001welcome to the red clay Consolidated School board meeting today is September 21st 2022. correct is there first we will begin with our motions today [Music] this is home update was there a zoom update today okay we'll try to keep it okay all right we're having a little bit of technical difficulty with getting online to see the actual agenda going through so I'm going off paper paper version so excuse me if we missed something but first I just need a motion to accept to approve the agenda as submitted so moved second any discussion second just probably move the second to approve the agenda all in favor all right opposed motion carries next we'll have students staff and Community recognitions we'll begin with special recognitions with Miss Green for me like one okay okay it's a pleasure
002to be here tonight to recognize several reg play honorees as part of our monthly recognitions in red clay we have a proud tradition of devoting the beginning of our school board meetings to publicly recognize those who have gone above and beyond to achieve greatness in red clay schools first up tonight red clay is proud to recognize William F Cook Junior Elementary School for earning the national Banner School status as part of the Special Olympics unified Champion schools program cook is the only School in Delaware to earn the national title this year as a national Banner unified Champion School cook has demonstrated a commitment to inclusion by meeting 10 standards of excellence that were developed by a national panel of leaders from Special Olympics and the education community the primary activities within these standards include Special
003Olympics Unified sports where students with and without disabilities train and compete as teammates inclusive youth leadership and whole school engagement with fun activities like bocce ball and school-wide initiatives like spread the word to end the word cook is a model for how to build a sense of collaboration engagement and respect for all cook is the second red clay school to earn the national title with Thomas McCain High School receiving the recognition in the 2018-19 school year cook previously earns the state Banner School status in 2019-20. here to tell us a little more about the significance of this national award is John Busby senior director of the unified Champion schools program thank you very much you know it's amazing when you think about what they've done at Cook Elementary over the past several years under the
004direction of Miss Heather Kennedy and of course the administration having complete support of the programming that goes on there and several teachers and other faculty members I'd get to go to the school a few times a year covid created that because they had to do their own events there and I would often go and there'd be seven or eight teachers involved in it I know I stopped by one time and Miss Kennedy was inside doing the part of work that had to be done inside and there were other teachers outside so it truly is a team effort there at Cook Elementary there were 122 schools that were given this honor this year and that sounds like a big number and it is a big number but when you think of the hundreds of thousands of
005schools that are eligible every preschool every elementary school every middle school every High School in the country is eligible for this award and more than 500 people applied and it's a very vigorous application process that has gotten more difficult as the years have gone on this award I believe on a national level is five years old now and when it first started basically you had to check off some boxes and get the support of the person in the state office which has been made this is the first time that we have had a school apply under the new process where there is a completely objective committee from made up of educational professionals from around the country who look at the application they do get our support and that's one of the things they ask for
006first and of course we give it but after that it is completely up to the body of work that is displayed through the application process and it's not a simple application process and Miss Kennedy should be uh recognized for going through that process with the help I'm sure of many of her colleagues what every school in the country does with the Unified sports program and the other inclusion activities that go on is typically done completely on a volunteer basis by the teachers and it takes time it takes time before school after school on the weekends during prep times often during lunch time and so it is something that is just overwhelming to us at the special Olympic staff when a school goes above and beyond what they have to do day in and day out
007and we all know that a teaching job is not easy and then when you you add something onto it that is completely voluntary and do it at the level that Cook Elementary has done it for several years they are certainly worthy of this recognition and we couldn't be happier and prouder of Cook Elementary and personally I couldn't be happier Miss Kennedy's first role with Special Olympics was as a 16 year old lifeguard at our summer camp and I won't say how many years ago that was but I'm several years older than her so I know it was a lot older many years ago and so she has taken her passion from that day and probably something that she had innate in her before that and turned it into life-changing opportunities the students are very very
008proud of what they do at Cook Elementary both the athletes and the unified partners and they're very fortunate to have that opportunity because not every child does and not every family gets to have the opportunity for their child to experience true inclusion so Heather and all the folks at Cook Elementary congratulations and thank you for recognizing them here tonight we have many of the cook Cardinals here tonight we'll get a group photo and certificates of recognition and the banner thank you [Music] a stage [Music] thank you okay thank you so much foreign because so next up we're pleased to record or to share that Delaware Military Academy has won national recognition another National winner for excellence in the implementation and administration of outstanding High School athletic programs the national interscholastic athletic administrators Association awarded dma
009a quality program award at the exemplary level to be recognized and as as an exemplary High School athletic program the school's athletic director Jeremy Jean must have successfully presented evidence of meeting criteria within 10 quality program assessment categories including philosophy educational compatibility mentoring safety and risk management tonight we're excited to have with us to represent the dma Seahawks commandant Anthony pilella an athletic director Jeremy Jean please join me in giving them a round of applause foreign congratulations Seahawks okay next step last week the U.S Department of Education recognized 297 schools as National Blue Ribbon Schools for this year including redplay's own Linden Hill Elementary School and Cab Calloway School of the Arts the recognition is based on a school's overall academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups as U.S Secretary of
010Education Miguel Cardona stated in his announcement of the winners this year's cohort of honorees demonstrates what is possible when committed Educators and school leaders create vibrant welcoming and affirming School cultures where rich teaching and learning can flourish this prestigious designation is one of the highest honors a school can earn in the United States as the National Blue Ribbon Schools program honors public and private elementary middle and high schools where students achieve very high learning standards and schools where students are making notable Improvement in closing the achievement Gap this coveted award affirms the hard work of Educators families and communities in creating safe and welcoming schools where students Master challenging and engaging content tonight we're joined by both schools so first let's recognize the Linden Hill Lions including principal Brady the Linden Hill PTA Linden Hill
011staff and students and families who are instrumental in helping the school to earn the National Blue Ribbon title come on down for a photo Linden Hill lions congratulations yeah um thank you anymore wait wait wait here and I'll be yep yeah please excuse me ready looking right here big smiles big smiles on the hill nice nice stay for one more please y'all look amazing I'm a great let's do it one more time let's do it one more time thank you all way to go Linden Hill Ary [Laughter] okay and finally we'll recognize our Second National Blue Ribbon School Cab Calloway School of the Arts team including Dean Anthony gray Bolden several members of The Cab Calloway staff and students who helped make this achievement possible come on down Cab Calloway foreign thank you one more
012thank you very much congratulations Way To Go tab that concludes our recognitions tonight so congratulations to all of our schools what an awesome night board members do you have anything you'd like to say about our congratulations yeah awesome job okay at this time we'll have public comment the red clay School Board appreciates any member of the community who would like to make a public comment according to board policy 2006 the red clay School Board allocates 30 minutes to public commentary each person may have up to three minutes to address the board and this time may not be transferred to or from another speaker the board generally does not respond directly to a speaker the board meeting is not an appropriate Forum to raise complaints or concerns about individual employees upon request the superintendent shall provide
013the speaker with the procedure for submitting such complaints or concerns the order of the speakers will be listed on the screen as you see your name please make your way to a seat near the podium or if you are virtual unmute when called upon to respect the time of anyone present tonight when you speak please state your name and organization if you are speaking on this behalf and the topic of your comment there's a timer on the screen that will turn on when you have one minute left it will turn yellow with 30 seconds left and Flash and red when your three minutes are over I will thank you for your comments and call on the next speaker before we begin if we could turn off the speakers here because there's an echo up here
014you don't need to hear that we also have uh one person I think it's Amy Solomon That was supposed to be in person and will be going soon let me have it up first person up Jim Casper welcome Mr Casper good evening my name is Jim Casper uh my comments are just about last month's meeting at the last meeting you all voted to create a curriculum and student achievement committee without what Miss Thompson called a charge statement congratulations we now have a new committee where we the public and it seems like some board members have no idea what they will do what information this committee will be looking at or who will make up this committee only in a bureaucracy such as the public education system can this be deemed acceptable I noticed in the
015agenda for tonight there will be an update for Mr Leonard I look forward to that very much I also noticed last meeting Mr Leonard during the discussion before that committee you voiced quite passionately your desire and willingness to help increase student achievement why then did you later vote no to accept the submission of Charter School applications we had the vast majority of public commenters that day talk about the necessity and desire for their children and the community to have a new charter school in order to achieve their desired goals yet you voted no I was informed by your own words that you were deeply concerned with student achievement was your issue that this item was in the wrong section of the agenda or was there some other reason the world may never know if you
016have an issue with the technical aspects of an agenda take it up with your president don't take it out on the students of this District thank you next we have Patricia Dallas welcome Miss Dallas evening red clay board members and superintendent green I am Trisha Dallas a preschool teacher and instructional coach with the early years program here and I'm here tonight to give you a little eyp update and also to make a request first the update we are really loving our new outdoor space at Warner and appreciate the work that went into getting it completed we set it up each day as an outdoor classroom and it's a joy to see kids engaging and learning in Social play outside so thanks to everyone involved in this new space it is appreciated and will be well
017used on to the request I'm here to ask you to consider a resolution that would show your support for a legislative bill that would increase funding for preschoolers two to five years old with basic special education needs previously Senate bill one or house bill 100. this bill will create a ratio of one adult to every seven children for two-year-olds with basic needs and would decrease the ratio for three to five year olds from 12.8 to 8.4 it's interesting to note that basic funding for elementary is already 8.4 our preschoolers are younger they're more dependent on adults and they have a higher ratio than their Elementary peers the 12.8 ratio is also higher than the ratio used for preschoolers attending programs in the community and ratios recommended by the National Association for the education of young
018children and as of today 47 percent of the children served by eyt eyp fall under that basic funding formula the current basic ratio it really just doesn't make sense research tells us that the brain grows to 90 percent of adults size by age five and that the quality of the first five years helps shape the way their brains develop it's in these early years that the foundation for skills that are vital to Life begin to develop these capacities are nurtured in the moment-to-moment interactions with caring adults that occur throughout the day lower adult child ratios means more individual and small group interactions that build those critical skills I'm one of many Early Child Advocates from around the state who are asking their school boards to adopt this resolution by passing it next month you would
019be sending a message to legislators that early childhood special education is worth funding that our community is invested in the healthy development of our children and committed to providing quality programming for our youngest students this will be the third year early childhood Advocates have worked to lower the basic funding formula with support from school boards across the state joining voices from the community I'm hopeful that this will be the year it's funded I appreciate your consideration of this resolution thank you and I wish you well thank you next we have Yvonne Johnson welcome good evening first I want to take a moment to congratulate Jill Flory I want to just say that I will miss her I know you will what a loss for red clay again for Brandywine Jill is a rock star and
020I've worked with her for a very long time and I will miss her thank you Jill um then I'd like to talk about the Wilmington learning collaborative I know you're not voting on it tonight and you know that I support it I am asking you to support it no plan is perfect it's an mou you can't write a plan unless you have an mou I strongly strongly implore you to vote for the mou so you can get busy planning move us forward the children in the city deserve it it's a collaboration a collaboration of City parents City community members everyone in the city working together with our district and hopefully the two other districts Brandywine and Christina so I'm asking you to please vote in favor of that next month let's move in a positive
021direction and the last thing I want to talk about is AI High School so I'm I'm very devastated by what what is happening to that school so I can remember many many many many years ago at this board meeting Mr Martin I know you kept Martin Wilson I know you have to remember because parents lined up hundreds of them to beg you to keep choice bus stops because they wanted a to be able to get their kids to AI then somehow they went away and all we've seen is this entire school go from 350 kids in a band to 20 kids in a band a a championship football team now they don't even have varsity football I could go on and on but you've already heard it because I know you're hearing from the community
022what I'm gonna say is your responsibility to do something to support the principal the staff and the students at AI High School let's do something it is long overdue Mr Leonard has put forth something I can remember many many many things that we have done over the years to help we helped Conrad with their um their uh mascot why can't we help A.I get back the students that they need let's work together not against each other but together to help build back AI high school thank you thank you we're just having a little bit of trouble up here as to Echo we can't hear as well foreign next we have Dawn Alexander welcome good evening I'm grateful to the board and to superintendent green for the opportunity to speak this evening my name is Dawn
023Alexander I'm a red clay and city of Wilmington resident and I've been an early childhood special educator in Delaware for over 25 years presently I serve as the chair of the Delaware State education association's Early Childhood task force and our number one priority is passing legislation in 2023 that increases preschool special education funding and decreases Pre-K teacher to child ratios our basic special education ratios in preschool are 12.8 children to one teacher and this doesn't include the children without disabilities and because K-12 legislation passed last year the K-12 basic special education ratio is 8.4 children to one teacher it is illogical to have higher child to teacher ratios for younger children this Antiquated Pre-K special education system does not meet child care licensing or Delaware stars teacher to child ratios so our special education ratios
024for preschool are higher than Delaware stores pardon me and office of child care licensing and this must change therefore I urge you to support the Pre-K special education funding resolution with which you have been presented and which is on the agenda this evening I have to also share that Laurel Laurel School Board is discussing this resolution this evening and other school boards will have it on their agenda next month so it would be fantastic for red clay to take care of this very soon I'm grateful for this time and I wish you all well thank you thank you next we have nayadet Cruz welcome good evening I'm Nia Cruz president of the rec play secretaries Association this evening I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of rcsa So currently
025there are seven vacancies spread across red play schools and offices so that is seven administrators staff and students who are without administrative Clerical customer service and in some instances language support earlier this month I had the opportunity to sit with superintendent green and human resource administrators it was acknowledged that red clay does not have a pool of qualified candidates our Union has already reevaluated our job descriptions our minimal skill sets and qualifications within the last three years and one thing that District administrators and red clay secretaries Association has acknowledged is that compensation is one of the factors and is of not only recruiting qualified candidates but also in the retention of our current secretaries and Clerks so our CSA will continue to do our part in onboarding mentoring and developing the high-level skilled professional secretaries
026that have supported the largest school district in Delaware but I must ask how much can we count on your support to do the same right now we're in the last week of the unit count we're doing our hardest but we do need more secretaries we do need more qualified secretaries and we do need more support in getting better qualified secretaries thank you so much for your time to our secretaries on Zoom keep up the good work during the unit count thank you so much for all of your help thank you next we have Amy Solomon on Zoom can you hear me yes wonderful thank you um thank you for this opportunity uh to speak my name is Amy Solomon Gallagher and the topics that I'd like to to highlight are a request for the board
027workshops which one has been held I believe on September the 7th but the ongoing board workshops to be recorded in the future I'd like to highlight my support for the Wilmington learning collaborative and I'd also like to bring up the topic uh which is a question opportunities for funding specific pilot projects this year for data and research collection purposes and pilot projects like this I believe can give collaborations like the Wilmington learning collaborative um some Vital Information to go on uh and their planning phase next year if that does indeed pass in the three districts so going back to the first topic my request for board workshops to be recorded um kind of ties into the fact that I'm on Zoom this evening and and not there in person uh family Logistics come up we
028we plan to attend these important informational opportunities um but if if life happens and you have to change for that one of the things that we you know learned during covid is that there is equity in um digital access and so if the board is doing a lot of its vital work at these workshops that being recorded so people who who can't attend on the day to to access at a later time or even I don't know if if the workshops are accessible you know by zoom in real time but um you know and either one of those I think would be of benefit to the public and I'm officially requesting that even though practice might have been different in the past that that week moving forward we can do that or have that discussion
029uh with the Wilmington learning collaborative I'm definitely in support of that I hope that red clay will pass it along with the other districts um but now that you have this kind of extra month um to to think about it I hope that you will uh continue to discuss that and then um the last thing is probably the most detailed and should be done offline but I think we do have funding now and I would love to ask superintendent green and the board for the opportunities for a specific pilot projects uh to collect data do research on information that the doe is is not really collected thank you next we have Kim drabold on zoo can you hear me yes okay hi everybody um I am wanted to speak today um I am the AI
030High School band booster president but I'm also a concerned parent um and I wanted to talk a lot about the concern that's going on at AI High School um for one um the ACA college program is going away my daughter's a sophomore and her class is the last to be going through the program which I feel is significantly detrimental to AI um along with of course somebody already said at the band uh went from a large band to you know we're less than 30 kids at this point um and you know we've only been there as a second year now and you know this the spirit is is pretty much non-existent at this point and you know just hearing about charter schools and all those things a lot of folks that's where they're going and
031and it really feels that the school board is really not interested in the public schools today um you know just listening in the beginning of this call and celebrating all those schools which you know very good for them that they've worked hard and they deserve those accolades which I'm very proud of them but you know it feels like the board you all are not interested in the public schools today um and you know just looking at AI they went from 1500 kids a couple of years ago and now we're less than 700. and you know that is not a good a good look at this point um you know we've lost the football team from a varsity perspective um there's no cheer team there is a lack of communication across when things are happening we're
032being elastic be told I mean we really feel that we need a lot of support from the board to help us um and that's you know not just for AI but as public schools as a whole you all need to get up and help us so we can have these moving forward and and get some support going across thank you thank you next we have Donna Urban welcome good evening on September 12th we were thrilled to announce that Miss Sun boy was our new administrator and our director of faculty and Student Life at the charter school of Wilmington she has been our special service coordinator at csw the past seven years and is a moderator for the Odyssey the Mind Asian Student Union ping pong club and the travel Club Miss boy is a passionate
033and Innovative educator who deeply understands the importance of student and staff well-being her leadership qualities exemplify a level of intellectual curiosity humility and compassion that is refreshing and parallels the mission of csw this boy has a master's in education from Johns Hopkins University and is currently a student in the Delaware Academy for school leaderships principal preparation program at the Uday in October we are releasing our new strategic plan our board of directors established a csw Innovation fund with a seed investment of fifty thousand dollars this opportunity allows individuals as well as groups of faculty and students to propose their innovative ideas for funding consideration our design team opened the application on September 2nd so staff can pitch Furniture projects that will enhance student learning in the classroom that align with the school's Mission Vision and
034educational objectives this year we have 104 student clubs and Academic Teams that meet daily during activity period and after school we have traditional collabs like the Aerospace Club youth in government and various student unions the peer tutoring program supports all students with homework help test Health Project Help essay proofreading and study skills and the equal Alliance Club promotes sustainable Technologies and Lifestyles by spreading awareness and encouraging others to engage in sustainable practices and of course our students know how to have fun you can join the speedcubing club whose mission is to educate and inspire people with an interest in twisty puzzles and also the icebreaking club that provides a relaxed environment for peers to meet each other through fun activities along with our student representative to the board Alyssa katrona we look forward to updating
035you monthly about what is going on behind the scenes a charter thank you thank you next we have Mr Steven back and thought welcome good evening board my name is Stephen fackenthal General music teacher at Ritchie Elementary and president of the red clay Education Association I'm here to speak on two items this evening covet sick time and the resolution to support preschool basic funding legislation just this morning our parent organization the Delaware State Education Association sent a letter signed by myself and 24 other local presidents throughout the state to the Secretary of Education Dr halavik Who is in this room so I know he spent so much time reading that letter this morning urging him to reinstate the 10 covet days for educate for educators at the moment we need to quarantine for five days
036for a positive test that's half the sick time of our year one Educators not to mention the countless folks with limited days simply because of this crazy thing we call life while I am hopeful the secretary will heed and allow this this insurance we will need to come up with a backup plan I know everyone here recognizes this I received countless emails simply stating without the time folks may not test and it'll turn into a don't ask don't tell mindset again if the secretary refuses this request I'm hopeful we can come up with a creative solution for the betterment of our Educators students and schools lastly I appreciate uh the resolution to support preschool basic funding legislation being listed under informational items this evening I think we know the research and how critical these early
037years are from our very own Dr Trisha Dallas it is these early years that the foundation for skills that are vital to success in life self-regulation attention curiosity empathy motivation self-concept communication persistence Cooperative work and problem solving begin to develop for the children of red clay and the Early Childhood Educators who give them their first billing blocks I'm hopeful this board will support this resolution I appreciate your time thank you next we have Madeline Maddox welcome hello I'm Madeline Maddox you may also know me as Brian or Kathy maddox's youngest daughter I go to Cook Elementary and fifth grade I'm here for the Special Olympics for cook but I also wanted to shout out my principal Mrs Jacobs Mrs Jacobs had to start this year without an assistant principal and she's been doing a great
038job she's working really hard and so is all of the cook step I think we're all definitely ready for our new assistant principal especially especially Mrs Jacobs thank you thank you well done next we have Mike Michael Matthews on zoo welcome good evening board and um superintendent green my name is Mike Matthews I'm a teacher at the Cab Calloway School of the Arts and actually presenting a comment tonight on behalf of our red clay Education Association membership chair Jen dalby so um this is what Jen has to say she was on mom duty tonight so here we go good evening as I have spoken about before I again implore you bored to really dig into the class sizes across our district now is the perfect time to take a look at every school and to
039make inquiries as to what the plan is to get our class sizes down small class sizes are extremely important for every grade for many reasons including Behavior social emotional well-being building relationships and academics at last check all six first grade classrooms at shortlidge Academy have 24 or more students at baltz elementary all three fourth grade classrooms currently have 27 students imagine being responsible for teaching 24 25 or 26 students who started their academic career during covet imagine teaching them how to read and add while also trying to find space on a classroom rug for all of them we're trying to make space for six student tables a small group table a recharge area and rug space don't forget the IEPs 504s speech occupational therapy counseling and physical therapy schedules that you have to work around
040with that many students while planning imagine trying to support 27 growing fourth graders that are coming into their pre-teen years in a room of a building that was built over 70 years ago when 27 student desks calm down Corners recharge stations classroom libraries and small group tables weren't even thought of don't forget that for both of these grades and every other the teachers are still constantly teaching the students how to share their space with others both physically and emotionally the effect on the teachers in this situation would be an entire hire other public comment I am sure if you looked through the data from the exit interviews from the last few years I hope we're doing those exit interviews you would see large class sizes one of the reasons teachers are leaving please look into
041this at every school at every level do not wait to see what Band-Aids are applied in November when the class size waiver comes up let me repeat don't wait until November when the class size waiver comes up or doesn't come up because we know the state gives school districts calculators on how not to apply for the waiver this is so much bigger than that thank you we need action now on class sizes thank you and have a great meeting thank you next we have is it Regan or Reagan Reagan Hidalgo welcome good evening superintendent green president knee Smith and all of the board members my name is Reagan Hidalgo and I'm going to be speaking on behalf of AI today AI High School um I am a 2015 graduate of Lexus I Dupont High School
042where I now teach math along with a dozen other proud alumni I am also the athletic director and it is under the capacity of athletic director that I'm speaking to you tonight uh undoubtedly you've all heard of the start of our fall season um not going the way that we had hoped with our Varsity season for football being unable to sustain the numbers uh that were needed to be able to safely compete in a varsity schedule there were days in preseason where we had single digit numbers show up which brought up the conversation between coaches and administrative staff to make the tough decision to forego our Varsity season and go with a strictly JV schedule um although uh fall Sports is not just about uh football our cross-country team is Fielding a full roster our
043uh soccer team is Fielding a full roster we have just got our field hockey team uh up to um the numbers that we needed to also be able to compete with a varsity schedule our volleyball team not only has a varsity but they also have a JV team that they've put together as well um and on behalf of these seniors and their families from our football team I wanted to thank superintendent green and Mr Pruitt for their Speedy work in getting these uh seniors temporary waivers to go finish their senior Varsity Seasons at McCain where I believe they just uh strengthen the record to be 2-0 um foreign to speak upon uh something with the band that has come up a couple of uh times tonight as well uh the students in the band have
044been working one-on-one with our director Rich Weaver um to figure out ways where they can still perform and still play throughout the fall season um they are going to play at our JV football games they are going to play at our soccer games and they're going to play at our volleyball games um along with the cheerleaders as well too our head coach Marcus Heyman and our school has adopted the slogan uh the future Starts Here we are confident that our coaching staff can work with the group that we have had that has been continually growing coming out with our football program we're close to 30 kids now a lot of them being freshmen at this point next year we hope to be able to compete at the varsity level um and we are also hoping
045to be reclassified to a more appropriate 1A division uh when we get there um Athletics at AI has always been and will continue to be a core Cornerstone of our school Community um we stand by that uh and just to kind of wrap things up in the building we're off to a fantastic start despite all the setbacks the vibe around the school has still been extremely high and extremely positive and you cannot hide that tiger thank you next we have our approval of minutes is there a motion to approve the minutes from the executive session on August 17 2022. so move Dr Brown is there a second second Jose Matthews has properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes from executive session on August 17th any discussion all in favor aye opposed motion carries is
046there a motion to approve the minutes from the regular session on August 17 2022. don't move Dr bone is there a second Jose Matthews second and he it has been properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes from the regular session on August 17 2022 is there any discussion all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries is there a motion to approve the minutes from the board workshop on September 7th 2022. so move Dr bone is there a second second mclennor any discussion I have a couple things just to share with the public um and it was mentioned today that we did not have it recorded so I just wanted to highlight what we talked about at the board Workshop uh we came together to discuss uh several items uh being priorities of the board
047meeting norms and protocols uh various items submitted by the board handbook revisions we didn't get to that we'll get that at another time and the agenda setting process and we had an activity where we talked about the board priorities Mr Green has already shared with us at a prior board planning meeting that we to focus on strategic planning alignment of District resources School accountability and a referendum and so as a district those are some of the priorities but we also had several priorities that we all wrote down at least six each and we tried to bring them together to see where where we're coming along on consensus and having the same ideas as board and so some of those were and this is not anything adopted but I'm just sharing those things that kind of
048came to come together uh student achievement and academic growth school funding referendum Comprehensive High School programs and hearing a lot about high schools and what we can do to strengthen our high schools in particular some of them and educator compensation was something that we came came across teacher voice elevating teacher voice and professional development and having a consistent governance training for school board members and what threaded through all of that is to have a policy review around using an equity lens to increase equity and reduce bias and that was something that there was a lot of consensus around and then further we are you know hopeful for contract negotiations and and want to move our our district forward and having our our employees feel valued so that's my comment any other comments all in favor
049Google in minutes I suppose motion carries next we have action items so the first action item is the financial position report um so there's a recommendation that the regulate Board of Education approve the financial position report as submitted is there a motion to approve the recommendation is there a second second Mr Wilson it's been properly moved executive to approve the recommendation is there any discussion on the financial report get it in while she's still here so so as you may know that our simple Joe fluray is moving on we did I just like to say in the short time that I've been here um that I really appreciate the hard work that she has done to help our district um we're definitely going to miss her but we also want want the best for her
050as she goes in her new Endeavor so thank you for that report and your diligence with with your Finance areas are there any other discussion items on that okay all those Maria can you please call the vote Dr Bowman yes Mr Casper yes Mr Leonard yes [Music] Mr Matthews yes Mr Wilson yes Miss knee Smith yes unanimous motion carries second action item is an administrative assignment um and thank you to Ms Maddox a little Miss Maddox for coming up during a public comment um it is a recommendation that the regulate Board of Education approved Alexis Gerhart as the assistant principal of Cook Elementary start date is to be determined salary is commiserate with the approved administrative salary schedule is there a motion to Dr ball is there a second second Jose Matthews just properly moved
051and seconded to approve the recommendation to improve Alexis gearheart is assistive principal of Cook Elementary any discussion I just want to say thank you welcome to to red clay and we we wish you the best and we're excited for what you're going to do congratulations uh yeah what we already wanted to say all a favor aye aye opposed motion carries thank you good afternoon and the last action item is a donation it is the recommendation that the red clay Board of Education approved the donation in the amount of three thousand dollars from adopt a classroom.org this is courtesy of Delaware Subaru to boss Elementary School for teacher supplies as submitted is there a motion so moved is there a second second any discussion thank you that's amazing yes thank you so much for supporting our
052schools we really appreciate the donations any other comments no we just want to thank Subaru this is the second time in two years I believe that they've given a contribution um to red clay school so thank you to their Outreach Specialists um for supporting red clay and in this particular case boss Elementary yep all the favor hi motion carries next we have action consent items is there does anything need to be removed from the consent agenda is there a motion okay is there a motion to approve the consent agenda I do have one comment um on the uh their motion to approve first I'm sorry so moved is there a second there's no second okay so then is there something to be removed from the agenda there's no second we can't second okay discussion yes
053I have one comment uh in the 60 resignations we've had the past two months uh did we uh do exit interviews on those uh 60 resignations so I would generally say again HR does their due diligence to hold exit interviews with staff but I would say on a consent agenda that might be a little misleading you know we have folks who have accepted positions and then turned resigned from those positions to take positions in other districts um there have been multiple shifts throughout I would say all of our districts just in terms of a lot of movement um so I would just caution us to just look at that you know that raw number without really having context as to what that ultimately means um for the various vacancies and a lot of the shifts
054and movements that we've seen across districts I guess the question is do we do excellent interviews and I they do send out a exit survey for our for those employees who are willing to provide feedback as to why they're leaving the district so they do get that from HR and this board would have access to those is that correct the point of order is my mistake so this is a consistent agenda so we have discussion on it so if there's something that you wanted to pull from the consent we need to we need to roll it back so is there the motion was is there a motion to accept is to approve the consent items there was it was approved it was a move but it was seconded there was no discussion so is there
055something that you want to pull discuss about which it seems like the Personnel reports you want to do these separately are you pulling these from these agenda that's the question the question we can just simply follow up with okay we just follow up follow-up okay so is the movement is seconded to approve the consent items as as on the report all uh Maria can you please call the vote sorry Miss Stevens can you please call the vote Dr bone yes Mr Casper yes Mr Leonard yes Mr Matthews yes Mr Wilson yes Miss knee Smith yes unanimous motion carries thank you sorry about that next we have the superintendent's report thank you madam president um board members guess we're going to let the cook Cardinals kind of exit out Mr Hart welcome aboard looking forward to
056your start date thank you again congratulations to all of our recipients this evening uh Delaware Military Academy Cook Elementary Linden Hill and and cab both for their their National recognitions and then more importantly for the good work that they're going across the state relative to Special Olympics and Unified sports but before I begin my official report we do have our student representative to the board Commander McNamara sitting next to me from the Delaware Military Academy who's here to give an update as to what's going on at dma good evening everyone my name is John McNamara and I'm representing Delaware Military Academy um at our last board meeting for the student Representatives we introduced ourselves um and then Miss Johnson uh talked about the importance of voting and our roles in stressing the importance of voting
057to the students in our school um and then we had a recap of the summer board meetings from the student Representatives that had attended those and we concluded our meeting with signing up for following meetings so dma is going into its 20th year which is a huge milestone for our school and as such we have started a Hall of Fame which there are four categories which people can receive Athletics academics military and Seahawks Legacy um the 2022 inductees will be inducted October 7th and we're all looking forward to this event um we just had the successful completion of our 9 11 ceremony which was really having student leadership it was completely student planned from the script to the practices and then to the ceremony itself and that was a huge success um as previously mentioned
058tonight we did receive the niaa quality program award and we're the first in the state of Delaware to receive this award so it's a really huge accomplishment um we just had the biggest Cadet turned out at a unit service event and we really hope this trend continues we had over 70 Kids come out and help so we're really excited for this year um we're currently planning our vet breakfast and Veterans ceremony breakfast which is a really big ceremony at our school as we are in military school and we do like to support our veterans um finally we all just had sexual harassment suicide and bullying prevention of um discussion we all had to do mandatory assignments to stress the awareness and understanding of these very serious issues that concludes your report Commander yes sir and
059again we want to just thank Commander McNamara and also all the cadets um who are you know it's a red clay Charter I know we have some debate around the nature of um our enrollment programs within our high schools but it is something that I think as a district we can continue to support and be proud of I do want to acknowledge the 9 11 ceremony um it was the 21st year again since 9 11 and the fact that Senator Coons was the keynote speaker at that ceremony in his own for opportunity again the Showcase red clay um many of the students obviously don't have any recognition about those terrible events but again it's it's fitting that um our schools are recognized and again um under the leadership of Commander McNamara um and the other
060Cadets there that they're doing a good job so thank you for your report thank you sir and welcome so um I will take the lead now and just again thank you to everyone for a a wonderful start to the 2022-2023 school year um albeit we're not um without our challenges as it relates to staffing issues various things but we're in a far better position than most being the largest school district in the state by far having the most complex needs throughout the state and so I want to thank our HR department under the leadership of Mr Lauren Fleck and Dr Dorsey for their efforts because again it's it's not an easy process again when we talk about you know the hiring of the various employee groups across the district but what they've been able to
061do in terms of turning around requisitions setting up interviews supporting our buildings as it relates to their needs not only with your Staffing but additional supports around training various mous and things working through the contract ensure that we're doing our due diligence to support our schools thank you to everyone again across the district for your continued support I know back to school nights and certain events are starting to happen at our individual schools um but we we've had a different pulse Vibe and feeling um throughout our schools throughout red clay so thank you to our building Administration our custodial staff School nutrition Child Nutrition workers Transportation departments who are doing their due diligence to really maintain and get everyone back to that simple semblance of um The New Normal because again I know we know
062we can never go back to what 2019 was but the fact that again our secretary of Staff School nurses you name it everyone is rolling up their sleeves to support our children and for our families across the district and you can actually feel it in our buildings so again thank you to everyone for for a wonderful back to school we had Governor Carney as you can Recall come to Northstar to sign several key pieces of legislation back on the first day again we have schools getting National recognition and nothing was more fitting than the show of support on our September 10th back to school block party so just have a quick video that we would like to share with the community really is an amazing place [Music] because they're very lonely here that if you
063need something then they're right here amen the principles are very nice boy they'll be um people they're very nice of you if you now know where you are going to have a negative teacher that guy's a great place uh um it's a great place to learn and um they they have great after school preparing those for each student until they feel free to do what they feel interested in and they have opportunities for everyone otherwise regularly amazing places we were able to see today at the regular block party the Fallon the community members students families staff Community Department barriers come together to celebrate who we are directly not only our community your veterinated school leaving but more important to a community partner with many together to not only represent individual schools but the recreational school
064district of the world so as we hope all of the family community members Partners the schools alike enjoy the block party enjoy this opportunity to get showcase Bob Radcliffe is foreign obviously all of our Schools administration support staff again our community as a whole who came together to to make our first annual block party and for those who were familiar in the past we used to have the the resource Fair um which was housed at Dickerson the John Dickinson School and we would bring Partners in right I guess in November time frame into the the gym and they would kind of share information with with families and and one of the things that I had realized early on coming on board is as a parent too by November you kind of hit your groove right
065and and so really kind of connecting with resources and connecting with programs oftentimes is a challenge and so I gave uh Miss April Anderson and Mr Michael Simmons just the vision of you know we need to have a black back to school block party and they they took that vision and they ran with it um and and that was just a small window into what that day actually meant on Saturday September 10th we hosted it at Stanton middle um off of Limestone Road there was a lot of again foot traffic car traffic uh to the point where I let Dr heacock know because she was concerned about the parking that's a good problem to have if you don't have enough parking that's that's a problem that we can we can address and deal with and
066I want to thank uh board member Mr Matthews and Miss knee Smith for coming out I see we have representative from the 19th District where we hosted it uh representative Kim Williams also uh was present and again thousands of of red clay community members participated in that and so we're looking for bigger and better things to come at the second annual red clay block party as indicated fall sports are underway um again we're Fielding teams uh throughout the district everything from football um girls volleyball unified flag football which is that McCain will start and in October field hockey boys soccer um and so a lot of our programs are off to a great start um as indicated you know we had the opportunity for the the senior student athletes who play football to participate um
067at McCain and that's just a testament as to the community coming together to support our students across the board we know Conrad and McCain had a competition a football game um this past Saturday uh where Conrad had a lot of community support I want to thank Mr Tony Glenn who is an alumni of Conrad star supporter of Conrad but in particular Pat Williamson the A.D chair Coach Heather Blake Chad Walters the head football coach and the booster president uh Chris Christie cesare for for their efforts in really supporting again not just Conrad but it was a community event that was engaged both McCain as well as Conrad unfortunately Conrad came out on the losing end but again another good showcase to see our student of all student athletes benefit from the the co-curricular extracurricular activities
068um the McCain is currently 3-0 so we're looking for them to do some big things in the 2A Division and again thank you to all of our other student athletes we know it's challenging to manage not only the workload but your Athletics as well thank you to all of our athletic directors coaches uh Educators who are supporting our student athletes as well as the trainers who keep them healthy and on on the fields of play and the courts teaching and learning we're off to a good start throughout the district um again recognizing um that our Focus this year and our pillars and emphasis really is on high quality tier one instruction uh really using the high quality instructional materials that we use we're fortunate as I shared with with the board members we recently received
069a state Grant roughly about 230 uh three thousand dollars and if you look at the awardees that receive that Grant a lot of the other districts um one in particular receive a lot more funding a lot of that was because they are looking to elevate themselves to to the point where we are with our high quality instructional materials um and so we we didn't get awarded as much because we currently have um high quality instruction materials that are being used throughout the district um but as evidenced by that over the past two days members from our teaching learning Department conducted instructional walkthroughs in 16 of our schools across the district um and so there were a number of celebrations from the visits including direct evidence of Rec place again use of the high quality instructional
070materials in both English language arts and math examples of the science of reading Concepts pulled directly from professional development again a key piece of legislation that was signed was around and based on the science of reading our Educators I want to say at the k-3 level if not mistaken Mr Golder I'm receiving 12 hours of additional training PD specific to the science and reading and we're seeing that evidence in our education haters are embracing that throughout the district so again thank you to our teachers who value that professional learning opportunities and ultimately putting that in practice to show that our students are benefiting from it and then model examples of how to use centers to maximize student learning throughout a variety of activities evidence of sound walls reading maps and math genius in several classrooms
071and then our students are actively engaged through the student learning and student leadership and choice and activities and then again excellent routines and procedures so thank you to all of our families again as we get back into the full swing of things for for connecting with Educators supporting our teachers and it's proving to be beneficial based on the walkthroughs again just over two days and I think you got to understand being the largest District that our teaching and learning department has conducted 16 at visited 16 schools already and so thank you to our Educators for opening up your classrooms again thank you to Mr Golder and his department and I do want to give a shout out to to two of our Educators in the district um had the opportunity to touch base with both
072of them today Mr Brian Drake who was in eighth grade um educator here who is being recognized by Delaware today um as one of Delaware's top Educators who are educating and inspiring in 2022. so congratulations Mr Drake and then also Deanna baleki who is a first grade teacher over at the Brandywine School excuse me Brandon White Springs School who was also nominated and recognized in Delaware today as a top educator foreign all at that basis in terms of what we're focused on relative to teaching and learning and our instructional practices and as we head into the strategic planning process is based on our portrait of a graduate and it's really having four pillars that really look at our just our students and our Scholars ability to be and demonstrate a commitment to people through their
073their ability to collaborate demonstrate empathy and integrity and then really looking at the entrepreneurial spirit that they possess persistence Global awareness and adaptability and then being multi-level communicators really we talk about that they're soft skills but I think we need to hardwire our Scholars and students to not look at them as soft skills it sets them apart when they're able to serve and be multi-level communicators with strong writing skills ability to use one's voice as we talk about student voice being extremely important to the work that we do I think that was evident and you see on the education station from the block party those were unsolicited comments and feedbacks from our students right so their ability to on the spot be literally given a prom and be able to respond to that again shows
074what we want to see at our students as a portrait or a graduate and then ultimately emotional intelligence their ability to show not only a passion for learning but critical thinking and since a sense of analysis being able to analyze multiple perspectives and then their ability to be creative Innovative and demonstrate you know self-determination and initiative so again when we talk about teaching and learning it's rooted on that portrait or a graduate and the foundational skills that we want all of our students regardless of their school and Rec play once they leave with a reckley diploma again regardless of those schools that they demonstrate and exemplify those various skill sets we also want to take an opportunity to acknowledge that this month is Hispanic Heritage Month um again we we are a quarter of our
075student and family demographic identify as Hispanic and Latino so we want to acknowledge all of not only the contributions of our students staff member and families but our community as well I had the the privilege of kicking it off actually the week before with one of our anchor Partners at the Latin American Community Center um as they kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month so again thank you to everyone throughout the district this is a month-long celebration there are various activities that are taking place uh throughout our schools and we just want to do our part to acknowledge again our part of our community and those throughout the nation in the world as we recognize Hispanic Heritage Month um we are eagerly anticipating and waiting feedback on our certificate of necessity um hopefully we find out shortly
076this was presented to the board at our August meeting relative to our submission of the significance excuse me certificate of necessity which will ultimately prompt our timeline for referendum again the certificate of necessity really is looking at our not only our building inventory but our Capital needs um and those prioritization of needs the recommendation for improvements to repair and or replace obviously Building Systems or components um which are assigned of various priority those priorities are kind of ranked by priority one two and three uh Priority One being immediate work that needs to be performed because of potential safety or security risk priority two which is high work or high priority work that needs to be performed within the next one or two years and then ultimately you know the assessment or assets excuse me have
077reached their useful lifespan those are things such as you know obviously HVAC systems Brews major mechanical systems and buildings things that you generally don't see from the visible eye but we know is important especially as it relates to what we've had to deal with over the past three years relative to covet the situation that for air quality so again we're eagerly waiting on feedback from the state hopefully we can have that information sometimes next month get board approval in November really start looking at obviously a draft ballot that we need to go to the AG's office and then looking at Public Notices getting things certified as it relates to um our certificate of necessity to trigger a referendum as president niece Smith indicated we talked about strategic planning being one of our core Focus areas
078so we are bringing life to our strategic plan there's a currently a internal diagnostic or performance survey that we have open to our staff that will be open through the 14th of this month we're also waiting on a data analysis from our research partner Hanover um who will ultimately again help facilitate this process we have a a committee to really start looking at our internal Mission and visioning to ensure that our priorities are ultimately aligned to the work um that we're doing and from there and as Mr Matthews can attest to because he he's also had some opportunities to connect with um Hanover from there we'll have a series of Paul surveys that'll go out to the community once we do our internal analysis of not only the data but also really looking at our
079priorities mission and vision to get insight from the community as a whole again we know that there was also probably get discussed at a later Point again as we said student voice is very critical to that process and we have various Avenues through you know diversity Champions students who we have as diversity Champions we have our sense of belonging survey School climate survey that Hanover has access to to analyze that data but it will be a part of our pulse survey to make sure that we not only capture family and Community voice but student voice as well as we move forward and again we're on schedule what regards to our fall timeline engaging with Hanover to be able to address our strategic planning needs and again just to highlight as as stated before you know
080our current priorities our strategic planning alignment of our district resources really looking at school accountability when we talk about learning recovery a lot of the systems and things that we've put in place to not just mitigate the learning loss but also how can we accelerate that learning making sure that we we provide a necessary resources and tools for not Educators but our students again the science of reading being a critical component of that work um and so again we we just wanted to highlight that and in closing we can go to the last and final slide we are still hiring um again many of our schools as you heard during public comment it's not that units and the allocation of resources haven't been made available it's just a matter of where we tap that employee
081group and or population who want the jobs again we work with our secretarial Union and such to really look at those needs several of our schools have units allocated to them you know we have position posting and things that just generally go unfilled so again it's not for a lack of not trying it's just a matter as to where we tap those resources um understanding again we're doing our due diligence to support our schools and feel those needs so Madam president and the board that concludes um my reports I have a quick question can you hear me yes um can you just let us know when the pulse surveys will go out and so just a part of that process we we start the the first we're waiting on the the data analysis again we're
082doing some internal calibrations so that would be with problem in the next couple of weeks um in terms of the Paul survey so again we're working closely with Hanover to really look at what that timing and that schedule of that date will be so it's not a ironed out date as of yet we're waiting on to get feedback from our internal calibration um but we'll make the board in the community whereas to win that survey will be released that's a series of surveys that actually can go out over the course of the next nine months so do you think it'll be sometime in October or November uh probably the late October November early November time frame and do we know how many questions there will be we have not formulated that yet a lot of
083it has to do with again the analysis of really looking at where our programs are where the data again Hanover has access to a lot of our data already which was sense of belonging survey School climate surveys which our students participated in and really analyzing that feedback to make sure that we're structuring the questions to get the credible or feedback that we actually need to inform the Strategic plan as we move forward thank you you're welcome any other comments on the superintendent's report I would just like to say that I had the opportunity to attend the block party and I wrote my middle schooler and and he was reluctant and then wanted to stay so it was really a fun time for to see all the families together so hopefully we'll continue to do that
084and we and we uh want to also make make sure we recommend and say this to you what I'm saying now uh all the the amazing Place shirts they look great for all the schools and the itinerant staff would like one too and and the board we have your t-shirts all right thank you so much next we're going to move to school uh School Board committee reports before we before we started um board members if have a specific motion um that is a recommendation from your your committee um if you could write it down so we can get capture it correctly and then just pass it over to me if that comes up uh if we can be brief in our reports but sharing the Salient points would be helpful so that we can be
085informed about what's going on um at the work of the committee so we'll begin with the board policy Review Committee uh is there is it Mr Leonard or is who attended that one for report we don't we have a report was this was there a meeting today no no okay we didn't have report okay uh Community Financial Review Committee um the meeting was held on what actually before we go to that um there are two policies up for review so you could take a look at it it's a physical restraint policy in the school choice uh policy those have been approved all right we approved them before order already they're still on the website as not being approved so we approve them there's all four of you we'll make sure we address that but those
086policies uh cfrc meeting was held on the 13th um I I don't think we had Mr Wilson would you be able to attend I don't think we had a board member there no okay um I was I wasn't able to attend but I am on that committee I would have back to school night that night so uh but thanks to miss Flores she did send uh some minutes for me to share so they met uh to review the monthly report which is on track at 52.73 revenues rate received at 19.4 expended and encumbered uh the committee reviewed the August 31st financial position report and voted unanimously unanimously to approve the estimated balance projected for October 15th is 8.8 million which is sufficient to meet our obligations prior to the receipt of October taxes finally the
087committee heard a presentation from Dr Ted Ammon on the resubmission of the certificate of necessity which Mr Green talked about red clay is waiting to hear back from the Department of education on the status and the next committee meeting will be on November November 15th at 6 pm that concludes my report for the cfrc next we have curriculum and student achievement committee update Mr Mr Leonard yes thank you uh the curriculum student achievement committee met on September 14th for an organizational and a clarification session the meeting was attended by board vice president Jose Matthews and myself with senior director of teaching and learning Sam Golder and his former team along with Deputy superintendent Hugh Broomall assistant superintendent of operations Ted admin and the formative team included Mark Pruitt director of secondary schools Aaron nicastro director
088of elementary schools and Sean Snyder director of assessment and professional learning that's quite a team Mr Golder gave his presentation on the amazing things happening with his group and the group's plan on moving forward with District curriculum he presented his group's newly Advanced multi-year system of curriculum evaluation along with the scheduled School visits to district schools explicit feedback from school personnel and school administrators with the implementation of the new District Ela curriculum this year we can measure the effectiveness of this program through this multi-year system with monitoring and educational feedback and curriculum programs a true assessment of these programs can be conducted monthly updates at the board meetings can come from Red board red clay board members and or members of the district team student achievement data will be presented and shared at the community
089curriculum student achievement committee meetings including PSAT s-a-t Smarter Balance Ela and math proficiency rates RI and Mi graduation rates promotion rates Dropout rates attendance and family engagement Mr Matthews raised a concern that we should focus on certain at-risk students within our schools to ensure they receive the resources and attention they need to be successful like mentoring and tutoring after school services and maybe Mr Matthews would like to expand on that in a moment it was refreshing to see board members and District leaders working together in a positive way with honest and open dialogue and ways to assure success for our students teachers and Families I suppose you wanted to thank Mr Golder and his team for his outstanding work towards the success of the committee the students families and Educators throughout the district I look
090forward to the first working meeting of the CSA on October 12th which will open be open to the public and recorded and available for those who cannot attend thank you Miss Matthews will comment sure certainly first and foremost thank you for that report it was really robust um so as Vic board member Leonard had mentioned and we had the opportunity to meet with the district and spend the afternoon to really dig into what we want to accomplish here and get started with organizing the committee we looked at what the body of the makeup of the committee will be um and right in front of me I have just a listing of certain positions and components of the committee that we want represented such as our Educators from rcea and educated from The District Parent engagement
091is certainly something where we feel very strongly about we would like to have at least one parent from every nominating District in red clay so that the parents are reflective of the communities we serve so in addition to that the committee will be supported by administrative staff one of the highlighting comments that I mentioned in our discussions that I that I feel should be relayed um to the board into the community is that for one I think that having a clear pulse on our curriculum and student achievement is always a good thing um and I know that operationally sometimes it may feel that we're we're taking a pause from the momentum that we hope to see but I think that um for me somebody who does a lot of project management myself the waterfall approach
092to project management and versus agile and so there's two methodologies there and I think that this kind of more aligns with agile given that we have some milestones and some stops along the way where we can really take a look at whether or not the approaches for utilizing are successful for our students and families and um to Vic's comment about meeting student it needs I think we have to look at a diverse way of meeting student needs and really understanding that we live in a very complex large and diverse district and what I mean by that is that we have to look at the needs of all students yes students who are showing deficiencies but I would challenge this committee as I mentioned in our discussions to also look at some of our more High
093performing students within the district as well making sure that they have the resources to flourish I I feel that we don't typically talk about our tag students enough to the point where I think that one of the proposals I I had and would love to have more robust discussions on is implementing gieps within our district it's not something that's been typically done here in the state of Delaware but is a very common practice in other states in a high performing school districts in the nation um so I'm looking forward to hearing from parents community members who would like to participate in this and seeing how we can contribute to the Student Success that we hope to see thank you so I conclude your report yes I complete the report thank you all right next we
094have diversity committee the diversity committee met on September 19th I was in attendance we spoke about many things some of the highlights were from cook McCain Groves and Brandywine Springs which they shared some of the work that they're doing a bulletin board was put together to honor Hispanic Heritage Month um helped the English Learners who were working on that as well the McCain High School had some Kim I'm going to say this right kimbap kimbap I don't want to say it all but uh the rolling lessons and culinary Korean Sushi led by Miss Kim stock and there's some Korean holidays this this month to sale um Korean Thanksgiving Brandywine Springs talked about the neh indigenous Grant with the Delaware Art Museum the indigenous spaces of Wilmington and the portraits from the Lenape and students there
095were worked with artists Andre Wright who gave a personal tour of his exhibit his exhibit and then the gross Adult School Ronald Robbins talked about the posters on the bulletin board and thanks uh Dr Bond for for the welcome back messages now that Grove's Adult School is now housed in AI Dupont High School and it had a welcoming message of inclusion for students and guests near the office and they really appreciated that and really uh valued that secondary math teachers talk about a focus on um does all really mean all so there's some book studies where teachers were able to select a select one of four books to study uh and to have great conversations around mathematics instruction uh also September 30th is lgbtq youth Pride day which was proclaimed in 2018 by New Castle
096County and so we want to recognize that as well the tier one strategy is the Dei work is tier one it's not something in addition it's for it embeds and threads through everything that we do in schools and so there's a lot of teaching and learning updates also shared about uh some highlights uh Smarter Balance grades three through eight uh we or the top district North of the canal um the gap between Red Clay and other dish Red Clay I didn't say this right but other districts have been closed we're not yet where we want to be but we we want to celebrate some of the small wins SAT scores are the top in the district that's pretty much the same and then I ready data mid above on grade level scores students are making
097growth that that is the point of that um so that but that Diagnostic and Benchmark data really shows us the real time where students start and then they and through throughout the year two or three times we'll see whether the students are making growth and so we look forward to having some of that data talked about in this curriculum of student achievement committee as well uh lots of other things we talked about I'm gonna go through everything but we have really good uh Delaware libraries diversity diversifying classroom libraries and the primary grades a lot of work around uh identities and having students recognize each other's names and who they are the similarities and differences within our own identities and so uh teachers if you haven't received your books grades uh through grade five uh talk
098to your building administrators there is a second order coming out uh what's happening around red clay if equity and Beyond anti-racism inclusion diversity and Equity Champion workshops on Tuesday October 25th the focus is on phase two of the plan and the Delaware Affinity facility facilitator Fellowship um collaborating with collaborated with Colonial School District um there was there were an expiration stage with Educators and fellows were interviewed to learn about and host Affinity groups for uh educators of color and all also allies are welcome as well there was a kickoff with Colonial School District working with the center for black educator development there's no cost to the district Mr Green and Mr mincer from Colonial spoke to both those groups to those groups we have an open invitation for the center for black educator development there's
099some free seats for the black men educator convening register is November 17th through the 19th and so some college students will be joining if more information Dr Bond will be able to help you with that um making space for gender diversity experiences and conversations lgbtq and virtual speaker series are there they're about 30 minutes so they're accessible and uh so you want to reach out and kind of get that information as well so these are some of those asynchronous things that you can do um you know while you're at home as well and then that information should be linked um we can get that to you from on our website as well possibly or or reach out to Dr Bob student group visits um the black student unions gay straight Alliance student diversity committees all
100schools should have a student diversity committee or a committee where students can participate so that came up and one of the students in our group asked if they could create a black student union in the middle school and so those are just some of the things where when we talk about student voice students are able to participate and share with their desires are and so we do want to honor their voice and let them know that we are listening and so administrators that you know maybe talk with your teams and make sure that students voices are represented uh and we maybe back to school nights we talked about that and then there was a discussion about uh mental health and so um through what Mr Green has shared there's a lot of priorities that we
101are focusing on and so I encourage uh to situents families students everyone if you have questions about some of the things that are happening in our district to reach out to your school administrators because a lot of times they have a lot more information than we at the board level but Mr Green can also uh help but I think a good way of communication about all of these pieces is to start with the school and then we can go from there and then because we had our transgender policy last year there was a question about gender related activities at the schools Like Girls on the Run and such and so just to know that any student regardless of their their gender or their how they identify is are able to participate in any of our
102District activities um so that was that uh lots more information and data shared it was really a pleasant experience for me of my first time at the diversity committee that concludes my report so I just wanted Madam president the next policy committee meeting is on October 5th okay so just should I know there wasn't a report so that's the next policy committee and um historically black college and university week Wilmington 2022 kicked off tonight and I know all five of our high schools will be participating in HBCU Week events so um just making that anywhere and then I will just handle and kind of give just the board and the community a general update directly education and Foundation I met on Tuesday September the 13th um I gave them a general update in terms of
103back to school um one of our board members Nino the the renzio um sharing as I shared with the board um they're participating and having a a virtual reality Fair um through Franklin Mint Credit Union with AI High School to talk about the financial um aspects of you know what our young people should actually know and that's something that we're going to look to expand um really understanding just the nature of if you don't just swipe a card as I deal with my daughter who wants a cash ad card or just cash at me everything you can't cash app um so looking at financial responsibility and ultimately what does that mean how do you balance a budget how do you stay within your means and really helping our students understand again Financial Risk so our
104foundation is supporting that work starting with AI high school and they're going to look to find additional Partnerships to expand throughout the district they also talked about updating the finance foundation's website and having an update um and just some general conversations about really looking at um Foundation membership as a lot of our current Foundation members have served for for longer periods of time um you know if you have you know retired and wanted to you know vacate their sheets but they've stayed on and continue to support the district so we will be reaching out to our um schools to really start doing a better job of promoting the foundation many folks may not even realize that we do have an Education Foundation and they do a lot of great work throughout the district some of
105the initiatives they support the Wilmington Arts Alliance providing opportunities for our students throughout Wilmington to get art opportunities with various Partners they supported the um and matched the the Warner uniform drive and really supporting Warner and their efforts to get Blazers and ties for their students they're supporting and and they serve as a port support for the Conrad track fund so there are a number of different things again that our foundation actually does they allocate about ten thousand dollars annually to support our mckinney-vento students do the work that Ms April Anderson does especially if our families need assistance with you know rent utility services and such that oftentimes that they reach a hurdle or roadblock so again we we will be reaching out to really find a way to not only give our foundation a
106more public face but also solicit the continued support because our foundations serves a vital role throughout throughout our district thank you I think we are past the facilities committee report so um Mr Matthews so I attended the September 12 2022 facilities committee meeting some of the topics that we discussed with some of the summer projects that we worked on over the quarter we had some discussion on the summer projects that we do have because of the limited funding that we have we really want to get the most bang for our buck and have as a district approve those projects and prioritize those projects to items that align with our initiatives for teaching and learning um so there was also some discussion and updates on our Sr project for those in the community because this is
107only out reported out only quarterly who may need a reminder of the yes or project is something that was initiated some time ago I believe 2018 but don't quote me exactly it was a board initiative in a district initiative to save money on some of the energy expenses so that that we can reinvest that money back into our schools as a financial fiscal responsibility effort um and we're in line with our proposal that we had approved when this project was initiated the certificate of necessity submission was something we discussed at length as a committee this is something that we have reviewed now for the second year in a row we initiated this process with a year-long facilities committee and then that ended up going into a proposal for a c and a certificate of necessity
108that went to the board last year was submitted to doe and was not approved as you may know from last month this board unanimously again approved to try to get a certificate of necessity approved for the second time to try to get some long overdue investments in our schools so we know that our schools are aging there was a recent article that came out from Delaware live that highlighted just how old some of our schools are schools like AI Middle School that was built in the 1800s and those are school buildings that are are very unique to red clay and um gives us certainly a a point of Pride when it comes to our history and the and the beauty of our historic buildings however it does come at a cost um that some of
109the newer more energy efficient buildings throughout the state um have so it certainly creates some challenges with um the budgets that we have I think that we have been pretty fiscally responsible with the funding that we have received um just as a reminder we haven't gone out to capital capital referendum since the last since 2012 so it's been 10 years since our last Capital referendum um and I I think that's thanks to the leadership and engagement with the community and transparency on our budget as you know we consistently report out on the budget as we did tonight those reports can be found in board docs um and I've continued to engage with our with our legislators and seeking um a more sustainable solution and funding our schools so despite us engaging and doing what we
110can with this initiative I want the community to know that I have shared and expressed my thoughts on the need for referendum reform or for a funding reform measure for our schools so that we can keep up with the the upcoming needs and the rising needs that we face as a public school system um so with that I conclude my report thank you thank you next we'll move on to items submitted by the board uh in this section we are going to please remember to direct comments to the chair uh we will I will call upon those who have those agenda items listed we will engage in debate uh please please get your thoughts together so that if you're called upon you can have two times to speak and we will limit that to two
111times to speak uh unless there's a motion to to relax that rule so we definitely want you to get your thoughts and ideas out um and we can also ask questions to any of our administrators and the woman to learn the secretary Holodeck is here as well as Mr Collins so to answer any questions about the woman to learn and collaborative as well so not to put people in the spot but we want to be able to ask questions I think I gave a warning and an email so we're good all right so first we'll start with the district planning strategic planning committee items submitted by Dr Beau uh Dr bone you have the floor so I make a motion that a minimum of two students be represented on the Strategic plan committee okay thank
112you can you send your your your motion over on the card I have like eight motions yeah so I can give them to miss Stevens after the meeting okay because we had put it in our in our meetings to to write them down so we get them actually right so they can write it down and give it to Maria because I want to be able to say it so you said you move on can you repeat your motion that you move I motioned that a minimum of two students be represented on the Strategic plan committee so you it has been moved is there a second second Jose Matthews it has been moved and seconded that there would be two student Representatives on this strategic planning committee for red clay is there a discussion hearing yes
113Mr Casper I recognize you how would you propose we choose the two I'm just curious I'm not opposed to the idea I think it's a good idea I'm just wondering like with are we talking to high school students to they would probably be students who give their reports at our monthly meetings they would probably because they're the student leaders in their building but that's something for the district to work out so recites amend the motion that um selected by the by the superintendent nope I do not want to amend my emotion I keep it as it is so to answer your question there is it's out there so there's no direct answer to that we'll see is the answer so yeah yes I recognize Mr Matthews so I I would just like to point out
114that the role of the board is to set the vision for the board and the direction of the district um so I I have made many motions over the years um with a directive with an idea um those operations I'll defer to the superintendent um and trust that he will he will make the appropriate decisions as needed and set by the board is there any other discussion from many board members and again as I alluded to in my report there are a number of established student groups I have a student representative student Representatives I mean excuse me the superintendent student advisory Council um which we meet with uh we have the student representatives to the board um again I know we're going to survey our students and so there are multiple ways that we feel
115through the strategic planning process that we can get more holistic input from from our total student body related to this process but again if it's the board's wish that we kind of figure out a way to get two Representatives we can start with Dr bonus point to figure out how we can maybe gauge our student representatives to the board as an Avenue um to engage them in a more formal way thank you is there another discussion for board members okay um just call the vote um Maria Miss Stevens please call the vote Dr Balm yes Mr Casper yes Mr Leonard yes Mr Matthews yes Mr Wilson yes Miss knee Smith yes unanimous motion carries thank you Dr Bo o do you have anything else under this item not under the strategic planning committee I have
116another motion for this for under this topic but it encompasses other things as well okay you want to wait it's up to you so I have under here under our notes um updates on the progress and timeline we talked about that uh student representation and then you had something about survey questions or is that answer do you have anything to add on that my survey questions had to do with the questions I asked previously okay all right any other discussion around this District's strategic planning yes I had a point of clarification for the item I had thought that we had discussed previously that the item would also include the discussion of having two board members serve two or three board members serve on this committee yes we haven't appointed anybody I think now would be
117a good time to do that okay so the discussion is around uh representatives from the board to the strategic planning committee and it's my understanding that there have been three board members who have expressed interest at being Dr bone Mr Matthews and and myself uh is there any discussion around that the um so the simple way would just be since you have three members who want to say we'll work with Hanover to figure out the process to engage the board understanding that what with the committee and the timing of the work again this is a fluid process so in terms of scheduling I would just say of the three members how you want to work through if someone is absent against or can't make a particular meeting please know that our work will continue um
118and we can continue to just update and provide board members with updates again and I know Mr Matthews had some conversations or some communication with Hanover and and they're gracious enough again to provide the board with a more formal process in terms of Engagement understanding the the complexity and this is a nine month engagement so um we'll just take the three names and communicate with the three of you as representatives to the board based on a strategic plan if that works so so Dr bone Mr Matthews and Keith Sanderson will be Representatives on the strategic planning committee the next item we I'm sorry anything else under this topic of strategic planning all right moving on to the next uh Wilmington learning collaborative uh Mr Matthews so I don't have a motion for this specifically but
119I wanted us to have um an opportunity to have discussion publicly at the last um meeting that we had specifically pertaining to this was a combined school board meeting which was held with the Christina school district and the Brandywine School District along with their legal counsel there were community members in attendance it was publicly noticed however it was not reported um was I had requested I had requested it from Christina a few times it did not receive okay the recording I didn't see it publicly posted online we'll make sure it's important it should be publicly posted but we'll make sure you get access excellent excellent um but from those discussions there were um a lot of questions that were raised and a lot of great Insight I believe from the governor's office and their Council
120um and a lot of guidance one thing that was really refreshing is that for the first time in the year that we've had these discussions I I left the room feeling that people in that room wanted to come up with a solution um for our students in the city who we know have different challenges from students that we serve in the suburbs and there are some contributing factors that we we can sit here and discuss and debate on but I I think that having this plan in place sir serves to our our benefit being that the focus is on helping these students see the proficiency measures that we want them to see and helping them see the opportunity that education has to offer them thank you Mr Matthews is there another board member that I'd
121like to speak on or ask any questions or engage about the moment to learn and collaborative I'll just make a remark so I just want to say that I'm very excited about the prospect of the Wilmington learning collaborative as you all know because I've shared at many meetings the City Board reps have been meeting for many many many many many months now to discuss the Wilmington learning collaborative and our group has broadened and I think one of the most exciting components of the proposal is that the city will have governance over some of the work that is happening in our schools and I just think that's exciting and it's accelerating and of course it is not an end all be all there are definitely tweaks that can be had but there is no other plan
122on the table full stop let me say that again there's no other plan on the table so this is an exciting prospect and I hope this board votes for it thank you thank you Dr boom is there any other board member I'd like to speak about the woman to learn collaborative or ask any questions yeah so I like to just say that uh I appreciate all that the governor's office has done to to accommodate uh hundreds of uh sessions about the woman co-lab and uh the changing in the mou so many times and I think that uh good faith on the part of the governor's office to make things happen like that and uh I just want to say thank you for making those things happen other board members on Wilmington learning collaborative well I
123have something if you don't okay well I want to thank um uh the secretary Holodeck and John Sheen and Mr Collins are coming here today um you know this sentence I keep saying Collins I'm sorry I'm sorry Mr Simmons [Laughter] um thank you for coming today um I have some questions um well first I'll say some comments um I I first appreciate the efforts of so many people who have engaged in this process um from the governor's office down to each of the families coming up with ideas sharing I had the opportunity to go to a lot of or to to the focus group session um and it was a bilingual session at the community center and I found that to be very very uh eye-opening because the parent voice and was was there and
124there were some students as well and I think that that's what we need to do with all the things that we do with schools we need to engage our whole community the one question I have is how has how have we engaged with our teachers who will be impacted by the moment to learn and collaborative and have you ascertained the perspectives and the data and information from the principles of those schools I had the opportunity to I'm going to be able to have toured all of those schools that would be encompassed in the woman to learn and collaborative because as an educator I think I have a unique perspective around what's going on in schools and so my major concern in terms of making sure that voices are heard is that we haven't really given
125the open Forum conversations to the actual teachers who work so hard and just to kind of think it to put on a teacher hat for a second it can sometimes feel demoralizing to be told that our schools were not doing a best by our our kids in the schools and I know that's not the intention but it is it is an unintended consequence and so I think we need to honor the voice of the teachers and the the staff at the schools to hear what they are thinking and what are they doing one of the questions that some of the constituents have asked me are what are we doing to increase the achievement and the success of students at the schools identified by the woman to learn and collaborative and I don't know that we've
126had a chance to answer those questions as a district or in as the three districts but I think it's important to be able to talk about that at our combined board meetings I will always ask the the hard questions and it's not because I don't um don't support something but I definitely want to know that we're not just doing something performative I said that before I don't want to do a performative thing so we have a policy with with this mou that we have intentions to use money to support the schools in the city and I think the the idea is a very good one in the in theory but in action that's not there and I know one of the slides that you showed about strategic planning was it's a plan well we I've
127heard the term plan this is not a plan this is a this is a an idea for us to come together to make a plan so that was the biggest kind of thing for me to understand at the beginning is this is not a plan this is an idea of a structure for how we're going to um administer or use this this funding to support students so I do have a question uh to any of Mr uh Simmons or Mr Sheehan or secretary Halliday uh what is the theory of action so for and this is kind of like speaking to the teachers and Educators as well as the community members because we all speak different languages right parents they might not know like up here what I'm talking about maybe they do maybe they don't
128but the teachers what are they what's the theory of action and how how is this going to help them and help them feel more successful as teachers of students in these schools so if anyone would be willing to come up and speak that would be great foreign I don't want to embarrass her but we we actually do have a city educator here tonight who helped facilitate a number of our sessions Karen Eller was one of our amazing facilitators I think at the at the LACC one um as well as a number of others and has been knocking on doors with us she is I always embarrass her when I say this the former Bancroft teacher of the year uh and is an incredible leader and uh one of the things that we did initially was
129we we sat down with the the union presidents and and that was sort of the first conversation we were actually pushed by by your now Union president to double down on the educator engagement and we had uh zooms with City Educators from each of the three districts we had Town Halls at each school and and the governor all um excuse me often says that maybe the most impactful of those was actually a Warner um and we we had a really robust discussion with Educators there and it actually it went from like 6 30 to 8 and then after the meeting we stayed for about an hour and talked to Cody quick Asha Forrest and a number of Educators there and they said you have to come to our school and you can't just come for
130like an hour you have to come for a half a day and really get a sense and I think it was either that Monday or the following week that that we were there and that actually launched visits to each of the city schools for an extended period of time to sit down with students and Educators and hear sort of firsthand from them what they need and what they're seeing um and so we were able to do that and continue our zooms with the Educators in in each affected district and one of the components of the plan that it excites me the most and it was a part of the virtual visit if folks haven't watched the recording it's it's like four hours long but I highly recommend because I think it's really uh impactful was
131the the last presentation when we retired from the the four hour day was with Andrea Walker from Nea and she presented on Labor Management Partnerships which is is a component of uh the the agreement and one of the key pieces is having Educators involved in decisions and entrusting them with key decision making and the data to your point that she presented shows how involving teachers formally and I know that that superintendent green has already started this in some of the schools leads to increased student achievement increased educator retention and and improve School environments and it's something that I'm really excited about we also went to staff meetings and we were at Karen school at Bancroft and Educators had a number of ideas and and were excited to kind of share them across the three districts
132so um you know have we been perfect on the educator engagement I think we can never do enough we've really really tried though and I think you know the fact that I can rattle off a number of names folks like Maddie Geller and or Durant moose Maldonado from Lewis who have reached out with suggest questions um I'm really excited by the work we've done we can always do more but we've really tried to make sure because as you said those are the folks who are going to be on the ground every day with students doing the important work um so I'll kick it to the secretary thank you I think Mr Sheehan did a more than adequate job in answering both questions I would only elaborate on the theory of action piece and that is
133um it is all about engagement and empowerment and we do recognize that you know under the leadership of Mr Green you know your schools are well on their way to to already doing some of the things that are going to be included in that theory of action but I think we recognize that there's real power in collaboration and the idea is that when you Empower and engage Educators in those schools the community that surrounds those schools and have a governance board that specifically focuses on just those schools and that governance board includes your superintendent as well as your city representative and really involved and committed members of the City Community you we have the potential I believe through that model and that theory of action to have not just immediate but long long lasting uh
134impact in those schools um in terms of the engagement piece with teachers I you know I can only say that before I became secretary so this would have been in early January I remember zooming in and and you know watching the governor in person at one of your schools with what I thought was a pretty sizable group of teachers I think the most recent meeting that I had was with Lewis teachers I don't know exactly how many I'm going to say a group of maybe I don't know six to eight eight to ten teachers the one thing I would say and I'd say this all three boards the message is the challenge is that Urban Educators face across these three districts is far more consistent than it is different and so I you know it
135it reinforces in me the idea that collaboration amongst those schools and those Educators that'll look a whole lot different and more robust in years two and three could really have a significant impact on the kind of not only decision making But ultimately programming and planning that happens in those schools and is the funding for three years or is it is there sustainability with this the mou um knowing that real uh you know you have a first order change but second order change and it takes much longer sure I'll let John answer that one sorry I shouldn't have jumped up as soon as you um as you raised that so the the funding that the governor's put forward is in the operating budget and so that's the the year after year budget and so we've committed
136in there that it is in the operating budget each of the three years that he proposes his budget um but by way of it not being one-time funding one of the first conversations we had about this uh Tracy Roberts the prince of Harlan said you know usually when there are efforts it's one-time funding we get sort of you know a grant for a million dollars and then it goes away and so by putting in the operating budget we are intending year over year for this funding to be there we we've had pushes to you know increase it over time as we know the needs but the funding is in there year over year so it's not a a sort of one-time funding and then it goes away it's intended to be there year over year
137for the collaborative so after the third year how will the funding be allocated specifically the executive director and any administrative team or supports that are in place so they how will how will they be sustained without the funding after the third year yes so by way of it being in the operating budget I we can't commit or I can't commit the the next Governor um they're gonna have to make a a change to to take it out we also I think have a member of of the joint finance committee here who can certainly help make sure that um you know beyond Governor Carney's term that this is that this is funding that is in there um because you know again one-time funding is great but when it goes away you know you have to make
138hard decision so by the way of us putting it in there and committing it year over year it can hopefully help for a long-term planet okay thank you anybody else have any questions for but that's no guarantee I can't guarantee what a future Governor will do yeah yeah it's but you know I think because it's a question it's a fair question Mr Wilson yes you know we've heard from folks you know well what after what happens after the five years yeah the governor's term and I think you know you heard Dr boom reference it before by giving you know the community real say in real Authority you know it it almost doesn't matter who you know the governor is because this is going to be driven and successful and done by folks on the ground
139I'm not fighting you yeah yeah you know it's a good question yeah it's totally fair to ask um well I have one last question so once once you have the the executive director in place um how how will this be communicated so if we when we vote when everybody votes and see it passes across all three school districts what are the next steps that you see so that the public can hear that because some of it I went to a couple of schools and they didn't even they thought it already passed or something so you know teachers don't really watch board meetings as much especially after the you know doing their lesson planning and all that so you know so that the administrators who are listening in you know help help us understand what would
140happen after our votes and let's say it passes yeah so you know the first step is to appoint the the Wilmington learning collaborative Council and we already know half in membership um and that governing Council as you mentioned is going to hire an executive director um one of the things that Mr Leonard has really pushed us on is to make sure that one of those first actions is to then begin that deep open and honest needs assessment and one of the things we heard from from Mr Leonard as well as a member of the Christina School Board is we had in there you know the the needs assessment and trying to answer your question of like what are the first steps um should look at district and school practices and we heard but also we
141should look at Community Partners and make sure that we have a full inventory of you know what's happening in our schools what's working I know uh superintendent green has talked about some of the the coaching with the Dell Foundation get a full sense of the picture and then really push it forward and I I also would sort of challenge the woman to learning collaborative Council of doing really good communication in the city in a way that you know I as a someone who works in the 12th floor of the governor's office probably don't have the connections that folks work can be on this board do have to to communicate so first step to appoint at the board hire the executive director engage in that open and honest needs assessment and really start to bring the
142community to the table and make sure that folks are informed and and get involved and I think longer term you know setting up those educated leader teams and Community councils to really dig in and push the work forward so I have a question I wanted to thank Dr Baum for reiterating the proficiency data at our combined school board meetings I think that it was disheartening as a group to actually understand that we know that the data is out there oftentimes people don't take even but people in positions of power don't take five minutes to read the reports and understand where we are as an education system and as a district and as a community with the three of us combined for the city of Wilmington um in in the interest of time in the interest
143of acting in with a level of urgency to respond to this crisis that we're seeing um with students not being able to do or or have the outcomes that they need to have is there going to be a moment in time where we say this offer is going to be off the table is there going to be a a point where we put a stop to where we are with this proposal is is that a discussion because I think at some point there has to be with every project and plan um and every assignment I think there has to be a due date or an end date what discussions have you guys had on that yeah so I appreciate the question you know we were we were hopeful that uh there would be a vote
144earlier I think you know June had been one of the initial ones but you know we had further feedback and wanted to make sure to the initial question that you know Educators and folks who who had suggestions had a chance to make sure that they were able to um to give feedback on the plan and so um you know we were hopeful that August September would be a vote I I think what we have asked is is a vote in October because we really need to to to president needs to his point you know get the board appointed get the executive director hired and then that needs assessment is going to take some time and so you know pushing it Beyond October just really really complicates things and doesn't give us the chance to do
145that robust planning that's needed thank you yeah thank you and and if I may and again I just generally again it's going to be the board's prerogative and as you know secretary hollowback indicated and Mr Sheehan and Mr Simmons knows again um obviously there are common needs across all of our districts but all things aren't equal across our districts and so I I think it also behooves us to to do some of that analysis now and not wait for a council and not wait for an executive director because again the department has been intimately involved with a lot of our schools through various School Improvement efforts um where a lot of that information could also be readily available um because I think when theoretically yes we if this vote were to go forward you establish
146a council then you're going to have to create a process by which you hire someone and I'm sure there'll be differing opinions depending on where we are as individual districts and resources that we currently have and allocate so really helping I think so whoever would come in that situation would have to hit the ground running understanding local context not only within one District but multiple districts um so I know I've raised that issue um you know however we can kind of work to make sure that whatever additional supports that we're offering to our respective schools that it's intentional and it it changes the dial right because two out of our four schools currently have school-based health centers or wellness centers and you know a lot of that conversation was well you know reading is offering
147wrap around supports and services so if you currently have it then the money through the wlc doesn't necessarily have to get directed to that so I think that analysis can can actually start without a lot of that process and I would just encourage us to do our due diligence to make sure that we look at those nuances um you know really looking at an analysis around the Dual gen you know our family is actually getting more access to Services as a result of that model so that if we are looking to replicate that you know we can hit that ground running and accelerate a lot of that work that's actually happening in our respective District so I would just you know Elevate that so that you know because time is of the essence and while
148it might be funding in an operating budget we know things change and so we what we ultimately don't want for a community who is historically had plans put in their way and I know I hear that from a lot of our Educators they've re they've lived a lot of the reform efforts and they are committed to our children and families but what they ultimately don't want is yet another reform effort to to come and go and then we see the the constant churn of Educators in our Wilmington schools families who continue to get disenfranchised and so you know again for us and I can only speak on behalf of red clay that we truly are taking a whole child holds Community whole school whole Community approach and we welcome any and all additional resources and
149support to be able to do it but I think we have to deal with I think Dr bone really indicated initially in her her initial questioning around a lot of the structural components and so we're talking about economic instability you know we're talking about um you know safe neighborhoods education is one part of that puzzle and so however we can look at what we have holistically and not just look at um recruitment of Educators because we know we're all going to the same well and that well is running dry right now as it relates to recruiting Educators um so again I I want our board to be informed as you make this decision because the people who are sitting in this audience ultimately going to be the ones not just myself who are serving on
150a council will have to carry out that work that we're currently committed to um so I just can't want to just Elevate that because you know the notion of reading and the wlc um part and parse because I both think they both sunset probably at the same time um as a relationship that we really align those two efforts to to really have a collective impact not just looking at seven million dollars of resources but really in essence 19.8 million to be able to do our due diligence to really maximize and go deep with a lot of the structural things that we know our schools have historically um had to deal with um and and again it is time for holistic change we support that but we want to make sure we're doing right by our
151children families and Educators as we're doing thank you Mr Green and just just you know like to ask the hard questions early so that feeling like oh I didn't think about that later on you know so I think it's important um one question someone asked um that I said I would ask is um have you determined any of the universities that will partner with with this is not my particular question but a question that was asked to me um if you don't mind I'll answer that question I just wanted to comment on on um what superintendent green just shared I I fully agree um with you know your points made and you know one of the things we heard from Educators and leaders in those schools pretty consistently was this can't be another typical reform
152effort and it can't be seen as like more it has to be seen as you're really listening to us and supporting us and I don't think we can do that if we approach each School the same way we recognize or at least I do I mean it's going to be important of course for the governing board and the executive director to recognize through support from doe I think Michael Rodriguez and his team to your point could be really helpful because they're very familiar with those with most of the schools and I think the needs assessment could play a role in that so the point is if we don't do that there could be negative consequences um so that's pointing in terms in terms of um higher ads there isn't one in Delaware that we haven't
153heard from at this point that's interested in supporting the the one we've done learning collaborative I've been really impressed um especially with the Su and you do University of Delaware and some of the conversations that we've had and the idea is that they've approached us with specifically around how they could do more in the way of training their future Educators and sort of I'll call it pipelining them into the into the Wilmington learning collaborative with appropriate supports some of that work is already happening you and red clay have had relationships with UD as well as DSU I think more with UD and now you're doing a lot with grow your own so you're doing from you and uh the other two districts are doing things that we wouldn't want to stop of course um I
154can't imagine anyone would you'd want to build upon those that work and in any way that the universities could you know support whether it's professional development teacher recruitment connections to you know um I would say cbos because some of the universities I think both of our major universities already have existing relationships with community-based organizations that could probably leverage so I can't say which ones I think if they were here they'd say all of us want to support the city in this initiative that's not going to be you know that's not for me to decide it's going to be for the governing board and the executive director to figure out where do they where does that work fit in most appropriately the good news is that they have proactively approached us I think that's a really
155good sign thank you any other questions or comments thank you so much for being here today thank you thank you thank you next we have Charter magnet Equity actions follow-up Dr Bo so I've asked on a number of occasions to have an update I don't know where we are on that I'm asking again or if I'm actually getting a report this time so we're in the process obviously we're analyzing obviously all of our numbers across the district as we look at the the racial and ethnic demographic and makeup of our schools uh we're looking at processes by which we look to recruit um not only our for our Charter and magnet programs but also our comprehensive um high schools really looking at feeder patterns um through this assessment one of the things that we also
156learned is like a lot of our bowtechs have a greater access in many instances or cases um to regulate students then actually our comprehensive programs and we heard a lot of public comment around not you know the need to you know have ai continue or to flourish um and so again part of this is really looking at a part of our strategic planning process is a look at the overall feasibility and assessment of our overall District student demographics and so if I could just share like briefly the current there's there's one school that John Dickerson school at the secondary level that really mirrors our respective District demographics almost to a percent and when we then see different pockets for example um at Conrad where our district um percentage for Hispanic and Latino students is at
15727 Conrad is at 25 and then respectively here at Cab Calloway School of the Arts um you know our black and African-American student demographic across the district is at 21 percent cab is at 18 and so it's where do we go how do we initiate I know cab definitely goes out to all of our Title One schools and that's one of the things that we're talking about processing before Choice open house is really where are we actually going to sell and showcase those programs and then work and support families as they navigate that choice process to be able to to go through because that's oftentimes the barrier right we might highlight or showcase a program but then in actuality parents have been able to navigate so we're looking at it again from from across the
158board of student demographic current programs how their barriers and limitations to our current programs um again roughly about 4 000 and 4088 students roughly in our high school sheets three of our current programs are sixth through 12th grade you know so when we talk about you know choice we we offer a lot of options which is a good thing but then when we also looking at you know diversity across those programs there are some internal mechanisms that we we have to continue to analyze to ensure that not only are we promoting and providing access to those diverse programs um but more importantly we're not just showcasing going to schools and their families can't get access by default of numbers are being capped and so I know Mr Pruitt is is really helping to lead that
159work with our secondary schools our choice office with Dr Hammond but we're holistically looking at those numbers because we are at the point now whereas a district it's just not one program um and it's not necessarily a program per se it's really looking collectively at what are we often across the district and then ultimately how does that provide you know equity and access and opportunities um you know Mr Matthews talked about talented and gifted you know and really looking at how do we cultivate debt at a young age one of the things that again that we realize is for a lot of those families at our 6th through 12th grade buildings once they're in they're locked in you know that's that's less transitions that they have to and then we're selling those high school programs
160when those numbers are already capped so we're actually doing ourselves a disservice to those programs and then the board has made a decision in years past not this particular board but the board itself has a body that those access to those programs only internal so then that limits the ability to attract outside the district um to diversify our programs as well so we're looking at all those aspects Dr Obama of that program um and we want to leverage and obviously use part of the strategic planning process and look at our CTE career Pathways that's why we had and as I shared with the board hand over do a what they call a middle school Benchmark of our Career Technical air programs so that we can actually support not only feeder programs but have clear indication
161as to where certain programs might be to promote a more diverse student demographic or body across all the options that we offer in recla and again I don't know have Mr poor here who can speak to some level of detail in terms of that level of Engagement with our secondary schools so thank you for that update what I'm really looking for and maybe I need to make myself more clear is an actual report that gives us a five to seven year span of what our demographic information looks like in our schools especially our Charters and our magnets so I'm specifically saying dma csw Conrad cab and then I'd like to have a Solutions oriented approach because I know basically off the top of my head since I've been in this district for nine years what
162those numbers do look like because we've had many conversations in this room about those numbers and many of them were very heated conversations so I'd like to see a Solutions oriented approach about what we're doing to address that Gap that we all know exists but I'd like that in some type of like I have this lovely landscape analysis report for the city of Wilmington I'd like a report so I can digest it as I'm sure the other board members would like to as well and I can take notes and then ask questions and you know offer comments that's the type of report I'm looking for so in essence you want a feasibility study to really look at demographics we know our feeder patterns in this District have not changed and since I would say the
163construction of cook so I'm not really interested in the feeder patterns because I've sat on committees for at feeder patterns and for our Charters and magnets we don't need a feeder so those would be choices so that choices that students make and then looking at the admissions process so I just really want I'm interested I mean Julie and I had a huge argument in this room many years ago um I want to see the demographic data especially when it comes to students who have free and reduced lunch are considered low income and I want to look at race and ethnicity and there I'm specifically talking about whether they're English language speakers initially right or if they have another mother tongue that's not English originally so I want to look at those demographics over the last
164five to seven years I want to look at the trajectory which I'm hoping is going up because we've been talking about this but I want to look at those gaps and I want to know what we're doing to address those gaps because that will move us forward as a district and being on the board that's the work that's exciting for me what can we do to move forward and I think we have Visionaries and we have creative people so I think we can get from A to B but I think we need to see it in a report and then figure out what action steps we're taking to get from A to B and I want to encourage Us in that process that that's what I'm looking for so thank you for clarifying that you're
165welcome and we'll we'll make it a point as we go through the strategic planning process to to not only look at that we know we've had conversations with csw and a lot of our other Charter programs to look at again with in essence is a feasibility study but I don't think we need to wait a year for that I think we can compile that data in a relatively short amount of time and when I say we I mean you all because of course I'm not going to be compiling it but we already have the data right so I've already looked at it I've already talked to lots of people in this District about it in many different forums so we just need to compile it and then look at it and I'm sure that can
166be done in the next few months because it's something I've asked for before in fact Keisha has asked for it as well lots of people on this board have asked for it she asked for it when she first came on the board and she perhaps we can sit down and kind of you know out you know figure it out specifically and we can kind of look at write it down and then and make sure we get that and then we can make sure it gets in there well you've written it down because you've sent emails to Dr Ammon that we've all been privy to no no that's about the exact information I'm sorry I'm sorry like I'm assuming Mr Green is so you can and I know that particular was around so we're asking for
167just simply choice because that was the numbers and I know you sat down with Dr Hammond to look at so you're saying well yeah I look asked for Charters and magnets Charter magnet Equity action follow-up doctor I'm just trying to get clarity around what you're asking so that we can provide a product yeah it's right there so it's written down got it right thank you thank you is there anything else under this item if I could make a comment uh pertaining to Charter's uh about a comment that was made earlier about Charters and the vote we had for accepting new applications and uh my uh interpretation of that vote that no vote was uh that uh that were preclude us from accepting any new Charters applications but uh the day after I asked superintendent green
168to get a ruling from our Council legal counsel on that and he concurred that it did not preclude us from accepting new applications if we uh uh thought it would be uh appropriate so just want to clarify that it was misconception I think about the no vote uh it did not preclude us from accepting new Charters clarify that thank you all right moving on to policies discussion Mr Matthews so for the first policy I have a motion and I'm going to try to read this motion I know I'd seen it before I was having so I move that the red clay Board of Education assigned the exploration of the 27 pay to committee cfrc for financial review financial planning components and feasibility for the board's review in consideration of sending this item to the policy
169Review Committee is there a second second those are properly moving seconded that the red clay Board of Education assigned the exploration of the 27th pay to committee with the cfrc for financial review financial planning components and feasibility for the board's review and consideration of sending this item to the policy Review Committee is there a discussion so I'd like to speak on my motion okay you recognize Mr Matthew thank you so for those of you who may not have been privy to or were not engaged um over the last year with the 27 pay this fiscal period we have the state has 27 pays within its annual salary uh process typically um the pay cycle only includes 26 pays but this means is that our staff here that fall under the Department of Education within the
170state as state employees do not receive the 27 pay it's the only Department within our state's government that does not fund the 27th pay and for Education locally we're left to make the decision and budgeting decision as to whether we're going to fund that or not um despite my assessment and my opinion that the process is unfair being that all state employees are provided the full benefit of receiving their full paycheck every two weeks Educators who we know who are already underpaid and also in a field that has a female-led woman-led makeup I I think that we have to have some more robust discussions so that the next time this issue arises within our district we have some documentation and guidance on how to proceed I think this time around I I think that perhaps
171we should have had some more long-term Visions in terms of of when this will come up because it'll come up again um as it was presented at public meetings this is something that comes up about every 10 years or so um so in the next instance I want us to be prepared as a district is there any other discussion recognize Mr yeah um I think Mr Matthews clarified so what you're saying is this this motion that you're proposing does not affect the current 27th pay you're talking about future correct are our vote still stands and um for me that was not something that I was willing to um engage in um given the conflict of interest that I have sure um now that that item has passed um looking into the future this is not
172something that would pertain to me in any shape or way or form aside from my duties as a board member to to look at policies in the best interests of our district and employees thank you very much that that makes a lot yeah thank you clarifies it any other comments or discussion there you know uh Miss Stevens can you please call uh you have a question Dr bone yes I'm sorry let's pause I wanted to just I mean I know we had an explore right here just to kind of maybe give the board just some context as to again this is a 10-year cycle so ultimately give some clarity around Mr Matthew's motion to be able to understand what the board would be likely compelling the district to do and what that process ultimately would
173look like just to inform your boat I just I didn't know in the interest of time I would like to defer program and call the vote okay hold the vote please Dr Baum yes Mr Casper yes Mr Leonard yes Mr Matthews yes Mr Wilson yes Miss knee Smith yes unanimous motion carries thank you uh Mr Matthews so I have a second motion and I'll try to read this off and perhaps there might be a better way of phrasing this motion um and I'll I'll give some more context when we get to discussion so I move that the red clay policy Review Committee review and amend the current administrative policies that guide the use and approval of Parental leave to include a clear one-time exemption process to suspend to suspend use of the state approved employee
174parental leave time for employees experiencing new newborns with extensive medically documented Hospital hospitalized delays that require medical clearance from license from a licensed physician so that the employee if medically cleared could have the option to resume their assigned District duties number turn home once a medical discharge has been authorized and submitted to to to be home with their newborns during their approved leaves is there a second so can I yes recognize well yes you may be recognized thank you um so uh so the preface of my motion um was one that came up with um some concerns that I had for employees and specifically an instance that was incredibly rare um and I I won't get into the details and and out of respect of um that mother and our our district employee um but
175what I seek to do is to have the policy Review Committee review the potential of creating some flexibility in Grace for mothers who give birth to children with very complex and rare conditions that impact their ability to come home so when children are in the NICU and newborns are in the NICU oftentimes Physicians and clinicians typically advise that you're you should not be there within the entirety of the time um and that was the advice that was given to um this particular individual and my belief is that this policy this approved State time was intended for mothers and parents to be with their children at home after their child has been born to be able to bond with them and to be able to get settled with having a newborn child I think that this
176benefit is just been incredible to our employees and staff but I want them to be able to utilize it in a way that makes sense and if they have been if employees have been medically cleared to go home without a child um I think that there has to be some flexibility and Grace to be able to allow them to pause and suspend their state approved time until their child has been medically cleared and they can resume their lead to be at home with their children I'm still learning some pieces uh yes I will recognize you Dr bone so I just want to speak to the resolution when Mr Matthew showed it to me the first time I was like this is very complicated and I don't even understand it and I still feel that way
177about the motion so I feel like it does definitely need to be revised with that I will say that I worked with him very closely on the case to which he's referring and I had to get my state Senator Senator Sarah McBride involving she was very very helpful to the family that being said the issue is that we do not have a flexible parental leave policy in red clay so when there are extenuating circumstances people have to take all of their familial leave time in one setting and that was very unfair for this uh this parent who was going through a very complicated situation so I think the resolution is basically advocating that we have a more flexible parental leave policy with pay so our parents can continue to get paid but take time off
178at different times so I don't think we should work on revising that I think perhaps you should give it to our attorneys and then look at it again but I think that is the gist of it right we want a more flexible family leave policy specific to our district that that is correct right that is right so the nuances need to be written down and worked out correct so and I didn't want to include uh that level of detail to the motion but when I was asked to um summarize what I wanted to do in the motion prior to the meeting um I think it kind of created some complexities of how my motion was presented tonight um so with four discussions in our um new operating norms and with our Workshop discussions this is
179something that we're working through and that I'm getting used to so um I just wanted to to preface some context of why the motion was so complicated so because typically I'm used to having maybe some more robust discussion before my motion is made is there can I make an I think right could make an amendment to the motion okay [Music] um no she didn't mention she was just talking about right you saw she summarized the complicated nature of it okay so I moved that the motion be amended to the red clay policy review board amend the current parental leave policy to include flexibility for extenuating circumstances is there a second I second the amendment any others for the discussion I want to share that um for me well obviously I'm I'm I don't I would
180never be in a position of having a child um and and in that way and um for me I I empathize with uh mothers and their ability to go through that experience and also provide um such great service and come here to red clay and be 110 when I know how challenging um that time is particularly me working at a children's hospital and having worked in hospitals and in healthcare over the last 10 years um so I think I've come to a level of understanding of just how big of an undertaking that is particularly for mothers um so I I wanted to to make that remark in addition to that you ready for the question Dr bone yes Mr Casper I'm not comfortable voting yes at this time I said no that would be a
181no Mr Leonard yes Mr Matthews yes Mr Wilson no Miss knee Smith yes or yes to no motion carries do you have anything else under the policies discussion does any other board member have anything under policies discussion I'm not sure how how you I have you under the next one put this into because it's very different from what we've ever done so so I say no on that and then we'll move on to but this is where I think your items are Dr bo uh four policies and practices recommendations um I'm going to recognize Dr Bowman then after that Mr Leonard so I have a number of motions I'll just make them all here the first one is I motion that the board conduct board self-evaluations on an annual basis every July so you move
182that you say it again I motioned that the board conduct board self-evaluations on an annual basis every July is there a second second is there a discussion all in favor hi opposed no no let's call a vote yes thank you Mr Casper no Mr Leonard yes Mr Matthews yes Mr Wilson no miss me Smith yes for yes to no motion carries Dr Bell number two I motion that we create an attendance policy for board members is there a second second discussion well I'll speak to my policy or my motion so we have attendance policies for students we have attendance policies for educators we have attendance policies for our staff or our secretaries for the people who work in our cafeterias for custodians we have attendance policies for bus drivers so if everyone has an attendance
183policy I think it's only fit that the board also should have an attendance policy and there should always be attendance attendance expectations and we should also um have an attendance policy because I know that there is chronic absenteeism in regard to board committee meetings and attendance so therefore I motion again that we create an attendance policy for board members Is there further discussion discussion reclaim is not able to pay my salary for tonight I got on this board because the love of the children I'm doing a job down in Northern Virginia I don't get paid for this so to say that a board member has to have be here for every meeting I'm against that till December I have a job that I got to finish by December the 15th I don't care what profession
184you may be in your job takes you away from your house so I'm away from my house four days a month since early spring of this year but I'm here today I promise I'll be here for the next meetings for our board meeting come on we gotta re come sensible to a lot of things yes I know about children I know about custodian because that's the job they choose but we're elected officials I would be voting no on This Is there further discussion I I think I just want to kind of reiterate what Mr Martin said and that is um staff members get paid so there's an expectation of you know you have to be there students earn grades if a board member is derelict in their duties of attendance then if they run for
185re-election they may not be supported again I mean if they're not doing a good job you're not going to be supported I I don't know that having an attendance but I mean is there can't be anything punitive you can't vote to have a board member removed from the board you're elected by the public so how do you put in a policy I mean is the policy going to be punitive I don't I don't understand I think there's an expectation that board members attend meetings and and and committee meetings and there's a responsibility to attend meetings but I don't know that you can enforce a policy for somebody who's elected by the general public Mr Casper do you have a question about that you would like to be answered by Dr Bones motion well I I
186guess I'm saying I don't understand why there needs to be a policy and is it punitive or this is your question is would the policy be enforcedure would you like to answer that there should definitely be an attendance policy because everyone else has an attendance policy and the board's mission is for governance and students come for grades and people come to get paid and we come to govern so if we are to use your words derelict in our duty and not showing up to govern then the district isn't being governed I'm never in favor of punitive practices and everybody knows that so is there other further discussion or questions no I just like say we do have uh the zooming uh uh option two uh to be on the meetings but uh again uh the
187question is what will the penalty be and I think that's something we need to discuss before we vote on this you know formulate a little better I would think so the the motion has been moved and seconded so there will be a vote unless there's an amendment so I have um I recognize Mr Matthews it wasn't second I said she did yeah so I would like to say from a board member's roles and responsibilities is that over the years when I have proposed policy um like I have done tonight it is it has never been in my practice and I don't think it's in the best practice of the board to prescribe policy to the district um those duties I believe are delegated to the superintendent and our staff to be able to and our
188respective board committees to be able to have more robust discussions and engage the community and parents and students and stakeholders to really develop um the robust policy that we want to see I'll use the gender diverse policy as an example of that that was not a policy that I wrote it was a policy proposal when I brought it to the board there was certainly some hesitancy of my motion when I did not prescribe um my ideas to the district and I think as a contributor here um that's not my role here and I that's I don't see that as the role of anybody sitting um here on this board um is that it is our duty to set the vision um and Mission and set policies and approve policies in a way that engages um
189some robust feedback so my my trust is within um within the processes that we have in place I know that successful policy can be implemented um with motions that provide an overlying goal how the district wants to achieve that goal um is really up to um you know their their team and their staff and and can be developed in an organic way that makes sense for red clay and for our constituents families and students so um again I'll use my gender diverse policy proposal as an example of that um in fact I'll say here that I did not even attend any of those meetings because the develop the meetings that develop that policy because it really was not in in my role to be able to prescribe again prescribe how we Implement policy so I
190think the policy here um is a good one I think we do have to have some level of expectation in board Norms on how we treat each other because unfortunately it does create issues with morale and and when you do put in the time to serve the community and participate and fully engage you do want to be able to have the consensus of everyone at the table and also have this understanding that when you are not at the table you're nominating district is specifically not represented as the makeup of this board is so that seven slices of the pie are all represented when we make decisions and have discussion and I want everybody and I mean everybody in red clay to feel represented and to be represented here as we hold these discussions and and
191have these meetings and for me I do find it to be something that we have to have to really take a look at and address and so I appreciate the attendance policy being proposed is it further discussion I'm happy to send the policy to the board policy Review Committee and have them come up with something I have a couple questions um comments and questions um I do I know I know that our board Norms you know they elevate the need for us to attend and be present um and so I understand the policy proposal because it's just it sets a standard I think for our engagement but I have some thoughts and questions around that uh one of the things I noticed with how we we conduct businesses at the beginning at the organizational meeting
192we have all these committees now we have a lot of committees um and I think with a seven board seven-member board and to have more than seven committees makes it very difficult for us to serve on not just one committee but multiple committees so one of the things I think we should explore that's going to come an outcome of this of this proposal is maybe having a chairperson of committee and committing to one committee versus multiple committees and then looking at our committees because of the because we have so much work to do and this is a lot of work and it is you know because we have so much work maybe look at the standing committees that we have and maybe reduce or combine them based on the need and what comes out of
193the Strategic plan for example to to prioritize our work because we all have passionate Hearts that's why we're serving as volunteers but it does become very daunting when you do have multiple multiple committees and not enough people to serve and then I do understand that some people aren't as engaged and you know I do think the most important piece is that we direct our committee work and align it to our priorities so that we're not overwhelming ourselves because we're trying to do so much at once and so um I think that is a part of maybe an outcome that would help with the attendance policy or attendance to act meetings because we're going to be having board workshops and that's yet another day away from families another day that you can't focus on other things
194so um but to the point of Mr Casper um because I I was looking into this there is no recourse if you violate the policy other than being called out for violating the policy unless you have some other ideas I'm really interested in knowing how we would enforce and have hold one another accountable for it well I mean I think the gist of an attendance policy one is everyone agreeing and recognizing the importance of being here especially when we're talking about really big initiatives like the Wilmington learning collaborative and we have regular absenteeism whether it's a joint board meeting or a regular board meeting or a board Workshop right one right after the other that's a lot of times for someone to for someone to be absent I think you could have an attendance policy
195around committees in that if a person misses and I think you and I have talked about this specifically and I think the number you proposed was like two that if someone misses two um committee meetings then perhaps they need to recuse themselves from that committee because they're not offering reports at the board meetings they're not engaged and active in that committee so they're not supporting the work of that committee if they're regularly being absent and I think that if we have standards for other people we need to have standards for ourselves because we cannot profess to govern unmitigated I mean we have to have a standard for ourselves and I think it's um it's uh disconcerting that we wouldn't want to have a standard for ourselves when we are so eager to place standards on
196everybody else and I've talked about this in different circumstances I know that if our Educators want to take a day off their certain days they can't take off they they have to be there at certain times of the year right and we have that with our secretaries and our custodial staff so we need to have a standard for ourselves right Vision comes from the top and if we never hold ourselves accountable the people who are working in our district I mean that sets up a power differential and that's really problematic thank you for Clarence it's not fair it's not Equitable it's not inclusive we can't say I want you to do this but I'm going to do whatever I feel like so kind of to paraphrase what you're saying there's Clarity um for everybody because
197I it's not that you're saying that you have to come to every meeting we're saying we're creating a standard standards of practice policy for attendance um and then like for example I know I had to recuse myself from one of the Committees last year because of the time of the day like I wanted to serve on that committee but I couldn't because I had to work so those kinds of things okay um can I get ready for the question can I say one more time yes and I've also talked to board members across the state about what they do in terms of their attendance policies and other boards do things very differently and they're they're unique and they're nice but they work together to ensure that information is shared and they do have it they
198do have attendance policies I mean thank you are we ready for the question are you having comment so I do have a comment and and Dr beaum I I certainly appreciate your remarks um particularly as it pertains to some of the additional responsibilities like the Committees back in July when we had our reorg meeting I had advised this board to choose committees wisely as we approved the calendar a year in advance um that's a year of planning that's a year of you being able to mark your calendars and ensure that you can fulfill the commitment that you publicly announced and shared that you would fulfill and I am certainly understanding and provide a level of Grace to colleagues who are experiencing hardship or or uncertainty and circumstances um but if that circumstance impedes on your
199ability to to meet your responsibility as a board member I would think that you would have enough initiative to analyze whether or not this is again as we all acknowledge on on this stage tonight this volunteer service if you volunteered to do it um and you can volunteer not to do it um I know that at in Prior years I've been on this board ongoing five years now I have received nasty grams and the emails and I remember specifically some of the emails that I've received over the years was around the fact that I was only on two committees and I'm thinking oh my goodness I attend PTA meetings and I'm all around the district I attend all these different events and I'm on two committees that's a really big deal if you attend all
200of them and if you report on all of them and you follow up on all of them and their word board members and this is why I provided my advice to this board back at the last reward meeting to Choose Wisely and to not take on more than what you're willing to really commit to um because I as Dr Bowman and president niece Smith mentioned there's an expectation for our administrators to be there when I show up to a committee meeting I expect Ted to be there and provide his report and he has to be there like I have to be there and um it's for me it's actually a something I really enjoy doing um in a way that I like to give back but there's there's expectations for others that I I do
201want to hold for myself and I think it also impedes on the morale of the board and the morale of the administrators who work incredibly hard and the staff will work incredibly hard to be able to share their work with the people who have the power here the people have the power to make some really substantial and influential change so when you have that power Dynamic added to that and our employees don't feel like they're invested um in this process with us and they they don't feel like there's an Avenue for them to engage with the people who have the control I think just as a district as a a whole being present it really matters and so on again I just wanted to respond to your comments Miss Davis please call the question excuse
202me let me cancel okay there's been meetings that you please adjust the chair because this is a discussion about the about the motion to create an attendance policy so with if you have a selection of discussion that addressed me the chair not the individual board members I'm not uh so is if you have a comment about the the motion I have one thing about the motion yes okay so it's getting lately I'm not gonna hold up the time that's okay all right I'm not about holding up the time it's all right we're going to get ready to do all these things to reach change out red clay then we got to start thinking about graduations with so many things we got to start thinking about there's been meetings that for Ted uh with our facility
203meeting that I haven't been there but I've been on zoom and did the meeting there's been times that you've been we have got the report and gave the report in here and we weren't at the meetings but I'm not here to literally dad and stab anybody and worry about that I am worrying about red clay getting back to business and it is about the children of red clay and letting that superintendent run and do the job so whatever you want we want to vote about we vote about and we get move on thank you Miss Stevens please call the question were we going to amend it to send it to board policy Review Committee that's what I thought that was the the motion to send it to board policy review yes that was the motion
204it was to create attendance policy to send yeah yes so then the board policy review yeah okay yeah we're voting we're voting on so the the motion is the moved and seconded to create an attendance policy for for the board members and through the the okay I'm so tired sorry through the red clay board Review Committee Dr bone yes Mr Casper no Mr Leonard yes Mr Matthews yes Mr Wilson nope Miss knee Smith yes for yes to no motion carries Dr Paul do you have any other items um I think I do um so the next one is I motion that our future school board meetings board committee meetings and strategic plan meetings we recorded and offered in a hybrid format with closed captioning is there a second is there discussion yeah I just want
205to say it I'm sorry I'm sorry do you if you want to speak on your motion you get the first I've spoken on it okay previous month thank you go ahead Mr Leonard okay does that include posting on the the website or um I can definitely add that I say be that they should be recorded but you want recorded I think it's implied well it's for the public right well if it's recorded it's implied that it's recorded for the public otherwise it wouldn't be recorded so I think that would be part of it if you record it you would post it I can just I can amend it to say be recorded and posted I recommend that we change it to posting also any other discussion um I I believe in full transparency um but
206I also recognize the undue burden if we do not have the infrastructure to do so uh before every single meeting to be recorded um I do think however that every single meeting should be held via Zoom at the very least committee meetings are for the extra work that committees work on so if you think about in your own job if you're on a committee it's the small group that does the work and it brings it back to the body and so I don't know that is as necessary to record committee meetings because we why would we even report on them at this body if they're already recorded it would be no need for the committee there's actually that would end up being like a separate entity so I don't really support the recording of all
207meetings I do think that board meetings should be recorded as they are and potentially for workshops but I think to have every single committee meeting recorded is unnecessary now I shouldn't say unnecessary there's an undue burden and it may thwart the work any other comments I just want to say the uh the public meetings are recorded with zoom right with zoom possibilities is that correct are all public meetings zoomed no not yet now you say oh public meeting this meeting is duly noticed as a public meeting and this is the business meeting of the board so therefore in accordance with legislation and and policy it's created in a high profession where the community has access to it okay but others we don't have public access to exactly well they have we noticed the meetings they
208have access because the committee meetings are publicly noticed support workshops are publicly noticed so they're open to the public SO meetings a meeting is constituted as a meeting of the board is is with the Quorum the meeting of the board is at the Quorum uh committee meeting is a public is noticed to the public where the public can participate but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is a meeting of the board it is a committee meeting now you may have board members more than Aquarium of board members at a committee meeting I said look that up you can't have that but it's not a meeting of the board where business is being done so committee meetings kind of does like the background work around a topic or area and then they bring it to the
209the body which is the board at a board meeting and I would generally say it's actually operational because that's where we're actually doing the work on behalf of just with the board if you take the policy aspect of it right the board created a vision committing us to do the work and so in essence what you're asking is for us to record what we do operationally to ns's effect the request of the board because technically committee meetings are representative of the work that the board commissions us to do as staff Is there further discussion can I amend my emotions yes you may so I would like to amend it to read I motion that all future school board meetings board workshops and strategic plan meetings be recorded and posted and offered in a hybrid format
210so I removed the board committee meetings is there a second and was that a second is there a second second I have a question strategic planning meetings would be every single meeting so if for example um Mr Green meets with a cohort of teachers that that has to be recorded no I mean you met what did you mean by that the the main ones that Mr Green talked about in our board workshop last week or the week before where you said there was going to be like the public where public are invited yes so if there's a strategic planning meeting that the public is is invited to and the full body of the committee would be there so it wouldn't be offshoot meetings they'd be the big meetings like well a bigger meeting than this
211because there are other further further discussion did you have something Mr Green and again I would just generally say I I personally feel that that's operational and you have Representatives whether that would be parents constituents there are a number of avenues where we're going to be working to engage the community um but again it's the board's prerogative I I don't see that as a meeting of the board as much as it is again us engaging the community in various modalities um whether that's against the listening PTA input looking at boosters doing the various things that we need to do to broadly engage the community because it is a fluid process by which we're working with Hanover over the next nine months to think that if we pull a group together and there's really only four
212subsequent kinds of engagements with with the broader group that we have of Representative staff and and for the strategic planning process so I I have a question about that so with the strategic planning process and will there be like some Milestone meeting where you have a meeting with a bigger body where kind of like just a sharing I guess strategic part of the planning I think so I I we're I think where Dr boom is trying to things look so that people are kept abreast of the process the progress of the Strategic planning process is that and that's ongoing regular communication that we've been doing we just established that three board members would serve on that as Representatives in the strategic planning process so it goes back to a point that you originally made around
213committee board members served on various committees to report out that work in a public fashion I mean again it's the board of derogative so I'm just asking the question will there be in the process kind of like Town Hall kind of kind of things where there everybody can can up whether it be at a board meeting or whether whether it be talking specifically about this where we are our plan is to continue as the timeline indicates to give regular updates as to where we are in the strategic planning process and if we're engaging representative stakeholders in the process then and it's our hope or goal that folks would be informed any other discussion on the motion I just think it would be nice because then the community community if they couldn't come for whatever reason
214Child Care issues Transportation issues a snowstorm if they were interested they could participate I mean they could watch it they could zoom in you know they could see the recording I think it's just nice for um in terms of being transparent and accountable to allow the community to participate I mean I know some of the best feedback we've gotten in red clay has been that we're offering our board meetings by Zoom I mean people are so grateful for that for a multitude of reasons and it's just the strategic planning meetings now if you could please repeat the motion um I motion that all future school board meetings board workshops and strategic plan meetings be recorded and posted and offered in a hybrid format with closed captioning so I would like to so amend that to
215to take out the this is a discussion I'm not making an amendment but I'm thinking to take out the strategic planning part because we don't I don't feel like I probably have a full under clear understanding of what that looks like and I'd hate to say to do that and then it'd be like you can't do that it's too much so would you be willing to amend it to take that out and then maybe we'll discuss that in a further sure for tonight I'd be happy to take that out and I can bring it back up again yes all right so can you amend your emotion yes I motion that all future board meetings and board workshops be recorded and posted and offered in a hybrid format with closed captioning is there a second second
216Miss Davis please call the question Dr bone yes Mr Casper no Mr Leonard yes Mr Matthews yes Mr Wilson no miss me Smith yes for yes to no motion passes anything further oh um students not under this one though all right Mr Mr Leonard I think Dr bone has covered it all what about okay so that's that's the next one okay last one uh board committee proposal Dr Vogue and then Mr Leonard I'm going to defer to Mr Leonard because I'm tired thank you uh well as you know we've been talking about AI High uh for a while now some of the issues going on there so uh I just sort of clarify that I'm not asking for a formal uh permanent board committee this would be a task force uh until it's not needed
217anymore so I would like to propose the formation of the AI High developmental task force working with Educators and former Educators AI High alumni coaches Community leaders and organizations parents businesses and organized labor local institutions of Higher Learning legislators and other concerned individuals and organizations to produce positive outcomes for AI students families and school personnel the task force will assist direct district and school administrators by soliciting ideas and suggestions for developing classes and programs to meet the needs of the current student body and AI helping to improve student achievement through Community Partnerships uh introducing new programs to help instill hope in student aspirations and future plans with emphasis on developing skills that enhance personal growth while meeting the needs of society developing new and Innovative programs that may attract new students and families to AI
218High through their choice School process ing School administrators to advance their ideas of school Success developing plans to reinvigorate extracurricular activities including clubs band Athletics nice organizations and family organizations and working with school and family organizations to help re-engage family participation in the school community now I don't have to go in the uh why we need this task force you've heard it many times with many people uh but just uh the decline student population I'll just give you some stats here from 2010 to 2015 uh we had a 25 drop in uh population School population from 2018 to 2022 we added 32 percent drop in student attendance and so in a 12-year period we have a total of 54 drop in enrollment at AI High School so Uh something's not working there and now we'd
219like to get the community together um and trying to form my task force and I move to form an AI development task force to address the issues and to help assist in any way we can and I would like to volunteer at the board liaison is that a motion motion yes emotion okay you just say the motion I motion to form an AI High School development task force is there a second second is there a discussion my discussion would be that under the leadership of our superintendent that is my discussion what way do he wants to move forward with this I will honor that 100 percent obviously you're asking him a direct question yes I am and so again I think as I shared with the board there are a number of factors that we
220got to look at not solely regarding AI it's it's a more holistic way that we got to look at a lot of the movement a lot of the current programs that has led to the decline in enrollment um again to Dr Palmer's Point much of the data we already have we already know we're currently working with the current Administration and AI um to work on programming again but again this is the board's prerogative whether or not they want to establish another task force again to do the work that we're already looking at around our CTE career Pathways really looking at recruitment for our Traditional High School programs that fall outside of our magnet and Charter programs we're well aware and Keen to the issues we're not sitting here turning a blind eye to Ai No
221we we don't want any of our schools to be in a position where they have declining enrollment um but there's a lot of internal and external pressure as it relates to decisions that have been made before to establish certain programs throughout the district that pulls on um the feeder students within AI but then more importantly the programming that we have at AI so Mr Wilson to answer your question bluntly do we feel do I feel like we have the staff in the capacity to be able to work to address the needs that AI I do but if it's the board's wishes that you establish to Mr lunar's motion a committee to do so again I work at the pleasure of the board so it's ultimately a board decision Is there further discussion Mr Matthews so
222I want to thank you for bringing that to the table um this formation of this committee reminds me of something that was formed without board approval last year looking at not even a school but a specific program and that was the Mandarin immersion program at Linden Hill Elementary School um we had dedicated um District staff administrative staff teachers work with the community and I think the consensus and the lesson learned at least from from me and what I took away from that is that when we use public dollars and when we have public input from community members and when we receive countless numbers of letters and emails and Communications I think we do have to do our due diligence to address it in a public way when we have articles in the paper when we're
223again utilizing public funds sometimes we just have to take the best approach of being transparent and saying this is what we're doing here this is what we hope to do what feedback is out there for our families who pay into this system although it's a free education we all know it's not free and I think that the input of our community members really matter and sometimes we just have to take a step back and really gauge what the community is looking for in a red clay school I think it's just a good practice to sometimes pause I know that when we had the closing of the um Mandarin immersion program I received a call from superintendent green a call that no superintendent would ever want to make in a position I would never want to
224ever put you in and have you make it's it was incredibly hard but operationally there were some challenges and I was fully supportive of that and I want that to go on the record and I won the committee presented the reports I was fully supportive of the reports that were determined from from that committee it doesn't mean that I wasn't open but it at least also allowed us to provide a public forum for people to be engaged in the process and really look at whether or not we explored all the Avenues um that that that we may have not come up with um as a board or as a district to be able to to make a program feasible people so with that being said and with um all of the efforts that went in
225into that I think it's only fair uh for me to also Grant and support the formation of the committee that's driven by the community um and so I I want to see all sides and I want to learn more and I want to um again provide the opportunity for others I can't just provide opportunity for some and not for others and I want to be consistent with that with that application of my vote there's a further discussion Dr ball so I just want to say that I know a number of us on this board have been raising the issue of AI for a number of years so Mr Leonard I'm very glad that you bought this um to a head as I would say because now we're talking about it in public and I appreciate
226that and I think it's important and I know that we've had a number of parents and Educators reach out to us students who've actually had a past student who had showed up at a board meeting like a year a year and a half ago and he was talking about Ai and I believe he sent us a letter today um so we've had Educators requesting help we have students in need of support we have programs that need to be developed and I think this task force would begin to sort of pinpoint what we need to do because again I think this board is exciting in the fact that we often offer solutions to crises that we experience in the district and here once again we saw something was coming we've been talking about it for a
227while at the board level and now here's the opportunity to come up with some solutions oriented strategies to get AI back on track I mean and I think that's really really important and so thank you thank you is it further discussion yep I just want to say one more thing that I've had many many emails phone calls discussions with teachers parents and even students who are very up on having this happen very supportive and uh I think it's our duty to give the community what they want they've been asking for this and they would like to see this happen so I think we serve the community and I think it's our duty to make this happen so we get support from outside and why not accept what the community wants to give us you know
228some suggestions I mean we're working with administrators teachers and and everyone in the school community so why wouldn't we want that input from our our school Community Is there further discussion I have a comment if no one else okay um I I empathize with the community um the students the the staff around the issues um we talked a lot about AI um today um but I'm thinking I'm thinking about what we talked about at the board workshop with regard to Comprehensive High School task force um because we had some discussion around the changes in our communities with regard to you know de facto segregation because of choice and the number of students that were coming in from other districts to schools like AI um that that aren't necessarily coming in now and so with our
229dwindling numbers in the the high number of secondary schools that we had within the values of red clay um with including charter schools and private schools I think the problem is way bigger than Ai and if we're going to be Visionary and strategic then I think we don't we don't rush to put a Band-Aid on something that has a more systemic issue and so when we look at what choice is done you know choice has taken students who have whose parents may be a little bit more Savvy who want the best everybody wants the best for their kids so but by pulling kids and moving them all over the place you're going to end up with some kind of disparities and so I think we need to look at a more comprehensive plan around all
230of our secondary schools because I think if you start from that and you have some coherence then you can strategically play it around things to prevent future problems because if we for example put all our efforts into AI right now then what's what's the school going to be three years down the line we were talking about um the the increasing enrollment at Dickinson and that's going to be an issue when you have a capacity issue with a number of students in the school so why I sincerely uh believe that we do have some problems to be solved I wonder if there could be more of a smaller effort in collaboration with the school principal and in their team around some some quick small wins to get things rolling it whether that be you know creating
231more better morale and school pride and increasing in student engagement in the sports programs and the band and all those other things but but also maybe creating the comprehensive AI included Comprehensive High Schools task force because I'm trying to think about how how the Cog Wheels come together and so you can dress one problem over here but another one's gonna come over here so I just want to be very clear that I hear and I acknowledge and I agree that we need to do something about some of the challenges that constituents have shared with regard to AI High School however I think we need to work smarter not harder and I think being smarter is looking at the whole picture and through the strategic planning process which may not have been Hanover but maybe we
232need to put a little bit more money effort in team consultants in the in in this whole process to address that problem as a as a sub a sub part of the Strategic plan maybe the task forces around that and we get some consultant work with them so that we can address all of those issues because I'm sure those the every high school principal in an administrator can say all the different issues of the other schools but maybe there's not enough people talking about it so we don't you know so I just I just want to say yes we need to do something to support Ai and the efforts and I just think it should be a little bit more comprehensive Is there further discussion yes okay I would just like to say that uh
233when you say we don't want to rush in anything I was at AI high for 20 years and I I saw that the whole thing going down for 20 or the last 10 years at least but it's been 12 years we've seen this decline so I don't think that's a rush uh we're down 54 in enrollment and I don't know how much further we can go uh we're talking about strategic plan A Five-Year Plan I don't know we have that much time for AI and I don't know how low it can go or how many more programs we lose or how many kids we can lose or how many programs clubs Athletics and so forth I think it's critical we're in a critical stage right now we need to do something now and we have
234the community ready to jump in there and help with suggestions to the administrators and to the district so I'd say it's beyond the point of oh we gotta wait to see plan down the road we're beyond that that's not what I'm saying so I I'm sorry it's a little late I might not be passionate about it oh I know it's fine and I think I think that passion is good because passion will lead to action um and I I'm sorry I'm just a little a little sleepy so I might not use my words correctly so what I am what I mean is I think when I say the Strategic plan I'm not talking about a five-year plan I'm talking about some actionable steps right now with the support of Consultants to look at the whole
235problem but maybe a smaller when I say smaller maybe it not be a board effort but a collaborative effort with the school so can I and again and I'm acknowledging not only to the board but to the community AI is an area of focus for me a superintendent for our staff for the building level Administration for the community on behalf of our students who attend AI and so if it will help the board with this motion because it's it's not an either or it's a both their proposition right why we look at the district as a whole whether you know it's born out of what we did at Linden Hill which was a school-based driven process where that Administration worked with the community to look at it I I don't see why we couldn't create
236the same mechanism to look at the CTE the career Pathways the program offerings just an example they just created a gaming lab there's opportunities to partner with an organization that we're already engaged with which is future first gaming who looks at stem they look at mentoring they look at opportunities to to engage students to start leveraging again those short-term wins that we discussed while we look at long-term continuation of programming such as our Career Technical air programming where we have multiple Pathways at multiple schools um and and where would that pathway be better suited um to work with AI so if if you know Mr Leonard has those Bible community members I suggest that we work with again a team a steering committee however you want to delineate it um with the administration with alumni
237and Dr beaumi were referencing Mr CJ Jones a former student athlete who I know came out spoke uh passionately but we also know that there are some root causes um to why there was a decline in terms of certain programs certain athletic programs so again if it's the board's prerogative to allow us to work through a similar process of working with the school administration and staff and teacher leaders in those buildings um so to create that process to look at how we can Revitalize and help uplift in you know AI the current demographics of AI again I know we talk about where it was 12 years ago the state of the district is different than where it was 12 years ago I mean there are new programs again at that point Conrad didn't exist and
238so we got to look at in the sense of where they currently are how we can grow programs and potentially attract a broader uh demographic and clientele outside of their their feeder pattern so um I'm not sure again based on the discussion what Mr Leonard's motion was but we're not in disagreement again because AI is a current Focus for us um in terms of looking at what we need to do to support that school we support our community and stakeholders who attend AI high school I'm sorry Is there further discussion I just want to clarified um I guess if we establish a board level task force then who I guess I'm looking at it like yes everything that you're saying needs to be done and I'm not saying wait that's not what I'm saying what
239I'm saying is and kind of what you're saying it's like we're at the governing level and then there's that there's the administrative and the Hands-On feet on the ground level and maybe that should happen at the school level with the support of the superintendent and with the blessing of the board versus the Board taking on this initiative because I think you can have higher levels of engagement at the school level especially since you already have the community it interests and engagement and I think it could be powerful for that the school to be able to lead that initiative versus the Board leading it further discussion or are we ready yes if with the urgency why hasn't happened already why do you have to get this low to say oh now we're going to do something
240that just doesn't make sense to me oh now we're going to do something now that we're down to 54 in enrollment our our test scores are down our programs are disappearing but now oh we're going to do something now now to come public I don't understand it I think that's how you know the squeaky wheel gets the oil okay so are we ready for the question please call the question Dr bone yes Mr Casper no Mr Leonard yes Mr Matthews yes Mr Wilson yes miss me Smith no for yes to no motion carries Thank You Is there further discussion around board committee proposals can you say can you have safety is it going to hold that well the Safety Committee was an information item this month okay and I have a nice report but I
241think that people might not want to hear it this late at night I have one of um information I can share but I'm happy to just share it when we vote on it next month um could you share it with the board so that we have the information no like can you give us a copy of it or how do you want to go about that so we are informed before we have to I mean I can try and reduce it and go through it right now if you want it's up to you yeah all right so next month I've well I've talked about creating emotions for a School Safety Committee and next month it'll be on the agenda for a vote so I just want to talk a little bit about the research that
242I've looked at so we need a comprehensive multi-tiered approach to school safety which would be student centered so we can stop violence before it occurs if we look at the research it indicates that there are three key areas to focus on in regard to student gun violence including mass shootings one is student attendance two is socio-emotional behavior and three is academic performance um so the Research indicates that we need to reimagine school safety because the leading experts on school safety and mass shootings argue that school hardening Endeavors are not working to reduce or stop school shootings so in the effort to meet our mission statement which is uh the red clay mission statement is to provide the environment resources and commitment necessary to ensure that every student succeeds to meet that mission statement one of
243the things I've done is I've engaged the community in the work that we're trying to do in the district I've talked to Educators I've talked to students and I've gone to a lot of meetings so since our board meeting in August when I talked about this last I met with Dr Gwen anglet and Dr Harry Smith and I thank superintendent green for making that connection for me um they both work they run wcac which is the Wilmington citizens advisory Council I met with them on August 18 2022 and we talked a lot about having a multi-tier approach to school safety they recommended two books which I order they haven't come in yet one is the violence project how to stop a mass shooting the other is bleeding out the devastating consequences of urban violence and
244a bold new plan for peace so I'll give you all a book report on that next month I also attended the full body meeting for wcac um on September 13th and I looked at the work and the data collected by the Coalition of 100 black women including their 100 Bridges mentoring work and the Seven research briefs released in 2021 which captures the voices of black girls in Delaware to see what black girls were saying about school safety I'm also in the process of reading the community-based public safety uh Collective report which was just released on Friday by the mayor's office and president of city council trippy Congo and it is entitled landscape analysis report for the city of Wilmington Delaware you can get that on the website for the mayor thank you Miss Stevens for
245printing that out for me um the report was an examination of Wilmington's gun violence and the gun violence epidemic and presented ways the city could Implement community-based initiatives to combat violence and I think that's really important to point out because we've been talking about community-based interventions in our schools for a long time so of the report that was issued Seventh District councilman Chris Johnson said quote the landscape document is not just a report but it is a blueprint for reimagining Public Safety in our city we must finally learn from our mistakes from the past and Forge a new well well invested community-led approach for healing in our city and I'll add to that which definitely includes our schools and we have many of them um I also reread the policy brief called entitled call for
246Action to prevent gun violence in the USA and that policy brief was updated on May 27 2022 and it's endorsed by numerous professional organizations all in education psychology and Allied fields and they represent over 5 million professionals who work in the schools or with our schools and part of the brief reads quote although security measures are important to focus on simply preparing for shootings is insufficient we need a change in mindset and policy from reaction to prevention prevention entails more than security measures and begins long before a gunman comes to schools we need a comprehensive public health approach to gun violence that's informed by scientific evidence and the policy brief is endorsed by like I said 5 million over 5 million people but I just wanted to point out some key uh people who have
247endorsed it so Dr Dewey g Cornell from the University of Virginia who's one of the leaders on school safety in this country has endorsed it uh Dr bear who's right at the University of Delaware and does a lot of work on gun violence endorsed it and Dr Webster who's the director of the center for gun policy and research at Johns Hopkins University who's our foremost expert on Licensing in the country so as we continue to work on safety in our schools we must acknowledge that school safety mean different things to different groups which I said last month and we must act to create a plan that ensures the safety of all groups not just a few um I believe that we can always do more to protect the people who learn and teach and live
248and work in our schools and therefore I think a School Safety Committee is necessary so this is my condensed version of my report thank you for listening to me thank you is there anything else for the good of the board yes okay I recognize Mr Wilson okay at the end of the school year it was brought to my attention that we have a lack of adequate lactation rooms in our schools I've had several discussions however I wanted to address this matter in our public form to hopefully gain additional support in providing a dedicated room for those who choose to breastfeed currently we have a school that has provided space in the nurse's office behind his screen and this may be the case for multiple schools my concern is that anyone anyone who is sick will
249come to the nurse's office and although that space is sterile there is still potential contact with germs which is a risk to the staff member who is pumping and potentially taking care of their child we want to create a space that allows for our staff Our Ladies the mothers to make informed decision regard nursing their children first we need to provide a dedicated space where they feel comfortable to pump then we can dive into providing time potentially outside of their planning period for them to utilize the space just something I want to say on behalf of the young ladies that are with child having children that they can be at ease pumping and taking care of the kids because we're losing teachers by deductions and we don't want a mother saying well you know it's
250just not safe I'm not coming back I just put that thought out there thank you anything else for the going forward I just like to say um I appreciate all of the engagement I know this is a lengthy meeting however there was a lot accomplished I know this this will not be the norm um so sometimes at the beginning of the school year there's a lot more work to be done so I appreciate also the public comments and the people who've emailed us and I know that each person on this board is is dedicated to helping us to move forward so we have a lot of work to do a lot of passion and I appreciate the work of the board members the the leaders of the schools the teachers and the families uh can
251I have a motion to adjourn so moved yeah second second all in favor have a wonderful evening I'm proud of you good thank you for sure