001[Music] foreign [Music] good evening and welcome to the November 10th 2022 meeting of the Saint Tammany Parish School Board Miss Coakley please call the roll Mr Harrell here Mr Green Mrs Heintz Mr durman Mr Loop Mr Nation Mrs Moore Mr Winkler Mrs Baker Mr Bettencourt Mrs Lamy Mr Hersey Mr bro Mr kuzan Mrs page everyone please stand for the presentation of Colors by Salman High School JROTC followed by the invocation led by Cadet Master Sergeant Jaden Williams remain standing for the singing of our Pledge of Allegiance led by Pontchartrain Elementary School students under the direction of music teacher Ellen Sweetman [Music] look right right what what right right left oh yarn oh my face reason colors dear Lord we know that freedom isn't free a special few pay the price for us all for this
002sacrifice we owe a debt of gratitude to all the courageous men and women who have served and sacrificed to protect our freedoms as we are ever mindful of the cost paid for the Liberty we possess we we ask you to bless the members of our Armed Forces give them courage hope and strength may they ever experience your Firm support Gentle Love and compassionate healing be their power and protector leading them from Darkness to light to you be all glory honor and praise now and forever amen thank you [Music] just to the flag of the United States [Music] one nation under God is invisible with liberty and justice [Music] thank you you may be what what right right [Music] oh my God [Applause] Salmon High School's JROTC is under the command of Colonel Bruce Wilson we
003would like to thank the following cadets for participating in tonight's meeting Cadet Master Sergeant Khalil Carroll Cadet Captain Corey cordier Cadet major Priscilla Dwyer Cadet major Jason Gonzalez Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Ayanna Gore Cadet major Malachi Santa Cruz Cadet Master Sergeant Sahara Sheridan the bet master sergeant Kenneth Venturi Cadet Master Sergeant Jaden Williams at this time I would like to ask superintendent Javier to proceed with our special recognition tonight good evening everyone it is my honor to salute our veterans this evening we especially honor our employees and our community members who have served in any branch of the military in the video produced by St James Parish Public School TV the Pearl High School band on the direction of Stephen abbotty will now present the Armed Forces Melody veterans please stand and remain standing as your
004branch of service is honored remain standing as long as your flag is displayed [Music] right now [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] remember [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] sure would you like to say something right now right you just talk right now before the next thing that'd be great I just want to thank y'all for saving the best branch to last thank you Mr Bettencourt we have a special tribute tonight honor our employees who have served in the military as a matter of fact over 150 of our employees are veterans Channel 13 has produced a video highlighting a few of these employees from administrators to bus drivers who impact our students every day based on the values they that they gained through their service to our country please check out this video [Music] my
005name is Roger Ferrier I served in the United States Air Force I was so served in the Army National Guard I have a total of about eight years of service and I loved it I'm Catherine Patrick I serve the United States Coast Guard as a petty officer I served active and reserve my name is Steve grimion I served with the United States Marines first Battalion fifth Marines first Marine Division Camp Pendleton California I'm officer Devon Vassar I'm with the Slidell Police Department I'm also a United States Navy vet I served 14 years in the armed services and upon that I attained the rank of E5 petty officer my name is Laura lenfant I served in the Army Reserves for six years and achieved a rank of specialists foreign I think there are two things that
006Marines learn and pass on um the first is loyalty I think being loyal to those that you work with on a daily basis that loyalty no man gets left behind the second thing is that mission accomplishment it's guaranteed that the Marines are going to get the job done and uh that is something that I carry with me all the time so one of the lessons I learned in the Coast Guard was the integrity and to be honest and the push through in the classroom if I asked a question and they're unsure I'd rather them say I don't know then just put down something wrong and not care I'd rather them question me so I can help them learn and come up with the correct answer so when they get to the next level they can
007plug that in and continue to grow when I went into the armed services I was just got out of college was fairly young so I guess accountability responsibility I later learned as a young man that those are important if you say you want to do something do it when you're part of a team people rely on you and if you fall short then you let your team down so my time in the military taught me how to stay calm and not escalate a situation so I am able to talk to the students and calm them down and bring the situation into a more controlled environment some of the values that were instilled on me would be integrity teamwork friendship a lot of discipline and uh love I love my kids and you know greet them
008every day and let them know that they're going to get to school safely and on time [Music] I'm very grateful for serving in the Army it gave me a lot of good experience at a young age I'm extremely grateful for the time that I put in that I was able to put in and I'm grateful for the friendships it's a camaraderie that that no one else understand there's a spree decor that that impacts us on a daily basis I think it's very important to acknowledge Veterans Day there's a very small percentage of Americans who actually take that commitment on but it's not just about me it's about those that have gone before me those that are coming behind me those that are here right now Veterans Day is a reminder of all of the freedoms
009that we have that all of the freedoms we have come from someone else and you may not know their name you may never know them at all those veterans deserve that day to be honored so that people appreciate what they have a little more and it was because of veterans that served two years four years 30 years that helped preserve that for us thank you veterans [Applause] at this time School Board member Mr Mike Durham will now share a resolution to officially acknowledge our veterans Instagram thank you superintendent Javion he gives me Blake a great pleasure to offer up this resolution on behalf of Mr Ron Bettencourt our only serving veteran on the board and also to all the other veterans in in our employment and in our great nation whereas Veterans Day will be
010observed throughout the nation on November 11 2022 and on this day we honor all Americans who have served in the Air Force Army Coast Guard Marine Corps Navy and space force both in times of War and Peace and whereas we urge to recognize the sacrifice of our veterans for their courage Valor and contributions put forth in order to preserve our freedom and whereas there are about 19 million veterans living among us and every state and territory and we recognize that the these serve as men and women help shape American history while serving in defense of our nation and whereas we are extremely grateful to our school system employees who have served our country and the military as well as to our general ROTC instructors for their important role in the education of students and their
011efforts to instill a sense of patriotism and all children of the Saint Tammany Parish Public Schools system and whereas we are reminded to honor our veterans for their service and now therefore be it resolved that the members of the Saint Tammany Parish School Board acknowledge and appreciate the dedicated service of all who have served in the Army for armed forces of this country and encourage our schools to honor these proud men and women be it further resolved that this resolution be spread upon the official minutes of this board with a copy being sent to All School schools and offices within the school system to post as a sign of respect and gratitude to our armed forces and I so move yes any comments by the public any comments or questions by board members seeing none
012everyone please vote foreign I'm sorry it I think I think Mr Bettencourt wants to just say a couple of words that's about the court I want to thank Mr durman for doing such a fine job reading that resolution that's not what I was talking about uh if I would have tried to read it I think I'd have run out of breath halfway uh I salute again all the employees all the all the veterans that worked for Saint Tammany Parish School Board y'all are y'all are really appreciate it thank you we appreciate you too Ron thank you Mr buddy thank you thank you thank you Mr Javier you know since I've been an administrator and I've had the opportunity I've always recognized one family as as employee at North Shore High School uh Matthew Powell was
013a former student of ours um he served in a lot of Duty in Afghanistan and he lost his life in the line of duty in Afghanistan so I always remember Matthew on this day I always reach out to his family I'll be texting his sister tomorrow Tiffany who I also taught so always reach out to them and just tell them thank you for their service and thank you for their sacrifice so it's a special day and I'll always remember Matthew as as long as I live so just a special moment but at this time we recognize our veterans for their commitment and sacrifice that they and their families have made for this country now we will stand and salute all of our veterans in the playing of TAPS as Nick Burke a member of the
014Mandeville High School band on the direction of Rossi di benedetto there will be no applause after the play in a Taps instead we will have a moment of silence for all those veterans who have gone before us to secure our freedom and honor those who are fighting for our freedom right now so if everybody will please join me in stand for Nick Burke foreign [Music] foreign again thank you to all our veterans we appreciate you being here and joining us tonight you may be seated you know and if any of our veterans would like to leave um y'all are welcome to thank you thank you all for your service [Applause] you're welcome you're still serving where we have the recognition of visitors do we have any board members that would like to visitors they'd like
015to recognize Mr Nation yes sir um president Harrell superintendent jabia fellow board members I'd like for everyone to join me in congratulating School Board member district for District Six School Board member elect Amanda Reed Martin congratulations Amanda [Applause] Mr Dorman thank you president Harold I actually want to recognize all of the sitting board members of the incumbents that were unopposed in one re-election and those uh board members that are incumbents that actually won their seats back I want to congratulate all of them I also want to congratulate all of the new board members that that won their seats I want to congratulate all of them and I want to wish luck to the other three races that are out there to those individuals that are still seeking elections so I want to congratulate everyone on
016a very long campaign trail and I want to say thank you that I'm not running thank you miss page thank you yes I would like to recognize Michelle Gallagher who is district 15 board member elect thank you congratulations Michelle [Applause] Mr Hersey and I'd like to recognize Michelle hurstis board member elect District 12. foreign ER I was just going to point out but they left um but councilman David Fitzgerald was one of our veterans that was here um and I noticed him when he stood and then Miss Paige just welcomed um Michelle but I noticed that she stood as well she's a veteran so even though Mr Ron won't be here next year we'll have a veteran up here at the end seeing no more recognitions Mr Javier would you please give us your update
017sure thank you all very much uh first off you know we want to make you aware that on Monday uh we had an event at North Shore Technical Community College it's called Maritime Monday we had over 200 students that are interested in the maritime uh career fields to be there we're just so encouraged with all of our partners and all the opportunities I want to thank Dr Wayne Wright at North Shore Technical Community College for making this happening and for partnering with Saint tan Parish Stacy Alexius who does our Career Technical coordinator and also all of our school to work coordinators and coaches that were there to support it was a tremendous night and just a great event we had such a tremendous partnership with North Shore Technical and the maritime Department there I just
018appreciate them welcome all our students and and giving them the grand Tours it was just amazing secondly I went to shadaima and got grilled by second graders so I had a tremendous time they did a lesson on leadership and it was just a tremendous activity and they just asked tremendous questions about what it took to be a leader you know how do you get to a leadership position and we just talked about things that go on at school and how they can start Young by leading in their classrooms and working with their teachers so it was great to do that I spent six hours of my life today at Bessie that I'll never get back and fortunately there were three motions the first one was a substitute motion to have an accountability for a new
019high school accountability it failed six to five they tried to amend the motion and bring it back up it failed eight to three they tried to bring the motion back up again and it failed nine to two so that it was very good at the end of the meeting we we had some conversation about next steps so we're looking forward to sitting down they finally recognized that without teachers in the room that they're wasting their time they finally said that out loud so I'm looking forward to being a part of however that needs to look to put teachers and administrators and people that are on the ground in the committee and write the accountability that really mimics what's going on in our school system so I really look forward to being a part of that
020and our employee employees being a part of that conversation Monday I will go back to Bessie for superintendent advisory committee meeting and I'll spend all day there on Monday but again it's a great group people that it's all superintendents from around the state we usually have some very good conversations so I'm looking forward to hearing from them and to seeing next steps hopefully we'll get some more information on accountability at that point so just appreciate y'all's time and again congratulations to everyone um from Tuesday I know Tuesday ended a long season for many of us I know there's three outstanding races still to be done but I just wish everyone the very best and just thank everyone for you know all you do for public education at St James Parish School Board so thank you
021very much thank you thank you Mr jabby the board members did you all have any questions Mr German Mr jab could you expand upon um talking about the Betsy and and how their accountability and and so the public can understand better as to what they're trying to do and what we're doing currently absolutely the the accountability measures were to change the strength of diploma so the strength of diploma if you think about it is you know what the diploma looks like that the students are getting how many AP courses they're taking how many dual enrollment courses they're taking any uh CTE jumpstart credentials they're earning what they were trying to do was to put a number on that that if you didn't reach basically uh six hours of AP or 12 hours of dual enrollment
022then you would not be fully vested and you would not earn the maximum amount of points so it was trying to put all students into a mold well that's great for students that have a tremendous focus on moving forward to a full year a university and they have maybe their plans laid out but it's very difficult for our students that are in the Arts in music in athletics involved in in extracurriculars you know we were one of the superintendents spoke from Vernon Parish he gave two examples one was a young lady who was a over a 3.5 student had 34 in the ACT but she was a four sport athletes and the student body president she didn't have time for dual enrollment and all the extra things but she prepared herself and she is extremely
023successful another student who had said that they were a CTE kid that he had in in Vernon that uh you know just did what they needed to do but they were a Hands-On kid they earned the CTE credits but they didn't have the dual enrollment and all the other credentials so both of those kids would have been 50s both of them extremely successful but out of 125 points their 50s so they were trying to lump kids into a pot so basically they were saying you know if you had one AP class would account to three dual enrollment classes we it's just not it's just not adequate it's just not relative it didn't have alignment there was no alignment and progression for what was going on teachers were unvalued they were about they were they were
024gonna not reward teachers for all their work they were doing they tried to take out part of the growth component they tried to stop and eliminate part of the growth component that was the amendment they tried to make so there were all kind of different things that they were trying to accomplish by attacking something that is supposed to be there for accountability it's not there for equity and for services it's supposed to be there as an accountability measure to show where we need to work what we need to do a better job not trying to lump students in and force students in to a certain mold or a certain cut so I'm just glad the public showed up you had about 40 superintendents you had teachers you had administrators you had supervisors uh community members
025you had a combination of a ton of people and they all showed up and they spoke out and they let Bessie board understand exactly what they were doing and a lot was accomplished today and I was really just I was moved by what happened there because as many times that I attend those meetings and it's done before we even get there and that was not today that was not today thank God so um we're moving in a good direction again they're going to sit down with people who have boots on the ground who are working in classrooms who understand we're doing and not just shooting from the hip at ldoe so I'm really excited about what the future holds Mrs I appreciate your explanation for everybody to understand that in the public that may be
026watching uh I think is is very evident that not every child fits into the same exact box exactly and everybody's um place in life as they move forward is different so that that that whole process is different for every child that I'm motto is every child every day and that every that looks different for every child and and so that one track that they're trying to force everybody into is not the correct track yes sir for everybody it may be for some or many or whatever but it's not for everyone but it shouldn't penalize our system our students our employees because it doesn't fit their mold correct we're not trying to mold kids into a certain thing we're trying to educate them that's what this should be about is education and not about the evaluation
027no doubt so I appreciate your efforts in going up there so you may not get those six hours back today but it was worse and we appreciate you going up there and fighting for us we appreciate that thanks so much Mr Wrong had a question yes sir thank you well I I agree with what Mr Java and Mr durman said um it was a long drawn out process and the first meeting they had a month ago or so uh had the K through two that was approved there were parts of this this this whole plan that that were good but the total package was bad especially the high school accountability stuff uh heavily emphasized on college students where we only have 40 percent of our our student body is going through college and fewer than
028that only like 20 percent actually get degrees and if you're going to emphasize that as as your primary goal you're you're missing 80 percent of your students body um the other thing is that as their stated objective from the very start they said there's too many A and B schools so if your goal is to lower the lower the scoring of the schools that was their stated goal with this whole plan um I'm sorry but that's not helping the students that's you know that's that's not reasonable as an approach to come up with accountability score just to lower the scores of the students of the of the schools thank you yes sir you're right Miss brother thank you Mr Brown Mr Green yeah I'm just curious how our friend Mr Garvey voted through all those
029he voted he voted for the Bessie approval of the of the amendment every time all three were yes they voted against the students and against the what the majority the overwhelmed majority of the people said there yeah and and our public should know the voters in Saint Tammany should know that that he is not for public schools and that has been made very clear um by his absence uh at an open invitation for him to join us uh in a town hall yes yes uh and then by his vote and and I get four more years so I can say this the the flyer that came out if you if you track where those dollars came from it's the same Charter School organizations that that back him and and that's what they want if you
030think about the charter school set up for fast-tracking kids to college that that we we've said it here and I won't say it again but that mold doesn't work for everybody and that's not what St Tammany Parish Schools should be about so I hope when that term comes up that we can find somebody that our Parish can get behind and put in that seat who stands behind public education yes sir yes sir Mr greeny is still not responding to my email as of yet never even responded thank you Mr Green seeing no more questions from board members we'll move on to the next item up Dr McCurley will you please give us the math textbook update thank you president Harrell board members Mr javia last week for our cni update Miss Fuller presented the results
031of a survey whereby teachers were asked their opinions on the use of their current math curriculum after analyzing the results with the team and examining the available data we would like to bring to the board next month for approval the decision to continue with the current curriculum for grades K-8 for one more year for a number of reasons first overall the results from the teacher survey indicated that they really would like to stay with the curriculum they're currently using also students student performance data is possibly inconclusive due to two years of a pandemic whereby illnesses prevented or encouraged rather High absentee rates higher than normal for both students and teachers through no Faults of anyone but it's a result of a pandemic there were many many absences due to illness and this created learning gaps
032and we've addressed that there are learning gaps and we're working to correct those learning gaps and also professional development over those two years was limited the support was limited also due to the due to the pandemic because of social distancing restrictions capacity limitations for in-person trainings vendor travels ceased our own in-house curriculum support team was limited by the amount of times they could go into schools so we all experienced that same restriction due to the pandemic and on top of that when we could host the trainings there was a shortage of Subs that we know is still occurring so we feel that a more informed decision can be reached by having this additional year to work on closing those gaps to continue with our consistent PD support of our teachers in their current curriculum and
033by welcoming back the outside vendors which we have been doing this year however for the high school subjects that includes Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 and math electives those subjects will have to undergo the adoption process first of all because springboard which is being used is no longer a tier one curriculum option for Choice and then also in just as important teachers input suggest that they would like to explore other tier one options our math supervisors are here to talk about the enhanced products available in both curriculum for Eureka Math for grades K to five it will be called Eureka squared and for ready math grades six through eight it is ready classroom so I'm going to ask Ms Jenkins to come first and give an explanation of Eureka squared president Harold superintendent Javier board
034members I'm just going to speak briefly on Eureka math squared it will continue to support the consistent math models the aspects of rigor that are aligned to our math standards and the mathematical coherence will be accessible across all grade levels all enhancements for Eureka math squared have been developed from feedback from millions of teachers and students Eureka Math square square continues to offer Hands-On models digital interactives it increases the opportunity for our student discourse it has simple consistent language to support all readers especially those who may have dyslexia and all lessons are designed under the principles of the Universal Design for Learning and Miss langwa will speak to ready classroom ready classroom is six grades six through eight good evening uh president Harrell board members so ready classroom like Dr McCurley said is in our
035sixth through eight grades um just as textbooks go through updated editions that's kind of what happened here with ready classroom it's the updated version there's enhancements to the grade level instructions that are provided for our teachers as well as the prerequisite of support some of those enhancements are um enhanced digital as well as print resources that's definitely been a uh overwhelming request by our teachers and so ready listen to teachers just as Eureka Square did some of those enhancements include more practice and assessment problems for our teachers to have access to because that's something we hear is you know hey I've exhausted I need more I'm sure you've heard that as well integration with Desmos the math tools so for online so you can use graphing calculators scientific calculators manipulatives things of that nature there's
036a supplemental fluency booklet that would come along to help you know support our students across the grade levels in their procedural skill as well as application and problem solving and then there's also a focus not that there wasn't before but a more enhanced focus on the academic math vocabulary there's also things um adjustments to scope and sequence based on teacher feedback that was very heavily listened to there's enhancements in the EL support to help teachers meet the needs of all of their students and I mentioned the extra practice assessment problems there's interactive practice that includes those technology enhanced items that they're going to see in a variety of things such as drag and drop items or multi-select and just having to manipulate the computer screen to demonstrate what they know and understand about math so
037we're very excited about this and we think it's gonna be a good move okay thanks and finally Miss Fuller will discuss next steps regarding the timeline and adoption for the high school levels good evening last week the question was asked about parent input regarding our current math curriculum what we're going to do is we're going to put the videos for Eureka squared and ready classroom that were attached to our teacher survey on the school website so we can seek that input from our parents um like Dr McCurley stated earlier we will see board approval next month to move forward with purchasing the following curriculum resources for the 2023-2024 school year with a one-year contract K5 Eureka math squared with premium assessment add-on estimated costs 905 84.26 for that it would support eighteen thousand seven hundred
038twenty five students and 928 teachers which is 48.36 per student six eight ready classroom estimated cost 678.75 to support nine thousand three hundred eighty five students and 218 teachers at fifty four dollars per student as Dr McCurley also stated with our higher level math courses I have already um sent the our contract addendum and I T questionnaire which are due tomorrow for the five vendors to be eligible to participate in our adoption that's due tomorrow that's all of my updates thank you so board members just we're going to get into this next month but basically uh we have to bring it to you guys you already adopted Eureka you've already adopted ready math those are already there we our contracts are up they're no longer going to make those resources so for our Chromebooks and
039everything we have to move to the new version so that's all we're going to be asking you to do next month is move Eureka to their recent version which is called squared and as you heard ready classroom six through eight moving to that new version that's the only thing we're going to be asking you and then we'll be starting with the process of vetting the vendors and the books for high school for that curriculum coming up and we'll go through that entire process um so we will be bringing that to you for committee as a whole next month to look at the square and look at ready classroom okay thank you Mr Javier Dr McCarley Mr bro you had a question yeah yes thank you uh I assume that all five of the vendors for
040the uh secondary math are the high school math are tier one all right thank you Mr German thank you how long have we been on you know with this curriculum along this contract it started that that was what we were trying to get to and that's why we had to sit down and talk we adopted this curriculum right when covid hit and so our teachers had very limited uh PD that was available to them because of all the shutdown and everything that went on so we haven't gotten true data and I've told you all from the get-go we're going to align the curriculum that's got to happen but we feel like to make a good decision Eureka and ready have the K-8 options that were possibly looking at or some version of it so we
041need that data to look at we feel like this spring we should get quality test results from our students because of no quarantines no positives that we fought for the last two years so that's why we're waiting is to get this uh information in so that we can bring it to this board and we can say here's what the data is showing and we can say hey teachers this is what the data show to do it to both groups I don't know if I'm just remembering this or not remembering it or making it up or whatever but didn't we have some test scores that showed some improvement in in the math areas when we switched to this curriculum even though it was a partial segment of what we were testing we've seen growth in both
042curriculums we've seen growth in both it's just that alignment where we're just the alignment is our issue and that's my biggest issue and our curriculum Department's biggest but our test scores bumped up a little bit with math when we took some adjustment to it to Eureka because it is a different it's a different thought process so it's taking some time but I'm going to tell you our elementary teachers as you saw by the results that were shown to you they really have have bought into Eureka and the fundamentals that it's teaching our children so yeah well I I think you know one of the problems we've had in the past is that we kept changing to different things and nothing was aligned and we you know we had different grade levels learning different things so
043by staying with the same basic plan even though it's you know the new version or whatever it may be it makes sense because we're not changing the entire program we're not changing where it's taught at because we had different grade levels getting taught different things with different curriculums and then we had two three grade levels I was getting having a gap because they never were exposed to it so to me this makes a lot more sense and if we already saw a slight uptick in scores in a horrible two-year segment to have actual normal instruction taking place in the classroom and having this still continue it would certainly should be able to show more Improvement and I think that's the right that's right and we're looking forward to these spring results we'd like to see
044more of that when it comes next month but I think we're on the right track thank you thank you thank you Mr durman for the curriculum insight Miss Moore yes um so miss McCurley so 23 um 2023 2024 that will be what we use this for one more year correct we'll ask will we start the looking for um the new or if we decide to stay with this will we start that process a little bit earlier so we can have more parental involvement Community involvement I heard that you said this is going to be on the school website or or is it the School Board website which one because you said School says School Board website just making sure so when they ask me I'll be able to tell them and I like the idea
045of more in-service training because teachers you know again they were thrown with this and a lot of them and parents are still so maybe we can maybe coordinate stuff at the schools because the parents are not sold on this I hear it all the time so I I want them to like what the children are doing or at least um the teachers the teachers have to like what they're teaching because it takes something out of them so I'm glad to hear that um and let's see what else did I have I'm sorry you're looking for this um that's all I just want to make sure we get some input from our community and the board ahead of time and not at the last minute so that year um I could go along with we're getting
046ready for this thank you for updating you along the way now okay sounds good thank you Miss Moore Miss Baker thank you Dr McCurley um so when you get your five um prospects is it going to be representation from the high schools teachers for all the disciplines of math so it's not just like if I'm teaching Algebra 2 but not geometry we're going to have it from all that right I just want to make sure that teachers really have that and because I can't look at a math curriculum and decide which is best for students right the samples will be at the schools and all teachers are welcome to give their input all Math teachers but do we have a committee like committed teachers on the committee oh yes that's part of the process okay
047on the timeline thank you ma'am thank you Ms Baker Mr kuzan so well the students that's taking the that we teach in the uh your the squares in K to five now when they get to six to eight do you feel like they will be adequately prepared for the digital presentation that you're going to give to them that's in a ready classroom I do I feel that the curriculum is the vessel by which the standards are taught and our teachers are skilled and they're professionals and they're going to make sure that the students are prepared for the next step that's the only question I am thank you thank you Mr koozan Mrs Lamy I wanted to say thank you for um honoring the teacher input I'm not saying they all don't typically but it was
048very obvious that you did so thank you because they are the ones that know best and I just from a personal standpoint I'm really excited that we're extending it simply because two years is even if we didn't have all the coveted mess it's too quick to try to teach teachers how to teach it start using it and then say ah it's not working let's move on so I'm really glad about that and I do know before we actually fully adopted it some of us were participated in book studies about Eureka and we started implementing it sooner and did teacher trainings and we did have some school-based parent nights to teach the parents the vocabulary and so I know that that has been done some so I just think it's really good that we're given a
049little more time especially since the teacher said yes I mean if they would have said no then I might feel differently but and also the studies show that to properly gauge the effectiveness of a curriculum there needs to be at least three years of implementing especially at least at four yeah great okay thank you thank you Miss Lamy seeing no additional questions let's move on to the Sweet camera update with this gardener very adjustments to the forms I did notice tonight that there's one little error that will correct before they're posted at this time we have three forms that will be used for Suite cameras two that will be available on our district website for parents the first form is the request for installation of video and audio recording each of you should have the
050forms for viewing once this form is completed by the parent it should be sent to the principal currently the ones you guys see says to the superintendent designee it should say principal once the principal receives the form he or she will send the parent the second form which is an acknowledgment of request of camera installation so once that form is sent then the process will get rolling as far as looking at the form looking at the student schedule and approving or denying the form the third form is the request for viewing I'm sorry the request for reviewing a video and audio recording in a special education classroom this form also should be sent to the principal when a parent is requesting to review a specific incident so those three forms will be uploaded to our
051School Board website and the students with exceptionalities for parents to be able to access and that completes my updates Lewis is here to answer any installation questions Terry is here if you have any budget questions Terry would you go I mean excuse me Lewis would you go ahead and talk about where we are with with cameras we are we've already purchased cameras um we have them on site we have the signs ready to go we have a training module that we will push out to once the form is approved and we know which classroom would receive it we'd start pulling cable and then we would push the training to teacher para counselor assistant principal principal anybody that would enter that classroom at that school we would push that training to and then we're also going
052to print that training out so that if a sub was to enter that room they would also sign off on that Terrain so so we're ready to go uh what we Lewis has everything he needs uh to make it happen uh so as soon as the parents get the forms they'll be uploaded tomorrow as soon as those requests are made uh to the principal the principal looks at the master schedule of the child make sure they give us the the blessing that we're putting in the proper classroom and we'll move forward with the installation of the cameras so we're ready to do that well I think we do have um some families that completed a form it's if out if they've already completed a form they need to go to the website get the form
053that's dated today's date because that's the updated form with the corrections on it great thank you this Prevost anything I'll be bringing that budget next month because it required it because it's a special Revenue fund it's a separate fund so I'll be bringing that next month thank you Miss prevas board members any questions we'll start with Miss Baker just to be but a parent has to request to install the equipment that is correct otherwise it's going to be sitting in a closet no go ahead we've purchased 10 cameras in anticipation of a request we should receive so as we receive the request we have equipment that we can start the process okay so we install the cameras in the classroom and and it's there and then it's only good for one year and then we
054would uninstall it and then reinstall it if a request came the following year it we would that we would uninstall that camera and then if we receive a request and it was approved the following year we'd move the wiring and the camera to the next classroom the camera Miss Vega is attached to the student in which the camera is being requested for okay and then what on What occasion would it not it says an approval or denial would be sent within seven days or what what would be the circumstance to deny it so the the law states that the student must be in the self-contained classroom for 50 or more of the day so if we have a camera request for a student that only spends 10 of the day in a special education classroom
055that does not meet the requirement for installation which is 50 or more of their day in a self-contained classroom so it just to be clear so I can can get my head around it and help explain it so if we have a self contained classroom a parent wants the camera we we may or may not install it based on the minutes of another student in that classroom no that's a specific student that one student schedule will come with form a which well SC1 it'll come with that form so we'll look at the student schedule look at the IEP determine if they're in that classroom which the schedule will say it 50 or more of the day okay and if they are then the request will go through and if they're not it's just like the
056loss we're following the law exactly as it stages the classroom can have 20 students in it but if one which it will not I mean typically it doesn't right if um if the classroom has six students in it it just takes one parent requests the form and we're looking at that one parent request for their child that's the schedule we're looking at okay our issue is every adult that services that classroom must be trained and must be informed that camera is in there recording audio and video every day every day all school day so they have to sign off that it is not approval just they understand that it's there right so like a a police officer May wear a body can't okay correct okay so they just are aware that the training is beat
057awareness there's also a song that's going to be placed outside of that classroom that basically says cameras and audio recordings are in use outside of each classroom that contains that camera and I mean I'm in favor of it I think that it's going to um to be really telling for um for for all involved I agree all right thank you so much I appreciate it thank you Louis thank you Miss Baker for your sweet Insight Miss Lamy my question is um so the request is for any sweet self-contained classroom not just a classroom that I mean if a parent requested but not it's not just for non-verbal students it's for any okay okay so then it says once they request we have seven days seven school days to accept or deny okay and then from
058that point if it was accepted do we have a timeline that has to be installed by like once we say yes it's approved we're going to install do we have a like I know with you know like splc or the yeah we don't have a timeline as fast as it can get installed it's going to be installed okay now we have text getting on it as soon as it's approved okay um and then for the training is it something that we can just push out like all the rest of our online training so that they can just do it okay so it's not like tools okay awesome that's what I need to do thank you so much thank you Miss Lamy Mr Darman thank you I guess my question comes from the other side of
059this if if there are other students within the classroom to those parents are they made aware that there's camera to do and do they have to approve that there's a camera in there so if they don't want their child in that classroom under a camera do we have to relocate the children no sir if the video ever needs to be viewed by the requesting person then it would be redacted by I.T and our individuals to redact that video so and then just like our surveillance that's part of the law just yes sir yes sir we don't need all we have to do is in-service and signage is what our requirements are okay for our employees for the adults for the adults correct but what reads State what you said about the other parents we do
060have to notify them that a camera is being placed right we just have to notify them we just gotta verify them we have them permission okay and that's part of the law yes sir thank you Mr Darman Miss Moore yes um self-contained let's say we have severe profound class it has six kids in it be a lot if every child requested it we have to have six cameras just one camera so I'm that's what I'm saying okay I didn't know when you said body cam I'm like okay once it's requested it is installed the other parents in the classrooms are going to yeah they can't request you have a few parents that have already requested it are they going to be notified they have to fill out this new form um yes that thank you
061I appreciate that thank you Miss more miss page thank you Miss Gardner I just have a question so if I have a student that is in a self-contained classroom you know for over 50 percent um and I don't want him to be videotaped I I guess I just want to make sure that we're preparing ourselves for that question you know I'm notified I receive a phone call from the special education teacher that says that my child is going to be videotaped I I have some concerns about that and I want to make sure that we're thinking about that too yes yes okay thank you miss Page Miss Heintz um Miss Gardner my question is you have a classroom where a parent has not requested a camera but there is a camera in there and then
062they decide they'd like to see video footage but they didn't request it for their child will will they be denied viewing no they can still they would just go on the website print the third form that they're requesting to see the video footage and yes we will allow them to see video footage of their child so again all the other children will be redacted and then they get to view the incident that they're request interview yes okay so yes if the camera's in there all the parents in the classroom have access to be allowed to view it and then it's been brought up several times but I want to reiterate you know from the podium here that if you have you have to fill out a form that is approved this form so if you've
063previously filled out one you need to download and fill out these forms that's right thank you in the form that was downloaded people that downloaded off board docs that was just an example so that we could get the policy started it was not the official form this is the official yes ma'am thank you thank you Miss Heights Mr Nation thank you Mr Harold uh just to follow up really on Mr durman and Mrs page because I have the same concerns but I just want to just make it clear there's no provision in the law as it stands now for a parent who objects right yes yes so all right thank you thank you Mr Nation Miss Amy I just kind of wanted to sorry reiterate that um we have cameras around our school so like
064if there's an incident recess and the duty teacher didn't see it we can pull those like all of our students would be on that camera on the buses so we have that now it's just not inside the classroom but they're all around the schools and we use them all the time for for discipline situations injuries like stuff like that so this would be no different if a parent requested it um it's not like a live feed it's your child's daycare where you can just check out the teacher and the kids all day and critique you would have to have a specific situation that you requested with a specific date and time frame then Administration would look at it and block out all the other children so nobody would see your child specifically I mean they
065may be able to figure out who it is if they know who's in the class but they wouldn't be able to actually see that so there are some protections around it it's not like somebody can just sit home and watch it and come up with stuff so that's that's good and the only difference of islamia is this is where recording audio also okay now that all of our security cameras do not have audio okay got it this does happen I didn't realize okay thank you Miss Lambie Mr Hersey how long is this information retained under the law it's 30 days thank you and seeing no additional questions thank you Miss Gardner Miss Prevost and Mr bullion all right up next on the agenda we have uh to consider and take action with respect to adopting
066a resolution approving the acceptance of the bid for the purchase of General obligation school bond series 2022 B of Saint Tammany Parish wide School District number 12 of the Parish of St Tammany state of Louisiana and providing for other matters in connection therewith do I have a motion thank you Ms Heist have a second thank you Mr Loop Miss Prevost do uh do we have any comments about the public any questions from board members Heights it's not a question I just you know want everyone to realize that Mr Schluter and Miss Ferry were here last week gave us all the information regarding the sale of the bond the terms and uh this is one of our draws from 2019 election and we had six beds the one chosen was JP Morgan Securities at 4.26 is
067that right Miss Prevost thank you [Laughter] good job all right um thank you thank you Miss Heinz seeing other comments or questions about board members everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously Item B recommends to accept bit of sale of section 16 land Timber with Tangipahoa and Washington Parish School boards do I have a motion Mr durman do I have a second Mr koozan do we have any comments by the public seeing none any questions from board members Mr Darman I just want to say that it was an absolute windfall wasn't it how much is that Terry 2800 is our part thank you after expenses and all right see no additional questions everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously item C recommends acceptance of the final revised budgets for fiscal year 2021-2022 do
068I have a motion Mr Hersey do I have a second Mr Green do we have any comments by the public any questions from board members Ms Heintz why do we have a replacement yeah I made a I had a little formula era into them so I thought I should correct correct so but the numbers don't change it was just um I correct it you did notice that I'm so sorry yeah in oversight so it is that's corrected thank you Terry I appreciate all the attention you give these budgets and um they're very detailed very thorough and appreciated thank you good thing we had the timber sail to reprint these all right everybody please vote and that motion passes unanimously item D approval of minutes for the regular meeting held on October 13 2022 do I
069have a motion thank you Mr koozan and the second by Miss Lamy do we have any comments by the public seeing none any questions or comments about board members seeing none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously item e the appropriate retirement resolutions for the following certificated Personnel subsequent to October 13 2022 Mr kosei would you like to announce he's deferred I just saw the shine I I got lost Mr Alfonso thank you appropriate retirement resolutions on the following certificated Personnel subsequent to the October 13 2022 meeting Maria R Rupert Bayou Woods Elementary 30.27 years all in Saint Tammany Parish Patrick R Mackin Brooks curriculum Center 25.37 years 24.37 years in Saint Tammany Parish Billy B Kirk Mandeville High 29.12 years 27.12 years in Saint Tammany Parish Miss Lamy do you want to make
070the motion thank you do I have a second thank you Miss Moore any comments by the public any questions from board members seeing none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously item F appropriate retirement resolutions for the following employee Support Services Personnel subsequent to October 13 2022 Mr Alfonso thanks again president Harrells who attended jabby and board appropriate retirement resolution in the following employee Support Services Personnel subsequent to the October 13 2022 meeting Virginia P Hogue Pearl River High 25.08 years All in St Tammany Parish Clyde Adams Transportation Center 8.89 years all in Saint Tammany Parish Erica M Julian Transportation Center 20.11 years all in Saint Tammany Parish do I have a motion thank you Miss Moore do I have a second thank you Mr Green any comments by the public any questions from
071board members Miss Baker are those Transportation people are they bus drivers just one we have a replacement the it's an it's an itinerant driver and so it wasn't one that was dedicated to a route I seeing no additional questions everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously and up next we have the approval recommendations from the committee as a whole meeting for human resources and education held on November 3rd 2022 chairman Greene thank you president Harrell the committee for human resources and education met on November 3rd and recommends the following that we accept a resolution of the Saint Tammany Parish School Board declaring its official opposition to the use of critical race Theory and other race-based training curriculum methodology and public education I so move thank you Mr Green for the first and Mr Nation
072for the second do we have any comments by the public all right we'll just go left to right Ms Osborne thank you board members Administration um I'd emailed the board this afternoon with some employee concerns it's not the the spirit of what this is about which is institutional neutrality um I think has best capture this I know CRT is kind of the buzzword that a lot of people are concerned with but there's some implications to some of the whereas statements so I think what you could do is pass this and uh Mr Supernatural you mentioned Bessie Bessie was going to pass something one time and then the superintendent was going to put out some information to clarify so if we you know do that and then if uh the curriculum instruction team can kind of
073Define things like CRT because I promise you if I go to the tap room after this meeting and I ask 10 people in The Tap Room what is CRT it's going to be 10 different definitions so the concern people have is they don't know what it is and for some people who really follow this issue they do know what it is but I think our employees need clarification and if we could also educate the public because it's not like a textbook comes that says with a sticker 50 more CRT right it's you have to understand what this is and we have to educate that's what this whole institution is about is education and the more we educate the more fear we can alleviate and focus on other issues but I know there's a lot of
074every single District you hear that question is CRT coming here so again I I say pass it but then if superintendent javia can and his team can put out some things to help clarify what this means thank you Mr Osborne uh good evening uh board members I'm Matthew Allen uh former teacher for Centennial Parish school when I retired in 2020 and while I'm not opposed to the spirit of the resolution all every professional teacher agree in neutrality in their teaching and that especially the critical race series not developmentally appropriate for the K-12 but this resolution is so poorly written that it should be uh dismissed by this board I'd like to thank Mr Loop and Miss Lamy for uh voting against it last uh meeting and to all the members who abstained I believe all
075of y'all were ex-educators too ex-teachers but as a retired teacher this is so poorly written I'd have to give it an F oh wait I'm sorry teachers are now discouraged from giving failing grades to game the state school system the State score system so I have to change it to a d this resolution is so full of holes and should be written on a slice of Swiss cheese the way it is written is an example of poorly implemented policy that contributes to your teacher shortage is tone deaf to the needs of the students parents and teachers and the education system as a whole the biggest issue I have is a lack of clarity about what the school board expects of teachers there are no definitions or guidance for the generalized catchphrase CRT and all related
076euphemistic surrogates without defining these terms the school board is leaving the teachers out to hang well hang a dry pardon me while trying to determine what is meant what can and cannot be taught by leaving so much up to the interpretation it places even more stress on the teachers who do not want to lose a job by inadvertently teaching a forbidden topic and also leave a school board open to Picayune complaints and lawsuits because of the slack of clarity um there are more problems with the document but that's all the time they'll give us professionally trained teachers do know what is best and not to undul the influence uh thank you I appreciate your time all right who's who else would like to speak yes ma'am Miss copel you'll be next good evening Mr Harrell
077Mr Javion the rest of the board my name is Jamie Segura and I live in Covington and I've been a resident of Saint Tammany powers for 30 years I'm baffled why you felt the need to adopt such a divisive resolution I have to ask are there teachers in our system that are trying to teach critical race theory in any of our schools I asked around I've not found one teacher that I know and I know many that have been able to give me any incent instance where this University level Theory might be taught in our schools uh we have 37 000 students in our 56 schools I have a racial background uh breakdown 67 are white 19.4 are black 8.3 percent are Hispanic Latino um and 5.2 percent are in other categories our graduation rate
07882.2 percent and that's on your website that's a disgrace in this in this community that if I'm not mistaken has one of the highest level college educated citizenry in the entire state I remember when the school year began there was a lot of talk about not enough teachers well I personally know of one substitute teacher who works every single day might I suggest that instead of tripping down the rabbit hole of the political right and addressing a non-existent issue about critical race theory that you spend your time recruiting certified teachers to come teach in this Parish that perhaps the achievement score slide that Saint Tammany is experiencing now might be stopped and we might once again be known as the number one educational system and Parish in the state of Louisiana thank you Mr Speaker
079Mr Copeland I I do support this resolution I want to thank you guys for bringing it up if you don't think there's an issue with it there was a teacher at the school that I used to work at before I was fired that signed a pledge to vow to teach critical race Theory and it was published on the news that teacher is still teaching today and some of her colleagues are on Facebook right now crying because they won't be able to talk about this topic in school these screenshots are going to be around for a long time and I'm probably going to publish them tonight so it exists in our schools but if you don't know what critical race theory is just look up Derek Bell he wrote the book on it and that's going
080to give you everything you need to know it's very divisive and I want to say it's not about stopping the teaching of black history we actually don't teach enough black history because what is true black history does anyone know about Charles B Brooks who invented the first self-propelled street sweeper in the late 1800s a black man inventor Catherine Johnson was a black woman that completed the calculations that sent astronauts into orbit in the 1960s and helped put the first man on the Moon a black woman in the 1960s and Ben Carson a black man that performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins who were attached at the back of the head and not to forget Barack Obama a black man that was elected president I tell you that no one chooses what color they
081are born as being black is not a handicap in life you can be successful I didn't choose to be white wasn't my choice I probably would have chose something different quite honestly but it doesn't make me automatically racist because I am white and being black doesn't automatically make you a loser and that's why I support this we do need to ban the teaching of critical race Theory and teach true black history thank you Mr copel any additional comments from the public Mr Johnson foreign [Music] good evening everyone um young lady spoke candidly and openly and directly and I agree with them this is a Collegiate level course and we have a resolution about something and he may have spoke about it maybe taught him to schools but um we live in this bubble when Saint
082Tammany Parish and have been since I was a child for some odd reason that we don't like to address uncomfortable conversations we don't like to have them we don't like to learn from each other it doesn't have to be about a fear of being white versus black or anything of that nature it's about understanding the individual that you're sitting next to that you're living in the same country in the world with and the biggest thing that disappoints me is that we have real true issues in our parish and I promise you this is not even topping top 10. there's kids in this Parish who have lost their parents to where this their father drove to kill their mother and then killed himself and they have trauma to deal with we have enough mental counselors in
083the parish we won't have enough individuals that's truly caring about the kids and we worry about critical race Theory we have kids that go to school for nourishment during the day we have kids that don't have clothing they worry about bullying and online social media bullying we have so many more issues and we are worried about something that's not here or that may have been addressed once or twice and you can address that directly but to create a resolution for something that's so minute in my opinion is a waste of our time energy and effort we have so many other things last time I checked CRT was not here when we were ranked 18 now unless we came here four or five years ago or 10 years ago last time I checked lowering our test
084scores and so much more I'm just disappointed because we have teachers still not being heard the bus driver situation we think that them getting a raise they still have issues we have central office issues as far as how they're doing things that they're frustrated about these are Educators that have come to me openly because they have fear of retaliation we have so many more issues and I feel like this is such a massive waste of our time when we're supposed to be leaders and showcasing to the Next Generation how and I'm gonna end with this if this is a hot button topic and if this is such a topic that's so discouraging and embarrassing and uncomfortable for everyone then let's show them as Leaders how to address it how to understand from one another and
085how to work as a unit and work and move forward together based off the history of our past that is how we truly address critical race Theory thank you thank you Mr Johnson if you have any additional comments seeing none or well I guess we need uh board comments huh do we have any Mr Green thank you president Harrell um I feel it's it's important that I address this um I think in introducing this resolution it was to be very clear that where Saint Tammany Parish and this board stands on critical race Theory and whatever however you define that the public and and this is a vast majority of public and voters in our Parish are against whatever they believe critical race theory is and while this resolution addresses critical race Theory and a bunch
086of other things I think it's a start and I think it's something that we should uh we should approve but I kind of liken it to a scene in Armageddon as if people have seen this movie with Bruce Willis and he goes into uh NASA with his crew of Motley Crew of oil drillers and they're given this big machine that they're supposed to land on this meteor and Bruce Willis and his team start going through it and ripping out parts of it that don't necessarily need to be there Parts in this document that talk about teacher autonomy and and their ability to teach to individual students and that's not the spirit of this resolution in fact the reality is is I think that what we're trying to accomplish in this resolution can be said in
087probably two paragraphs of it it says whereas critical race Theory and all related I can't even euphemistic surrogates why even put that in there what what is that critical race Theory and all and and shall not be advocated in any foreign Parish and then there's a third paragraph whereas public education properly designed includes age-appropriate exposure to history philosophies and structures would comprise the American Experience pertinent instruction and this is kind of how I think about critical race Theory pertinent instruction regarding history of racism and inequality America should not purport to deliberately undermine race groups student Family Values religious beliefs or founding principles and then you can end this resolution and spread it across wherever you want and drop it from a helicopter but that's what I think the spirit of this resolution is and so
088um I think it's a start but I think it's something that we needed to address because I know there's folks in this public uh in the audience who probably disagree with me but it was a concern in this election and and we heard it across and and look whether it is is it is going on in the classroom because I don't this is this is an expression that Saint Tammany Paris it isn't and it will not be part of our curriculum going forward and we're just taking a stance here so um and and I think that that's what the spirit of this resolution should have been about thanks thank you Mr Green I can tell you four years of gifted English I think uh related euphemistics surrogates is synonyms for CRT just a guess any
089additional comments from board members listen first of all I'd like to say that uh I worked in this Parish over 50 years and if we have and it says problems like this it needs to come before this board and address it and as I've said I haven't seen any of this issues that have been presented to me I don't think we need to address issues that we don't have problems with if we have problems with it then let's address it but when you submit resolutions about issues that we don't have problems with that creates problems that's all I got to say thank you Mr kuzan first I want to say thank you Mr Green for um sharing the premise behind it or the spirit behind the resolution I think that was very important and I
090appreciate you say like clarifying that I I'm being genuine I appreciate that um what I want to say you know I said last week I feel like and I did have to you know field tons of questions because of my vote um which I would do again today um because it was the exactly what's been said why are we doing it right now kind of thing I remember being asked these questions at forums four years ago when I ran it was a it was a thing then you know it's been a thing so anybody who knows me knows my perspective on it um what I just really want and when you read that paragraph about the public education properly designed I stand behind that a thousand million percent I can say I'm against CRT but
091do you understand what I mean by CRT do you want you know like everybody's like you said their perception whatever they think I'm 100 it doesn't belong in K-12 schools period but what you just said right there I feel like is our responsibility as a board age appropriate exposure to anything right history philosophies our values our family and I agree that you're right that Saint Tammany has a certain culture and value system that I think almost the majority of us fit into so I agree with that wholeheartedly and I would vote I would probably vote yesterday because my reason for no was not to pass it on this week because of what I felt but I feel like we need teeth behind it I think that we need to stay we're going to commit to
092um you know when we we go to adopt curriculums or approve things that we're going to make sure none of these things are in there that's how we feel not just saying this is what I believe and then that's it does that make any sense I don't know if it did but anyway thank you for the clarification thank you Miss lamby Mr Darman Miss Lamey I think I understood you you did good um you know as most people realize the resolution is just a statement of you know kind of emotion I guess in a way if if you look at what's being said and everybody like you saying can take different things from how the resolution is actually written I think it would probably be the start as a resolution to move into maybe a
093policy that the board would adapt or adopt later as it deals with curriculum and instruction and clarify some of these um items that are in here but this is like the very beginning of this to State a you know a position it isn't stating the procedure and I think this is the the first step towards going to and then have more public input into how that language or should be you know written into our policies so that it's clear crystal clear to everybody and I think as a board it is our responsibility to approve the curriculum it is our responsibility as a board and the administration's job to con carry it out and yet where our curriculum is based upon state standards and then they're tearing that how they've implemented all of these different components
094as testing and if you score this or you are whatever you are whatever yeah so they dictate to it they force you into these certain Avenues but it's still the board's responsibility to pick those just like it is with this to say that we're not going to have any red Prejudice or racial instructions or what to on anything about any race regardless of what it may be it's not that we're going to quit teaching history and and in fact we need to teach more factual history because if there's mistakes in the past and you're aware of them you tend to not repeat them in the future but if we don't know about what failed previously you're going to continue to make those same mistakes so I understand where we are with this and and the
095intent of it it may not be spelled out perfectly because it's a resolution it's not the actual policy so I think if and I don't know if we need to place in there that it would be beginning you know the formation of a policy but that's that's up to this board to to here again to direct the superintendent to come back with some type of policy that would reflect the structure of this resolution that's just my input but anyway thank you thank you Mr Darman Mr Nation thank you Mr Harold I fully believe that the full unvarnished history of this nation should be taught to the students of Saint Tammany Parish but I also fully believe that they should not be taught uh that this country is illegitimate because of slavery and that means the
096heart of critical race Theory and it which leads to the undoing of our Constitution and we have to redo our constitution all our structures because of of of slavery I pose this in terms of um it was an issue on the campaign Trail I heard it numerous numerous times one of our groups save our schools we signed a pledge I signed a pledge um there's a concern for them also I've posed a question to Mr Harrison our general counsel saying uh asking regarding is is this resolution binding because that question was proposed to me and and what I understood from and Mr Harrison correct if I'm wrong but what I understood is yes the resolution is binding on the board and in terms of shaping policy and curriculum decisions as as we go forward so
097um but I'm certainly happy to strengthen the resolution we need to to make it clear that the board's not is going to seek to unite us because that's what folks are feeling they're feeling actually they're feeling divided already because of this that is going forward and we need to unite and say we're not going we are going to have institutional neutrality we are going to have uh we're not going to denigrate any race because as Mr copel said because of the circumstances of our birth thank you thank you Mr Nation Miss Baker and I have to agree with most it has been a Hot Topic on the campaign trail and I and I would not be in favor of a college level um course being instituted in a 12 K-12 school system and um I
098am I am for that reason not in favor thank you thank you Miss Baker Mr Bettencourt yeah thank you Mr President I'm not really up on this since I've been missing some meetings and stuff read a little bit about her I'm not really I don't know that I have a definition of critical race Theory but it's been brought up that the resolution uh maybe has things in it that aren't needed or maybe that things need to be in it that aren't there so maybe the maybe the solution is to rework this resolution and it and then pass it or reject it I don't know if somebody wants to do that make that motion and then also would would miss the nation was talking about in relationship to the slavery issue and stuff I hope everybody
099knows the United States didn't invent slavery and if if we're gonna you know it's a really stain on any country that's ever had that England Egypt I mean it goes pretty far back and it's still going on but for the record the United States did not invent slavery thank you Mr Bettencourt and I'll be honest my personal thoughts I wish we just have an easy resolution that said let the teachers teach the subjects that they're supposed to teach and stay in that lane and a art teacher teaches color theory that's it but and maybe cooking teachers to you know talk about fun dip and other candy or something I don't know mislaming I was just gonna say what Mr Ron said I think it would be a good idea if we um possibly considered tabling
100it but not at the sake of forgetting about it but maybe to either add things that need to be added or take away some things that so that when we make it it's clear we all understand completely what it means and so does everybody who reads it so it's just a thought I'd be willing to do that um I don't know how to like I make a motion that we table this and put some more time and energy into rewriting it and then bring it back do we have a second thank you thank you I got a second I'm so excited I'm just saying do we have any public comments on tabling the motion Miss copel and I'm afraid that if you table it it will get washed away and forgotten about forever especially with
101the holiday coming up and the new year I think it's simple enough you guys can come up with a phrase paragraph you can cross out something you can add something I suggest you do that tonight be very specific if you want neutrality in the classroom put that in there make it very specific I think you should do it tonight that's all I have to say thank you Miss Copeland Mr Osborne I don't think you should table because I think it's just going to Fester um I I appreciated Mr Greene's remarks about the spirit of it uh though it may be imperfect and there's some implications it is a resolution so I think just tabling it is just going to cause things to be to Fester um I think the statement's clear and everybody just wants
102to move forward thank you hey Miss Osborne yes ma'am I I absolutely abhor the resolution as it stands but I think that if you table it tonight and really work on what this board and this parish and what their true meaning of critical race theory is and Define that in the resolution so anybody who reads it knows what it is you stand against every one of you have admitted that have spoken you don't really know what critical race theory is nobody's actually really stated it has nothing it's not about slavery so that that's not part of this it's about institutionalized racism and it's much too deep for us all to go into tonight but why rush to and the fact that it was a Hot Topic during your campaigning well that shouldn't make a difference
103to you tonight you're not here as someone who's running for office you are the school board right now for the school system every curriculum gets approved right before it goes into a classroom how does anybody teach something that's not approved so you're going to approve whatever curriculum is in our classrooms critical race theory if it comes up don't approve it and if it comes up in a classroom then deal with it individually but this resolution is mean-spirited and you can't cover it up deal on the on them thank you Mr Hersey as Mr Hershey pointed out that the comments will be on the uh just the tabling of the amendment it's it's very quick um just as she said education is the biggest thing just on tabling not on I think I caught you um
104education is the biggest thing and when we're tabling it for this amendment that we're speaking about as she just said let's educate ourselves on it more let's not rush it with something of this nature and make sure that we're thinking critically about this play on words if you may and just make sure that we're thinking about every aspect of it and we're making sure that we're not just rushing it for the sake of people being over it or we've heard one or two instances as we say address those as see fits but when we rush this idea of making a decision tonight if there's holes in that people have spoken on I just think that's something to take into consideration and something to really think about as far as something of this topic so that's
105my biggest thing I feel like just with a lot of things we're rushing to be able to satisfy that and since it's a Hot Topic conversation that hijacked a lot of ways that candidates could have discussed how they could have better deal Parish so thank you hello board my name is Amanda Evers I work returning Point USA specifically with high school students and so my comment on this is that everybody who has spoken in opposition is this their main statement was we have so many other things going on why are we putting time towards this and this is literally putting more time to it which is fine but just wanted to point that out and I've studied critical race Theory all the way back to Mao Zedong which is if you're not familiar that's from
106Communist Revolution China a very long time ago this theory is is very in-depth and it's a lot to comprehend and understand which I applaud you for trying to do and push you to do it more but again everybody who was in opposition to this has stated that there are so many other issues other pressing things going on and yet they still want to put more times to it so this needs to be addressed now this needs to be shut down critical race Theory does not belong in our schools period thank you yes sir Matthew Allen and again I believe it would be the right move to table it right now this was rushed through uh last week uh some of the a council members said that they hadn't even really looked at the resolution and
107again it's so full of holes what's going to happen teachers don't all know the difference between a resolution and a policy statement they're going to read this and say oh my God what can I teach what can't I teach am I going to get trouble for teaching this is that the state of mind you want our teachers to be in I was there I've seen it come down they want me to teach honors physics using ice hockey and ice skating down here no that's one thing that drove me out you want to drive more teachers out leave it like this with ambiguous wording you want to help support teachers support the students get this right get it right before you go to policy right now not getting a right puts you in peril it could
108even be seen as becoming part of a cancel culture if this is not done right I do not want to see that label applied to the school board the school system we are not that we are better than that I expect you'll be professionals and get this right thank you Lee Barrios just want to make a technical point in the past it's always been you know if you call it traditional but the practice of the board when they write a resolution the resolution represents the feelings of the board not individual people on the board you all obviously don't all agree on this so you I don't see how you can pass a resolution of the board if you were however determined to do that you should then State the individual members of the board who
109believe this and who vote for this thank you Miss Canino Kathleen Canino Covington um I don't know if you all have had any experience writing laws but when you do write the laws you have to Define it and I think that's what's missing here is whether you decide to pass it or not tonight it needs to be defined as exactly what it is so that it's not left up to interpretation for everybody because it like you said different people it means different things so I think we need to Define it more before it's passed thanks thank you ma'am any additional comments any comments about board members Mr Betancourt well as this has been going on two things crossed my mind we could make the previous tabling specific to next month's committee as a whole meeting
110which would put a definite timeline on it as opposed to it's just out there somewhere and then my other thought was in a little over a month is going to be at least eight new board members sitting up here and I just was thinking you know is it more appropriate to to table this thing and let the new board uh discuss and I'm sure there might be some different ideas or whatever with with all the new members and perhaps have that new board uh finalize a resolution or possibly make some kind of a policy then you start thinking well you know can a brand new board do something like that they have to have a few months under their under their wing you know to to get things done because I remember when I was
111uh first set up here John Lamarck told me to sit here shut up and listen for a year and uh you know learn what the heck's going on before you start uh mouthing off or anything so the things that have popped into my mind you can table this to next month perhaps you know get it dealt with by rewording this resolution or maybe the wisdom decides that let this new sitting board uh contemplate this this issue and come up with with something thank you Mr Betancourt Miss Amy so listening to the public input it makes me not want to table it um simply because I don't want more division that's a part of what I mean our opinions of what we feel and believe are not going to change what was going to change was
112the way we worded it to make it clear for everyone and all we're doing is saying this is how we feel I do feel a policy should come in the future and I feel like we need to talk about that and figure that out whether it's with the new board members or if it's with the current board members um I don't have a problem saying this is how I feel but I want I want it to be clear and because it has been pointed out that not everybody understands what CRT is and I feel like the paragraph that Matt read earlier says everything we need to say now you could put example of CRT in there but this to me is not about CRT alone this is about the inappropriate things that are being snuck
113into curriculums the books that are being put in the pack the stories they're being connected to a lesson that are developmentally inappropriate well whether it be political violent racist gender whatever it is I'm against all of those things which it clearly says right here um compromise the American Experience hurt an instruction regarding history of racism and inequality um in America should not purport or deliberately undermine race groups student Family Values religious beliefs or founding principles and I think that in a nutshell says it all for me so could we make a motion instead to revise Mr Hamilton could miss Lamey withdraw her motion she could withdraw her motion to table yes okay but then can somebody else make a motion to to change the wording what y'all feeling people okay I'll withdraw them on and
114see what y'all say if not I'll put it back on no I'm just kidding you're removing her motion yes do we does Miss Moore need to agree to remove it I just saw I just wanted legal confirmation it would be once you have a second it's it's to get an agreement to withdraw would be a good idea from the person who seconded it yeah she she agrees so at that point that motion to table is withdrawn your back in discussion now miss Lamy did you want to make a new motion you have to make I want to wait to miss Lamey yields her time yeah I just okay okay let make sure the president uh acknowledges that all right Miss Lamey Mr Green so I I'm I'm begging this board not to table this or
115push this kick this can down the road this the language in this resolution while not perfect again my analogy of the Armageddon machine needing a lot of parts but we can address this in policy we can we can put teeth to critical race Theory we can do that in policy if we continue to to go back and draft resolution language we're never going to get a perfect resolution and and as we've pointed out many times it there's there's no teeth and and and their teachers aren't going to grab this and use it as their instruction manual for how to teach their classrooms they're so all I'm saying is let's let's get this behind us let's move on that you're you're every we have so many more things we need to focus on let's get this
116behind us focus on what's important and then we can address the specifics of critical race Theory and all the other things that are talked about this in our policy thank you Mr Green Mr Hersey Mr Harrison who would this be by this resolution being by binding on his answer no one until I don't say this I want to just you know so that you when you start talking about laws and resolutions you start talking about language you just need to understand first and foremost this is not policy that's what okay policy has to be extremely well defined you have to be very careful how you drafted you've got to pull from federal law on cases and you've got a full from state law this has been going on for over one year different versions of
117this resolution were impossible to pass because it get misinterpreted this one came from board members who wanted to take a position on the topic of critical race Theory however you define it you're going to have a really hard time defining critical race Theory okay I wouldn't recommend even trying frankly this resolution Mr Nation outlined is a position statement in in a sense it's binding on the board I wasn't asked if I was gonna find this on anybody else that is Way Beyond a resolution by Design the whereas Clauses are unenforceable entirely they're they're they're a lead-in you could have a two-paragraph position whereas critical race theory is dividing among citizens and we don't like it it doesn't matter how you get there it's the what the nature of what Mr Green was trying to say
118people are asking what is your position on this topic but I'm not I was not Dr asked to draft the legal department did not analyze I did not throw this through a first amendment constitutional analysis I've told this publicly many times I'm a constitutional lawyer so it's your job to decide where you are on this topic but that's really the whole nature of this resolution and and Mr Green's correct's been going on for a long time it gets discussed and then it falls off the radar it I don't know whether it's a non-issue but it's not a policy it's not a law it's not a resolution so it is just basically a position of feeling position for you all to uh take a stand on it okay thank you Mr Harrison thank you and uh
119I'd like to yield my time to Mr kuzan and we need Spanish I'd like to take another stab at this and call for the question but I'm not going to do it at this time thank you the question I have we had a resolution right on the floor then we had a substitute motion then we had a second all right the policy should have been or what the procedure should have been we vote on The Substitute motion first right after discuss with table motion I'm sorry table motion you should vote on that phrase get that out the way then go back to your original motion resolution of what you have to vote on that so I'm lost I'm trying to figure out what we're doing we're back now I'll definitely clarify that I'd like to
120clarify but did you withdraw the second yes okay well let's go to the let's let's call for the question thank you all right seeing no more additional comments from board members everyone please vote and we are we are voting on accepting of the resolution and that motion passes with 13 years and two abstentions foreign do you have anything else Mr Green that concludes our report thank you Mr President thank you sir all right up next we have the approval of recommendations from the committee as a whole meeting for finance and administrative held on November 3rd 2022 chairman Nation thank you Mr President uh we did indeed meet on Thursday November the 3rd and we have two recommendations for the consideration of the board tonight first is item a to recommend acceptance of the low base
121bid submitted by trison Construction LLC in in the amount of 227 thousand dollars for the kitchen Hood replacement at Covington high and Clearwood Junior High School's stpsb project number p0310 do you want to make that motion I do all right Mr bro do we have a second thank you Mr Dorman do we have any comments about the public seeing none any questions from board members seeing not everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously all right and our final recommendation tonight is to recommend acceptance of the firm's msh Architects Green Leaf Architects with domain architecture RL RCL architecture and KBS architecture for the outdoor activity playground equipment and surfacing for Schools project and I so moved thank you sir a second thank you miss Page any comments by the public any questions from board members
122seeing none everyone please vote in that motion passes unanimously all right we're moving on to public comments um any staff that would like to leave now would be the time all right then we also under Louisiana open meetings law including our Louisiana RS 4219 the agenda of this board is required to give public notice on the topic of items to be stressed or voted upon in the meeting Additionally the agenda generally cannot be amended with less than 24 hours notice as a result the board members and other members of the public cannot engage in a full discussion on topics brought up in the public comments section of the meeting because doing so would inevitably lead to a discussion of an item that is not listed on the agenda in practice this prevents the board members
123from commenting on public comments up first we have Miss Amanda eberts I'll be a little nicer this time so my name is Amanda Evers um I'm with Turning Point USA which is a non-profit non-partisan organization um I am their field rep so I'm over all of Louisiana Mississippi and Northern Alabama but I'm from Louisiana it's my home so I just wanted to introduce myself say a little bit about what we do we offer scholarships internships networking opportunities for students we are all about America first so we talk about the Constitution why free speech is important why voting is important we help students to become civically engaged so encouraging to come to school board meetings City Council meetings seeing how their government works if they would be interested in going into career politics we we help
124them do that so we currently don't have any chapters in the Saint Tammany area I just got my letter of introduction to be able to go to the schools but we were denied to host voter registration drives which is a big thing that we do so kind of it was it was stated that that was because that they could register online at the school but we offer a lot more information than just registering them to vote we give them a little pocket Constitution with information we are all about education and why this is important so I would ask why that is I know y'all can't comment on it but just wanted to put that in the back your head and and hope for your support and like I said we have amazing amazing opportunities and
125offers to students so I thank you and appreciate you guys for for hearing what I had to say and thank you for your support thank you thank you ma'am up next we have Miss Kathleen kanina Kathleen Canino Covington Louisiana um I was going to just talk about the camera policy and ask one it wasn't attached to the agenda the new documents um and two why wouldn't y'all just go ahead or maybe the schools could go ahead and install them in all the classrooms that are self-contained that way there wouldn't be the issue of trying to figure out who gets one who doesn't and taking them down and putting them back up it seems a little redundant and extra work for all of you oh well not y'all necessarily but you know Administration and everyone my
126other concern is so we have teachers leaving just because and this is specific to sped tonight but they're leaving because they are not being provided the support they need to teach their children in their classroom um a teacher just recently retired she was amazing she was one of the best pet teachers I have ever met and we lost her because she felt like she was just a glorified babysitter because what she needed to teach those children is not being provided now with the budget that we have there's no excuse for that so if we have this staff why don't we support that staff and those resources there's already critical shortage so we're losing more because we're not providing the support they need um for me that's just really disappointing and I know for that teacher
127it breaks their heart because she loved these kids she could reach these kids she was amazing um and I just thought that that's something that y'all should know thank you thank you Miss Canino Miss Jamie Segura Mr Jordan Johnson go for it thank you guys again for this evening for your time I just want to speak on a few things and kudos to those moving forward in the positions uh hopefully we're changing of the culture just in general uh with those that's going to hold a position I speak on my campaign experience and um just a lot of things that I've seen not only just in this parishes in general um I noticed that when I was coming up in this Parish two things that we never supposed to discuss was religion and politics and
128as time has progressed on as we've continued to grow older and mature or become wiser seasoned as some people like to say um that's like on the Forefront of everything now I feel like that's that's a topic of discussion pretty much with everything and what part are you affiliated with shouldn't be the determining Factor on who's representing or who's leading the Next Generation or at least who's looking to help uh just in general I would like to see maybe no party affiliations at all with the next candidacy that'll probably make individuals research those candidates speak on specifically what they can bring to the table and just their resumes if you have to bad mouth another candidates just to be able to build yourself up that's an issue and I want to Echo my sentiments again
129is that we are supposed to be leaders for the next generation at all points in time and this is recorded forever and it's imprinted so we're going to Showcase that this is how we're going to operate and everything that we're teaching them as they're coming up as adolescents we're going to do the exact opposite of as adults and as a supposed leaders that's an issue it's not a knock at anybody on the board I'm just talking just in general let's talk for the general society as well in our general public we spoke about taking politics out of school like I said as long as Forefront of everything there's issues with our Educators just in general like legitimate issues guys not just teaching not about critical race Theory where we just went back and forth about
130there's legitimate issues like she just spoke about of us losing Educators because they don't have support in Saint Tammany parishes since I've been a child we like to put a Band-Aid on bullet wounds and we like to sweep things under the rug and avoid it just like we did tonight with the topic of critical race Theory and I'm not saying that to be upset by any means because I didn't get my way I'm saying that just in general that's literally what we do and what I've noticed and I want to challenge this in general not just the board but I saw a community and out of Parish rally and make surveys we had all kind of forums we had so many different ways of showcasing our candidates which is phenomenal as needed but that same
131energy now because it's not just on the board members and the Educators in the classroom it's on the Paris so do we only care about the children for the eight hours a day that they're in school and not about the livelihood outside of that because that's not on statistical data I respect statistics and data in history but we continue in the fear monger and let that hijack our thought process with everything that we're doing at the Forefront and everything so I want to see that same energy from not only the board members but as well as the community in the parish for the same individuals that we care so much about the kids we care so much about because outside of the classroom when the school bells rings that life really starts and there's a
132lot of things that's not on paper that we're judgment about it'll make any decisions about so I want to make sure that that's a challenge and as I end and close on this that we showcase now that we start doing things that are uncomfortable so they won't have those uncomfortable conversations or uncomfortable experiences in our parish and in our country thank you thank you Mr Johnson up next we have Mr Brandt Osborne good evening again board uh you know people brought up issues that that are of uh great importance and absolutely there are many things that need attention and so I agree with the position to move forward some of those issues are violence against staff in the classroom we're getting at least two calls a week they're heartbreaking we don't really have the tools
133to help we're trying to find some so I'm calling on this board to to find ways to to address this situation it's very complex it's a very complex problem it seems simple but it's not but people are leaving because they're getting hurt and we gotta we gotta find Solutions um I wanted to come up and talk about the history of the Union and collective bargaining so I want to touch on that a little bit but but there really are uh in some ways we're on fire as a district in other ways we're excelling but I'm the kind of person that we we can't just look at the good we also have to look at the things that need Improvement um the history of our local just in brief 78 we were chartered we got collective
134bargaining in 1991 prior to that specifically in the year of 1981 some of y'all remember this uh there were there were massive uh sick outs and walkouts on the part of teachers um the newspaper called it the teachers getting chalk fever and so that that was very disruptive but the they felt I guess at the time that was the only way to have their voice heard um a resolution they put out on July 30th 1981 there were a bunch of things that they tried to do to get attention one of them I thought was pretty extreme picket the School Board office and the homes and or businesses of school board members the superintendent and assistant superintendents so I mean that that to me crosses a big line I don't want to judge what came before
135I am appreciative of those folks and what they earn but that that's pretty wild you know so to hear some of the things we're called compared to that we're pretty tame they also sued the school board because they they disagreed with how certain Villages were being won based on a 1966 millage so I think it's a tool that benefits all sides personally I like the no strike claws I don't ever want as a leader to have to deal with a strike vote okay when that Clause is there it benefits both sides it's a tool and we're working toward ironing out all the the protocols and then this and that but once we do it we'll be that professional mechanism to where we can find good solutions that I think will help us retain employees and
136then also attract I think sometimes we put them backwards in that order attract and retain um we we will still be searching for solutions to whether it's violence in the classroom or anything else but it takes a partnership and I'm looking forward to working with the board and also the new board coming in thank you thank you Mr Osborne Miss Barrios so I thought the occasion of Veterans Day was a good a good time to bring this up and this is directed toward whoever is going to be on on the new board mostly um my dad was a veteran Air Force veteran pilot who flew in combat in World War II Korea and Vietnam he's the person who had the most influence in my life and who I am and in my belief in the
137importance of freedom of speech that the constitution guarantees and that in fact will be the driving force that will keep our Democratic Republic alive it Bears repeating the First Amendment says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or Bridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances my dad provided me with a model of that belief he also told me once that the hardest thing to find is a man who is willing to take responsibility his first year as command out of cadets at LSU in 1960-61 when all male students were required to enroll in ROTC then football coach Paul diesel showed up in his office and
138informed him that he told his boys you can either play ball or you could play Soldier can you imagine that my dad told him he would have a pretty slim team then because all his freshmen better show up for class next week I'm sure that wasn't the end of that conversation knowing how powerful football is at LSU but my dad stood his ground and took responsibility for that congratulations to the 2023 board I encourage them to remember a pledge that I believe they all made as part of their campaigns which was to encourage public participation make greater opportunities for that and to respect and respond to their concerns criticism is not easy to take and it's not easy to give the opportunities for intimidation are great I've experienced it myself but I'm my father's daughter
139and I take responsibility for what I see so I'm not to be intimidated I hope the new board discourages that and doesn't participate in that teachers and parents can be great Assets in moving this District forward they need to feel empowered not afraid to voice their concerns good luck to the new board and may you truly put students first thank you Miss Barrios Miss Barbara Sharp Barbershop bus driver one-third of the year is gone and there's still a crisis in transportation how many of you were aware of the issues before last meeting the initial beginning of school statement that we are only four drivers short and the non-descript transportation report each month would lead you to believe that there are no issues in transportation this problem is Major this is the effects on the children
140all the staff parents all the children and classes that are interrupted when students arrive late and staff when buses are running multiple runs and children are not picked up in a timely manner the latest substitute list for drivers shows a total of 19 long-term or temp operators and up to five or more routes that would definitely be considered long term but they're not in that category more than daily this list is also deceptive because it includes names of drivers that are no longer subbing the information provided by human resources has not been informative either only five driver vacancies since May those reports show a net gain of five bus drivers over that period to date and after Monday that's now four there are multiple drivers out with long-term medical issues and other long-term personal issues
141go ahead count those in your absences but those are also seen across the whole spectrum of job classes even a low 1.3 percent shortage is unacceptable when this number is a result of the pleading The Substitute list this is not a shortage created by drivers using too many days or hunting there are 30 there were 38 routes advertised at the first job fair in April and that was after considerable consolidation of routes this is a shortage that has been here for years not enough drivers so Subs are used to fill gaping holes and the consolidation resulted in overcrowding and overloading of buses drivers who need their time off or take personal days are left without necessary substitutes that were available in the past the only hunting drivers are doing is for missing children homes of
142children on their buses directions and stops for Route someone missed giving them directions for that is only the tip of the iceberg there are some of the various responses driver routes changed completely after job fair drivers used as if they are attended Subs it is time that the issue is taken as a crisis the safety and Welfare of children we transport every day is at risk the problem is not miraculously going to solve itself thank you Mr everybody else got to talk longer huh I did let you talk longer that's not what they got to talk all right up next before we do announcements Miss Moore had a a little her own little commercial she'd like to run oh yeah it's not on the agenda but this is very important I live in a wonderful
143Community by Lacombe and I'm on the museum board and we are honoring Native American heritage month which is November so the whole month of November is Native American month and on Saturday November the 19th we're having a program at John Davis Park between 11 and 2 and on Sunday the 20th so the 19th and 20th the next weekend and if you have any question via lucillemuseum.com and we are very culturally rich with our Choctaw Indians in Lacombe and we have a group coming in from Oklahoma and also the Biloxi Choctaw Indians are coming in so and it's free so come on out thank you Mr Harrell you're welcome Miss Moore all right announcements um the schools will be closed on Monday November 21st through Friday November 25th for the Thanksgiving holidays the offices will be
144closed Wednesday through Friday there will be a special board meeting on Thursday December 1st at 5 PM for an expulsion appeal hearing the December Committee of the whole meeting will be held on Thursday December 1st at 6 PM the board meeting will be held on Thursday December 8th at 6 pm an executive session has been requested pursuant to lrs 4217a2 to discuss the matters as listed a a potential settlement revolving involving stpsv construction project 1405 Fontainebleau junior high as the claim involves prospective litigation after formal written demand be to conduct a strategy session with respect to collective bargaining with St Tammany Federation of teachers and School Employees do I have a motion to go into executive sessions thank you Mr nation and a second by Mr Loop any questions or comments from the public Mr
145Osborne but I will be out in the lobby if y'all have questions or need to talk to us thank you thank you thank you sir any additional comments any comments from the board all right we are now in executive session we will reopen [Music] foreign [Music]