001e e e okay all right and it is 6:00 so we all ready all right it is Monday August 12th 2024 and I call this business session of the Elizabeth School District Board of Education to order at 6:00 p.m. can I get a roll call please director Booth here director Callahan is absent director Olsen here director pal here and director Waller here all right right let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance BL please I pledge alleg to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay first up we've got minutes I move that the board approve or excuse me agenda so I move that the board approve the amended agenda for the August 12th business session
002as presented a second any discussion okay can I get a roll call please director Booth I director Olsen I director pal I and director Waller I motion approved next up we have approval of the minutes I move that we approve the minutes from the Board of Education meetings that were held on June 24th July 1st and July 17th 2024 as presented second any discussion nope okay can I get a roll call director Booth I director Olson I director pal I and director Waller hi okay motion approved next up we have our Communications uh section here and uh board board member reports is up first does anybody have anything they would like to discuss I would um first of all we had convocation this morning and it was great um of course the Middle School won
003the spirit stick so congratulations to them um Everybody did a great job so it was really actually hard everybody did awesome although I have to say the district office um is gonna have to step it up for next year a wave off is not Spirit the transportation Slackers okay um so that was great it was um great energy in the room um fresh start to the year um everybody was really excited I loved it um I also recently had the opportunity to attend an informational presentation for the independence Classical Academy charter school and I wanted to uh comment um commend excuse me Kim Gil Martin the executive director of Liberty schools Initiative for delivering a comprehensive and insightful presentation Kim has been an invaluable asset to the Charter board playing a critical role in having
004this resource funded by the Daniels F her dedication and support Have Been instrumental I believe in bringing this project to fruition alongside Kim candy Chrissy and Ken contributed valuable information and perspectives that were very enlightening I also wanted to extend a special thank you to Casey Churchill who traveled from Liberty common Commons up in Fort Collins to discuss the classical curriculum that will be implemented at the new Academy Casey's explanation provided a clear and thorough understand of the educational excuse me approach that will shape the learning environment at independent Classical Academy the presentation was incredibly informative and has given me a deeper appreciation for the vision and planning behind this exciting new charter school I look forward to seeing how this initiative will benefit our community and contribute to the educational landscape I second um
005yes I attended we all attended the convocation today that was a lot of fun there's a lot of spirit in that school was very exciting I look forward to a fresh new year um I also attended the charter presentation and I also extend my thanks to those who participated and those who came um to ask questions and find out what that Liberty common model is all about um it was a great presentation and um I really enjoyed it okay well it looks like you're up oh either of your well I I could steal your thunder I see it's on your list uh I've been working with Dan and several others for the auto uh fundraiser uh we're very very excited about the auto building and uh lacking of little bit of money so on the
00627th of the month we're looking to have a fundraiser and a tent in the parking lot and uh barbecue and um a paddle auction so uh which will include signage if you uh win certain auction items to go on the building so we're very excited about that inside the building yeah I second that too thanks John I'm sorry I didn't mean to cut yall I know he was just waiting for me to you know go into my normal Spiel so we'll do that later she's taking one for the team all right Mary do you have a new or I don't have else right now great all right well um exciting start of the year um we actually have a few extra days this year um so we have a few extra pre-planning days so um
007it's actually been great for our staff to to be able to have a little extra time to collaborate with each other to get the year off to great start as everyone's mentioned convocation is a an important kickoff for us um uh in the past we haven't had a chance for all of our school staff to come together um and while each of our schools really represent a team together um we missed that opportunity to to pull our entire team Elizabeth School District together and that's what really today was about was celebrating the opportunity of recognizing how the entire team together really produces our outcome uh of students and today um we uh did that through a video of actually outlining the um Journey our students travel from preschool all the way through um as graduates
008and uh Jeff Maher our new public information officer I utilized a lot of the work that jason Hackett who is uh in the back our former Pio who is back tonight to help us uh with this board meeting um Jason uh left lots of great uh footage uh from uh past uh uh events in our district um Jeff was able in the first uh two and a half weeks of his uh being on the job uh produce a video of uh what our what our district does and how they produce amazing students and and students who go on to do amazing things in in the world um two of our students one who has set a goal to climb the 58 14ers here in Colorado and one student who is producing um uh 3D body
009parts in Malaysia um and how our teachers and our school district produced a student who could have the ability to do that um and really wanting our staff to recognize how they have a part in in in preparing a student uh to be able to do that and so that's what convocation was about you'll see our t-shirts uh that students are at the heart of everything we do that's been a motto in our district for a long time and that's going to be our Focus this year is really making that kind of our key Focus um in making sure that our staff realize how important that is we've set it for a long time we want it to be the focus and make sure that everyone realizes that truly is what they do each and
010every day and so convocation was a great event today and we really appreciate um our staff and coming together today and really celebrating and showing their Spirit um today as part of the ESD team um just uh for our parents who might be watching um Wednesday is a half day for our sixth and ninth graders it's a chance for them to have kind of a soft start to get used to their new schools at middle and high school chance to to kind of get used to to to their new environment and then all of our secondary students start on Thursday um so um watch for those school buses that will be rolling we do have 10 brand new school buses out on the road so we're really excited to have been able to replace 10
011of our old rickety school buses that uh have been traveling our our um challenging roads our dirt roads out there um so we have 10 new school buses that'll be out on the roads um and then uh starting next Monday Monday Thursday and Friday are assessment days for our students and I know there's been some chatter out there about what is our assessment days our kids just coming and going to be testing for three three hours no uh assessment days are a chance for our kids to get to know their teachers for us to to to see where they are in their reading and their math to do some assessment but also for our kids to get to know our teachers our teachers to get to know our kids and to really kind of build
012that classroom Community before they start their full days on Monday the 19th so all of our elementary students begin on Monday the 19th um so that will be when all of our students are officially uh in fulltime starting next Monday um the 19th um I do want everyone to know that our community barbecue our board barbecue uh welcomes everyone back on Friday the 23rd and that'll be from 4: to 6: p.m. uh at the high school and um we are excited to partner with the American Legion who will be doing our barbecue so hamburgers uh uh hot dogs and BRS will be served that evening and it is before a football game that evening um and that is happens to also be our staff appreciation football game so this year our high school has theme
013nights that happens to be our staff appreciation night so you're going to see a lot of these t-shirts that night um our staff will be wearing their t-shirts when they come to the barbecue and that night at half time our staff will be out on the field to be appreciated and and uh hope our community will come out uh to really show our staff how much uh they mean to our community the following uh Thursday night the 29th is actually our veterans and Military Appreciation Night so we hope our community will come out um and also show how much we appreciate our veterans and our military so that Thursday night game is a chance also for us to show our support uh for our veterans and Military and then finally as John mentioned um that
014Tuesday the 27th is a kickoff fundraiser night for our auto shop it will be uh 4: to 7:00 p.m. it will be uh in the Bus Loop uh portion of the parking lot in front of the school um and a chance for Community to come out learn a little more about our auto shop um where we are in that project again the building will be uh stood um it'll be up and um uh near completion but we still have some portions that have to be done that we're going to need to raise a little more money uh to finish so that our kids can actually gain the full benefit of that building so uh we hope to see you there uh we're looking not only for people who are willing to help us raise some
015funds but also looking for contractors who might be willing to help us in those final that final push to get that Building completed so again uh Tuesday August 27th from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. so uh thank you we're excited about the start of the school year a lot of energy out there um and looking forward to a great year so thanks all right do we have anybody for public comment no okay next up we have consent agenda I make a motion to approve consent items 8.1 through 8.3 second can I get a roll call please director Booth I director Olson hi director pal I and director Waller I all right motion approved all right now we're into our action items and we have a pretty full agenda tonight for these so the first up we
016have um a first reading of revised policy GBE staff use of the internet and electronic communications this policy was brought forward basically um we want to prohibit communication between students and teachers outside of uh you know basically on social media and texting and and keep it inside um communication channels that are within the district so I move that the board approve the first reading of revised policy GBE staff use of the internet and electronic communications second all right and I'm happy to provide a little more information you know this is for really for the protection of Staff um uh obviously social media um provides really no no Safety and Security for our staff when they communicate through social media um social media is not a channel that is archived for our district and so um
017social media really provides no protection for our staff and so when when staff communicates through social media um obviously um things can be manipulated and and it doesn't provide any protection when a staff member is texting with a student obviously um it does put a staff member at risk and so what we're trying to do is really uh encourage our staff to use channels um that are within the district communication channels we do have Google Chat within our our district means all of that is archived so Marty has the ability um should there ever be a core request should there ever be a concern should a should someone ever be accused of of inappropriately communicating that is something that is uh contained and archived within the district communication channels um uh Mr Sila has the
018ability of being able to pull that for public record to be able to say no here is exactly what was communicated and so we really want to encourage our staff to utilize those communication channels um there certainly are group group chats that can be done with teams within clubs so that when me messages are pushed out through through group chats that there there's there's no no risk to our staff of of being accused of inappropriate communication and things like that so this change is really something that we feel like is in the best interest of our staff so this is first reading a chance for um you all to continue to have this conversation a chance for us to bring this to the attention of our staff um it'll be brought back for a second
019and final reading at your next business meeting one thing that I wanted to point out is um this this um policy previously said um staff members are discouraged from communicating with students through personal social media platforms and Communications applications and texting and that has been changed to prohibit it from doing that and I think that's an important change and I just wanted to point that out to everybody because it's been in there before but now is it is definitely y exactly I think it's I think it's a necessary Revision in this day and age we need to protect all of the parties involved when it comes to communication and we've got so many other ways to communicate that are trackable and you know saveable so anyway all right any further discussion okay can I get
020a roll call please director Booth hi director olssen hi director pal hi and director Aller hi okay motion approved next up we have a policy review of GBE e-e which would be staff use of District technology resources it's an acceptable use agreement um there's no changes but this is just something that we're bringing back for our annual review should there be anything that we need to add to this or well there is a couple of changes that we made to what it was last year yeah um just minor minor changes but we did add any um let's see there's bunch of bullet points so unauthorized or acceptable use includes but is not limited to any activity that violates a school rule said that before District policy was added in there or local state or federal
021law and then um the in the security section we had in just for clarity really that um logging into the internet or electronic communications as a system administrator by a staff member it didn't have those words in there before which just was put in there to kind of clarify a little bit more um otherwise it's like well that's kind of what system administrators do is it l in so the point is that other people other than the administrators can't do it so it's just a couple of clarity clarifications so those but those are the only um and then there was a kind of a funny footnote that didn't actually exist in there that we deleted oh so yes so are we calling it a revised revised it's revised I misspoke on that one we talked
022about this yes and a this setting so sorry about that that's okay all right so any further discussion okay can I get a i not sure we had a motion did I not motion okay I'm sorry that's okay so I moved that the board I'm all out of order tonight I move that the board approve the first reading excuse me appr approve the first reading of revised policy GBE staff use of Technology resources acceptable use agreement second we've already had the discussion so let's move right on into the roll H hey director Booth hi director Olson hi director hi and director Waller hi now this next one is interesting uh 9.3 um this is a new policy so basically we're looking at adoption of policy GBE e-e which would be social media um we've got
023two formats that we've attached for discussion we're not going to make a motion on these tonight we just want to discuss one that this is a first a first discussion around it and and I think uh our our current policy is really lacking um and it's probably really needed to Bei revised for quite some time and I'm glad that this is being brought up um I think there's a lot of fluff to it there's not really specifics and I think we need to really especially nowadays yeah really get in and revise it well in this one actually this is this is a new one it's kind of confusing tonight because we have so many policies that exactly the same y so do is that not a already a nope not a not a yeah we
024got a clean the first one we did had a little piece of social media on that's where okay that's why I'm com this one would be this one would be completely focused on social media so it would become another GBE policy that would be really completely focused on social media the first one was one that um Jamie and I found through our search of other districts okay and then District 49's policy surfaced um at Agenda setting so we really wanted to bring both forms to you uh District 49 has some things that were not in the first draft policy that we really liked so we thought let's bring both of these to you um so that you could look at both of them and probably some version of both merged together is I think really
025what we're looking for I'm sorry I thought this was ours and then you were giving a different version we were going to bring this one for you for forward for consideration and then District 49 serviced and we thought oh we actually like some of those items too that's funny so I was going to say this one is really lacking but District 49's is better there's some of it that is a repetitive and maybe a little yeah too microm manery but um I think there some version of both of them would be really good I think what we really need is we have a lot of websites out there that um have taken the name of our schools or social media sites that have taken the name of our schools but are not controlled by the
026district and I think we need to have some authority to take control of those or to have those closed because they do appear to be run by the schools or somehow connected to the schools and they are not and so some of these policies have given that Authority for us to to basically have those uh Pages brought down um because I think anytime you have a a page and and others are providing guidelines to teams connected to the schools of of what's appropriate what's not so I think that's really kind of the Crux of what we're looking for is is when when can there be a social media site established that has some connection to the school or to the district and what are the guidelines that we expect those to be adhered to and
027really empowering I would say Jeff our our public information officer um as to you know what what we expect of of him and overseeing social media for the district and so I think that's really our goal I think a lot of people are confused about where to go when they're looking at it which one is it and just just so many and then there's individual schools and then there's there's so much and it'd be nice to kind of clean that up and um have our new Pi really control everything that's going out with obviously the help of the administrators yeah and information from them I think would be really nice to have that definitely and I do have to agree that this this proposed policy really doesn't have a lot of meat to it it's
028just very very generic and not doesn't give a lot of of good direction or or or set any kind of expectations um you know looking at d49 again there's there's a lot of stuff in here but I think it's more geared towards their environment yeah um um I know in looking at theirs I know that um the guidelines for Content I I I think we can we can pull a lot from um section B number one where you know when you think about it uh conduct online you know really if you're representing the district in any way shape or form that you know your your conduct should be the expect expectations for your conduct should be the same as they would be in the workplace MH yes um and then another one was um you
029know number six because we know that social media can be very toxic and um I think that you know maybe pulling pulling a little bit out of of that might be good as well but we do I I do think this this proposed policy needs a lot of revision I looked at U and I can always share it but I looked at the uh D District 49 and had highlighted some things I really liked in there but some stuff is a little bit Overkill so I you know or repetitive um and it more talks about like maybe more towards a Pio about who should be posting things and yeah that kind of stuff so I don't know that all of that is necessary but they had some good points I do think that we need
030something that empowers Jeff as our Pio more um to to do what we need him to do to keep it under control and to keep all those ones those um social media sites that kind of look like they might be official but they're not we need to you know have you and the administrators you know approve it and anything else you know we a policy like this would enable us to you know talk to whoever is kind of running unofficial ones and do do you want to give us the highlighted things that you saw in District 49's maybe give Jeff and myself a chance to maybe see what we can do to merge these and then bring them back to you maybe at the work session um and see if we're on the right track
031um because I think I think this policy was one that we found that at least kind of set the the ground rules but then I think what what you're saying is this provides kind of more of the meat of of the the actions so maybe see if we can't merge these with the items that you've highlighted is that kind of what you're thinking Ronda as well yes exactly okay so I mean if you want to give us the ones that you've highlighted and then then Jeff Jamie and I can work together between now and the work session and see if if we can't try to merge them in a in a way that at least see if we're if we're at least moving in the right direction does that sound like the right Next Step
032sounds perfect great I probably have I will probably email you some ideas to or some thoughts but they okay I'll probably okay and what we can do is maybe maybe um do it in a Google doc format where you know then as as you see other things that you feel like those need to be added you can provide us that feedback and then ultimately what we can bring back to you in the work session well y'all are going to have to start that Google doc send it to because I don't know how to do that okay all right that sounds good sounds good all right so we'll just share with us the items that you saw that you really want to make sure we include and then the three of us will work together to
033try to merge the two um if you see any others out there that you'd like us to also then include in the mer of documents and let us know and we'll take it from there good good all right great thank you all right right so next up we have action item 9.4 which is the first reading of revised policy kbd Public's right to know Freedom of Information I move that the board approve the first and final reading of revised policy kbd Public's right to know Freedom of Information second all right this is simply updating the statute has changed the fee uh for core requests um the hourly fee has changed and so this has gone from 3358 an hour to 4137 per hour so that's the only change to this policy um and I'd like
034to say you know um it's a shame that it's not the total that it cost the district I just want to make sure that everybody knows when you call cor and it's absolutely your right to Kora but it costs the district a lot more than what's here so you know we need to remember that there's good reasons for korus and then there's frivolous reasons for korus well it needs to be thought of as far as what's what's the best use of District resources I wanted to take this opportunity Jamie if you don't mind can you tell us what goes into what goes into it just a just a quick summary of what goes into it when you get a corter request so you receive it and then you try to determine what where you're going
035to get the information and how you're going to get it so it might not just be me if it's board documents I can pull them up if it's emails Marty has to pull them up if it's um Finance stuff I have to ask someone else to do it and then it's time that they're spending trying to get the information gathered so then you try to estimate a time it's going to take which is hard because you don't know how much time it's going to take and the first hour is free then you get all the information and then you redact it for any confidential information addresses phone numbers people's names which can take hours often we have legal do it because we don't want to get in trouble for releasing information we're not supposed to
036release and then eventually you ask people if they want to pay the price it's going to cost typically before the redaction time and um if they want to pay it or not pay it we still have time invested so then if they say no we don't want to pay the $200 it's going to cost anytime you've put it up to that point doesn't even matter you're not going to get anything for the time we've spent doing it and Jason has done a lot more than me so if you have more to add than that but um yeah and it's a lot of time two weeks ago I had nine in one week and that's that's a lot that's full-time job if you allow it to be then you get nothing else done sometimes people will
037say I want I want to search for emails that have this and this and this our searches don't allow us to search that way so so you know we we can't search you know for emails that that so we have to search by terms so when Marty does a search you know he has to search for that term and then that term and that term and so sometimes um when we when we search we'll get X number of emails and then um when we send that off because often times we will have to send those off then to the attorney to review um then when the attorney goes through actually sometimes none of those emails actually meet that respons meet that are respons it because they'll ask for things that meet all three of those
038and actually they won't have all three of those but they might have had one of those three and so that's a challenge is is is we you know our the way of our searching are not as complex as so so sometimes people want very specific things and again it it it it creates some real challenges and so um you know it it it does make it very challenging for us and so again $44 an hour is not what or $41 an hour is not what we pay our attorney unfortunately yeah that would be nice though yeah it would be nice hav't found an attorney educational disc charges that yeah thank you probably not okay you get what you pay for all right any further discussion okay did we do a roll call on that no
039but that was for fin all right can I get a roll call director Booth I director olon I director pal I and director Waller hi hi all right motion approved okay next up we have policy review of KB d-r Public's right to know Freedom of Information and this one was brought forward for review so we will mark it with a new review date no changes are being proposed so I move that the board I move I make a motion that the board has reviewed policy KB d-r Public's right to know Freedom of Information regulation second all right any further discussion we just we like to bring forward families so to speak of a policy so this is that goes with the one we just talked about it's kind of like the social media there's so
040much you get confused because they sound exactly exactly and this is the when there's a-r on something it's it's kind of a little more detail on how to implement the actual policy and so um it's just really to kind of keep the dating close together and write you know the same so that we know later that we looked at it all and it's all still good so all right there's no further discussion can I get a roll call director Booth hi director Olsen hi director pal hi director Waller hi okay next upep is 9.6 this one was kind of a tough one um this is our policy regarding our student member of the school board and our student member of the school board regulation I move that the board repeal policy jibb student member of
041the school board and J ib-r student member of the school board regulation second all right discussion and I will go first on this one um to be honest with you I think we were all very excited about it and we kind of jumped in head first and in my conversation it was hard to round up kids to be a part of this for one um and and second I really feel like when we had the interview with the two wonderful um students that I got so much more out of meeting with them in person in an informal environment versus this um and so I think that a better a better use of our time versus this would be for us to regularly meet not just with two students but with all of the students give
042them the opportunity to come in in my opinion give them the opportunity to come and meet with us and talk with us about what's going on what do they like what do they don't like um and uh and then invite some to come speak some to come speak at a board meeting I agree with that it was it was was um got a lot out of sitting with those two students to hear things are going on things we don't always hear um their suggestions their ideas it was really good and I think you're just not going to get as open of a dialogue in this kind of setting with students so I I love the idea um you know we're just going to tweak it a little bit and hopefully be able to set up
043several times throughout the school year that we can different days different times to so that um you know different kids in different activities can maybe at least make it to one of them and chat with us I know that one thing that this would have done um very specifically but I do think this other format would still serve to do it was that you know if you were the student member of aison to the board it would have been a a thing to put on their resume to get into college but I do think that the um just kind of you know coming and engaging with the board uh that is something that they could write up and and talk about on the resumes too so I don't think that they're losing that opportunity at
044all by this kind of different approach um and it sound I was not able to attend the the U interview meetings with the with the students but from what I've heard from both of you um individually it sounded like it was very productive and very interesting and and it was I mean all they do here is kind of sit here and listen and then I mean there's not that many things honestly like tonight's agenda you know I don't know how much they would have to say about it you know yeah and so um but just oneon-one or you know not one-on-one but you know a few of them with a couple of board members and just talking and I think it's going to be productive and interesting much more interesting for them and for us
045so okay okay all right so are we ready shall we do a roll call okay let's do a roll call director Booth hi director Olson hi director pal I and director Waller I all right motion [Music] approved next up we have uh we're going to talk about Library sensitive top topic um protocol and book list and this has been something that has been worked on for a while with our curriculum Review Committee and they put a lot of work and a lot of effort into this and we've tried to make it as fair and reasonable as possible so Mary Heather you guys spent um the most time on this um so I guess before we get started um talking about it let me go ahead and make the motion so I move that the board
046approves the attached Library sensitive topic protocol the attached list of materials to be flagged with sensitive topics and to display the books on the list for public feedback to determine final disposition second all right all right you ladies have the floor I'll let you start off okay um well uh as Rhonda said said the in the curriculum riew one of the things um besides looking in curriculum that we talked about as as that committee was looking at our libraries and looking and seeing what was in the libraries and how to do that and honestly we all um both with curriculum when it was like we're going to look at the curriculum and then we're going to look at all the books we didn't realize how big of a project that was going to be holy
047moly first of all um but we um we really all dug in and on the curriculum and we'll kind of get to the curriculum separately later but on the library um review we um one of the things that I was asked frequently and I think other board members that ran last year for the board excuse me one of the um frequent questions that we were asked was what's in the curriculum and what's in the library and are you going to have things in there that we don't think is a good idea and um I I will have to say semi naively I said of course not we're going we don't have that stuff and we aren't going to you know have certain things in there um then I then I got to realizing how big
048of a task it was to look at the thousands of books that we have and most of them absolutely fabulous books that we have in our libraries um but we we want it to be sure we we wanted to answer that question to the community from a knowledge base and not just a pie in the sky kind of sure everything is great and you know honestly the the um we have come to realize that there are C the issue of curriculum and the issue of libraries is stuff that has not been really uh addressed for a lot of years in in this school district and so it was time and it it has kind of become a passion of mine the whole curriculum and Library thing because um it's just so easy to have things
049drift in in ways that are not anybody's fault um honestly it takes a lot to review a book and to look at it and to see you know what it's about and you you you know you go to library you get a book you read that you know how long it takes you to read a book then you multiply that by about 10,000 and it's difficult and so there's absolutely no um nothing against anybody who has ever ordered books or whatever for our library but it has been a long time since it's been looked at so um kind of the way that we approach this from the curriculum Review Committee several of us um wanted to kind of see what was what was in there and you kind of have to start someplace and you
050kind of need something to direct how you're going to look at it and so we started looking uh online we found some what they call challenged most challenged book lists for the last couple of decades and Co so we started there and so uh we broke it up and and several of us kind of you know looked up in all four of the school libraries looked up to see you know are these in our libraries and some of them were and some of them weren't and so then once if we determined you know that something was in there just because it was on this challenge book list wasn't an automatic okay pull that thing it wasn't like that at all we made some definite due diligence on these books to see um um you know
051what we if we thought it should be um handled differently we also came up with this um idea of a sensitive topic protocol and um that was that is a really important I need to get to my thing where my list is but the there was multiple reasons that something might be um called sensitive topics so the categories are graphic violence sexual content profanity and obscenity ideations of self harm or mental illness drug or excessive alcohol use racial discrimination racial and discrimination and religious viewpoints so those were the categories that we kind of looked at the books that we were seeing through the lens up and some of them actually honestly you know could hit on two or three of those categories but we kind of tried we had to pick one because that's just
052how we did it um so anyway we started looking through and we started uh all of us who were kind of doing this review we were um seeing okay this XYZ book is in Elizabeth High School and it should probably be called sensitive now what that means is um and we have come up with and thank you Marty for setting up the the email situation um what it means is that for all of the books that are identified as one of these sensitive topics in one way or another um if a student goes to check that out it will be flagged and the the first thing is that all parents will receive a notification that their child has checked out one of these books it's just an email and whether the parent chooses to to
053look at it whether they choose to talk to their student about what is this I just like to see it and talk to them about it whatever they decide to do is up to them but they are notified and this is Again part of the whole we have and uh Dan talked about it at our convocation this morning we have talked about parents rights and responsibilities and this is an important responsibility that our parents um are it's their right to know what their child is is checking out they've I think we've had it for some time I believe that um this the parents have had access to their students library account so they've been able to see it all along but this is going to just kind of highlight that possibility and also highlight if
054their student has checked out something that has been um deemed through these reviews to be sensitive in some form or another so um that's the first layer the second layer is that for for parent who chooses to um they can opt out of the just the notification system and they can say no I don't want my child to be able to actually check out those books at all so they will um they will opt into that they will I'm not sure exactly how that notification is going to happen I don't know exactly how that will work but their students account then will be will be not enable to check out a particular book like that now some of those books we know I mean this is not a perfect system I mean there's going to
055be exceptions to rules there's going to be exceptions to things there's going to be no perfect system that's ever going to be able to be created but the point in this is is that if the student um The Librarian will then tell the student you can't you you're not allowed to check this out you can ask your parent if you really need it talk to your parents and ask them to email the librarian and then you will uh if they give us permission then you can take it out so there are going to be times when that's going to be the case if a student is is uh researching something and they need that book for such and such or there's other reasons who knows but if the parent says yes to that individual book
056then that's how that's going to work so we have kind of a protection layer in there you know anything that's on the sensitive list every parent will get a notification parents who really want to totally have their child not be able to check those out they can do that and then but there are ways that the parent can give permission per book title to take out a particular book so we have you know we have a process that I think is a good one and of course you know you got to implement it and see where the bugs are and and then we'll work those out but that is that is the goal the other thing is that um we are really really really asking for parents help these this review is uh of all
057the library books is going to be ongoing in like forever um you know there's going to be new books coming in it's going to be a process of course it starts out and it's very intense and there's a lot happening but as time goes on we are not going to be be able to pick find every book that might be objectionable we're just not and we need um we we are asking parents to through this process of knowing what your kid is is checking out even if it's not on the sensitive list right now um or if they get them email but they have access to their child's account they can talk to their student and just say what what are you reading what's going on you know what what's happening and then encourage their
058child also to bring to them anything that they're kind of like wow this was kind of interesting and we've had that a couple of times we've had a couple of parent situations where a student came to their parent and said I picked this because it was kind of a cool cover and I started reading it and I was a little surprised because it's got some language in there that we don't use at home and and so you know wonderful that the student brought it to their parents attention the parent brought it to our attention and so we have dealt with that you know and so so we really need parents to do that we really need parents to be aware of what their child is is looking at is reading it's and and if there
059is something that a parent believes should be um should be at least made into a sensitive material we have a form we have a form and U it'll be on the website I believe on and you can download this I know it's shocking isn't that we would have a form um we uh it'll be available for them to download and you can fill out this form and submit it to the librarian the librarian will submit it to the curriculum Review Committee which is kind of through Kim and then she will bring it to our attention and then we will see what what we think the disposition of it should be one way or another so that is that is that part um excuse me this list uh this review also uh revealed some books that
060uh the reviewers uh felt were farther into the egregious category than warranted uh being part of our curriculum or part of our library list at all um we have a policy IMB which is called teaching about controversial issues and use of controversial materials and that by extension our library books are part of our curriculum and so the same things that apply in this policy apply to library books and so um we need need to be sure that we are protecting our students from things that are um that are controversial as this this policy said now um you know I read these things I graphic violence I think all of us would go woo you know some things are a little Beyond uh sexual content some of them are kind of Beyond uh profanity obscenity all
061those things this the one that's surprising people is the religious viewpoints one and I actually had a little bit of a hard time wanting to do this one myself but but here's the deal we are trying to be very aware that not all of us in this school district have the same um values um a parent who does not want their child to read the Bible should be notified that their child checked out the Bible a parent who does not want their child to read the Quran should be notified that their child is has checked out the Quran and then they can do what they want with it they can say to their student why why do you want to look into this you know if it's just kind of to research just to kind
062of know you know I'm just trying to figure out what's the difference between these religions great you know let's go ahead and check it out let's talk about it together you know that's the hope that's the ideal right the parents are talking with their kids about these things so that's why we have the religious viewpoints on there too along with these other things so that a parent can be aware and that their values are not being trampled upon that they're not allowed to check out any of those things because we haven't flagged them as sensitive because in some families those things are sensitive in other families they are not but the the parents can then be aware can be made aware they have the right to understand and know and then they can deal with
063it appropriately with their own children so um then but then because of these these books that we have have decided to to pull uh for now uh you will all if you looked at the the documents that were attached to uh that were posted for tonight you will see the do the items that are currently on the sensitive list and there are I think about 138 of them some of them I mean this is this is probably not a final list um because we wanted to present it tonight we wanted people to be aware of it there's also a list of ones that are tempor L pulled from the shelf and those are the ones that are you know a little bit kind of Beyond um Beyond any educational value to our our opinion but
064we are going to have those books um and there's probably going to be some more coming along perhaps next month or or whenever um because like I said this project is huge and it's ongoing but we are going to have those available um after an email comes out this week we're kind of finalizing a couple of things marking pages and things trying to Mark pages on them and we are going to have them out in the front and they're going to be out there for 30 days and so parents of our students are welcome to come in take a look and then there's going to be another form Tada uh where a parent can vote return this book to the library and put it just on the sensitive list or yes remove it from the
065library collection and then why but this form will have to have a name on it and we'll have to tell us what school it's in and where your child attends and all that stuff in the book title so um this isn't just uh come in and you know um say oh you know just put them all back on the Shelf because I don't and this is not I'll just deal with the elephant in the room this is not book Banning this is they are not on our Shelf because we do not feel that they fulfill the educational um protocols that we believe in for this District you are welcome as a family as a parent to get that book from for your child at a public library at a bookstore you can do whatever you
066want we are not Banning it by any means we don't have every single book that a child is ever going to need for every paper they ever have to write in our book in our library we can't and that's just the same with this so um you know we just we really feel excited about this we feel like we are doing this for the protection of our children and we want it to be an experience that is truly educational and there are some things that you know kids need to know about but they don't need to see honestly they don't need to see an ugly story just for the sake of being an ugly story and I will tell you that in my review I could only deal with about 20 books titles at a
067time because it was the most depressing job I've ever done because some of these books were ugly and and and it hurt my heart it really hurt my heart to see some of those things and I was shocked and I would really encourage parents of children in this District to come in and look at the books when they are when you get the email saying they're ready to come in they will be out there for 30 days I would encourage people to come in and look because I want you to be shocked too I think we need to come back to our sense of shock and realize that some things are just not appropriate I told you that's why I didn't talk earlier my hats off to you guys that's a lot of work I
068just have to say Mary Has Been instrumental I've been following her lead and we've been collaborating but we have definitely been collaborating everything you just said I couldn't have said it any better of which is I knew you would say it so eloquently and I do hope that parents will come in and see the books and and I'm hoping it's kind of a twofold thing is that they'll come in and see the books and most of you will be very shocked and hopefully it will get you involved we could use more people to go through books or just be involved and it is these are your kids absolutely you get to decide for them but there is a responsibility that comes with that and the teachers and the staff and the administration and the board
069and the Committees cannot do everything by themselves it's impossible and so again like Mary said it's not going to be perfect we're going to miss books uh or we could do overkill on a book I mean honestly we could and let us know and that's fine but we would love you know I feel like really after 2020 we have had less parent involvement and we just have got to get back and being involved in our students education and helping where we can and we're all busy but you know it's so important you don't want to look back years from now and regret not being involved in your students life and their education and we're only human and we're going to make mistakes but we're trying to do the best we can for our constituents for
070our kids for our teachers and um this this is what we came up with but if you definitely email us call us let us know if you questions concerns ideas we are very open to that and um are willing to work with you guys so yeah but thank you great Mary this is amazing thank you guys thank you and thank you to all of the people that helped out with this all of the people on our curriculum Review Committee this again you were this was a massive project it was and it's ongoing and it won't it won't end no it shouldn't end it's too important right if I can jump in we we met with our Librarians today and and certainly they are they are appreciative of this work and um certainly um we're appreciative
071of knowing kind of where we are on the work um you know in the past Library companies used to just sell we'll sell you a block of books and and that's really where a lot of this has happened and that they would receive you know a box of 200 books and they would catalog them and put them on the shelf and there was very little time to to you know they come back from Summer like they did today the first day our Librarians are back and they'd have a box of books that they process put the barcode on and put them on the shelf and so um certainly um we are working with them to help them kind of be more purposeful in their selection and they're certainly excited about doing so and so um
072they support this process they support this uh um steps that we're going through and and certainly are excited about having this form that um and and they have even pointed out that within the last couple of year parents have brought to them books that they were shocked that were on their shelves and have certainly weeded themselves books that were shocking at the ele even Elementary level of books that had some graphic violence that they had no clue were on their shelves so um certainly I think our libraries are Partners in this and really want to make sure that the books that are on their shelves are are are wise and and and appropriate for their students so um again um um the books that will be on display here our our office here is open
0738 to4 um they'll be in the lobby here and the boardroom is typically open and available so um uh once we send out that email which hopefully will be uh sometime Wednesday we'll send that out to all of our parents listing the books so that if they want to kind of preview here's that book that's available here if they want to do any research on that book before coming they certainly may do so but they'll be available here and we'll certainly we do have book uh chairs in our lobby available if they want to sit there obviously if our boardrooms available they can come in here and spend some time looking at that book and Mary you've marked some of those key pages that that our book looks and that's what I'm still working on
074that's why to put out yeah some of the websites that have identified here's the concerning Pages within those books we appreciate you marking those so um anyways um we will have a box for them to put those pages in so that um the board will be able to review those in 30 days and be able to then make the final determination as to whether those books are added to the sensitive topic list or whether those books are are then given back to Librarians to weed um books are weeded every year we continue to try to keep our collections fresh and so if those books are weeded they would be excluded from our our collection in the future if that's what the decision is is made so again just appreciate the time and effort um that's
075been put into this well I'm excited the library Librarians are excited because it's just like our teachers you know I mean we'll get to the curriculum in a minute but the teachers are excited about you know having definitive curricula now and I think the Librarians are probably excited to have an actual protocol to follow yeah so well it takes the pressure off and it does you know and it puts it on puts it on us yes exactly most importantly it empowers parents yes yes yes there were some of the books I was kind of like you know um I question whether they should be on here maybe they should you know before like the high school like um Anne Frank is that the same you know the Diary of an Frank that I read when
076I was younger or is this a different well you know it's interesting I just started I've never read The Diary of B Frank before I just started literally yesterday and the whole first part of it is this well she kind of wrote a thing and that was kind of a and then there was uh a be that her father sort of edited some because it had a few things that maybe you know he didn't really want the whole world to know about and and then after they knew that definitively the N Frank was dead then um there was a foundation or something and they looked into it and they kind of combined parts and pieces so they're sort of different versions but I'm reading it's got the I think it's the critical the critical Edition
077is the one that I think it supposedly includes all of them and uh I'm not sure really which one that is that we have in the library but um I wanted to read it because honestly I know there's some horrible things that happened to her but you know again it's a historical thing and it is that makes a difference there you know we're the people who did the review all had different opinions on certain things so um I probably wouldn't have pulled that one but some someone else did or not pulled it but um put it on the sensitive list um and we'll you know when we get feedback from parents will see and we also are aware that some teachers may actually have a few of these books as part of their you know
078their um lessons you know whatever that was badly said but you know what I mean and so um we have to consider that and so we want teacher feedback as well we want teachers to say you know this is going to be a little bit problematic because you know that this is on the sensitive list because we study this book and so we'll look at that but uh again this is a first run this is probably not the final sensitive list it's going to grow and it's going to shrink because you know there will be feedback there will be other reviews that happen it is it is it's a an ongoing document so that's all yeah this is great thank you so much all right any further discussion okay all right so we we've got
079a motion we've got a second can I get a roll call director boo I director Olson I director Powell I and director Waller okay motion approved next up we have action item 9.8 curriculum adoption for the calendar year 2425 school calendar okay I move that the board formally adopt the curriculum as outlined in our attached memo as presented second discussion so as we approached the uh summer we realized that our Middle School had very few forly adopted curriculum so our teachers in the Middle School were um really left to to develop their own curriculum and so um we um worked uh feverishly this uh summer to formerly adopt curriculum um our math uh program we adopt did zern math which um we had lots of feedback from parents last year um of concern zern was
080heavily uh uh electronic um last year um so there was a lot of Reliance on electronic we didn't have printed materials I think until late into the year um one of the things we have done is aligned our uh middle school program with our elementary program so we have moved into the I uh classroom math program at middle school and then we have adopted the cka language arts program um at the U middle school now so we are aligned now kindergarten through 8th grade in our language arts program um and we have implemented um core knowledge um social studies now at the middle school as well we all know we also adopted the science uh program Discovery Science um uh Elementary and middle school so now we have full curriculum adopted at the elementary in
081the Middle School grades and so this is formally adopting language arts math and social studies at the middle school grades so we're excited uh to be able to actually have formally adopted curriculum at our Middle School all Middle School content core content um after this evening's motion so so zern is gone now right zern is zern is no longer being used at the middle school wonderful that is good news all right well I'm very excited about this I am too um you know the core knowledge sequence has been around for a very long time and it has been proven to be successful that whole model of building on building the knowledge of the kids throughout and not just saying you know for example this is you know we're going to teach English today we're going
082to teach reading today it's it's kind of of combining everything and you can please correct me if I am so you know you're learning to read while you are learning history or you know it's just it's a it's a great model Ed HS did a great job and there's a lot of successful charter schools that are using this model as well so I'm I'm happy to bring it into our district yes our teachers had formal training um on this curriculum over the last week and a half so um so our teachers have had training they've had the materials and now with kids coming back we'll actually have formal instruction begin with kids this week and I understand that teachers are excited to have have it responsible for building lessons andits on their own yes well
083and I like the fact that they're aligned yes so in a school the first grades and the second everybody is aligned and then that all feeds up into the middle school that's the goal that's what we're working towards very excited all right any further discussion on that one okay can I get a roll call please director v i director Olson hi director Powell I and director Waller hi all right motion approved next up which kind of uh ties into our earlier conversation is action item 9.9 which is is classroom Library Direction I move that the board direct that no classroom libraries of books are to be maintained within the Elizabeth School District and that students are encouraged to keep a book either from the school library or from home in their desks to utilize when
084necessary second so this really if if we maintain classroom libraries we put the burden on teachers to do exactly what the curriculum Review Committee has done which is to look at these lists to to check to make sure that students who are opted out don't access books that are on those lists and so we just felt like instead of doing that let's let the library system work so if students keep a check out books from the library and they maintain those books in their desks they have access to the books that that their parents have chosen if their parents have opted them out they're not going to access books that are sensitive topics and so uh we we don't need our teachers to take on any additional responsibilities and so by uh having teachers not
085maintain classroom libraries it just really takes that off of our teacher shoulders and allows students to access the books that either parents have given them at home that that parents have obviously already uh deemed appropriate for their children or access from the library which will work within the system that we've just uh just described so um this is just formalizing that so we make sure that that that the system works appropriately so one thing I'd like to note on here is that um we're missing at the very end unless it's placed in here somewhere else that books from home are not to be shared with other students it's online but I didn't reprint all right and I know that there has been some concern about that but when you when you think about it you
086might have one parent that is totally fine with content and you have another student whose parent might not be and so to say you know you can't check this out from the library but your friend can bring it into the classroom and share it with you it's that's not a good practice it's just not I mean we don't allow sharing of food and we're not restricting anybody's free speech um we're just saying that you know that if you bring something in that someone else's parent might not agree with you know that's that's yours to read but it's it's not yours to share with the other students whose parents again it's just a protection again it is it is absolutely okay any further discussion no all right okay can I get a roll call director Booth
087hi director Olsson hi director Powell hi and director Waller hi all right motion approved last up boy this one is well that's kind of a let down after all you know I know exciting stuff and then we talk about the well bu yeah sorry well we would rather not talk about we would rather not talk about but we must but we must so we've got action item 9.10 which is The Singing Hills well pump repair I move that the board authorized the superintendent to execute the attached proposal for repair of the well pump and reinstallation of the pump new wiring and piping at Singing Hills Elementary School second it would not be a new school year without talking about the well at Singing Hills oh so after this I believe we will have a brand
088new water system at Singing Hills Elementary so um most of you know that our well at Singing Hills is a geothermal well um we have water that is maintained at 90 degrees in the ground um which actually does put a lot of um strain on the the well pump um we pulled the well pump out of the ground um which had to come out of the ground 2,000 ft um after examining that well pump we had a well we had a new pump to install um as they tested the wire um it was found the wire also so was faulty and so um so we had the new well pump um we found we had to replace the wiring um and also because of the the heat of the water the piping also it was
089determined that we might as well replace the piping because the pipe obviously was also cored so at this point it was determined we could put the old piping down and then we would just be pulling it up in 200 ft of pipe is a lot of pipe to put down in the ground and pull back up in another year or two and replace it so at this point it's determined that we are best to just completely replace the the pump the wiring and the well and the and the piping to just make sure that that well is functional um and like I said we replace the pipe that goes from the well to the building um so at this point we will have a brand new well other than digging a new hole in the
090ground everything else is and let knock wood so that doesn't have to happen um so at this point it's just a unexpected expense but um we are uh functioning we have a sstn in the ground we're using about 750 gallons of water a day we are uh Trucking water in we have a partnership with the town of Elizabeth they are allowing us to uh we're purchasing water from the town of Elizabeth that's being trucked out at Daily um to refill the sstn um we have a lot more than 750 gallons in in the in the syst but we are topping it off every day um obviously when students start coming into the building we'll probably use a little more than 750 but even on our peak days we weren't even even using a third of
091the sstn but just to be safe we are going to top off the sister and every day just to make sure that we have a full uh tank of water each and every day um we anticipate this will be done in two weeks so we anticipate August 26th that the well will be fully functioning again um and that all of this will be complete so it will be just in time for the new board meeting exactly so on the 26th we'll have a well celebration yes will we'll have a party and we will also declare no more tradition I'm looking for saging of that building Ser that we don't have this last year we started off with wasn't it it was a well yeah we had to replace the bike to the building second year
092in a row that tradition is done it is no third times the charm please all right can I get a will call director Booth hi director Olsen I director pal I and director Waller hi all right motion approved thank you okay so our next board meeting is as you just mentioned August 2 6 2024 it's going to be here in the boardroom at 6: p.m. any other new business all right great job all right nice I call this meeting adjourned at Verizon time 7:17 Jason thank you e