October 6, 2022, EBR School Board Committee of the Whole Meeting

001[Music] thank you foreign [Music] all righty we will now do our um invocation and Pledge of Allegiance the invocation shall be by the illustrious um board member Evelyn where Jackson in the absence of board member lannis and then the pledge will be by a school board member Michael goday all right please rise father we come to you today Lord God and ask you Lord to guide us Lord as we deliberate over the items on the agenda father we pray that you give us guidance Lord God and have us move Lord God on items that are in the best interest of our children Lord God in the best interest of our district Lord God we thank you and Praise You Lord in Jesus name amen amen would you please repeat with me I pledge allegiance to

002the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you being forward with all to order and roll call Madam Secretary please call the roll District 9 president Chapman District 4 vice president Collins present district one Mr Blue here District Two Mr lannis District three Mr Howard District Five Miss Ware Jackson present District Six Miss Diane president District Seven Mr goday present District 8 Ms Bernard we have a court moving forward with an update from the superintendent thank you vice president Collins ah so summer updates I'm sorry our updates for uh October uh as many of you know this is Red Ribbon month and I'm sure you may have noticed all of the red ribbons around our

003trees in the boardroom here October uh is Red Ribbon month because it is drug prevention month the district works with our Eye Care team to recognize this for the entire month October is also bully prevention month so we want to continue to raise awareness around these important issues as we continue to work around with staff and also at our schools I also wanted to share about Magnet Mania that happened over Saturday we had over 1 000 people attend Magnet Mania this past weekend at the Raising Cane Center this event was an amazing Showcase of our various magnet programs and all they have to offer there were student performance games and the very popular self station where attendees took pictures to support their schools of choice we want to announce that we're going to have an

004upcoming event which is uh called Bridging the Gap we are going to hold a press conference this Tuesday October 11th at 9 00 a.m to announce our collaboration with apple and the 100 black men of metro metro Baton Rouge this collaboration will provide technology resources that will help close the digital divide for students and provide mentoring supports to address students literacy and educational needs and last but not least finally we'd like to remind everyone that the district will be closed on Monday October 10th and Tuesday October 11th for fall break regular operating hours will resume on October 12th and that's my report Madam vice president thank you superintendent moving forward with item C1 call for election recommended action consideration of a request for the approval of a resolution to call for election of the renewal

005of property taxes on March 25th 2023 can I get a motion moved uh by Cody seconded by Baloo saying no requests to speak in a public comment blue is the second all right back to the board board member Dyson I just wanted to point out that this is a renewal and not any kind of a new tax and that we are going to the people for this approval thank you thank you moving forward with item C2 land purchase so oh I'm sorry Jesus look trying to beat that nine o'clock foreign please vote that's all right the motion carries thank you moving forward with item C2 land purchase South Baton Rouge property consideration of a request for the approval of the execution of a purchase agreement for the purchase of land in the southern part of

006the parish and to authorize The General Counsel and board board president to execute any and all documents to finalize the purchase of that property all right first by goday and seconded by Dyson foreign is that for the previous item uh the request to speak or is that for this particular one okay I didn't clear it no problem the first was goday and the second was Dyson no problem board member where Jackson a quick question around the property where the uh old school was torn down at um Jefferson Elementary what are our plans for that property do we have something that nothing permanent we I know that we've been sort of talking with Breck about a possible uh cea Cooperative Endeavor agreement of some sort I thought so um but it's not firm uh it's something

007that they're looking into first we'll let them give us a proposal and then we'll bring something to you guys once we have something concrete but we're working on an agreement of some sort that'll benefit both us and Breck um with that piece of property potentially some others okay thanks I've gotten some questions from people who lived in that area so I thought it would be good if we yes ma'am thank you thank you thank you or colleague gode uh thank you vice president uh Collins I just wanted to uh thank some people who have worked on this very hard uh I know uh president Chapman uh and uh member Connie Bernard had worked very hard with Breck I want to give a shout out to the BREC committee uh for working with us I think

008this was the first of a lot of these types of collaborations we can get into if you read through the stuff the concept here is going to be a school in a park so we'll have a large park with the school sitting in the middle of it which will give a lot of area and things for activities and I hope this is the first of many and lastly I'd like to give a quick shout out to Mr George Kurtz because he has been tireless in his work of pulling these together and working with us on this so uh this is a moment I think we a lot of us have been waiting for it's an area where we vastly are in need of putting up a building so I just wanted to thank some of

009the people involved and I'm sure I've left some out general counsel for one but I'm sure I've left some out but uh I'd just like to congratulate the work that they've done thank you boy colleague Dyson yes I too would like to just give a shout out and I think I'd add Judith um Judith um Anderson um into that uh kudos to her as well and you know this has taken this partnership building that we're doing in our district right these days it's just a certainly a a wonderful thing and it's a win-win for everyone involved our community will be improved by this and I very much appreciate the work that has gone into it as well thank you thank you any requests to speak from the public on this item send no requests to

010speak no public comment excuse me back to the board seeing no further request to speak from the board Madam Secretary please call the vote please vote Madam Secretary I mean Madam vice president can we do a roll call okay do we need to or you wanna okay the motion carries all right moving forward with item C3 memorandum of understanding Our Lady of the Lake University consideration of a request for the approval of an mou between the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and Our Lady of the Lake University to provide MSW students an opportunity for practical experiences in the area of masters of social work students excuse me and opportunity for practical experiences in the area of Social Work can I get a motion boy remember where Jackson and board member dyerson thank you and

011I'll request a speech from the board in a public type any public comment seeing no public comment back to the board seeing no requests to speak from the board Madam Secretary please call the vote please vote the motion carries moving forward with item C4 memorandum of understanding collaborative classrooms consideration of a request to speak for the approval of an mlu between the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and collaborative classrooms for a pilot to include systematic instruction on phonological awareness phonics and sight words program the sips program can I get a motion yeah board member Dyson and board member where Jackson or colleague mark bellouf thank you um this looks interesting we don't get to hear from Dr Lashley too often I'd I'd like to hear just a little bit about this uh um this

012program Dr Lassie you please come up Mr President board members Dr narcisse I'll pull it down okay good afternoon yes this uh the collaborative classroom is a program that will actually address something that we are very excited about we have gathered data around the dyslexia implications within our schools so we know those students that have those implications we have those numbers and so school by school so what we'll do with this collaborative which we're excited because it is a free pilot and we are going to our next step with this will be to pull out um which schools we're going to work with which teachers which students perhaps those that have the highest level at first so that we can take this to scale but we'll be able to do a personalized learning plan for

013those students that show these characteristics of Dyslexia and so we're excited about this there'll be small group instruction and so we have begun that as soon as we get the results from tonight we'll begin pulling out those schools and start working with schools it all right well thank you board member Dyson I just cannot tell you how thrilled I am to be getting this uh program try I tried in our district we needed it every single School in including our dedicated magnet schools we have for years I've known that we've had an unidentified population of sizable population of students with reading challenges and I remember when mine were young um being told by a principal you know well you just you know you live in the wrong part of town you're not going to get

014that and you know it's like but that's not acceptable you know when a child needs help and um and so lots of remediation and all but to catch this early and and be on it with these children that need the additional supports is just going to really help our children grow in ways that they have not I remember her telling me that phonics was no longer in that it was all about these hundred sight words and if they would just get these hundred sight words learned that that would be what would be needed and I said no we've got to have phonics too and so I am thrilled about this and I thank you for bringing it forward and the work that you're doing with our literacy Department for a colleague uh where Jackson thank

015you madam vice president this is very timely uh just had a conversation last night with some parents who were talking about dyslexia and uh and the fact that there's so many kids that are undiagnosed we you know we really don't have a really good screening process but also that parents don't know what to look out for so I'm wondering if um within this program we'll be able to um include some kind of way for parents to get benefit from this so that they will be able to recognize some of the symptoms because it's not just about seeing things a different way or you know having letters flipped or numbers flipped there are other things um that are involved in that and then another point I wanted to make was around the importance of phonics I

016mean you know I just couldn't believe that we didn't we didn't have that anymore um because when when my daughter was in school she did really well in first and second grade and then third grade there was this big divide and I found out later through tutoring that I had to put her through to get her caught up uh was that it was about phonics so uh once we got that straight you know she was an A B student throughout the rest of her school year so I appreciate that and uh if if I don't know if Dr Lashley can address that first question around what kind of Parental input will have or any anything that we can share with parents so that they will be able to recognize some of the symptoms of Dyslexia

017and be able to support their children absolutely uh yes ma'am we will um we've been able to pull out as we continue to screen so we took parts of the screening from our um our Benchmark data and found where those uh places were where the kids were and we actually have by School uh how many students we have and then we'll have the names of those students so after we go through the other screening with collaborative classrooms it'll dig deeper into that we'll get a personalized learning plan for each student that we can share with parents giving them some strategies at home um and and the one thing we want to do is we want to really change the narrative around you know dyslexia because we know that even students have to have a certain

018IQ before they can even qualify to be dyslexia yeah many of them are brilliant they are brilliant and so we are finding ways that we can work it's just bringing heightened and teachers awareness and pair parents and everyone that works with them to know where those uh where the characteristics are how to spot them initially and then what to do with them in those small groups so we will share that with parents thank you that's great news great news thank you so much colleague Joe Dyson yes I was going to request that um Extended you I'm sorry uh colleague dies and we reverting back to Old practices and pastors we get that data all right good way to sneak it in all right thank you any oh yeah item four public comments star Matthews I

019was so excited when I saw this mou um when Common Core came in that's when phonics left the district um and that's when our reading scores dumped and dropped we absolutely 100 percent need phonics and phonemic awareness but we need it for every child we also absolutely need something for the dyslexic children in this Parish but every child needs phonics so can we do both please pretty please um like I wrote my comments before um Dr Lashley came up um so they have nothing to do with dyslexia because that's not mentioned in the mou um also uh I was going to ask which two schools but she explained that uh you absolutely you you can't have a foundation of reading without the phonics and um phonological awareness there are a lot of the veteran teachers

020that sneaked it in and tried to get away with still teaching it but it became increasingly more difficult um now the mou does say that even though it's only going to be in two schools that they are allowing other school leaders to attend the PDS that are going to be offered at the pilots at school so I do strongly recommend for all of our leaders to do that because we absolutely do need I mean I hope the program is good as well but we absolutely do need the phonics we do need the um the phonological awareness um and for to answer questions about dyslexia all second grade students are screened for dyslexia in this District foreign excuse me seeing all the uh public comment on this item back to the board and uh my colleague

021Jill Dyson so skillfully snuck her comment in already so see no other requests to speak from the boy Madam Secretary please call the vote please vote sorry foreign carries moving forward with item C5 Professional Services contract Federal consideration of a request for the approval of the Professional Services contracts between East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and the following notable Incorporated in the amount of 63 378.15 to provide an online annotation system item c5b in structure Incorporated in the amount of thirty one thousand six hundred forty one dollars to provide an online learning management system C5 C keys to literacy in the amount of 32 400 to provide professional development to improve teacher proficiencies and skills in literacy can I get a motion poor colleague Baloo and boy colleague lannis no requests to speak from the

022board I have a public comment card from Storm Matthews I think this needs to be separated Cami yes this day and age we all need it we all use it we sign with it kids can fill out um when they're out with covid they can complete worksheets or the whatever workbook that we're doing they can complete those assignments via online canvas we don't use canvas none of us use it so why pay that much money for canvas um also while we are supposed to be getting ready to somehow have 27 million dollars for the magical teacher raise next year we might want to start being a little bit more fiscally responsible with what money we do have so if we're not using canvas as a regular basis what we're using is Google what we're using

023is teams then why are we going to pay this much money for a program that we are not using on a regular basis uh where is the camp to help me understand where the canvas is on here on this item is which one okay I'm sorry I like to be informed uh okay seeing no other public comment back to the board saying no other uh boy colleague blue yeah since I'm not familiar uh with that um what was it uh canvas uh could somebody respond to that just so I can understand yes uh we could do that uh canvas is a platform uh Dr Robinson can you please come up our chief academic officer can explain canvas we actually do use that across the system good evening what chair the tapment in his absence um

024vice president Kat Collins and two other boards and members and Dr norsees we do use um canvas significantly in the district especially accountability various departments HR a lot of the documents that we use they are housed in canvas so it is definitely something that because there was some conversation um to Ms matthews's point we we were looking at Google and um and canvas we still use Google Classroom which is the platform that students use when they are turning in assignments and those types of things there are some rare occasions where canvas professional development is is placed there but for other departments within the system we significantly use it a lot um so we would need to maintain it I'm I wanted to make sure that we are fiscally sound but that is something we definitely

025need all right well thank you okay boy colleague where Jackson my question was kind of around uh the different uses of names you know we've got instructor here and canvas there and uh if we could just be a little consistent with um you know with whatever the term is or whichever name is more familiar because you know we're looking for she was talking about canvas I'm looking at the items his instructor is called that's the company it's it's canvas okay instructor is the company but canvas is it's the platform the platform I see it I see it thank you see no other requests to speak from the board Madam Secretary please call the vote please vote foreign carries moving forward at the amazing time stamp of 531 with item C6 president Services contract general fund

026recommended action consideration of a request for the approval of a professional service Contract Services contract between the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and Louisiana Association for the deaf doing business as their focus in the amount of thirty thousand dollars to provide sign language services Dyson and the second from boy colleague Ware Jackson no request to speak from the board and sing this is six seeing no uh public comment submitted for item C6 coming back to the board seeing no requests to speak from the board Madam Secretary please call the vote please please vote the motion carries moving forward with item six excuse me C7 elimination eliminated job descriptions the recommended action is consideration of a request for the approval to eliminate the obsolete job descriptions as referenced in the documented uh eliminated job descriptions

027motion boy colleague lannis and board Kali goday seeing no request to speak from the board and seeing no public comments submitted oh I'm sorry uh storm Matthews okay waived back to the board board colleague lannis Madam vice president um Miss Hall she comes to the microphone I won't keep you long I promise um yes so in reading the document I see that we are now on round three of job eliminations I was just curious how many jobs titles have we eliminated thus far 169. 169 job titles so we've had those titles on our books for the last maybe 40 years and it was money allocated for those salaries also no those are positions that don't have any job descriptions attached to them gotcha all right thank you that's all I want all right back to

028the okay seeing all the requests to speak from the board Madam Secretary please call the vote please vote the motion carries moving forward with item C8 revised salary schedule recommended action consideration of a request for the approval of the revised 2022-23 salary schedule can I get a motion board colleague gode and boy Kali lannis poor colleague uh and thank you uh vice president Collins uh Miss Hall could you please come back up could you because I tried to read through this and and started getting lost could you just briefly tell us what is going on what's the purpose of this and and what is going on and how does all this mesh together yes so I try to be as succinct as possible because I know it's a lot it's a heavy lift so what

029we've been trying to do we're doing it in phases so the job descriptions that you guys are a super awesomely approved to be eliminated updated or added new I went ahead and add them and update them or eliminate them from the current salary schedule that was approved in so this is the this is the process so this isn't really changing anything this is this is bringing it up to date with the descriptions that are eliminated amended and the ones that are amended are added or whatever okay and I embedded those job descriptions within the backup so you could track the ones that were board approved to the current document that you have in front yeah that tracking I'm sorry no no I know you did the best you could and you know I don't really

030want to get that much in the weeds I just wanted everyone to understand this isn't a a change or anything like that this is just an amendment to make it mirror the actions we've already taken correct if I just want to be clear for everybody thank you very much you're welcome seeing no requests to speak from the board and seeing no public comment Madam Secretary please call the vote please vote the motion carries moving forward with item C9 recommended action consideration of a request for the approval of a Cooperative Endeavor agreement between East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and East Baton Rouge North Economic Development District to receive an allocation of fifty thousand dollars to provide at-risk or disconnect the youth the opportunity to participate in the school board's dual enrollment culinary arts program board

031colleague lannis and board member board colleague goday boycotti blue explanation of how this works um and what what role the baton uh Baton Rouge North Economic Development District though playing playing this shamlin yeah um this is a cea essentially the district when I say District not EBR but the district referring to the other party actually will give us an amount of fifty thousand dollars the scope and services for us is outlined in the document um the primary purpose without going into the details of each bullet is to provide that risk students with opportunities in the culinary arts program which is part of our opportunities for kids and the superintendents dual enrollment initiative Etc so this is actually us receiving funding to provide a scope of services that benefits kids at risk in that particular area

032that's it all right that's that's uh sounds great thanks all right poor colleague lanners thank you again Madam vice president I just want to take a second to thank uh Dr James Gilmore he was very adamant about uh making this agreement happen for the school district uh and uh just using the Baton Rouge North Economic Development District as a catalyst uh for our school district in connecting at-risk students with programming that they actually want to be a part of as we know every student is not going to go to college every student does not want to go into some of the industries that we're looking at but there are some students that want to probably do barbering some students that want to do uh you know cosmetology that want to go into cooking culinary art

033so again kudos to the Baton Rouge North Economic Development District Dr James Gilmore is entire team thank you boy Kylie go day yes thank you uh vice president Collins I just wanted to Echo what my colleague just said I want to thank the north Baton Rouge Economic Development district for partnering with us and just to highlight that this is another example we just talked about the Breck a little while ago this is another example where the school district is trying to reach out and and work with Community Resources to provide better opportunities for our children in all different areas and I you know this I hope is just the first of many more second many more of what we talked about because we have uh Dr Narcissa said earlier Baton Rouge has an amazing number

034of resources and the more we can gather those and bring them into the benefit of our students the better off we are so I applaud all the efforts for for this District team the district meeting School Board District team and also the north Baton Rouge development District team for bringing this together for the benefit of our students thank you yes thank you very much to another development economic district and seeing no requests oh storm Matthews um I just had one question about um the eight items in the scope so they're giving us fifty thousand dollars correct um but it's to cover the commercial kitchen equipment the cooking utensils and A7 purchase of uniforms for all students in addition to some other things but those are really the major things have we double checked the pricing

035on how much the scope of those things are going to cost in addition um I really like the program I like the dual enrollment aspect of it and getting those credentials um but the upgrading of the commercial kitchens and things of that nature I wanted to make sure that we did the the before work of how much things are going to cost before we just said oh they're going to hand us fifty thousand dollars and thought that that was a done deal all right seeing no other requests excuse me seeing all the public comment and seeing no other requests to speak from the board Madam Secretary please call the vote oh yes yes okay please vote the motion carries moving forward with item C10 policies and policy revisions recommended action consideration of a request for

036the approval of the following School Board policies policy revisions and related matters we have policy be school board ethics policy EDD school bus scheduling and routing policy g triple A Equal Opportunity Employment policy gamb employee dress code policy J double a equal education opportunities policy jcdb student dress code policy gbrib sick leave policy jcdah hazing policy jcdaf bullying policy iddfa special education advisory Council policy iddfc cameras and special education classrooms policy jqa expectant and parenting students policy jbd student absences and excuses policy JD discipline policy jgc student health services policy jgcd administration of medication and policy JM student voter registration can I get a motion um moved by Boyd colleague Howard and seconded by Boy colleague goday storm Matthews for for public oh let me make sure yes thank you um on just one question

037on the uh bus transportation I I read through the thing and I understand it all but do I know by law we are required to provide bus transportation for private school students under certain conditions do we have a policy that addresses that I don't believe it's enough policy I'll check for you I don't have it in front of me there's state law that lays out the requirements and guidelines for a private school to receive Transportation yeah I I would make a request that you research that and I think we ought to have a board policy that says how we will Implement state law uh for that uh because I just think right now I don't know how you know how to interpret it I don't want to have to go interpret the state law every

038time someone asks a question about it or whatever so I think it'd be good for us to have a policy I will as it relates yeah we'll get with us no no hurry no hurry on that but I just think good order would save the senior policy thank you yes sir boy colleague where Jackson thank you madam vice president I know the general public is always interested in uh policy changes and I'm wondering if there are really any significant changes in the policies and uh Mr shamlin if uh you could address that and just kind of highlight some things and uh let us know are there any major uh changes yes ma'am um well they are numerous this time uh all of it coming out of our legislative changes in the 2022 regular session I

039won't go into every detail some of these changes are minor edits to to a policy to align it with State Law changes in state law but I will try to stick to the major ones as I kind of go through this uh policy be school board School Board ethics deals with the hiring of an immediate family member of a school board member the superintendent and their in their promotion into an administrative position and certain requirements there um um requiring an employee they've been employed by the school board for at least one year prior and so there's some some additional requirements there put into place um there are a significant not significant but changes that affect three policies policies GAA equal employment opportunity gamb employee dress code and Jaa equal education opportunities all those changes tracked

040with requirements to um ban or prohibit discrimination against Indian person or employee on the basis is a cultural hairstyle and so that is new state law that we now reflect in these policies and will eventually track the changes in the student handbook which will occur next year but we will provide guidelines to schools and to schools ahead of the student handbook changes to make sure that that we adhere to those policy changes um there's a change in the sick leave policy which is minor but allow requires uh that uh with emergencies with special circumstances that those will be placed in writing by the employee to the superintendent describing the special circumstance or emergency caused by the employee's absence the dates that the employee was absent or will be absent due to that circumstance and the

041anticipated return to work date um an excuse must also be signed by the employees so just puts in place some additional requirements there there's a new hazing policy which is connected to the bullying amendments to state law this year in addition there are changes to the bullying law so the bullying requirement the bullying policy has been rearranged and reorganized and some edits made to the language to align more closely with state law the basic requirements are still in place but we now have a hazing policy we're proposing as well um the special education advisory committee changed primarily is it now allows for at least a 50 um composition on the board rather than the 50 composition on the board um uh and I don't have the uh the classes there but that changes tracks with

042state law as well um the committee won't change just how we can how we compose the makeup of the committee well um the big a big new uh policy requirement this year that I see you nodding is the uh certain cameras and certain special education classrooms and so um I will say that I staff our district our Deputy Chief of policy our ESS Department Mr Smith um Dr Harris and others have worked tirelessly to come up with protocols to support this policy we're now required by state law put cameras in place in certain uh special education classrooms at the request of a parent there are certain ways that camera can and cannot be used I protocol lays that out and so does the policy I won't go into detail there but essentially those cameras are

043there um uh for purposes unrelated to IEP needs Etc and so that is a new policy that we're rolling out uh based on state law there's also some funding allocations coming from the state that will allow us to put that in place okay um as long as that funding is is available we're required to comply great okay um we have a new policy jqa and amendments to policy jbd which is student absences this is related to expectant and parenting students and so they're now um requirements around what we should allow with regard to absences related to students who are expecting um and so that is now also in policy there's some minor changes to our discipline policy just in wording student health services um uh there are changes in the student health services policy related

044to students with seizure disorders and parents and legal guardians of students with a seizure disorder may now submit a seizure management and treatment plan to school administration for use by employees there's also a administration of medication Amendment now requiring a supply of auto-injectable epinephrine to be in the secure location in every classroom with a student who has that need and then we have a new policy student voter registration which which lays down requirements around when and how we can allow student voter registration on school campuses great that is it thank you all right probably comment on item C10 star Matthews then caronda Corley we get 10 days of sick leave then we can apply for extended sick leave um if we miss more than five days we are required to have a doctor's note verifying

045certifying why we were out there's already something in place verifying why we are using sick time if it's more than a cold if it's more than oh I just got something real quick and then I'm back so having something in place that we would have to submit and superintendent artist you have what six thousand employees something like that I'm pretty sure he doesn't want six thousand pieces of paper from everybody every time something happens in this District that is an over that's ridiculous it's outright ridiculous and I find it pretty funny that it came right in line with the bullying and hazing not saying that he's bullying but that's that is a ridiculous policy and I know the other ones are in line with state law and I'm wondering if that one is in line

046with the state law as well because everything else we already have to verify with a doctor's excuse why we are out I know because I have lots of doctors excuses that I have to turn in so um that is overkill it's ridiculous we're adults we hold degrees we're professionals we don't get paid like it but for God's sake can you at least treat us like it well we'll see you there in the spirit of being a school system making sure my time is April welcoming our parents to participate in the process and sometimes that means with the children and look at what we have our favorite child here and he has headphones on this time he gonna be able to help his mama participate without all that noise that's a hopefulness he shakes him off

047he was shaking him off a few minutes ago but good afternoon board um first and foremost when it comes to policies and policy revisions a lot of our policies and policy that policies that are revised are not in the benefit of all students so let me give an example we are revising um a policy that correlates for harassment but we never look at disability harassment of course I have to speak and be truthful to who I am my child have a disability and disability harassment does exist and has been on the rise throughout this state we also need to look at policies that are in existence for the entire student body when it comes to uniforms schools such as Baton Rouge high and Lehigh do not wear uniforms but all of the other schools do

048that's called discrimination we cannot have segregated policies that are going to impact and affect some schools but not impact and affect all so when I talk about these policies that we are creating we have to make sure that the policies is going to be something that's beneficial to all students such as a uniform policy that makes sure that we allow our children with disabilities that may have sensory processing to actually be able to wear shoes and uniforms that are in accommodate that are accommodating to that sensory processing to give you an example my child cannot wear a lot of shirts that actually have tags with an Insight so he wears a lot of Ralph Lauren um products because instead of them having tags they actually have the actual size and information printed in the shirt

049instead of a tag so those are things that are accommodations for our individuals with disabilities that unfortunately our policies do not Embrace I do thank you for the policy dealing with cameras in the classroom because it is needed and the one thing that I do ask in regards to the cameras in the classroom policy is that you make it that it goes into effect immediately um today so that our families of individuals with students with disabilities that are in our self-contained classes can actually benefit from those cameras immediately especially since our school system received 500 000 due to my advocacy so I do ask that we do that and we Implement that immediately immediately and I do think that we should we could actually we have an opportunity to be in the Forefront and actually

050put cameras in all the classrooms it'll be beneficial because then we could see how some of these fights are actually starting and what's leading up to it thank you all right seeing no other public comment and uh boy colleague where Jackson thank you madam vice president I would like uh either the superintendent or um uh Mr shamlin to address that question around all of the reporting um for sick leave and you know those different pieces of of paper in this in this um policy revision is this a requirement that's from the state or is this is something that uh is local I believe this is an additional requirement we're putting place and this applies to emergency and special circumstances so it's not every sick leave situation but I think and I can we let HR

051speak to more detail to this but it applies to specifically to emergency in special circumstances it allows us to document rather than someone just saying I have a special circumstance it requires and provide additional information support that'll that allegation before leave is uh is is allowed and so we can let you speak that a little more specifically but it's pretty the language is pretty clear it's not against state law it's not a requirement of state law but it may it will make our policy I guess the administration of leave uh worked easier for our HR staff yeah any Clarity we can we can have for the rest of the employees would be helpful all right seeing no other requests oh boy Kylie goday thank you I I just want to follow up on that you

052know when I read this and I want to make sure I'm getting it correctly uh this only applies to emergencies and special circumstances and all it requires is whoever is requesting emergency or special circumstances just write out what it is and sign it and turn it in there's no doctor there's no anything to it it's just a documentation by the person requesting what was the special circumstance or emergency that's correct okay so I don't find that very burdensome at all thank you Madam Secretary please call the vote please vote the motion carries moving forward with item C11 resolution day of Hope investigation recommended action consideration of a request for the adoption of a resolution directing general counsel to conduct an investigation and provide a report to the board on issues related to the day of

053Hope event and set a public hearing to allow public comment and feedback on the day of Hope event the resolution reads resolution to investigate constituent concerns regarding day of Hope 2022 a resolution of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board requesting the general counsel of East Baton Rouge Parish School Board to conduct a fact-finding investigation regarding concerns expressed by constituents about the day of Hope event facilitated by East Baton Rouge Parish School System the system on September 20th 2022 whereas the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board the board has heard constituents concerns expressed via social media news reports and our emails regarding the day of Hope event that raises concerns about transparency whereas the board received a letter from the American civil liberties Union highlighting three areas of legal concern based on constituents issues namely

054discrimination based on gender discrimination against transgender students as school-based school-sponsored excuse me promotion of religion whereas the board values the rights of all constituents regardless of gender sex or religious belief whereas the boy seeks to ensure an accurate fact-finding investigation whereas if the actions and events described in constituents complaints are accurate and may violate law or policy the board makes clear it does not agree with any such such actions whereas the boys cease to prevent future any future violations of law or policy now there are four being resolved the board requests assistance from general counsel and a fact-finding investigation into the concerning events alleged by constituents to have taken place during the day of Hope event and the board requests an expeditious report from general counsel of his findings to help the board quickly worked

055to prevent any future occurrences of any allegations found to be factual uh can I get a motion boy Kylie we're Jackson can I get a second boy colleague lannis poor colleague Dyson I just had a quick question and it was my understanding that we already are doing an investigation um so I I just was just trying to get clarity on that we we are already doing an internal and and we're trying to a fact-finding right now right that is correct board member Dyson Mr shamlin would you mind sharing with the board what steps we've taken so far ready well I have to I can't share a whole lot uh because of nature of work but uh I've been asked to look into the matter in detail I've actually secured the services of special counsel to

056assist with that and the process has begun and so um I expect we'll have a report of some sort to the board um I don't want to put a time limit in place I know that the uh the resolution says expeditiously but as soon as we can we can do so we'll do it superintendent is interested in this because he wants to prevent any future issues and this will give him information to help him to accomplish that and that's essentially where we are well that's what I thought and that's why I just was unsure about the need for this resolution because I thought we were already doing these things and taking these steps and I appreciate it thank you as general counsel just stimulated first and foremost he was responding to the superintendents desires the

057purpose of the resolution is to show the position of the board the resolution not only asks for an investigation but it also makes statements and makes it clear that the board itself is not interested in any if anything is found to be factual then the board would like to express that it wants to work towards ensuring in the power of the board that it doesn't happen in the future so that's the purpose of the resolution and also to say as a boy that we don't degree that we don't agree with any uh violations and discrimination based on gender uh discrimination against transgender students or any school-sponsored promotion of religion which are violations of law boy colleague blue I just wanted clarification because I I didn't pretend to Northeast I've read your public statement and it's

058my understanding that uh you've responded to all all uh inquiries and and looked into it uh who's responsible for doing uh I know you said Mr shamlin was he overseeing uh the response to uh any complaints because uh be a board member we've actually as uh Mr shamlin shared we actually have external counsel that we have to actually look at over complaints um as we've been sharing with the public we have not um found anything as of yet we cannot get more specifics uh what we have heard has been um adults saying here's what has happened but um talking to children and engaging in can't give more specifics around that as the investigation is going but we have not had any facts in terms of events of what has been claimed to happen as of

059right now all right well then thank you boy colleague where Jackson thank you madam vice president I believe that it's really important that we have transparency in our Communications and marketing and that when we Market a product that we actually provide that and um so that we can stand behind uh everything that we're doing and um I believe that our role when we're looking at policies and procedures is to make sure that our board and um and the administration is following that we are following our policy our policies and procedures um and in particular in this area in the area of setting up a field trip I'd like to make sure that all of the procedures and necessary steps were followed um I'm wondering about uh whether all of the the Departments that should be

060involved in this whole process were actually involved in this especially with regard to nutrition of whether our kids were provided a brown bag lunches and um uh if not we need to know what kinds of safeguards we can put in place to protect the district and especially our students when we partner on an education event um as an event that is marketed as a College and Career Fair I would believe that we would make sure that the focus is on College and Career Readiness for our students especially when they're out of school for uh the whole school day and expecting to see this so it's really important to me that when we look at what we're doing in the district and we market and make sure that we communicate properly and that we provide the

061product that we say that we're going to provide um you know our our word is our bond and what we communicate is really important especially when we put our logos on products and um our slogans so um especially you know this was meant to be an education an educational event uh and these kids are looking to College and Career and getting ready to uh to get out of high school and expecting that they're going to get exactly what we promote so it's important that we really look at our process in our in our field trips and just make sure that all of the steps are in place and uh because we've never seen anything like this happen as as far as all of the the backlash that that we seem to be getting in the

062media both locally and uh and nationally and even from from Canada from some of the the things that I've seen so it's been pretty disturbing and it's been a lot hearsay so I'm looking forward to getting this information and putting in place safeguards that will keep us out of the situation again thank you madam vice president Toronto I guess gather the thought around all of this I wasn't actually at the event but there are two certainties that I want to address and express tonight the first I think is the most important is expressing that this school system does not discriminate against students based on gender that is our policy that is what we stand by and that is what we uphold every single day throughout our schools this is an incident that happened and it

063can happen at any time because this we are an ever-changing World a lot of our policies are going to change based on those changes in society in our world and we do have some catching up on some certain things but I would be remiss if I did not state that our school district does not discriminate based on gender if you look at the bottom of our website it specifically States the East Baton Rouge Parish School System and all of his entities do not discriminate on the basis of age race religion national origin disability or gender in its educational programs or activities so let that be clear the very first thing number two in all of this there is a really good organization that is being completely torn down and nobody is acknowledging that and that

064organization is 29 11 mentoring what I can tell you this is this Beyond everything they have been doing this for quite some time again I was not at the facility or the event when those activities took place but what I can tell you is this I have seen it firsthand before and it may not be for every student but it's for a student throughout our school district so many kids take away from this event every single year and it has been growing so much that's why they wanted to expand it to every student across our district first it started off at Bethany this year was at Living Faith and they want to offer people who may need to have their voices heard they may need certain attention uh going towards whatever they may be going

065through in life but not to get too far away from the point a great organization is being torn down so much so that is now here national news and how do you bounce back from that because what I see is irreparable harm that is now taking place from an incident that I think that we could have resolved in-house from our both our board and the superintendent as well as our attorney and I think that that's still steadfast and still coming I just hope that it's something that we can move past as a community and I just wanted it to be very very clear again that we do not discriminate against students based on their uh their their agenda and if there is anything that comes out that says that we have I will support those

066students but until that happens I would love for us to have a thorough investigation and if nothing comes out at the end at the end of the day of anything I think that 2911 May deserve an apology because they are the ones that are taking the biggest lick they are the ones who have to take all of the brunt of all of the backlash that is going on Wow we'll continue to go on this organization may not we they may not continue so I just want to make that clear thank you see seeing no other requests to speak from the board karonda Corley accessible well thank God for me being right on time right um first and foremost I would like to comment on miscellaneous comments so our school system does have on every single

067thing that we do not discriminate based on sex gender and religion and disability however being a parent of a child with a disability and a parent that is a disabilities advocate that's what I've seen I've always seen discrimination in fact we could talk about that my child just received a teacher for his special ed class on Friday my child is in a segregated class based off of his exceptionality let's talk about discrimination to the T we can't sit here and act as if discrimination doesn't happen every single day we are in a newspaper constantly about teachers that and staff members that have some that discriminate against other students and other individuals based on race based on nationality based on religious beliefs yes yes I know all of our constitutional amendments that says that we have

068the right to freedom of freedom of religious beliefs however we are not supposed to impose our Force religion on other people when you have praise and worship at an event if I was Muslim that would have been against my belief if I was Catholic that would have been against my belief Church of God in Christ that's against my belief atheists against my belief Buddhist against my belief and the list goes on and on church and state are separate Federal funding was used and it's abstained that Federal funding can't be used right now to get my child a regular ed teacher and he's going to be taking leap tests this year Federal funding is not being used to provide him with medical personnel but we managed to give up nine thousand eight hundred dollars when the

069school system owe me over 10. that's a problem so when we talk about discrimination yeah you discriminate you discriminate against me as a parent let's talk about you call the police on me last year three times because I had a black lives matter shirt on discrimination so we not go sit here and foot around it that is the truth children have rights and the office for special education under the department of Ed said they do and their parents do too children were were tortured you may not consider it as torture but a lot of them have PTSD courtesy of not being used to it I know some people say they have PTSD when I speak up thank you thank you so much and I'll come back at the redistrict attorney Ronald Haley Jr good evening

070ladies and gentlemen on the board my name is attorney Ron Healey Jr uh I am Council now for 29 11. um I want to first to say this I think everyone here is pro student everyone here is pro-child and wants to put our children in the best position possible going forward I believe the mission of my client was just to do that now I think brother you said it correctly that we are in an ever-changing world that what is acceptable two weeks ago may not be acceptable now and that there are gaps that need to be filled but I want to say on behalf of the organization that I represent that they don't stand for discrimination either nothing that they did during the day of Hope program was anyway in bad faith whatsoever there was

071nothing that they did that was misleading to create some type of just religious event but we have to be very careful on the slippery slope with the 11th Amendment separation church and state it is very clear that from my time in in the school system coming up that religious organizations sometimes walk step and step with the school boards either donating things in kind donating venues donating all sorts of things we don't want to be in a position where cut and drive we got to take religion religious organizations completely out of the picture however what needs to happen is that we need to update our policies to ensure that listen when religious organizations come forward to do certain things that they are not gaps put in place now I can speak again on behalf of the

072organization that I've reached out personally to the attorneys for the ACLU and these are lawyers that I work with jointly in litigation throughout this state in this country folks that are considered colleagues and friends and they agreed with me they do not want the unintended consequence to be that religion cannot help out the public school systems but that policies need to be put in place and I spoke to them I said listen this does not need to be a litigated issue this needs to be something where everyone comes forward to update 21st century policies that are forever changing I spoke to Mr Sterling he indicated he wants to be a part of that conversation I reach out to the ACLU they want to be a part of the conversation and so I'm coming to you

073today not as an attorney pushing for litigation or pushing back I'm coming here with the olive branch on behalf of this organization on behalf of Mr Sterling and said let's come together since we're all our Pro children in wanting the best for our children come together to make sure the policies in place that if there are any things in the Gap we can be able to feel them thank you very much sorry for going over my time thank you very much uh Brandon Melissa legislature so I'm gonna read this I'm bringing the um and go days District it's good to see everyone as much as I wish I could be here on something other than the recent public parish-wide field trip I grew up in an ultra-conservative home and spent every Sunday morning every Wednesday

074night sometimes Saturday nights in church cell groups throughout the week youth events otherwise my mom who succumbed to domestic violence trauma Thanksgiving Eve 2017. supported me going to schools where diversity was obvious versus neighborhood ones at the time the majority resembled me or even private schools that I had the option to attend she would have never allowed me to go to a field trip where moral issues were the high topics much less where the venue was a church and I grew up in a mega church that y'all just mentioned morals were taught by her at home and other religious views were instilled in Me by clergy who you all would know I was conceived with sexual violence but I don't talk about rape beginning my life freely in settings where miners are present or the

075brutal abuse inflicted on my mind before during and after her pregnancy they negatively impacted us both forever everyone raised in church or not knows with a simple Google search that 2911 comes from the Bible I'm almost done public school students come from all walks of life not everyone is Christian I would also never tell a group of students to forgive abusers when the ones spewing it might be closest to adverse experiences students face in the home where that could trigger unnecessary trauma at the age of six I watched my sperm contributed to leave my mom today I've had Choice words for even well-known clergy who have told me in adulthood to forgive him kids who weren't fully able to process things shouldn't be subjected to random people forcing views on him with the blessing of

076a public school board system my last words to my mom's abuser were telling him where to go and how to get there field trips or not youth group or trees and I stand by everyone who is standing for every student in this District regardless of their race religion or sexual identity thank you thank you Rhys Adams foreign good afternoon um I am a 15 year old student of Southern University laboratory and I attended hope day see when before Hope day well before I attend the hope day I was under the impression that hope day was something for the students who needed hope who needed something who needed a little push and me as a person I got that push see now I'm a part of the lgbtq plus community and I can probably say that

077and at the whole day I did not feel that it that we were discriminated against I did not feel that as a person of color I was discriminated against and as a female probably so I do not feel that I was discriminated against now there were three female speakers and one speakers spoke about how she forgave her abuser now I was sexually assaulted last year at Liberty High School and they did absolutely nothing expelled me for it and hope that and after I was sexually assaulted I tried three times to commit suicide thank God that it didn't work thank God but after hope day I came out of that church as a brand new person not saying that God is for everybody not saying that the church life is for everybody because there are atheists

078out here there are Buddhists and Islamic people other people people of different Chris not Christian religious beliefs um but see now on the thing on the flyer for Hope day it said that it was held at a church and to me I feel as though everyone who signed the flyer to go to hope they knew that it was going to be a church-based topic and so they can't really get mad because it was a church-based topic and it was held in the church and it was stated that it was going to be in the church um as also I say something about there that the schools did not talk that that this that the kids did not have enough time or enough place to talk to the schools I talked to about five different schools

079and signed up to get notifications from five different schools so that's out of the picture because I talked to schools um well that's that's it thank you and thank and uh and thank you for your resilience and thank you for sharing your story Evelyn Brandt oh I'm sorry bro yes I thought that was an end thank you man good evening everyone good evening um I've been part of uh 29 11 day of Hope for about eight years and as a volunteer and I could say from my perspective there wasn't and there's never any type Prejudice at these events it is a day of hope it's a day of Hope for the all the kids that attend this year I mean we have had thousands 1500 kids at Bethany for the last uh six years because

080I manage the inside Auditorium the seating of all the students um and it's not a religious event it's given the individuals hope for the future because if you look at the news of these young people even adults you know we're going to hell in a handbag I mean so just giving them some inspiration some hope for the next day giving us hope for the next day because it's not just for the students a lot of adults participated they're I mean the adults that were there there are not volunteers the teachers the drivers they're sitting down participating and listening and they are you know even up you know like I said participating so um as far as the College and Career Fair there are colleges there there were armed uh Army Services there giving these kids

081an idea what to do for the future for their future lives it was up to me uh if I would give them a choice either go in the military if they couldn't get a job or go to college instead of being on the street so you had different Arenas different um Career Services there but they can talk to to have a plan for the future um and I don't know what the breakdown was as far as the communication to the different schools I were told because I know that Mr Sterling pretty much talks to every schools he's in the schools so when it comes to day of hope he's talking to the principals and letting them know what the day of Hope is it is not a religious event thank you Kirsten Roberson good evening

082everyone how are you guys doing today um you know I was thinking about if I had this opportunity what would I say um if I was gonna defend Daya hope like what what is it really about and I think uh attorney Haley said it the best we are pro-student and I want to read you guys something that I looked up today and I just was shocked it says this was reported by WAFB it says 37 percent of students reported feeling sad or hopeless almost every day for that at least two weeks period during last year 18 of the students were survey reported that they are actually made a plan um that they would commit suicide the part that I want you to focus on is students reported feeling sad and hopeless our goal for the

083last 10 years was to give students hope what is Hope a great expected end whatever they're pursuing in their life whatever dream and goals that they have we want to give them hope I also want to comment on um the the marketing and the day of hope it has always been day of Hope for the last 10 years but what we do is something different that has not been done in this city and a lot of people when you don't understand something you have a tendency to reject it what we do is provide them in hope in different Avenues through College and Career Fair through breakout sessions uh through uh we had 360s there um and the list goes on and on and on um I've heard several times that that it was not a

084College and Career Fair and I just want to end with um a few facts okay so let's just talk about facts over the years of day of Hope colleges that have been present LSU brcc Remington Southeastern Northwestern up our University ull Louisiana Tech Southern University Dillard Xavier Louisiana Tech Louisiana College McNeese Grambling Northwestern UL Loyola Alcorn FAMU Louisiana institute Delta College I'm also going to read lastly a response from a college good afternoon thank you for letting us be be a last-minute addition to day of Hope event yesterday we really enjoyed our time there and getting to meet so many students from East Baton Rouge Parish please keep us in mind for any future events thank you next up miss that was Miss Kirsten next up Miss Ariane is that that's all right come on

085Ariana Davidson I'm sorry I didn't say a whole name um good evening I am Ariana Davis one years old and I attend Southern University and um a day of Hope is it's really simple it's about giving hope to every student around Baton Rouge and um that's exactly what we did as you already heard we had College and Career Fair we had um breakouts we did have um conversations and I also you know heard that it was student-led I cannot agree to that because we did have a panel of people there and I was on the side of day of hope I was on all sides of their Hope from attending to speaking to also volunteering and every time I spoke I was also a panelist and we asked students questions because in order to keep

086students engaged you want to hear their questions you want to get their questions answered and so that's what we did and if you call that student lead I'm sorry but in order for them to pay attention and be engaged we would like their questions to be in and um being a 21 year old day of Hope Has you know helped me it has helped me become who I am today it has helped me find who I am today and everything that I do in the community because I'm also in the community I also help girls understand who they are and also find their identity so thank you thank you very much Eugene Collins how y'all doing tonight my name is Eugene Collins I'm the president of the Baton Rouge branch of the NAACP um and

087I Echo Mr Haley's sentiments I believe that this is a powerful opportunity for both the district and Community to come together to assure policies I I don't know if this reaches the level of litigation but with that said I I want to not discount uh the feelings of anybody that came to that event and experienced trauma uh board member Ray jackson you said this is all over the media all over the country and that's disheartening but as I saw those messages all over the country one thing that I saw missing with black faces one thing that I saw missing was not a diversity of voices and you could say what you want to say about that but I didn't hear a kid from Glen Oaks High I didn't hear a kid from McKinley High I

088didn't hear a kid from scotlandville and I damn sure ain't heard no kid from southern land and that's because man y'all did next whether the event was right watch your language please thank you I'm sorry whether the event was right or wrong we had the responsibility of asking every kid and we did not I challenge you to not only do whatever you're going to do with this investigation but also hold one of these Town Halls at Glen Oaks hold it at scotlandville hold it at those places and really get a mix of voices and if those kids say that they were traumatized let's do something about it but let's hear from everybody thanks thank you very much Ursula Chapman thank you hello my name is Ursula Chapman I speak because I'm a parent of a

089my son used to attend 29 11. he left Baton Rouge in ninth grade because he said the school system sucked so he went to Houston Texas where he's graduated from the University of Houston I give all commands to Tremaine Sterling because not only was it for the kids he has extended it to the family even after my son left he still can depend on Jermaine Sterling I still can call him I keep him on speed dial and therefore I continue and will continue to volunteer and whenever he needs me I'll be there I looked I didn't see a lot of the news but I had to look because everybody was talking about it I have one young lady that was on the news I videoed some of the the the event and she's in the

090in my video participating but she gets on the news and say something totally different so I have a problem with that I'm the one that helped get the the kids off the bus and line them up I'm the one that helped make sure they get into the auditorium good I've seen several attempts far out but I was inside I did witness a lot but it was a lot of positive and I think 29 11 for what they instilled and not just my son but my whole entire family I can call about my 31 year old daughter and Tremaine is going to give me some advice so I don't know what all was portrayed but I know a lot was a lie and no kid cell phone was taken away so if they felt like they

091didn't want to be there they could have called their parents to come get them so I just I just feel like it's a lot of obvious and I really feel like that because our kids need hope they do thank you thank you that was Miss Ursula Miss Sybil Sneed hi my name is civil Snead and I attend day of Hope and I could say that it was good I volunteered my time and I help the kids get off the bus tell them where to go at and I talk with one parent after her son they got through doing everything and he was telling her how he enjoyed but she told me she know Mr Tremaine and that's not his first time going he'd been going for 10 years and every time he go he enjoyed

092himself and come back with a good report and I told her thank you because I know the little boy and I talked with another student mine and she said that her daughter enjoyed it so me myself I had my son with 29 11. and I got to say that he want to go back and participate with Mr Tremaine and that's where he keep asking when he could get back into the program so I say that it's a good thing but most kids they might say no but I think it is good thank you very much miss me miss Alexis budiak and Bonnie Kirsch hello I'm Alexis buddyak and I attend Baton Rouge Magnet High School the day of Hope to my school was advertised as a College and Career Fair on the flyer nowhere did

093it say it was religiously Affiliated in any way however you could Google the address and see that it was at a church you could research the 2911 Academy and see that it's a religious Academy but there is no explicit evidence that it is in a religious nature also even if an event is held at the church that doesn't necessarily mean that it has religious implications because churches can just be venues for for events so in this event the girls and boys were separated that's something that has been spoken about multiple times on the media while the girls were spoken to they talked about suicide domestic violence and there wasn't a mention of abstinence that part wasn't wasn't harped on but it was spoken about suicide and domestic violence should not have a place in public

094school events like this yes it is important to talk about domestic violence suicide was spoken about in the context of bullying and yes we should talk about anti-bullying measures but not when you're not prepared for it I went to a College and Career Fair where I'm supposed to speak to colleges and I'm supposed to learn about my future not learning about forgiving my abusers my issue with this event is not solely the religious editions but mostly the lack of information given to students prior to the field trip and how we were unprepared of what was going to happen we were not provided lunch I believe that was mentioned at some point here we were not provided the Brown Bag lunches as I have been in every single EBR field trip for the past 15 years

095that have been in the school system they Tremaine Sterling has not never attended Baton Rouge high as I believe someone previously said that this they've spoken he has spoken to their schools before he has never come to Baton Rouge high so I had no knowledge of anything about him let's see I ask that you vote Yes to the motion presented for general counsel to conduct an investigation on this event because yes some students did enjoy this event some students find Hope in religion some students believe this was fun and it was enjoyable however a lot of students did not as well so even if you did have some students that enjoyed it I do think that it should be investigated and I know that the 2911 Academy did not have intentional malice but it was

096definitely problematic and should be spoken about thank you very much star Matthews I have purposefully been speaking about this not spoken the pastor's name because it's not his fault and I do not want ill to come on his group or what he is trying to do the difference in what's happened over the years with what he's done and this one is EBR transported these children this time parents took him previously um so that's the first thing it's not it's not on the pasta at all because we brought him in this is on us this is on EBR so my comments are for EBR nothing against the pastor or his group I'm gonna read you two quotes first one is my favorite Holocaust quote first they came for the Socialists and I didn't speak out because

097I am not a socialist there's a whole bunch more when they finally came for me there was nobody left to speak out the second one Dr Martin Luther King and the Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere my son a senior a black senior at Bel Air a black school uh because no black students apparently were uh affected except for the black students who were affected thank you was sold on the stage and in line that he had to register to vote in order to get lunch because he was raised by me he ignored it and he in his words he went and found coach Daryl who made sure that all the children who were underage and did not want to register to vote got pizza now Pizza is not a meal those children

098are supposed to get an actual meal from EBR it is not Daryl's responsibility to feed the students of EBR in fact we cannot count it as an instructional day if we do not feed them when we have had early dismissal days because of weather we had to hurry up and rush them children through the cafeteria so the fact that we did not feed them a meal are the seniors gonna have to make this day up because that can't be counted as an instructional day like I said I do not place any blame on any Partners or vendors though I have had conversations with many of them about the laws that were broken with the voting and how it cannot be held as you can't offer something to get somebody registered to vote all children have

099to be taken care of period whether you agree with them whether you are follow those beliefs or not it doesn't matter we have to take care of all and this is a public school system I don't have a last name all right Kenya London hello everyone thank you for having me um I'm coming on behalf of myself as a parent I'm coming um on behalf of the entire day of hope my son has been a part of day of Hope true enough there are several other people in the community that I know personally and not personally who have came to me and has reported that they have um really enjoyed day of Hope and they've enjoyed it on the Insight of the things that have been done there that is not being done that needed

100to be done at home they didn't have a voice they felt like they didn't have a voice to talk but then hear it coming till today I hope they found purpose of their life they found um reasoning for them to start communicating effectively I disagree with a lot of things that have been said about this organization not because I've been a part of it for the past um eight nine years but just seeing other students from different cultures across the board coming to me or reaching out to me because our number is always available even during and after the particular event um it's never been broadcast as a religious event every event that every student has attended they have been fed they have had effective communication no kid has been turned around anything that needed

101to be addressed during the event has been addressed and when I say has been addressed I'm talking about somebody that felt like they needed to walk off to the side and have a conversation with an adult whether it's a volunteer or a school um attendee that's coming as a representative of the school they have been supported pulled to the side and have used their voice there are so many things that has been said again I'm gonna say this again because I I'm really am frustrated with all of the things that has been said that's not true um I do know that 2911 goes into every single school speak with and I know I'm over my time you're not over your time you have a minute um I know he goes into every single School sit

102down with imagine us the principle he sits down with these staff there he finds out what are the needs that the school needs so that we can make sure that the organization is not just being ran on something that the kids does not need again I'm gonna emphasize on Hope because every child needs hope there's a lot of things that is happening not just in the home but out of the Home Society is taking over all of our kids a lot of our kids are um being lost to society so there are a lot of things that needed to be discussed but it when it comes down to communication the communication have been effective I've heard several times where they say they can Google the address yes that's true but the parents also signed the

103permission slips the parents had any questions regarding the and it's not a field trip okay that's your time thank you thank you very much all right rakia Adams it's a pretty handwriting it just tiny good afternoon um so I have a couple of things I like to address I wasn't going to speak because I had just given my comment and I was just gonna leave it alone but just sitting back there listening to everything that's being said um so I wrote a couple of notes down um so food uh they said Brown Bag lunches or pizza for me if I'm going out of school I don't want a brown paper bag much I don't want no sandwich on a wheat bread I don't want that the pizza was there and I took home two boxes

104of pizza after the day I hope hours later so that's about the food now if you ain't eat you just didn't get lying or y'all or okay well we're gonna go right there to the shop rooms the kids 2911 had a say-so about the events not about what the kids was doing the chaperones was bought and were not seen or found they had to be going and found because I went and found two chaperones for two different Scoops because the kids was acting up now whether we was going outside or inside I was inside the college fair was given to them 20 minutes most of the kids didn't even take it they stood underneath the Pavilion because it was too high now if you didn't talk to the colleges or if you didn't have enough

105time to talk to the colleges you must have been one of the ones underneath the Pavilion um the next thing is about the the address I mean the address is the church address and I do understand just because it's at a church it doesn't necessarily have to be religion based but like is being said they have hope has been going on for 10 years this is probably the biggest one and the one that was open to all I mean it's probably always been open to all schools but it is I feel like they have hope is made basically for minority students minority students are the main ones going home and having no hope yes if you don't have if you have hope you shouldn't have came the day of Hope it's a college fair but

106you it's it's something it has to be something else because it ended at I think I want to say one o'clock you had was there for nine to one you thought you was going to be talking to colleges for that long no that wasn't gonna be it I mean and they were separated based off the speakers boys don't want to hear about abusers even though that they do they may want to hear it in another context you can't talk to girls the same way you talk to boys about hope period now I don't know what y'all gonna do but this no I say no thank you Faith Alexander good afternoon you guys good afternoon um my name is Faith Alexander I attend the southern lab Southern University laboratory school um first and foremost I just

107want to thank Mr Treme for everything he does in the community and everything he does for um the youth um personally my experience at the day of Hope um and my peers at Southern lab um we all enjoyed it we all actually left with a sense of hope we all actually left with the thought of hmm things will actually get better there is actually a tomorrow um I saw I began to see you on social media on how you know some of my some of my other peers from different schools talking bad about the day of Hope and um you know just telling their experience and so that day when I the next day when I went to school I um saw some of my peers they were like this is not true this is

108this didn't happen and I kind of felt like what should I do like how should I advocate you know um the positivity how should I um let them know how other students felt about it so I took a I took a leap of faith and I went on Instagram and I used my platform to uh um to Advocate the positivity of the day of Hope and I will read it to you guys I said and I quote enough is enough I will not sit here and watch this corrupt Society rip and tear down what was meant to be an informative and beautiful event in parentheses the day of Hope never was it ever mentioned that the day of Hope would be anything about a religion about religion or going to a church service this was

109not mentioned this was not mentioned on the news which is the video that's above nor the permission slips or Flyers the day of Hope and I quote what was said in a video that was that I posted above a program that was a program that started six years ago and reaches and connects students from all over the parish and sometimes all over the state and Vary randomly all over the country well they came and received hope h-o-p-e that day many students did in fact receive hope personally I believe it was magnificent from the motivational speakers to the other students from different schools uniting none of the helpers hosts or Mr train Tremaine Sterling himself forced religion on any student that did not feel comfortable with it in fact Mr Tremaine Sterling himself told students if

110um if they didn't feel comfortable with what was going on they could leave and go outside and wait for their club for the other classmates in the buses there are many coolers outside in the parking lot filled with water and they had a concession stands for students to purchase snacks while they're waiting students were outside dancing laughing clapping playing and so much more every student had fun that day wisdom was received that day advice was given that day and in fact they did receive hope please stand with me and share your experience in the comments we cannot let it in like this we cannot let these students spread false information and we cannot let them ruin something beautiful thank you thank you very much Bonnie Kirsch foreign who spoke earlier um Dr nursys I first

111want to address you you mentioned earlier that you haven't seen any evidence of distraught students or students that didn't appreciate the event um if that's the case you haven't looked very hard my daughter's I'm sorry my child I'm trying to respect her pronouns my child's account of what happened that day her factual account as an attendee has been shared through International media along with her name and my name which was not Our intention I want to say that out loud that I have only interviewed one time with the advocate despite my name being used on multiple Publications around the world so her name is everywhere if I'm sorry their name is everywhere if if you wanted to find you could have my second comment is um I'm sorry my next comment is I would like

112to Echo Mr Collins sentiment earlier about the disparity of voices in the media I agree with them obviously you know my name has been everywhere but I haven't seen African-American students being interviewed about this event by the media and I do think that that's doing them a disservice and there are students who appreciate it and enjoyed and got something out of this event and their voices have not been heard in the media and I just want to say publicly that I I think that's that's wrong and that's inappropriate the media is clearly being biased in this case the next thing I'd like to add is that uh I believe it was Mr lannis that mentioned earlier that the the policy does um Clearly say that you don't discriminate on the basis of gender but I'd

113suggest maybe the legal counsel that you update your policy a little bit to include gender identity which is the norm in most of these policy statements today I also noticed that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was not included so just a comment that perhaps a review of that policy is warranted um thank you I appreciate that um students were separated by gender at this event not by their gender identity and at no point were students who don't necessarily identify as the gender that they were assigned at Birth at no point were they given the option to choose the group with which they identified to participate with that is discrimination um I want to skip I'm running out of time so I want to skip some things the school board has said at some

114point that all of the prayer and religious aspects of the event were student-led and that's just patently false there are multiple videos to prove otherwise there are multiple you know there was a scripture read at the beginning of the event so that's just not not based in truth and I think that's problematic to say that it is it's not lost on me that the amount spent on this event or requested for this event was 9 800 which is right below the threshold of ten thousand that requires board approval I think that's very interesting lastly I want to again address Dr narciss that this is the third time something under your leadership has happened that has directly affected my family yeah time is up may I list the three things quickly no ma'am all right fans

115that's fine thank you and and the policy thank you very much Catherine Beth Lee good evening um I'm a parent of an EBR student I'm also in in a teacher in EBR I have known about 29 11 for since the beginning I have also contributed to it I've also sat there and helped put it together at the beginning my daughter has participated in day of hope I have also attended day of Hope I've also seen students change their lives through day of Hope as a teacher in EBR I have a gift where kids come to me and this could be a gift and a curse children come to me and express a lot of personal things and a lot of things that they deal with that they don't tell anyone I help them through I

116connect them with Tremaine I use resources through the school system and honestly the school system just isn't enough if we're gonna be real now throughout all this I understand some people may have been uncomfortable throughout the day of hope it's not for everybody I have been in places that I have been uncomfortable because it wasn't for me but if I see a movement is being involved and it's changing people especially with the crime that we have going on here I just removed myself from it now if you didn't like it you didn't want to be there don't go back that's all I could say because I've seen the work that it has done it has grown and as an EBR parent if I signed that permission slip now the church was not listed the address

117was but as a responsible parent wherever my child goes and a name is not listed and addresses on there I'm gonna Google it and find out where my baby going as a responsible parent and that's all I'm gonna say about that thank you chiaro Adams good evening um I just want to say that as a first timer of volunteer for the day of Hope me myself personally I enjoyed it although it was for the students but as a 22 year old I'm still looking for something to push me to keep going and being out there with the kids and I wasn't inside so I don't know what happened inside but I was outside and just all of the kids the different races the just everybody were all coming together and everybody was smiling and nobody

118wasn't like mad at each other or anything I looked over one time and it was a group of kids from mentorship um Baton Rouge high and scotlandville were filling up the coolers for them to have the water but I was going to do it but I mean they took it upon their stuff to do it to at least help everybody else and I mean if you was at the day of hoping you didn't receive anything or it was a bad experience or you don't understand what it was for I feel like your reasoning for coming wasn't what it needed to be because the flyer it says what it says and I mean if you just wanted to skip school then you should have just stayed at home but I enjoyed the event and I live

119with a positive mindset and I love feeling hope because I mean seeing the kids smile it was exciting for me because I'm like they didn't I don't know but I just wanted to say that thank you Rhys Adams wait I'm sorry soul level you went already yeah okay I didn't recognize because you had a different color and you was ready dude come get another three minutes baby we got you that's it three minutes Madison Williams good afternoon everybody um I'm a student at Baton Rouge high and I want to start off by saying I honestly think it was a cultural difference um like many people said it was really targeted towards like minorities or children who are going through situations that a lot of children at bedrooms are aren't going through and when I know

120I'm somewhere and something's going on and I'm like I don't like this I look at a lot of I point out a lot of things that I shouldn't probably even point out because I'm like I don't want to do this I want to be here and I just keep picking stuff out of it and so I honestly feel like a lot of kids who had a problem with the event were doing that because they weren't comfortable at that point they couldn't relate to what was going on they probably the people around them probably weren't even like they didn't share anything so I just think the problem shouldn't have really got this far because it was just like being uncomfortable I feel like and when it comes to like the um the gender thing and all

121that the day of hope I don't think they like we're trying to offend anybody and you know separated by oh girl and boy and well you should be here because you like a girl you should be here because like a boy they just want to separate us by what they want to talk to us about because as all as females we go through these things and as males they go through these things um there were some things I didn't have a big issue on but like the registering to vote I'm not 18 yet so I didn't really see why I should have um registered but it wasn't a big issue to me so for things that I didn't think I needed to bring to anybody's attention because it wasn't that serious it happened it was

122over with um I pretty much think that's it I personally I came out of it with a different perspective I'm not gonna say I go through a lot it's a lot of those other kids do but just being there kind of did make me have more of a uh open view on life in general um and seeing my peers a lot of children really needed to be there like a lot of them like okay one point he told us that he would pray for us or whatever and he was like if you don't want to be in here you don't have to be I won't judge you there were a group of like a bunch of kids left and a bunch of kids who stayed and honestly feel like those kids who stayed got with

123them you didn't need anything but they were given so I feel like the whole event was just if you wanted what they was given like the paper said a day of hope that's all I have to say thank you very much Alyssa Stevenson hi I'm a student at Baton Rouge High um I came into this event not knowing really what was going on but I came in with an open mind and I want to say that the event wasn't like bad but it wasn't open as it needed to be I feel like it played a part in having a conversation that we need to have like I don't agree with them separating genders because I feel like the topics that were talked about in the conversation were girls was something that the boys need to

124hear because the women aren't the like the only people that are getting abused but they also aren't the only people they aren't the main perpetrator of abuse so I feel like that was an open conversation that needed to be had also I feel like this was needed for a certain demographic of students because two like schools that really commented on the bad stuff were Liberty and banner Thai who are known as diverse places and they don't really have the conversation in the predominantly black schools that like gang violence and like prison that because I feel like this thing wasn't something it wasn't what it needed to be for everybody but I feel like it was needed for most people that were there because it wasn't just veterans high and Liberty there there are students that

125aren't going to go to college but they needed to know that there was something out there and for the speakers that were in the girl talk I don't agree with most of them but the one about suicide I really agree with because she had the conversation about it being like it wasn't oh don't kill yourself it's like oh don't like bully people or make them feel different because it really affects them and that's something that not a lot of people talk about I feel like there was a lot of good in this but it's also opened up a conversation that needed to be had so it's not I feel like this was a good opportunity and I feel like this should really keep going on but it should also have some changes that could make

126it better thank you Emily shelvey here thank you so much I was not going to share tonight um but I was sitting back and I just wanted to say something I also want to say Dr narcisse I emailed you and I just want to say thank you for allowing us to give the Constitutions to the 8th graders across these veterans parish for Constitution Day our organization moms for Liberty did that but I wanted to share today because our organization is an organization that believes in parental rights across the board really no matter where people fall on the Spectrum okay and I thought today a friend of a friend of mine and someone who comes to our mom's Liberty meetings her daughter goes to Liberty High School and she had a very very positive experience at

127this and we talked about this when the news came out and just had some heart to Hearts about it and I just kind of I'm just really speaking um from what our organization believes in and I believe that's parental rights she did share that there was a permission slip that went home to parents that had a lot of information on that and she said as a mom I read that as a mom I know where my kids are going and I'm very much aware of that and so I'm really just I just wanted to share because I do like to hear from the hearts of students behind I think that's very important I think it seems as though it really impacted them as a I think that a lot of students do need hope I'll

128believe I and I'm probably one of the moms and if I looked at it and saw that it was at a church I'm also aware that churches a lot of times do open up their doors to do positive things for the community when it is a very non-religious event that is something that is normal I have seen that our church opens up its doors to do um funerals and to do graduations and to do things and our pastors are nowhere near even involved so I'm very much aware of that and I think it's really says a lot about the pastor to open up the doors just to serve the community and I wanted to share that today but really as a heart is that I wanted to just in in connecting to parental rights and

129what we believe is an organization I just think that there's a way to do both I think there's a way that you um we continue with transparency maybe in some of the permission slips maybe in some of the Flyers there's a way to really be very thorough about what's going on hey there's going to be this there's going to be that and there's a way where parents can be maybe even more informed on that where parents that want their students to go to a day that they're inspired and they're told that they matter um where those parents so like that that their child needs that in our community that they are aware that that's available to them and then if some maybe if a parent is concerned and it's very clear that maybe we just

130have a little bit more clarification to those parents but I think there's a way that maybe moving forward there's a way to do both let's keep inspiring our students keep days of Hope keep inspiring students to go beyond above and beyond where they are and then just keep parental transparency at the greatest height um and so I think that could be maybe a win for everybody so thank you Pamela Taylor Johnson good afternoon and I can just about ditto the parent that just came forth and spoke a minute ago but this is the thing I'm looking at your resolution I read it and maybe that's just that mind of mine and I'm wondering what does the resolution the resolution is calling for something that probably should have been done before you even have an event

131uh having been and probably still is an educational lawyer one would think the general counsel would look at events off campus to look at your permission slips have something in place that have already pre-approved and sign off on that uh in conjunction with whatever event you're having whether you have a memorandum understanding or some event that you're coordinating to have the students to go to for the same purpose that you don't have the ACLU saying perhaps there's a violation of rights now don't get me wrong it sounds to me as if the day of Hope from what I'm hearing from the students fantastic event she has enjoyed it they probably needed it and there probably need to be more things like that but I'm concerned about taxpayers dollars I'm concerned about you guys I'm concerned

132about us and the protection that is offered by that gentleman to you guys because the school board is the one will be sued if there's a suit and we as taxpayers will be the ones that will pay for that so I'm concerned about that to make sure those things are there so I heard it said a little bit earlier perhaps it's time to take a good look and do an overview of your policies and procedures not only just for that but of your health your permission slips there's nothing wrong with having off-campus events or school events but must have them approved and or not necessarily approve the approval is from the superintendent but the review is from legal counsel to make sure it doesn't violate anything and that's all and maybe the policies are old

133and maybe you need to update them to comply with what is going on now so the resolution I really don't see how it's going to resolve your issue other than to just have the council do what the council does and if this is about whether or not you should have events that engenders hope I think you should and it says that the kids say you should but let the parents know with transparency what is going on what the expectations are and give them an opportunity to opt out if it's during a school day thank you very much thank you seeing no other public comment back to the board boy colleague blue thank you madam vice president and uh I want to thank everybody who attended and uh gave testimony about their experience I think it

134was helpful um I'm not voting for The Resolution I'm confident in the uh response to any complaints uh that our Administration has done and investigating and we'll find out uh soon enough I did hear a lot of positives about the event um I think it's a board uh we up we ought to be able to uh you know wouldn't even though there may be a lot of media publicity uh if the facts don't match up with what some of the hysteria is then I don't think we need to have competing uh investigations into it I think the processes we have in place are sufficient and uh I'm confident uh Mr shamblin although uh provide information at the board on his findings and particular uh you know that I want to make sure that the voter

135registration was done matches uh you know didn't violate any of the board policy that we have in place um but anyway for that reason I'm not going to vote for this resolution boy colleague Howard thank you madam vice president so I wasn't going to speak tonight but first I want to uh say a few words to the students um this is what student advocacy look like looks like and I'm going to speak specifically to black students today because as a black man that's my experience there will be many times and many experiences in your life where your voice will be silenced continue to show up and speak up and tell your own story you are the author in the narrator of your own life no one no news Outlet no CNN no International report can

136tell your story like you can tell your story my biggest issue with this whole thing yes as a district I talk about it all the time what we can do better as it relates to communication what we can do better as it relates to protocol and procedures but this entire story has been hijacked and the voice of the majority of the students represented at day of Hope has been silenced brother Sterling keep doing what you're doing keep creating Infinity spaces for us and by us because this world has tried to silence our voice for over a hundred years we need it this city needs hope this city needs inspiration and as I leave this board I hope that the students in this District continue to stand up for what they believe in and telling their

137own stories you will not get that the bright end of the stick many of the times people in jobs as you go on in college as you go on in life will try to silence your voice people try to have me hijacked from my position on this board because I wanted you to tell your stories I've got many calls for my own resignation many death threats because I wanted you to speak up but to the people who don't believe in you I believe in you your story matters your voice matters to this District keep the same energy we talking tonight about all students all students are not graduating from schools in East Baton Rouge Parish all students are not graduating with Advanced credentials to go out and be great to talk about and be the

138citizens that you want them to be tonight let's keep the same energy the energy that was received from the day of Hope let's give it to our students who are reading on the third grade level and eighth grade let's give it to our schools where students are not having the same experiences at schools across town let's do it when we're talking about giving rights to this community to have District Empower to vote if we want to have energy about them hope keep that same energy throughout to the students keep doing what you're doing keep fighting and keep telling your own story thank you boy colleague Howard um I just want to First say that uh I've always made clear when I asked about uh this uh when asked about this and have even personally talked

139with brother Tremaine Sterling directly uh I've always personally said that my concerns are not about 29 11. I think it's an amazing organization that does amazing work my concerns have always been and have always stipulated as I express my concerns around if allegations are true then the district did not do its due diligence to avoid certain issues I want to further go on to say that not all black churches pray and believe the same there are many Progressive black churches who believe um that that would have approached um who who may or may not have taken different approaches again not to say that 29 11 was improper in any approach that it took but this imaginary monolithic black church experience does not exist we are not a monolith I find it concerning that at no

140point if and I've always maintained if the concerns about the about the way the program played out are true then I find it very concerning that nobody had anything to say about safety of black girls and women according to the cdc's National intimate partner in sexual violence survey of 2016-17 in their lifetimes 56.1 of all female victims were raped by an acquaintance 39.3 by an intimate partner 16 by a family member and only 12 percent by a stranger according to the National Coalition against domestic violence in 2017 one in three women of all Races and one in four men of all Races have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner is an issue important not just to women but also to men in fact women of color Network Incorporated States the National

141Crime victimization survey between 2003 to 2012 at the rate of 4.7 per 1000 black women had the highest rates of intimate partner violence compared to whites at 3.9 per 1000 Hispanics at 2.3 per 1000 is a black female problem in 2019 Louisiana ranked number two in the nation when it comes to violence against women the report also found that the rate of murders by women of women by men in Louisiana is more than twice the national average I am a victim of domestic violence as a result I had to raise my sons as a single mother because I refuse to accept that being choked out and slammed on concrete in front of my children was my fault I also refused to allow my sons to believe that it was okay for their father to put

142their hands on their mother much less do the same in relationships of Their Own It is a moral imperative that other young women know that whether they wait on the Lord for their husband or not they deserve to be safe from abuse one of our own pregnant teachers was murdered by her lover in front of her three-year-old child because she confronted him about keeping his wife a secret how many brookstown middle babies who knew her as a teacher and knew that she was murdered for that reason were present at day of Hope again to be clear my comments in no way take issue with the amazing women who shared their powerful Life Experiences however there are best practices which are legal to help us address these important sensitive issues while yes incorporating much of the

143testimony of these women in the school system if what we've heard is found to be true could have done its due diligence to support and butcher's debt I personally find it disconcerting that there's no uproar of concern about whether or not best practices to ensure additional trauma didn't take place for black girls it's extremely extremely alarming in and of itself especially that it has been wisely pointed out that over 80 percent of those children in the school system and most of the children in the in attendance at the event are children of color have we forgotten the words of Malcolm X that the most disrespected person in America is the black woman the most unprotected person in America is the black woman and that the most neglected in America is the black woman I am

144glad and I appreciate brother Sterling and I appreciate 29 11 organization but it is fair to want to make sure we do a fact finding for the sake and safety of black females boy colleague where Jackson thank you madam vice president you said that well um and and I have to um also reassure you that I'm I'm very grateful for Ministry to our young people I believe it's very important and I know that many people were positively impacted you know I saw some of the I saw some video and I could see you know that children uh young people were uh receiving the uh the word from um from the pulpit with um they were very receptive and I appreciate Hearts being changed my concern around this is is around the responsibility of the board

145and the superintendent and you all know that we have been sued left and right for all kinds of things and um you know we keep speaking up for um due diligence so that we don't get caught in certain situations um beyond our control without our knowledge I don't know what kind of due diligence took place ahead of time um you know when I when I read the stories uh and when I read the many stories that there were many things that just were repeated over and over and um but there are certain things that we are bound by law to do and provide and uh one of them you know is is around the whether or not we provide food whether they want to eat the food or not you know I've been on field

146trips and I know those little brown bag lunches are delicious but we are bound by law to provide those things uh whether other things are available for them to eat or not my concern is around the law and making sure that we are abiding by the law and um you know I I appreciate the wonderful things that Ministry brings uh to our kids um but I'm not sure that if that was the main purpose or was the the main purpose as a school district to provide College and Career Information just looking at the the promos and looking at the um marketing material um the first thing that's mentioned is Colin College and Career uh information and um and I know it was called the day of Hope and it talked about choices but we always

147talk about choices in education almost everything that we're doing now as far as our programming is tied to choices um so the language was a bit uh vague and we don't know for sure what the mission was in that the budget had no breakdown as to you know whether there was going to be more than uh I've heard that I've heard some say that on some buses there were there there were those brown bag lunches and some not I don't know where Child Nutrition was in it and as I said before I would like to see whether we did our due diligence and did the things that we're required by law to do and if not we just need to make sure sure that we put things in place so that we're doing things correctly

148so that we don't get the kind of backlash from anyone uh not just the media but especially our our own customers so I believe that it's very important for us to be transparent and we did ask in the not in the resolution but in the actual item itself that there be um a forum a public forum I know that you know a lot of you got a chance to speak and maybe there are more who would like to come forward and speak uh um I got a text from someone who was trying to get here in time and and didn't make it here in time so um I would appreciate us protecting ourselves I don't know if whether Dr narcis consulted with uh general counsel a lot of the questions that uh judge uh Pamela

149Johnson asked I would really like to to know what those answers are and and I believe in in looking at this further we will have those answers and we'll put things in place to make sure that the district and our kids are protected thank you boy colleague and with one second to spare all right seeing no other requests to speak from the board Madam Secretary please call the vote please vote the motion fails moving forward with item D1 redistricting update from General counseling thank you madam vice president um First Circuit Court of Appeal uh as part of my my most recent update which is online has issued a judgment in the Singleton case uh reversing the trial Court's ruling which preliminarily enjoying plan 22 so the effect of that is that plan 22 is now

150the plan selected by the board going forward it's council's opinion that the 2014 plan is the plan that will continue to use for the current election cycle um however plan 22 is approved by the board that no longer preliminarily enjoying uh as a remainder of the case proceeds uh Miss Wade Jackson I know you asked me for um an accumulation of cost I wasn't able to update the memo before the meeting today due to uh policy requirements I will do that after the meeting tonight um I believe my June memo has all of the previous costs requested I'll put that onto this memo the attorney's fees to date are 52 0.98 um and ten dollars and 25 cents in expenses and we are exploring options for recouping attorneys fees under the current legal allowances so

151I'll provide more information for the boy that later point on so about an additional twenty thousand yeah I think it was 32 000 uh was the last attorney's fee report back in June by July so we're at so it's about a 30 about a twenty thousand dollar increase and that was mainly due to the appeal and and one of the other questions that uh came earlier in the email around um whether we were whether we should or should not have an AG look at [Music] um the legal counsel especially with new people on board like I believe we that was done back in was it 2003 yes ma'am yeah so state law requires without going into too much detail state law requires that school boards retain Council via retained special um and external Council via

152a resolution and that's the statutory requirement the Louisiana Attorney General's office approves those resolutions you're not required to re-up those in fact the benefit to this board has been that we have paid the same legal fee rate for 20 years and so that's actually been a benefit to the board there has been requests and uh for us to look at that to review whether we need to bring something to the board for an increase for legal speed for legal fees but that's a separate issue but it actually benefits us that we could do that via resolution boards are required to to retain uh their outside counsel in that way it allows them to operate if they're sued they don't have to worry about a contract with a council around a particular case because it's a

15315 to 30 day requirement that you respond to a petition so that resolution allows uh us to operate using legal counsel as needed and the ages office up has to approve those even though the entity may have changed between the time that we designed it yeah it doesn't by understanding is that does not matter um The Firm is still the firm that we're contracted that we are uh do we retain via that resolution okay yeah yeah firms add partners and reduced by Partners all the time it doesn't mean that you have to change resolution utilizing that firm okay well I I appreciate you checking into that to make sure that uh that we're on the up and up and in every way that we possibly can be yes ma'am because Lord knows thereafter thank you

154all right seeing no requests from the board next meeting dates and announcements one Bridging the Gap press conference to be held on October 11 2020 22 at nine o'clock am here at the central office boardroom some are all board members May attend the next uh regular meeting of the board is to be held on October 20th 2022 at five o'clock P.M here at the central office boardroom we have a ribbon cutting that was uh put off due to covet at Jefferson Terrace Academy that will be on October 26 2022 at 10 o'clock am at Jefferson Terrace academy uh summer members May attend and then a board Workshop to be held on October 27 2022 from 5 to 6 30 at the central office boardroom and so moved I mean yeah laughs [Music] foreign [Music] foreign

155[Music]