February 19, 2020 — Meeting Transcript

Just because there's lots of

folks to recognize today. So I do want to call the meeting to order, say that adequate notice has been given. Thank you all for being here. We are going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance and the flag is right there, I guess, right? Yeah, right there. All right, let's stand for the pledge. All right. So we are going to start with recognizing our own. There's a bunch of folks to recognize. Yes.

So I'm going to go stand over there by the microphones because we're going to be announcing some names. So first of all, thank you so much for being here tonight. We always at our Board of Education meetings build in opportunities to recognize students. And tonight we have a little bit more of a larger group than we normally have. But tonight we are very excited about recognizing some of our students at Clayton High School And before we get started with the recognition, I just want to say that one of the things we talk about in our district is the importance of having a growth mindset and focusing on effort and making sure you're working hard towards your goals. And I just want to recognize that first with our students is that I know that in order to get here tonight, you put a lot of effort towards these goals and it just says a lot about you. And so I want to say thank you first for putting towards that effort. And then the other thing, too, is it was just so nice to talk to parents tonight and to be able just to get to interact. And I want to say thank you to our parents because our parents set the tone for our students and also want to make sure that they're supporting that effort and encouraging their students to do their very best. So I just want to say thankyou for being here tonight. The other thing I just want to clarify is after we're finished with the recognition, you are welcome to be dismissed and leave after that. I had some parents asking about the agenda and wondering about how long was that going to be? And I was like, no, you get to leave after this part.

We do ask that all the students gather in the back corners so we can do a group shot. Yes.

So 14 Clayton High School seniors have been named semifinalists in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Competition. while seven CHS students were named commended students in the program. Nationally, about 3.1% of students who take the PSAT qualify for recognition. The 21 students from CHS represent 9% of the senior class, nearly three times the national average. Nationally, less than 1% of all students make the cut to become semifinalists. CHS, Clayton High School's 14 semifinalists represent more than 6% of the class in 2020. So what we're gonna do is recognize the students and we're gonna ask the students to come over here to Dr. Kaczewski who's here to represent Clayton High School and also just on behalf of the administration and the Board of Education, we really wanna say thank you for the work and effort that you put towards this and congratulations. So first student, Richard Chang. So one of the things that we're going to ask you to do is just recognize your parents who are here tonight. Just let us know who's here. My mom actually isn't feeling very well. Oh, okay. All right. So the rest of you are going to recognize her. All right. Danielle Koop Chang. Congratulations. Dana, can you tell who's here? Ashley Chung. Do you want to introduce your parents? And what are their names? Okay, and Borna Dianati. Borna's not here tonight, but his parents came. That's good. Peter Humphreys. My parents aren't bad, at least. Cicely Crutch. My parents are Joe Crutch and Lucy Nolenthauser. Nicholas Lenz. Leah Levinson. Miles McCarthy. And my dad, John. Hold up. Krish Sarasai. Krish is here. Okay. Mary Snelling. Charles

Steinbaum.

Eric Thomason. Okay, Bridget Walsh. To all the students who are recognized, you're semi-finalists in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Competition. Now, the commended students as part of this are Samuel Bernstein. I'm

here with my parents tonight.

I don't see him. Tucker Hall. Wynne Havernack. Emilio Rosas-Lenard. I'm

here with my parents, Diane Montoya.

Sanya Suh. Ju Yi Su. And Tyler Suker. All right. So we're going to get one picture, and we want to say thank you tonight. After we get the picture, you're welcome to be dismissed.

Yeah, let's go take a picture too. Come on,

with them.

Hi.

and he's like

I love you.

Soup!

The other part of our evening is we've been very intentional about making sure we have been having board meetings in the schools. And it's an opportunity for us to recognize the great things that are happening within our schools. And so we dedicate a little bit of time each meeting to talk about something that's unique to the school. And so we have Dr. Dan Kaczewski, who is our principal, and a few representatives from Clayton High School to talk about something innovative that they've started here at Clayton High School. It's on board.

Well, good evening everyone. Thank you all for coming to Clayton High School tonight. It's wonderful to have you. We're just going to talk for a few minutes tonight about Clayton Conversations. And Clayton Conversations is a new structure that we put in place this year that kind of helps us with a couple of our student leadership and social-emotional learning goals. And kind of the background on Clayton Conversations In surveys and student focus groups and principal's advisory, students are always looking for more ways to have their voice heard actually in school decision making and in school conversations. As part of our work, we're always looking for ways to incorporate student voice into the things that we do at Clayton High School. We do some really great things, particularly in journalism, and we have principal's advisory and a couple of other structures, but we wanted to kind of make it all-encompassing in a way. We started looking at ways of doing this, and then we were always also looking for ways of incorporating student leadership opportunities. And we developed the structure with the idea that it provides student leadership opportunities in a couple of ways. One, for students to actually be part of the planning of the conversations, and for two, for individual students to have the opportunity to facilitate conversations within an actual classroom on a regular basis. Also going back a couple of years, when we look at some of our structures, and one of the things that really made me think was when we had the ADL come in and work with our kids a few years ago, what occurred to me at that time was it was a very one-shot occasion, basically. And we didn't really have an existing structure or time built into our day to accommodate building-wide conversations. So we were looking at a way of doing that. And then we're always looking for ways of building community between teachers, between students, and kind of getting folks maybe a little bit out of their comfort zone and meeting some people they wouldn't normally meet. Finally, the personal goal of mine, and I've mentioned it many, many times, and I know that at graduation ceremonies you hear me talk about this, but I don't think we have enough opportunities to practice respectful discourse. And we certainly don't have a whole lot of great role models on social media or in popular culture these days. But, you know, it's something that you have to practice and you have to give kids the opportunity to do that. So one of the things that we did was we took a visit to Naperville as part of our social-emotional learning study And when we went to Naperville, they had kind of a – I'll call it a bare-bones structure that I really, really liked where they used – it wasn't nearly as structured or as formalized as what we're doing here. But it really got me thinking about, you know, you could take a large comprehensive high school, build in time for a building-wide conversation. So what we did – We started planning last spring after our visit to Naperville. And we created this structure where the last Wednesday of each month, we have a 30-minute special period built into the schedule And then every student and faculty member is assigned to a family group. And so what we did is we mixed our third-hour classes. In all honesty, it was actually by proximity in the building, which gave us mixed grade-level groups, and the kids didn't have to travel very far. But basically that resulted in about a little over 50 family groups that consist of 15 to 20 students each and at least two adults. When I say adults, it's not just teachers. We invited every adult in the building to participate, whether they be an administrative assistant or a campus supervisor. Anyone that wanted to participate was allowed to participate. The reason we had more than We have at least two adults in every room is, you know, believe it or not, you know, even though we have some really great teachers, the different teachers have different levels of comfort leading conversations with kids. And so, you know, when you do that, there's a little bit of giving up control and not knowing what's going to happen. And different people have different levels of discomfort with that. So we were very intentional about the partnering of the adults to make sure that they were kind of a pair that complemented each other And that someone in the room would feel comfortable having that conversation or helping lead the conversation. So that was the basic structure. So then what we did is we solicited any student in the building that wanted to participate to help plan the conversations. And so I have three students that are going to come talk to you in a little bit. But, so we have a student planning committee that is led by Barb Dobert and Katie Cooper and Amy Doyle who are going to speak to you in a little bit here. But they plan each month and then get out kind of the lesson plan and then the kind of the structure for everyone. Then what we do is we train individual facilitators in the group. So we ask for volunteers from each of the different families to facilitate those conversations. And so basically what we've got is, you know, we literally have dozens of kids having leadership opportunities every month facilitating conversations and students really, you know, kind of guiding the conversation there. One of the more recent conversations that we've had, and I don't want to steal their thunder, was around the idea of homework, stress and homework. And so we've had some really good conversations at a building-wide level that are going to result in some actionable steps. But that being said, actually I'm going to invite Barb and Katie to come up, and they're going to talk to you a little bit about how they go about planning with the students.

Okay. I'm Barb. Sorry. Hi, I'm Katie. Do we really need this? You need it. Do we need it? Okay. All righty.

Can you stand to the side here? Because otherwise your backside is just being strangled. Not my best side. All right.

Where is this one? Okay. All for talking to you guys, right? Yeah. So we're really excited to kind of spearhead, I call it the, what do you think it's like, the Clayton Conversations reboot. So during the fall semester, we got with our families, we did some community building exercises, and really I think the second semester we really started like the heart of Clayton Conversations, like really hearing student voice and students being the facilitators. So Katie and I We've met with our advisory board. That first, the kickoff to second semester was with the homework Clayton conversations and they really like, they had the great ideas and we just kind of molded it into a plan. Do you want to?

And really what we used to spark that plan was we did a thought exchange in one of the Clayton conversations in November. So we took all of the feedback that the students had given us in that thought exchange and used that with our advisory board to kind of filter through and see What was the conversation that needed to happen in January? So we used that data that we asked the students for to spark the ideas for the conversation.

And kind of like our mantra, I think, for second semester or all Clayton conversations is like, we've asked you, we've listened, and now we're responding. And so because of that, that's how Clayton Conversations, the structure began. And now we're asking our students, what are important issues to you? So our next one, which is next week, and we invite you to come join us. Would that be okay? Sure. Okay. I don't know. So it's about the kids took a panorama survey in fall in their science classes, and so we looked at that data, and from that we saw something that really we wanted the kids to take a look at. So that's how we kind of began that. And then what else? Oh, then so we trained them. So we had, I don't know how many, like 40 kids? Forty. in the auditorium and we gave them all the Google slide presentation. We gave them a script. And, you know, here's what we want to get out of the Clayton conversations. And then they just took it and ran with it. I think I heard from students like it was one of the more successful ones this year.

And really what our goal is is to have every family have student facilitators rather than the teachers facilitating the conversation. So eventually our goal is to have all families have student representatives as their facilitators.

So I think another thing that we've talked about is like so we as teachers think we have great ideas. And we have great ideas, but sometimes our ideas or our solutions may not even match like the problems that the kids have. So to hear a student voice is going to, I think it's going to make this really powerful. And so we do want to have

Gabby and Layla and Rosie come up. They're members of the advisory board.

So with Clayton Conversations, not only is it great that we're able to have our voices heard, those who signed up to either lead the conversations or form the conversations, we can also see that everyone who's actually participating in Clayton Conversations and having these conversations with their peers are able to effectively change parts of the school which they don't. see need a sort of change. So like Ms. Dobert and Ms. Cooper pointed out, when we got feedback back from the first cleaning conversation and different surveys, we're actually able to effectively change certain parts or have proposed new ideas of how to fix problems with homework or even just ideas of what we want to talk about at our next cleaning conversation. So in order to do this, it lets us become like, it lets the students really feel like their voices are being heard because a lot of the criticism that seemed to come in the beginning of Clayton Conversations was that, oh well they're not actually going to listen to us, they're not actually gonna hear our ideas, but we see that we're actually taking it into effect and we're actually looking at the data that they've given us and starting to effectively set change.

Okay, so adding on to what Rosie said, it not only connects students with other students, but it also kind of opens up a line of connection with students, with faculty and staff. Because I know that some students are uncomfortable without this being here, with talking to their teachers or their staff members in fear of judgment from the staff members themselves or from other students. So this, or having Clayton Conversations, it doesn't force students to speak up, but it kind of motivates students and faculty members to speak up because they're placed in this intimate setting where they are motivated to speak and the objective is for them to connect even further. So

yeah. So I want to kind of talk about the big picture of Clayton Conversations. And I realized in the beginning of the year A lot of people were kind of resisting some change that was happening in Clayton, such as the Greyhound Time. They were like, I don't know what to use this for. Or what's C squared? What even is this? But then eventually students learned how they could use or benefit from Greyhound Time and print things. go to the library and hang out with friends. And then in C squared, this last meeting was really, really helpful and especially with my family I know that we came up with some really cool solutions and it has motivated the friends in my peer group and they've been talking about their friends and then that's spreading to other families and they're really seeing that they can make an impact. I think this is really important and in future conversations students are now motivated to really speak up about what they think because they know that it will make a change. And so as a sophomore, I know that as I'm a part of this advisory group, I can keep leading this and kind of growing this for the next few years of the high school and really allowing students to create the change they want to

see. Thank you. Does the board have any questions? No, I thank you so much to our teachers and to our students for really articulating what it feels like to be part of the Clayton Conversations and seeing that this is a change systemically that you're making that is definitely going to have impact. And so thank you to Dr. Katusky for helping lead that change and being here tonight to represent it.

Yeah, thank you. Awesome. Thank you all. It is, you know, we've made an intentional effort to go around to different schools, so it's great to hear what's going on at Clayton High School. Thank you all, right? We've heard from some other schools, and we'll continue to hear from others. So do we have any public comment? Okay. All right. So we're going to move on from public comment to superintendent communication. Thank you.

So, well good evening everyone and thank you so much for coming early to spend time with our families for the recognition. I know that meant a lot to our families. Before we go into our presentation tonight for our world language study, I think it's also important to recognize something else that happened over the last couple weeks here at Clayton High School. We learned that Clayton High School was nominated as a National Blue Ribbon School by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. And it was nominated as an exemplary high-performing school, which I think is incredible. And I just want to read to you a description of how they defined a National Blue Ribbons School, which I think really speaks to some of the work that's happening here. National Blue Ribbon Schools are public and non-public elementary, middle, and high schools that are producing outstanding results for all students. They have demonstrated consistent excellence and made progress in closing gaps in student achievement. The National Blue Ribbon Award Recognition Program is a larger part of the Department of Education's effort to identify and disseminate knowledge about effective school leadership and promising instructional practices. So I just think that it's important to recognize that while we're here in Clayton High School. And this is just the nomination because they look at our data over a period of time. There's a whole process we have to go through and actually to get the award, but we're going to follow through with it and continue towards it. So I was here at Clayton High School today as part of a book study. I was asked to be part of a book with a group of three students. And it's part of the English program. And we read the book, Gang Leader for a Day. And I just wanted to say it was just incredible first to read this book and also then to have a substantive conversation with our students about it. And I loved how the students were making connections with the book and to their context of living in St. Louis. And it was just an incredible experience. And I mention that because we have wonderful things happening within our high school and throughout all of our schools. But one of them is our Conference English program. And then tonight, we're also going to be presenting our World Language program, which is another incredible program that we provide our students. And I mentioned those two things because part of tonight is we're going to have some conversation around strategic planning. And when we talk about strategic planning, it's about where do we want to be in the next few years. And I also want to – it's implementing change. But I think it's also important to remember that when we start talking about personalized learning or equitable practices, there are some really great things that we're already doing that we want to build on. And some of our programs are already doing such great things. And so I think it's really important to acknowledge that we are not just changing everything with our strategic plan, but it's an opportunity to enhance what we're working on and to build on it. So tonight, later on, we're going to have an opportunity to find it up. I'm going to give you an update about that and then give you some opportunity to give some input. Tonight we do have our world language curriculum review and I want to commend Milena because she's not only serving as the assistant superintendent but she's also serving as the coordinator of the world languages this year and so she's going to be the only presenter tonight. And so I also just want to recognize the world language teachers who are here to support this and really appreciate the work that you put towards that. So in a few moments, we're going to start that. But first want to go to Adam and see if he has any updates that he wants to share with the board.

Yeah, so I wanted to talk a little bit about next steps with the student representative process and the district advisory council. So at our meeting on Tuesday, because we didn't have school on Monday, we talked a little bit about what are the next steps moving forward. And so there are two ideas, and we've been talking about them. I've talked a little bit And so for the district advisory council specifically, we'll probably start elections coming within the next month or two is what we're going to try to do. And our guess is that most of the students will probably want to continue. But the application will be open to anyone who would like to apply. And hopefully students will want to continue and go throughout their years. But if there's someone who maybe isn't interested and tries it for a little bit and doesn't like it, the application will be open to everyone so that everyone has a chance every incoming year to try to be in their representative grade level. And then the only other thing would be that freshmen would have to, once they get into the high school, probably do that within the first month that they're at the high school to appoint the freshman class to representatives. And then I wanted to talk a little bit about the student representative process. Hopefully we'll have a student representative chosen by mid-April is the goal that we've set in mind, the District Advisory Council. And we have two ideas for continuing this process that we're still working with and talking to some folks about. One is the idea of having two student representatives. So one would be a senior and one would be a junior. They would alternate board meetings. which would mean that they would serve the same amount of time. But in the end, the benefits for this would be continuity. The other would be more time for relationships and building a relationship with the board. And then the last would be an immediate alternate position. And so in all honesty, most likely the senior representative as moving into second semester would really step off the gas and have the junior representative take more of that leadership role and continue to work their second semester or junior year. That's one idea. The other idea would be to have the student representative, so next year I would serve as a past member term that we would use and that the student representative would then move over to the district advisory council to help lead that which would then create separation between the district advisory council and the student representative process and then we also think that the benefits of that will want to separate those processes a little bit and then also to really have maintain one voice so those are the ideas that we're throwing around and completely open to suggestions so let me know but that's what we're working on right now

awesome thank you Okay, so I think we're going to move to the World Language and Cultures Curriculum Self-Study Year 2. It's an information item. And so I'll remind everybody. And what I will also remind everybody, and I've told some of you as we were coming in, this is a packed agenda that could make us go very long if we talk a lot. And so there may be some times where I'm going to facilitate the conversation to be a little more directed. Just telling you that. Please, Milena.

Good evening. I wanted to acknowledge the world language teachers who are here. Sean acknowledged them. Gwen Hutchinson is the Spanish teacher at Glenridge. Heather Mooney, the Spanish teacher at Merrimack. Elizabeth Caspari, French teacher at the high school. Vicky Farris, Spanish teacher at the high School. Pamela Skater, Latin teacher at the highschool. I think that's everyone. Oh, and Janelle Dansky serves as assistant principal at the high school and also department chair at the high school for the world language department. So when we came to you last year at this time, we came with three proposed areas of focus. One was around increasing student engagement and proficiency. And at that time, we were really thinking about centering primarily around really one pedagogical structure, comprehensible input. Another one was around long-term studies, so both the idea of start early and stay long, but also the ideas from our enduring understandings that are listed there. So thinking about learning about other cultures and how it benefits us as individuals as well as our society, and then strategies that are used to acquire a language or transferable to other areas of learning throughout life. And then our third big area that we were looking at at that time was what we called at that time a program audit. But so thinking about sort of a deep dive into what we teach and the focus of our courses all the way from first grade through 12th grade. So when we came to the table at that time, what we heard from you, while there was an appreciation for the focus on linguistic and cultural competence, there was a lot of question about how would we measure that? And then an appreciation for our focus on proficiency in language. but a wondering about what was our place and our role within district curricula. So as a whole, were we considered core or were we considered electives? And how did we fit within the bigger picture? So we took that information and feedback from you and generated then these three goal areas that we feel like, the feedback from you was really helpful to us in being able to sort of center more on what we were planning. So the first thing was we were able to zoom out from comprehensible input and really consider our current pedagogical practices and our desire to explore other pedagogical practices that would empower students to play with language and help them to use language in purposeful and meaningful ways. So where I think we were too far zoomed in on one strategy, pulling back out to say really what are the ways, like what are the best practice ways to help students to interact with language and use language in purpose full ways? The idea of an increase of linguistic and cultural competence. As a department, we decided to commit to awarding students the Seal of Biliteracy. We asked you for the endorsement of that seal. This endorsement for students allows them to be recognized for their proficiency both in English as well as another language. And it's recognized by colleges and universities as well as future places of employment. So within that endorsement, students are assessed using the Apple assessment So that was an easy, like the linguistic assessment piece was kind of an easy fit for us. The map is used for their proficiency in English. And then as a component of that endorsement, students are required to complete a cultural competence piece, which could look like further study of another culture. It could look like further studying of a culture, its people, its communities, et cetera. Or it could look like community service within communities where these languages are spoken. So we were encouraged by that idea of looking at that, providing opportunities for students, and then figuring out a way within a rubric or something like that to be able to assess that. Beginning to award the Seal of Biliteracy, that's an easy win for us. We currently have 108 students who are signed up to be considered for that. So, like, our first time through the shoot, like, that's a lot. Our harder work really in this area is going to be pursuing additional ways to expose students to language and culture outside of our schools and to recognize their competence in other ways. So not just what we see within a classroom, within a traditional classroom setting, but thinking about ways to expose children to language, expose children to culture, and then thinking things like dual credit, different ways of being able to acknowledge their proficiency. And then our third goal is really continuing to be a deep dive into the curriculum that we offer, but really this goes hand in hand with that first goal. And really thinking along with the pedagogy comes the content that we teach and looking at how we can live our philosophy of start early and stay long while also holding students to high expectations. So then when we think about how we're going to look different, this slide might look familiar to you because it's the same. It's similar to the slide that we used with the library the last time. But what I've replaced the library standards with is the world language standards. So the five standards, they're called the five Cs in world language. And our connections to the profile and these world language standards, I think, are going to become pretty clear in the work with these goals. So our proficiency goal would highlight communication within the standards and collaborator within the profile. So our students will be able to use strong communication skills in the target language to seek to advance understanding of others and to work to be change agents. These communication skills need to be evident in all areas of communication. So when you think about world language instruction, we focus really in three areas, the interpersonal, the interpretive, and the presentational. And those are all important to us. The linguistic and cultural competence will obviously in the profile allow us to focus on culturally competent, so cultural competency. And then learners will better understand their own worldview, appreciate diversity of opinions, and demonstrate positive attitudes towards cultural differences. Also there would be a focus around empathy. So by demonstrating compassion, kindness, respect and understanding for others in the work that they do within our classrooms and beyond our classrooms. And then within the world language standards you really start to see it within connections and communities. So connections is that idea of making connections between my culture and my understanding and the cultures of others. And then communities being able to understand the workings of other people. And other other communities and then our last goal around curriculum we really feel like this is going to encompass this idea of personalized learning so the idea of Focusing in the in the areas of intellectually curious and creative thinker So as we get to a more personalized learning approach We can really focus on that and then this one actually encompasses all of the five C's So it's it's a much more comprehensive look at those world language standards within our classrooms and beyond

Thank you. Sure. Does anybody have any clarifying questions for Melaina? Okay, go ahead, Stacy. Thank

you, Melaina. So a couple of questions. I know that teachers would probably agree with this and it's mentioned in the document, early instruction of foreign languages is so important to the learning that have we ever, I'm sure we have but I don't know the reason behind it, discussed either starting in kindergarten or even bringing like some program to the family center for world languages. I know like LeDoux Early Childhood has Spanish and several other early childhood programs too so I don't know if that's been considered as part As part of the program.

Right. I feel like the different iterations of looking at programming have, like, yes, we have explored those. I think any one of the people sitting here would say, yes, let's do it. It becomes, you know, a little bit more complex when we think about staffing, when we think about programming for kindergarten children, et cetera.

And I don't know, like LaDue also starts in her own child and has a kindergarten. I don't know if maybe then in elementary their total minutes of weekly minutes aren't as much because the same teacher's being stretched or I

don't

know. And then I had a question about the seal of biliteracy. Do we determine the qualifications or is that a state?

So the state sets some parameters around it and there's actually two levels of it. So there's like a traditional seal and then there's a... It's distinguished. Distinguished. But the levels are essentially set by the state. Okay. Except for the cultural competence piece, that piece, they give us some guidelines, but we determine sort of how we approach that. Okay,

great. Kristen? It's falling off. Was that where you talked about the service? It's a possibility. In the place of what the way the language is spoken. I love that, because I think that goes to our strategic plan. And I

think when we think about, as we were thinking about branching into the seal of biliteracy, we were thinking, what's the first initial step for us to take with it? And then how can we grow that over time? So this first group going through That's probably not going to be an opportunity for them because these guys are seniors now, and we're trying to make sure that it happens for them early. So we're looking at ways to handle the cultural competence piece within the classroom this first year, but I think we are open to ideas of ways to grow that for children as they can start to think about it sooner.

Thank you for the presentation, it was great. So with respect to the cultural competency, for some of the, sometimes we offer the opportunity that kids will get to go, like a teacher will take them I don't know exactly where. Do we have a mechanism in place for our free and reduced lunch kids, so if they want to be able to participate in something like that?

Yeah, so some of the trips in the most recent future have done some fundraising kinds of efforts, and so working as a community together to figure out how are we going to get ourselves there. Amazing. Thank you.

Adam?

The District Advisory Council was curious about why Chinese and Latin start in seventh grade and not sixth grade, and just what the difference is.

Right. So as a department, we've had some conversation about this most recently. And one of the things that we talked about was like the number of options that children have and when do those options open up, as well as like an age appropriateness kind of piece in the way that we teach. Some of the languages, so Chinese, like the Chinese teachers talked about really wanting to wait until seventh grade to be able to have a solid foundation just in school in general before approaching, because that's a pretty complex language. So they felt pretty comfortable with sticking with the seventh grade start for that. It is something that Jamie, Jordan, and I have been in conversation about. What does the future of language look like at the middle school? And what are the options to students as they come in?

Yeah, I think the big thing was just... I know one of the things that a lot of the members brought up was going into French for one year and then switching out. And just wondering if there's a way to reduce that.

So that is changed for next year. There is an option that if you know coming into sixth grade that that you're going to want to start in Chinese in seventh grade or whatever, that Jamie has put some things in place to allow children to not have to do that like one year of French and then move in.

Okay, so we are going to move to our first study item, which is the Board of Education onboarding. So, yeah, everybody, Barb put it, your seats should actually have a printout. You can look at it electronically, but the latest and greatest as of 5 or 5.30 today, right, everybody should have a printout, so you may want to get that just for reference. I want to say a couple things about this. So I am quite certain that this is a topic that we could talk about for hours. I'm going to actually limit our conversation to 40 minutes. So I'm going to tell you, and this is how we're going to structure it. We're going to start, and each of us is going to spend two to three minutes, if you want. I'm literally going to keep time here. explaining what it is you did in your section, right? So if you want to just say, hey, I left it the same, or you want to say something, great. But in your sections, that's how we're going to start. So that'll be the first about 20 minutes. The next 20 minutes, we're going to get through as much as we can, but we may not get through it all. And it's okay if we don't because... I'm going to ask you to do two things. One, if you have comments that we don't get to and you want to submit them to Amy and I, please do. And second, as Amy and I really thought about this, the reality is we're going to have a new board, right? We're going to have some kind of... So that's kind of going to be our structure. And so I'm going to, and so the order, by the way, is going to be Joe, Kristen, Jason, Amy, Gary, Stacy, Lily, just as I look at the colors, right, of kind of who's going to go in terms of their sections, okay? So I'm going to model. So the sections I had were the introduction, the board introduction, the communication with superintendent, and committee expectations. So I'm just going to speak to just give you all highlights of what I put in there. And actually, Sean put in a little bit too, so I'm going to cheat and incorporate his piece too. I want to

make sure you don't go over your time. Yeah, please

do. Thank you. I appreciate it, Amy. Good. So in the introduction and background, I think what's key here is putting in some of the governance core stuff. So you would see that from what the book that we read, There's some governance core pieces in here in terms of you can't function, we can't function by ourselves, how we act, et cetera.

So what's on board docs right now that people have access to is not the newest version? It's

not.

Okay. But it should be in our Google Docs. It is. It's in the drive. That was being edited still. Well, because I pulled up what's on Google Docs. So we need to be in the drive to see

what's... Thank you, Lily. That's a good point.

And I will change it tomorrow.

Yeah. Okay. All right. So that's... One piece. I think the second piece, right, which would be under kind of the board orientation is I think that it's important not only for the board but quite honestly we have some of the candidates, right, as I look out in the audience. It's important for the candidates to pay attention to this stuff too because as you run as a candidate, When you come on the board, it matters how you act as a candidate. So I would just say I added a bullet about that too, suggesting candidates pay attention to this onboarding and the behavior here too. The communication with the superintendent, if I skip to that section, which was my next one, because it's a board protocol, I didn't change it. I think we all talked about that at some point we could loosen it up a bit, but I didn't do that. I'll just share with you. And then the final piece that I did was around... It said committee and expectations, but it's really committee expectations. You know, the role of a board member on a committee is to go and represent the board, not necessarily their own personal opinion on a committee, and to come back and report back to the committee. So that's kind of what I write. And we have various committees that between the board president and the superintendent, each person gets assigned to each year. So that was my piece. Okay? So next is Kristen. Do you want to speak to your pieces?

So my first was the board member roles and responsibilities, and just try to reiterate some of the things that we've talked about as a group. You don't want me to read all these, right? I just want to highlight some of them. That's right. So mainly the idea that we hire the superintendent, and he's responsible for the day-to-day operations. We're responsible for helping set the vision and holding him accountable. So those big picture responsibilities that we speak as one voice. And so when we're directing work, we have to reach a majority consensus when directing and clarifying for information research that would require more time. One of the things I thought was important was that we have an opportunity to tour the buildings, to see what's happening in the classrooms and seeing the curriculum in motion. And that I think is a responsibility for us to take advantage of so that we aren't just sitting around talking around a table but we're actually able to see the work in the classroom. And I don't know if this was the right place to do this, but I did talk about that board members are really not allowed to just go into buildings on their own and to meet with teachers or to meet with administrative or staff just on their own. And unless it's specific to their own child's need when you're acting as an advocate for your own child as a parent, not as a board member. So really being clear about that because I think maybe there's not a misunderstanding of that when we first come on to the board about that. My second one was executive session. This really goes to just the idea of the confidentiality recognizing that it's our responsibility to know that when we have those meetings that we have to respect that confidentiality and that we're not sharing that outside. And I put in a few things that were, one, because divulging this information could put us individually liable, but also it could put our district or community district liable. And I also talked about the idea that you need to be in attendance at executive session on time And if you're not, then you don't have an opportunity to vote on what's being discussed in executive session. And that some things aren't just a simple majority in executive session, that you have to have a 5-2, like for real estate, and that may not be apparent to people when they first come on. Oh, and the big one, that the content has to stay within the executive agenda. The content we can't just talk about whatever we want. And then I have a discussion during meetings. Are we

allowed to

ask each other questions about? I want

to do them first and then we'll come back because I think otherwise we'll just get caught up in there. Okay, okay, that's okay. Yep, yep.

Okay, sorry. So then... Oh, during the meetings... Somehow it's not quite right, is it? Oh. I think the biggest thing about this is the idea of being professional and modeling Robert's Rules of Orders, conducting ourselves professionally and using our time efficiently and constructively. That we need to remember and remind ourselves that at every opportunity that students are the center of our discussions, that we're not taken off course by other things that might distract us but that we really are keeping that idea of kids being at the center of everything that we do. And just some basic things about how we facilitate the meetings with the board president leading ideas about being prepared and actively engaged in meetings. And then the email communication to the entire board, we already went over that. That was a review.

Great.

Nothing to add there.

Great. Jason?

Yeah, so my section was board members listening to concerns from the community. So my first objective was to see where the inefficiencies were in the bullets before I started adding stuff. So I consolidated a few things, as you can see. And then, of course, I was looking for just minor edits, like language, words, et cetera. And then, let's see. Let's see. Yeah, I mean, that's really – I don't want to read each one. But then – yeah, that's it. So, I mean, yeah, you all can read it. We'll go through it by detail. I don't want too much detail. And then the other section was – let me get to it here. Oh, here it is. Eight, right? Yeah. Yeah, so in speaking with one voice, I was trying to wrap my head around what that meant exactly. So I wanted to make sure I understood what the team had put together on this as a line item. So I struck out a few things and consolidated the last two points. And we can go through that in detail. But I mean, just in particular, one bullet reads, We recognize that the superintendent is accountable to the school board individual, school board individual, what? School, hold on. I can't even read this stuff. Did I write this? There's a comma. But, yeah, yeah, I'm missing something there. That's all right. So, but I rearranged it to make sure it was clear that the accountability, but yet we should still be collegial. So I wasn't trying to say there's a... There is a hierarchy in some ways, but we're trying to also say that it's collegial. We're trying to work together and get to the same goal. But we can discuss that in a minute. And that's all I have.

I did board interactions and behavioral expectations, and I didn't add a whole lot. It's pretty self-explanatory what I added. It's highlighted in red. You know, we can talk about it. I even put a parenthetical let's discuss that we will not push our own personal agendas. And I also added that we will not disparage other board members or discuss personal disputes in public. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory. No surprises at meetings. I didn't really add anything. And the same with preparing for board meetings. I added just a few little tweaks, but nothing earth-shattering. So if anybody has any questions, I can talk about it. We have to wait on that.

Yeah. So, Gary?

Okay, so number eight, request for information slash questions. A lot of the language here was I was actually trying to make it consistent, like starting with board members rather than we, which I realize now isn't consistent throughout the entire document. Yeah, I made that

note too. So we'll

synthesize that. I also realized I think the way I did this shows my lack of sophistication with Google Docs because the strikeouts aren't Here it's only the new so

But

this is what I mean for you to say in the end it doesn't show you what I struck out Board members will direct questions. I think it was just a little bit more passive voice, honestly Mostly wording things here again to make it more consistent throughout the whole protocol I thought that you know, the last point there where it's adding if significant resources are required to provide a response, I think that was just sort of reiterated from one of the points above. So I think I made that so it wasn't duplicative. But I tried to bring a little bit more focus to the balance of the process between when the superintendent receives the communication and deciding how much time can be devoted to it in the context of the current work demands and needs for the district. So that's number eight. The other one was number 14, board member voting or action on agenda. I think this also doesn't show any strikeouts but I think it was actually not any. I added unless otherwise dictated by policy or statute to this reference of when a vote is taken upon measure with the majority of votes cast determines As Kristen alluded to, there are some times in statute of policy where we require essentially a supermajority vote. So it's helpful to have that reference there. And I think that was the only change.

OK. Awesome. Stacy?

My first one was protocol for placing items on the agenda. I really only changed here some semantics and not anything of substance. But to Gary's point, I did want to bring up when we finalized this that some of these are in first person and some of these are third person, and we need to be consistent. Yep. So my other one was to add a new one which is at the very end, number 20, advocating for your child. that we recognize that many of us may also have children in our schools, and that we may need to or want to advocate for our children's needs at school. But like any district parent, we need to go through the chain of command. And that it's inappropriate for us to ever use our board position to intimidate or pressure any staff member we're meeting with about advocating for a child. Thank you. I thought that was a good starting

point. Yep. Lily?

So I have engaged, let's see. First one. Is my first one engaging? Yep. Engaging the community. All I did there was add we commit to attending and participating in our district liaison board representative positions to which we are assigned so that we remain informed and accessible to the community. And then the other one is continuing education. What I did there was added National School Board Association, as well as MSBA was already in there. And then we can reword the way it's written, but the idea, the last point is No, I'm sorry. The second to the last point is that the idea of us being able to share with each other relevant information like articles, books, videos, which will be made available. I think what we've been doing as our practice is, well, it's more recent, but sharing it with you and then you can put it on the Friday memo so everybody has it. Okay. So you just want us to go through our two things right now? Yeah.

Okay. So thank you, everybody, for going through that. I read it again at about, I don't know, 530 myself. And I actually think the document is coming together. So I thank you, everybody for everybody's work. I mean, I understand it's not perfect and we're going to go talk about it more. But I will say I was impressed, right, having looked at it. I don't know, over the weekend and then looking at it again today, I was like, wow, it's really coming together. Again, not perfect, but I think it's made a lot of progress. So thank you for everybody's input. So I think what I'd like to do now is literally just go by section by section and see how many we can get done. I know that we're not going to get to 20 sections. This is not going to happen, right? Because I'm sure... And maybe what we can try to do is not get into the, we know we need to clean it up and do some punctuation, put it in, you know, the right tense and the right, you know, kind of person. Maybe we don't have to focus on all the words there to take our time, more the concepts. So let's just start. Does anybody have any? Yeah, go ahead.

Just a big picture. Thank you. So I was just wondering, I know that we sort of started this from scratch, but I know that Barb has an orientation booklet, and maybe you guys already did this, and so I'm backtracking here, but just double-checking with some of the things that are on there that we may have missed.

So we took that, and we actually didn't start this from scratch. We stole from other districts across the country. So it's a blend. So it was taking some of those pieces and some things that other folks already do and then kind of put it in there for a starter. That's what we did. Did we miss something? Like, so for instance, I think there's like on the summary sheet, we had referenced the board ethics document, but maybe it's not in here yet. So I mean, there's some things I think that we need to incorporate still. but to the extent that we found them and didn't make a mistake, they are in there.

So are you referring to online when you could click on the link and it would take us to the...

No, there was a binder that we had, and I actually went through the whole binder today because there are things that are missing out of here that we would. So an example... Like in the binder, we had all the policies that were related to the board. And then there was also information about Sunshine Law. And so there is a lot of other documents that we're going to have to cross-reference that are with that binder. I think that when we're thinking about protocols, these are like maybe like actionable things, but there's a lot in that binder that we still need to look at that is going to be important. And so the other thing is that we're having MSBA come for the first night And so they are, when we have our orientation, and they're going to take items out of that document. You will get another binder with some of the information that's in there, but they're also going to cover some of those things that are more legally related.

What I want to say that I think is really awesome is when it's electronic... And you have some of these things that are linked into the verbiage. And when we were able to go on, I'm not sure where it was, but I went on and clicked on things. And it took me to the curriculum maps for our different curricular areas. And it took us to, took me to different documents. And that kind of quick access will be so helpful when new people are coming on.

So we're going to do that. We're going to move it to an electronic mode because the other thing that happens is it makes it easier for us to update it when you don't have to print a new document.

Really, when a binder is, it's overwhelming and scary, and I would be surprised if board members have actually read

it. We're going take it to the 21st century.

Yeah, thank you. That was my big picture. If

it's not, I've read the whole thing from front to back five times. Of

course you did, but you're the anomaly. Lily, did you have a process? Yeah, go ahead. So

I added reference to the binder in there so that we'll get to that. But I have a question about, and I didn't think of it until today when I was thinking of the comments. I really have a question about maybe this is for you, Sean. Whether we should or can even do things on Google Docs? Because it seems like we're... It seems like it might be not working with the Sunshine Law because we're actually sharing, you know, especially with comments. Oh,

like seven people at a time?

Yeah, we're doing something that's not public. I mean, we're talking about it now, but I looked at your comment, you know, I didn't look at

anybody else.

Sometimes we're all on there at the

same time, and you can actually chat through it and stuff. Well, I saw. Sean was on that I could have chatted with

him. I just don't know. I think we've got to find out whether Google Docs can be used by everyone. That's a great question. That's

a good question. Do you have

something? To that point, remember that there are rules about public open access meetings, and there are rules about documentations and that govern documents. So documents include e-mails, the same reason an e-mail between us as board members becomes subject to Sunshine Laws and record retention laws. It's open meetings. I meant open meetings. So the open meetings, I think, is you're having a meeting if you're meeting more than three people and making decisions about things. If you're exchanging information and communication, it needs to be documented and recorded. And certainly we want to check this with MSBA or with the attorneys. But I think... There's two buckets. There's open meetings and there's communications and documentation.

I think it's a fair question. Anybody have any broad picture things, or can we just dig in?

And then I added one other broad that you all might have seen. I suggest we add a section on agenda-setting meetings so that people know who's there and what the purpose is. And maybe even within that, saying something about, I hope that you guys do this, is that sometime at a retreat, the whole board talks about the agenda for the year so that the entire board has some input. into what's going to be on the agenda and then the president or president vice president actually go to agenda second meetings of what happens there

yep

and then i also would suggest that this came up in one of our retreats so we can think about this we have um something about communication between ourselves at the meeting and what about just or discussions and meetings discussions outside of meetings and you know whether and how we want to do

It's big picture. That's fine. And also a little bit of detail.

Can you state the picture and then we'll start with the sections? No, it's just kind of big picture. So

one thing I was thinking about was, I mean, I think we can, some of this stuff is, as you know, redundant. So I don't want to get into like, I know you all put together this document and you're like, yo, don't go into like how we wrote third and first person. Yeah. But what I do want to say is I think that some of this stuff could be in a summary, right? So let me just – this is like we're going to manage expectations about what you should know up front, how you should operate, and then kind of go into the sections, right? And then that also will also minimize some of the sections. But I was also thinking from a bigger picture as well, which was – I want to make sure we're all on the same page about what onboarding is because I think my perspective of what onboarding is might be a little bit different. So what I'm thinking about is it's kind of a cheat sheet to get the new elected official ready for the first day, right? That's kind of how I was looking at it. So some of these things are standard operating procedures. I know a lot of this stuff is cultural as well. But then we start to get off into the micromanaging side of things. I just want to make sure, is that what we're trying to do? Or do we actually want to give them the bigger picture in how to get acclimated the first day? You know what I'm saying? Because right now it is... We're also touching into cultural and what we would like to see as well from individuals and how we operate. And I'm not sure if that is the kind of document that we're trying to create.

So what do you mean when you say by cultural?

Oh, so like sort of the one voice thing, even more so than that, but like, for example... Let's see. I'm just looking because I don't really remember every part, but like... I don't remember exactly. Well,

I can answer your question while you're looking. Well, sorry, while thinking or looking. I think it's some of both, and I think one of the realizations I will say I had is I just happened to have board-oriented sections I had was... It's actually not when you start as a board member. It's actually when you start a campaign. It's relevant even because as you run a campaign, it will influence how you sit at the table. So I think it's actually before you get to the table. I mean, there's stuff in here that's relevant. So I guess I would say...

And I agree. So philosophically, I get that. I just want to make sure we're not... conflicting, because what happens is this can end up being a broad document. It goes back to what I think some points you all have made early on about some of the documents that have been created. It starts off as X, and then we start to expound into something really, really large, big, and encompassing almost everything that we're all thinking. But we're trying to get it down to one thing. And I just want to make sure we're on the same page. Our goal is to make sure that if There are three new board members, right? Can they on the first day First meeting, that is. Will they know the protocols? Will they know how to engage? Will they know... I wrote some little things down. Will they know why one person seconds something? Why that person like Gary would always second something, for example. Why we're not, the newest person isn't doing that, for example. So just like, I want to make sure we're all on the same page about what we're trying to do. I think this document is really good. I thought at first I was like, oh man, this is going to be terrible. No, I'm saying like the process. Because this is not my discipline, right? But then I was like, these guys, for someone who doesn't put this together on an inconsistent basis, did a pretty good job. How do we narrow it down to a document that's for onboarding?

I think to me it seemed like it, because I remember what you said why we were doing it, that let's back up from the protocols and just kind of talk bigger picture and not have this be too long. And I think... I think what I noticed over time, because I started doing it a little, you know, whatever, Saturday or whatever. But to me, it started that way, and I think it's gotten a little bit more micro. And I do question, I think it's good to reference where we have protocols. Because this isn't a protocol, right? This is not a protocol. That's right. Okay, so where we have protocols, yeah, we could be really specific, maybe repeating it or not. But I think it does jump from, like, the micro level to the really, really general either philosophical kind of spirit of what we do and how we should do it. And that's what I just noticed happened to it, that it got a little bit, and some areas are very specific, and we could be specific in every area. But it's just only those areas where I guess, from what I read, is areas where people have had problems. You know, where we go off on tangents or we do this. And I'm not sure that's... the tone we should have for this kind of a document. That we may wanna have the tone, you all, I'm not gonna be on the board, but you all might wanna have the tone be, you know, this is really a more positive tone. And then have the, wherever else you put it, in protocols or whatever, be the more nitgritty, don't do this, you know, I don't know. It just, it started to get that kind of behave right, micro kind of stuff.

So can I speak to that? Yeah, please. I would say that what I would say is that when we think about the orientation part of this and how we're, you know, what are the biggest priorities that we need to focus on when someone comes onto the board? And those big pictures, like it's almost like the funnels, like we have to think big picture and like what's going to get them through that first month? But I do think it'll be important that I can't envision this being something that on the first night we're going to be saying, this is what you need to be focusing on. It's going to be a resource that we go back to, but I agree with you that we have to think big picture and make the positivity of your role and thinking about how your role has impact and how you work collectively with a group of people to move a district forward. And so that is going to be part of that. I think that right now, You sometimes have to go through this part to make sure we also have the resources that are going to help people be successful down the road too, where they're not going to overstep or do something that is going to maybe be a misstep or something. But I would agree with you. We have to make sure that we think the positive aspect of that and think big, and what are the big priorities when someone's being onboarded.

I think you just made a really good point. So you're saying like the philosophy should – a little bit of how we – or what our goal is as a board should be in there, philosophically. How we're going to move forward, how we're going to engage one another and create policy and directives, right? For example. I think that is true. So I think maybe you're right. Not maybe you're right, I think you're saying something that's very true. And it does have a little bit of that in here. In fact, 60% of that is in here. But then there's also that other percentage where when we start to get into, well, you need to act a certain way, which I think is key, but I think that's not for this document. I think they need... The moment they get hired, the moment they get elected, the numbers... They should get the digital copy of how they... And there

are certain things that would be real priorities, like when it comes to email and when it comes to... confidentiality and things like that there's going to be some certain priorities i

think um some of these that do focus on behavior really could be protocols instead of onboarding but i actually think another immediate thing if this is like a true orientation is a section on just like meeting structure alone like what's the difference between a study item an information item an action item And in which of those do we have discussions versus voting, or do we just ask clarifying questions? That would have helped me. I still think that's murky sometimes. So just definitions of... of some of that I think would help with an orientation, too.

Go

ahead. So I agree. I mean, I totally agree with what Lily's saying, and I understand. I was viewing this as a document also that was kind of a guide for people that are interested in running, and so for me that was kind of with some of the behavioral expectations. I was thinking more along the lines of, you know, a lot of people don't know what we do or what is expected. And so I thought that it would act as a resource for, just a big overall resource that we have that would explain kind of who we are, what we do, what our expectations are. And to the extent that it's micro, I mean, it might be in some respects. I don't know. I'm certainly not opposed to making it. bigger picture and uh adding some stuff or deleting some stuff at all i don't

think that i'm not saying we delete i think they're really good items in here i just think that we have to think about what are the biggest priorities when someone's being onboarded right and then i think that this document is really is coming together as a resource

well and i think too that what the um You know, the challenge of having a lot of voices is that it's also, I mean, so that's good in terms of being as inclusive. But when you have a bunch of voices in a document, obviously it's not going to be consistent, right? Obviously some are going to go high level. Some are going to go low level. Some are using the board. So that is going to happen. And remember where we started. We started because we had some problem behavior. I mean, we didn't, just hold on a sec. We didn't, we started with this, right? We were trying to go big picture, but we started with a couple protocols, right? Because we had some challenges, right? There are some that, I mean, that's, and so we're also maybe trying to mix too many different things, right? Because, we started in the micro, like, we gotta address this, and then we've tried to incorporate that in. So, yeah, maybe we need to separate

it. Yeah, and that's what I gathered. That's what I gather. This started from one thing, and then we're trying to create this document. And then we're all trying to think about, because we're all influenced by whatever is happening in our world. We've got friends who are running. Questions are being asked about what does it entail. We've got the problematic issues that were taking place. We've got a lot of stuff, how we do board meetings and the feedback that we're getting. All is happening in this first draft. But I do think that we kind of need to all make a decision without even having to go deep dive into this. Because actually, like you said, like Kristen said earlier, that she noticed that she was enamored with, which is the hyperlinks. Some of this stuff can actually be put into a hyperlink. without having to even delete it. So if you want to go into this other part about the do's and don'ts, then you should hit the hyperlink and it will expound and then you can read that and then you can go from there. But it could still be that first day I'm ready to hit the scene because I know rules of engagement. And I think this is what that document can provide us if you all are on the same board.

So what I will say is what's going to happen is... So we've talked a lot about the process and the big picture, and we haven't gone through any sections. And it's 823. We spent 45 minutes, by the way, talking about this. And so I'm going to make a suggestion that... people send their either make or note within the notes or send your comments to Amy and I because we're not going to be able to go through 20 sections. It's not going to happen, right? If you want to spend another five minutes talking about the big picture, fine with that, but I don't quite honestly, I don't think it's worth getting into three different sections or whatever we get to and take another half an hour or 45 minutes and then have to cut it off.

I think what we've done is great.

This

has been very valuable and we've all had an opportunity to give input on things. I mean, I'm

Okay.

I didn't think we were finishing this tonight anyway.

The only other thing I would want to add is that just from my years as superintendent, we've done different things for orientations over the year, and I don't know if it's fair to different board members. Like one year we're going to do something, a real intense orientation, and then one year we're like, oh, let's do it individualized. And I think that having that consistency, it's fair to the board members so that way they feel like when they come to the first meeting, they feel like they have the – They know their role. They feel more informed, and I just want to make sure we're setting people up to be successful.

I think one of the things you talked to a few board members about is that idea of you guys considering having mentors. I think it's a great idea. Whether it's a current board member, a past board member, so they don't get bogged down in the content and perspective of whoever's their mentor, but that might be really helpful to people I think that's a great

idea I think that's Okay. Thank you. Again, you could go into the document or you could send, if you wish, anything to Amy and I, and we are going to have another go at it.

So where are we going? Google Docs? Or are you going to wait to get a response?

I'll find out about it. I think we're, what Gary said, I think we're okay. We're transferring information. If anybody wanted to request this information, we'd have to provide it to them, but I will double check with them in eternity.

Okay.

But you're thinking about more than one person being on it at the same time. And if there is like three or more people, does that become a board meeting? Okay.

So don't go into Google Docs yet until we get the answer. I'll tell you what I'm thinking. And then we'll figure it out. But I do want to compliment the board again and thank you. I really think it is a good step forward, not perfect, a really good step forward to that level of consistency where hopefully we can have a more streamlined process. Hyperlinks. and everything. Alright, so the next piece is a policy which is 7.02 policy JHC Student Health Services and Requirements. Robin, you're up.

Good evening everybody. I have many policies tonight that begin all with JH. So the first one I'm presenting as a study item is policy JHC Again, as you all know, MSBA periodically releases updates. With JHC, two of the major highlights are that it is asking for school districts who do provide information about influenza or influenza vaccinations, that they provide information that's identical or similar to the information published by the CDC. It also adds in a provision allowing for staff to share information about how a family can access health insurance. Since the time that this was posted as a study item, I got additional information from MSBA regarding the Health Advisory Council, which is mentioned at the top of page three. And for some of you who are familiar with our wellness policy, the wellness policy includes another committee that's focused on wellness and that particular committee is required by federal law in contrast the School Health Advisory Council is actually not required by law but is a recommended entity to have in place so based on that new information one additional edit I would suggest is that at the top of page three adjusting the word will work to may work.

Anything else for us on this? Anybody have any questions or comments on this policy, this being JHC? Okay, thank you very much. So I think you might be up again, yeah? Yes. I'd

like to move on to policy JHCD, which talks about Narcan being available as an emergency medication in our school buildings, as well as some more specific language related to products that include CBD oils. You'll notice that our additional edits are in green. And I would like to, in our editing process, I just wanted to bring it to your attention. On page six, we've struck a paragraph there and actually that last sentence, the when applicable sentence, that should have also been struck in the editing process. because it's a little bit confusing the way it's currently presented of kind of a mixed message around CBD-based products.

Okay. Anybody have any questions on this

one? Interesting color choice. All right, it's a joke. I

just have a general thing. Sure. I found this to be really big and kind of cumbersome, and I felt like I was rereading and rereading sections. So I know one of our goals is to be... Not precise, that's not the word. User-friendly. Yes. What is the term they're supposed to say? It's not user-friendly, but like easily understood or something like that. And I feel like this is super easy.

That is fair feedback. And in the original posting, some of the edits did not get, yeah, got erroneously presented in the scan. And so... We have corrected it since then, but that is absolutely fair feedback and we will be working on that in the future.

Yeah, I just want to, one of the things I just think it's important for the board to know, and we're working, trying to work through this system, is that when we get these documents from MSBA, they're not in Word or like Google. They're in PDF. We have to then turn them into another document. And what happens is the formatting changes. So it is not the most, it's not the easiest. So we are, our staff is really working to be thoughtful about making sure all these highlights and strikeouts are. So we are working with them to try to see if that can be improved. Because the amount of policies that are coming, there's...

It's a policy service. I mean, like, that's actually kind of the point.

Right. So we're working with them, but I just want to... Sometimes, like, this time when we were scanning it, it scanned black and white versus the color... And so we replaced that with the color

version. Are we concerned

about the legalization of marijuana? CBD is becoming more prevalent.

In this document, for example, it seemed like it was very complicated around that with the school and talking about it. Did you have any complexities having to deal with that around...

Yeah, I did consult with our attorney to get feedback on it. And I think I would summarize it as medical marijuana, while legal in the state of Missouri, is not... legal federally, and so to be allowing that type of product on school property would actually be in violation of the Drug-Free Schools Act.

That's a federal crime, right? So we're

in a little bit of, not just the School District of Clayton, all public school districts are really kind of in uncharted territory as it relates to CBD products, and particularly what makes it complicated is the quality control as it relates to CBD products. And so it's a little unclear at this point, but it's certainly something that we have to take into account with this type of policy as well as the influence it has on other policies.

It also says in here the district will not administer any medication that is not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And I've got to say that there's got to be things that Like the essential oils or, I mean, CBD, all that stuff can't be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. So that seemed like, I don't know, the way I read it seemed like we can't do it, but if it's been prescribed by a physician, then we can.

Yeah, and there's currently one medication that is FDA approved that does have CBD included in the ingredients, and it's for epilepsy. Okay.

Other questions on this? Adam, did you have

something? Yeah. It's down here at the right before emergency medications. It just uses his or her own health to change it. Thank you. Anything

else? Carrie, did you

have anything?

Sorry. Go ahead, Amy. You do have something or not?

I did, but I had a note that I wrote that I wanted to change on page four. There would be use of the word required, and I thought we should change it to permitted. But then I couldn't find the word because I...

Okay. Anyway. Other district...

It says other district personnel may be required to administer medications. Is this what you're talking about? Yeah,

that's it. Yeah, I thought we should chance that word to permitted because... I think there can be situations where It's hard to require that, and so I just think that's a really strong word to use in that context. I'm

sorry, Amy, can you help me? Which

page are you on? I'm sorry. Page four. Nurses and

other personnel, that section. The top paragraph. Yeah, it says other

district personnel may be required to administer medications to a student as long as they have been appropriately trained and are supervised by an RN. So I thought that we should change the word required to permit it. Okay. And then the other thing that we should look at, Robin, is that so there was this like indemnity language down here in accordance with law. So it was... The way this reads right now from a legal standpoint, it's like the school district can't really be sued if the nurse is administering medication in good faith, but then it's a little bit fuzzy if the nurse that designates somebody So I think that conceivably we can still be subject to litigation if, you know, the nurse appoints somebody else or the nurse's trained appointee. I don't think that that indemnity language covers that situation. Okay.

Or that it should maybe.

Right. So I think that's just something we need to flush out. We either need to go with just the nurse administers it or... for the indemnity language should specifically cover both situations. And the indemnity language I'm talking about is, it says in accordance with law any trained or qualified employee will be held harmless and immune from, that's the language I'm talking

that those people will be held harmless by the district. So we wanted to find that pretty carefully. Right, right,

right. Sorry if we're being nitpicky.

No, that's what you're supposed to do. That's why we're here. Just to process maybe a little bit, Joe. Thank you, lawyers. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not a policy that we have to change on any prescribed time frame. It's not in response to a change in the law that requires it to be implemented by a certain time, right? Yes,

this one was not.

Maybe with respect to the denseness and some of the formatting challenges, we may not be done with this on first readings. Good point. Great point. I'm not sure we need to come back, and I'll be comfortable if we wanted to take a little bit more time.

Yeah, like that language where it says any trained or qualified employee will be held harmless. So conceivably, the person that the nurse says give this child the medication, because that is not really a trained or qualified employee. That person doesn't fall within that language. Do you see what I'm saying?

And that has to track with other...

Right.

Yeah, this reads like it's going to be a problem going forward for MSBA as we start to go through this iteration of legalization and what's permitted and what's not FDA approved. So, yeah.

can I

make a suggestion that follow that if the board isn't able to that is having us put a pause on this one take the suggestions and questions that you brought up go back to it again and then see if there's and we can bring it back for another reading and then making sure it's really cleaned up

so long as keeping it the same isn't I

don't think we're going to hold off for a long time. We'll have to bring it back.

Anything else on this one? Thank you, Robin.

We are. Do you need a break? Yeah, let's take a three-minute break. Can we take a bio break real quick and then we'll come back and do strategic planning because that's going to take another 40 minutes.

All right,

Sean, sure show. All right.

All right, so this is an opportunity for me to give the board an update about where we are with the strategic planning process. And it's also an opportunity for us to just remind what we're doing with the strategic planning. Again, we're a district that does many excellent things. As you can see from the students tonight, the recognition that we did and also just some of the things that you heard that's happening at the high school, our World Language Program. There are many excellent things happening in our district, but we still have the opportunity to be transformational about what we do for our students, and we can never be complacent about our excellence. And so what we're going to do tonight is give you an overview about where we are with the strategic planning process. And then I'm going to give you guys some opportunities to talk a little bit about some input in those next steps around action. And so I want to just, there's going to be some redundancy because there's some things that you've seen before, but I think it's also important for us to make sure that we have a common context for this work and also just see how your input has influenced how we move forward. So again, here's our roadmap. We started with our profile of the graduate because we wanted to make sure that we were starting with the student in mind. And then we collected input and data from the community. We developed our questions and developed theory of action and goal statements. And we're now at that point where we've taken those goal statements and looked at developing a collective understanding of them, and then also developing action steps. So one of the things that I've been doing is conducting focus groups with groups of stakeholders. I've been going into every school and leading meetings with all the faculty members so that way they have an opportunity to give input about this and also have collective understanding about where we're going. And also, I have a few more groups that I'm going to still meet with. So we're going to be meeting with students, couple more parent groups, and stakeholders groups, but really trying to get input from a large group of stakeholders that allow us to kind of think about where we're going next. And again, ultimately our last step is coming back to the profile, so it's full circle. So in our work, We have determined that in order to be transformational, we have to think about making sure we're providing an equitable, personalized and individualized academic experience for our students. And making sure that we're taking care of the social-emotional development and physical development of our students. I presented goal statements to the board in January, and you gave me input about those goal statements. And I took your input and revised them that I think captured what I heard that night. What I heard that night is that you felt comfortable with the content of them. but there could have been some ways that we can communicate them a little differently. So we will ensure that each student feels safe and valued. We will commit to the educational growth of our students through an equitable, personalized, and individualized learning experience. It will be dedicated to the personal growth of each student in their social, emotional, and physical well-being. And one of the things that I think is really important is that as I've been going around to different groups and going to different schools, I want to make sure that people understand the difference between what personalized and individualized means. When we're talking about personalized, giving students opportunities to make sure that they have their voice and agency in the work. making sure that we're looking at different pathways for students to learn the standards, making sure they have agency and efficacy over their learning. And that means that we may have to be flexible in our instruction. Again, I'm not saying that everything that we're doing is not personalized. We have a lot of personalized approach. We're doing some things in terms of personalizing learning for students, but we could take it to another level. And again, coming back to being more transformational. When we talk about equitable, we talk about making sure that all students have access to opportunities, support, and tools. They need to succeed and grow no matter what. That means no matter their race, no matter their zip code, no matter their socioeconomic status. And when we talk about being individualized, is that that's when teachers are modifying learning based off different students different needs and I was very purposeful including this as part of the goal statements because that was some input that the board gave me is that it's not just about the students in their own learning it's about what are the teachers doing to make sure that they're providing a differentiated experience in the classroom and now we're to the point where we're starting to develop action steps And again, I just want to share this with you is that when we are coming back to the when we're developing our action steps, we're not going to try to create a document that's 70 pages long. We're really going to be concise with how we're launching this and being thoughtful about what funding sources we're putting towards every action step, who's going to be responsible, what measures and evidence we're going to include in there. And then we're going to have that progress color key that is going to be easy for the community to see where we are with each of those steps. And as an evergreen model, those action steps can be completed and then new action steps can be added on based off the input of the Board of Education and then also other stakeholders in terms of the administrators, faculty, and envisioning kind of a team coming back together to review these each year. When we talk about what it means to be a board member, part of your responsibility is to drive this and also influence how we're moving forward. And this is why we want to be very intentional about coming back to you every year on a regular basis to give you updates about where we are with our strategic plan. And I think that we could be way better about that versus how we've done this in the past. The question I've been putting out to groups is what is a potential action step the district should consider connected to our current goal statements? And I forgot to give this to you. I actually have this whole presentation printed out for you so you have this. So I want to make sure everyone has this so you have the goal statements. So what I have been doing is going into our schools, meeting with different stakeholders groups, and they have actually been completing a thought exchange. And the thought exchange is an opportunity for them to provide ideas and then people to rate what ideas have been that they would like to really for us to put some energy into. So the thought exchange tool has been very helpful. And what we've been doing is disaggregating, looking at that data and saying, what are some patterns that we're seeing? Not only just in the thought exchange, but just in the groups that I'm meeting with. So I want to share with you some potential action steps and how they might potentially look as we launch our new strategic plan. And I'm sharing these with you because they're not actually the ones, they may be just, these are like draft form And they need to be refined. But I wanted to kind of summarize, here are the things that I'm hearing as part of this work. And so, for example, one of them is to make sure that we have a systemic definition of personalized learning and making sure that we're educating our community around that. Parents need to know what we mean by that. And so sometimes parents might say, well, you know what? Why are we gonna change things? My students are already learning and they're being successful. There is an opportunity for them to actually have more ownership over their learning. And we need to make sure that parents understand that. Develop and admit priorities on initiatives and practices that support equity in schools. So one of the things that I've just recently looked at was a continuum focused on equity. And sometimes, as part of that continuum, one aspect of that is building awareness. And that is a component of our equity work, but you can't stay there. You have to get to the point where it becomes systemic. And so we can't be just doing a series of activities then say, okay, we're doing well with our equity work. We have to think about what is actually working and where do we want to put our priorities? And so we have to be very clear about what that looks like. One of those might be that we revise our standards of professional practice. And what that is, is those are the standards that we hold our teachers accountable to. And so if we're thinking about ways that we're really going to make systemic change, we have to actually put some things in our standards of professional practice that are going to align with pedagogies that we know that are going to have impact on all students. So holding people accountable to that, not just that we're talking about it, but there's an accountability measure to it as well. Another one is integrating social-emotional learning into the curriculum and instruction. Taking a deep dive into our curriculum and saying, is there a way for us to teach these skills, not just in isolation, but how do we integrate it into the work that we're doing in our classrooms and through the curriculum? Evaluate and refine our curriculum with the standards-based lens in order to make connections to equity and personalized approaches. And what we mean by that is that we go really deep with our standards. And we have to think about when we start looking, and one of the things we're doing is a lot of our teachers are being trained in problem-based learning and education. Project-based learning. And what we find is that you have to make sure that you truly know the standards that are required that we have to teach. So that way, we can go in depth. with those, not that we're trying to cover many, many, many standards. We probably teach way more standards than we really need to. And so we have to make sure that we're refining that and saying if we are really refining this, there'll be more opportunities for students to have personalized opportunities and to maybe do more of those project-based learning opportunities as well. And then the other thing that has become kind of a the theme in some of the work is explore expansion of access for early childhood education. So what are some ways that we might be the leading district to say, let's look at how we're doing early childhood education and thinking about how we can expand access to that across our region and in Clayton, and then thinking about even students who might be part of our voluntary transfer program. Now, I share these with you is that I want to kind of give you an idea about this is the kind of direction that we would launch our strategic planning, our strategic plan with some of these specific action steps. And so those are just overviews. But this is the this is where we feel like we have to get started making sure we know our standards, making sure we know what our priorities are. And then we would be coming back to this again to say, okay, what are going to be the next action steps? Because this has to be a living document that is going to be refined on an ongoing basis. But we're not going to just, we don't want to just add 100 things to a strategic plan and feel like there's a laundry list of things to do. So what I would like, oh, and then the measuring success is a critical component of this. because we're focused on, if we're going to be looking at personalized learning, that doesn't mean we're not looking at academic performance. We still have to hold ourselves accountable to the state in terms of the way that we're being held accountable. And what's very interesting is that we just, if you look at the new MSIP standards and the way that we'll be measured, this is pretty aligned with the way we're going to measured in terms of social emotional well-being of students, equity and access. And so it's going to be aligned with how our state measures are going to be changing over the next few years. The other thing is that we have opportunities for measuring student well-being. Panorama is just one way of doing that, but there are other rubrics and opportunities where we can get student input. I think just the example tonight is the data that we're collecting at the high school through the Clayton Conversations. That's data that we can use to inform the direction of some action steps. And then the other thing too is that we need to make sure that we put a monitoring process in place to say if we're going to do something like a close examination of our curriculum, we have to put a timeline on that. And then we also have to think about evidence of that being complete and then the potential impact of it. So tonight, my goal is to give you an update about where we are, but it's also an opportunity for you to include some I wonder statements that you might be thinking about. I've been sharing these articles with you, I've been sharing this goal statements with you, and there might be something that you're thinking, wow, has the district thought of this? And I wonder if this is something that we should consider as part of this work. And I'm going to also share with you this, and you can see this on your sheet. That is a QR code you can scan, and that'll take you to the thought exchange that all the staff is filling out. And you can actually see their input and see some of the ideas that they are having, and you can put your rankings in there as well. So I wanted just to take some time to get some input. about one, any reactions of anything that I shared with you tonight. But then two, are there some action steps you think that we should be putting some energy into as we launch this new strategic plan? This is us. And I'm going to chart some of these at that time. Go ahead. Stacy,

go

ahead. First of all, thank you for that. And thank you for changing the goal statements. I really like the way they're worded now. And I just wanted to say as a compliment to you and the district that... I really like seeing that every department that's presented to us, they all always present to us how everything is tied to the strategic plan already. So I just see this like general continuity across different subjects and departments that everybody's on board, and everything comes back to this that centers them. So I've been impressed with that already, that even though it's new since we launched, every curriculum presentation has drawn connections to the profile. Yeah, which is great.

Thank you.

Other thoughts? Comments?

How big? How big are the action steps? The ones that you gave us were just very general. I'm wondering how specific they should be because I know we've talked about some ideas like a plan or a sheet that goes from year to year the teachers will write on. Would that be a part of an action step? These are more

broad in terms of some direction we might be going, but we will be having some more specific action steps And some of them might be actually sub-steps underneath those.

So is that how it'll look? Will there be an action step and then, like, underneath it more next

steps? Yeah, I mean, it could be more specific than that, but yeah. Formatting-wise, we don't know. Jason,

go ahead. You said something about, like, the student owning their... Learning process. What was the quote used? Students having ownership and voice. Yeah, I like that a lot. So two things. One is I'm slightly disconnected from this. I have to be honest. When I read it, I was like, I'm really disconnected from this. So I'm really not involved how we were early on, I think. I'm kind of hands off now because it's a bigger... project, what's more inclusive with a lot of different aspects. So I'm a little disengaged from it slightly. But also, but I do think it's got me thinking because it's also done in a different format also through the thought exchange. It has me thinking about this differently. And I like the language you just used. I guess my question though is how do we Because that's like the overall summary is getting the kids to own their own. Say it again? Sorry. For students to have voice and choice and ownership. Yeah, I love it. I love it. So my question is how do we allow that to happen, though? You know what I'm saying? So we want them to do it. In theory, we love that. But the format in which we teach... Is it restrictive? Is it conflicting, I guess, but more so in this case, is it restrictive to getting the kids on their own?

And I think that that's why we're working towards that because there are There are ways that we can do that, but sometimes we feel like there's too much that we're doing things the same way over and over again. And so could we ask that question, is there a different approach to the way we're teaching? And so it may not be that everything is changing, but that's why we looked at standards. Like if we look at standards and say, you know, this is absolutely what we need. This is absolutely – these are the priority standards for us. If we really prioritize that, that would then make sure that we are – know students know those standards but then it would allow us then to have time for students to say you know what i have been wondering about this like this is some way that i really this is a question i've been wondering about or it could be connected to that standard and then building in that time it might mean that our school day looks different it might be that pathways for students at the high school might be different for students it might be that um you know the way that um we're doing assignments with students. So we don't know the answer to that, but we know that students need that. And it can't just be about us delivering content. There is a need for us to deliver content, and that's important, but that's not our only need. We need for students to be able to do something with that content. Right, right, right,

right. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I mean, for the first time, I think we're a little bit This is a bit... I may use a different descriptive word later on, but this is a bit progressive. I like it. I'm trying to be. Well, I'm saying that to say that I'm eager to see the outcome, but we're a little bit on uncharted territory, and this is going to cause a lot of friction, a lot of conflict, which could be great or it could be a debacle. But I think that it can be great know if we are we're really allowing what you just said to manifest

and some of those some of the things that we're going to do might be you know more micro in terms of like approaches that we have in our classrooms some of them might be that our district is going to say let's look at a different approach in terms of how like i mentioned early childhood how do we have could we look at an approach to expand the way we provide early childhood and do we go beyond just what students come to us when they're five years old. Could there be a way for us to do that differently? I think that that's more of a systems change. I think that there's probably some things that we need to do in terms of, we've had conversations at central office around the social-emotional well-being of students, making sure that it's not just the counselor's responsibility to teach that. How do we all have ownership over that? And if it's embedded within the curriculum, then we need to think about ways that teachers know that.

Other thoughts?

Okay. And the other thing I want to just put out there is that if you guys, you know, this is putting you on the spot in terms of you may have some ideas you're pondering, and I will put something in the memo this week that will give you another opportunity to share your ideas. So don't feel too much pressure.

I appreciate that because I think it's hard to come up with the specifics. But I really want to say that I like that we've gotten to a place with this and it's part of what makes me kind of excited about the future of this work and where we are in the strategic planning process. When I – my natural reaction to the words strategic plan is not necessarily – not that it's a negative one. I just don't necessarily, if I'm being honest, already immediately think of ways that I can contribute to that as a board member because it sometimes sounds like, well, let me go write a policy and procedure manual or, you know – something on a real detailed level but I really like that we've gotten to a point with this where all of these action steps that you've kind of drawn out here or sort of examples of the action step process as I see them are they're systemic and they're holistic and kind of structural in nature it doesn't mean that there don't need to be more specific steps under those but It really actually does sound more strategic than one right after the other, because we're looking at the process. We're going to develop priorities and we're going to revise standards of professional practices. There is no one standard we're going to standards and things like that. And there's some aspirational things in here, too, in terms of what would it look like to be a leader in early childhood education? Things like that. So it actually gives me a much different feeling than the word strategic plan normally do. So I think that's great. A question that I have about the action steps process, and I think I understand this, but I want to make sure that's right. Will there be different groups or constituencies that necessarily have kind of ownership of defining action steps in different areas? Is that right?

Yeah, and so one of the things we're thinking about is once we're clearly defined, I've talked about this before job like how do we have advisories that are linked to that and then board representation on that as well so it's we want to look at systems that are put in place to make sure that we're held holding ourselves accountable to them and also thinking about what actions how like like you said like Adam said like what is the detail of how do we get here and and then also how do we make sure that we keeping the board informed on this

Create a system to create the specific detailed step, right? Right.

And the other thing, too, is ultimately it's the administration and the teachers who have to make sure this comes to action. But we also want to make sure that we are getting input from different stakeholders.

Lily, go

ahead. So looking at the action steps, like when you – I'm looking it up. Yeah. I guess a question I have, I'm thinking about kind of on a, like our district on a national or international level or whatever, you know, because I think of us as having such wonderful teachers and community and resources and all that great stuff about Clayton. And I guess I'm wondering, like, what... You know, I know some of the educational stuff that's out there. A lot of these words seem like ones that so many districts are doing. You know, personalized learning individualized learning, equity. This is social-emotional learning. All that stuff is happening regionally and written about. So when you look at those, what do you really feel like, wow, this is cutting edge or this is this? Maybe it's not the words of these, but how it's going to manifest. What of this gets you really thinking of us as being leaders and standing out or not or is that just my kind of

no I definitely think that we should set the standard and um it's interesting I just had a conversation with someone else around this we were talking about this uh the act the goal statements and um And it was another superintendent, and they were talking about like, yeah, we've been talking about that too, but we just don't know what that looks like. And so what I think about is that we define what that looks like in our schools. Like if we're talking about a personalized approach, like we might challenge the notion about like grade levels or how we are approaching the actual approaches to teaching. Like right now, like... just having these conversations in the schools, it has inspired teachers to think differently about their approaches to teaching and thinking about like one of our schools is saying some teachers would like to do a co-teaching model next year, not adding another teacher, but them taking the two classes together. I mean, so thinking differently about our approach, but we have to make sure it's also having impact on the students. And that's where I think we have to keep checking in with the students. Like, do students feel like well, I have more ownership of my learning now. I have more opportunity to have choice in my learning. And I don't know exactly what that's looking like, but I want us to set the standard for like, wow, Clayton is really having a personalized approach to learning and we need to go over and look at what they're doing. And I don' t know exactly what that is going to look like, but that's part of this work.

Well, and I wonder maybe as we go along, thinking about adopting language that's not Even just the buzzwords, the educational buzzwords, you know? Yeah. I mean, I know it has, we might define what personalized learning means, but we might also want to call, you know, just more equity or whatever. But

it's like, to Gary's point, it's like, I have thought about a hundred other ways to call the strategic plan, strategic plan. And I went back, like, I'm calling it the strategic plan right now because I don't know what else to call it. But it's, we're going to define what it actually looks like.

Yeah.

So I appreciate what you're saying.

I'm just kind of piggyback on that too, Lily. I wonder if there is this idea that you can all use the same words, but it comes down to execution. If we can execute well what these words mean to us, then we might find the words that actually describe them better, or we might just actually not just talk about it. It's kind of more like... It's easy to use the words, it's harder to execute. I think it's really where our challenge would be to me.

So one of the things that might be helpful to you is that, because I know it's hard to be thinking of ideas, what I'm going to ask you guys to do is to go online and look at some of the ideas that are on that thought exchange. And you can kind of see some things that might spark some thoughts for you. And then I will put a mechanism in place for you to share your ideas about those I wonder statements, like, wow, I wonder if we should be thinking about this. Has anyone said this? And so I think that you'd be kind of inspired by some of the ideas that are out there.

So we're not talking about it right now?

No. I just want to make sure I'm reading the room well and making sure I'm giving you guys time to think about

it. Other thoughts?

There are two that I was just thinking of really quick. One was the idea of we have, like, creating a definition of personalized learning and educating the community on it I was wondering if we could also look at defining academic success and what that means in Clayton because I think it's starting to like that means different things to us and then also one thing is one thing that you just touched on was the first thing I wrote down was giving students time to explore I don't know exactly what that how that can be shaped better but I the idea of not having some unstructured time where students can choose to work on what Not like a free period, but what project do you want to go explore? I think that's something we should look at.

So one of the part of Michael Fullan's book, Deep Learning, talks about how as part of this work, you really need to make sure that you're defining what success is, academic success. And that's where we also need to start thinking beyond just the standardized assessments. And so there might be some different measurements or tools we're putting in place that's beyond just what our normal standardized assessments. And some of the work that Patrick's doing with the consultant from deep learning is really pushing that. Like, what can it be? And I really felt inspired when I saw some of the work that's coming out of the state with MSIP is that those measurements are going to be different in the future. And I think that we're going in the right direction.

Yeah, it seems like the current way in which we measure academic success in the context of personalized learning would change. Then it could become obsolete. Right? Just because if someone's setting their own goals for what academic success

is. That's where we have to keep the conversation always going. I mean, it's just not setting something and just staying with it. But also we have to make sure it's research-based and viable. Right. Chris or Amy,

do you have anything?

Well, I had two thoughts and one went away. I was thinking about how, where the service aspect of this is, like the idea of the kind of, and their interests. So when you're talking about personalized learning and your interests, but what's impactful and what inspires us and what makes us motivated to do something is that it has meaning and it has worth. And so real life of giving back or engaging or like, you know, and I know they've done on some smaller scales in our schools with different kids, but creating a brochure about Clayton and all the different elements of Clayton to take you on a historical tour. I don't know, something. that gives them, they're actually making something that's going to be used by real people in the real world and it's going to make a real difference. And so you have a different engagement with that and a sense of purpose than if it's just...

Well, I think about, you give that example of... like looking at our assignments, and the assignment that was done last year in one of our English classes is that rather than do an assignment that was a paper, what the students were actually doing is writing copy for nonprofit organizations. Yes, exactly. They couldn't afford to have people do that work for them. So our students were actually writing copy. They learned what that meant, and then they were doing it for the organizations. So I think that there's definitely opportunities like that. And I

think that even went a step further, so not even just core classes, but even design. And they were designing spaces and interacting with the needs of a certain group of people, and I think that's really great. And that's the kind of thing that sets us apart, and it could set us apart, is how we give back and how we... It's not even giving back, too, because it could be entrepreneur. I mean, we do some of that already, the entrepreneurial work and stuff. We make

it systematic. One of the schools that we went to visit is they, every student as they come into high school have to take a design thinking class. And I think it was high school. It may have been middle school. I can't remember. But that, I mean, just so that way all the kids have a common understanding.

Right.

Did you have something to

add? I did. When I think about the intersection of equity and personalized learning, and for our small percentage of students that have that opportunity gap issue, I hope that, because you all will be doing this, I really hope that somehow you figure out how to ensure that the students that have, either because of SES or where they live or whatever else, that they don't have the same opportunities. Because I've seen it in the classroom. Like when they have choices and they don't have that rich kind of resources that so many kids in our district do have, that it's easy for a teacher to lose that you have a few kids that don't know how to pick because they don't have the same exposure, you know, to, because I remember seeing a student just going on the internet because, you know, he didn't have all these things to pick from. I know I'm really interested in, you know, Antarctica, whatever. No, I agree with you. So I really, I know that the personalized learning stuff shows some success with different groups, but we have to really figure out how how to not lose that very small percentage of kids that aren't gonna feel as confident or actually have the exposure.

Yeah, and I think that that speaks to you know, in steps that we're taking in terms of the training that we provide our teachers and thinking about that equity intersection of making sure that as the adult in the classroom, you're responsible for making sure that that doesn't happen. And I think that that's a really good point because that does happen.

So, Sean, I have two things that I wonder even to that point. So... The largest effect size for a school is the quality of staff, and the second largest effect size is the quality of the principals. And so when I think about measuring success, I mean, I know we have great staff, but how do we like known to have not, I mean, the very best, awesome, most place to work, right? I mean, you know, I think that needs to be part of it, right? We need to have, because that's the biggest impact for students. is the teacher before them or the staff before them. And after that, it's the principal, right? Those are two most important things. So I just wonder how are those incorporated into that because we have to have rock stars. And we have a lot of rock stars, but we need more rock stars. We always need more rock stars, right? And once we get them, we need to keep them. And so that's one. I wonder, about specifically culture and climate at the secondary level. And I know we just heard a great presentation from the high school, and it's improving, but still got work to do, right? I mean, Clayton High School is known in some places to be kind of shark tank, to not have a great academic. I think maybe you're beginning to allude to it, Adam, in your question. But in terms of that mental health, well-being... We're not known for that. As a matter of fact, we're known sometimes for the opposite. And so I know there's lots of progress, so I'm not knocking anybody, but I think that's pretty important too.

Do you think that some of that comes from... I just want to make sure I understand what you're saying. So when we're talking about the academic success component, I think that's what you were getting to. Are you kind of getting to this pressure that we put on our kids you know, to excel academically at a super high level and everybody's got to go on to fancy colleges. Because I mean, if that's what you're saying, I feel a lot of that comes from us as parents. And so it feels like a part of that should be And I don't know how you, I don't know what you, because education is important to all of us. So I think,

to me, I

don't if that's what you're getting at.

Well, so Clayton High School and The Clayton School District is known for its academic excellence in the whole region, in the country, right? I want to be as well-known for having truly a well-rounded student, well-being, social-emotional learning, right? I don't want to be as good at that, not give up the academic, but I think, you know, the life skills, the relationships, all that stuff that we're quite honestly not as well-known

The reason why we are having these conversations about social-emotional well-being in this particular school, because we are really good at what we do, versus a John Burroughs is doing the same thing. It's because there's a lower expectation because of the word public school. Because we're a public school, Like, we're supposed to be a lower tier in terms of how we teach or the rigor in which we teach. But we're actually producing at a higher level, if not the same level as some of your better private schools, which is allegedly supposed to produce a better caliber student, has a better academic rigor. So could it be that? Like, there's just like this... this perception of what we should be versus what we're actually putting out isn't really necessarily stress. It's just that people have a lower expectation of what public schools should be doing. Could that be, could that be it? Well, we can ponder that in a second. My other point I wanted to make was the first, what was the first point you made? Your teachers and the

principals? Quality of teachers and principal staff. Yeah, I had something good to say.

Well, I have something on that actually because I do think that, I think if you asked a lot of the high school students, we're talking about secondary, they have teacher experiences that are outstanding. They end up connecting with and having these great experiences with teachers and then they want to take a class from that teacher again. You know, these are people who have engaged and excited them, and they want to. So that's the kind of teaching we want all of our kids to have an experience with a teacher and be like, I have to have this teacher again because this is so amazing. Or they hear about a teacher that's amazing, and they plan for at some point, I want to get into that class because I know that teacher's in there. And that idea of creating, that's what made me think of that was, you know, having these great teachers. And not every kid clicks with every teacher. I get that. But you want to have some. And I know you have some that have inspired you, and I think that can set us apart too when we have to kind of...

Which is a great point. Going back to your first point, because this ties it back together, what you just said. I'm not sure if this was your train of thought here, but the first point you made was teachers. So how do you inspire the teachers, right? How do you inspire the teachers to get on board in that manner, to actually produce this outcome that we're trying to create? This goal, this outcome that we are trying to put together. Now I'm answering the question, but I'm really not trying to answer it. I'm just trying to say, do we have a plan for how we're going to inspire the teachers to and actually started trying to reach those goals and those heights.

Can I add on to that real quick? Because I remember, Joe, when we talked about the strategic plan, the working session, that you brought up something similar. And I agree that, you know, I know the three items that you have currently are all kind of parallel when they're about the student, but I do wonder if we should have a separate one really about... about that because I think if you don't have it, I know it fits under those that you have to have these high quality teachers and principals to do each of those. But if you don't it as a specific item, I think it might get more diluted within those three versus just having it explicit that we want the highest quality teachers and principals. I don't know how to word it but I wonder if there just should be another item specifically about that. And whatever measure we want to have, whatever.

One last thing. All right, to that point. I'm just going to wrap it up. Wrap my points up. So going back to ownership, I'm kind of stuck on the word ownership. I think that point you made is huge. I don't want it to become a buzzword. But there are, the origin of ownership, right? Say it again, how you said owning your So students have voice and choice and ownership of their learning. Right, so there's an origin of that, and there has been success for that. And then people have started to try to make it applicable in different mediums, like we're doing now. My question to you is, do we have examples of that, of success? not just knowing the buzzword, but now what examples do we have of that type of success that we can then extrapolate, maybe examine and research and figure out how it's going to be applicable and weave it into this plan.

Or better yet, have you done that already? No, I think that's going to be part of the process, but I think there are examples within our district where students have more ownership over their learning. So, I mean, we've talked about it a number of times, but the Catalyst program at the high school. Those students who are in that class are going to a different off-site workspace. They have ownership of what they're learning in terms of entrepreneurial skills, and it's incredible about how they feel. They have such efficacy over the work and what they're learning. Questions that we might have is then how can you use a model like that and transfer it to another content area. Are there different areas that we can go with science in a way that allows students have more ownership and choice and experiences like that? So yeah, I would use that as an example of how that could be transferred to another content area, yeah.

Anybody got anything else? Thank you, Sean. Appreciate it. Thank you,

and I'll send something out this week.

so we're actually moving to

checkout so the only thing i would say about the checkout is with the um with the policies we're going to there's not anything that i was going to say changing with the first policy that we looked at but we are going to take a deeper dive into the second policy that we looked at and spend some more time on that. Not that we're going to delay it for many, many weeks, but making sure we're bringing it back to the board really tight. And I feel like I was able to check out with what you just shared with you. Great.

Awesome. Okay, so we're moving to action items. We've got six action items. So the first one is 8.01, personal tuition and tax credit tuition rate for the 2020-21 school year. Motion?

2021 school year, an elementary personal and tax credit tuition rate of $17,275, and secondary personal and tax credit of $23,050. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments? Jess?

I don't know that I am, I guess I'm wondering why, you know, if we've thought about why we're still doing this and participating in, or that we still have this policy that we're doing this tax, the tuition, taking the tuition.

Because half a million dollars a year? We can choose to not do it, but it represents roughly half a million dollars a year to our budget.

I guess I'm conflicted. On one hand, it's a lot of money to our budget, but then on the other hand, I'm feeling like it's getting really high. Are

you saying that you think that we're still having personal tuition, but that you're thinking that we're asking too much? I'm just trying to understand

what you're saying. Kristen, you're asking a good question, and I don't know the answer. I just know that when I see these numbers, I feel like they're... Like, I would like to look at it, but, I mean, if other people don't. Wait, no, I'm asking you, are you saying that you want to get rid of personal tuition for students? I don't know. Like, I'm saying I don't know, explore. Explore the, like, why are we still doing

the program? Why are we still doing personal tuition? Why are we participating

in it, and if we are, why are we charging these numbers?

Okay, so there's two different

things. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm wondering. Okay.

I was talking casually about that. You know, I think if you decide to do that, it's worth looking at historically why we started it back up or, you know, put more energy into it. And that was because it was around the time, 2005, 2006, where the VST program was not fully funded and we had room in our schools for for more students, and you do want to have a certain number of students in order to offer certain programs and to have economy of scale and all that kind of stuff. So there was lots of reasons, and it took some effort to continue in VST for the whole board to be behind that and the loss in funding, so I think that was something that got really promoted and beefed up, and we are at a different time, you know, in terms of the room we have in classrooms, and whatever. So, anyway, I think historic, you know, they're It is different times.

And I will say in terms of, and Jason, you just spoke to it earlier about comparing us to Burroughs. I think Clayton is just as good as the private school, so if we're going to have it, we actually... It's a deal. What a great deal to pay only $23,000 at Clayton High School when you pay $30,000 at Burroughs.

The problem that I have is that I think that we charge... And we're a public school, we're not a private school, so we can't necessarily vet and pick and choose what kids come. So I guess the problem that I have with the numbers is that while I like having different kids, I also want all sorts of different kids to be able to take advantage of it. And I think the numbers are so high that it prohibits... kids that I'd like to be able to see come to our district from being able to come to our district because these numbers are so high, and that's, I guess, why I'm conflicted with, like, I don't want us to lose the money, but on the other hand, it would be so great if there was a way that, you know, especially as the voluntary transfer is being phased out, if there was, I don't know, a way that We can, I just think the numbers are so high that it's prohibitive except to, it's only cost prohibitive except for a certain type of family and a certain type of student to be able to take advantage of the great services that we offer. And that's why I feel... I don't know if I'm articulating myself well, but that's why. And I

do think it

probably does go to a larger conversation because you could also say that children who are parents that choose to send their kids here, their child might actually have higher needs and that $23,000 isn't enough that we end up. incurring a lot more expenses from certain students. No,

that's a good point

too. I think it's a real bigger discussion, so if you're wanting to put that on an agenda for a future thing, but this motion is on the table, so for this to be voted on tonight, but then to have a further bigger conversation about it is reasonable to me.

So I would, to maybe address that, I would ask from staff what is the timing around us needing to approve this rate

so currently it is it would what was happening is we're just maintaining the same rate we had last year this has been something that we've brought back every year but um i don't know if there's any implications by not People are asking what the tuition rate is going to be. I mean, people who are currently in the program are wanting to know so they can plan. So, I mean, if we're going to make that decision, I'd want us to make sure that we're doing it timely so they know because we still have a number of people who are in the program. And we still have people who call every day wanting to be –

Yeah, I think it's two different things. One is the tuition rate and voting on that. The other is this bigger conversation, which has not to do

with in my mind. So maybe we should vote on this, but then in communications time suggest it as an agenda item to discuss for after next year, you know, for the future.

Yeah, and this can, we can, this motion has been made and seconded and needs to be voted on at some point, but we can agree to, we have more that we want to do here and we can procedurally if this is something that we want to do, but we need an agenda item to have a bigger conversation. And I

apologize. I should not have surprised... You're doing your job. You should

not apologize for that. That's exactly what you're supposed to do.

Well, I feel bad that I didn't send an email before...

I mean, just as an example, if we wanted to consider some kind of change but we needed to have some stability for current funding, the board could consider a motion at some point that set a tuition rate for people who were already enrolled in our schools but pulled back and evaluated whether we wanted to make any changes beyond that. That's something we could do.

Well, and I think as a part of that, right, if our cost per student is roughly $20,000, I understand it's not perfect. but it would be hard to have a tuition rate below that when you have residents, in essence, you know, at $20,000, right? So, I mean, that's also the balance, right, of messing with it that much. It's not that much higher than what our cost per student is, at least at the secondary level.

And then you average it with the elementary.

That's

right. Mike, I think that's for the future conversation. All

right, so any other questions on this? Because we do have a motion on the table for...

Well, yeah, we've got to answer the motion.

All in favor?

Aye. I vote no.

Okay. I vote no also.

Okay, so two nos. Any other nos? Okay, so it passes, 5-2. All right, thank you. All right, so approval of policy JHD.

8.02, I move that the Board of Education approve policy JHD as submitted.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments about JHD? I

didn't get it. Is that the one I wrote?

No.

Okay. This was the one about the counseling.

Yeah. Any questions or comment about that? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any passes unanimously? 7-0. 8.03, approval of policy DJF.

8.03. I move that the Board of Education approve policy DJF as submitted.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Passes unanimously. 8.04, approval of policy FEF.

8.04. I move that the Board of Education approve policy FEF as submitted.

Second.

It's been moved. And seconded. Any question or comments about policy FEF? No, it's the contract. I think it's the next one. I don't know which letter. Tell me what it's for. I'm pretty sure it's the next word. Thank you. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes 7-0. 8.05, approval of policy JECC.

8.05. Should we say the title of the... the policy as well. So not only the letters of it, but also the titles so that the people know. You know, so we're saying JECC, it's, for example,

it's Assignment of Students to

Grade Levels, I'm

saying. Assignment of Students.

Oh, I see. The explanation. Thank

you. Yeah.

So... Okay, so let's just read it. That is the one. Let's read that and get a second, and then we can talk about it. Go ahead.

So

you're going to read? You want me to read the title in the motion? No, no, just for you. I'm sorry.

8.05. 8.05, I move that the Board of Education approve policy JECC as submitted. Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments on JECC, which is the assignment of students to grade levels, classes K-12 districts? Yes, Bill.

I had written an email, but haven't checked back with you. I know you were going to talk. So what essentially I asked in light of what Jason had brought up when we first reviewed this, for consistency or the difference in how we were approaching kids that came from unaccredited schools versus the other students mentioned. And I had noticed there was an inconsistency with the students from military families where it added a sentence about like if they had honors classes, AP classes, whatever. And so I just ask that could we make sure we have that same consistency, either that statement in with the other students or else eliminate it for the students from the military so that they're all the same. And were you able to do that or have a...

Yeah, so what we talked about was what I heard Jason say was to make that change between the accredited and the unaccredited to parallel that. So that's the piece that we asked the lawyers about. If the board wants to add that sentence into the accredited and unaccredited being more specific the way that it's written with the military piece, we can move forward with adding that in all three places.

Because MSBA said that was...

Yeah, right. So the way that I looked at that statement, like when you asked for the piece about making sure that they were parallel there, the general sort of nature of that statement I think in the other spaces doesn't get to that level of specificity with military. It gets to that level of specifically with military because children of military families, there are some things like within legal statements that are more specific. There's not a problem about adding that level of specific to the other two. Instead of taking it out. Right, I would rather not take it out. I would rather add it to the other two

So what's the,

what do

others? Think about that, because we should either amend the motion or shoot it down and then add it. One of the two, right? We've got to do it, right? Yeah,

because we can't vote. Right, yeah. We can't vote. Yes.

So before we move to vote, what do folks think? Is that okay? Does that make sense?

And does that still maintain? I'm sorry I wasn't here for that conversation. So by putting those wording in, is it still maintained that... that students still would have testing if applicable or something like that to make sure that they're... Okay, yeah. All right, thank

you. Okay, so we're going to vote on it as is. If you want to amend it, you should vote no, just as a reminder. Don't vote yes because it won't have that amendment that we just talked about. So all in favor? No,

no, no.

I'll oppose. Everybody opposed. Okay, anybody? All right. Yeah, it's all right. You just

said vote no, so I said no. Yeah, so did I. I don't know.

Well, all in favor, don't say anything. Any opposed, say something. Let's do it again. All in favor. Don't say anything if you're not. All opposed? Aye. Okay, sounds like everybody is opposed. Okay, great. It fails. 7-0. That's a

good lesson.

Yes. Do we want to offer then an amended motion?

Yes.

It seems a bit hard to track the changes to it without having it written. So why don't we rewrite it? We'll

rewrite it and resubmit it. Okay, great. Great. We'll do that. Done. All right. 8.06, bid award for IFS Integrated Facility Services.

8.06 I move that the Board of Education approve the bid from IFS Integrated $264,202 and at Glenridge for $256,631 plus an additional $20,000 for propylene glycol

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Very long motion. Any questions or comments?

We're just fortunate to have that much money. I guess we put

all that stuff in there for a reason, correct? You can just stay from back there.

Right. Okay. Any other questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It passes 7-0. Okay. The consent agenda.

9.01, I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda.

Second. It's

been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions about the consent agenda? Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Passes 7-0. All right, we are moving to the financials. 10.01, the financials. It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments about the financials?

Nothing about the financials in particular. Okay. But I do want to say, is there any way we can get this a little sooner? Is there a way to get these financials a little sooner by chance? I mean, it may not be, but like, because I don't, I mean, I have to be honest with you, I couldn't get through it. And

you are the treasure. Yeah, I mean, I just couldn't get through it. There

wasn't enough time. So, yeah, I can talk to Mary Jo about ways that we can look at the timing of it. So you're feeling like before Friday getting the financials to you before the Friday before meeting?

Yeah, just the financials because sometimes, you know, it's not that much. Or I can just – you know, I have a way in which I go through it. I just quickly glance, see what the outliers are. But sometimes it might require me to do some more if we got this – if we're doing like – editing the document. That might take up my time. Wednesday is cool. I know it's kind of hard to do it like this Friday coming up will be extremely difficult and cumbersome, but maybe next Wednesday before Friday, just a chance to... We do them on the second meeting because we can't have them finished by the first meeting. We're not... So you're saying by... It would

be the second meeting in March. Gotcha. Okay, that'll work. Is it okay

if... Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. And if you want to call me in, summon me, I can come talk to you and just expedite the process. But yeah, whatever, whatever is easiest. All right, cool.

Any other questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, pass the 7-0. So we're moving to board 11.01, board communications. Yes, go ahead, Kristen. So

I attended the PTO Council, and they have a lot. You know, it's so amazing, like, seeing all the parents there who are super involved and excited about what's happening in our schools and the time they give back and how serious they take it. They run their meeting very efficiently and seriously. It's great. You know, they're... Anyway, so we got reports on all the different things that are happening, and I'm not going to say all of them, but... I'm going to say they did talk about the candidate forum which they host, which is going to be March 31st at 7 p.m. They talked about high school prom is at Windows on Washington this year and the after prom is at the City Museum, which sounds very exciting and fun. Thursday, February 20th, which is tomorrow night, is called Insight Night at Y-Down, and it's a relatively new event. I think they did it last year for the first time, and then this year they're doing it again because it was so popular, and it really seems like a lot of people are going to show up, but it's where there's choice in sessions that are on different topics applicable to kids of that age group, including vaping, drugs, alcohol. anxiety, depression, stress. They're going to have a parent panel. And they're also talking, I think, about academic stuff too. I'm not sure. But anyway, you have different choices of different groups you can go to. And then... This year, Captain's PTO is hosting the three elementaries fundraising event. And the theme is the Kentucky Derby. And they're going to have it at the Marquee Lounge. So lots of exciting stuff happening.

I think

that's about it.

Go ahead, Millie.

I'm on the sustainability side. and wanted to let folks know that we did receive an email from one of the members on the committee that did bring up some questions about the turf that's being installed, or that might be the artificial turf at Glenridge. Similar kind of concerns that were brought up about Miramac and Family Center. And that... She also informed us that that information has been passed on, I think, to the PTO, but perhaps the district also having some of the information and the research that she did.

Okay. Thank you.

Yep. Gary?

Yeah, I was able to attend Captain Buck History Night last night, which I just appreciated making that schedule available and that open to us. I wasn't able to go last year, which was, I think, the first year of a different format. And when I actually... on activity. five or six different activities in different rooms, and parents and students doing them together. And it was a fun night, and just really different. I'm sure it was hard in some ways to give up that historic event that we all had with everybody in the auditorium and musical and dramatic performance and stuff like that. But it was just interesting to see another approach to that. So I just appreciated the opportunity to be part of that. I think that was the first one. Is that right? Maybe the others are still to come. Yeah, so I think the next

ones are two are landing on the same night and then one's on a Saturday.

Yeah, I would recommend any, if you have a chance to check on it, that would be

really

good.

Others?

Stacey? Lily and I coincidentally both actually last night were at the Glen Ridge PTO meeting. And they had opened it to the whole community because they were giving an update on the progress of their fundraising for this turf field. And they seem to have a really good plan, I think, in place. I was really impressed with the, Glen Ridge does a merge of cultures events where they celebrate all different cultures in the school and every year they rotate which culture they are highlighting. This year I think it's an Indian culture and they're going to be doing like a color run to celebrate holy, I think. And they also talked about their Black History Month celebrations and I think you came and spoke once. They have African American professionals in the community come and speak with small groups of students and then to a whole assembly about their profession and their journey and it's student-led Beth Scott was really proud to say that it's Lee introduced the speakers and do the research and lead the conversation and Anyway, I'm doing a lot of events To make the community and their school culturally aware of each other which was nice

others One other, just talking about the PTO and the fundraising project, a couple questions that have bubbled up just in terms of why PTOs are historically involved in those kinds of facilities fundraising projects. So I just spent some interesting conversations about that with the people, what we ask PTOs or what the PTOs ask themselves to get involved in and what we don't. So I wouldn't be surprised if we hear feedback about what the district funds and what they fund in the near future. Yeah,

and they explained last night how much they want to raise and how much the district's kicking in. But I think each PTO is kind of different about what they choose to take on.

And they all have, they don't know that there are differences until they get to at least a second level. Other? I

have a couple of things just real quickly. One, the early childhood group that I've talked to you all about, one of the groups, Ready by Five, they're calling it, will have actually their campaign kickoff on February 29th. We had actually even offered to have it at one of our schools, but it looks like it'll be at a U City school. So, I mean, they're moving forward to put on a ballot initiative of half a cent sales tax on the November ballot. So it's real. I mean, I think it's moving forward. So just to tell you that. Two, Sean and I had a nice breakfast with the city, just talking about what's going on. We mostly talked about development and a little bit about the Equity Commission, which it's called something else. What is it called? Equity... Anyways, you guys know what I'm talking about. And then third and finally, Stacy and Robin and Sean and I had to start to think about proactively about how we might react to the panoply of charter bills that are in the state legislature and the likelihood that some are probably going to push through. So I don't know that there's anything much to report except to say we had a good first conversation, and we'll be bringing more information back to you all. If you're feeling like it, you certainly could talk to your legislator or our legislatures about opposing a number of the charter bills that are in the works.

Is that the general consensus that we're opposed to it?

it's a general consensus that the Missouri School Board Association is and most public schools folks are so I mean we haven't taken a vote as a body that we are but I mean you know I think generally speaking it's something that could certainly take revenue and students away from the Clayton School District which might not be a good thing

I would just add that as a school board, we've each received a lot of emails from MSBA about it. So I would encourage you to read those because I think they do a good job explaining it, but they also provide action steps to take, like who to contact and what we can do individually and as a school

board. Yeah, absolutely. I think

they've been very informative.

Yeah, I agree.

All right. I'll put that as a link again on the Friday memo just so you know who our legislators are.

And the next legislative advocacy meeting, which I'm sure we'll be talking about, is next Friday. Oh, good. I do want to say

one last thing about that. We've got to be very cognizant of how this transpired in the city. and how now MSBA is sending out emails, all types of ways to get our attention on voting this down. They may have been

against it in the city too, I think in fairness. MSBA. I'm not saying we were, but I'm saying I'm not sure they were for it in the city either. Just for what's worth.

Well, I'm just saying based on a little bit of research. My quick Google search. They didn't seem as against it. But now that it's in the suburbs, it can be problematic in many ways. In many ways. Because this is different economics out here. And so I'm just saying it's interesting. We just need to be cognizant about how these things affect us in the region. We're all

affected. Absolutely. All right. Absolutely. Cool. Do we have a motion to adjourn?

I move that the Board of Education adjourn.

All in favor? Aye. Second. Oh, sorry. Do we have second? Second and all in favor? Aye We're adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you all.