001another Monday of getting dressed up to go to the living room huh mm-hmm I had a deposition before this ever since we had one person that wear pants were suit with boxers they put a dress code at the court zoo I think I get that under control yeah pants or was that barb you're ready to go all right okay let's go ahead and call the meeting to order it looks like we have everybody here yeah okay I'm welcome to the special Board of Education meeting an open section session workshop where we will talk have a conversation and vote on the school resource officer contract this is going to be an open discussion and we'll go by individual board members just to say a few words and just want to remind everybody that this is a
002very important topic it's been you know we've had a lot of great discussions in the past and just want to make sure everybody is just a reminder that everybody has different perspectives and to expect one another during this conversation so that everybody is able to feel comfortable and sharing about their perspectives and the concerns and optimism moving forward and so I'm just gonna go ahead and open it up so whoever would like to start just if you could just let me know by raising your hand and Allie thank you so much for allowing us to have this conversation I think it's a really important conversation to have and I think more even more important as the actions we take to address some of the real issues that have created by in-school policing and so I
003think in you know in the spirit of truth and reconciliation we have to acknowledge that over the course of the entire lifespan of this program of policing in schools the majority of students every year to be arrested in school are african-american children and so policing in schools has you know had an impact in terms of racial profiling within education I also think it's important for us to acknowledge that it's not a developmentally appropriate solution to arrest and incarcerate children and so we need solutions for young people that actually honor where young people are at in their lives and the kinds of challenges our students face and I think we are far better at navigating developmentally appropriate solutions for some children and for others african-american students have been exposed to the harshest punishment savais LeBeau to
004our community over and over and over again and I think part of what we're doing today is making decisions that allow for us to reconcile racial disparities in terms of policing and discipline within education okay thank you Ali Niki mm-hmm I have to agree it's with my colleague Ali this is this is not a developmentally appropriate practice I've been doing juvenile law for 16 years and I can tell you kids aren't many adults and that putting a child in handcuffs in jrc is one of the most heartbreaking things you're ever going to see childhood is a place of learning a place where you make mistakes not a place where it should haunt you and it's not a place where there should be criminal ramifications we need to realize that this did have negative impact on
005our black and brown and disabled students these are groups that were racially profiled or ability profile and these are issues that caused a lot of harm I understand there's a lot of fear there's a lot of worry it I get that and I respect that worried that fear and I'm glad that this work to come together to have this kind of discussion at such an important time Thank You Nikki who's next okay so so Chris Savion and Chris you don't want to speak on this topic at all I'm Jane Bellmore Jane you're on mute thank you yeah I just I appreciate this conversation Gloria and the board and I just want to say that you know however this conversation turns out our district safety and security team has really done a lot of important work
006this year with our administrators and teachers and our security personnel and that work involves a lot of teamwork many partnerships with our community and other groups that we work with so we do have important processes and procedures in place to ensure that schools are safe and welcoming learning environments and we two really want to make sure that that that continues and we really remain committed to doing that work so I just wanted you in the community to know that we will have Safe Schools and we are committed to ensuring that great Thank You Jane and uh Chris Sabian Christina koma Schmidt Chris Lucy thank you everyone for your comments um recent events have highlighted the racism fear and violence that black people experience everyday and systemic racism places an undue burden on the achievement of
007black and brown students and for those reasons I support ending the contract with MPD and we need a plan in short order I really think that we need to be conscious of the fact that we had an aero ad-hoc committee that met for almost two years that include representation from across the community and that had open meetings with public participation and I think we need to use this the report they came out of that committee as a starting point for our work moving forward because this vote is just a step in moving forward in a new direction I want to just highlight an overarching recommendation that came out of that report we recommend that MMSD work with the school community to identify and strive to achieve conditions where all members of the school community feel
008safe and no members of the school community feel unreasonably criminalized or disproportionately targeted with police interaction and a couple of more detailed recommendations from that report include that security staff job descriptions should be reviewed and enhanced and that they should receive training and de-escalation informed intervention and adolescent brain development and there was also recommendation to create an advisory committee that reflects the demographics of our high schools and includes staff school board members students and community representatives um so I think it's part we need to move quickly on three things first of all I think we need a safety plan that will go into effect on the first day of school that reflects that overarching recommendation from the ad-hoc committee and I think we also need to convene the committee that that was recommended in the
009report that will focus both on school safety and restorative justice and finally I think we need to have a conversation about how we plan and budget for additional staff needs including the recommendation for security staffing that's in the report um indeed the contract frees up enough resources for maybe five positions I think we need to seriously consider whether this is enough additional staffing and how we give the most benefit from staffing investments I'm removing arrows is just a step and addressing systemic racism in our schools and it could you know it could be a really wonderful step forward we also need to be very conscious that it's not a step backward if we implement a plan that continues to make our schools feel presently Thanks thank you Chris Sabian yeah so I was trained in
010were sort of justice as a junior in high school myself and other student leaders and specialists from YWCA including Anandi at the time at that pilot program at LaFollette at the time you know we made a commitment to conflict resolution and healing without the need of a punitive and potentially violent threat from the state we resolve fights arguments and more and I think that was a demonstration that this work is possible and that it has been demonstrated before and that what's required is political will and the financial commitment to make that work to scale possible and so I really echo Chris's comments and saying that this has to be the beginning of a new conversation about what we want safety and you know a welcoming environment for our schools to look like and it starts
011with forming those committees and starting these big conversations with our school communities I think what has always been true but what has been exposed with the bends over the past month or so is that right now the institution of policing is incompatible with and in fact in direct contradiction into what we hope to create for our learning environments for her for black students and we have to take that seriously and so I'm in full support of ending this contract tonight and beginning this new conversation with our with our community tonight Thank You Savion so we have Anandi Julia Kristina Julia want to say something yeah I just wanted to say I've seen a significant amount of support from stew that I talk to you with an MST on social media through having conversations with them
012and I think that I'm really glad we're having this conversation and just on behalf of MMSE students I'm definitely in favor of ending the contract Thank You Julia Anandi Chris you guys are both if you don't want to say anything that's fine um Cristina yeah thank you so I like the rest of the board members have been hearing an urgent call to action from the larger community to reform systems that disproportionately affect our black and brown students and I just want to say that I understand and share the deep desire to do something differently to create real and lasting change that will lead to better outcomes for students and I believe we have consensus in our community and our district and on our board that change is needed my concern about the decision today is
013is focused on process and timeline for trading change I'm concerned that we haven't listened to our high school communities fully in making this change going forward we haven't looked at the report and data from this school year to understand the results from the change in practices that we implemented this school year following the recommendations of our sorrow and hoc committees that report is due on July 15th so I hope that will be a part of whatever we do going forward I think that whether you agree with the presence of throws in our schools right now or not they do have a leadership role in our schools they're part of a team of administrators safety and security assistance counselors social workers and others who work every day to address critical incidents and situations in our schools
014with students and even adults from outside our school communities if we remove the Aceros I'm creating a plan for how to move forward will require the focus of our high school and district staff which is really important to fill this leadership role in a way that maintains safety and security and this will require time there have been calls from the community from a lot of different angles to replace a sorrows with more support for students including more counselors social workers community liaisons and mentors MTA I recommended the removal of a sorrows only if 33 additional support staff are added to our high schools and I think we need to discuss what are what our schools really need to serve our students well um deciding how to move forward will require some time in space and
015I appreciate so many people being interested in in trying to figure this out and trying to do this collaboratively um to move things forward and I know that to some concerns about time or leadership to do this may sound like an excuse or a reason to stall when the momentum for nitu change exists however I think our schools do need time and space to do this and figure out the best path forward so I look forward yeah to discussing this with all of you thank you Chris I know that you would you like to a nun yeah I want to make sure that I hear from everyone before I share because my I have a very different experience than most people on this board because I did not grow up in the k-12 system here
016in the US and one of the reasons that I came to the u.s. is to exactly to flee the the violence that was happening both in the city that I live but in the country the violence in particular towards young people towards women and have seen how personally that had impacted many of my friends and family members in particular the ones that are have a much darker complexion than mine and I was 20 years ago I was a firm believer that in this country we upheld the values of freedom the values of safety without the values of due process and justice and that was applicable to everyone it did not take belong to realize that that was not true as I experienced that personally as an immigrant with constant threats from the police specifically the
017times that I was undocumented and then also witnessing observing that the impact on the black community once I learned that about those injustice is the words communities of color and the US and the historical context that have painted a very different landscape for me I was I was out there sharing and trying to educate others because I thought that if people if only people knew the impact of those injustice on communities of color that they would change their behavior and they were changed their policies and they were change their practice and I was I was wrong I was I was going around and people wanted to see data they wanted me to prove and they wanted me to you know show me more information and once I started working within systems or alongside systems I
018had a greater access to data and and I start sharing with people here here's here's a very extensive body of information and research and data the strong correlation of increasing police funding correlating with increase in disciplinary incidents predominantly minor violation decrease in graduation rates decrease in higher education enrollment exposure to law enforcement increase recidivism and criminal records which then decrease use employment and then further adult employment here's a body of research around preventive and positive interventions that have youth greater results in communities that have decided to remove officers and particularly decriminalize students and here in Wisconsin dpi has released plenty of reports that shows black students and students with disabilities are 5 times or more likely to be out of to receive out of school suspensions black students six times they're likely to experience out
019of school suspensions than their peers and and then you know the school shootings have also created an another level of threat and where people thought that you know having officers would prevent that there is no research that says that that is true two people wanted to use that as a as a argument to keep officers in school there is no evidence that suggests the police make schools safer or mitigates the fact of school violence so the violence is that were experiencing in our communities and that we have experienced in many in many many of our lives as young people are going to still be there it hasn't police in there they have no significant impact often to quite the contrary their presence in situations that could be handled by counselors or teachers or mentors or
020or psychologists often escalate often gives a it gives a greater opportunity for students to become incarcerated or receive citations and so on this board has had a predominantly white board members well-rounded individuals who want nothing more than ensuring the safety and well-being for our students they want the success of our students and I have no doubt of that Madison and Wisconsin are not short of plans we are we are not where we are today with the sort of this badge of honor and stickers all over our communities across the state of Wisconsin and in particularly Madison and Dane County of ranking so high in this proportionality in education we're not where we are here today because of lack of plans Madison generates a greater amount of plans Wisconsin does it too so when I hear
021the dissenting around prioritizing more data or have some more members only me wanting me to regurgitate more data or want to have more plans to me I hear the further marginalization and opportunities of color I think conflating safety and law enforcement describes how deep racism runs in this country and where we have been for over 400 years where black and brown bodies have been surveilled punished control marginalize and criminalized I'm full support of removing the astros immediately and I'm full support I've also engaged in whatever other strategy we needed to make sure that our communities understand what exactly are we're trying to do but this is not just a matter of removing for adults out of the schools that we're also saying to our students and our parents and our community that we are going
022to seriously engage and we stopping halting the criminalization of young people the criminalization of students with IPS the criminalization of the bodies of black and brown students in our community that we are also saying that we don't have all the answers we are learning to do this anti-racist work alongside many other communities across the US and we won't stop until we actually get it right but stopping halting deterring because of lack of plans because of more data because of wanting to talk to so and so and so and so is is continue to perpetuate racist practices and I'm not going to be complicit for that well thank you so much Gloria for scheduling this for us to have a conversation thank you for allowing me to take this much time and space because it's really
023important to me and I appreciate everyone listening so thank you everyone thank you Anandi okay I will go last and then we'll have Ally read the motion um I just I want to take some time to thank every school resource officer who's ever worked in our schools who have served in our school buildings every year for many years their service has helped lead us to incorporate restorative justice practices and innovative strategies for solving some of the most complex behavior issues while also compassionately addressing the complex challenges that our students face every day I'm a former police officer and detective I think most people know that I know firsthand the complex challenges within law enforcement I have worked for years and dedicated my career to advocating for racial equity changes within the department I support the
024men and women of the Madison Police Department they respond every day with bravery and integrity to situations that our community has asked them to take on now is the time for our Madison Police Department and police departments across the country to face the challenges of racism that exists within their policies procedures and culture and now is the time for all institutions to take a hard look at what they do and how they do it and how they feed into the racist practices within their own institutions in our community since George George Floyd's murder and the continued demands to remove school resource officers I've had to put aside my own personal and professional views about policing schools to reflect on the many voices that have advocated for change I want to thank you all for those
025who have done so we must come together now to find a way to reimagine what safety and security looks like in her schools for the benefit of all of our students without school resource officers everyone will have to play a role in developing new strategies and paradigms including a continued relationship with the Madison Police Department I wanted us to have a thoughtful deliberative process and plan for phasing out our school resource officers however it seems that this community has requested movement sooner rather than later the majority of my colleagues on the board have expressed their support for removal of SROs the Madison teachers union who are the voice of our teachers and staff have supported the removal the mayor and other elected officials have expressed support to remove the removal of a sorrow's there comes
026a time when a leader a professional has to listen particularly during particularly during challenging times to reassess and change direction depending on the will of the people this is one of those times this is the time for all of our partners to uplift and invest in our schools from your own individual position I will be voting tonight to remove SROs however with the commitment to establish a safety and security committee of the board to work with the disc School District to ensure our students are safe and continue to evaluate the outcomes of the breasts of black and brown students in our schools so we will go ahead and move forward with the vote I do after Ali makes the motion and we vote what I do want to say a few words after that thank
027you so much Gloria I also want to extend appreciation to the young people who have shown up at board meetings to the students who have led us in this decision I you we can't underestimate the impact that the death of George Floyd had on our country in fact for a lot of people we waited eight minutes forty-two seconds too long to change things but we are here now and it took a lot of young people and a lot of organizers advocating for change for a significant amount of time to get us to this moment and so I'm incredibly proud to move that the Board of Education terminate the MMS DS contract for school resource officers effective immediately second thank you for seconding say ban and then we are doing a roll call vote so I
028think I'm Chris has her hand oh yeah I would just like to add an amendment to this just to create a timeline and direct charge to our administration you know in addition to the committee that Gloria has committed to making they will report back to the board before the school year starts on an alternate safety and security plan for high schools it would include the additional supports we need for students and staff both what's possible in the short term and a process for deciding on what long term shifts are needed I know we can't read discuss the reallocation of funds that will be available from the dissolution of this contract but I'd like to see that placed on a July agenda so we can get the additional support to the high schools for the work
029that they have ahead of them so that's a really complicated amendment oh no no that's not the amendment but I just was trying to explain why I was making the amendment so can I go ahead and do that or you would make the amendment and then you would need someone to second the mmm okay sure did you have something you needed to add no I thought that was your amendment so I know it was not sorry just explanation to why I'm doing it so the amendment is we direct the MMSD administration including our chief of school operations deep of high schools and high school principals to report to the board by August 20th of 2020 an updated safety and security plan for the 2021 school year for you to the comprehensive high schools that details
030cause including who will be responsible for responding to critical incidents within the schools and on the school drugs second Chris I'm not sure that that's an appropriate amendment because the amendment that's on the table is to cancel the contract and what you're stating is not in furtherance of canceling the contract so how could she how could how could she add that as a recommendation to the district - you could have it to the agenda Gloria right it's not for the next meeting because of the way it's agenda its agenda as to either maintaining or canceling the contract and so she can add that as a recommendation for another meeting because I'm assuming we'll have another meeting about this and if we're moving for with either the recommendations from the prior committee or forming another committee
031it's likely to get kind of confusing with giving an exact date to the administration to have a plan when we're supposed to be working with others as well and developing that plan so I think that sense so I think what we can do Chris is we can add it to the subcommittee recommendation when we set that subcommittee up which is we're going to try to get that set up soon so that we can incorporate a timeline to that how is that I did I I'll just reiterate I think it's really important that we have something in place to to detail what the plan is going forward before school starts again so appreciate that consideration great thank you okay so okay go ahead so it's a roll call vote so I would imagine I'm going to
032call Julia for your advisory vote first aye aye Anandi definitely I Gloria I say vien I'm Chris Gracie I chris gomez yeah I Nicki Vander Molen I and myself Ali Muldrow I we have voted unanimously to terminate the contract between the Madison metropolitan school district and the Madison Police Department effective immediately thank you all so much for this work great Thank You Ali for doing that motion so just wanted before we close out for tonight and we go on to the next regularly scheduled board meeting is I just want to make an important point that for those watching and listening that the decision to end the contract is a school board decision and we just made it and we have it's not dependent on the mayor and the City Council resolution to vote that's supposed
033to I think occurred tomorrow night so while we thank them for their support for this action we will not have to wait until they act for this decision to take into effect I think there was some confusion confusion last week from the media and our community wondering whether they would have to continue to advocate for the City Council to make a decision tomorrow they can continue to advocate but it is a school board's decision and we just made it so thank you all very much we'll go ahead can I get a motion motion to adjourn motion to adjourn sorry thank you Nikki the second Anandi okay all those in favor okay all right all right we are adjourned we'll see you at the next meeting thank you thank you