uh some adjustments based on the uh previous policy and past state statute that did not indicate the state required assessments. Um so that is uh an addition in here. and then third to fourth and fourth to fifth are also uh used based on the DPI models that were provided. And what is new in this section that would probably not be familiar to the board of education is the third to fourth which is all part of the new act 20/swisconsin reads and the work that
011we've been doing as a district around um uh students personalized reading plans and if they don't meet the 25% or higher proficiency threshold for um the literacy screeners that then they would um be required to attend a summer program with supports and then be promoted to the following grade with continued supports. And Jesse, if you would just uh yep, keep scrolling. Uh much of this is about our processes around communications and expectations for that. And then this last part is related to after students are promoted what we will still ensure happens uh to make sure students are supported and are successful uh through graduation for us. So it is a long policy. Um and the reason again as I said in the beginning it is long is because we wanted to have a singular policy
012that encompassed um all of the transition grades that we uh have to be paying attention to for promotion. And so that we were syncing up and aligning our um communication and our processes internally. So we're not having different processes, different communications uh based on level. So Jesse, I think you could take us off screen share and board member Pearson, um I will turn it to you to see if there's questions uh from the board that Petra and I can try and answer and respond to. Yeah, thank you for um that um thorough explanation of the the policy in itself, but also um what we were trying to do and and trying to put things together and make it more succinct. Um Ali, go ahead. in terms of our English language learners who are often taking
013um exams related to a variety of areas but not in their first language and can be kind of anywhere in the process of learning English um at any point in time throughout their K12 experience. How do we factor in one their the the education that they had previously to joining us at MMSD if they're a student who is traveling internationally or moving internationally? Um how do we allow them to maintain the skills that they have in their first language? And if a child is advanced or um really really highly skilled at reading and writing in a language that we don't necessarily teach, what do we do to support that young person? Um and then how do we make sure that that young person is not um maybe like is given the ability to accurately demonstrate
014their skills. um even though there may be a language barrier in a variety of areas of their education. Yeah, thank you uh board member Moldro for that question. I would say that that is um why we were really specific in this policy and and named um our English learners. We named students with IEPs. Two things that are important from a DPI standpoint uh especially as it comes to Wisconsin Reads or Act 20. It is an Englishonly policy and they focus only on um instruction in English and assessment in English. However, I think you all know we as a school district deeply value uh students that are multilingual and bilingual. And so for us, we definitely are continuing to ensure that we're focused on students proficiency in both English and in Spanish and or Mong whatever
015other language they may be uh using. Um and so I think to answer your question, two things that are important. This is why this is a promotion policy. This is not a retention policy. Uh we want to ensure that students are continuing through uh their schooling and metriculating through grades. And what you'll see in here is um similar to what is the called a PRP or a personalized reading plan. These individualized plans will be uh revised and rewritten for students as they go up into the grades so that we can ensure that we're adding in additional supports and wraparound uh where needed whether that's social emotional um and or whether that's acceleration, right? If students need to accelerate that we're still thinking about the continuum of services for our students. And so that's part of
016why this policy is a little lengthier because we wanted to be really clear that it isn't just about we're going to pass you to the next grade, but we are trying to ensure that we're putting in um explicit supports for students on both ends of the continuum so that students are able to thrive. And back to this uh point that you made around English learners, ensuring that we're uh supporting students with developing the skills in both languages. Did that answer your question? Perfect. Thank you. Blair, can you speak to a little bit about the like ongoing conversations we've been having about policy versus procedure because because it is long and it has a lot of like first this group is going to meet and then this group is going to meet and so I was
017just hoping you could speak to that a little bit. Yeah, I'll start and I think I'll turn this over to Petra. I think this one um was hard to separate some of the steps that go into promotion without adding in more of the um processes that we have to follow as a school district because uh they intertwine. This idea of communication is a requirement that DPI has us and for us de uh communication is also part of our processes as well as uh the policy. And so I think that you will see this um maybe gray area that looks like it is uh steps to procedures because of the way DPI's model policy wanted to ensure that um the steps were beyond like I said to uh board member Moldro the steps were beyond just
018like this we're passing you to the next grade but we're ensuring that we're putting in the supports as well. But I'll turn it over to Petra to see if she wants to uh add to that. I agree with everything Cindy said. Um the only thing that I would add would be um I think that because of how much is required under state statute I suspect but I don't know that might be one reason why DPI actually released a model policy is probably for that you know very tension between policy and procedure and knowing that districts would likely need greater guidance with regards to this and what's required under statute. Okay. And then and from the procedures standpoint, um let's imagine the third grade team would have documentation from CNI about like who should be on
019the team and how often that team should meet and which button to click in edge climber and all of that stuff separately. Um okay. Yeah, correct. Then with all of that um is things that we were able to start this year which were requirements beyond the policy for act 20 but what we call the personalized reading plans and what carries on and all of the things you uh know and just mentioned um are also our guidance if you will that lives above and beyond all of these components. Okay, great. And that makes perfect sense because imagine we start using a different software. Why have that in policy? Okay, great. Um that helps me understand. Thank you. You're welcome. Great. Thank you, Blair, for asking that. Um, because that was actually my question, too. Um, and
020I know that Cindy Sabian, is your hand up? Okay, go ahead, Sabian. Thank you. Uh, my one question is, can you just talk about what goes into the personalized reading plan for the K through5 students? Absolutely. Thank you for that question. So the personalized reading plan is uh really a support plan that uh tracks and monitors uh the interventions that students might be receiving, the progress they've made on that maybe scaffold that the teacher has put in place uh for reading instruction in the classroom and then the communication that happens with the family as well. So, it really is a a kind of documented support plan plus kind of an intervention tracking tool, I think, is the best way to describe that. Okay. Thank you. My one followup is if a student is kind of
021on the edge of promotion or not and under serious consideration, what will folks look for in the PRP? Not to make up a new acquisite, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a great question. I think it a lot of it is based on and we stated in the policy is uh where a family comes into play as well around the communication um and where a family uh might recommend that they would want their student to uh uh repeat a grade due to either the performance of the student. Maybe it's also connected to the social emotional um maturity of the student. But, uh, from our standpoint, from the district's standpoint, we recommend promotion with supports. But there is, um, some language in here that talks about in the event that a family were to request
022a retention or being held back, what that process would look like. Thank you. You're welcome, Martha. Yeah, I was trying to read through and find out how about the students who don't take state tests because there's a lot of reliance on using that to track and the ones that who don't. I mean, sometimes they're kid uh students with IEPs are sometimes in there, but that just can be any parent who chooses to opt their child out of taking them specifically. And I'm wondering since you said this is proactive, are we also is there something also being brought in like proactively like tutoring instead of putting more expectations upon the classroom teacher to do the additional work with the student when they notice that they need intervention? Well, I'll I'll I'll answer both questions. I'll start
023with the first one. So the first one indicates that if the student was excused or did not take the state exam, we also look at academic performance. We look at recommendations from the teacher and we take other um components into uh um consideration for that. So that's kind of the answer when students are not um for whatever reason don't take the state exam. Um in terms of your second question around tutors, yes. So I would say we have interventionists in every one of our schools. So that is probably uh one of the first places that we would have the interventionist support. They have a case load of students. Um we have tutors in our school in a variety of ways. I think the future of um kind of what tutors and where uh we have
024will just be in it's an ongoing conversation just on changes beyond our control. But we do have tutors that we uh use. We have volunteers as well. anyone that works with our students um especially in the area of reading uh goes through training related to the science of reading because we want to make sure that they are equipped with the tools and resources to support students. Um so so those are some of the ways that we provide at beyond. We also have some um intervention materials whether they're uh web- based computer-based um physical copies we have that as well. So those are some of the things that go um without going through an exhaustive list but those are some of the ways outside of the classroom teacher. I guess I would have two uh questions
025just kind of with that. Um, when you say academic performance, is that are you speaking to tests or grade like homework? Because sometimes there are like the when you get through to the high school is what I'm getting feedback on is that sometimes tests are the way are like one of the only ways you can capture what the student is what is being just the only way to capture their grade point or you know where they're going to get most of their grade from as opposed to daily homework. So what is academic performance mean? Yeah. So we as a district have defined academic performance as students grades in those content areas. So whether it's a literacy by literacy or math and so we look at the academic performance uh based on their grades and uh
026depending on the time of notification we look at the semester grade at the high school level. Um we would look at the quarter grade at um middle school and we would probably look at the semester grade at elementary as well. But that's um how we've defined academic performance before. I guess the second one I was going to quick ask then in conjunction with that with that is um are are we going to is there going to be something that's suggestively more proactive than around the intervention that goes in there or is that also just going to just be we have the same expectations? Could you could you say more on what you mean? Do we have an expectation that we're going to be more proactive when offering the interventions early or you know in a
027different way when they're needed? I don't know. It sounds like this is more being proactive. So I'm just thinking of another proactive of means like is that going to be also seen in another way? Yeah. So interventions right now and probably will continue uh start as soon as we uh provide screeners to our students. And so students are screened uh the first couple weeks of the school year for the first time. Uh students uh that are identified may also get a diagnostic assessment after that to uh really drill down to the potential skills. And then uh usually by the first week of October, I would say give or take uh you know how the smoothly a school year may begin uh students will then start intervention groups um and small groups sometimes just in the
028classroom. just depends on um uh the level of need for students. But that happens really within the first quarter of a school year and then as I mentioned through this personalized reading plan uh that is monitored along the way. Sometimes you know it's a fluid group. Sometimes students stay in a group, sometimes students exit a group, sometimes students need a different intervention depending on the progress they're making. So it's really a fluid process. Thank you all for for those questions. Um, any other questions for Cindy or Petra relating to this first read of this policy? Okay, I'm at the strategic planning session, so you guys probably hear it in the background. So, sorry. Um, okay. Um, so seeing no other folks that want to ask questions, um, then I guess thank you Cindy for, um,
029and Petra for working on this. Um, I know that it was something that, um, we needed to do before I believe June, right? Um, and so excited that we we got that together. Um, and then so this would be considered the first read of this one and we will bring it back. So, if there's any questions from this time on, definitely make sure to ask us. Um, and we can try our best to answer them. Um, andor discuss it to try to figure out if there are some edits that need to be had. Um, and so, thank you all. And then going to policy 4406, homeless education program in TEP. Um, Cindy, will you be tackling this one? I don't I don't see uh Yep. I'm doing both. Yeah. Okay, perfect. Um I only other
030thing I would say thank you uh board member Pearson for that. Um we hope to get both of these policies the one you'll see in just a second uh back for your second read at the June 2nd instruction workg group just so people have a time frame of that and then um as mentioned the promotion policy uh the board needs to approve on or before July 1st. So uh voting on that at the June 23rd board meeting would be the goal. I think that's the date. Um, okay. Okay. I Oh, I'm so sorry, Blair. I mean, board my birthday, the June 23rd board meeting. Wonderful. Um, Jesse, could you share the slides again, please? Okay. So, the second policy that you are seeing tonight is policy 4406 which is uh currently titled our homeless education
031policy. Um and the main reasons and I'll walk through some details. The main reason for this policy is uh the Mckin Vento law under ESSA changed in 2015. And so we uh need to update this. We've been asked by DPI and we need to update this to align to uh the Mckin Vento Act. Um and we're really doing it to ensure legal compliance and also to uh really ensure that this policy aligns with our district core values. Uh we've created some uh clarity as it goes uh with language as it relates to both the policy and also compliance. Uh we've really tried to focus on um some equity as it relates to access and inclusion. Uh we've strengthened our support and updated language for what it means to be an unaccompanied youth. Uh we've also
032tried to really ensure that this policy maintains continuity and stability for students as it relates to their educational experience. Um, also try to uh ensure that this policy aligns with some of the supports that our staff need in order to ensure stability and continuity for students in education and then also to uh create some additions uh that were needed where there were some gaps in the policy. Jesse, if you wouldn't mind going to the next slide, please. Okay. So, um as you can see here, we updated um definitions and updated language. Uh we removed the language of awaiting foster care. That's just no longer eligible under the 2015 Mckin Vento Act. Uh we tried to ensure that we were using gender inclusive and student centered language. Um we expanded the liaison responsibilities to ensure uh
033that professional development was happening. and I'll talk about um kind of the professional development that we've really been working on over the last few years uh to ensure it includes early childhood and IDEIDA coordination that was really essential for us. Uh we've really tried to strengthen our enrollment protections uh meaning that students are automatically enrolled that they do not have to wait including co-curriculars. Uh that was something that was uh needing to be adjusted in this policy. uh youth can self-enroll if needed if they are unaccompanied and then um required follow-up to secure missing documentation. That's essential that we do that, but that would not uphold someone's ability to enroll immediately into school. Um we also made changes to unaccompanied youth rights. They can excuse themselves as needed and sign documentations. Uh they can receive
034surrogate parent support for IEP or 504s if needed. and they're recognized as an independent for higher education financial aid. Um, which also was something that was really important and aligns with the Mckin Vento Act. Next slide, please, Jesse. Transportation clarifications within the policy. We wanted to ensure it was uber clear around transportation. And this is about ensuring that even if you have secured housing during the school year and you still need transportation that your transportation can be uh continuous through the remainder of that school year. That goes back to what I had indicated about continuity and educational experiences and services for students. We want to ensure students are not getting any breaks due to uh the mck uh due to homelessness or um uh lack of housing. Um there's some cost sharing that happens across
035our districts that we wanted to ensure was clarified. Um there's a dispute process in the event that a family or an accompanied youth wants to dispute something. There's a a really clear guidance about how to do that. We uh thought that was important and you know you learn by doing. We've seen um that come up a few times. So we wanted to make sure that that was uh added included in the policy. And then um it's just organized and it's more clear to read. And again, this policy we believe is is really important for uh the family, the community, anyone that might need to ever uh take advantage of what is in our policy. We wanted to make sure that it was easy to understand, easy to read, and organized. And then I'll just reiterate
036uh similar to the promotion policy, just updating and making sure that our language was inclusive. Um, I think that's the last slide, Jesse. And so now what I'll do real quick, like I did for the other one, if Jesse, if you could pull up the red line, we could just walk through the actual uh policy and you can see um some of the changes in the red line. Uh could you slow down? I'm slow. Jesse, can you scroll a little? Um so you'll see here definitions. We uh were making sure that uh definitions were clear. As I had mentioned before, we took out this awaiting foster care placement. That's old language that was pre uh 2015. Mckin Vento. Uh could you keep scrolling? This next section is about you can see unaccompanied youth. We wanted
037to make sure that that definition was clear. Uh changing school of origin. We wanted to make sure this creates educational stability as well. A lot of this other language was taken out because it falls under the uh new definitions that we have. Uh we made changes as I mentioned for the homeless liaison, added language here. Um a lot of this is a specific from McKin Vento uh act. So we added in language which is all really more in support of the student andor the family that may be in um housing insecurity homelessness students of any age can enroll. This is what I mentioned before um you can keep going pause right there. This uh indicates about the processes once a student is enrolled, but that we don't have to wait for paperwork and other things
038in order to enroll the students. We want to get the student into their educational uh services right away. Keep scrolling, Jesse, please. That's all taken out. This is all redlinined. You could pause right here. Uh this is again just organizing this in terms of some of the services. A little added language. It hits at ESL. We changed it to EL. This talks about the access to athletics and all of that. Health summer school trans. This next section is all on transportation. And so you'll see that there is uh some added language. there isn't a complete overhaul and most of this again is uh based on what I indicated and ensuring it aligns with the 2015 Mckin Vento Act. Uh this right here I'll just call out this um is what I mentioned about if uh
039the family and or the student get uh stable housing throughout the school year they can still stay at that school of origin and if they need to they can still receive transportation services through the end of the year. we would not cut that off so that the student is able uh to continue to maintain continuity. This continues to go into um unaccompanied youth and then this is about the uh resolution and the disputes if they need to dispute something and appeals. So this is also a policy that is very long but this one um is directly aligned to um the McKini Ventoro Act of 2015 under ESSA um and also some language from DPI. So it's all part of alignment to um the laws. If you want to take us off screen share Jesse and
040then uh board member Pearson I think oh Petra do you want to add anything before I uh turn back. Sorry, you hit all the points so wonderfully, Cindy. I would just also add that um this was revised in conjunction with DPI and so we received real-time feedback from DPI. Um and everything that's in here was approved by DPI. Yep. Thank you for mentioning that. Um board member Pearson, board chair, board vice president, sorry Pearson. Ah, back to you. Um it is Thursday. We're almost done with the week. Um, any questions about this proposal of a policy? Like the last one, it is a lot of um information and a lot of um to kind of take in all at once. Blair, I think I see. Yeah, I'm assuming that the um things living in trailer
041parks is coming from the revised law. I'm so sorry. Can you say that again? I I did not hear. All I heard was law. Sorry. Sorry. Um at the very very beginning, one of the additions um oneb of a definite like defining a homeless child or youth includes students who are living in trailer parks. What's up with that? I'm going to look through my notes right now and see if I can address it. Otherwise, I can circle back. No problem. As she does that, um Cindy, did you want to respond? It looks like you're about to say something. Yeah. No, I was just going to say I mean I think that's part of Mckin Vento and I think because there could be uh where that is not permanent housing, that might be um uh temporary
042housing and so I think that is why that's in there as well. Blair, but I think um Petro checking that, but I'm pretty sure that's part of exactly how Mckin Vento defines that. Yep, it's in there. I just wanted to confirm. Yeah, it comes from Mckin V. Thank you, Blair Savian. Yeah. Can you speak to how we define a homeless student? And then can you speak to how school-based staff go about um because sometimes folks don't know that they're homeless. So, can you speak to how schoolbased staff go about like approaching students who might who they may suspect and how they let them know that these services are available for them? Yeah, thank you. So that's one thing I said I was going to mention and I forgot to mention. Um so the last few
043years we have spent um a significant amount of time doing training with our staff most specifically with our social workers. Uh we require all staff to go through McKin Vento uh training at the beginning of the year when we have welcome back and then our social workers have um more in-depth training. And so our social workers are really that main point of contact um to look for signs to have those communications, but it is also partially reliant upon families to let us know that as well um with confidentiality and with privacy. Um, and so a lot of that information, um, if a family is enrolling or if a a student or family, um, happen to, uh, become homeless or have housing insecurity throughout the school year, uh, they work with the social worker. And so
044we try to ensure families know that that's their point of contact, but but that is the main person that works with them um, to maintain confidentiality and to ensure they have all of the resources. I would say about four or five years ago, uh there was much more of a heavy reliance on um our staff at central office and uh social workers didn't have it's not that they didn't have the tools, they didn't have all of the information necessary and it's something that the team has really worked on um to ensure every social worker in our system is is wellversed and well equipped with the Mckin Vento act and um the supports necessary. Got it. Thank you. Yeah. Um, yeah, I appreciate that. And we'll take the uh time to also shout out all the
045school sites out there as well as well. Thank you for that. Thank you, Savian. Um, anyone else have any questions about this one? Okay, I did have just a quick question. Um the the language that we're using homeless versus unhoused. Um is there like a particular is it just that when we use the verbiage homeless that is just based off of um best practices I guess. Yeah. I think this is also straight from both uh what we got from DPI and from the McKini Vento Act. Um and so that language comes straight from there. Okay. Um and then my other question just really quick. Um how are we looking to like I know that this is just really in in alignment with the changes for McKenna Vento and some of the other um like federal
046um laws and such. Um and then also kind of in alignment with DPI. said, "How are we addressing students who wouldn't necessarily be considered homeless under the McKini Vento, but are like couch surfing or kind of like moving like through other housing, but technically isn't unhoused per se. That makes sense." Yeah. I mean, I think that one back to what I said around the training with our social workers and us trying to add in language to uh uh really make this more expansive for um housing insecurity. But, uh to that question, that for an unaccompanied youth would be defined under here if they don't have a permanent address or they don't have stable housing. And so, couch surfing is not stable housing. And so that would um fall under here to receive the supports and
047resources as well. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much for that. Okay. Um any other questions regarding um the proposed um policy 4406? Okay. So again um thank you uh team and um thank you board for your questions and if you have other questions as we go through the process we'll try to bring this back um at a future I think it's also the one that we're going to do at the instruction work group as a second read. So if there are any questions from there to now well from now to then um please let us know. Okay. Yeah. This one also we're hoping is approved before July 1st as well. So it will come back June 2nd. Um so if there thank you for sharing if there's questions we'll take them. Okay. So moving along
048uh to policy 1540 expectations of school board members. Um, and so if you all remember, um, what we did was the original for, uh, 1504, um, had a, you know, it was pretty long. It was pretty clunky. Um, and what we decided a while back was, um, sorry, 1540. Um, what we decided back was to kind of split it off into its own subsections. Um, we had our first read. Um, and so this would be considered our second read. Um and so we parsed out and made edits um based off of our first conversation um for these uh next three policies. So um we have 1540. Um and what one of the things that we made sure that we did was to um be more genderneutral. Um and so we did remove um or replace
049um most of the gender language language um and adjust it to be neutral. Um and then we moved hold on let's just do 1540 sorry because I'm going into all of them what we did for all of them. Um, so you will see here the second read red lines based off of our last conversation and then you'll see what the proposed policy is now, the clean version of it. Um, and so yeah, Petra, do you want to add anything about 1540 specifically? Not the other two, but just 1540. Yeah, I think just to provide um Martha a little bit more background since you weren't here for the first read, I'd just like to indicate to that anything that you see that was struck with the red line through it um that is captured in the
050other two policies that we'll talk through next. So, job description of a school board member and then conflict of interest. And not to speak for the board, but my understanding is that that was um done just to sort of organize the different topics so it's more easily accessible when looking through the policies. Um and then I would just also note that at the bottom you'll see a statutory citation. That was something that was requested at the first read. And so on this one and then the other two policies you'll see all the relevant statutes listed at the bottom too. Thank you Petra. I had to I had that Martha you are you are new with us. Um so we did we worked on this last year um and we had our first official read um
051earlier this year and then here is our second read. Um so yeah, any questions about um the updated 1540 which previously was called ethics 1540. Go ahead, Savian. Yeah. Um this uh looks good to me. I remember when we came up with it and so I hope it's of use uh Martha as you're onboarded onto the role and for all future board members. Um I guess in theory it could be an evolving document that we should revisit to make sure it's still relevant. Um otherwise looks good and um thank you. Thank you Savian. Any other questions or comments? Go ahead Ali. Yeah, I want to ask Petra about uh the the role of the board in terms of the description as it relates to the board's role in relationship to budget policy and uh our
052relationship specifically to the superintendent. I also want to talk about how or ask you to explain a little bit of how the the policy represents uh the board as elected officials um and our relationship to the community and our constituents. Was there something specific that you were looking to have included in the policy that you're not seeing or could you maybe a little bit more specifically just so I understand what we can maybe add or consider? No, I was just really wondering how those things are are fleshed out in the policy and I'm sorry if I'm missing it. Sure. I'm just taking a beat to review. Do you remember Maya? I know that we had discussed this at our policy committee meeting. Yeah. So the the ways of working, so the ways of working is
053just more so just the expectations as a board member and how we're working together and then with the administration. And I think what we'll see is that the the job description of the schoolboard member will have more of those pieces that will have like directly related to the the actual work that we do as a schoolboard member. And so that was one of the reasons why we parsed it out was because it seemed kind of just there were just so many different parts of it. Um, but yes, the the job description and that's the next one we'll look at that has more specifics of the actual work that we do. That makes sense. I I think it makes sense. I think like our ways of working should be dictated by the work that we do.
054And so I would hope to see um the the work of governance really reflected in our ways of working and the work of of representing the community really reflected in our ways of working. Um, I I also think like, you know, distinguishing the board's roles from other roles in the district is is relevant and defining that role and making sure our ways of working are in alignment with what we are actually elected to do. Um, and so I I think I I don't think it hurts to reinforce um the areas that are relevant to the board's work within our ways of working. Um, however, I think the description of the board's role um, you know, can can vary. I do think the board employs our administration. So, we're not co-workers and we're not like paralleled
055colleagues, but we're actually the body of governance um that determines how that expertise is brought into the district um and facilitates that like facilitates the the process of of hiring our our administration um our our our superintendent who then leads our administration. And I do think uh clarity around that makes sense. Um yeah, I think that that's my my feedback in relationship to our our ways of working as policy. Um in terms of our policy in relationship to um conflict of interest, is that something we're speaking to in terms of our ways of working? So the conflict so the conflict of interest we parse out as its own policy. Yep. And so previously it used to be all under one. So all the work like the job description of like what we do the ways
056of working um and then also with the conflict of interest used to just be that ethics 1540. Um but we as a board decided to parse them out specifically so that it's a lot clearer for each piece um instead of trying to read a very long policy with and that was clunky. So, it is its own proposed policy. Um, and that's the one that we'll review in a couple. But is there something are you looking for um to have more of a reference maybe in No, I was I was really thinking about like ways of working as it relates to disclosure of conflict of interest and how board members self-identify conflict of interest specific to both their personal life and their professional reality. Um, I I think it's fine to take one policy and turn
057it into three policies. Um, I I think like there is also the argument that it doesn't necessarily need to be an internal policy because state statute already dictates relationships to conflict of interest and disclosure of conflict of interest. So, I mean, I do I do think we could we could save ourselves time and energy and use state statute as the standard in relationship to it. Yeah, thank you for that feedback. Um, I know in the conflict of interest it is it has the state statutes that are specific to it. So, um, they are referenced there. Um, but thank you. So, I know Ali like expounded on all three a little bit and how they kind of connect with each other. Um, is there any questions specifically for the 1540 or Yeah, I think I'll say
058um something I've said multiple times when we've been looking at um these three is that I I still feel a little bit lost in terms of the expectations of how we use our email accounts, our our email accounts. Um I don't necessarily think it has to be in this policy, but you know, I'm going on two years as a board member and still feel uncertain about expectations and um process. So, just throwing that out there. Thank you, Blair. Any thoughts? Go ahead, Petra. Oh, I was just going to ask um with regards to email um were there any like specific concerns um that you had with regards to email? Um yeah, I don't know if this is the the right venue on a Okay. day that we have four board meetings. Um maybe I'll I'll
059ask a different day. That's totally fair. Blair and you we can we can talk later. Any other questions about 1540? Sorry y'all if you guys are hearing my background noise. Okay, so it looks like there's no other questions about policy at 1540. Um, again, we can, um, if folks have questions or, um, need to talk through points, um, definitely feel free to do that. Um, because there's no changes right now, um, we would hopefully come back at the regular board meeting, the next regular board meeting to approve this one. Um, in that meantime, again, if there are any changes, we can definitely let folks know as well. Okay, moving on to polic the new policy job description for school board member. Um, any questions about this one more specifically? Okay, I think folks are marinating
060or any questions or folks are good. I don't know. Can I get a thumbs up? Okay, we got Savian relationships. Okay, Blair. I know Martha, this is also very new. So again, between this point and um us bringing it back to the full board meeting, regular board meeting for approval, like feel free to to ask questions um at that time. Okay, I'm okay with us moving on to the next one. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Okay, last one. Conflict of interest. um the new proposed policy. Um and so this is where we have at the bottom only if you see that we just have the um we have the statutes at the bottom of it um that's referencing it. And again we um this one the only change that we made last time was changing um
061making the language uh gender neutral. Okay, I'm seeing thumbs up that I think we're good. We're good. We're good. Ollie, you're good. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I I feel like I already spoke to this one. Okay, cool beans. Okay, y'all. That is the last policy to review in this uh special meeting, and I can entertain a motion to adjurnn. So, moved. Y'all have a nice night. Okay. So, moved by Ali, seconded by I think Blair raised her hand. Um, all those in favor. Thanks for working on this, Maya. Martha, do you want to stay on after we go offline or grab another Zoom if you want to just check in since it's so so much? Yeah, that's 70.