STPPS Board Meeting – 10/14/21

001[Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] oh good evening and welcome to the thursday october 14 2021 st tammany parish school board meeting ms coakley will you please call the roll mr harrell mr greene mrs heintz mr durman mr loop mr nation mrs richardson mr winkler mrs baker mr benton court mrs lamey mr hershey mr bro mr kuzan mrs page thank you so much ms coakley for our invocation we have miss uh riley eden if y'all don't mind rod ray's uh rising and miss eden need some prayer god of heaven and earth today we thank you for your love for us today thank you that your love is important to every part of your creation and in our hearts here on earth we come together as your children brothers and sisters as we remember all

002good things come from you thank you that your love can bring great change hope and life to all may we listen learn and grow together as community as we meet amen we have trenton fisk leading us in the pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so much riley and trenton [Applause] board members do we have any visitors you'd like to recognize i've got one and we don't have to sing because she'd probably kill me but yesterday was miss gardner's birthday mr javi would you like to give us the update yes thank you board members appreciate it um one of these days i won't have to give a covet

003update i'm hoping but we'll start with that tonight um very still very positive news uh we only had 63 positives this week 102 quarantines 15 quarantines that turned positive that was among students but with the new procedures that were followed i kind of wanted to give you an update on that i told you that i would moving forward so of the 102 students that were quarantined 42 of those parents opted out of the quarantine and to date not one of them have turned positive to date that started eight days ago so that is definitely positive news on even more positive news uh for employees we only had four positives amongst some employees and only one quarantined among employees and so that is a tremendous number for us i took a look at the parishes excuse

004me the ldh site today and um for of course they're a week behind us um but the parish as a whole st parish is down to four percent which is down from last week which was 4.7 so again the positive news continues on that front and we are very happy about that next thing i'd like to give you an update on is our unified softball that is our students with exceptionalities uh compete at miracle field there at coquille so we have a brief video to watch so if you check that out and then i'll i'll finish that up [Applause] we're out here having our annual middle school junior high unified softball event our athletes get to practice and prepare for three weeks with their typical peers and come out here and play as a team

005on the miracle league field miracle league fields are a blessing for our student athletes to get a chance everyone get a chance to get out here and perform and enjoy themselves i just can't say enough about our our students with exceptionalities department and ap teachers and all they do for our school system last year i had played softball at first i didn't like it but then i fell in love with it and now i just want to bring that joy that i had to everybody else that could do it it actually feels really cool because i don't really do it as often but i want to help it's always great you know having our students come out our student athletes get a chance to perform and enjoy themselves in a public uh venue it's just

006tremendous i'm just i'm so happy with where we're going and what the future holds for us and i'm glad our student athlete's able to get back on the fields and do what they absolutely love [Applause] so as you can see i'm a little bit sunburned i spent the last two mornings with them and it's just amazing again i just want to thank our students with exceptionalities all of our teachers our paras our ap staff and the athletes themselves of the smile on their face today was absolutely amazing and the better part of that was uh last year when we held just a few little events that we held the parents couldn't attend today and yesterday we had a tremendous turnout of parents and spectators that were there to cheer them on so it was so

007uh just glad to have those events we do have bocce our unified bocce coming up soon and then in the spring we'll have our special olympics track and field and so we're really looking forward to those events and taking let those take place but i'm going to kind of end with uh yesterday late afternoon i guess it was about almost 5 30 i was wrapping up in my office and i could hear this roar from outside and it took me a second and and i went to the window and covington high school was having their homecoming parade coming through downtown and i i cannot tell you the number of people that were lining the streets as they came down with with the maids in the band and it was just amazing so i just wanted

008to thank mr mccurley and the staff for hosting that event and all of our principals and uh our our support staff that are they're sponsoring these activities and having these events they're very difficult to have we have so many restrictions that that are put on us so i just want to commend all of our employees and our administrators that are going the extra mile to give our students every bit of enjoyment they can get out of this school year so thank you all very much for your time i appreciate it thank you mr javier board members did y'all have any questions for mr jabia seeing none we'll move on uh mr jaffe would you do your special recognitions so tonight board members i'd like to start by recognizing our teachers of the year teachers of

009the year these teachers honor and represent 3 000 teachers from across the district and we're going to start tonight with marigny elementary and miss jessica bowden please let's take a look at jessica's highlights this year good morning i couldn't believe that i was selected out of all the amazing phenomenal teachers out of the district that they chose me out of everybody to represent the parish she just makes learning fun she's very bubbly she connects with her kids she's excited about learning i enjoy watching them learn watching those little moments click that magic happen with them you're starting their foundation you want their foundation to be strong and you want them to build their own path off of that foundation for someone to come in and work together as a team and continue to strive to

010always do better and help the kids get better that's big to be honored in that way i wanted to make sanctuary parish proud and and show what we represent and show you know how we care for these kids and how we want to make them grow and become just better people in general you know not just better learners they're in it for 12 plus years now you know this is where they're starting so you want to set a good first impression she's an asset to merity she really is and it's wonderful to have her here jessica if you join me at the podium please so congratulations we appreciate you thanks thank you so much um i'm extremely humbled to have this honor so i'd love to thank you guys as board members and i'd love

011to thank our superintendent mr javia because he's just been doing amazing with our school system um i'd love to thank my principal leslie martin who was able to be here with us today um being at marine it has grown helped me grow so much as an educator and our teachers at our school they are a great support system so i am so humbled to have this award and so thankful for it they have helped me become who i am and most importantly i want to thank my family for being the biggest support system that i have as well so thank you guys so much [Applause] so we're joined tonight by miss leslie martin principal at marigny and jessica's family if they would please stand to be recognized [Applause] she also has family watching live on

012youtube so i'd like to thank them for tuning in never thought i'd be saying those words whether we are um next i'd like to to recognize clearwood junior high school miss brianna davis let's please take a look at brianna's highlights miss davis 100 deserves being teacher of the year because she honestly puts everything into what she does she does she's not lacking anything on teaching and she tries her best to help every single student individually it was really an easy choice for us at clearwell junior high because she's truly an asset to both our school as well as the teaching profession she brings about a care for the students and a love for what she does it is such an honor because there's about 55 schools in the whole parish and for them to think

013of little me as a teacher of the year for the district it's a huge honor because i get to represent the whole parish and the great people who are behind it miss davis was honestly one of the best teachers that i've ever had she taught me so much on how to write and how i can just improve myself as a better person and she just really stood out as someone that i could look up to [Applause] brianna if you please join me at the podium please no pressure thank you for all you do for our students in our community we appreciate you so much [Applause] i just want to say i am truly honored i i was not expecting to win this award at all especially like the hard year that all the teachers had

014and it honestly pushed me to be the best that i can be in many ways i just want to thank everybody for considering me i want to thank my wonderful principal he is such a support to all of the teachers and staff members who work there and my amazing support system as a family thank you [Applause] and i'd like to recognize brianna's family is here and mr hearst is our principal if you please stand and be recognized please thank you [Applause] like i said in the beginning these teachers of the year represent over 3 000 teachers across our district and they are all growing our children with our goal of student success so i couldn't be any happier to be part of this system and to have two wonderful teachers by my side uh next

015we go on to principles of the year we'll be honoring the principals a year this year they are our instructional leaders in our school just like all of our employees they have a tremendous job and a tremendous responsibility the first one we'd like to introduce is from folsom junior high school miss amy barrow i'd like to also say that that amy was also selected as a state semi-finalist so that's tremendous honor if you please check out a video of amy please folsom june high is definitely a family that's how i've always thought about it good morning miss barrow's like the head of our family she makes us all better so she's like our mom amy barrow is fantastic phenomenal person and um so involved in the school and involved in each of the students lives

016[Music] my reaction was i was really excited to bring detention to folsom because we're far out and we're small and it's the best kept secret in saint tammany our school is so small that we just about we all know everyone by name she wants all of us to come together because she knows that the community is what's going to drive the success of the school we have a lot of community support because no principal does job alone so for principal a year being an honor that's because of the staff in this community [Applause] thank you super ninjabian um to the board especially to mr loop who is so present on our campus our students and families know him and that really makes a difference when it comes to us being a united family i really

017meant when i you know the folsom junior high is the best kept secret if you want to be a part of something and see people walking the walk talking to talk together families students teachers all of our staff and please come and see us because i promise you you will leave inspired thank you [Applause] also amy's family is here with us tonight if you please stand and be recognized please [Applause] she also has family watching on youtube live at home so thank you guys for tuning in we really appreciate it our next principle to honor is from salmon high school miss saudia blackmon stokes [Applause] sardi and i have worked alongside each other for a very long time and she does a tremendous job so please check out a video of saudia please miss saudia

018blackman stokes is making a huge difference she's real hands-on and she takes pride in her work but she's always on campus and involving with like the students and stuff i like going into the classrooms i like to get to know who the kids are i try to learn the kids names so that i can call them by name when i see them i really want them to know that they are important and that what they're doing here the the job that we're doing for them and the job that they have to do is an important job that their education is very important and people here care about them i describe as real wonderful person and a humble lady because despite her having a huge title and a real responsibility he was responsible for school she

019still takes time out of a day while it's still being hectic to interact with people to to talk have a little conversation you know just to make your day better i think this is a great honor to be selected for principal of the year we all work very hard and it's it's a great distinction when people recognize the hard work that you do in order to help students saudi if you please join me thank you [Applause] good evening everyone thank you superintendent javia board members associate and assistant superintendents it is an honor and a pleasure to represent salmon high school and my family as the principal of the year for the past couple of years with covett running rampant through our society and our schools we saw a shift in how our students were being

020taught with virtual learning coinciding with face-to-face instruction the task of educating our students became more challenging but i along with my fellow spartans were up to the challenge tonight you all are recognizing me but the recognition really belongs to all educators students and families it is truly a team effort to educate the whole child and i want to thank my spartan family for being committed we have a great team and community at salmon high school and i'm proud to represent us and continue the work that we do thank you all [Applause] miss blackmunk's family is here if you please stand and be recognized thank you guys [Applause] i want to commend our our principals of the year these two individuals represent 55 principals across our district that do a tremendous job and like ms stokes

021said you know all of our educators all of our employees do a tremendous job for the school system and i could not be prouder of the job they do every day so thank you all for your time i appreciate it thank you [Applause] thank you so much mr jabia and teachers and principals thank you item c is the national school lunch week which is october 11th through 15th 2021 mr kose thank you president harrell board superintendent javier in 1946 president harry s truman signed the national school lunch act this was a direct result of men unable to pass the physical when drafted for service during world war ii congress passed the act as a matter of national security to safeguard the health and well-being of our nation's children in 1962 president john f kennedy created

022national school lunch week a week-long celebration of the school lunch program national school lunch week will be celebrated october 11th through the 15th this theme is wild about school lunch we plan to share the best real images of today's school lunch fresh fruits and vegetables whole grains milk and smiling students i would also like to thank food service director supervisor ms jenny montz and the entire food service staff for their hard work and dedication it is my honor to ask miss lisa page our board member to now read the resolution recognizing national school lunch week in st timothy paris public schools certainly whereas the week of october 11th through the 15th 2021 has been named national school lunch week and whereas wild about school lunch is a theme for this year's school lunch celebration and

023whereas the national school lunch program is dedicated to the health and well-being of our nation's children and has served our country for 75 years to advance practices in nutritional educational and whereas a cafeteria staff across st tammany parish school systems serve approximately 12 000 breakfasts and 20 000 lunches each day and now therefore be resolved that the st tammany parish school board publicly thanks the student nutritional advisory council mrs jennie montz director of school food services and her staff and the school food services managers and technicians at each school for providing an excellent school food service program for our school system be it further resolved that this resolution be spread upon the official minutes of the school board with copies being sent to each school's principal student nutritional advisory council and cafeteria staff and to

024ms montz and her staff as a testimony for this board's recognition of their outstanding endeavors and iso moves do we have any comments by the public saying none any comments by board questions motherboard everyone please vote and that motion passed unanimously mr cossay school bus owners operators and bus attendants appreciation week october 18th to 22nd 2021. thank you again mr howard preface to the resolution includes appreciation to our bus operators and attendance for their excellence and professionalism i also want to thank transportation director george bode and the transportation department staff their hard work and dedication got an incredible support service to our excellent school district in society there is a long list of unsung heroes who gone noticed on a day-to-day basis the establishment of school bus safety and school bus operators and attendance appreciation

025week which will be held october the 18th through the 22nd recognizes those individuals who ensure the safe transportation of thousands of children to school and back each day transportation employees have an incredible task they consist of driving large vehicles and managing our precious cargo while following safety precautions for an uneventful journey this significant week will promote school bus safety awareness and education including practice evacuation exercises schools are also eager to design and implement activities to enhance student understanding and convey appreciation to transportation employees servicing them please help us celebrate by honoring our school bus employees with a simple expression of thanks and appreciation it is my privilege to recognize mr mike durman who will now read our transportation resolution thank you mr kosei it's with great pleasure i offer up this resolution whereas school buses

026cover more than 29 000 miles daily in st tammany parish transporting public and non-public students and have an excellent safety record and whereas the positions of school bus operator and school bus attendant require tremendous responsibility as they are required to safely operate in traffic maintain order on the bus and in the event of an emergency are looked upon for leadership and guidance and whereas the st tammany parish school board is dedicated to the safety of our students and drivers on school buses and whereas primary factors for the excellent safety record for the st tammany parish buses can be attributed to the dedicated school bus operators and attendants who spend considerable time and energy in ongoing training to maintain skills and keep current knowledge of laws and safety procedures as well as careful bus maintenance and

027thorough inspections and whereas school bus operators in attendance are a critical part of the public education system by making our schools accessible to all students throughout st tammany parish now therefore be a resolve that the members of the st timothy parish school board hereby acknowledge and applaud the everyday efforts of all school bus operators and bus attendants in the school system and proclaim the week of october 18th through the 22nd at st tammany parish school bus safety and school bus operators and school bus attendance appreciation week be it further resolved that this resolution be spread upon the official minutes of this board with a copy being sent to all schools within the st tammany system to post as a sign of appreciation to all school bus operators and school bus attendants and i so move

028unanimous second do we have any comments by the public this osborne i was just wondering about the format of the meeting because you you got a lot of bus drivers waiting outside for a seat and you know normally we change it out um some of them parked the bus kind of late and i kind of put in a request for any that weren't able to sign up to be able to speak so could we kind of bring some of them in to have the two minutes or uh how do we want to how do we want to handle that um mr harrison i believe we can add them to the end of the meeting i think they wanted to do public public comment just public comments yeah just generally the public comments are at the

029beginning so what what right well it just seems odd you know we traditionally put them in the beginning and we could have done the rotation um but again i would like to request for anybody that wasn't able to speak that's a bus driver i mean you know that is their item right now you could they could do it right now yeah okay right after all that you wanna yeah uh i mean we'd have to get them if that's okay are they gonna be commenting to the motion to the resolution that will they be commenting on the motion or would they be well i just don't want my people out here standing in the parking lot all night waiting on the public comments i guess it's you know they came out they wanted to express um

030it just seems odd to me that we changed public comments from the beginning the public comments are always in that portion we always do the recognitions didn't dismiss them we normally take a break and then do public comments they're in the same spot all right so how mr president point of order is not speaking to the resolution that's on the floor so he i would suggest he didn't speak to the resolution on the floor that's true or be dismissed well that's exactly right if they come in now their comments are going to be limited to just what's on the table which is a recognition of them i highly recommend they either put up the end or you vote on i just want to express my appreciation to mr durman for bringing this motion and you've

031always you know been an ally and looked at the nuts and bolts of everything and i appreciate that i appreciate the board and of course support full rise i mean a unanimous vote on this one thank you thank you any additional public comments on the motion any comments by board members go ahead ms lamey i just want to reiterate so we did not change the order of public comments we always do our recognitions and awards and then public contact we even so we're still in the middle of the awards and recognitions right now okay so i just wanted to make sure that that was clear mr osborne they just had more recognitions and awards tonight than typically so it's further down but it wasn't changed out of order so i just want to clarify that

032dr richardson i would just like to take this opportunity to thank the board and as well as for you presenting this uh resolution our bus drivers are often um it's a thankless job it's a difficult job i i don't know how they do it and uh between managing all of the children's interactions their behaviors and more importantly their health and safety we just i just want to personally applaud them and everything that they have done for our district for our students we cannot function without them um and i pray that we really make it a priority to take good care of them so thanks to all of our bus drivers for all that they do thank you dr richardson any additional comments board members seeing none everyone please vote go to the other tab miss

033baker more items and that motion passes unanimously item e red ribbon week october 23rd through 31st 2021 mrs cosey thanks again president harrell this year's theme for red ribbon week october 23rd through october 31st reads drug free looks like me since it's beginning in 1985 red ribbon week has touched the lives of millions of people around the world red ribbon week began in response to the 1985 murder of dea agent enrique camarina in honor of agent camarita's memory in his battle against illegal drugs friends and neighbors began to wear red badges red ribbon was adopted as a symbol of camarina's memory today the red ribbon serves as a catalyst to immobilize communities excuse me mobilize communities to educate youth and encourage participation in drug prevention activities in st tammany alone action youth and community services

034distributes over 30 000 red ribbon wristbands to students and adults in our community the action troupe creatively also helps spread this important message our goal is to reach as many youth and their families as possible with our message i want to thank mr jeff polito action's executive administrator and their staff for pride's work excuse me actions work and dedication to the students of saint tammany parish mr polito is directing a school play and could not be here tonight so miss tracy pendry is here along with action troupe members they're in the back of the room and we appreciate their work and them being here so if they would please stand and be recognized [Applause] and it is now my pleasure to ask miss tammy glammy to read the resolution thank you i'm honored to read

035this resolution because this week is near and dear to my heart and was one of my favorite weeks to teach students um and it really does make a huge impact not just the students but even with their families okay whereas the st tammany parish school board values the health and safety of all students families and citizens of the parish and whereas the national red ribbon campaign will be celebrated in every community in america with students teachers faculty and staff committing to healthy drug-free lifestyles and whereas the mission of action youth and community resources is to assist in the healthy drug-free development of youth and families by providing leadership training family life skills education and prevention programs and whereas the school board acknowledges the contributions made by the members of action and expresses its gratitude for

036this organization's long-standing support of students and schools now therefore be it resolved that this board does hereby proclaim the week of october 23rd through 31st 2021 to be red ribbon week in all public schools in saint tammany parish with the theme of drug free looks like me furthermore be it resolve that this resolution be spread upon the official minutes of this board and a copy of the resolution be sent to action and posted at each saint tammany parish public school as an indication of this board's declaration of red ribbon week and its acknowledgement of the valuable contributions made by action thank you do we have any comments by the public seeing none any questions or comments about board members miss baker i just have is there a particular curriculum that goes with um these programs

037for drug-free is that is that done through counseling is i mean i know it's a real fun week and it's an awareness week but is there is there particular lessons uh to my knowledge uh they just get enhancements from our action group that gives them ideas and things to do and then our principals are ultimately responsible for coming up for the activities during the week any additional questions mr darman i just want to say i'm glad ms lamy got that that one that's a tongue twister for me the red ribbon week i you did a great job thank you mr german seeing no more questions everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously board members on item f the president's award uh this is something new i tell you my first uh guy i'd like

038to recognize for this award i've known for a few years and i've over the last couple of years i see how much work he puts into his community especially since ida he hadn't stopped and i'm at home drinking coffee and i see he's we'd eat in the cemetery so i talked to mr jaby and i just said what can we do to recognize employees that do a lot for our community outside of school hours and normal school events so we came up with this president's award and we're hoping every quarter we can recognize an employee whether it's a teacher para support staff anything that does goes above and beyond in the community that we uh we have an opportunity to recognize them for their service so i'm pleased to announce the winner of the or

039the recipient of the very first one is mr uh jaren narcisse [Applause] hmm yeah please come say something those of you who know me is gonna be a while for me to shut up huh um i would first like to say thank you to all of the board uh mr javia um my day started on september 24th with a call from mr jabya saying fantastic friday calls me and says how you doing i said as soon as this call is over i'll let you know um it is it's an honor to be uh recognized for all the hard work um i got a very supportive wife who works her butt off in the community as well who puts up with me um which is a hard thing to do my principal actually put me up

040for the award so thank you to miss tony rich my sister who's here also is outstanding in her own right my children i heard i know y'all heard the two-year-old in the back um i told y'all in july when i got the job that lacombe is home and i am very proud to stand here and say i'm from macomb and working in that community and i was even more proud to have riley eden from biulacom and trenton fez through the prayer and the pledge because beyond me it's about them for the future so thank you for this and i appreciate all you do for the community thank you so much aaron you're humble because i've got a list of all the stuff that you do and besides uh former recreation board member coach museum board

041member you're also the founder and executive director of the body look home cardinals minor league football team um like i said you we'd eaten and mowing the cemetery i know you've got a couple people helping you with that so thank you so much you've earned it [Applause] dr richardson you'd like to add something i would be remiss uh garen not to mention add to his list uh just your hard work during the distribution of meals uh when coveted hit our community uh this is appropriately given to you you are a servant of servants you are a voice to the community and i don't think there's one citizen any more prouder than garen uh to be a like home resident so it's been a joy to work alongside you to learn from you and to support

042you any way i can so good work well done all right we're going to take a short break to release any employees and allow the staff to come in [Music] [Laughter] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Laughter] [Music] right welcome back up next is item three public comments uh three minutes up first is mr pete jabia we're here but i made comments last week during this particular section of the agenda so i wanted to go ahead and just do a little clarification with you about my comments my comments were to to make the board aware that you cannot engage with an individual at an open meeting in in items related to collective bargaining that was my sole purpose because if you do engage with someone during this period of time that's a violation of the open

043meetings law and we surely don't want that to happen on another note since public comments and you have a policy as a board on public comments that individuals can come and speak and they can basically say what they want to say as long as they abide by your rules and your regulations so there would be nothing to prevent mr osborne or anyone else to come up and address you even though it may be collective bargaining item issues the issue would be so that you not engage with them because if you engage with them then we might be looking at a problem with the violation of open meetings all that was the purpose of that last week i wanted to clarify that for today thank you mr javier up next we have miss stephanie letellier i

044know i butchered that one oh she's coming in good afternoon stephanie ladier mandeville my morning begins at 5 55 a.m with my pre-trip it ends at 9 20 when i get off of my bus my evening run begins at 12 50 with my pre-trip and it ends at 4 25 when i get off my bus i spend seven full hours on my bus not 6 30 not 5 i do spend seven full hours in addition to the seven full hours right now we are in the middle of trying to do coverage for many many many people aside from that what else does an owner operator do middle of the day we often have middays weekends and summer we're still working um we're doing initial paperwork regular updates on paperwork behavior reports pre-trip forms making turn

045by turns updating turn by turns route sheets sped drivers have even more than we have we speak with parents school disciplinarian about behaviors on bus trips to auto parts store for parts transportation for supplies we do our own maintenance a lot of times running down wires trying to figure out issues cleaning and detailing bus on a regular day on a regular basis monthly a detail a massive detail which does take all day long we're making phone calls to friends and fellow owner operators which is my support community they helped me to troubleshoot my issues or i'm receiving phone calls from other people needing my talents and my expertise because that's what we do we're a community and we help one another jumping in my car to head over to another bus to help them out

046give them an extra set of hands driving extra detail to make money to fill the gap of what i don't make with my operation pay my job does not end when i get off of my bus my job's 24 7. i love my job i love my bus she's mine i take pride in her and i take care of her there's a funny expression we use to describe the way another driver treats a bus that's not their own they drive it like they stole it you don't see that with an owner operator at least not this one and not many of them our bus and our cargo means a lot more to us and we're going to take care of it like nobody else would i want to leave you today with some words of

047wisdom that you'll find on my bus these are my motivational stars my bus is my classroom it's my class on wheels i have these stars all over my bus two of them i want to share today to be a leader you have to be a good listener and if you have an opinion you better know why in a recent school board meeting a member of administration said we're paid seven hours and do not work seven hours it's easy to assume you know what you're talking about when you have zero time invested in getting to know your people in the full scope of their jobs we are more than that while an appreciation fall call to a nominated support staff member is a nice step and it really is i challenge all members that are in

048leadership and all members that have up opinions to get on a bus and ride along with us pick up a mop help out a janitor assist a teacher in a classroom thank you ma'am thank you thank you for your time up next we have this betsy guaranty good evening my name is betsy garrity and i'm a teacher in this parish this is my 29th year of teaching and i have never spoken in front of a school board or a public forum i feel very passionate and compelled to speak to you tonight within my 29 year tenure the role of teacher has changed drastically in essence i have had to become a digital media manager as well as a teacher that connects teaches and encourages students the training i received to accomplish this and grow to

049be the teacher my students deserve was weak insubstantial and woefully inadequate the lack of training and unrealistic expectations is only one way in which teachers feel devalued unseen and unheard another example worth discussing is simply the workload for example there have been days this school year where i have taught first second and third hour then on my 50-minute plan period i was told to attend a plc meeting following that for lunch i had to stand in the hallway and eat after the 25-minute lunch i taught 5th 6th and 7th hour and after school i was expected to attend a meeting for the practice a.c.t my question to you is if i teach all day attend meetings on my planned and attend meetings after school when am i supposed to do the work that it takes

050to provide an inspiring and engaging lesson the easiest and often heard expectation is that we take our work home great assignments answer questions manage parents and plan for future lessons outside of contract hours you may ask what can be done every teacher i know has ideas so i will offer you these insights we do not want your thank you emails we do not want your we're all one team emails we do not appreciate you we do not want those emails we do not want a stipend payoff instead we need to be seen heard and compensated like the college educated highly skilled in-demand professionals that we are we need a valid and substantial pay raise that will affect our futures not just a one-time payoff it is time to be clear you can no longer say

051that teachers will just do it for the kids that is unacceptable we love our kids but we do this job under the expectation that what we bring to the table to our students will be reflected in our salary we need a legitimate salary that in that acknowledges our position as necessary to the economic and overall stability of this community it is time for you to step up to the plate the same way you expected me to step up in conclusion please know that your sweetly worded emails mean absolutely nothing when your actions show the opposite anything less than a permanent and substantial increase in pay will be seen as half-hearted and disrespectful attempt to placate teachers thank you miss carrick up next we have miss alicia let me hickman say i'm not a great speaker

052this is only my second time but um we all talk about appreciating bus drivers and all that and uh my thing is words are easy i can say i appreciate you you know and really not mean it um i've been doing this for 26 years and one of the years that i was there they asked me to go across district lines because i'm special ed so i went across district lines to pick up a kid to bring him out of school it was 15 miles past district lines not where i parked my bus but 15 miles past it wound up costing me over 1200 dollars in fuel to pick this kid up and i had asked you know for things um from the district line to pick the kid up for some compensation but anyway

053it didn't happen and they said they would take care of it next year and they did which was great um i didn't have an ac on my bus and they wanted me to get one and because i didn't have one i couldn't do field trips i couldn't do summer school i couldn't do in-between runs and i chose that and i said you know that's fine i'm i'm good with that you know if i don't have to put acs in the bus um also our pay has been frozen so while our pay is frozen other people are getting raises but not us and the one time um that you know they sent something through to get us um additional payroll not pay raise but additional operational pay it passed the house and in the senate it

054was stopped and i was told by one of the senators that some members of the lobbyists have come from the school board to come and lobby against it so it failed the one time that you guys could show appreciation to us by allowing this to pass you send people up there to tell the senators no we don't you know we don't want to do this don't don't let it pass and it failed um i don't know if you guys know but we can't afford new buses anymore they're 90 000 to 100 000 for a new bus we always have to get the old buses and they're breaking down and all that but we don't complain my thing is i you know talk is cheap this this was going through the politicians hands and it was

055stopped and that that was basically um what i was talking about and um let me see where was it um also too like the week before the reason why i spoke is because we actually have a union president this time that's actually speaking for us and the display of last week was kind of what got me to come and speak to say hey he was out here trying to help us and he got shot down you know and so i feel that we need to come and let you guys know what's going on because you're only hearing one person you're not hearing all of us so and that's all i wanted to say thanks thank you so much mrs real quick okay this is another point you guys not you guys but somebody shot it

056down in the senate okay at the lobbyist or whatever now we are being asked to do that the millage tax just think about that you shot one down and then you're asking us to to continue the millage so thank you so much miss sickman you did you did great better than i think tina would have done up next we have miss rhonda george hi i'm rhonda george i've been a bus driver for about 19 years when i first started driving um it was a dollar 39 a gallon for diesel 1.39 don't seem like a lot but when it gets up to 319 it's a lot it got up all the way to five dollars a gallon they're not looking us for getting a raise they don't care if what we drive they don't care if

057we need one job two jobs or three jobs people have one job that works on that's higher up than us we have to have two and three jobs to make a decent pay to make a living and i understand we chose this profession anyways um when our school bus breaks down we have to help have somebody help us fix it or i have to call a bus driver and say hey can you come find this and help me with this problem because you don't have money to pay for a mechanic because we don't make enough money if y'all would help us and give us a raise all of us bus drivers and i'm not asking for a raise for all of us bus drivers and without the teachers i think that the whole system needs

058a raise inside of ourself we think that if everybody would work together it don't matter if i drive my bus which is a special needs bus or they call me and say rhonda will you go drive 602 because i've got a sub bus driver that can't drive a big bus but they'll drive your bus so what did ronda do get up five o'clock in the morning and go and drive that bus for 5 30. my choice i did it because they asked me we do way more than what any other person will do a bus driver gets out there and we bust our butt to do get them kids to school get them from school we're the first ones to see them we're the last ones that see them when they leave and we don't

059get recognized for nothing y'all might say bus appreciation week some of our schools don't give us nothing they don't even have a sign up that says bus appreciation week absolutely not so we're not recognized we're recognized as one of them drivers oh that's just one of them drivers we're not one of them drivers we are one of y'all we are saint tammany parish we want saint tammany parish to be great again when i started driving 19 years ago everybody was like oh it's so good now it's like how much longer we got to retire we don't want to spend 30 years in this system we want to spend now and get out because we don't have it we're not a team no more we need to fight as a team and be one instead of

060being split and that's what i think we are split and y'all know what we're talking about y'all need to give us a raise y'all need to approve a raise for us and we need to be on top of it we're on top of it y'all need to help us be on the rest of the top of it thank you have a great day thank you miss george up next we have miss carrie witchers i got it right carrie wisher's own operator for 28 years i believe the members of the board are not being given the correct information on the current shortage of bus drivers daily 20 to 25 routes are vacant or being covered yes this may be a because of illness or other issues but as a result of the open routes at the

061start of the school year and with the vacancies since you've scarred there are not enough substitutes or identity drivers it is impossible to find the substitute because they're all on long-term drivers rights excuse me the superintendent and the members of the board were instrumental in stopping the hb 364 which would provided probably have provided encouragement to retain some of the drivers that have left since school started it may have also prompted new hires of owner operators it doesn't take collective bargaining to correct this situation it takes the administration admitting that buying buses is not going to solve the problems working to correct operations and pay rate would at least stabilize the situation have drivers buying buses if you don't have the drivers buying buses is not going to solve the problem another area that could

062help with the current problem is making sure the outlying schools start times that would optimize the portion of the fleet that is currently running only one route it is rather depressing to realize that the administration is excited about two prospective new hires when within the last month we have lost two owner operators who had been in the system for five years or more there are many more projected drivers leaving by the end of year and i may be one of them what is the timeline for applicant to bus driver one month six weeks two months one quarter of the school year is over the situation is only getting worse last point i've emailed the superintendent about four weeks ago asking how long does one get to level 40 on the salary schedule he responded he

063would definitely check into it i haven't heard any more about it being a 28-year employee would stand at level 18. it just doesn't make sense for 45 levels when no one can achieve it thank you for your time thank you ma'am up next we have miss lee berrios liberio's retired teacher i'm not going to talk about bus drivers tuesday bessie considered a request by key academy a charter school for dyslexic children started by senator cassidy's wife dr laura cassidy to open a key academy charter here in saint tammany superintendent jabia brandon harrell and legal counsel danny garrett attended the superintendent and garrett testifies stating that the application to saint tammany was rejected because it was incomplete under state law as you know when a charter app is rejected by a local district it can then

064be considered by bessie for approval however no vote was taken because of extenuating circumstance stances and the need to be further studied to determine if the academy should have the opportunity to submit the missing one-page document to complete the app or if they would have to wait a year to reapply as per law if the school board has another year before consideration this is an opportunity for this district to begin the necessary work to make adjustments in order to provide the full services with the proper effective curriculum for dyslexia that these students need it seems that would be much cheaper than funding a charter or losing mfp dollars and every student requiring these services but not able to drive to baton rouge every day as some of our children are now doing could be served

065and do i need to mention that leap scores are bound to improve i encourage the school board and administration to adopt the appropriate curriculum provide teachers with training and do the right thing for these children and the parents who pay taxes in saint tammany thank you thank you ms barrios up next we have mr thomas robert or robert good evening um i'm an owner operator also and it's just like all the other drivers have said we're constantly getting hit on that we are paid for seven hours but we barely work that well as you all heard from other drivers we work more than seven hours a day because especially now with the koben like they said with so many people i we are covering two and three and four routes and i don't know what

066they tell y'all or anything but our pay reimbursement for mileage is less than 70 cents a mile and i mean that doesn't cover the cost of diesel right now and my main thing is with all the inflation of mechanics and uh everybody's doing the same thing you can't get parts or nothing like that our operational pay is just a joke i mean you're talking about mechanics charging anywhere between 150 to 200 an hour for them to work on buses and stuff tow trucks cost three to four hundred dollars to have a toad um and we're barely getting anything by um you know i know we can't do anything because they say collective bargaining and everything like that but all the independent owner operators and everything are not part of the collective bargaining agreement and everything

067like that i mean we need to make that more public art to the owner operators to where we can put our feedback into it and come up with a plan of work you know for everybody um and i just wish you know with some of the stuff that's going on with all this covid and everything that y'all could help us with the reimbursement rate for the covering of other other drivers that are sick and everything it's not worth it to me but you got to get called three times a day for it and i mean i i meant you know our offices and everything like that they do a great job on trying to get the kids to and from school and it is a headache for everybody but you know i just got to

068help us out a little bit because we can't afford to keep doing it like like we're doing right now i promise y'all that you'll have a lot more than one or two drivers quitting by the end of the year y'all can't get something and i ain't saying my salary i'm talking about operational thing that's gonna all be reimbursed somehow all right y'all have a good day thank you mr robert up next we have uh christian supreme all right um on august 5th when i first came to the very first meeting i came to y'all kept saying september 1st september 1st we're going to take the mass off the kids just wait just wait september first right well it's august 14th and we're done i mean october 14th and we've done seen celebrities at emmy wards

069we've unseen celebrities at grammy awards we've been seeing politicians everywhere inside with no masks on but you still got our kids wearing masks it's child abuse this is this whatever you want to call it this virus is .01 of a molecule if anybody and people that are in charge of school or education would think that a piece of paper on your face or cloth would stop that you obviously have done no no research none at all it's ridiculous you got our kids sitting in schools and on these buses and these poor bus drivers that's ridiculous as well y'all need to pay them because if y'all didn't have them the kids wouldn't be in school and y'all would be out of school out of jobs probably which i don't know why y'all have jobs anyway because

070you always want to put stuff on bessie why wouldn't you just have one person to say hey if betsy says it this is what goes why we need to pay all of y'all right but it's time to take the masks off the kids and i don't care what louisiana says i don't care what anybody says look at zachary zachary right 30 miles outside of baton rouge they have no covert restrictions no nothing so it isn't about bessie or the louisiana mandate or anything like that take the masks off the kids it's time all right and like i said pay these bus drivers because this document that i've seen today it shows that y'all have taken 28 million dollars for extra funding for standing with the cdc and keeping these masks and all this stuff on

071our kids 28 million dollars it's ridiculous take the mass off the kids it's time for y'all to stand up for what is right the line has been drawn get on one side or the other and let us know if you're for our kids or not for our kids y'all be blessed thank you sir up next we have miss jody griswold while we wait for miss griswold to come down to the podium i'd be remiss if i didn't acknowledge miss alicia hickman she is a third generation bus driver her aunt miss hamilton was a bus driver she was my bus driver and miss oldman her grandmother was my bus driver so thank you i was an atrium but thank you um for waiting um and i would like to thank miss barrios for speaking about dyslexia

072because i have spoken here on many occasions about dyslexia and the need for a dyslexia therapist in the schools which we do not currently have um this evening though i came to speak about a professional development um that was given on october the 8th by the coordinator of pupil appraisal and the coordinator of early childhood they had delivered a powerpoint presentation and gave a hard copy of the slides one of the slides in particular gave me reason for pause since 2001 special education has endured many changes the inception of rti began approximately 20 years ago and rti in and of itself can be useful too if used properly however rti has unfortunately brought a delay to the process of identifying our students who may have special needs and who would benefit from instruction from a

073special education teacher an entire year of learning is lost from the time a teacher brings forth concerns regarding their student to the evaluation and then finally when a determination for placement is decided an entire school year the current direction as was presented via powerpoint and the hard copy of the slides and i quote stop over evaluating for special education services and to reduce and eliminate special education instruction for first and second grade students i want to bring that to your attention because i wasn't sure if you were aware of that you know um going back to dyslexia that is that is a special need that is a specific learning disability that should be covered it is covered under idea and yet our students are not receiving services and now um the trend is to reduce

074or eliminate services for our first and second grade students who are learning to read that is the foundational skills of reading at that age i just thought you would want to be informed thank you thank you miss griswold up next on the agenda is item 4 approval of minutes for the special meeting held september 1st 2021. do i have a motion you didn't sign up you talked on the bus i know but you still had to sign up i'm sorry we can't do it this song right all right do we have a approval of minister i have a motion thank you sir thank you miss page for the second any comments by the public seeing none any questions about board members saying none everyone please vote and that motion passes 12 yays and one abstention

075item b approval of minutes for the regular meeting held september 9th 2021. do i have a mo thank you mr bettencourt do i have a second thank you mr lube do we have any questions from the public or comments by the public seeing none any questions about board members everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously item c the appropriate retirement resolutions for our certificated personnel or mr cosing thank you president howard superintendent giabia board members and audience i bring you the appropriate retirement resolutions on the following certificated personnel subsequent to the august 12 2021 meeting elizabeth m macarthur abney elementary 25.37 years all in st timothy parish janine r mason covington elementary 32.82 years 15.26 years in saint tammany parish elizabeth r brent creekside junior high 39.62 years 26.12 years in st timothy parish

076kathy w gill cypress cove elementary 25.02 years all in saint tammany parish cynthia davis florida avenue elementary 33.62 years 26.62 years in saint tammany parish vera m dunaway folsom elementary 26.56 years all in saint tammany parish k.l krogsgaard mandeville elementary 29.32 years 25.32 years in st timothy parish jesse a stevens north shore high school 11.12 years 6.12 years in saint tammany parish and finally robin a he stand trifuncta middle 20.12 years 0.01 years in saint tammany parish thank you mr kosay thank mr durman mr luke for the second do we have any comments by the public miss burials this is quick nine teachers retiring this is not the end of the school year the middle of the summer or the beginning of the school year it's the middle of october resigning 35 teachers i think

077that's in the next agenda item and 19 taking leave without pay that's a lot of teachers um an article in the lens said that or nola.com said new schools for new orleans was awarded 14.3 million dollars in a federal grant to address teacher turnover let's take every opportunity we can to make sure that unlike exists today 100 of our teachers are teaching in the field to which they were trained thank you thank you mrios do we have any additional comments from the public do you have any questions or comments from board members seeing none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously item d the appropriate retirement resolutions for these employee support personnel mr cosa thank you mr harold the appropriate retirement resolutions on the following employee support services personnel subsequent to the august 12

0782021 meeting judy s gazaf bayou woods elementary 24.44 years all in st timothy parish terry b jenkins pitcher junior high 23.58 years all in st timothy parish rosslyn j adkins transportation center 15.45 years all in saint tammany parish and roxanne m palermo wood lake elementary 25.02 years all in saint tammany parish thank you mr cosi do i have a motion thank you mr hersey do i have a second thank you miss baker do we have any comments by the public seeing none any questions or comments from the board saying none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously item e to consider and take action with respect to adopting a resolution confirming an election date change pursuant to executive order of the governor establishing a new date to canvass the returns of the election and

079providing for other matters in connection there within just a quick this resolution acknowledges the change in the election date to november 13th pursuant to the governor's executive order and provides that the school board will canvas the election returns on december 9th do i have a motion thank you mr durman do i have a second thank you mr hersey do we have any questions or comments by the public asparagus uh i was asked by a teacher to read this because she's ill and could not come to the meeting tonight uh so i'm going to read it these are her exact words and then i'll add my own comment at the end she said and her name is jennifer christina she wanted me to say her name i do have i have concerns about the upcoming millage

080renewal and how the district has forced employees to attend meetings promoting it and distributed documents with veiled threats to cut school site positions and resources and i am going to add i'm adding for clarity that the letter to employees says that the millages provide funds for three critical areas one of which is essential staffing to retain teachers keep class sizes low and provide students with individualized support all of which are absolutely necessary now go on i understand the need for funds however electioneering using public resources is not ethical or legal meetings cannot be mandated either regardless they are coercing faculty vote for and push others to vote for renewal millages that were passed last time on promises of significantly raising teacher pay after it passed we got nothing central office administrators got a five percent

081raise then so did school based administrators where is our five percent or rather the correction and pay for the years frozen plus the five percent how about we put central office jobs on the chopping block if it doesn't pass removing the excess of central office administrators will not violate children's ieps 504s or civil rights which teachers could but school staff and resources are the legal coffers that deep and i want to add that i fully support the um the millage and certainly hope it passes it's absolutely necessary but i do hope that the school board looks at ways to better spend those dollars and does consider their employees at the top of the list thank you thank you miss burials any additional comments by the public seeing none any questions or comments about board members

082saying none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously item f consideration of an action related to the mal apportionment report of strategic demographics do i have a motion thank you mr green do i have a second thank you mr luke good evening members the public my name is bill blair of strategic demographics um this well let's see there we go that might be helpful so this what i'm going to present to you today is the very first small step toward your redistricting process after the 2020 census um essentially we're here to acknowledge that based on the growth in st tammany parish plus the migration patterns different growth in different areas of the parish that two-thirds of your current school board districts are either over or under the ideal population therefore will need to be

083redrawn to equalize that population now this isn't surprising st tammany grew by 30 000 people it that was the second largest growth of a parish in this in this state behind orleans parish and that growth was unequal in the parish which we'll show you in a little map of this powerpoint in just a second so how do we do male portion what is mal apportionment that's a big word right essentially it is taking your 2020 census data for this for st tammany parish and applying that data at the smallest level which is the census block that has population in it to your current boundaries of your school board districts and when that comes back it will tell us whether or not you have grown in size or decreased in size and you'll all get very

084familiar with the with the term ideal population that is only the population of the parish divided by 15. that's around 17 600 people so that's the perfect district is that size and supreme court decisions tell us that every district of the school board needs to be within plus or minus five percent of that ideal number so around 8 800 on either side of that um so here we go let's start with just the parish you can see here at 13 growth in the parish last 10 years um trends between 2010 and 2020 are fairly similar and percentage by race and ethnicity although if you look at the bottom of these three lines you'll see that is the difference from the decades with that significant growth in african-american population in the parish as well as the

085category other which is a phenomenon we've seen throughout the state and throughout this country essentially anybody has reported other on this table is someone who reported themselves to be some other race that's not listed here or white and some other race that's not listed as black asian american or american indian or hawaiian so while your overall demographics of the parish have not changed significantly percentage-wise certainly there is some variation within the parish here are your 15 school board districts anything in red is out of the 5 deviation low anything in green is of the deviation too high um some of these numbers are pretty close to the plus or minus five percent but several of them are way under or way over it's easier to look at it on a map anything in green needs

086to shrink anything in red has to grow anything in orange needs to grow a little bit and this tells us that the parish has significantly grown in madisonville some of slidell and maintained itself essentially in the covington mandeville area with small losses in the rural parts of the parish so our job together is to make that map gray because anything in gray is within the plus or minus five percent so that is what we must accomplish um when a buyer talks about redistricting you get these visions of smoke-filled back rooms and political deals being cut and i'm not going to say there's no politics involved but it's clear it should be clear to the public that this is a number-driven process we're going to talk to the membership about their district because although i was

087born in saint tammany parish i live in baton rouge now um you know your districts better than i do so i we want to engage you to talk to you about how to equalize the population in these districts so addressing population disparities that's number one that is the of the two things that every publicly elected single-member district jurisdiction has to address equal population which we've just seen and the voting rights act now in 2010 there was no minority majority district in st tammany parish a few one came close i think the 14th district but that is something objectively that needs to be analyzed under section 2 the voting rights act just to make sure that a minority majority district does not need to be drawn in saint tammany given the growth of and the of

088the monarch population in st tammany parish as well as the trends of those patterns we saw on that map just to confirm that so we don't run afoul the voting rights act what's our timeline for this well again the resolution you'll have before you momentarily merely acknowledges based upon the 2020 census that the st tammy school board must redistrict equalize that population now before you see kind of a general guideline for y'all as well as any other school board in the state we have the data delivered to us in usable form really in september um we produced this first report to you the next two to four months which will be spent visiting with the membership and the public to try and engage on solutions to this unequal population in our districts then we will

089have an adoption of the plan hopefully before june there's a new statute in state law that requires that any new districting plan be given to the secretary of state a month before qualifying so that puts us around the third week in june as the drop dead date to get this done and i i work with the secretary of state all the time what you don't want to do is drop a new plan on them a month out from qualifying because they have to go in and actually physically move voters around to make sure they're put in the proper district so the sooner we get it to them the sooner we can be confident that your voters will be in the right district come the election and qualify and that people can properly qualify if they

090so desire in those districts your qualifying is in july 20th 22nd your fall election is november 8th that will conclude my initial presentation to the board thank you dr blair we made one before he do we have any uh comments by the public that's barrios again a teacher asked me to read her testimony i'm not an expert by any means in zoning resolutions and those sorts of things but i agreed to do that because she wanted to be identified and again it's jennifer christina she says there's a zoning resolution on the agenda tonight that should not pass without further information and additional guidelines i would object myself but i'm currently home ill the zoning is a potential problem considering that attendance zones are not addressed attendance zones in this district are segregated socioeconomically and racially

091while total student populations are much too dense in some schools small class sizes are myth i'm concerned that rezoning the board's electoral zones are intended to appear as though they are also realigning attendance zones considering many southern districts are still under desegregation observation regardless the one man one vote quote they used is from the supreme court case baker v carr which establishes that legislative districts should be equal in population however the division of feeder schools schools families can be argued as a violation of baker v carr if the assigned voting district prevents a parent from voting for the board member representing all of their children's schools given this male alignment of representation and attendance zones both the attendance zones and board electoral districts should be rezoned simultaneously after publication of each decennial census thank you

092thank you miss burials first i just want to say forgive me if i'm completely naive about this but i've always wondered when it came to the census and things like this reports like this why does race matter so much you know i actually applaud the people who just put other like it's none of your business what the color of my skin is you know everybody should be treated equally you know that should be equality across the board it shouldn't matter if the neighborhood is one color greater than the other you know we should just they should all be children of god and we should treat them all the same just again forgive me if i'm naive but just as a public perception thank you sir any additional comments by the public wrong direction all right

093board members mr dharman thank you um i just got a question and looking at the information that was given to us by email you know prior to the meeting and looking at the populations and hey i'm just going to go straight to my district because that's that's the one i'm in on on your paperwork it says the population is 16 i'm district 3 i'm sorry 903 right it says ideal is the 17 right but in the information that you we'd received prior to this it showed that i had 22 000 109 and then there's a another one that's substantially different is district 10 and it shows that it's at 17401 and this information says that it said so i mean here again we're talking about 3 3 500 right um variance which we're trying to

094balance this and okay i don't have an explanation for that the data you see in front of you is correct i'm not sure what was sent to you earlier um but i would just say quality control has fixed that issue what you see in front of you is absolutely correct which should match that i should say can we go back one slide to the oh i'm sorry mr darwin you were referring to the email i guess we got last week that has broken down a couple of slides yes that we received from superintendent and from them i would say that yeah i just forwarded the email straight from um this firm that was the information that i had from them to get right well i'm just i'm just trying to understand the i think they

095did they did send a second email correcting the and i did my appreciation yeah i think my partner dan garrett we split up our jurisdictions he actually did the initial cut at this thing so i'm not throwing him under the bus so to speak but um i would never do something like that to dan i'd say okay i'm just trying to understand the discrepancies in the numbers so i mean that's that's all i'm trying yes sir and generally speaking this this is correct on the board here but regardless of that that fact we're still mal abortion in st tammany that we're going to sit down with all of you and show your district and show you the population and show you the breakouts and you're gonna we're we're gonna have to change those numbers regardless

096of any yeah i totally i totally get it my apologies for that uh discrepancy miss baker so um i attended that coffee conversation last week um and one of the things that they said was that a district could not be reorganized more than once what does that mean which conference were you referring to it was an lsba yeah like a what a weekly update yeah you just get online and listen to the latest greatest and i know this is happening everywhere but i don't understand so if you if your efforts are to equalize the numbers then what does that mean you can only do it once but if you do it and it's not right you still have to get to that magic number of seventeen thousand something right i am not an attorney so

097i'm not going to render a legal opinion here that would be for dan to do perhaps the school board can redistribute itself as often as it wants to there are some limitations on before next election but you could reduce your size you could you know have at large memberships and you get more than one cut at this you have to get your population equalized but there's no one way to do it and there's no just one one bite at the apple for this either okay this figure that might be an email back to them just ask them to clarify what they meant i think i think one of the things that he said was i think what he meant by that was you couldn't split a district so you couldn't have a district you know

098in two different places that you couldn't split a district you can that's what he was talking about he said a river might divide a district and you could that district could continue because the river but you couldn't have part of a district here and then part of a district here it had to be connected that is one of a series what we call traditional redistricting criteria that includes like compactness continuity is what we're talking about here you have to all your boundaries have to touch um communities of interest are important natural geography is important when you draw a district all those things that should be considered along with your i mean i think community of interest and geography are perhaps the most important when you're drawing a district but it's to each person's taste and

099trust me drawing districts is somewhat of an art as well that's the bad court just a brief comment please don't throw that other gentleman under a bus we've got enough going on without buses right now i understand sir thank you mr bettencourt miss lamey i was mine's kind of just a comment and i know when you meet with us we can talk specifically but um when i decided to run for school board i um started collecting signatures i got about 86 of my 100 before i realized that the district of the school district i lived in would not be the school district i was running for and so it's very spread out across the parish and it's just it's a very very bizarre um so i don't know what that means except i'm giving my

100two cents it just doesn't make sense to me i know that it was a numbers game i realized that um and i don't know if everybody else's district is like that or not but to what miss um barrios rhett barrios red i think it is important to try to have the board member in the district of the schools when possible it may not be possible all the time because of you know larger communities and smaller i understand but literally one side of the street is the other side's not if i go back to yes one more no like it's just weird and so i just want to throw that out there so that can be in i agree it's an art i'm sure just bizarre but also it's my attendant zones aren't aren't allocated by

101population since its population i believe they're allocated by students correct so those are two different things completely right so it would be impossible to legally align them you'd be in violation of this of one man when vote criteria for singer member representational districts which y'all could have in the back of our minds that we would like for the board member to be as close to those schools as possible because then they're connected to that community and we can i'm not sure how we can obtain that data i would imagine of your schools i mean i don't it doesn't matter to me personally anymore i mean past that road but i'm just saying it just seems really weird i understand sure look i work for a lot of school boards and that is that is a

102question we get a lot where are my schools because that makes sense okay i know every i think every school in every district that across the road is the other side because the boundaries all drawn down the middle of the street not backyard lines right that is true as well so most districts and when we do y'all as well will be done initially by whole precincts and precincts have to be on physical visible features and that means it's down bayous or roads things of that nature and so inevitably people are on one side or another of a precinct that will happen regardless okay thank you no any additional questions from board members seeing none thank you dr blair you have anything else you'd like to no and just the resolution merely acknowledges the need to

103redistrict and nothing else so that's what we're voting on right now right brandon thank you thank you everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously item g resolution in support of the louisiana school board association do i have a uh mr nation would you like to read that resolution uh yes i would thank you and then i'll make a motion to accept it uh resolution in support of the of sport for the louisiana school board association whereas the same saint tammany parish school board agrees with the position taken by the louisiana school board association lsba as expressed in lsba statement issued on october 8 2021 entitled quote lsba's lsba response to nsba's request for federal intervention and whereas the saint tammany parish school board applauds the lsba in making such a timely statement and whereas

104the saint tammany parish school board supports the lsba in reevaluating its relationship with the nsba including withholding membership dues for the upcoming year now therefore be it resolved that the saint tammany affairs school board immediately suspend financial or other support to the nsba including travel by board members or any employee of the board to any event directly hosted by nsba or events supported sponsored or endorsed by nspa and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be spread upon the official minutes of this board with copies being sent to the lsba's board of directors as a sign of support and iso move thank you mr hersey for seconding do we have any uh comments by the public thank you mr barrios so these comments are my own it is false accusations spread on

105social media and pop by political organizations that the national school board association is asking the biden administration to label parents who protest school policies domestic terrorists i myself would be a domestic terrorist if that were the case if you read the letter and if you haven't read the letter you should not vote on this resolution the organization is not asking biden to label parents who protested school board meetings as terrorists the nsba asked the administration to do an interagency investigation of threats of violence against school board members and said the threats could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes saint tammany school board has experienced its share of raucous citizens protesting the mass requirement and falsely claiming that our teachers are teaching critical race theory and the school board members

106received a threat of violence this kind of behavior and worse has popped up nationwide which prompted the nsba to give the authorities full notice that their worst fears could come true if these threats are not taken seriously we all know what happened at the united states capitol who was prepared for that interpretation of freedom of speech everyone who knows me knows i believe in practice public dissent when justified and actively participate in public meetings because it is the greatest form of accountability but citizens breaking the rules when they object to public bodies breaking the rules doesn't fit my style nor do i support the politic the politization of public education of public education which it seems that this resolution is doing the nsba is made up of sba of school board members from across the

107nation with differing political views and perspectives on teaching why would our state school board members pass up the opportunity to offer their perspective and experiences to the nsba at their meetings and to learn how to make our public schools better it seems to me like you're shooting yourselves in the foot and you yourselves are contributing to this politicization with this resolution and i ask you not to pass it thank you thank you miss barrios do we have any additional comments by the public seeing none do we have any questions by the board members miss lamy i just want to go i just kind of want to chime in on that um i know we have had situations um and we've had to reiterate about um the way the public should always be able to say

108what they want to say and i will always stand for that but we have had to talk about pounding and using names and defamatory comments um we've had issues that were more severe that we've had to address so um i just read the statement for the first time honestly and it literally does say that people who are not even connected to the school or to students who are trying to just cause chaos in the community and that is what the thing says it just says that they would be labeled as i mean unless i read the wrong thing so individuals who are intent on causing chaos and disrupting our schools many of whom are not even connected to local schools are drowning out the voices of the parents who must be heard anyway i just

109i want to make sure that we've all read it and we know exactly what statement we're standing against does everybody understand what the statement is can somebody share it with me if i've had the wrong thing or are we just voting to vote mr nation thank you mr harold um a couple of things one is uh the letter and i would read the letter from nsba but it is six pages um so i do call your attention to what uh what the nsba says the the purpose of this resolution is to support our app to support our lsba they felt like and i agree with them uh i think others do on the board that standing up against yet extreme federal intrusion into um into our lives it needs to be stopped um as well

110as it's a complete overstatement of what's what's happening uh and so but i will uh i do call your attention to the nsba's website uh and in their five six page letter um you know they start out this this letter was addressed this letter september 29th and again i'm not gonna read the whole letter um and it's addressed to the president um and for the first sentence is public schools and it's education leaders are under immediate threat well actually i do agree with that but not from not from parents um so respectfully ask for federal law enforcement and other assistance and it goes on and on and on um but here's where it gets really interesting so um so as as one member of the public just referenced so the paragraph says as these acts

111of mocking this is nsba as these acts of malice violence and threats against public school officials have increased the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes as such the nsba requested joint expedited review by would you listen to the list of federal agencies that this national school board association wants involved in local school board affairs the u.s department of justice the department of education and homeland security along with appropriate training coordination investigations and enforcement mechanisms from the fbi including any technical assistance necessary from state and local coordination with its national security branch and counterterrorism division as well as any other federal agency with relevant jurisdictional authority and oversight additionally nspa requests that such review examine appropriate or forceful actions against these crimes and acts

112of violence under the gun-free school zones acts the patriot act in regards to domestic terrorism the matthew shepard and james byrd jr hate crimes prevention act the violent interference with federally protected right statutes the comp conspiracy against right statute an executive order to enforce all applicable federal laws for the protection of students and public school district personnel in any related measure as the threats grow and use of extremist hate organizations showing up at school board meetings is being reported this is a critical time for proactive approach to deal with this difficult issue and it goes on and on and on so for me it's just a matter of i believe in local control of school boards there's nowhere in the united states constitution that mentions education being a federal under federal prerogative but be that

113as a man notwithstanding that fact um the fact that the national school board associations would even hint that that a parent or protester at a school board association would be to use the term domestic terrorist i think is uh extreme um at the very least we have had spirited debate over the years that i've been on the school board we've had uh folks come up but i've never once ever once thought they were domestic terrorists nor uh nor would i expect um nor would i want the fbi to investigate uh any anybody regarding their political views um so needless to say lsba the statement they made was very simple it was not six pages it was just that we don't agree with this they didn't consult us and we're we're reevaluating our um our um

114our posture i have been to nsba events i've been to the national conference a few times it was not going this year long before this even came out because much of what happens at nsba is extremely left-wing radical information so that's just me you all afraid to certainly vote this down but i would hope and ask that you support to support our lsba and their stand against this authoritarian march that the federal government is taking right now in our nation thank you thank you mr nation mr kuzan program there has been a tremendous amount of threats against school board members recently yesterday there's a young lady from florida teacher i mean a school board member whose daughter was seven years old was threatened there has to be something to protect members across the country i

115don't know whether we need to call it terrorism or what we need to call it but we really need to try to protect school board members and their families if any of you saw the news on yesterday or today this young lady was very very tremendously threatened people were passing by her daughter's windows seven-year-old saying things about the child's mother so i just want to say that we need to do something to protect school board members as well as all people associated thank you mr kuzan mr darman you miss daryl i think one thing you know i've been on this board almost 20 years and we have tried our very best to let our public have participation within our board meetings whether we disagree or agree as individual board members or as a board to

116the with the debates that are taking place but i think by labeling people that disagree and [Music] have a different point of view as domestic terrorists or anything else is pretty strong and and i think all we're trying to do is to say that we still want our public to participate in our school system and whether we all agree i mean that's the democratic process but at least have the opportunity for open discussion and dialogue and it's not just because one side gets elected that that's the way it shuts down whether it's up here on the board or if it's in baton rouge or if it's in dc or wherever that's not the way it should be we're all elected to represent the people and i think some of what's in the nsba is very

117i guess for lack of better terms frightening to the restraints that they're trying to impose and threaten people with investigation by the fbi and everything else i just think that all we're really doing is we're just saying to the lsba the board of directors that voted to take this action that we support you that's it that's all we're doing i mean we're not taking any other action we're not taking any other changes to politic policy or anything else we're just simply saying hey we agree with your standpoint we appreciate it we're not going to send them 20 something thousand dollars for membership so that's what this is all about everything boils down to money and if you don't agree with it then we don't have to send you the money and that's where we are

118thank you mr mr luke okay i'm on the board of directors for the louisiana school boards association what we don't know here and i do know is that the board of directors for nsba wrote that six page letter and sent it without their board of directors knowing it blew up all over this country dr janet pope our executive director got in touch and got millions of phone calls she passed out phone calls all the states are going ballistic over these people writing this letter and sending it without their board of directors okaying okay just like we appear would have to verify something and before we and vote on before we passed it on uh to our system so this letter is damning towards all scuba associations and as uh uh as it says in our

119latter data we're a resolution we're going to seriously doubt with one to send dues into the nsba when they pull this type of a trick to go ahead and send a letter without approval by their own board of directors thank you mr luke any additional comments about boardman miss lamey first of all thank you mr luke for that explanation because that makes things a little more clear for me um to think that they just made a decision for us and we're saying well we're not going to be part of you just making a decision and we want to not give you our dues because you're not doing things the right way makes sense to me um and again i think we get off track we start talking about public participation because never have i felt

120threatened or i see the passion in the people who talk and i want to hear from them that is why we're here that's why we serve this was referring to malice acts of violence which we've seen other places not here it also did not say that it had to be investigated it was just trying to take a strong stance that it could be um i have a nephew who about 15 years ago was expelled from fountain blue high because at lunch a friend wrote that there was a bomb in the school and he stood there with him and said you might as well sign your name to it it's your handwriting and because he was there he was charged as a terrorist so that was very strong for our school system to do to a

12114 year old boy um so anyway so my co my comment was not to support this necessarily but to say i understand um the big picture there um but now that now that you made your point clear i get it but i did have one other thing i wanted to say and i lost it so never mind thank you miss lamey mr bettencourt yeah thank you mr howell uh from listening to mr kuzan a little bit earlier we do have uh an officer here right now that we've been doing this for a while and that's public safety and we're handling it locally which mr nation alluded to uh same with our schools we have our resource offices there so we're handling any potential problems and stuff locally we don't need federal officers or whatever and

122people getting investigated because they're upset about something and want to speak on a subject um so i just wanted to point that out thank you i agree with that but it wasn't about speaking it was about physical but what i remembered that i wanted to say sorry because i do believe in local control and that's why we should be taking masks off and not following someone else thank you mr kuzan yes yeah it doesn't mean that we don't have local control and it doesn't mean that people can't come up and express their opinion as long as it's kept in a certain manner we have the police officer here tonight but do you have one with you at home i'm not saying to label people i'm not saying to call them terrorists but what i'm saying

123is that whether it's local or something we need the protection school board members school board system personnel needs the protection and we need to try to make sure that people that address this board addressed it in a manner that is positive and not derogatory to school board members personally thank you mr kuzan mr nation thank you mr one uh just to tag on what mr bettencourt was saying we do have in my opinion a very competent sheriff's department in saint tammany parish and a lot of people moved to saint tammany parish because of our um ability to protect our citizens um as opposed to other parishes around us um and so we've got and we've got very competent police departments and our municipalities so again for the for the national school board association to ask

124for the department of justice and specifically the fbi the department of homeland security and i forgot to mention and this is in the letter of the u.s secret service and also the u.s postal inspection service to intervene against threatening letters and cyber bullying attacks so um it's not just acts of intimidation as threatening letters so um that have been transmitted to students school board members district commissioners and other educators uh again it's just we're in my opinion on an authoritarian march in this country by our federal government and this is a very clear example of folks asking for the federal government to take even more control away from local governing agencies thank you thank you mr nation seeing no more questions everyone please vote and mr nation your resolution passes 12 years one day up

125next is the approval of recommendations for the committee as a whole meeting for human resources and education mr winkler mr president the committee as a whole for human resources and education met on october 7th and we recommend acceptance of a revised supervisor of payroll service job description an iso move you have a second thank you ms page do you have any comments by the public seeing none any questions or comments by board members saying none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously mr president our committee also recommends acceptance of a new assistant supervisor of payroll services job description and i so move have a second thank you mr baker we have any comments by the public seeing none do we have any questions or comments about board members saying none everyone please vote and

126that motion passes unanimously that's our last recommendation was acceptance of a revised payroll account and job description and iso move have a second thank you mr hersey any comments by the public seeing none any questions or comments about board members seeing none everyone please vote and that motion passes unanimously that concludes my report mr president thank you mr winkler item six approval recommendations for the from the committee as a whole meeting for finance and administrative held on october 7th 2021 mr greene do you have that report thank you mr president the committee met on october 7th uh we are asking at this time that we would draw this recommendation until we've had time to discuss this with the union as it relates to pay and new positions so we'll uh we'll bring this motion back

127before the board once we've had a chance to discuss with the union thank you mr greene all right up next is uh my announcements the november committee as a whole meeting will be held on thursday november november 4th at 6 pm the board meeting will be held on november 11th at 6 pm at the brooks educational complex in slidell item 8 is an executive session has been requested pursuant to lrs 4217a2 to discuss the following matters do we have a motion thank you mr nation do i have a second thank you mr hersey any comments by the public seeing none any questions or comments by the board seeing none every one vote all in favor we are now in executive session we'll give a minute or two for everybody to clear out the meeting room

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