Red Clay Board of Education Meeting: March 16, 2022

001[Music] Can you hear me? I'm I'm here. Good evening and a very warm welcome to the March 16th, 2022 Red Clay School Board meeting. It's nice to see everyone. I am Kathy Thompson, president of the Red Clay School District Board of Education. The board is thankful you've come out tonight and grateful to have you here to the March 16 March 16, 2022 Red Clay School Board meeting will see everyone. It is 7:05, president of the Red. This is a hybrid meeting and members of the public can access the meeting via Zoom to the red school in person at Richardson Park Elementary School in Wilmington, Delaware in the auditorium and members of the anchor location. all the other requirements of the place virtual meeting information regarding school including information access in auditorium andor electronic was published

002on March 9th22 on the red place under the public information individuals may speak at this meeting by completing public comment available online and submitting it at least 1 half hour prior the regular website. If electronic in order to be recognized, they must have provided an first and last online. It must match the name displayed on the Zoom account. We've had instances where that wasn't the case and it always proves to be a little bit of a problem. And we well we our student rep may come. We hope she's she's here. Welcome our student rep. Perfect timing. Great entrance. Miss Deafne El Bailey from CSW. Yes, welcome and we look forward to your report. Glad you could make it. As a courtesy to others and to prevent unnecessary disruption, all devices will be muted unless and

003until a person is recognized to speak. Um, we have one school board member who is remote. So, we really are hybrid. And because this is hybrid, in order to maximize the effectiveness, we'll have a roll call vote for each action item to be voted on. Each board member should identify themselves by name prior to speaking. If any board member wishes to speak or ask questions, please let me know so I can order who will be called on. The meeting is being recorded. As everybody knows, we have school board elections coming up on May 11th and we have four candidates. Um Jim Casper, Jordan Edggerton, Vic Leonard Senior, and Ashley Sabbo. Um, from my perspective, schoolboard members work hard without any compensation to make our school district and education even better and we look out for

004the um for the well-being of all our students in our Red Clay district. It is really critical for everyone to vote. Those schoolboard members are nominated out of a district. Everyone in Red Clay can vote for a school board member. So even though this is an election out of one district, all of Red Clay gets to vote for the candidate. And I know that proves to be a little bit of confusion within our community, but everybody can vote and we hope everybody will will exercise that opportunity. Kathy, real quick, it's May 10th. May 10th. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Sabbo. It's May 10th. My apologies. Okay, so we will start the meeting as we always do with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

005and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. So, are there any modifications to the agenda? [Music] agenda. The just say the number the calendar. I have Well, the calendar is one we're that's an action item we are voting. That's action item B. That's not inconsistent. The employee calendar. Oh, the employee calendar. That is not anything that we're voting on, I don't think. Is it? It's on item D. Okay. Item D. So, we want to pull item D and make it an action item. Yes. Okay. Okay. And then there's an error, but I don't know if that matters. Where's the The error is under the agenda. Has Faith Newton's name in it. The agenda does where? Faith Newton where I'm finding sorry. Okay. Um,

006it's under committees. Under committees. Faith Newton. Number eight. Item submitted by the board. Board policy review committee has code of conduct. Faith Newton. Faith R. Newton. Is that is that not in everybody's? I don't have that. That's not on the That's not on the uh in it. It's not on Yeah, it's not on the It's not on board. It is. It's under executive content. Well, okay. But executive content isn't part of the agenda. Okay. So with the change of moving pulling item D from the consent agenda to the action items, is there a motion to accept the agenda as amended? So move. Mr. Casper moves. Is there a second? Second. Miss Sabbo seconds. Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none, we will take a roll call vote. Please. Maria Dr. Bow. Yes. Dr. Bow. Yes. She I'm

007talking. I said yes. She's muted somehow. I'm not muted on my end. Mr. Casper, yes. Mr. Matthews, yes. Miss Nesmith, yes. Miss Sabbo, yes. Miss Thompson, yes. Mr. Wilson, yes. Unanimous vote. Motion carries. Um, the next is the student staff community recognitions. So, there's recognitions and Mr. Mark Puit, are you doing the recognitions tonight? Okay, fantastic. [Music] Good evening, President Thompson and school board members. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to fill in with schoolboard recognition tonight. I am extremely uh fortunate to be able to recognize the Alexa Dupant High School Tigers girls basketball team on their outstanding 2021 2022 season. On February 26th, the AI girls team defeated Flight A champion St. George's Vote Tech by a score of 73 to 42 to win the school's first girls basketball blue hen conference championship in

008nearly 20 years. This is particularly noteworthy, the ultimate comeback story, so to speak, as it comes on the heels of last year's CO 19 challenges during which the school did not feel a team. So, this championship is a worthwhile accomplishment on its own. But when coupled with the determination, commitment, and teamwork required to return in a championship form after a two-year absence, the accomplishment is truly remarkable. The team finished the regular season with a record of 17 and3, went undefeated in flight B play, and after winning the Blue Hen Conference championship, won their first round playoff game and finished the season with a final record of 19 and4. Mr. Robert Price was the 2022 Conference Coach of the Year and he preached the need for the team to play together and become a family and

009the team hopes to build on these successes in future years. We're thrilled to have many of them here tonight so that we were we may recognize their hard work and success. The team should come forward at this time. Members include team captain Amira Trader, who you may re have recalled played on the boys team last winter, team captain Shaniah Dunston Mason, team captain Samantha Grunza, player Kamani Woods, Naasia Jackson, Taylor Lee, Canaya White Fagan Falcone, Mileia Sharter, manager JC Alley, head coach Robert Price, assistant coach Mark Ally, and joining them this evening is principal Kevin Palinetti. Again, recognition for the AI Congratulations, Lady Tigers. Let's give it up for another applause. quite a story. And another shout out to Shania number 10 who scored her thousand points as well. A scholarship coming. Great job, ladies.

010Okay, we now move on to public comment. Again, thank you for coming out tonight to attend our meeting and share your thoughts. Under board policy 2006, the board encourages the staff and community to share concerns regarding school issues and educational programs. Sharing can be done verbally, in writing, and/or by speaking at our meeting. Under board policy 2006, the board shall provide a time period of up to 30 minutes at each board meeting for public comments, which time may be extended at the discretion of the board. Speakers are requested to give a written copy of their remarks to the superintendent, and speakers are limited to a threeminut time period. The time will be monitored, and the speaker will be able to see a timer on the screen. Speakers will be unmuted by the Red Clay team

011when it's time to speak. And when the time is up, the mic will be muted. So, welcome and thank you. And our first speaker is Miss Maria Facilla. Welcome, Miss Facil. I am always reminded how short I am. Good evening. My name is Maria Facella and I have worked at the Charter School of Wilmington for over 17 years. I am the assistant to the principal. I am our registar. If you call the school, I answer. If you walk into our office, I greet you. If there are morning announcements, I read them. And if your student graduates from charter, I announce their name as they cross the stage. I am intimately involved with the day-to-day operations of the Charter School of Wilmington. And my father is the founding president of the Charter School of Wilmington. I

012am well educated as to the role of school leadership and how it differs from the role of board governance. And as you know, the Red Clay School District is our charter authorizer. I am here tonight to implore the Red Clay School Board to investigate the board of directors of the Charter School of Bloomington and all related HR and legal matters. Currently, there is a movement by the board to immediately restructure the administrative team and remove our principal and assistant principal from the building without cause. This would leave CSW without any licensed or certified administrators. The two people who conduct the day-to-day operations of CSW are the principal and assistant principal, not our president. In fact, the only continuity in leadership over the past four years has been our principal. In fact, we have had a

013different president each of the four years our principal has been here. Our current president, who joined CSW in May of 2021, is neither licensed nor certified as a school administrator. Since February 22nd, we have had two board members resign their positions in the middle of their terms. The most recent was this past Monday night, March 14th. Both of these individuals are attorneys. A third attorney resigned from our board in July of last year. One might ask why three attorneys left our board in the middle of their terms. Earlier this month on March 3rd, the office of the attorney general of the state of Delaware rendered an opinion on two Freedom of Information Act violations regarding the CSW board of directors, finding that CSW did violate the Freedom of Information Act by not publicizing meetings in

014advance and not publishing minutes. I have grave concerns regarding the future of the Charter School of Wilmington. I implore the Reichplay School Board to investigate the board of directors of the Charter School of Wilmington and all related HR and legal matters. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Bella. Our next speaker is Dr. J. Shri Taylor and welcome, Dr. Taylor. Thank you. I'm a parent of two kids at Charter. I'm here to follow up issues regarding the Charter School Board that we shared at recent Red Clay board meetings. Since those meetings, we met with Red Clay President Kathy Thompson, who listened and validated our concerns as being signs of problems with governance of CSW board. She acknowledged that the board needs to properly adhere to open meeting laws, bylaws, and Robert's rules. Open meeting laws were not

015followed for nine months under the current CSW board president from March 8th to se to December 6, 2021 for subcommittees. Kathy said the appropriate action to take is to file complaints with the attorney general. We filed a petition with the AG's office when the CSW board did not post agendas or minutes for a December 3rd advancement meeting and a January 20th 20th finance meeting. On March 3rd, the attorney general rendered its formal opinion that the board failed to follow open meeting laws in both of those situations. And the J A's office has instructed that the charter board submit missing minutes and undergo training to comply with open meeting laws. The public expects that the charter school board determines the root cause of these violations so they do not happen again. Another concern is that the

016CSW board hasn't done governance training for seven years and has only recently implemented it. The training, however, is not being put into practice. At the last meeting, public discussions and healthy debate by board member Kate Clemus was stifled by the president of the board. Transparency has been further hampered by not sharing key performance indicators and plans for the school like they were in prior years. The public cannot wait for the ad hoc committee governance committee to finish its recommendations for actions to be taken. Trust with the community will only be earned with transparency. We see problems with the charter finance and citizens budget oversight committee. It has not posted meetings since October 2020. Since some committee members have exceeded legally allowable terms, we are not clear whether required finance training has been taking place or

017what financial decisions have been made. And a member of the DOE is on the committee to provide oversight. So, it's not clear why these problems exist. We have come to Red Clay for help because we are not being heard by the CSW board. Accusations that we have a desire to destroy the reputation of the school are furthest from the truth. Some of us have freshmen at the school and some even have younger children who hope to attend CSW. We recognize that you have heard about personnel issues at the school. We are not here for those issues. We must acknowledge that how a school board conducts itself has a trickle down effect on the administration, teaching, school culture, and student education. The charter board needs your help to improve its protocols, correct deficiencies, and provide responsible

018and inclusive leadership. We cannot afford to wait until the next charter renewal to look into these issues. If Red Clay, our authorizer, wants to see the school succeed, but it doesn't help, then we ask you, where do we go from here? Thank you, Dr. Taylor. And next is Miss Javon Johnson. Welcome, Miss Johnson. [Music] Good evening. Hello. First, I just want to say thank you so much for agreeing to start conversations about theou with the Wilmington Learning Collaborative. I really appreciate it. I know I've been here probably three, four months in a row telling you that this was the right thing to do. So, thank you. Today I was able to um listen. There was a listening session that um Superintendent Green was on and it was really very very informative. I was really happy

019to see so many people people that I haven't seen their names including Buzzy Cook. I was excited to see he was on there. So I really think this is a great collaborative and I was really happy. So I just want to thank you for that. But I'm also here tonight because I have great concerns about the things I'm hearing over at Charter. As you know, I am an alumni parent. I coach there. I have been a big supporter of the Charter School of Wilmington and I always will be because I am a very loyal person. I am not here to discuss personnel issues because I know there's nothing you can do about those things. That's up to the Charter School of Wilmington board of directors. But I do know that as an authorizer, it is

020your job to make sure that the board is governing appropriately. and the examples that you have been given. This is probably the third or fourth month in a row that people have come here from that school to talk about the things that are going on there like not posting minutes, not posting meetings, all the things that it is your job to make sure that they are doing because to me that's governing. They're not governing. They're mismanaging. And I'll remind you that the Odyssey charter had a lot of issues and look what that caused. Do we really want that to happen? It's great that Red Clay authorizes charters. I love when a district authorizes charter. You are the only school district in Delaware that authorizes charters and you have this school and DMA and I understand

021that you cannot get involved in their personnel issues. But all those things you're hearing and the letters you're getting because a lot of people blind copy me on them. Those are symptoms of a larger problem. And I have I can't stress enough, you guys have to do something because this is getting really bad and it makes me so sad. And it's a it's a great school. It's awesome. They they provide an amazing education. They provide amazing opportunities for students. My daughter went there. Kathy's son went there. Cesia's daughter went there. These are This is a great school. So, I implore you to just open an investigation. I'm confused because I thought it was on the agenda that you were going to have a discussion and now it's not on the agenda anymore. So, I'm just

022I don't understand why that's like. And then just the last thing is that tonight I had a so much trouble trying to find the link to this meeting. I wish that you could consider putting the link to our schoolboard meetings on the center of the front page. That would engage more families. It's crazy how long I had to text Jose for the for the link because I couldn't find it. So, please consider that. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Johnson. Our next speaker is Miss Dawn Alexander on Zoom. Welcome, Miss Alexander. Miss Don Alexander. Good evening. My name is Don Alexander. I'm a Red Clay resident, a CSW parent, and a Delaware public school educator with over 25 We can't hear Miss Miss Alexander. We can't hear you. We I saw you. Now I don't, but

023we couldn't hear you. I'm sorry. I'm unmuted. Don, I can hear you. This is Adriana Bone. I can hear you. Thank you, Dr. Bone. We see you. Maybe I should type in the chat. I'm unable to do that. Well, I I'll other Zoom participants can hear me. I'll I'll send the superintendent a message. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you. That's helpful. So, I don't know. Superintendent Green and Dr. Ammon, I I can hear Dawn. So, I'm assuming the other people online can hear her. I don't know if you can hear me, Dr. Bum. I can hear you. Well, we can just chat back and then we move to the next person while they work out the technical difficulties. Sure. If I just want to make sure that they're I can hear they can hear on

024Zoom. We just can't hear the auditorium. So, the folks who are online can hear her speak, but we just can't hear her. So, Miss Alexander, we're gonna we'll bring you back when we fix this issue. Okay. Sure. So, we'll moving on to the next person in the room is Miss Jessica Brown. Welcome, Miss Brown. Good evening. My name is Jessica Brown. I'm a parent of Emma Brown, a student at the Charter School of Wilmington. Last month, I shared with this board an incident Emma had with the president of Charter following the death of her friend, Nolan Whitman. She's here with me today. I asked you to help hold the president of charter and the charter school board accountable. The trickle down effect of poor leadership is manifesting with issues in administration, counselors, school board, and

025even the parents. The lack of transparency from the board breeds rumors and misconceptions which causes divide. We will get nowhere if we don't work together. All of this is having a negative impact on our children. Since the last Red Clayborn meeting, two members of the charter board have resigned. Both attorneys. There's something to be said for this. I'm at a loss for who to trust or to even believe. Someone needs to hold the Charter School of Wington School Board accountable. Someone needs to govern them. They are not a fully elected body. Parents are not speaking up. They're terrified of losing the school charter or their younger children not getting selected for enrollment. Parent te teachers are not speaking up out of fear of losing their jobs. None of us want these outcomes. The ask is

026transparency and effective leadership. Charter is an amazing school where my children have thrived. Emma has accomplished many things both academically and as a student athlete. She will graduate this year with a list of college acceptances to choose from. My daughter Erica, a sophomore at Charter, is excelling in both math and science. I want nothing more than for her to continue to enjoy the benefits of the excellent educational opportunities the charter has to offer, which is why I'm standing before you today. A friend who happens to disagree with me on Red Clay's involvement said that there are 900 children in that school that we need to consider. And on that, I agree with her. There are 900 children who deserve the very best, which is why I'm asking for your involvement. Thank you. Thank you, Miss

027Bernand. Do do we have our Zoom issue fixed? Okay. So, let's try the next person is let's go to Mr. Rodney Alexander who is on Zoom and see if Mr. Alexander can speak and then we'll go back to Miss Alexander. So, welcome Mr. Rodney Alexander. He's coming in. Good evening. Can you hear me? You need to unmute, Mr. Alexander. I am unmuted. Unmuted now. Can you speak, Mr. Alexander? Good evening. See if we can hear you. Good evening. Can you hear me? I can hear you. I'm also on Zoom, but I don't hear. Yeah, I can I can hear those on Zoom, but not We're not hearing you. Just so you know, Mr. So I I'll text the superintendent again just seconds. I think they're okay. We'll go to the next. So Mr. Jason Gormieri,

028welcome Mr. Gueri. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. Uh Red Clay board member, Superintendent Green, thank you for having me tonight. My name is Jason Gorneri and I have two students at the Charter School of Wilmington. Um myself and many parents want to apologize for turning these into the charter circus. Uh Red Clay has a lot of different schools to take care of, not just charter, but these meetings have definitely been taken over uh by charter and we apologize for that. Um you've heard from many parents complaining about Charter, complaining about board of directors, complaining about it new president, Dr. Johnson. They paint a very bleak picture of the school and if you didn't know any better, you'd think the school was going down in flames. The picture they paint is so bad

029as I listen to them, I wonder if their kids and my kids actually go to the same school. There are plenty of schools that would love to have your kids. The private schools up here are giving out academic scholarships like their Oprah. So, there are plenty of choices. I have a college freshman that graduated from charter last year as well as a current junior and a freshman there. Um, the charter name was received extremely well by all the college admissions counselors we spoke with at every university we toured. My junior and freshman are currently receiving an outstanding education at charter and I have no doubt they'll be more than prepared for college when they get there. CSW is a top ranked high school in the state of Delaware. It's a 15th ranked charter school in

030the nation. It's currently ranked number 74 out of all public high schools nationally. median SAT score is close to 1300 and last year students took over,200 AP exams. Over 99% of its students graduate every year and 99% of those go on to college. Last year's graduates were accepted to schools such as MIT, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Penn, Stanford, and Colombia. It is number one in the state of Delaware for college readiness and number one in the state for math and reading proficiency. My point here is this. Did Charter have issues dealing with the pandemic? Absolutely. Those issues have led to most of the division you see before you. Is Charter a perfect school? Absolutely not. But based on the performance of charter students this year and in years past, I think the Rightplace School District has

031more important issues to tackle than an extremely high performing and nationally ranked school. Give the CSW board and its new president, Dr. Johnson, who's doing a fantastic job. Give them the support that they need. But if the Red Clay School Board is spending a significant amount of time on the Charter School of Wilmington, you're doing all the other students in the Red Clay School a great Red Clay School District a great disservice. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gourer. Okay, our next is Mr. Steve Fenthal. Welcome, Mr. Fenthal. Good evening, board. My name is Stephen Fenthal, music teacher at Richie Elementary and vice president of the Red Clay Education Association. I come before you this evening to speak about this time of year that can be extremely challenging for our members. Staffing. As building administrators start

032figuring out staffing for next school year, educators may need to be reshuffled for organizational need of a school. We recognize things like bubble grades and other scenarios do happen and reassignments may need to be made within buildings. Reassignments for organizational need should only be used when absolutely necessary. Moving educators who have a track record of success in a certain grade level or position should not be an option unless absolutely necessary and other avenues such as the voluntary transfer process has been used to fill vacancies. I'm hopeful our building administrators and district take the effects of reassignments seriously and consider the impact of our educators at a time when stress levels and turnover are at an all-time high. Teacher turnover is well documented around the country, especially as of late. In the past eight months, 83

033educators have resigned from our district as compared to 40 during the same time frame last year. This is a problem. Any possible shifting of educators within buildings that is not absolutely critical should be non-existent. When thinking about any possible reassignments within our buildings, I'm hopeful you, the board, will ask direct questions about why any possible reassignments may happen in our buildings. At a time when educators are leaving our profession, we should be doing everything we can to support and retain them. Let us be sure any non-essential reassignments are not a reason educators may want to resign. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Mr. Frackenthal. Our next speaker is Miss Donna Urban. Welcome, Miss Urban. Let us be sure any non-essential. That was Mr. Fakenthal speaking as Mr. Facenthal is leaving. Mr. I I do want

034to make note there were issues I believe nationwide with Zoom and Zoom crashing today. So I don't know if that's some of the technical difficulties that we might be experiencing as well. It's sounding it's sounding positive. Okay. Welcome Miss Urban. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Tonight, I'd like to give you an update on CSW's wellness team. Students, faculty, aboard member, and administrators that meet weekly to provide input and guidance on strengthening our culture of care. Mental health care professionals rotate in to share resources. We are developing and promoting initiatives that focus on the well-being of our students, staff, and families. We will also review all memorial requests to honor a student or faculty member. In the next few weeks, you will hear from and meet the student leaders who are also driving change at CSW.

035We continue to reach out to supporting kids, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness so we can better support students in need of counseling. No students are gathering in closets or bathrooms. In building a culture of care, Mr. Chris Lock from Shaun's House spoke at our threeon-ree basketball tournament last week, sharing his perspective on losing a son to suicide and how is his organization can support our students and parents. On Friday, Shaun's house hosted breakfast for our students. In April, the team from Shaun's House will return to CSW for a parent program and student assembly. Under Dr. Reginald Johnson's leadership, we are focusing on the best interests and overall wellness of all of our students and faculty. I would like to remind you once again that Dr. Johnson has

036a master's degree in clinical psychology from Lasal University. We are committed to creating a safe place on campus for our African-American, Hispanic, Latino, Jewish, Asian-American, Pacific Islander, and our LGBTQ plus students and faculty. We stand beside our families who have relatives in the Ukraine and lend our support to the organizations on the front lines assisting them and acting as messengers of peace. Our South Asian student union is celebrating Holy this week. Today they decorated the hallways with colorful streamers and flowers. Holi is considered one of the most revered and celebrated festivals of India and it is celebrated in almost every part of the country. It announces the arrival of spring and the passing of winter. It is also sometime called a festival of love as on this day people unite together forgetting all resentments towards

037each other and throwing their worries to the wind. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Urban. So we're going to try Zoom again and our next Zoom speaker is Mr. Vic Leonard and we'll go back to the Mr. Alexander and Miss Alexander if this works. Okay. So welcome Miss Mr. Leonard. I can't see. Oh, Dr. Bone. Okay, I see Mr. I see Mr. Rodney Alexander. Can you guys hear me? I can hear you. So, we'll welcome you, Mr. Alexander. I don't think you can hear me. No. Well, I can hear you. Do you think uh Dr. that they could reset the Zoom to see. Let me ask them, are we recording the comments? So, I I would just unfortunately we can't hear in the auditorium, but I would allow them the opportunity to speak and that way

038it's a matter of record. Uh we will need to troubleshoot. However, understanding that Dr. Bone is also virtually and we wouldn't be able to hear her input. And I have lots of important things to say as well. Okay. So, do we want to go with them? We still have Miss SA. Yeah. You want to let me consider recess? Well, again, if we can record and we're recording their public comment, we're still giving them the opportunity to state their comment as a matter of record. We just simply can't hear them in the auditorium. So, I would just give them their three minutes understanding we can't hear them here, but those who are online can hear them. And again, their public comment is being recorded. They could call me I mean, I guess another option would be

039for they want to call me stick with President Thompson. I mean, they can call her. I don't know if that would give feedback. I don't know if it would either. Again, I I it's being recorded, so they we're not denying them the ability to give public comment. Again, we just simply can't hear them in the auditorium. So, for those who are online, let's give them their three minutes of public comment. And again, we have that recorded and we can play that back to make sure that their voices are being heard. Again, we would just need to have Dr. Bone dial in so that she can participate in the meeting officially as a board member. Madam President, can I could I make a request that before we go to action items that we listen to or

040can we hear the comments because they may affect some That's why I'm saying they need to call me so I can everyone who has stated that they're speaking. They're speaking on a topic. So, they presubmitted that and it's not anything relative to an action. CSW CSW and Mr. L. Again, I'm not trying to minimize it, but we're trying to troubleshoot something that we obviously can't fix. Can we Can we possibly uh get it on the phone and put a microphone to it so we can hear it? That's what I'm saying. if somebody So why don't we let Miss Sabbo speak and then we'll go one by one for the three others. Does that work? So welcome Miss Sabbo. Thanks. Uh in 2018 after a number of years working in the finance industry I decided to

041go back to school for nursing. I earned my associates of nursing in 2021 and my bachelor's of science just a couple months ago in giant in January. Since last year, I've worked at St. Francis with residents of the city of Wilmington as well as Baylor Women's Correctional Facility. My original why for running in 2017 was for my daughter who has special needs so I could advocate for her and other students with special needs. Not only do I want to show her and her little sister how to be strong advocates and leaders, I want to make sure they and in Red Clay receive the best possible education. I'm amazed by teachers and staff in our schools and how dedicated they are to our students. But I know as a district we can improve in areas like

042special education and IEPs, understanding the impact of trauma on students, increasing student achievement, and providing more career path options for those not interested in attending college post high school. These reasons and more are my why for running for reelection. Of course, my girls will always be my my why as well. My husband and I not only have two biological daughters, but in 2016, we adopted a teenager from the foster care system. Having a child with special needs and a child with complex background involving significant trauma has allowed me the opportunity to learn a great deal. These experiences as a mother provide me insight into similar situations our students face on a day-to-day basis and help me advocate for their best interests. My professional experience has given me firsthand experience working with vulnerable populations. Students from

043these homes are not just thinking about their math lessons or reading assignment. Many of them are wondering if they will have dinner when they get home. They are being raised by family members or foster families due to parents being incarcerated. They are experiencing trauma of watching their parents overdose in front of them and witness first responders attempting to save their parents. Sometimes successfully, other times not, which presents a whole new trauma in their life. The world of poverty, incarceration, and drugs is complex and requires compassion and empathy for all involved, including students. As a nurse, my job is to do no harm. I take that very seriously and work to approach all issues with compassion first rather than judgment. Since 2017, I have served diligently on the Red Clay School Board dedicated to the success

044of all students. I have relationships with many staff who discuss their concerns and ideas so I can advocate for them. I listen to all sides before making a decision and I will continue to do so if reelected on May 10th. Thank you, Miss Sibo. And now, do we want to go with um Miss Dawn Alexander, do you want to call me and then I can put you on speaker next to the microphone? Sure. Perfect. So, h how does she know how to call? She doesn't need to call. Okay. Oh, we got a fix. Okay. We hope to have a fix. We're working around a workar around. So, Miss Dawn Alexander is up next. Should I begin speaking? Can you hear me? I can hear you. Can Okay. Can you say something, Miss Alexander? Hi, this

045is Don Alexander. Can you speak a little bit longer so we can make sure we can hear you? Sure. Hi. We can hear you. Perfect. Wonderful. We're good. Thank you, Don, for being patient. Absolutely. My pleasure. Good evening. My name is Don Alexander. I'm a Red Clay resident, a City of Wilmington resident, a CSW parent, and a Delaware public school educator with over 25 years of experience. Over the past 10 years, I've participated in research-based, nationally recognized, extensive training focusing on social emotional learning, suicide prevention, and trauma-informed practices. Tonight, I want to acknowledge the pain that members of the CSW community are feeling due to the death of a beloved student. As an educator, I've experienced firsthand the death of students, and I understand that the death of a young person is gut-wrenching and impacts

046the entire school community. Therefore, I'm grateful that Dr. Johnson, CSW's president, has a degree in clinical psychology and is committed to partnering with CSW counselors and national experts to implement grief support practices that are based on empirical data and are considered to be current national best practices. I thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. Thank you, Miss Alexander, and thanks for hanging in with us. You bet. We'll go to Mr. Rodney Alexander. Welcome, Mr. Alexander. Good evening. Can you hear me? We can. Thank you. Awesome. Good evening, Red Clay School Board, faculty, community, and friends. My name is Rodney Alexander, and even though Dawn is a dear friend, um we're not related. I'd first off like to start and say that my heart goes out to Wendy East Teal. Family and friends, you're

047in our thoughts and prayers. I am a previous Charter School of Lington School Board member, CSW School Re-entry Committee member, and parent of two CSW students. I ran for the CSW School Board in the fall of 2020, mainly because I did not believe the old administration was putting students first and leading the school. The focus of my platform was students first, and I carried that mindset through my one-year term in helping to lead CSW through COVID and a leadership change. I've held several senior leadership roles in corporate America throughout my career and can can tell you that my short time invested on the CSW school board was one of the most challenging. So, my hat goes off to you folks. Thank you for your service. Please feel free to reach out to me if you'd

048like to learn more about my CSW perspective. I'd love to talk to you in person. I'm speaking tonight for a few reasons. I'm here addressing a lot of the blame I'm hearing about Reggie Johnson, Dr. Johnson and the CSW school board from a very small subset of the CSW community. I'm also speaking in support of Dr. Johnson and the CSW school board. I know many of the CSW board members and I have worked sidebyside with them and for the most part find that the majority of them are good folks truly do care about the school and the students and make the students the number one priority. They are volunteers who are make working very hard for the CSW community. I was on the CSW school board when we elected Dr. Johnson to be the CSW

049president last year. The last nine months, I've invested time to get to know Dr. Johnson as a person first and as a leader. I can tell you from my perspective, he is a quality individual who listens more than he talks. He truly cares about the school and the students. And he has a vision to positively lead CSW to higher standards through these uncertain times. Is the CSW school board perfect? No. Is Dr. Johnson perfect? No. Are any of us perfect? No. Blaming is easy. Leading is hard. I would ask CSW parents and community members to funnel their energy to help the CSW board and administration in positive and constructive ways. Be a part of the solution. I invite invite a board member to coffee and share best practices. If you don't like what's going on

050with the financial committee, join the committee. The lightning rod can't always be directed at the CSW president and board. We all own this. Educating our students is a community effort. I would also encourage the Red Clay School Board and the CSW School Board to get together to know each other, to understand their visions, expectations, right? Get to know each other as people and then as as an entity in and of itself. I will continue to be positive and do all that I can to support Dr. Johnson, CSWA faculty, students, schoolboard, and community. Thank you, Mr. Alexander. And then we have Mr. Leonard, but I think we're calling junior and not senior. Maria, I we we've got to make sure that it's Mr. Senior. I don't I think it's under Vic. There's only one. Okay. Okay.

051Okay. Mr. Leonard, welcome. Who's not accepting? BJ. BJ isn't speaking. It's Big Leonard. Is there a Tiger wrestler or something? Because I know he's been Is it possible they're using the same Zoom? Is it under Elaine? That I maybe that's a possibility. Okay, this is what happens when the Zoom name doesn't match. Javon knows. Okay, so it's Elaine. Okay, Mr. Leonard, welcome. We do have an additional Okay. Can you hear me now? We can. Thank you, Mr. Leonard. Oh, sorry about that. Okay. Uh uh let me put it back on here so I see my time. Uh, go ahead, Mr. Leonard. You're you're on. All right. Well, I missed a 15 seconds. Can I get those back, please? Yeah, I would start if I were you. Hello, my name is Okay. My name is Vic

052Lander, senior, and I'm running for Great Clay School Board on May 10th. I have 20 years service earth and environmental science teacher at aon high school and believe my 20 years of teaching in public school has instilled me in skills uh essential for red clay school board. My decades have inspired me, humbled me, blessed me with moments of great joy and others with deep reflection. But most of all, they have instilled me with my many in district already have empathy, collaboration, conviction, vision, and community service. We need empathy on a school board because I think too many people today are too quick to judge and don't spend enough time listening. At AI High, some teachers had ripped off a particular of mine. was gang member a problem. I started talking to him and we bonded.

053He shared with me how pleased me his room for when he was listening to him and talking with him and we bonded more. Soon he was making A's and B's. Other teachers were surprised that the day he recognition we need collaboration award at AI high and would have not been successful without collaboration. We received a $25,000 grant from the nature build pond and the kids had a blast and learned a lot in the process. They also saw the need to rebuild AI's obser Meredith, I'm sorry, McGrath uh grant for 25,000 to renovate the observatory. Uh we lifted up the dome, replaced with gears and had students make the inside. When it was done, our students couldn't believe how clear the rings around Saturn were. As head coach of AI's wrestling and girls softball team, a

054firm commission and I said that our teams needed parental and community involvement to be successful. It's his your connection isn't coming through Mr. Leonard. I think he I think he's dropped off. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Leonard. And then we do have one more speaker who's not listed up here, but we got his we got his comment form in time. Mr. Ron Brayman. And welcome, Mr. Braymond. Thank you very much. I didn't think I was going to be able to be here, so I didn't have my uh speech ready for to give you a copy. So, I think because this has gone so long and everything, I'd rather come back at another meeting and kind of cut this a little bit short. Okay, that'd be fine. We have a meeting in April. Okay, I'll be back.

055And and I just want to say that I've been living in Newcastle County for a long time and I sure do like the Charter School of Wilmington. And I just want to say that if there's a way to straighten this problem out and really get them back to being well organized and feeling good about everything, I sure would like you guys to be able to help to do it. Okay. Thank you. And Mr. Braymond, if you want to either submit your comment to the board or directly to my office and not have to wait a month. I mean, we're willing to information. I'll just I'll get to you. Yeah. So, if you want to give Miss Stevens your information, we can I'll make sure my office follows up with it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

056Thank you. Okay. And that concludes our public comment. Thank you everyone. So, now we move on to approval of the minutes. Is there a motion to approve the executive session minutes from February 9th, 2022 meeting? So, moved. Mr. Mr. Matthews moves. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Wilson seconds. Um, no. Any any no discussion? Okay, Maria, we'll take a roll call vote, please. Dr. Bow, yes. Mr. Casper, yes. Mr. Matthews, yes. Miss Nmith, yes. Miss Sabbo, yes. Miss Thompson, yes. Mr. Wilson, yes. Unanimous vote. Motion carries. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the minutes from our regular board meeting on February 9th, 2022? So moved. Miss Matthews. Mr. Matthews moves. Is there a second? Second. Miss Sabbo seconds. Any any discussion? Thank you, Maria. I will adopt. Okay. Thank you, Maria. Okay. We

057will take a roll call vote, please. Dr. Bow, yes. Mr. Casper, yes. Mr. Matthews, yes. Miss Nesmith, yes. Miss Sabbo, yes. Miss Thompson, yes. Mr. Wilson, yes. Unanimous vote. Motion carries. Now we move on to the action items. And the first is an administrative assignment. So it is a recommendation that the reclay board of education approve Dr. Dawn DS for the assistant dean position at CB Callaway School of the Arts effective April 4th, 2022. Salary will be commiserate with the approved administrator salary schedule. Is there a motion? So move. Mr. Wilson moves. Is there a second? Mr. Casper seconds. So it's been moved and seconded that the Red Clay Board of Education approved Dr. Dawn DS for the assistant dean position at CAD Callaway School of the Arts. Is there any discussion? Hearing no discussion,

058I believe we are ready for the question. Maria, Dr. Bone, yes. Mr. Casper, yes. Mr. Matthews, yes. Miss Nesmith, yes. Miss Sable, yes. Miss Thompson, yes. Mr. Wilson, yes. Unanimous vote. Motion carries. Congratulations to Dr. Don DS. And Dr. DS is here. Thank you. And I don't know if that's Mr. Dr. Dawn DS or Dr. Dr. Dawn DS sitting next to you. So, welcome. Congratulations, Dr. DS. Okay. The next action item is on the 2022 2023 school year calendar. It is the recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approve the school year calendar for 2022 2023 school year as submitted. I do want to note that we did um with our preschool EYP professional learning day. Initially it was the 13th. It was switched to the 17th because the vendor who is selected for

059their days didn't want to do two subsequent days of Friday and a Monday. I don't think they wanted to spend the weekend in Delaware. So we adjusted the day. So the only you know again change with that was just the EYP calendar date switching from their professional development date on the 13th to the 17th to give them two consecutive days of of learning. So otherwise it same calendar as there a motion. So moved. Ashley Miss Sabbo moves. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Wilson seconds. Is there any discussion? Yes. Okay. Miss Nesmith wants to discuss. Does anybody else at this point? Okay. Hey, Miss N Smith, go ahead. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes. Um, I just want to acknowledge that we do have some of the breaks on here and we are celebrating or

060not celebrating, we are off of school for some of the Jewish holidays. And I did not see, and I could be wrong, but I did not see anything for Eid, um, which is a holiday that many of our Muslim students celebrate, which is in, I want to say next year it is in April. Um, and have we had any consideration or discussion around acknowledging that as a a holiday that we might want to allow for a population of our probably a larger population than we we know? um to address to address that and I just wanted to have a discussion about that. So I I would just generally say we do have a calendar committee that works to schedule the calendar and I don't know if that was presented. Um this is the first that

061it's being brought to I would probably say the boards in my three years of being here and I don't think it's come before the calendar committee to even consider. Yeah. I didn't even know we had a calendar committee because I'm still a little new. I can claim that until the end of the year. Um, so I just I mean maybe that's something that they hadn't thought about. I don't know if there's no board member on the calendar committee. So, um, I just wanted to have a discussion about that and get the thoughts of the board um because I do think that as we become more inclusive, um, that we want to consider um, that holiday for our Muslim students and teachers and staff. So, I'm interested in the board's thoughts. So, this is Dr. Bow.

062I did bring this up. I think it was prior to Superintendent Green's tenure, but when we were um talking about the calendar pre- pandemic, pre Mr. Derell Green, I did raise the issue of um the fact that our calendar could be brought to be more inclusive to include holidays of other groups and that didn't really go anywhere, but I have brought it up in the past and I do support not only the conversation but adding or incorporating holidays for um other religious groups since we do it for some religious groups. So, thank you for bringing this up, Miss N Smith. So, which is the holiday that you're talking about? Because if it's eyed, it's on May 2nd, the end of Ramadan. 2023. 2022. No, I'm This calendar, this calendar is for 2023. I don't want

063to mispronounce it because I'm not Muslim, but I the Eid. It's not the Eid, it's the Eid. E. Yes. E I D space A L space F I T R space T 2023. It's the 21st and the 22nd of April. So it could be c it could be celebrated on the 21st. And I hope I'm right because I know that certain calendars are incorrect online. Um but it would be the 21st. I think it's more than one day. It goes into the next day or it could be the 24th. Well, Eid is often celebrated in accordance with the with the with the lunar calendar. So, it's going to be with the sighting of the moon. It's March 23rd, I believe. She said April. April 22nd then. Yes. According to what I'm looking, it starts on

064the 21st, the evening of the 21st. So may I may I make a suggestion to the board? Yes. Um and again being as though we have a calendar committee and it it seems to be the wishes of of the board and obviously I don't think any one of us are really familiar with it to have a substantive conversation allow us to do some investigating and engage with our Muslim community to to ultimately determine um what that impact will be. with most religious holidays, students can observe those holidays without the fear of penalty um and have that day off. Uh but again, we allow us to do a little bit more investigating. We do have relationships with our office of equity strategic partnerships and again through Dr. Bond and with Mr. Puit leading the calendar committee

065to really investigate this a little bit more thoroughly and engaged so that we are making an informed decision relative to um this holiday. I do want to also just, you know, make the board aware that the the calendar process is kind of very straightforward in terms of the number of student hours and things that we're required to do. Um, and so we would have to again take into account, you know, a clear perspective as to who we're ultimately providing that time off structurally in terms of a district-wide closure um or giving those days off. And again, I'm not saying that we we won't want to do it, but we got to make sure that we are inclusive as a whole. So, I would generally just say allow us to do some investigating um based on

066this conversation that we can again inform ourselves as well as the board um and allow the calendar committee to have that discussion um moving forward. So, I'd like to amend the motion, Madame President. Yes. Um the amendment I move that the make the amendment that we do not accept this um for an action item and we move it to the next month. Well, I wanted to ask Mr. Green what he wanted to do. Let's let's get the perspective of what I do. We have a motion on the table. Motion on the table. It's already on the table. It's appropriate at this point to get Mr. Green's comment and then we can deal with the motion. Well, can you do get a second and then Well, I want to get I want to get I give

067a second. Second, Dr. Mr. I would generally say we do have a timeline where we have to submit our the reason why the calendar is on for March is because we have to submit this to the Delaware Department of Education. So, there again are timelines that are beyond our control. Um, and that's why I said again, if if we're not acknowledging it this year, there's no risk of penalty for students to to take that day off. And and again, I understand that we have staff members who may want to observe that holiday, but we do have a timeline as it relates to this board approved calendar gets approved now. And then with Mr. Ford, do you know the exact date? So for the DoD, we have to submit our annual calendar to the Delaware Department

068of Education. I just like to note that I did put I did ask to amend the motion and there wasn't a second yet. So there was a second. Dr. Bone seconded. It was okay. So So can you restate the motion, please? Yes. I my motion was to to move this vote to the next my amendment was to move this vote to the next month but in the discussion I'm still in discussion mode right now. Um I want to I I understand the timelines. Um, but I maybe a slight adjustment could be made to the school calendar to at least acknowledge that on the calendar because it's not there. So that wouldn't necessarily change the hours and the and the the holidays, etc. that are school days off, but to at least make the acknowledgement of

069it on this calendar that's submitted to the state. So is the motion to I'm just discussion right now. That's what I'm saying. So I think what you're saying if I'm hearing you right is to accept the calendar with the with the amendment that the Eid is noted on the calendar and the calendar committee considers having that as a holiday for 2024. That's the discussion. Yeah. So I can make the amendment. I didn't make it yet but yes. Is that what that's what I'm saying based on the information? Yeah. Okay. So, I move I like to make the amendment that we accept the calendar with the caveat that the holiday for 2023 Eter please forgive me if I'm saying it wrong be added to the calendar for acknowledgement and considered by the committee for the the

070next uh calendar year. Is there a second? Second, Dr. Bone. Okay. So, it's now been moved and seconded that the Red Clay School Board accept the calendar as presented with the caveat that the 2023 eyed holiday for the Muslims is added is acknowledged on the calendar and considered for a holiday for 2024. Correct. Yes. Is there any discussion? The discussion is the proper pronunciation is E. It's the Eid. Okay. Is there any discussion? Can I get clarification on the date when for the holiday for which year? For 2021. 2023 is April 21st to 22nd. What day of the week does that fall on? It starts at sundown on the on the 21st. What day of the week? of April which is a Friday and it goes into the 22nd in 2023 which is a Saturday

071which is a weekend holiday and again we can acknowledge it and again I want to be know transparent our office of equity and strategic partnerships Dr. Bond has engaged with um with the community and again that the notion was that students would be able to observe that holiday without penalty. Um but we can make note and note the holiday on the school calendar that suffice for the board based on the motion that's currently on the table. Yeah. And so for further discussion before we vote um and I just brought that one up because that was the one I was thinking about, but there's other holidays that are um as we talk about inclusiveness and diversity. So the diversity, equity, and inclusion part is to include the diversity of our of our district by including that

072on the calendar and on the district site. I think our our equity department does a great job, but I'm just since we're talking about calendar, um there's also Dvali that's that this year occurred in November. So just to be more cognizant of our population and what we what the different people celebrate and what that means. I heard someone talk about holy which is this week and so some of the holidays are just you know celebration holidays and some of them um carry more of a religious weight to it. So I just want us to be uh proactive and and because of the deadline that we have I am I'm okay with us just acknowledging it on the calendar and not changing the calendar. Is there any other discussion? Yes. So, thank you so much, Miss

073N. Smith, for bringing these uh important events and dates up. And I think that beginning the year after this one, we should incorporate some of these holidays into our calendar, not just in terms of acknowledgement, but also in terms of observance, because we do observe other religious holidays. And we actually are behind the times because many other districts across this nation do celebrate Eid and Diwali and Holi and they have even other holidays that they uh respect and they observe in regards to time off. So moving forward I'd like us to see I'd like to see us move in that direction. Thank you. Is there any other comments? Okay. So people are ready for the question. The cres the question is that the red clay school board accept the calendar as submitted with the caveat

074at the 2023 Eid c holiday is a is added for acknowledgement on the current calendar and considered by the calendar committee as a holiday for 2024. Maria will take a roll call. Dr. B. Yes. Mr. Casper, I don't like the way the motion reported, so I'm going to be no. Mr. Matthews, yes. Miss Nmith, yes. Miss Sable, yes. Mr. Wilson, no. Miss Thompson, yes. Five, yes. Two, no. Motion carries. We move on to the FY2022 final budget. It is a recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approved the FY 2022 final budget as submitted. Is there a motion? Miss Miss Sabbo moves. Is there a second? Second. Miss Miss Nith seconds. Is there any discussion? I just wanted to say um I appreciate the CFRC of meetings and um Miss Flory uh um on

075her clear and elaborate discussion around each line item in the final budget. Um I think she puts a lot of time and energy to help us to understand the expenditures and she's flexible with the requests. So I just appreciate the hard work that's put into that. I totally agree. Miss Flory does an outstanding job with a highly complex um budget for Red Clay and for you know any other school district in the state. So hearing nothing, it is the recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approve the FY2022 final budget as submitted. Miss uh Maria will take a roll call vote, please. Dr. Bone, yes. Mr. Casper, yes. Mr. Matthews, yes. Miss Nesmith, yes. Miss Sable, yes. Mr. Wilson, yes. Miss Thompson, yes. Unanimous vote. Motion carries. Now we move on to the 2022

0762023 employee calendar. It was on consent. I have a question. That's why I wanted to talk about it. Okay. So, we uh can we move to approve the 12 month. So it was the recommendation that the regular board of education approve the 2022 2023 12-month employee calendar estimate. Is there a motion? So moved. Miss Sabbo moves. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Wilson seconds. And now we'll have discussion. So I know Miss Newmith. Yeah. Just real quick. Um first I want to say um that our employees work really hard and I don't have all the information about different contracts and all this. So, this is the for the 12 month employees, which includes administrators and um office staff. Okay. And I just would like to see later that they get a little bit more time

077for winter break. That's that's kind of what I'm little questioning about because they don't get every day of the winter break. So, as 12-month employees, we do get vacation time that we typically take off during that period of time as well in terms of administrators. And then contractually, I mean, there's, you know, overtime involved. There's different things that factor into their collective bargaining units that structures it the way that that we have. I know. I just wanted to make a point um that, you know, a lot of school districts have those days embedded in their days off on top of them not having to take their vacation time. So, I was just curious to see just to bring that up. That's all. I'm not against the calendar, but I just wanted to advocate for our

07812-month employees here. Julie knows. Is there any other discussion? Hearing none, it's the recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approve the 2022 2023 employee 12-month employee calendar as submitted. And Maria will take a roll call date, please. Dr. Bow, yes. Mr. Casper, yes. Mr. Matthews, yes. Miss Nmith, no. Miss Sable, yes. Mr. Wilson, yes. Miss Thompson, yes. Six, yes. One, no. Motion carries. And since we have approved the count, I just want to make note again, and this is for everyone, there there is a lot of things that statute and state code as it relates to calendars that we're obligated to to follow. Um, so I just want to be mindful of that and anytime that we add a workday in particular beyond it's typically at a local expense. So I think again

079when you talk about if if we extend and give that time off especially an organization this size what the board would ultimately be committing to um as it relates to local expenses if we're giving those days but a lot of the things that are structured around the the calendar are specific to code and you know regulations. So I just wanted to again make that clear. Are we still having discussion on it? No, I just wanted to make the point for the board. We're really not. So let's move on to the consent approval of the consent items. It's the recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approve consent items A through D as submitted. Is there a motion? So move. Mr. Wilson moves. Is there a second? Second. Miss N Smith seconds. And we do

080not discuss action items on the consent agenda. So Maria will take a roll call vote, please. Dr. Bone. Yes. I'm sorry. Mr. Casper, yes. Mr. Matthews, yes. Miss Nmith, yes. Miss Sable, yes. Mr. Wilson, yes. Miss Thompson, yes. Unanimous vote. Motion carries. Thank you. And now we move on to our superintendence report to Mr. Green. The floor is yours. Good evening. Thank you, Madam President. um members who are joining us online as well as those who are here in attendance in person. Thank you for uh staying with us with regards to despite our technical difficulties. Um before I actually begin engaging my report, we have our student representative here from the Charter School of Wilmington. So we want to welcome Deafany El Bailey. Um student representative here and just kind of the floor is yours

081again. Welcome. Hopefully everything is going well. It's good to see you maskless um in this environment. So definitely the floor is yours. Um, as you said, hi, my name is Death Ala. Um, I'm a current senior at the Charter School Wilmington and um, I'm obviously the focus school this week. So, I'm just going to give an update of what's been happening. And, um, the focus school. So, um, first off, we just want to recognize that our student unions have been meeting with administration um, such as our Asian student unions, South Asian, Black, um, LGBTQ plus, and Latinx unions. And they have been um, organizing events for holidays and the past month, Black History Month. Also, um, culture day, we it's usually a tradition at CSW where, um, students can celebrate their culture and it's usually

082in conjunction with CAB Callaway as well. So, um, we do plan on having culture day this spring and we are excited to plan that. Uh, as uh, Miss Donna Urban mentioned, the wellness committee um, has been meeting and it is inclusive of all stakeholder groups uh, which includes parent uh, teachers, kids, and parents and that has been meeting and making progress. Um, also there's been a change to the science curriculum that they wanted to update. So um they changed the curriculum because physical science curriculum got moved to eighth grade and um this course is basically trying to teach students how to think like scientists um which will be done through an environmental lens specifically and it brings um biology, chemistry and physics into the first year course so they're introduced into they're introduced to the

083topics as a freshman. And then um specifically Charterthon will be happening as well which um donates to be positive which is a child fighting childhood cancer. And there were also um two separate LLS groups which also donates to cancer room. And then we just want to take a moment to recognize the individual student achievements that happened uh over the past two months. So mock trial got third in the state at their competition. The girls basketball team advanced pretty far into the state tournament. Um swimming also did very well. Uh there was an MLK voice winner in the MLK um spotlight. And yeah, that's it. Thank you. and Matt Meyer did come and I think recognized the student winner for the ML day um voice winner. So again, congratulations to all the positive things that are

084going on at at CSW. And just as a recap, um you know, February we did celebrate Black History Month and we are here in at Richardson Park. So Dr. Woods is here. Um that was one of the many events that we came. It was the blacks and wax um where students did a wonderful phenomenal job of honoring um the legacy of of so many um black history pioneers. Um Highlands Elementary had a similar program. Yuki Washington kind of elevated you know the events and things that were going on as well um throughout Red Clay. We had a wonderful opportunity to partner with several community partnerships um an organization that I I've supported over the years, One Village Alliance, um with their CEO, Missandra Pittz, um Delaware Humanities, um the Concert Crew Podcast, Born for Brothers,

085which is a mentoring program at McCain High School, um brought a live culturally relevant, culturally responsive, but almost a masterclass um event to McCain where McCain actually their audio engineering program led by Mr. Greg Balden. So I want to thank Mr. Balden um principal Maddox who is an amazing school leader over there and as well as Mr. Rob Mccropolis who works in our communication department um and Tmaine Smith who oversees the Born for Brothers program. It was a master class. So, we have the audio engineering program at McCain High School um that puts on podcasts on Sundays that get aired on NPR, but we had a local professional podcast crew called Concert Crew Podcast along with um a number of other you prominent young African-American men. And the whole goal for Raising Kings is to

086change and uplift the positive images uh for young black males. And so the audio engineering program actually many of the technical things that you see our our uh technology team troubleshooting tonight actually did all the lighting. They did the sound um they did the audio engineering aspect of it. So it served as a master class while also providing positive images uh to our students. And I also want to thank Miss April Anderson who oversees our McKenna Vento. We were able to also secure a grant for the born for brothers mentoring program at Thomas McCain as a result of again this this initiative uh that we were able to engage them with. Also uh kudos to the recllays uh rec Kaden Connor um Aditi Sarin Brooks Wolf Riley Welsh Kaden Pritchard and Marshall McDavid for outstanding

087speeches during the project soap box event that was housed at the John Dickson School. Miss Holly Golder is in uh instrumental in working with uh Mikvah challenge which really brings opportunities for students to elevate their voice. We're very big on student voice in here in Red Clay. We also want to thank representatives uh Sher Dorsey Walker um Michael Smith and Delaware Supreme Court Justice Justice Tama R. McGomery Reeves uh for serving as judges. Um and our students elevated real world issues. Everything from I mean amazing speeches about students and actually the elderly having social media addictions to dress code to uh global warming, climate change, race, racism, social injustice, uh just amazing things that you know again our students are elevating to allow us to really engage. And again this just is an opportunity to

088hear their voice. it's elevating their voice and putting their voice into action. And so Project Soapbox um is again a wonderful opportunity. So congratulations to those students who were so poised and in their ability to confront some difficult issues that I think adults tend to shy away from and did it in such an eloquent researchbased fashion because this does involve a lot of research in terms of what the students are providing. Um this month is women history month. So, thank you to all of the amazing women uh throughout the world who are who are leading and changing and each year um beginning it actually began as a local week-long celebration um in Santa Rosa, California and it extended to women history month and it took flight in 1978. Just a little history around um the

089the the week-long event that again transitioned to a month. So the week of March 8th was chosen to coincide with the international women's day and afterwards other regions throughout the country started their own celebration weeks and by 1980 then President Jimmy Carter declared the week of March 8 1980 as national women's history week and then since 1987 women history month has been um observed the entire month of March and seeks to celebrate the accomp accomplishments excuse me of women throughout history um and change makers who are ultimately you know leading and making a difference now and each year's theme is selected by the National Women's History Alliance. And this year's theme is providing healing and promoting hope. And I think that's something that we all uh can benefit from, you know, not just dealing with

090the pandemic, but just seeing what's going on in the world. Um again, so this year is providing healing and promoting hope. And during the month of March, we celebrate women's contributions to society, culture, from science to politics to literature to empower the next generation of educators and leaders. and not just female leaders but all leaders. We also had the opportunity to spread the word day uh to support spread the word day in red clay. Um thank you to all who were able to uh support this event um supporting Special Olympics Delaware respect campaign. Uh the Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools program was is an effort to engage whole school communities and pro promoting inclusion by teaching, modeling and reinforcing the values of dignity, respect, acceptance and inclusion of all people um abilities through the unified

091inclusive sports and other activities. And we have many of our schools who have best buddies programs and again unified sports who are very instrumental um in in supporting that effort. So thank you to everyone. Also want to make note that on Monday, March the 1st, 21st, excuse me, it is rock your socks day in support of um World Down Syndrome Day. So be sure to rock your socks on Monday. Um that's what my son did for his service project. Um he partnered with the uh with the organization, the Down Syndrome organization, and actually prepared the socks, stuffed the socks, and spent quite a few hours doing his community service. So what more of a fitting way? So, rock your socks on Monday, March 21st. We are also in the process of um highlighting our 2023

092Red Clay teachers of the year. Um so, you'll see an Instagram campaign um hashtag number one teachers where we're spotlighting those educators. Um who were selected as their building level reps for teacher of the year. Uh congratulations to all of the winners. And if I can find my notes where I put it, um I would like to take an opportunity to acknowledge um each of the individuals from each of the buildings. Um it's always fitting that building level reps get recognized for their contributions and efforts as it relates to um being acknowledged and teachers of the year. They serve as model examples um of quality educators and they embody everything that we all um aspire to be. So, thank you to the award winners, but again, all of our educators, especially um in this day

093and age, you heard Mr. Fenthal speak. Our educators are selfless and we appreciate all they do. And again, the ones who we've recognized as teachers of the year are cut above the rest. And so, we want to acknowledge from Baltz Elementary. Um Miss Cynthia Ellison, third grade teacher from Brandy Wine Springs, Miss Nicole Bradock, who is a kindergarten teacher from Cook Elementary. Miss Lauren O'Shea who's a first grade teacher. Forest Oak. Robin Thompson who teaches fourth grade. Heritage was Nikia Brady teaching fourth grade. Highlands. Miss Beth Mary Beth. Excuse me. Barro who is a librarian. Lewis Elementary. It was Miss Sarah Braun who teaches fifth grade ELA. Lynen Hill. Miss Jessica Burroughs who is a third grade teacher. Marbrook. Sarah Elder first grade teacher. At Moat Elementary. It was Lesa um Lenoff who is our

094uh EL grades four and five so she supports our English learners. Northstar was Kristen Becker who's a talented and gifted educator. Richardson Park. Miss Valerie Barnes kindergarten teacher. Richie also had another kindergarten teacher, Miss Lisa Reynolds. Uh Shortage was Miss Jenna Albbright who is a teacher that supports autism. Warner Elementary was Mr. Deavina Vaughn who is another fourth grade teacher. Meadowwood, it's Chris D. Rosenzo who's a special educator. Early years program was Leanne Bosert who's a preschool teacher again at the earlier years program. AI middle Carrie Smith who's a physical educator. CAB, Miss Terry Puit, who is an English language arts instructor. Conrad, Miss Jennifer Tran, who's a biotech teacher in our career technical ed program, HB department middles. Mr. Scott Cook, seventh grade math Skyline. Stephanie Seaffort, eighth grade math Stanton. Miss Michelle Baldini,

095who is a sixth grade math AI high school, Charles Schneider, who's a CTE teacher, career technical ed teacher at the John Dickson School, Miss Kimberly Deon, who's a seventh, sixth, and seventh grade social studies educator. And McCain, Miss Siobhan Carter, who's a science instructor. So, congratulations to all of our wonderful educators throughout Red Clay for their selection as teachers of the year. As we all know, the this vote initially was supposed to be March 31st in terms of the deadline to remove the mask. Um but based on the latest guidance uh masks are now optional. We are following the recent changes from the department of health and the center for disease control. All of our updates now because a lot of the state support um the test to stay program and all of those various

096things are now being modified. Um so again we will continue to monitor community health. We will continue to make um test kits available. Uh we're actually it's it's a test at home kit program where we're going to be providing access to uh COVID tests uh for our nurses currently have supply of at home tests that we can issue to students. Um we're not out of this pandemic yet. Uh we will continue to offer vaccination clinics. I I have lost count of the number of opportunities that we've provided to our community, but we will continue to do so. Um we will continue to to ensure that we are protecting and doing the best we can to to follow the science as we know it to be present day. Um but this has been a long haul

097folks. Again next week Monday actually will be my third year anniversary. I started March 21st 2019. Um with two years of that plus being related to the COVID pandemic. Um so I can't thank the community enough. I can't thank our educators, our families, our students, um our community partners. Um you know, I definitely live by Robert Frost quote, "The best way out is through." And boy, have we gone through some things. Um and we will continue to go through it. But I think if we keep our students and our young people the focus, uh but we'll continue to strive and we'll get through it. Uh last Friday, March 11th, was a professional learning day. Thank you to all of our educators, our support staff members, our leadership under Mr. Sam Golder um where we provided

098professional learning opportunities not just to our educators but our facilities department also participated in professional learning opportunities. Um again this is just a small snippet of some of the selections of things that folks had the opportunity to engage in. Uh digging deeper into small group instruction at the kindergarten first grade level really looking at supports for our English learners various strategies. A math madness conference really giving educators choice in some of their professional learning opportunities. ustrial the math curriculum again our diversity and equity and science and then our unified arts um looked at curriculum alignment looked at model units um led by Mr. Brian Tusette. So again, a whole host of offerings to continue to try to support our educators and keep those saws sharp. We are hiring and we continue to hire um it

099it so we kicked off recruiting season with visits to regional events for educators and support staff. Um on niche.com, Red Clay is ranked number one in best places to teach in Delaware and number one in the Delaware districts. Um it's a difficult task. It's it's it's challenging, but we have so many wonderful positive things that are going on in each and every one of our schools, and it's due obviously in large part to all of our wonderful educators, but also um our wonderful building leaders, support staff members. So again, we are hiring. So for anyone who's listening in, for anyone who knows someone who's looking, um again, Relay is hiring. I also wanted to just acknowledge what's next again as we start the transition and continue our focus not only on teaching and learning but

100the wellness and well-being of all of our staff. Our current strategic plan sunsets here shortly. Um so we will be engaging in some strategic planning um efforts in partnership with Hanover Research. Handover has done a variety of of reports and analysis for us. they did our learning loss analysis that we conducted uh in the middle of the pandemic to help us inform some of our academic programming. So, we're currently waiting on them to put together basically a capstone um type of of of product for us to look at everything that they've done from looking at PLC surveys, looking at our equity scorecard, um they've done our CTE uh benchmarking, which is our career technical ed benchmarking. Um they've done again learning loss analysis. So they're putting together a holistic package for us to then start

101to look at in the month of April of getting some surveys, engaging our stakeholder community and putting some communities together uh to move this process along as it relates to our strategic plan. School choice deadline is Friday again. So just some events and reminders. Uh school choice invitations were sent out um to applicants by mail and email last month. Applicants must respond by March 18th to secure a seat for the 2022 2023 school year. I do know an additional email may have hit folks inbox today for those who have made choice. So again, be on the lookout if you haven't and know that your deadline is this Friday. Um the Wilmington Learning Collaborative, again the board voted to engage um in discussions regarding the Wilmington Learning Collaborative. Some initial uh discussion meetings around process around

102whatus will look like has begun. Uh community events are still taking place. We are a host site uh for a community event on Monday, March 21st at Warner Elementary School. I participated in a community event at the warehouse, which is a community center on the east side of Wilmington on Saturday, a League of Women's Voters event today. Um and really again shaping the vision for what we want for our Red Clay Wilmington schools. Um and again to continue to engage our board and our community and and our educators again and more importantly doing what's right on behalf of students. Another news and event transition to adult life fair. Uh Newcastle County School Districts um invite students and families to learn more about post-secary employment independent living opportunities. Uh this event is on March 24th from

1035 to 6, excuse me, 5 to 8:00 p.m. or is that 8 My eyes are bad. I got I need some eye drops and my readers. Um at the Chase Center on the riverfront. Um again, this is a transition opportunity. Um it's supported through our special services departments within each of the school districts um to help those connect um with resources in the community at large to help um our students and families work on transition programming um as students go into adult life. Um, Red Clay Spring Music Festival inerson concerts return on April 5th where the Red Clay Spring Music Festival. The event features performances um from our talented high school and concert bands and um wind ensembles and I believe the board received a link you should have today with regards to the schedule

104of those events should you choose to participate. Um, also one of our key allies and community partners, um, the Latin American Community Center is still accepting applications uh, for Hispanic student their Hispanic Student Recognition Program. The deadline is April the 1st again. So, there's some information in here if anyone is interested. Uh, Miss Chassity Garaza um, at the LACC is the point of contact. Um, but this is a wonderful event to uh, opportunity, excuse me, to acknowledge um, our students of Hispanic descent. um for their great accomplishments and again elevating uh their hard work and efforts. So if anyone is interested or know a student who might be worthy of that, please pass that information along. And thank you to LACC for their continued efforts and work within our community. Uh our Red Clay PreK

105is now enrolling. Um and again, when we talk about strategic planning, that will be a a key area of of focus for us. Um our preschool programming is growing by leaps and bounds. Um one the majority of the early learning centers within the community based early learning centers fall within re red clay proper. So we have lots of it our teachers who are actually going out and supporting our young learners in child care centers and facilities. Um but again we are enrolling. So Red Clay welcomes families to enroll their three and four year olds and also be mindful we have a birth to threeyear-old mandate. So we're supporting children as early as birth through 21. So when we talk about the complexity of a traditional public school district, I think sometimes that goes unnoticed. So

106thank you to all of our support staff, itinerate staff, um early learning leaders who are doing some wonderful work in starting and creating that that strong foundation um for our little apply by April the 8th is the deadline for preschool enrollment. And then we also welcome our kindergarters. Kindergarten enrollment kicks off um with the return of inerson registration events for coming incoming students for families on April the 28th. So for those families who are enrolling in kindergarten you have that opportunity um to participate in some inerson events starting on April 28th. That concludes my superintendent. Thank you Mr. Any questions? If not, we'll go move on to the committee reports. And the first committee report is the community financial review committee. You want me to? Okay. Um, both Miss N Smith and I attended the

107community financial review committee on March 7th, 2022. We approved the minutes from the prior meeting. Um, the CFRC will continue to be hybrid through the end of the school year and then it will be off in August as we always are. And when meetings resume in September, they will be solely in person. Um we covered the ex this this meeting because um Miss Flory was there and we covered the budget last meeting in great detail. So this meeting we covered the expenditure report in great detail. The spending is on track at 91% revenue received and 67.8% expended. There were minor issues that we still have to deal with in the in the financial uh in the expenditure report because of recoding work from the um esser monies from the federal government money that we received.

108And so the the expenditure report in some ways looks a little off because recoding has to happen meaning we pulled money from local funds which really were esser funds until we got the esser funds and now they're going to be recoded to esser funds. So that work continues. the data has been re uh assembled and the recoding will commence and supposedly next month we'll see probably a better fully recoded report which will be good. We discussed school budgets and per pupil spending um and we recognize that they vary widely throughout the district. Um just so to give you an idea the district per pupil student spending is about$18177 per student and that varies from schools that Warner for instance is 28434 per student and other schools such as CAB and Conrad are in the 13,000

109range. So it really varies based on you know student need obviously special education makes a difference because of all the um needs-based funding. Title one funding makes a difference. We have opportunity funds. So there's all these different fundings that really make a difference in the per pupil spend and we spent a considerable amount of time on that particularly in light of the Wilmington Learning Collaborative and trying to get our facts straight when that happens. Um, our budget has been supported significantly by CARES and ESSER funding. Our district has receive received a total of some $65 million through those programs. Anything COVID related such as cleaning supplies, transportation, driver retention programs, learning loss programs, the I Ready programs that we do, etc. can and are covered by ESSER funding. And so that's provided a bit of

110relief on the budget. The committee did vote to approve the final budget and the committee did recognize especially given the environment in which we are working that increased expenses will be coming right now you know in in the whole United States inflation is hitting and it's hitting us too and so that's going to have an impact on our budget as well. Our next meeting is April 12th 2022 at 6 pm and as I mentioned it's hybrid and did you have anything you I just want to highlight one thing. Yeah. Um thank you that was that was excellent. um with the per pupil spending that was a a question that came up because there's different understandings around how we spend money. So according to Miss Flurry that the local funding which is you know the from

111taxes and things like that that all is about the same per student per school. So when the numbers are reported about the per pupil spending for each of the schools, it includes federal funds that are earmarked for specific things. So as it's important to understand how this works. It's a little complicated, but not one school from local funds receives more than so so much more, give or take a very little amount. Um the other spending comes from the additional title one which is federal, title three which is federal. So that is just a clarification point that I had asked at the meeting uh for why there was some disparity in terms of not disparity as equity but why it wasn't exactly the same and because it is exact about exactly the same with local funding.

112So thank you for that. Okay. The next uh committee report is the Delaware School Boards Association from 32 2022. The board of directors I believe. Is that right? That is correct. Okay. Uh so we had our meeting Mr. Casper. I'm sorry. Yeah. This is Jason Casper. We had our meeting in uh in Dover on March 2nd. A lot of lot of discussion uh took place um regarding the Wilmington collaborative. And then it was it was also made clear just because it's a board meeting of school boards from all over the state, it really only affects three of the schools or three of the school boards rather directly in Newcastle County. So we talked about it but but really kind of spend too much time on it because it doesn't really have too much of an

113impact statewide. It's it's more just Brandy Wine, Red Clay, and Christina. Uh there was discussion about the NSBA conference in San Diego. They had a pretty good turnout for the speced due process training back in November. Um so I think I think everybody on our board is up to date on that. If not, um there'll be there's annual training that that takes place and we did it this past November through the uh through Polytech using some of their technology. Um there is a developing issue of charter schools submitting tuition tuition tax bills and uh to DOE and they've forwarded those bills to districts. I know Joe has touched on that. So, our district is is in discussions with the CFOs of different charters that are submitting bills to us. Um, see, DSBA will be appointing

114a DIAA board member. So, if anybody on this board wishes to be one of the nominations or one of the nominees rather, please let me know. That's something that has an interest. Watch what you wish for. I know it. I knew you were gonna say that because he's on it. Watch what you wish for. Jumping in. Right. So, I can I can certainly submit a name for a nomination at our next meeting, but u it was a discussion that was brought up. One of the uh one of the board members on the DIAA either stepping down or not not up for reelection this year. That's what it was. So that individual will no longer be representing the boards. So again, if anybody else on the board like to throw their name in, Kathy, I'll be

115happy to submit your name as a nomination. Anyone else feel free to uh just let me know. Uh there was just some roundt discussion uh really kind of based on um board member behavior at at board meetings and and accepting um being accepting and respectful to other board members. Uh there's so much incivility and divisiveness in society right now. And there was a tremendous loss of a a great board member uh downstate really strong board member uh in part due to some of the disability and personal tax. So basically Dr. Marinucci just reiterated that we can disagree without being disagreeable meeting about 8:05. It was actually one of our shorter meetings. Oh, that was kind of nice. Good. Thank you. The next was the diversity committee. Does anyone want to give the diversity committee report

116from 222 2022? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um the next is the facilities committee on 314 2022. Mr. Matthews. Good evening everyone. Um so facilities met um this past Monday on the 14th. Um just a couple things that were discussed to highlight. The first phase of the Esser HVAC project is on schedule. We're seeing significant increases in pricing as you heard tonight from the CFRC report. Um, inflation is not only impacting our area, but it's also impacting us as a school district, and it's impacting our ability to uh make sure that we can stay on task with the with the pro facility projects that we have in place. Um, so we're seeing an increasing in pricing, so we'll need to evaluate before completing the second phase um for the ESER project. The price escalation may also impact

117the work plan for this summer, especially uh parking parking lot pavement and tennis court resurfacing. Um some other things that came up for discussion that we pull the report up here is the completion of the Highlands renaming signage. I want to uh thank Dr. Adriana Bone for leading our board through that process. Um, so the name change um has been uh put onto the school boarding on onto the school building um which was approved by this board and there will be a ceremony that will be held this May on May 23rd, a rededication ceremony. That concludes my report. Thank you very much, Mr. Matthews. And then the Red Clay Education Foundation on March 9th, 2022. I'm happy to hear that. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So, Miss Nesmith and I both attended and Okay. Miss Nes

118Smith and I attended the Red Clay Education Foundation meeting on that says 39. I put down 38, whichever day it was. Okay. We approved the minutes from the last, it was a Wednesday. Okay. We approved the minutes from the last meeting. Um, Mr. Green gave a district update, a lot of which he gave again tonight, but about the choice window being completed and in process of accepting the invitations, the building level teachers of the year were announced and that was very exciting and celebratory and it's wonderful for our educators that we wrapped up women's sports and like we we honored the AI high school girls basketball team tonight. They won the flight championship B championship this year and last year they were unable to feel a team. That was pretty exciting about the schoolboard election

119coming up which I mentioned and again even though you're nominated out of the district all of our red clay residents can vote for the candidates. So don't forget that because it's really important people get really confused about that. So I think it's is it D that's up are you D C. So C is up but A B C D E F and G can all vote for the candidate in C nominated out of C. Spring sports are beginning and going well. The governor list lifted the mask mandate. Um we gave thanks to Yvet Santiago from Newcastle County because working with them we were able to expand elementary wellness clinics in our schools. So we have clinics at Warner and Shortidge. We're expanding to Richardson Park and Boltz and we're working to get them in Louiswis

120and Mo. Yeah. So we we partner with Christian Care. Um, I bet Santiago who works for no more is is working with us to really look the county identified several schools which right now looks like Lewis and Mo could potentially be two additional elementary schools through the county. Uh, we did hear back from Christian Care that we were awarded the grant, but we're waiting on the Department of Health and Social Service to ultimately determine which of the two schools either here at Richardson Park or Baltz. um because we wrote two schools within one grant and they only gave us basically one award and so it comes down to a school. I'm fairly certain and we're advocating that it be parked first which the buildings that we're currently in because of the infrastructure and then more

121importantly when you look at probably a lot of the community health and social determinance of health outcome that the state would likely pull this area probably would have a greater impact. Um, but we are really looking at expanding those efforts. So, right now we're still waiting to hear back from our connection um at Christian Care relative to the the the grant with the RP that was awarded, but we're excited to expand those elementary schools. Yeah, that's great. And then Care Force MD is expanding services. They do our vax clinics and now they want to begin tellaalth in the middle school and elementary. So this is another way for us to really look at expanding and using technology when we talk about what happened through the pandemic is really looking at teleaalth. So we're trying to

122work on two pilot programs, one at Skyline Middle and one at Stanton Middle to be able to provide teleaalth supports and services um working with care force. So we have good news there. Um heading into spring testing midyear math and reading showed gains in growth targets which is great and 73% are on target to meet their growth goals in reading similar in that. So that was really really great. We're working hard to close that any gaps and we're working with Hanover Research to begin the new strategic planning process. The RCEF has changes so Ralph Kubler is stepping down as president and we really have to thank him for his long and valuable service on the RCF. Dave V will become the new president and Nelo Nelo Poli will become the secretary. Also Peggy Vavila, a

123former Red Clay board member will be stepping down as treasurer. And again, we have to thank Peggy for everything she's done for the RCEF and for our children. She was in the um philanthropy group within DuPont as well. So, Peggy has done a lot for children. So, the RCF is taking nominations for this position. And Mr. Green is reaching out to building principles to see if any parents are interested in serving on the RCPF because we need to have some more members. Miss Nesmith will lead the effort um on to overhaul the RCEF website with Mr. Winfelder, a Red Clay graduate. So, that's really good. Um the financial we, you know, we have 41,000 plus in checking and about 300,000 in the investment account. Um all of which is doing pretty well. We did the

124RCF did revise its bylaws and they were approved and they'll be up and I hope on the website as soon as that gets up and running. Our next meeting is May 11th. It's at 7:30 a.m. in the district boardroom. So come on out at 7:30 a.m. It's really an eyeopening experience. Okay. And so our next report moving down here is on the student code of conduct committee on February 16, 2022. Is there anybody who wants to give that report? Yes, I'll do the report on that. Okay. Dr. bone wheel. So, we met on 216 2022 and we discussed a number of issues. Uh, one of the primary issues we discussed was the fact that there's there's the um AG report, which is the attorney general's report, and if a student gets in trouble outside of

125school or off-campus, the attorney general's office will send that report to Red Clay and to the other districts. So, we discuss the AG report and the filing of it because if it's a serious offense or an egregious offense or a level five offense, then Mr. AJ Nolles gives that report to Superintendent Green. At that time, the student is usually removed from red clay and put into an alternative placement. So, we had a lot of discussion about that because one of the questions or one of the things we we were talking about is whether or not that creates um double jeopardy in a student's life. So, if they're getting in trouble by the criminal justice system and the state and then they're also getting in trouble in red clay, are they getting in trouble twice? Um,

126another thing we talked about was the fact that sometimes students experience trouble and it is um there's some aspect of their IEP or their 504 that is correlated with or connected to the the incident that they're experiencing. So, we raised questions about the IEP and the 504 and what happens when there are criminal offenses. Um, I also raised the question of what happens if the AG um and their office files, you know, if a student gets in trouble and those those charges are ultimately dropped, what happens? And um, Mr. Nolles actually shared with us that most of the time the AG's office does not get back in touch with Red Clay. So, we're never we're never told if the charges are dropped. So we can have a situation in which a student's expelled or put

127into alternative placement and then the state of Delaware drops the charges against the student and we don't know. So the student is still kicked out of red clay. So many members on the committee thought that was a really really big issue and that we agreed we needed to look into it. So one of the things we need to find out is where in state code does it say that the AG's office has to notify the district of a child's criminal offense outside of school. So that would be one area to examine. The other thing we can do is reach out to some of our legislators, which I've already started that process of doing, and I've actually talked to some lawyers. So, we're we're looking into the relationship between that AG report and it being filed

128and it being sent to the district and what happens when children get in um trouble twice. The other thing that we really spent some time talking about um was that we have a very negative way of dealing with student infractions and they lead to you know ne not just negative repercussions but often a system in which students aren't doing better because we deal with it so negatively within the district. So, I have to say thank you to um Miss Casey Smith because she really talked a lot about having an eye on interventions and interventive strategies that we could pursue in getting students to, you know, stop behavior that we find problematic. We talked about more counseling and what that counseling could look like. And we finally had to end the meeting even though I know

129we had a lot more many more things to talk about. Um, I see that one of the committees is not represented on this list. So, I'm going to talk about another meeting as well that we had and that was the dress code meeting and I'm I'm going to do that now. So, we also had a dress code meeting and that was on March 4th of 2022. And one of the primary things discussed in that meeting was that students spend a lot of time saying a lot of time discussing the fact that male educators and administrators actually spend a tremendous amount of school time scrutinizing their bodies and then they end up getting in trouble for dress code infractions and violations. Um so they said that that was really really problematic and we started to talk

130a little bit about you know harassment. So, if people are being, you know, if their bodies are being examined a lot and they're being um told repeatedly things like, "Oh, your shorts don't reach, you know, mid thigh," and trying to figure out what mid thigh is on a person's body, right? That that can lead to inappropriate um language. So we talked a lot about train training for educators and administrators and the fact that they really needed to be trained because they're actually enforcers and when they're examining student bodies which makes students uncomfortable that can lead to a lot of tension and stress and students feeling like they're in unsafe spaces. We also talked about the fact that students brought up at this meeting like they did at the last one that they're often pulled out

131of class and either sent to the office or sometimes to the auditorium and they actually lose class time and instructional time because they're being told that what they're wearing is inappropriate and they found that problematic and and other the adults on the call many of them found that problematic as well. So we talked about the fact that at a systems level there's a dynamic which occurs um and it becomes very gendered and it becomes very sexualized in our in our not just the district but also right in our individual schools. So we need to figure out a better way of dealing with the dress code. So we're we're spending a lot of time on working on that. We uh Mr. Puit also shared that when he went to uh the project soapbox and was listening

132to the students speeches, one of the students had their entire speech focused on dress codes and she talked about the fact that her body wasn't a distraction. So, if Mrs. Golder could share that soapbox speech with the board, I think that would be very insightful and I would love to be able to read that and review that. Um, I actually also had a meeting Monday morning about another issue. But at that meeting on Monday, and this was with um a parent from the Brandy Wine School District, they shared with me that students had heard that we were working on the dress code and um there were students that in their district that are also doing a lot of work on the dress code because they're really concerned about the sexualization that's occurring. So, we're seeing

133this more as a you know, a statewide issue. So, those are those two reports. Thank you, Dr. Bone. We did duly note this, but we'll we'll put it in you have to click on the um actual on H and it it has the dress code subcommittee listed under public content and we'll work with Miss Golder, the student who gave the dress code speech, was actually a Christina school district student. Um, so if it was recorded, we'll make sure we we get that content to share with the board. But it wasn't a Red Clay specific student. It was a student named Christina. So to your point, students in Christina, Brandy, Wine, and Red Clay are having a similar conversation. Thank you. I think a link for all of the MVA things, which I I have I

134have a link for all of the ma we got a we got a link for all of the mikva challenges because I attended. We can I can forward them. Okay. The next is the wellness committee and I know I was the one on that. So the wellness committee, the wellness champions joined the meeting which was wonderful. We have a wellness champion in every school, save one or two where we still are missing some and we're looking for them. The wellness champions had an in-person meeting in January to meet each other, prepare a school health index, and use that data create to create goals and plans for the year. The UT UD co-op extension folks spoke about services they offer in the areas of nutrition and physical health activity health and physical activity, financial wellness, environmental

135wellness, mindfulness and self health self-care and the school garden program. Redclave people spoke about the importance of self-care for all and the available resources. um all meetings. Uh at the meeting they shared info with each other on programs that they are all running. Um and they informed us about the Red Clay Wellness Champion which is a challenge which is open to everybody in Red Clay. It's 77 days of wellness which runs from March 2nd to to May 18th. It's just 10 minutes of your wellness goal per day and you're you're in. Uh we approved teacher grants and the next meeting is April 6, 2022 at 4 from 4:30 to 5:30 at Stanton Middle School. Okay. So now we go on to discussion items and we have a discussion item. Um I know there's one on

136DSBA legislative priorities and potentially CS. I don't know if anybody else can people let me know if they have items. I just have a few comments at the end when we're done. So Miss N Smith, who else? I know I have some President Thompson. I have a couple things in addition to the SBA. And will you bring up the will you Okay, perfect. Because otherwise I can do it. Anybody else? I have additional remarks besides the one noted. Okay. Okay. So, go ahead. Do you want to start, Miss N Smith? Are we going to do So, are we going to follow it with us first and then go to the two that are listed on here? Well, they're on here and they're going to cover them when they do. So, that's Go ahead. Okay, that's

137fine. Thank you. Um, I just want to say thank you to um the Ted Emman for giving us the choice information that we requested last month about the the percentage and number of students uh by race ethnicity that applied for for choice schools. Uh that information was helpful to see and I had it here but I remember the numbers. Um, so one of the things I was wondering with the applications was why is it that there's a disproportionate number or is it a disproportionate number of students of color who are going to certain schools? And so this be before they even got the awards, we wanted to know how many students actually applied. And so I will say that it's representative of the population per se of the number of students that apply for choice

138at the different levels. Uh but roughly about 65 to 67% of students who are white apply for choice. about give or take 5 to 8% of students who are Asian apply. 24 to 28% of students who are black apply and then we have Native American this negligible 0.1 and then because Hispanic Latino is is not a race but it is an ethnicity of the Hispan of the students who identify with having Hispanic ethnicity 30% of them apply which means the non-Hispanic whites which would be 64. So those numbers come together. So this has been very helpful for me to understand why in certain schools there are fewer students of color. Uh one particular um school that of um that I was thinking about was my son's school. He goes to Conrad and at Conrad applications

139and these are not awards. These are applications. 6% of Asian, 15% black, and 79% white students apply as their first choice to go. That was last year, give or take the same same numbers this year. So I wonder what we could do to ensure that representations of all students of all ethnicities and races have an understanding of what schools whether they be magnet schools or other schools are out there so that they can apply. And I say that because I really love diversity and having diverse populations can enrich a student's life. And my son is often only one of and he's multicultural but he's a black boy who's in his classes at Conrad and I don't understand that. And so I mean he says there's hardly any black girls in his school. It's a STEM

140school and we know that during this women's history month that there is a a disproportionate number of women who go into STEM and even more women of color. So, I think that we have an opportunity here to really figure out a better way to engage our communities in understanding the options that they have. Now, the caveat to that is when we have choice, we further desegregate. We further segregate our schools. And I, like I said last month, I'm complicit with this, right? because my son goes to Comrade, my daughter went to Charter. So, it's something I think we'll continue to talk about, especially when we have the Wilmington Learning Collaborative and we make these comments about our city kids are not performing. Well, if we look at and I'm kind of talking a little bit

141to legislators as well because if we look at the way our schools are structured, we are setting these disparities up. So, I think we have all of our schools have excellent teachers and excellent administrators. And I'm not just saying that to make you feel good. I've been going around to some of the schools. I know how hard everyone works. That's why they should get more days off for winter with the state. I'm just saying. and also have more proportionate salaries to our neighboring states because the work that we do um especially in this area in Red Clay the hard work that's being put into place the number of programs that are happening is phenomenal and that's one of the reasons why we moved 20 years ago to Red Clay School District. Um but we do

142have more to do. So, this is not to put us down, but to elevate us to do more. So, I appreciate the data. I think this is very telling. I I'm looking forward to seeing the actual acceptances and how many students decline, how many students accept and and so forth. So, I appreciate that. A couple more things. Um, yeah, the Chinese immersion was a big topic last month and I know there's some things being put into place and so just to clarify um there were some of us who maybe misunderstood or misread or didn't know that in accepting the choice uh data we also accepted the numbers that were um had choiced into Lynen Hill for the Chinese immersion program. And so I know the district is committed to supporting the the different communities and

143families who are interested in uh kind to maybe bring this back or maybe do something else with it. Um but I just wanted to note that um I had the opportunity to come last month to Richardson Park, was invited to come and was able to see the Blacks and Wax Museum. And I just have to say that it was so exciting to come in and see kids um do their best. Um there was different kids from different backgrounds. Some of them were, you know, had memorized their speeches about their people. Some of them had read it, but it was truly a collaborative effort and I appreciate the efforts of the school staff and the administration and the students. Um I did take a few selfies that I'm going to send to administration of the students.

144Um really enjoyed that. I know a couple other board members attended as well. Um, I said this already, but advocating for better funding to equalize pay. And I heard us talking about the inflation and I just, you know, I looked at I just happened to look at some of the salary scales that we have in Delaware. I don't understand why they're they're not commensurate with the with Pennsylvania when you have we have way more to deal with here. So, I'm advocating on the behalf of of all schools in the state of Delaware. And then, um, the last thing is I'd like to see a curriculum presentation, uh, in the near future, maybe for the end of the year, just to kind of help us remember the kinds of things that our our teachers are doing

145in the classroom to highlight um, some of the things. And I'd like to say we did not get rid of technology when COVID went when when the school closed. And I like that my son has his Chromebook. He's using it. I can see his work. If you don't know, you can sign up to Schooly and get an email and see what your kids are doing. He's doing phenomenal. Thank you to Conrad teachers. Uh congratulations to Miss Burroughs. Uh another teacher of my son's uh was nominated for teacher of the year. And um the last thing is the women learning collaborative. Um, and you did say something, but I couldn't hear everything. I didn't want to stop you. What's the next step with the superintendent? I just have I know we're going around and we're having

146community discussions and getting community input. Is there are there meeting schedules or is that not yet done? Yes, there are meetings where um the union so we had one initial meeting with a group to really work on what's the process and what are we defining the process to establish theou um that's a broad group which I think always is challenging when you get a lot of voices in one room to kind of get down to anou so it's kind of happening simultaneously we have an additional meeting tomorrow to further iron out that process in terms of how do we continue to move forward to really start looking at some of the structural things um heads of agreement so to speak that we we are really going to negotiate to bring an MOU. I think the

147governor's office still kind of has somewhat of an aggressive timeline with the last meeting where they talked about bringing something before the board next month when we have completely heard that next year is also a planning year and I think if we're going to do it we need to do it right. So we'll continue and I I'll share some information. Um we we're looking to have obviously board representation on there. um spoke briefly to Dr. Bone. Being a city representative, I can talk to Mr. Wilson. The challenge is those meetings are during the day. Um so I know board participation or poor participation on a committee can be difficult when folks have a work schedule. Um but we're still in the process of trying to iron out what this the theou establishment or process actually

148looks like. Um the meeting that we had Friday of last week, which was on a Friday, um was was similar to I think some of the community meetings, you know, folks putting ideas or thoughts out there um about what they would continue to like to see happen. Um but real no kind of definitive process was identified. And that's what we thought that initial meeting was to kind of put some structural things in place um as it relates to how we're going to engage to really start to have some conversations around heads of agreement processes. Thank you. That ends my Thank you, Mr. Matthews. So, good evening everyone. Um so, the first thing that I want to bring up um is the item that's on the agenda um under my name. It's DSBA legislative priorities. As

149as you may remember, if you attended the last few meetings, but I'll also reiterate um this is just normal procedural things that we do. Um we are a part of DSBA. We have a legislative committee. Um and in order to gain um full board input, um I am proposing that our all that our board take a vote on the presented legislative priorities. I brought it up in January as an item. It was submitted um as an information item made made available to the public in February um and I'm presenting it to the floor for a vote tonight. Yes. So it was attached under the DSPA. So do you want to make a motion that we approve them? Okay. So I make a motion to approve the um DSPA legislative priorities as submitted. Okay. Mr. Matthews

150moves. Is there a second? Second. So there is a motion to that the Red Clay School Board approve the DSBA legislative priorities 1 through 7 as presented. Is there discussion? Hearing none, we will vote on whether the Red Clay School Board will approve the legislative priorities one through seven of the DSBA. Maria. Dr. Bow. Yes. Mr. Casper, yes. Mr. Matthews, yes. Miss Nmith, yes. Miss Sable, yes. Mr. Wilson, yes. Miss Thompson, yes. Unanimous vote. Motion carries. Thank you. So, we have our next DSBA legislative committee scheduled for April. I will vote um in accordance to their to their business um being reflective of the legislative priorities we approved tonight. Um the other item that I wanted to mention um I I wanted to submit a request for information back in January. I had um brought

151an item in my report an item submitted by the board on the issue of consent. U back in November and December we had heard from thousands um hundreds if not thousands of um constituents and people in the community um sharing their concern on uh safety particularly for girls within our schools. And I think that it generated um enough of um enough of a dialogue to where I think the parents and the members of the community who came to us um are warranted a response. So I would like to have a request for information. I would like for it to be presented at our next meeting in terms of what programming and educational opportunities are we providing um on the topic of consent um and how are we teaching that and weaving that throughout schools because

152it was such a safety concern um in the past few months and I I think we really do need to uh take a look at how that's being offered um to our student bodies. Um and Mr. M before just when you mention when you say just consent it would be helpful maybe if you can just detail out and you can just put it in writing so we can get the appropriate information or when you're saying for female specific in terms of how we're teaching consent I just want to be clear on what we're being asked to provide to the board and to the community. Sure. So, um I mean to be more specific and I think it was pretty clear in in in the meetings that we all sat here um with um there was

153consent there was the issue that was raised on um concern for consent for our girls um in terms of being sexually assaulted or um that was brought up on a number of different occasions. Um so in terms of when you're engaging with another individual, you need to make sure that you have mutual consent and how that's taught in our schools. I'm not sure if that helps to answer your question. Can I ask a question about that? Sure. So, are you referring to when with the conversations when we were talking about the policy for transgender and gender fluid students? Is that the conversations you're talking about when you heard or is there something that I'm like something else? No, it came around that timeline. Yes. Okay. So, I just wanted to formally put in my request

154for information and make sure that gets brought up at our next meeting. um to have a little bit more of an understanding of what we're offering to our student bodies. So um the last item that I have um is just a reminder and thank you to um Yvon Johnson for your advocacy work on the Wilmington Learning Collaborative and thank you to the board um for passing um the vote on the initial engagement. Um recently I had the opportunity to um offer uh my thoughts on the topic publicly um and my stances um that I think that we at this time really need to focus on listening to the community particularly the the city of Wilmington residents. Um I mean this is after all um an issue that is focused on serving the city and uh

155I'm encouraging city residents to attend the next information session and make sure that your input is out there. Uh the Wington learning collaborative sessions are coming to Red Clay next Monday, March 21st at 6 PM at Warner Elementary. I would highly encourage those who live in the city um to make sure that your voices are heard um and I would encourage you to come out um and engage and participate. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Matthews. Okay, Dr. B. So, I have a number of items that I would like to share with the community this evening. The first is that the city school board representatives from Christina Brandy Wine and Red Clay, we have been meeting and we actually have met three times and we have a we we met three times since our last schoolboard

156meeting and we have another meeting scheduled for next week and we meet for about an hour and a half and we talk about a number of things. um they all have to do with the Wilmington Learning Collaborative and um the dates we met were March 4th, March 9th, and March 14th. Uh we've been talking a lot about segregation and gentrification. We've been talking a lot about concentrated poverty and racism and unequal learning opportunities and we've also talked about the importance of having student voices in the process of developing what the Wilmington Learning Collaborative wants to be. We were wondering if students have been asked to participate in meeting meetings and if we're collecting their oral histories about what they like in their schools and what they don't like and what changes they'd like to be

157see like to see being made. Um we've also talked about the importance of having uh city schoolboard representation at theouou meetings and we spent a lot of time talking about the composition of the governance board and what that would look like. We've also talked about the curricula, you know, who would train the educators to teach it, what would the curricula look like, who would develop it, what anti-racism curricula would be used and things like that. So, we we have very robust meetings and we outside of the meetings, we do a lot of text messaging. So, we've been doing um a lot of work. So, I just wanted to say I really do enjoy that camaraderie that's developed between us on these various boards in Newcastle County. Also, I wanted to share that the National Coalition

158of 100 Black Women released uh a series of six briefs and they focus on the areas of health, image, racism, safety, relationship, supports, and resilience and they also have a section a brief on the survey results. So this compilation of data is under the heading and the title is the state of our union black girls in Delaware and it was research that was collected um through the University of Delaware and their center for research in education and social policy. So, I would really encourage the board to read these briefs because this is data that it's uh it's federal data. It's state data and it's very local data because the researchers talk to girls in Delaware across the state about all of the issues that I just mentioned in the briefs. And there's a tremendous amount

159of very very good information in there. And if we're going to talk about women's h uh history month, and if we're going to talk about the Wilmington Learning Collaborative, and if we're going to talk about safety and consent and health, all of these things, we should be listening to what our girls are telling us. And what they're telling us is that they need us. And they're telling us they need they need us to step up our game, right? That's what I was hearing as I was reading through the reports. So, I'm going to talk a lot more about the reports next month, but that is information and it's coming up. It was released in November of 2021 through the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. The other thing I wanted to share is that I

160was asked to speak to the illustrious ladies of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated Mupai chapter on school boards, elections, and social activisms on 314. We talked about local politics. We talked about trainings for running for office. and people were very interested in what types of trainings existed even you know at the local level and we talked about supports for women of color running for office. So that was really really great. The Mupi chapters through the University of Delaware but we had a lot of people who were who had already graduated who came back onto the call. So that was great. I also wanted to mention that I had the privilege of meeting with Miss Shandra Pittz this morning and we were talking about youth and activism and curricula as well. And so I was actually

161invited from that meeting this morning to a meeting at the Freedom Center this afternoon and uh I was had the opportunity to listen with a group of other people to students who are working on organizing a safe space activist event and it was going it's going to be centered around 15 concrete themes. I'm going to list some of the themes. They're not these aren't all of the themes, but they're some of them. And they're themes such as don't touch my hair, and the students were talking about, you know, uh the the fascination that often whites have with touching black folks hair, right? Uh they also had another theme which was why we don't stand for the pledge, which to me was really, really interesting. They talked a lot about toxic masculinity and masculinity period. So

162I think that this conversation that was raised earlier about consent and you know sexual harassment that all ties into this larger conversation on toxic masculinity. Now these are all the students words. None of these are my words. Um they wanted to learn how to be activists and how to um continue to be activists in a sustainable manner. They were also talked a lot about creating safe spaces. I mean that was like the theme that ran throughout the whole conversation. They talked about the white side of feminism, which I had never heard it sort of, you know, labeled that way, but that was really interesting as well. So, this is going to be an ongoing um group that meets and they are going to put an event together and they may turn it into, you know,

163a longer term program that consists of various components. So, I wanted to say to Miss Pitts, thank you so much for inviting me. And that meeting this afternoon may have been the highlight. I I don't know, the last couple of months that I've had. So, the next thing that I have is that I had some students who reached out to me from our high schools. And I think I brought this up before, but I had a student who just reached out to me last week and they sent me a message and they said that the student representatives on the school board are often students who hold other premier positions in the schools as well. So they were wondering if there's any way moving forward we could open up this schoolboard position um so it could

164be a supplemental position so one person's not holding these multiple seats and they talked about it in terms of um really having that as a mechanism of increasing student voice and bringing even more diversity to the table. So I definitely I know I think I brought that up before but I wanna I want to mention it here and then I want to talk about it. Um, the other thing is I keep receiving emails from students asking when meetings are because they're interested in knowing where the when the code of conduct meets and the dress code committee meets. So, I'm thinking we're not disseminating that information in a manner that's allowing students to come to the meetings and find out about the meetings. And I will have to say the student voices on both of those

165committees, which I've been I I haven't missed any meetings for either committee, are tremendous. So, we really need to figure out a way to get that information to the students. So, they want to know when the ne next dress code committee meeting is and when the next code of conduct uh meeting is. And then the final thing I wanted to talk about was that last month I made the motion for an investigation for CSW. And I just think that based on I mean we've re received so many emails and phone calls and texts about the situation and we've had so many parents and community members and people who work at the school who've come to talk to us to express concern and dismay about what's going on at CSW that I I think as their

166authorizing, you know, body, we should look into it. We've had so many people come to us and at this point I mean there there's so many things. So I was trying to jot down, you know, all of the comments people were making and I wasn't able to keep up with everything, but it seems like there are multiple issues, right? So there's the personnel issue which we do not have jurisdiction over. So that I is not what I'm asking to be investigated, but it seems like there are a number of governance issues and we wouldn't know what was going on until there was actually some type of investigation. I don't know what that looks like. So, I think Superintendent Green talked to our legal counsel. I don't know if you were able to talk to that

167person, if you were able to share what you heard about that, but I also do know that um and the the school board received this I think yesterday or today that some people submitted FOYA violations to the AG's office and that the AG's office actually ruled that CSW had violated open meeting laws and the sunshine law. Um, and that was because nine months of subcommittee meetings and minutes were not posted. And I think that had to do in in part with their finance meetings. There was a thing about the term limits being exceeded on the finance committee and citizens budget oversight committee. There was talk about the governance training, the finance training and then the information that we uh we that was shared with us today about the lawyers resigning from the charter board. So

168I I heard I think that two members resigned two lawyers resigned from the charter board in the last few weeks and then another one had resigned this summer. So, I I just feel like there's so much information and there seems to be so much going on and there's so many people coming to our meetings, right? I would say this is the number one issue that we're receiving emails on and public comment on over the last few months that I would think we would be remiss as a board if we didn't take these requests for help seriously and say what can we do as the authorizing body to see if we can sort of get our hands around what's going on. So I'd like to hear what other board members have to say. I'd love love

169love to hear with the superintendent, but I don't think that ignoring this situation makes us stronger as a district. And at the end of the day, CSW is in fact, right, very much a part of our district and a very important part of our district. So I think that in order to sort of get on a stronger foothold and work to reduce some of the tension and stress and issues that that school is experiencing, we should figure out how we can work with them to begin to resolve these issues because ignoring the issues will not make the issues go away. Thank you. So she asked us to go in order or we're just going to have conversation. She wanted to hear what other board members thought. So I have a Is that okay? Sure. Okay.

170Um, so I agree and my child that's her that's her her alma mater, right? So, I want things to go well and I know defin we've talked a few times. Um, not about this but prior to this year. Um, and I know that the Charter School of Wilmington school community is committed to Charter School of Wilmington whether no matter what side they may be on with the issues at hand. I did try to do as much due diligence as possible to learn more about what it means to charter a school and what responsibility the authorizing body has and what we can do to support because I think this is about support not about hurting right I I think the parents and the the educators that come here are looking for help right behavior is communication

171so by coming here, by sending an email, whether it is to say yay or nay about this or that, it's reaching out for help. And so, like Dr. Boom said, I think we would be remiss if we didn't figure out a way to support the schools, the school and the board in having the best experience for all of the stakeholders. So when I looked on to title 14 chapter 5 section 515 and I'm no lawyer and I'm not claiming to know everything but I how I'm interpreting this. It talks about our ability to submit the charter to a formal review before the time that it's up for formal review and that if we find that they are vi violating any and this is a if I'm not saying we are they are I'm just saying

172if if they are violating any terms of its charter and whether to order any remedial measures pursuant to certain sections section F you can read it um we could manage help to manage and help. So I think we we need to look into that uh ability and see how we can support the development of the charter school board because I did go to a board meeting and I look you can't throw stones if you live in a glass house right we're not always on our best but we try to be I think we do we do a lot better um so we all have some things to learn you know as a new board member a community member you don't come to the board with all of this uh this knowledge about how to do

173things. And so in having empathy for the board and the parents and the staff and the students, I think there's something that we can do to support them because at the end of the day, these are our students and they need us. So whether we have jurisdictions to tell who about this or that we can and do you know with with good cause try to do something to maybe connect with the board members because what I hear two different issues one is the board and how they operate and the other one was a personnel issue and like Dr. V said, "We have no jurisdiction over any personnel issues, but what we can do is support and work collaboratively with the charter school women board so that they can be successful so that parents and students

174can feel good about what's going on and that there's transparency." And so I don't know what the answer is, but I I do believe that it is our responsibility according to section 513 of chapter 5 and title 14 that we do something. That's my thought. So I would like to I know Dr. Bloomall knows about the and Mr. Green know about the charter school. I kind of understand it as well. But I would like to hear what it is because the truth is charter schools are public schools and they are set up as independent entities. And as I told the women when I when we met they they raised three issues three bit they raised a fourth which we didn't really go into but one was violation of open meeting rules. It is exceptionally clear

175what you do about that. you go to the attorney general's office and they issue an opinion and then we can certainly tell charter school they've got to comply. They know they have to comply. The second one was bylaw violation and frankly that's outside our realm of activity as well because the bylaws charter develops I believe they changed them somewhat recently. Charter needs to understand and abide by its bylaws. I think what Charter needs to do there is get somebody that's expert in the bylaws. I suggested Henry Clampet because Henry Clampet knows those bylaws. I frankly think he wrote them. Educate the board and educate the community on what the bylaws are. The third was Robert's rules violations. Now, Robert's rules is a tool for running meetings. Charter school does not have to comply with charter

176with Robert's rules. I think they've elected to. But if you violate charter the the only people that are that can if you violate Robert's rules there is no obl there is no penalty other than the other board members calling the chair to task and making the chair do certain things by overruling whatever calling a point of order but outside of that there's no there's nothing to be done so you could get somebody and I again recommended Henry Clampet but again John Marinucci and Jim McMack and do a training on Robert's rules and they do a training on open meeting laws with Robert's rules which is really helpful because many organizations will train you on Robert's rules but without the over without the open meeting law overlay in Delaware you're not getting to what the issues

177are. So I would like Dr. Broomall to talk about what we or Mr. Okay. Yeah. to talk because I know he's the Dr. is the is the liaison to talk about what we can do. I do miss Miss N Smith mentioned, you know, provisions of the law. I understand them, but I'd like to understand what we can or cannot do. So, the the formal review process is something that you would go in more extensively if there was mismanagement of funds or misappropriation of funding. Um, I think generally now where the board stands and again based on the attorney general's reports where it is and I I I think the the constituents did the right thing by taking it to the proper regulatory or or judicial um agency to get that ruling. I think the board

178is in within within good standing to to Miss Nia's standpoint is to issue a formal letter because there is a violation that they get the training that was documented that they need to have within it and maybe set it a time bound expectation as to when that should happen and really engage in the process of how they will then put parameters in place to comply to ensure that they're doing their due diligence to post who's responsible for posting the meetings when will the meetings be posted to really check puts systems, checks and balances in place um to to move that forward and then maybe open that dialogue and that relationship. But if there are things that folks feel like that that are improper that are going on, whether that's the public integrity commission to get

179involved. So there there are proper regulatory agencies, again I think when you get to subsection 512 for a formal that that process is an extensive one. And I'm not saying that the board do nothing. I think with this latest attorney's general report that's now been provided to the board, there's an impetus for the board to um duly note that the CSW board that attorneys general um ruling has been provided and that they adhere to it. And I think the next immediate step based on this AG's report is that training for their staff on open meeting law happens and if they need help, whether that's Dr. Johnson or anyone finding the appropriate people as the authorizer I think we can engage with them through Dr. broom to make sure those proper supports at least they have

180a lead on the best way to go about but I would just again starting with the fact that the board has been provided with a formal report from the attorneys general's office to start there that at least the the mandatory required trainings and processes be put in place to really adhere to what the community has has come and said again around not feeling like the committee meetings have been been posted, the meeting minutes aren't posted in a timely manner. Um, that would be the the starting point and I think from there really work to address any other issues as as the authorizer that may come to light as a result of engaging with the proper regulatory or um judicial agencies. Got a question about that. So, did you say that our school board would submit

181a letter to the CSW school board? Is that what you said? I I couldn't hear it. Well, you being the the board being the authorizer has now received a report. Yes. From the attorney general's office that they're in clear violation based on the recommendations to to really figure out basically a response as to what they're going to do to it, put corrective actions in place to address the ruling of the agency. So, it would be a motion. I think what it would be would be a motion. Yeah. To direct the superintendent to send a letter to the charter school of Wilmington as the authorizer making sure that they put in place a process or notify us of what it would come from the board. It would come from that's why I'm asking him to do

182but the letter is from us not him because we are the we the board are the authorizer. Yeah. But we would be directing him to send it. So we would write it and he would send it. He would write it and send we would do a motion that he would write it and send it and we can send it on behalf. I've been directed by the board of by the Red Clay School Board to do this. We're not going to sit here. I think we direct Mr. Green to send it on. I I have a question. If we choose to go into the direction hypothetically to do the letter and not do a formal review. What What are we losing out on in terms of what a review would cover versus sending a letter? What

183would the review cover? of the charter. So, we're we're going in and looking at the the the actual charter, which in this case, the complaints that's been brought before the board are violation of FOYA opening laws and you have a AG's report. That would be where I would start to get them to do corrective action. And that's again just my recommendation based on what the board has received from the constituents via the AG's office to be the the starting point to get them to correct the action that's been brought before the board which is again violation of open meeting laws not posting committee meetings and such and allow that to be the impetus to address that. So for me thank you for that um superintendent I really appreciate it. So for me, I think that

184having a review where I can look at the facts in a very unbiased manner and look at some of the findings from the AG's office and how to best proceed. For me, I think that the review would be the best course of action. And that's that's my my recommendation. I think that would be a more robust way of being thorough throughout the process and being supportive to the school. Um, as they are a red play school, they're red play charter and I want them to feel supported and I don't know if we can offer our support without getting the whole scope of the picture of what's going on. Um, I want to be able to have a full understanding. Um, and yes, it may take some time. Um and and and yes, it may be

185a lot of work, but I think it's in the best interests of our students to be able to invest that time and invest our work um and making sure that we can have a better understanding of what's going on here. What would you in what would you have what would we investigate? Because review what would we investigate? I think we need to do a review of the charter to look at the presented violations and just to make sure that we are in good standing. It would be confirming that we are in good standing to see if we are. I mean, I don't know if we are. I don't know if if from those 16 principles that have been outlined, I think it does need to be looked at. I don't know why why it would

186hurt to not just do a review. Well, based on the based on what people have raised, I don't think that's necessity. And I don't believe we are an investigative body. I don't believe that the law I mean I I don't believe we're the investigative body and I don't think we're the ones that are going to look at anything and determine if there's a foyer violation or a bylaw violation or a Robert's rules violation. There's nothing we can do and that's not even covered by the 16 the 16 criteria. So, we're not an investigative body. So, Then why do we have the power to do a review? The review is the 16 criteria. So that we look at when we're doing the accountability that's not an investigation. I still think it would be beneficial to have

187to look at that criteria and making sure because I think that some of the concerns that are coming up from what I'm hearing from the community and from what people are saying is that that criteria needs to be reviewed. And so I I just don't see the harm in just doing a review, looking at at what findings we have, if any, and then just moving on with the process of best supporting that school or your student. And I'm not there, Jose. I would I would absolutely support allowing Derell to send a letter, but I am not into a review. I don't think it's necessitated by what what's going on. That's just what May I speak? Yeah. Okay. Um this is for you know we have this is a decision that we have to make and

188we have to be informed. So I think it's good to have the conversation and different points of view. Um so there's a couple of words and it's not semantics because it's a different thing. So investigation is different than the review. So in section 515 it says I'm just going to read it so I'm not misspeaking. Um, in addition, the approving authority shall be responsible for the oversight of charter schools is approved. We know that in addition to the review by section 514A of this title, the approving authority may notify, which is kind of like sending a letter, a charter school of potential violations of its charter and submit the charter to formal review to determine whether the charter school is or is not violating the terms of the charter and whether to order remedial measures

189pursuing etc., etc. So, there's different points of view. I see the letter as a first step, like a progressive a progressive step. Um, so I'm I'm, you know, I'm for either one as long as we do something that is going to help change the issues that are happening. So, I'm in the spirit of support. And in that support, it could be send a letter. It could be do a partial re do a review. It could that could be the next step. Maybe we have a timeline in the letter where we want to see change. Um, you know, maybe we want them to give us a report. I mean, we could say what that is. they don't have to respond by the law certain things that we ask for but um in all fairness to to

190Charter School of Wilmington and this is a biased thing I guess but during the pandemic it was a lot going on okay and I'm not going to get into the details of the he say she say stuff but I was on the board meetings I saw of everything that happened it was I I mean there was a lot going on that was not good la those last couple of years. My child actually was part partly a victim of that. So, but I'm I'm here for the kids. That's why I'm here. So, let's try to do this in a way that shows support for them getting better. And if that is a formal review because it gives them a chance to be introspective about what they're doing and whether or not they're following their charter or

191or if they even know what their charter says. Um or if it's just a letter. I'm fine with either to start. So, how about this? Let me make a motion. I move that the Red Clay School Board direct the superintendent on its behalf to send a letter to the Charter School of Wilmington ensuring setting forth asking it to set forth its plans on how it is going to comply with the the recent attorney general's opinion and ask about how it will educate its board and communities in the by in its bylaws and in Robert's rules. for a third. Is there a second? Second. Second, Miss Sabbo. Second. And can I amend the motion to add something else to it? Why don't you try and I'll see if I can We'll see. Okay. So, one of

192the things that people talked about was that term limits have been exceeded. I think it was on the finance committee and the citizens budget oversight committee, but I could have the committees wrong. But that's a bylaw issue, Adriana. So, we could bylaw issue, but we couldn't have them explain that as well. I don't think we want to get into what their bylaws do or don't do. I mean, I don't It would be like trying to run their organization, but they don't have to do Robert's rules of order either, do they? They don't. No, not unless they they can say we don't follow Robert's rules and that would be fine. Okay. So, what were the three things you said or were there two? No, I said I said direct. It was I'm not going to remember

193my exact words, but it was fundamentally direct Mr. Green to send a letter on our behalf asking them how they're going to comply with the recent attorney general's opinion and how they're going to educate their community and their board on uh their bylaws. and Robert's rules if they so follow them. The three things they they they have been asking about. Okay. And term limits goes under bylaws too. Then it is it's part of their bylaws. Okay. There was one other thing people were talking about and I didn't write it down. Um it was personnel stuff I think. No, because I don't I I we can't do anything about personnel with something else. Um those were the three things they What about the training? Like I think they just started the governance training and they haven't

194done the finance training. That's part of our initial that's part of our report. The finance all the training is part of our accountability report to begin with. Adriana, do you remember that? But do you have that in there? That's what I'm asking. Have it in this letter? No. Have it in the motion you just made. No, I didn't have it in there. Can we put that in there? It's already a part of the accountability report. But what we're doing is we're asking Superintendent Green to write them a letter saying, "What are you going to do for the FOYA violations and how are you going to educate your members?" Right. Right. So I'm asking can we include in that what are you going to do about your trainings or what have you done what have you

195done right you could certainly say please provide your training records yes thank you oh that's good for the discussion still discussion um so if if possible if if Mr. Green can share the letter with us before he sends it to make sure that we haven't voted. Have you already voted? We have not. No, we're still in discussion. Yeah. Yeah. So, if if that's the if we vote on that, if it go if it passes um if we get this the board can see a copy and approve it before it goes out. Go ahead and write it. We could only approve it in public session, you know. So, we can get it. I'm not saying that, but I mean it may be difficult or maybe two of us could approve it. I don't know. All right,

196never mind. As as we're as I'm listening to everything and and their complaints, when is could have been eight, Kelly? Yeah. And I have a quick question. What's the timeline of getting their response after we request what we're requesting in the letter? Do we have a timeline? We just expect by the next meeting. I would think it's going to be a reasonable time. I don't know. I can't hear you. I said I don't know what it would be. I would think it would be a reasonable timeline and I don't know what that is based on. But a timeline would be included in the matter. I mean, you would have to have it time bound for them to comply with the ruling in the AG's report. So whether you want to establish a 30-day or 60-day

197timeline, I think a 60-day probably will be more appropriate. But again, I'm being asked to to put this on behalf of the board. So there there's going to be some afterthought and really delineating again what's clearly in this AG's report what the motion is and crafting something that's going to address and provide assistance to CSW's board as from you as the author and we and we as board members need to be more u we need to edif edify ourselves with some of these things so that we are very clear um but I think it's the citizen budget committee I think that's Delaware not that's a law. That's not part of bylaw. So, the term limits thing I I I will study some more to be sure, but I think I'm I for all of us

198to do that so that we're aware of what we are authorizing and what we're not authorizing. I think the I think the term when it was board members, not CBOC. No, CBOC as well. I know it was board members both. So, you'd have to look into it. I mean, I know the CBOC you can have more than one term. So, we want them to do better. Some of our CBOC members have all been on it the whole time. We want them to do better. Time is of the essence because kids are going to graduate. They're going to continue to go. So, they should be able to give us something with by the next school board meeting as a check-in. They should be able to say what they're doing to rectify it. It depends on when

199this gets sent because our next schoolboard meeting is April 13th and and Easter is in, you know. Well, we could put a date on it. Yeah, that's what we were saying. A reasonable time, but that may not be he he can wind up and have a liaison from weekly regular Dr. And um so that could very 30 60 days getting this thing together. So we hear you. We're just trying to mitigate how we want to go about this and move forward. [Music] Discussion. I don't know what y'all asked me to do at this point, but okay. I'll help you. No, I got it. Just just clear clear your motion and then Okay. So, let me restate the motion. Okay. So, it the motion is that the Red Clay School Board directs Mr. Green on its

200behalf to send a letter to the Charter School of Wilmington in sure asking asking how it's going to comply with the attorney general's letter. I think it was dated March 3rd. Um, and there's a couple of points in there. um how it's going to educate its board and its community on its bylaws and how it's going to commu educate its its board and its community on Robert's rules if they follow them and um ask for ask to ensure that they're the board is going along and doing the training that it is supposed to be. I'll go back and read. Yeah. Okay. All right. Take a motion. Maria, roll call, please. Moved and second. Yeah. I moved. Dr. B. Yes. Mr. Casper. I will be an abstension. I will be an abstension. He has to. He

201works for the charter. He He gets compensation through the Mr. Matthews. No, thank you. Miss me Smith. Yes. Miss Sabbo. Yes. Mr. Wilson. Yes. Miss Thompson. Yes. Five yes, one abstain, one no. Motion passes. Okay. So, I believe there is. Is there anything else under information? Oh, I didn't go. Sorry. You didn't go. Okay. So, real quickly, I was able to attend the Richardson Park Black History Month wax museum on February sec 24th. It was phenomenal. I met Black History figures from the past. I met Harriet Tubman and Michael Jordan and Ruby Bridges and Martin Luther King Jr. and Kla Harris and they were wonderful. The students told their histories and and excellently presented their person. They answered all questions. It was outstanding. I also attended the mikvah challenge that night on 224 and I

202just sent around the recording of the mikvah challenge to all of the board members. I um it was at Dickinson John Dickinson school. It's um project soapbox is one of mikvah's signature events calls on young people to research, develop and deliver an original speech on issues that matter to them including how to take action on the issue. They were powerful speeches and they they can be lasting and transformative. Um, we heard from 11 amazing young people from across four districts. They spoke on issues such as abortion, suicide, social media, addiction, role models for students, etc. It was really fascinating and the students impressive. I also attended the Delaware Teachers Institute annual showcase on March 7th. I I've been pleased to attend the DTI curriculum showcase. DTI is an educational partnership between UD and Newcastle County

203schools designed to strengthen teaching and learning in our public schools. I learned about the various programs being offered this summer in which teachers create curricula usable in K12 classrooms and often get the opportunity to travel to remote environments such as the Amazon developing curriculum. They are developing curriculum in in line with HP 198 from museums, astrology curricula using planetariums, environmental curricula, bringing the Amazon home. It was really in interesting. I appreciate the DTI for growing our educators because it has a direct impact on our classroom and our children. Applications for the program and scholarships are available online through March 28th. Um that's I think everything there. I next month I am going to bring a motion to uh about our superintendent evaluation. We have an obligation to evaluate our superintendent every year. Um this is

204Mr. Green's third year and it would be our second evaluation. We're kind of halfway through and I want to bring a motion to ensure that we all get all of the data that is that is provided through that superintendent evaluation. And lastly, I do want to thank Mr. Green and all of the administrators in district office, all of our building administrators, all of our educators, all of our employees, the custodians and whatever. You guys do an excellent job. I believe this board absolutely recognizes it. We see it. It It's directly impacting our students and I think Red Clay is a great place and I think all of you are fantastic in helping Red Clay be as wonderful it is as it is. So, thank you very much, Madam President. Yes, I've got two small things.

205Two small two I promise. Okay, small. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna time it. I just want to I The vote was taken, but I want to clarify. I just want to see where I stand and I stand at a formal review. So maybe we can bring that up again next month because I think it would it would help Wington charter more than anything. And the second thing is tomorrow there's a reading summit um at the Wilmington library. I think the link is at 9:30. I will be on the panel there as well as a number of other people. I think uh John Sheen and a number of different people from the state and some uh experts to talk about reading and where Delaware is. So, I encourage you to sign up via Zoom or

206you can sign up to be there in person. So, that was it. Thank you. And I I have something as well. Go ahead. So, next month I will bring up um a motion for a formal review for CSW and I would like that noted on the agenda for next month as a vote. And I hope my vote isn't moved like the vote was this month when I made the motion last month. Thank you. Is there anything else? Any other business before this board? If not, I will accept a motion to adjourn. So moved. Miss Sabbo moves. Is there a second? Okay. All in favor, we'll do this by voice vote. I opposed. Thank you all very much. I appreciate it.