Board of Education Special Workshop Meeting 7/20/20

001not quite on YouTube yet okay up and running okay let's go ahead and call the meeting to order and welcome to the special Board of Education meeting an open session workshop today we're going to get an update on reopening schools we'll talk about the board safety and security ad hoc committee and get that approved tonight and then we'll move into the employee handbook and have an open discussion amongst the board and hear a presentation from the administration on it and then we'll adjourn so let's go ahead first item on the agenda is approval of minutes I move to approve the minutes from the special meeting and open session a date of July 13 2020 record there please second Niki any discussion okay all those in favor aye all right Annie Julia gulia your advisory wrote

002sorry I okay all those in favor aye any opposed okay motion passes thank you update on reopening schools handed over to Jane Thank You Gloria hello everybody I'm just going to give a brief update tonight because we have a presentation scheduled for the board on August 3rd the team that's been planning for reopening has been working throughout the summer months in sessions ranging from two full days a week to daily sessions on some weeks and we've been working really a lot of hours to determine the best right MMSD in the fall during that time we've been in constant communication with public health Madison and Dane County the city the County UW health personnel and statewide groups like API the five largest school districts and the local Dane County school districts as well so we've all

003been trying to work through the plans together and sharing information about the guidance and and what different school districts are planning so our guidance has has been and will likely remain at a high level and also changing on frequent basis based on the status of the virus in our community one factor that led us to make the decision to go virtual for the first quarter was in fact the changing nature of guidance in response to this changing nature of the virus and the complex nature of meeting guidelines for safely openings and buildings the facts are that our decision was the culmination of countless hours of work by the planning team engaging in research analyzing data monitoring trends which we're continuing to do and engaging in conversations and with staff and families and surveys which we

004are continuing to do that as well so we knew that this is going to be a burden on our community and it weigh very heavily on our minds we knew that in-person learning is always best for our students and it's our goal to get students back in person as soon as it is possibly safe so we are continuing to plan for the hybrid model which we feel would will be come into play at some point when conditions change and then also we are me you know we'll continue to explore you know other options it could be bringing on grade-level bands you know phasing in students over grade levels over time from or some other models that that come forward but for sure we'll be spending our time now really focused on getting our virtual instruction

005stronger we've had we've gotten information feedback now from families and students and staff about what went well what needs to strengthen and change for a virtual learning and so that's what we're gonna be spending our time on also we are looking at a possible calendar change so that we can add some professional development days upfront for our teachers again we're keeping rigorous standard aligning instructions in place content knowledge that is necessary to support high levels of student learning and also engagement and relationships with students will be really important as we plan for the reopening of schools I think I'm going to leave it at that if you have any questions or areas that you would like the administration to include or look into as we plan further please feel free to let Gloria know or

006let us know and we'll we'll continue to take a look at whatever is of interest to you in particular and what you hear from families and our community so I'm going to leave it at that and any any for that any questions comments concerns um Ali yeah Jenna I want to thank you for your continued leadership throughout this and you know I want to acknowledge all the work you all did in March to get us to virtual learning and and cheer you on as you do all the work it'll take to to get us started this next semester so I fully support the decision obviously and I I think that you have led with a tremendous amount of integrity through an incredibly difficult time so thank you thank you early another yeah just a couple

007thank you so much yeah Ali said it extremely beautifully Thank You Jane and thank you for the entire team for making really really hard decisions at a time with a lot of uncertainties for everyone I have a couple of questions one is because we just received that we're just started talking that at the state level because we are trying to figure out what phase we're gonna be at and what is what it means to be in whatever phase does not mean the same as it was anyway so we are likely to be doing a survey to see if you know schools were to open or if if if if we are in a space where we come back to the office who would want to who would want to work at the office so I'm

008wondering if you have done and some sort of I don't think this this time is the best time to do this type of survey because we just had the uptake you know we continue to have the uptake of cases but I'm wondering if we have any data around employee interests in coming to school yeah you do okay is there anything that is very general I mean I think like you alluded to Anandi our employees opinions are going to change over time too and so this was something that we asked early on just a very simple who's willing to come back in who would have to stay out and I think it was about 20% of our staff would be hoping to opt out of you know coming into the buildings but like I said that

009was early on so before we would make any decision is based on that we would um you know we would want to get current information yeah 20% would opt out of being in the building so 80% said that they would come back right I think that's right Andrew am I getting those numbers right I see you here that's right the thing to keep in mind is a very early survey so it is something that we would have to revisit and really it gives you an idea of the trends of the time that the survey was administered but when it comes down to it we do need to know each individual's situation so saving a preference to work virtually paired with them medical need for example would be something we would have to investigate on a

010case by case an individual basis but for planning purposes it's good to know that 20% of our staff if they had the option would go virtual only but again a very early survey and really want for general trends you know and not hearing from every staff member but then also having to have a system in place that would investigate accommodations for things like medical need thank you so much and ER it thanks for always making sure that we have fingers and a pulse of of what's happening as far as perceptions and opinions for our staff follow-up question I know Jane you mentioned that you've been in conversations with many stakeholders because our entire community is being impacted by you know our decisions so I'm curious about what how far have you done how far are

011you and your team have done thinking around the utilization of the building similar to what happened in the summer in regards to child care in regards to a fall camp situation I know a lot of people have you know it's been in a lot of people's minds that the the child care day care situation yeah it's certainly on our radar screen and I think we'll be able to bring you much more information when we come on August 3rd about that but we're yeah we're learning a lot of things from that and and definitely have that as part of what we're gonna look looking at Thank You Jane and so the one last thing where it's up if it's okay so Jane mentioned August 3rd meeting the instruction workgroup so we're planning for every instruction workgroup

012to have a dedicated time to for the board to discuss you know the coming back virtual learning online learning all those things I you know kind of inviting the my colleagues and everyone watching this if there's additional feedback I know I've exchanged some emails with Julia about how to bring students voice 2 to those conversations I talked to Gloria yesterday about how to bring staff voice to the conversation so it's a you know so it really feels like a community you know engaging into this really challenging decision-making process and then you know figuring out how to bring families to this fold as well so thank you everyone mm-hmm yeah thank you Anandi for that I think that's a great idea as many voices that we can get to the table and to the board the

013better for us and while we're transitioning in and helping Jane and her staff during this process Chris did you have a question comment yeah I just had a few more comments and Ananda several the things I had on my list echo what you said particularly the childcare issue I think we have no time to lose if we're gonna try to leverage community partnerships to address the childcare issue especially for our for K through third grade students I think we absolutely made the right decision and going back virtual but at the same time I think the equity issues for that age band are gonna be the greatest because parents need childcare and because kids have a very limited capacity to learn on the screen at that age so I think we absolutely need to like focus

014on how we can work with our community partners to provide high quality childcare for every child in this district and not just for families that can afford to pay for it out of pocket I also really appreciate Jane the comment about looking at different grade bands when coming up with a plan to come back to school again for K through third grade increasingly the research is showing that students in that age group may not transmit or contract covetous rather Blaze older students so we may need a different plan for students in that age group taking into account the needs of our staff as well um just a few other things I would really love to talk about when we come back to this topic is or our did we learn anything from our summer school

015experience that could apply to a reopening plan and I would love to talk more about you know I don't know if this would be in the fall or in the spring but outdoor classrooms and learning as part of a reopening plan the childcare issue I would actually like to talk about the metrics we're talking about using to make decisions about reopening there's lots of different metrics we could look at like rate of transmission of kovat or percent of positive tests or what's going on with community spread and also just I think you know I think there's an operational side to this too and it gets beyond MMSD and goes into the community but the availability of testing and contact tracing does I think our ability to open safely and I do think we probably need

016to think about having an Operations conversation about reopening as well as an instructor you know I think multiple instructional conversation I really like the idea of talking about this ideally at every instruction board meeting um thank you sir Chris it's currently set up every every work group meeting will have that conversation thank you so much for doing that I think that's a fantastic idea and I think that will provide the community with transparency and communication and that's great um I think the potential June eights are eight is right now confusing for parents the last thing that parents need is more uncertainty in their lives so the sooner we can come to a decision about that the better um also I I'm a little bit concerned with how well it's going to sit with parents that

017we're taking another week out of the school year to do professional development if we're going to do that I think it would need to be combined with some kind of community and family outreach to families to make sure that they've got online access to see other kids are doing to like start that that staff and family communication channel that's going to be even more important if we're online so you know we can do ready set goal conferences online but I think it needs to be if we're gonna not have instruction that week I think there has to be contact with families and children during that week or it's gonna be confusing to the community why we weren't ready to get up and get started on June 1st I think we need to think about that

018um I would love to get more details about how much synchronous versus asynchronous learning we're going to be doing and what's going to be happening with electives and specials as we move into virtual learning so just some things I'd love to put on the table for the next meeting great thanks Karis Nicky yes could we just have also include an updated special and any special ed in that as well mm-hmm absolutely great anybody else Chris coma Schmidt yeah I would just like to echo Chris's consideration of the the metrics and the operations side of this for how we're making the decisions about when we are bringing people back and so really staying on top of that piece and working with public health and I know that you are already doing that on a very consistent

019basis and appreciate that but just making sure that we're pretty clear on the metrics that we as a district are using to decide you know whichever if we're going back in grade-level bands or however we're going to do that just what metrics we're using to decide when it's time to do that great thank you I say bien yeah prioritize bringing back for K through third grade if nothing else for some form of in person and I wanted to know is there anything that we can do proactively to encourage parents as much as possible to keep their children enrolled in the district we'll be reaching out within enrollment information as soon as possible I'm not sure that quite the timeline yet but it kind of comes out soon um not ever do you know that the

020timeline for enrollment and we have been talking about multiple ways of reaching out to parents let me grab a quick calendar look here our conventional enrollment week is the week of August 17th but of course given that we're going about 100 percent virtual instruction at the beginning of September it also implies what we would want to keep families safe by keeping them out of the building's so we are looking to do 100% virtual enrollment as well so verification of address change is done virtually by assume for example we're also taking a look at the enrollment application process itself to ensure that everything that can be automated and done virtually is done that way and as far as strategies then for the future in terms of cubic families in the district we have to look at

021our virtual offerings as I'm sure other school districts are particularly for the 2122 school year after things have changed and after we've learned a lot about Shaw instruction so I do think that's part of a looking forward so that's your current year enrollment process getting that as virtual as possible so folks don't have to be in long lines out the door at a high school or even one-on-one in a elementary office and push that all online so we can maintain safety and then for the future looking at our alternatives to in terms of keeping families interested in the district thank you Andrew um another did you have fellow you know just follow up Andrew something that injured mentioned made me think you know there's definitely when people are talking about parameters and what we're basing

022things you know and we talk about other schools and you know different like schools are the states I mean there's there's little there's very few school districts around the state that actually have a large number of students most school districts have our medium size right medium to small size so we are in a very particular situation as well in regards to that so we don't have a whole lot of school districts to look up in the state of Wisconsin right and the school districts that we are looking up to they're also they're struggling sometimes you know more than us or the same level than us or have a much larger a much smaller number of students so I think it's important for people to understand to contextualize that that we are you know we are

023in a unique situation in regards to that the other thing that I wanted to tease out and maybe that's the conversation for August is when we talk about virtual learning so what so my daughter isn't taking some classes over the summer and it's mostly through a plataform and I see that as as as online independent learning and she goes when she has a question and she's got she can schedule a zoom meeting with a teacher was mostly independent so I think we needed to also tease out you know when I when I think about a virtual conference or a virtual learning I think about somebody I'm gonna be connected to somebody live telling me something what teaching me something in a way that I can that's a true way I think we need to start

024teasing out as we come faul how those different modes of learnings and how does it apply to different classes you may apply really well for history where you have mostly like readings and essays you may not apply as well as maths because you can't really do math you know on your Google plataform or on your you know Word documents for example so our Google Docs so you know that's another I think we're there's a lot of proxies names that were using for the ways in which we are teaching you the ways in which are learning that I really like for us to tease out as well and in particular and appreciate any key bringing this up that we needed to really call out what's happening for students with I piece because that's adds to the

025complexity of how would our instructions yeah definitely I mean I think you know we're it's it's so complex and Jane and your staff I think you know you are right in the midst of these challenging times and trying to accommodate so many different stakeholders and so I think that it's so important for us moving forward as a board is to really stay tuned stay connected and and work with the administration on what our new reality could be and so I think Jane I think for me what I would want is really in the August meeting is talk about how we are engaging our families in a very intentional way I don't know if Nichelle has the ability or her team to really do some family engagement around identifying some of the barriers to virtual learning

026for the families and children and figure out ways in which we can connect with community partners to to reduce some of the barriers to virtual learning and really hear about what our families are going through and what we're hearing and what we need to accommodate them is there anything else from anybody else before we move on great Thank You Jane so much question yes Oh like I just wanted to add in in case this hasn't already been said but really also taking a look when you report back to us next on families that are making transitions or students that are making big transitions this year so students entering kindergarten students starting sixth grade students starting high school for the first time and what extra support and sort of welcome those students are gonna need in

027this virtual environment great thank you are you all for that information that's that's really helpful for us as we look forward thanks Jane okay next on the agenda is the board safety and security ad hoc committee this is a discussion and action item so what I'll do is I'll go ahead and read the motion here and then we'll have discussion and then we'll vote okay it is recommended that the Board of Education create an ad hoc committee called the ad-hoc committee on safety and security which shall be charged with providing the full board of education with options for replacing school resource officers at the for MMSD comprehensive high schools focused on budget and policy recommendations it is further recommended that the board members gloria reyes and Savion castro co-chair the ad hoc committee it is

028further recommended that the Board of Education approved the membership and timeline as set forth in the document prepared for the special meeting dated July 20th 2020 okay okay can you get a second please I get a second second Chris kuru see and discussion Chris just a quick comment I'm assuming these will be open noticed meetings that we can all go to but if I just want to confirm that yes they are okay and we'll all the meeting materials be open to the public yes in those board meetings okay another any Chris we want to recommend so we're voting on the creation of the work group and the charge of the work group right I understand the membership it's it's two being determined where we were we are going to approve the membership as well and

029if there are any missing people on here that we identify after this meeting will bring it forward to the board at a later date but if you have any recommendations on membership just if you could we can add that on tonight and vote yeah so I don't know if I need an amendment for that um how do I don't think I think if you just if there's a recommendation of a board member or remember yeah so let's do recommend the YWCA Madison because they've been doing extensive work whatever sort of justice circles for the past 12 years now so I would like to recommend Johanna Highland who is a director for there was sort of justice but I'll let them decide you know like capacity wide who will be the best person to be serving

030in that committee but that's the person I will that I strongly recommend to be or not me so definitely a YWCA representative you're specifically recommending new hey Nia Highland and but you'll leave it up to the Y to decide capacity okay we will add that I think that's an excellent recommendation Nikki actually I'm sorry Nikki let's go to Chris and then Nikki Kristina Gomes Schmidt yeah I was just gonna ask about if if the high schools themselves made recommendations for people to be on the committee and I was just curious it seemed like we might need one or more two more people from representing Easton and Memorial on there but I just wasn't sure the process of how people how they were reached out to to be part of the committee so Mike Hernandez reached

031out to all the high schools and worked with them and some of the people here represent more than one lens so some of the parents are also teachers and I think that we can check that for sure for you Chris and then if we feel like there's another edition you know we can find we can figure that out but I think there's a double west parent and east teacher at least one that I know of okay yeah some clarification on that would be great okay oh so you're deaf you're you're Christina your recommendation is having an East High making sure we have an East High Representative yeah and and Memorial - yeah I think we have one from Memorial I'm just I'm just not sure I understand the desire to keep the smaller but just

032to make sure that across all the four high schools that there's a couple people from each okay Eastern Memorial yeah I just I yeah yep okay have any one specific to name right now so I can't do that for you tonight but um yeah that was just my suggestion okay Nikki and then Ally I'd like someone from the disability community either from the two groups I'm familiar with our special ed advisory committee and Madtown mamas and either one to have a representative from one of those committees to represent special ed interests because I think it's you security challenge to make sure things are accessible as well especially when we're going to redo the referendum with new construction there are different security issues with individual special needs and I think that he's a necessary I don't

033have some that those are the two people I hadn't mind so um were those did you have specific people or just on Martha Martha I could put her of her name yes thank you and the other one would be either Anna doesn't have time so probably margarita Rubio is the other one from she I think she's in special ed advisory I may be wrong I lost practice was on there anymore those are both great recommendations Thank You Nicki Ali yeah I want to thank you and save Ian for doing this work I think you all will be a really dynamic duo in having this conversation with our greater community I really support Anandi this recommendation to involve the why and restorative justice and I think we need to look to alternatives to exclusionary practices as

034a real kind of guiding light process and so I think examining in-house everything that we're doing to avoid exclusionary practices as a response to student behavior is an important part of this process the other thing I say I've talked about before is that I think that this committee should be both safety and security and disproportionality and discipline often when we talk about safety and security we talk about our fears and when you talk about disproportionality and discipline you have to talk about facts um right so we we know that certain students are being over-represented in in every level of discipline from 4k throughout their education and we we need to be committed to in addressing that and engaging students in meaningful ways while we do that and so I think it's important that we we

035have the right people at the table and I agree with Chris I think it's important that that be inclusive and I think that that means including a wide range of students who navigate a wide range of identities themselves because I think it's great to have folks who seek new issues and new identities it's also really helpful to have folks who live in those experiences and I think that our students have a lot of different perspectives that can be offered great Thank You Ally Anandi I just wanna clarify because I really appreciate what Ellie said I I think the language matters so I'm not sure were you suggesting to add language to how the ad hoc or to change the language the my suggestion is that the ad have to be called safety and security disproportionality

036and discipline um I second that okay great I think um yeah definitely we can do that who is next Oh Julia um I just wanted to ask if there would be an opportunity for students to be part of the committee both students you may have been affected by uh sarios in the past and pushed for them to be like push that with more restorative options is there all those students who might be worried about their safety or who relied on us or is in the past I think like allele is saying putting students into a part of the committee or at least having opportunities for them to come to meetings and voice their opinions would be so having students if Julia if you have any recommendation or anybody else on this board that we can

037bring forth to the board at our next meeting for approval I'm just send me in Jane and Savion and email that would be very helpful otherwise I work with Fabian and I will work with Jane on identifying some students okay great thank you Chris did you have Chris Christie did you have something I'm just a couple things I'm the first one is big toes we're not actually going to have in person in school before October 30th does that change the timeline so I think that's a good question Chris I think we can go ahead and keep the timeline for August and I do foresee that we'll probably may extend the work of the committee further out but we won't know that until we get closer to August but I think that really does force us

038to keep on that timeline and get as far as we can and then we pour it back out to the board for an update on August 31st and one of the reasons I ask that is that you know if we go with the suggestion to broaden the charge of the committee to also include disproportionality and discipline we may need more time to make sure that we have we give due time to all parts of the conversation so I just want to make sure we have enough time to have the conversation about everything we need to talk about so great yep I agree on Sabian um you know as long as we keep justice Mitchell in there I'll be happy but I am working with trying to get someone from the UW Health pediatric unit have

039a specific name I have reached out to a few people there okay anybody else okay so it sounds like we have some good recommendations of individuals to add to the list we will bring those individuals back to our next board meeting for approval we will add the disproportionality in discipline as part of the title of the safety and security and we will consider Chris the timeline on August 31st and I think that the committee can have a discussion on that and then come back to the board with whatever the committee feels is appropriate timeline to have that conversation and to do that work anything else okay all right well so the process Savion and I will meet with Jane Mike and really just sort of plan this out and figure out who from administration and

040staff we need at these meetings Savion and I will both facilitate these conversations and again all of you you know are invited to attend when you can to give input on this work so if there are no other questions we can go or comments we can go for a vote Julia your advisory vote okay all those in favor aye any opposed okay motion passes all right next item on the agenda is the employee handbook so a lot of conversation around this the recommendations and I'm going to go ahead and hand it to Jane hand it over to Jane to give us a presentation and then we'll have a discussion amongst the board okay thank you Gloria I just want to clarify there's no presentation tonight I'm gonna have some remarks and then we'll open it

041for you guys to discuss but you do have a memo detailing all the recommendations and the supporting documents that were sent now Friday so one thing I'd like to highlight is that the handbook review committee was able to reach consensus on numerous items that were up for discussion there are only two items on which the parties were unable to reach consensus today as you consider making these changes to the handbook one thing to keep at the center of your thoughts is that these changes are essential to ensure the highest quality and most of our staff are in classrooms with our children it's important to note that the administration's recommendation does not eliminate seniority as a criteria rather it adds other criteria in addition to seniority a policy really often surplus are based solely on seniority

042is not giving our children the results they need I know firsthand that the vast majority of our staff are highly qualified and valuable profession professionals and I also know that using seniority only as a criteria for surplus and layoffs often results in our children losing the benefits of having the highest quality staff because some of our newest hires and they're not necessarily less experienced have demonstrated that they are also some of the most effective in our classrooms and providing the best outcome for our students because of seniority there have been several circumstances where we have had no choice but to remove high-performing staff for those who have not performed at the same level we've worked very hard towards increasing diversity and our staff who improve outcomes for our students and over time are placing seniority

043as the sole discussion point in surplus and layoffs has evolved into a measurable structure of racial inequity that runs counter to our commitment to dismantle such structures we must live up to our commitment to our students to continue to review existing policies and procedures that interfere with our progress on fighting racism within our educational system our students need your help on this issue and the time for changes is now with students at the center we must create processes that treat all teachers the same with the same opportunities to maintain their jobs based on the quality of their work with our children and not simply longevity should longevity be held in high regard absolutely however longevity does not reflect high quality in some cases the rubric in our proposal which MTI has agreed to work with

044us on includes these criteria instructional practice cultural competence previous experience academic credentials and certifications second language proficiency as well as seniority in the madison district our recommendations on handbook language are the results of conferring with MTI and others and represent what I believe are the right moves for MMSD I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe strongly in this work finally I want to clarify that the layoff process is only used if we have to reduce force it doesn't happen often and is not the same as the ongoing evaluation and accountability process that might take us to a non renewal we would not use the layoff process to remove someone for low quality performance also it's okay if sometimes we don't reach consensus with MTI that happens not very often but sometimes it does and

045we still continue to work together we need this decision sooner than later because of the nature of our finances it is the financial responsibility of the board to look carefully at all of the options we will have and make decisions that will protect the financial well-being of the district as a steward of public finances it would be irresponsible for us to continue to pay people who may not be needed to deliver on essential services or our children this is not something any of us look forward to but we need to have as many options as possible in the times that we're living we do not yet know our staffing plan for the fall and we need to plan responsibly we need to keep the 30 day notice or we could only reduce force in the

046spring we need the flood ability to add sooner rather than later if this is necessary and this would give our employees enough time to plan and be financially beneficial for the district we would recall people if that situation would curve we would recall people as soon as the situation changed to support that dr. Jenkins and I have talked about this and I am moving this recommendation forward and I believe he is an appreciation of that we talked about the pros and cons of this and I continue to think this is the right recommendation to move forward and he is appreciative and supportive of me moving this language forward I will now open it up for your discussion thank you I really wanted us to this as you recall I requested that we postponed a vote

047on this because I felt that it was important enough for the board to have an open discussion about this or community can hear speak in our thoughts around it and hear from Jane on where she was at and why she was bringing this forth to us for a decision and so this really gives us an opportunity to speak on this tonight and do you have it scheduled for a vote on the 27th however if the board feels that we are prepared to do a vote tonight we can go ahead and do that if a motion is placed on the table this evening so why don't we go ahead and open it up for discussion and my structured I'm scratching I'm litter on my hand I was just stretch again yet you're tender nice my fingers

048okay does anybody have anything that they want to any questions or comments Allie yeah so I think that well well I'll speak to this because it is sincerely important change Jana I want to thank you for the work that you've done with MTI and the whole team that's worked with MTI to make a lot of decisions that allow for us to work together better and ensure that the highest quality educator is the educator in front of our kids that's the priority I have heard a lot from you know trusted friends and community members and educators that I have loved for a very long time that are deeply critical of this decision and simultaneously in campaigning for school board I've heard every single one of my board candidates are my board colleagues talked about wanting to

049have a more diverse faculty and the truth is we're not gonna get different results by doing the same thing the phenomena we are trying to address with this language is that people of color are the last hired and the first fired now we can't do anything about the fact that folks have been the last for centuries can't go back in time and change that but we can change that folks are the first determinated and so that is what we are trying to reconcile and it is a necessary thing to do we want to ensure that our young people have high quality diverse educators as the guides through through their education so I think that this is a very important decision and I appreciate Gloria your thoughtfulness and giving us space to have a deliberate conversation

050thank you other Julia can I ask you to get a little bit closer to your mic please hard to hear you thank you can you hear me yep yeah so my first question was just for the cultural competency criterion is there we know how that's gonna be measured is there any objective way of measuring that or is it down to the discretion of the principals I'm gonna ask Deirdre or Heidi to talk about that for all of the criteria that are listed what the plan would be wood beads that we would work together with MTI collaboratively to create a rubric for measuring each of the criteria and if you were able to look at the materials that went out on Friday we actually kind of put a sample in there it's you know totally a

051sample but just to give an idea of what we were thinking about when we'll be looking at creating such a rubric what's causing MTI like you're saying would work together with nti to create a rubric that seems fair but I've gotten a lot of emails from teachers who are concerned about the objectivity of of cultural competency and more specifically the educator effectiveness overview which I think that already exists right so what's causing them to be concerned about that I really can't speak for them as to what their concerns are because there already is a rubric in place for the educator effectiveness system so yeah that would be something they would need to give you more specificity around okay and then also so has seniority in the past acted as an incentive to keep teachers within

052the district and can we expect that in the past it might have mitigated turnover like do we have any reason to think that and getting rid of seniority is a cheap way of like protecting teachers jobs that that would lead to any increase in turnover I mean I don't know that we know that for sure but I would be I do not think that getting rid of it would lead to more turnover and staff okay thank you great questions Julia thank you anyone else Nikki yes the studies that I that I've read that are not MTI because I've researched this actually quite a bit did show a mixed bag and it did show that at the start in certain areas teachers did actually leave it depends on the economic climate along with it I am

053I'm going to be blatantly honest I am all performing the rubric I think it's a great idea and I think we should work with MTI I think the non-starters for me is the employee layoffs unilateral decision in the 30 days and that's where I get stuff if someone does an amendment I'd be glad to support it yeah I think Nikki I think that that is where my concern is I think with any equity work with what we're trying to do here today I think we're all on the same page right we do want we all we do want to get to the point where we are increasing diversity of teachers and doing what's best for our students it's always the how we do this right Aidan and I think it is often times when we

054are pushing through institutional you know policies that have been in place for years where we get stuck and I think that this policy of seniority is there for a reason and has been there for a reason and it's to protect our teachers and our staff and very valid right I think that it plays a it plays a a critical role in the safety net of our employees and however my frustration throughout this whole process has been why we cannot come up with a solution MTI has continued to talk about equity and their wanting to work on equity and the administration has as well and it the frustration for me has been wide there can't be a solution that has been negotiated between the administration and MTI because from my standpoint it it feels as though

055we all want the same thing and we're letting seniority get in the way and causing this narrative of union-busting or not wanting to take care of our teachers and our staff and that's not the case at all I think we all want on the board our administration and MTI want what's best for our teachers and our staff and our students and I think that we just have to really come together and figure out how we do this and we cannot continue this narrative out in our community that we are in opposites and fighting against something that's not true right I'm gonna object there because very simply this is the biggest power grabs it's act and I'm sorry but he's two weeks before but new superintendent starts and that's right right and I apologize you can

056go after me deal I apologize I I spoke out um yes you Nikki so I do think that we have to figure out how we move forward and work together and whether people see this as a power grab or or what it is it's not and we have to we have to stop fighting each other because what's what's happening here is we're really forgetting with the important factor here and that is our students we cannot continue to sit here and fight on a topic here about racial equity when we're all trying when when every time we speak we talk about racial equity we can't say it and not do it so we have to be able to do it that is we this whole city community talks about racial equity but the minute that we

057may try to make any movement towards that it is it is bringing up a narrative of power grabbing process issues our focus goes to something else union-busting that's not what this is we're trying to figure out ways in which we can make our process more equitable for our black and brown staff and students and our male teachers and so I think we really have to keep an open mind here and I think that we can come up with a solution this board can protecting the rights of ours teachers staff and you know I think you know the board has its landed on our our feet here we have to lead us through this and you know I I don't agree with where MTI is is is going and why they're not coming up with any

058solutions and it's unfortunate that our administration and MTI have not worked together and now we're we're in a place where we're gonna have to figure this out and not it's unfortunate and so I think Savion you had your hand up and then Nikki if you still want to go after that true save Leon I wanna hear your thought you make me more thoughtful I want to amend Jane or Jane and the team and she had leadership for coming together in this process to find consensus on a number of issues from hazard pay school calendar handbook revision benefits s essays substitute teachers emergency closure they met and conferred during a global pandemic and found consensus on a number of issues that's a testament and people deserve to be you know it Network deserves to be acknowledged

059personally and I think the research supports this see seniority as the sole determinant you know we should not be using seniority as the sole determinant and evaluating somebody's ability to serve children and I'm committed to finding a holistic rubric between these two parties I also understand the concerns over discretion over someone's direct supervisor and I want to address that you know everybody deserves a fair shake and everybody deserves a fair appeals process that they feel like they were evaluated and correctly you know we are dealing with questions over objectivity but I also don't want us to wait into something that's completely arbitrary as well we have to wade into how are we evaluating and educators ability to serve children and the city that has some of the largest segi achievement gaps in the country we

060have to wait into this work and you have to get into it I don't know if anyone wants to speak but I'm ready to introduce a few motions and amendments sure we'll do that here shortly Savion Christia yeah it just I just wanted to say that I agree that changes to using seniority only as as the way we decide for layoffs it's the changes are needed I was just expecting more time I mean I hear the narrative you know on both sides that we've tried to reach consensus I just I didn't expect it to come back to us so quickly I I feel like when you are making these big of decisions and trying to make sure that the criteria and the metrics that you use are objective that it is gonna take you more

061time to work that out and reach that consensus and so I guess when you know for the first time you know that we just got on Friday we see those six criteria laid out for the first time we have a sample rubric and so I really do see us making progress towards this and so I don't want the narrative to be that that this is not possible for us to come together and and work on this together to get the problem solved a yeah I think it's possible and I just think we need some more time to do that great thank you Christina Ali yeah I have to speak to the idea that we can kind of exist in a holding pattern when it comes to racial justice or equity work because there are people

062who can afford to wait and there are people who can't and black students have been told and black educators have been told in the black community has been told over and over again wait a while and we'll figure it out but until we do we're gonna stick with the same system that doesn't work for you and that's not an option I have talked to educators who have real fears real concerns about this shift in terms of discretion in terms of you know whether or not things like favoritism or personal conflict well be you know things that rise to the top of their evaluations or determine their jobs and at the same time are black and brown educators their livelihood is on the line so who benefits from us making this decision and who benefits from

063us not making this decision or waiting to make this decision are things we need to be conscious of okay thank you Christina and then Chris Chrissy I guess I just like administration to clarify the timeline that we're working on that that doesn't allow for us to you know I'm I'm not suggesting that we drag this out forever I'm suggesting put a deadline on this but you know let's have the new superintendent come in and wade into this with us and yeah I'll figure this out Jane yeah I just want to clarify that we have already agreed with MTI to work on the rubric and that will be done so it's not that we're not going to have a rubric that we agree on that's that's going to be worked on there is a timeliness to

064this decision the you know the the we don't know what our reopening model is going to look like but and we just don't know but we need to have the flexibility to be able to operate with our budget in a financially prudent way so while this is not the driver of this it's it's kind of driving the timeline because we need to have some flexibility and it's the right thing to do so we will have time to work with MTI and how this gets played out after the decision is made Jean um Jane I think so will the rubric come back to the board um I don't think it would but I don't know it's Dierdre Dierdre do you want it Jane yeah um yeah I'm here Jane we talked about this early on and

065we did say that the rubric would come back to an instruction workgroup okay no we agreed that we would work on it and that would be the place for the board to to weigh in and provide feedback great Thank You Deirdre uh I think you know what concerns um I didn't hear savings points sorry what concerns me is the 30-day I think that there are some things on your they're not having the actual rubric played out I think that it really can concerns me I think that having making a decision like this during this very critical time I'm hesitant I think that it is it it's never a good right I mean our our teachers and our staff are already under a lot of pressure with kovat and I agree with all the points that

066have been discussed here Ally your your points about our black students waiting and you know all that is totally legitimate but I just think that passing this with not having all the information that we need as far as the rubric information you know the 30 days just really just throws me off I mean I can't even imagine working somewhere and only be given a 30 day notice and so that really really concerns me I mean and I've also talked to our some black educators and some black staff who seniority for them has protected them I am and so we are dealing with some institutional racism within public school our system that we have educators black and brown educators who are at a point in their seniority that they feel protected when they talk about or

067speak up on racial issues happening in their schools right they feel protected and so I think that this is one point one solution but it's not the entire solution and getting into what we're trying to fix here is what I'm trying to say here this is much deeper of built into the Institute institutional structure of our school district so I just wanted to point that out Savion and then Mickey yeah so historically education is a white profession and those voices matter but if you look up the chart you know the Charter who's been here the longest it gets wider wider as you go up it's certainly like a domino you know a domino has a few dots as you go up it gets lighter and as you go down in our district it gets more

068diverse and that's what we're trying to talk about here in terms of mandatory reductions in force I agree 100% we have to change the culture of our school as horribly educators and black students so that they don't experience the micro directions the microaggressions and microaggressions the pigeonholing the lack of support and trusts from from their school buildings or their direct supervisors we absolutely have to change that and trust that this is not the end-all be-all I'd like to clear the deck here there are a number of things in this that we have reached consensus on so I would like to I'd like to move that the Board of Education and that proposed modifications to the MMSD employee handbook as set forth in the document prepared for the special meeting date of July 20th 2020 excluding

069the proposed revisions on teacher surplus slash unilateral reassignment slash layoffs and hiring and support units effective August 1 2020 second Nicky second okay discussion so we have a motion on the table I'm say VI so I just want to make that couldn't make it clear that you are proposing that we take out the controversial aspect of what we're dealing with here the things we have not consensus on yep hey any discussion on on that did you have your hand up yeah I've been pay attention to my colleagues position I'm also paying attention to the relish rationalization of the conversation and I'm thinking about what I know about the history of this country in particular around significant policy changes and as an immigrant you know this is not the country so I was not an immigrant

070I'm always really tried to approach from a very reflective and respectful manner and also drawing from recent literature that bulls have done research Illustrated and highlight the 400 years of perpetual inequities that often shows up in policies and in bringing candy calls the way that he classifies policies he says there's racist policies and anti-racist policies and when we operate in spaces like like Madison where we raise our flag of being progressive as we're raising a flag of being this beautiful place to live with great schools sometimes the policies it's hard to really tease out where is the racism and where is the exclusions and I think this is one of those times I am a hundred percent in favor of making significant and drastic changes and how we do business in Madison I really appreciate

071Ali drawing back from what we heard in a campaign what we hear we heard from all the all the fellow board members in regards to diversify the workforce this is definitely not a new topic in 2012 that's what I heard when I launched my camp my first campaign and we are in 2020 and not much has changed in regard to policy change and so I'm also not interested in waiting I am interested in being really courageous about this what the piece that is concerning to me right now and I appreciate CDN offering some solutions in regards to how we're voting tonight is our inability to have conversations and getting some common ground I do not think that we're gonna get a consensus about this I don't think that everyone is gonna leave like being a

072hundred percent behind this this is a major major dissent area right any PACs people's employment right if if dpi I wonder says hey all we're gonna do now is hire black people and if you're non black individuals you may not have safe in your job as a non-black person this is impacting me I'm gonna have I'm gonna have to do some soul-searching some thinking especially when I operate in a structure of being against anti blackness right so I feel like that that's a lot of what's happening tonight into what's been happening in our community what what I struggle with is us coming to the like get into this come this the layer the conversation this other layer conversation around we don't have a consensus so therefore we can move forward people some people not meeting

073with other people or we did me and we didn't at me and there's multiple stories to the conversation and us not really losing sight to what really what we're doing here right so that's the part that I struggle is that multiple stories are coming they're not really feeling that there's not just dissent but there is a great level of people feeling that this is a lose-lose situation that is a really sad place to be because we're really talking about racial justice we're really talking about doing doing right we're really talking about being courageous we're really talking about doing something different we will talk about disturbing the status quo and and it's really challenging when we get to the space of like but so-and-so did this and soso did that and that's really it's disappointing to

074hear so I fully support save Ian's amendment to this and I do want to figure out ways for us to to be able to go to a space where maybe we're not gonna agree 100% but there are decisions that we can live with and figure out ways in which we can make agreements of how we're going to move this forward because I think that there is a part of this the integrity of this process of communicating that has been harmful for both sides and that is not how we want our children to see us doing this right that's not how we want this moment to remember I really do not want this vote to be black people brown people voting for and white people voting against it I really I really sincerely do not want

075that to happen for the sake of our children in this time in particularly for my daughter's sake for Ali's babies I for her glorious baby I really don't want to be a racialized vote and let's just make this happen people let's make sure that we can get a diverse workforce the same way that we said when we were running for office that we're going to do and let's make sure that we have that and in order to do that it's policy change we have to stop saying that what we want how many people we want to hire how you know ho Jane accountable to do that without policy change we really need to do some policy change otherwise dr. Jenkins I'm not gonna have a lot to work with Thank You Anandi I'm Savion do

076you want to do you have a timeline in mind that you want to put in your motion yeah we should vote on this and then I have a second Motorhead interruptive okay so we're still in discussion on the on your initial motion so Chris Chrissy Thank You Gloria and I'm thank you say Vienna I'm fully in support of this motion let's clear the deck as you said and both for the stuff that everybody has agreed upon um I think we can say it's good to start on common ground and I think everybody on this board is an agreement that we value racial equity and that the status quo is not working I also want to say that in the hundreds of emails that we've received from MCI members by and large they are not saying

077let's maintain the status quo they're saying to us please honor the collaborative handbook process and I feel that we can honor the collaborative handbook process and take a very strong stance as a board that the status quo is not working and we want to see the handbook committee move forward in a way that will bring more equity into our decisions about staffing and help us achieve our goal of bringing more teachers of color into this district and making sure that we can retain them that's important to remember this board um with that in mind that said I have a few specific parts of the the proposal on layoffs and surplus that I want to make sure get addressed before we vote on it and it may take some time to address these things and I

078think we need to achieve consensus on them the first is the proposed rubric my understanding is that MTI hasn't actually had a chance to sit down at the table with the administration and discuss this and hash this out I think we need to take the time for there to be staff voice in developing a rubric that everybody is on board with and I firmly believe that this rubric needs to live in the handbook so that future changes to the rubric are part of the collaborative handbook process I think it's really important that if we're developing metrics by which our staff are measured our staff have a voice and defining them definitely I am concerned about the appeals process that has been brought to us the appeals process begins at stage four the grievance process which

079means that there is no staff voice in that process it basically goes from a suggestion for a layoff to the board being brought that suggestion for a layoff without any kind of independent arbiter being brought in I don't know realistic there to be an independent arbiter in layoff Appeals but we need to have a process where before this comes to the board staff have a voice and staff have a voice when it comes to the board and finally I think we need to take out the 30-day layoff notice right now we don't have a budget repair bill on the table we aren't faced with a financial crisis should that come to pass I think we can do a Memorandum of Understanding or something so that we can act quickly but I don't think we should

080do something this drastic without an actual crisis happening so I do not agree with the 30-day layoff notice I think we should not be working that way Thanks okay thank you Chris Mickey and um I was just gonna say that Savion you've always made me think you've always made me slow down and actually think and as someone who's hyper and speaks more than thinks that's actually quite helpful I a hundred percent agree with your changes I think that the that we can work out a situation because the status quo doesn't work and it's correct it doesn't work for the disabled that doesn't work for people color doesn't work especially for those who are disabled and of color eat let alone Native Americans who aren't even on the chart because there aren't because there are so

081few we need to work together and I think this is a way that we Gert it's a way that we move forward without causing major harm and I respect you for that and I thank you Thank You Nikki so I think that we are it seems like we are in agreement I'll go to ally and Julia here in a minute that we all are on the same page right the status quo is not working okay and I think the I I think the message in the narrative that we send out to our community is that we are really moving forward with the focus in a priority around equity and I think MTI needs to understand that this is the direction that we are moving and they have to come on board and work with our

082administration and team and the board on solutions to resolving this issue right this is this can't take forever we have to make a decision we are giving MTI our teachers and our staff our administration and opportunity with this motion to come together and coming up with you know solutions for us on what they want alright so we understand so we all understand that this is where we're moving right this is not about just talking about racial equity and equity and in our community without actually doing it this is an opportunity for the board this is an opportunity for MTI this is an opportunity for our community to actually move on something solid and with Sabian's motion here we are actually going to be able to come to the table and do this but it's not

083gonna we can't take a lot of time so I'm looking forward to say beyond other motion on timeline on this and let's move to Ali and then Julia Gloria appropriately appreciate you emphasizing that we are getting to the same page I think the thing is is that racial equity and and racial justice are great things to pay lip service to they sound really good and they're very complex things to action around and I think you know it would be one thing to examine this from the lens of what mm MSD is as an employer but MMSD isn't really tasked with employing people MMSD is tasked with educating all of our children and that that has to be the priority is making sure that we have high quality educators in front of our kids and that

084an arbitrary date doesn't keep a really talented educator from progressing in their career while allowing you know somebody who is not bringing what our kids need to the table to stay in a role that you know serves serves them in terms of being employed but it doesn't necessarily serve our students in terms of being served and educated I think it's a really complicated thing to talk about bringing educators to the table especially in their entirety to advise this process in part because we do have a majority white workforce and so asking a group of majority white folks how you're bringing communities of color and how to include communities of color and how to let go of the benefits of white privilege I'm not sure if that's necessarily gonna get us there and I think any

085time that we've advocated or the needs of kids of color it's been a pretty intense thing when you think about integration of Education it wasn't it didn't happen via consensus you needed the National Guard to walk kids to school right so these these are these are really in intensely entrenched issues that we're talking about I greatly appreciate the amendment Sabian I I'm excited for us to vote may I ask what question procedurally Julia's been waiting Julie I'm sorry Julia thank you I think I mean obviously the board recognizes the need for racial justice everyone the idea of it always sounds good and I think also the value of fair teacher employment practices that help students I really at this point don't understand what this policy would mean in practice I think it sounds vague and

086at that point I really don't know what to think of it or how to vote on it and I think teachers also aren't sure what it means and that's why we've seen such concern about it and community concern I think the only sample provided of a potential rubric doesn't mention racial goody or mentioned students of color or seeking backgrounds of any kind it's just about like one of the criteria of academic about I'm not yes yes on the motion excluding those things but just back on that issue I just wanted to say I understand why teachers are concerned and I understand why we've received dozens of emails from teachers who are worried about this I get it and I can assure whether this is the best way of accomplishing a better student experience or retaining

087more staff of color that represent the students in our district and I'm not sure if this will hinder more help more with the student experience because I think everyone recognizes the fact is that students do better when teachers are not what teachers represent them and also when teachers don't feel like they're adversaries of the district and whether that's a false narrative or not we can't really speak to but I mean it does affect the student experience and students do best when they have the best teachers and when teachers have experience in their schools experience teaching the classes that they're used to so in other words when high quality teachers are attracted to the districts and when they stay here for a long time so and I am concerned about what seniority getting rid of seniority

088is a main factor would you for that and I just I think it's really fake right now and everyone has good intentions and I just don't know how we can be expected to act don't matter how we can expect teachers to be comfortable with something with us that day Thank You Julia all I mean that was just excellent thank you you brought us all together on this I think Savion you are your motion is on table eliminating the area the items that we have not been able to come consensus on but did you want to add anything else to that motion no okay okay let's go ahead and vote all those in favor blue Julia Savion Julia sorry Savion do you want to read the motion again okay thank you we should vote on it

089okay I move that the Board of Education at that proposed modifications to the LMS the employee handbook is set forth in the document prepared for the special meeting dated July 22 2020 excluding the proposed revisions on teacher surplus unilateral reassignment layoffs and hiring and support units effective August 125 okay yep Julia your advisory wrote I hate all those in favor aye aye any opposed okay motion passes unanimously danders thank you now do you read it with the amendment in I'm confused I further move move that the Board of Education direct the handbook review the committee as set forth in section 8 of the MMSD employee handbook to continue meeting on the proposed revisions on teacher surplus unilateral reassignment layoffs and hiring the support units with the deadline of with a deadline of November regular Board

090of Education meeting should the district experience significant funding loss due to state budget cuts the board may move up the deadline for bringing for this proposal no later than the November regular oral education meetings now this will come with a few directives that the handbook review committee should develop a mutually agreed-upon rubric or other objective evaluation tool that will be added to the handbook develop an appeals process I will provide representation for teacher selector layoffs and will remove 30-day layoff notice what's second Ananda second Carrie do you need just we need to clarification Niki so with that motion Savion again that's a motion then as directing staff to do something which doesn't fit with how motions are made motions are simply statements that describe the proposed action or decision the action you're proposing is not

091an action of the board the board can't affect that you know most of if you think about most of the motions that you propose it's I move that the board approves a contract or the motion that just happened and in directing staff number one you're directing us to do something that we need a another participating party and you can't direct that party to participate in the process so essentially it could fail and you directing us to meet and confer because they don't have to we don't control them MMSD has no control over them I would recommend if that if you want to give a directive to the board just as if the board was asking for reports and what have you just stated just say I want to direct the administration to do X and

092it'll be done done the motion has no more force and getting it done than just directing the staff to do it so so Sherri we can a saving I can make a motion Jardine the superintendent correct work on so just change them but again that's presuming that MTI participates so it could be one-sided and there's no participation so we could try I mean that's the best you're gonna I think that that is I think that that is what Sabian's intention is is to direct the superintendent to work with MTI and then you know we'll have to get a report out on how that has worked at a later date but really I mean I think it's a good faith effort and working with MTI on this Savion is that correct yeah I think you know

093you know the narrative poster than would appear you know MTI and the district have both agreed in principle to a rubric that goes beyond seniority it doesn't a lemonade seniority both empty on the district have agreed in principle that seniority can't be the sole determining factor so yeah that's right so savvy and I would just change your motion to Sherry he can change his motion to directing the superintendent we need to discuss the 30-day peace as well when I don't know when it comes okay I mean can I add a directive [Music] shouldn't imminent threat of layoffs appear the board will reconvene to create an MOU we and MoU doesn't work in the handbook process and MOU works when you have collective bargaining I think say I think say beyond languages is is fine I

094think he just needs to change the initial directing the superintendent Chris Sabian can you change that question Ali go ahead so George I appreciate that you popped on I I'm curious if we don't have the 30 day notice how much notice do you folks get and because we are facing a budget shortfall I think you know I mean obviously if you're gonna lay somebody off it'd be great to give them a year notice but if we're laying people off it's because we cannot afford to keep them on which means if we keep them on for an extended a period of time after they've been laid off the the ramifications I think that that that that's not in line with our fiduciary responsibilities I support Deirdre can you speak to how much notice we have to

095get folks before lying laying them off as of right now yeah I think that's a really important point and I'll let Heidi jump in here as well but the the current language stands that we used the non renewal process as the as the process for reducing force which happens in the spring which happens one time a year so if we don't put in a provision that gives you the flexibility to make some of those shifts when you need to you will essentially not have the ability to move in that direction and layoffs and I'll let Heidi jump in here because she can say it much more eloquently than I can but I think you need to really think about the 30-day notice piece as a way to provide options and flexibility Heidi do you want

096to jump in there pretty much said it all right because current under the current language there's one time a year that you look at layoffs and that is in the spring and then you're laying off the person for the upcoming school year so if there is absolutely no change in the language then that would be the one time during the year when you can look at layoffs I'm deeply concerned about our ability to navigate resources at this time okay I think I think our enrollment is going to be incredibly impacted and I think that we have to be able to make difficult decisions in this moment given the pandemic and so I think you know yeah I just process-wise we've already approved the saving odds initial motion we're gonna set that aside and now he's

097come up with a second motion to direct administration to come back and we are in to come back with some parameters correct Savion so now we are in discussion part of that motion sherry has come forth and said that we are that she's not he's not able to make that motion according to what he stated so we're trying to figure out the appropriate language so that we can have a conversation I think that we will have a conversation about the 30-day but I don't think that this is part of the motion that Savion is referring to right now clarification Mary asked go ahead Nikki under the statute on 118 and termination versus layoffs but look at Dodge County professional employees got to the appeals court 2013 said given the hold in this case a court

098could hold that a non-renewal constitutes a dismissal or termination subject to the statutory driven process by that logic technically we could be saying that we could open ourselves up to litigation if we do that because tip because technically we're saying that you we are not going to renew you there's a difference between financially when all of a contract and statutory were denying the contract for non performance due to the statute we're discussing the non performance statute or the financial statute or both well you were just I think what Deirdre was referring to was what is specifically in the handbook the handbook does not give us the opportunity to lay someone off the only opportunity is it to wait and go through the nine renewal process now that may be an error in the handbook but

099that's what we have right now and that's what she was addressing is the fact that the handbook gives us one option to wait until the non renewal period and at that time all the layoffs even if they were retro back to September we would have to wait until April in the spring to do it okay we are not going to get a resolution on the 30-day right now I think Lady Anne's motion is does include a conversation amongst staff and administration on that Hart Chris you have been patiently waiting so um I want to just say about the 30 days first of all we do not have a budget crisis right now secondly if we end up with an enrollment crisis the surplus process I understand is the surplus process will kick in and stuff

100will get surplus so we may not need layoffs we may need to deal with the surplus issue um I I can't imagine working for an organization where my job security was 30 days even though we're saying out loud at this board meeting that we would only use this in a crisis there's nothing going into the handbook that would say we would only use this into a crisis and therefore the only way I could see supporting any kind of 30-day language that went into the handbook was to make it very clear that that language would only kick into effect if there was a funding loss a significant funding loss that impacted our ability to pay teachers and if the board approved like by a vote letting that 30-day layoff notice kick into effect just putting 30-day

101layoffs into the handbook means that arbitrarily we can lay people off and you know we can say whatever we wanted this meeting but the language is going into the handbook does not say that 30-day notice will only kick in in the event of funding loss and therefore I think it needs to go and we need to rethink how we handle funding loss as a district and if we're dealing with enrollment loss then yeah thank you Chris I'm sorry were you done yeah thank you Chris I think great great points I agree I think you know we are making we are setting we are setting these policies based on I think we are moving now towards a conversation on a budget deficit right and having issues around that and I never agree with making these policies

102based on that right I mean I think that if we do incorporate this it the language has to be put into the handbook right that we are going to win under circumstances there's a budget deficit that we move into this part of a layoff process right and this is this process will play a part in it but I think just you know putting it out there I think it really is it feels uneasy for me to even think about just a natural regular 30-day notice on this and so Savion I think I want us to move back to your motion here so can you reread your motions so that we can move on in in boat yeah so I've furthermore moved that the Board of Education direct the superintendent to direct the handbook committee to

103continue meeting on the proposed Hamlet provisions on teacher surplus unilateral reassignment layoffs and hiring in the support units with a deadline of November regular Board of Education meeting the district experienced significant funding loss due to state budget cuts the board may move up the deadline for green for this proposal no later than the November regular oral education board meeting with the following directives at the handbook review committee should develop a rubric or other objective evaluation tool that will be added to the handbook an appeals process for a layoff or develop an appeals process that will provide representation for teachers for layoffs and remove the 30 day layoff notice cook Nicky second all right so are we prepared to move into a vote year yes janay just clarify again with sherry that we don't need to

104vote on this you can just direct me to do it I would like that is Kareem the force is the same to me I know Nicky you'd rather have it voted on I get it but what I'm saying is this is bad practice if you want to have it voted on fine but it's better to just give her the directive to do it she's your employee she will have to go and do it I understand that but I think for clarity sake I want to vote on it I think that shows and I think it shows that the board speaks when it acts when it votes that's and I think it shows that you don't trust Jane that she you can vote Jen you can vote on it Nikki if the chair acknowledges that she

105wants to vote on it that's fine thank you sherry for for your guidance on this we're gonna go ahead and vote Deirdre your or I'm sorry dear Joe did you have something because you came up yeah I mean I I just want to resurface the concern about the removal there is specific language talking about the removal of the 30-day notice and I'm not sure that the board quite understands what that means you're you are losing your flexibility and your options and so I'm just gonna speak about it and and and I'm gonna be done but I think it is it is not the the right move I don't think you should be removing that I think if you want for us to have a discussion about 30-day notice and if you want us to come

106back and bring different language but to say that you were going to remove it and not have it be something that is considered is a great mistake and I'll just leave it at that okay thank you um first of all I actually think we should vote on this because it sends a strong message to the community that we as a board are taking a strong stance on equity and that we as a board are not okay with the status quo and we are directing the superintendent to move forward on coming up with something better I'm secondly I would be comfortable with changing the 30-day language to notice to say just add the words as written the end of it so we're we're saying that you need to change the 30-day language as written and as

107part of the consensus process you can come back to us with something different we may not agree with you we may send people but I'd be okay with as written being added maybe on can you add that to your motion and so we can go yeah we're disorder out of confusion I don't know which one that we are voting on additionally and I'm just gonna say that I'm sorry but I cannot vote for this as much as I respect you say beyond a kid up to 30 days in there Mike that's something that I I just cannot do what we're not saying 30 days will be in there what we're saying is that this motion states that we're directing the superintendent to direct the handbook committee to continue meeting and in the process of continuing

108to meet three things we want them to take into account that the rubric has to be made together and live in the handbook that the appeals process needs to be rethought and needs to include staff voice and that we do not want to include the 30 day notice as written it doesn't say okay notice will be included it says we do not want it to be included I couldn't hear right and I apologize does that sum up what you wrote correctly absolutely thank you okay so where we add on process so we got that language in there as written okay Nicki do you second that our circuit room okay all right are we all ready for a vote perfect so Julia your advisory vote Hey all those in favor aye any opposed I'm gonna abstain

109from the vote just because I think that the the process was a bit confusing and I think if we're seeing in conversation around around it I don't know what action the vote actually informs other than we're returning to the negotiating table so that's my abstention okay took fine it sounds like six zero one one abstention one upset some motion passes all right and now that was the last thing on our agenda can I get a motion to adjourn I moved second Holly Nikki second Julia your advisory vote aye we all those in favor aye most okay motion passes good night everybody