April 30, 2025 — Meeting Transcript

Is

Pam on? Pam's on? Okay, welcome everybody. We're going to get started. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Adequate notice has been given. I'd like everyone to stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it Okay, thank you everyone for being here. I do want to let everyone know Pam is on speaker. I was going to say Zoom, but Pam's here with us too, virtually. Chris, will you please read the motion for

the agenda? I move that the Board of Education approve the agenda as posted.

Second. Okay,

all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. Okay, motion passes. So now I will hand it over to Dr. Kaczewski for recognizing our own.

Was it working? As I was saying, I'm Darcy Kearley, and I am a teacher at the high school. I teach English. In addition to my teaching duties, I am one of the sponsors for the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council, MIAC as we call it. The way that MIAC works is that students who are going to be seniors get to apply. small one of the one of the um councils within the city government to follow and shadow and learn more about as they are joining us At the end of the program, we try to identify one student who over the course of really exhibited genuine interest and engagement in what was happening in our meeting. And this year, we would like to honor Ben Costner as our MIAC Heirs Award recipient. So Ben is a senior at Clayton High. He just impressed us with his interest, not only what he was learning, but what could happen within the community that will maybe return upon his mission if that's what he wants. Congratulations, Ben.

Come over here.

Hey, and Ben, aside from Lucia, you are the student that we have seen at more school board meetings than anybody else, in fact, too. And I wondered if you were being punished by your teachers or a government AP class or something. So not only have you taken an interest in what's happening at the mayoral office, but we've seen you a lot at school board meetings here. So maybe one day you'll run for school board or mayor of Clayton.

Yes.

You only have to be 18 to run for school board.

Oh,

Andy's 24. Sorry,

24. Andy's going to WashU, so he's not far. He could continue to help us. Okay, congratulations. Okay, moving on to public comment. We have two public comments this evening. First, we have Susan Brockhaus.

Should I go ahead? Yes. Good evening. Thank you all for your service to Clayton Schools. I'm Susan Brockhaus, and I'm the parent of a white-on sixth grader and two Merrimack Elementary schoolers in fourth and first grade. And I'm also a member of the Phone Free Clayton parent group that started last spring, which we collected 1,000 signatures. a little bit under 1,000 signatures asking the district to go phone-free from bell to bell. And we did research on a proposed phone locking system. So I'm here to repeat a message that I first delivered in November 2022 with three other parents in which we asked that the district consider A district-wide policy that student use of phones and smartwatches at all Clayton schools would be limited to before and after school only. This is the policy at Widown now, but not at the high school. So I won't go into the various data because we provided it all before on the damage of smartphone use to student focus, learning, social skills, and mental health. And we also provided in the past a list of area competitive private schools that are going fully phone-free And most recently, Parkway School District said that it would be going phone free. So we've provided some of that data, but I want to focus on what has happened since last summer when our group lobbied for a district phone free policy, specifically recommending a locking pouch system. In response, Clayton opted to do an internal study during the summer and made minor policy enforcement tweaks for the start of the school year. So rather than go with a holistic solution Clayton chose to go with an incremental approach and we now have data which will be presented tonight in the PowerPoint that shows that the incremental approach specifically at the high school is not working. Just to pull out a few data points and a few anecdotes from parents. At the high school, the data shows that only 36% of faculty say the policies are enforced quite or extremely consistently. Also at the high school, only 54% of students say an adult will intervene if the phone policy is broken. Also from the data, it looked like a number of Widown students were subject to the enforcement policy this year, and the high school numbers seemed extremely low, and it's quite hard to believe that that would represent the number of cell phone use at the high school based on that data. Two quick anecdotes from a YDOWN fellow parent said that one of my middle schoolers says that most kids get their phones out to look at things during class under their desks and that either the teacher doesn't say anything or doesn't see it, teachers want to keep a good relationship with their students. And then an anecdote from an individual I know with a high school freshman who says that the student is watching Netflix during classroom time The student was able to watch four seasons of a Netflix show during classes. And the reason the parents know this is because they have controls on the child's iPhone, which prompt a request and notification when they're needing extra time. So that's how they were aware of it. And one final note at the Clayton long range facility planning meeting on January 14th at CHS superintendent Patel said that the nationwide public policy issue of school choice was quote, not a matter of if, but when, She was saying this in reference to keeping our infrastructure up to date, so we remain competitive with area schools, privates, and other competitive schools. But this should equally be applied to our consideration of student learning and phone policies, which will either attract or deter families from the Clayton School District, as we know that many in our district do have a choice as to whether to go public or private. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Susan. Betsy

Betsy Meyland-Smith.

Malin-Smith.

Hi,

I'm Betsy Betsy Meyland-Smith. I have a seventh grader and a sixth grader at Widown and a third grader at Captain. And I wanted to thank you for your services. I wanted to thank him. I'm so sorry. Especially tonight when the Blues game is looming. That's really awesome that you guys are here. But I'm here to ask you to rethink the approach to the personal device policy, specifically at the high school level. Before I talk about why that matters, I want to remind this body that I only have three minutes. And while I would always prefer a dialogue, the way this process is set up means that we don't have the opportunity for back and forth discussion. And it's really difficult to present one-sided comments about a somewhat controversial issue in a perfect way. To try to make a strong point quickly while also not being adversarial is challenging, and without the opportunity for clarifying dialogue, it's almost impossible. I hope you all assume goodwill from everyone who steps up for public comment, and I'm open to and very interested in follow-up discussion. Maintaining status quo on the personal electronics policy is really a missed opportunity to improve the academic and social experience of kids in Clayton. The middle school policy of no phones during school is clear, easily enforced, and effective. And I hope Dr. Jordan has some time to speak about the great work they're doing at Y-Down. The policy is clear. The faculty and students know what the expectations are. And the enforcement is universally understood and followed through upon. I know there are obstacles. The high school has a different format with the open campus, greyhound time, and other flexible arrangements I don't even know about. I believe, though, that as a district with great problem solvers, we can come up with an effective solution at the high school too. We work with kids to develop good academic habits with studying and doing homework, for example. If, and inevitably when, they disagree about the value of studying and homework, we have no trouble maintaining that these skills are the best thing for their future. Limiting distractions during your workday is also good habit. So is communicating with peers face-to-face and developing in-person relationships. If I, as an adult, very easily get off task when my phone alerts, how can we expect kids to stay focused? Your own data show that kids are distracted by others' use of phones. 83% of students find others using phones in class distracting. When asked about phone use for academic purposes, 75% say teachers once in a while or sometimes ask them to use phones. which reads to me as they're rarely asked or required to use them for school-related reasons, making them unnecessary for academic purposes. And regarding school safety objections, a phone might help a person feel more safe, but I think the more appropriate question is whether or not students and teachers actually are more safe. Whatever happens next, the administration at the high school has got to enforce the existing policy consistently across the board. Does that mean dinging? I'm almost finished. At the middle school, the data show the policy is clear and the enforcement is clear. I know it's difficult to extract technology from children. I have three of them. It's the worst. But kids are watching Netflix during class. Parents are being asked by the office to text their kids if they're dropping something off for them during the school day. These are clear violations of the existing policy. There are books and articles and anecdotes and even warnings from the Surgeon General about the detrimental effects of technology of all kinds on people of all ages, especially kids. We cannot be so arrogant as to think Clayton is immune to the effects of technology. It's hard for all of us in this world to limit technology usage, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. I urge you to continue the robust conversation you started at the October board meeting and please take this issue seriously. Thank you.

I'm Betsy Malin-Smith. I have a seventh grader and a sixth grader at Widown and a third grader at Captain. And I wanted to thank you for your services. I wanted to thank him. I'm so sorry. Especially tonight when the Blues game is looming. That's really awesome that you guys are here. But I'm here to ask you to rethink the approach to the personal device policy, specifically at the high school level. Before I talk about why that matters, I want to remind this body that I only have three minutes. And while I would always prefer a dialogue, the way this process is set up means that we don't have the opportunity for back and forth discussion. And it's really difficult to present one-sided comments about a somewhat controversial issue in a perfect way. To try to make a strong point quickly while also not being adversarial is challenging, and without the opportunity for clarifying dialogue, it's almost impossible. I hope you all assume goodwill from everyone who steps up for public comment, and I'm open to and very interested in follow-up discussion. Maintaining status quo on the personal electronics policy is really a missed opportunity to improve the academic and social experience of kids in Clayton. The middle school policy of no phones during school is clear, easily enforced, and effective. And I hope Dr. Jordan has some time to speak about the great work they're doing at Y-Down. The policy is clear. The faculty and students know what the expectations are. And the enforcement is universally understood and followed through upon. I know there are obstacles. The high school has a different format with the open campus, greyhound time, and other flexible arrangements I don't even know about. I believe, though, that as a district with great problem solvers, we can come up with an effective solution at the high school too. We work with kids to develop good academic habits with studying and doing homework, for example. If, and inevitably when, they disagree about the value of studying and homework, we have no trouble maintaining that these skills are the best thing for their future. Limiting distractions during your workday is also good habit. So is communicating with peers face-to-face and developing in-person relationships. If I, as an adult, very easily get off task when my phone alerts, how can we expect kids to stay focused? Your own data show that kids are distracted by others' use of phones. 83% of students find others using phones in class distracting. When asked about phone use for academic purposes, 75% say teachers once in a while or sometimes ask them to use phones. which reads to me as they're rarely asked or required to use them for school-related reasons, making them unnecessary for academic purposes. And regarding school safety objections, a phone might help a person feel more safe, but I think the more appropriate question is whether or not students and teachers actually are more safe. Whatever happens next, the administration at the high school has got to enforce the existing policy consistently across the board. Does that mean dinging? I'm almost finished. At the middle school, the data show the policy is clear and the enforcement is clear. I know it's difficult to extract technology from children. I have three of them. It's the worst. But kids are watching Netflix during class. Parents are being asked by the office to text their kids if they're dropping something off for them during the school day. These are clear violations of the existing policy. There are books and articles and anecdotes and even warnings from the Surgeon General about the detrimental effects of technology of all kinds on people of all ages, especially kids. We cannot be so arrogant as to think Clayton is immune to the effects of technology. It's hard for all of us in this world to limit technology usage, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. I urge you to continue the robust conversation you started at the October board meeting and please take this issue seriously. Thank you.

Thank you. And even though the blues game's starting, I hope you'll stick around to hear or watch later the presentation to gather and understand some of the context around the data and plans moving forward too. Thank you. Okay, next, sorry. Superintendent Communications,

Dr. Patel. Thank you, Stacy. Good evening, everyone. Great to see you here. Appreciate you taking the time always to come to our board meetings. A couple of things I wanted to talk about. The first thing I do want to mention is I'd like to start tonight by just giving you a quick update on what's occurring at the new, well, I'll just say the Board of Education at the state level. So typically how this works, the state board has eight citizens that apply for, that are board members at the state level, Those eight citizens are actually appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state. And those eight citizens get eight-year terms. Over the past few years, we've had pretty good stability on who our state board members are. Most recently, however, we've had four open positions in that. And Governor Kehoe actually appointed four individuals to those open spots. And one of them he pulled back on, temporarily at least. So right now we do have three new state board members that have been appointed and in the next coming days or weeks the Senate will be confirming them. I just think it's important for us as a community and citizens and staff members to really just pay attention to that because obviously the Missouri State Board of Education has a lot of work that they set all the educational policies. They really overall give you the direction and vision for the pre-K through 12 school system. They oversee 500 school districts involving over 860,000 students. So it's important to pay attention, close attention to who our new state board members are and what they do for our education system. So I just wanted to put that on everyone's radar. Next, a just quick update on our Long Range Facilities Master Plan. Obviously following our last meeting we have advanced our search for partners to support the three outlined priorities that we've found from our Long Range Facility's plan. And you can look on the screen the timeline for our RFQ on April 23rd. We did issue it. It can be found on the website. The deadline for partners to fill that out and submit for the RFQ is going to be May 13th. And after that, we're gonna have a selection process. Our goal is at the June 4th board meeting, which is the last board meeting of the school year, we would announce who our partners are in the next phase of this plan. Obviously, the selection process is going to be important. We're going to have a committee put together that's going to include district leaders, Board of Education members, Clayton parents and community members. And we'll do an interview process with the interested parties who have submitted for the RFQ. And again, our goal is to have the partners selected at the June 4th board meeting. So we look forward to that. And as always, we'll keep the community engaged. We want to be very transparent with all our processes and we're going to be communicating all of it out. We've created a website, obviously links and everything is all on there. So we want to make sure that everyone is aware of that process that we're in right now. Next, we are going to have two presentations tonight. The first one is Dr., well, one of them, Dr. Milena Garganigo will be at the table to talk about the Success Ready Student Network and our membership in that. And then we're gonna ask the board for approval for a resolution supporting the work. And part of that includes a waiver for the MAP assessments that we take and replacing that with interim assessments. So she'll be talking a little bit more about that. And then obviously our next other presentation, the first one for tonight, Dr. Gachewski and Dr. Jordan and Dr. Milena Garganigo will be here to give us an update on that. So if you recall... Last year, we began with new practices at each of our levels, elementary, middle, and high. And we began by, we did a survey of our own. We surveyed our parents, our students, our staff, got their input. Then we did a board of education presentation where we said, here's our new processes, outlines for the school year and practices. And then we did a first reading of the policy of personal electronic devices. And then we followed up with the second reading and adoption. Since then, we've been working on implementation of all the new practices at the different levels. Based on the implementations, we had also said earlier this school year that we'd come back at the end of the school year, towards the end of the To do that, we did a survey again for our high school and middle school students and our staff. Obviously, we're sharing some of those results with you tonight. And I want to be very clear in saying that we, too, recognize and acknowledge the areas of growth for us. The two main areas, one obviously we're going to look at more closely is at Whiteown Middle School and the number of confiscations. And then the second, and I know Dr. Jordan is already going to talk about it during the presentation and give us specific steps on how to address that moving forward. And then the second big area is really enforcement at the high school level. With the stat that I believe you shared with us, right? 36% of our high school staff feel that it's not being enforced. And that's not a number that we're proud of. That's not a number we're like, look, this is working. We acknowledge it and we want to make sure that what are we going to do in terms of next steps to make it better. And so we're going to talk about that a little bit more in our presentation as well. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Lucia for our student update and then we'll begin our presentations.

Dr. Patel. Thank you, Stacy. Good evening, everyone. Great to see you here. Appreciate you taking the time always to come to our board meetings. A couple of things I wanted to talk about. The first thing I do want to mention is I'd like to start tonight by just giving you a quick update on what's occurring at the new, well, I'll just say the Board of Education at the state level. So typically how this works, the state board has eight citizens that apply for, that are board members at the state level, Those eight citizens are actually appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state. And those eight citizens get eight-year terms. Over the past few years, we've had pretty good stability on who our state board members are. Most recently, however, we've had four open positions in that. And Governor Kehoe actually appointed four individuals to those open spots. And one of them he pulled back on, temporarily at least. So right now we do have three new state board members that have been appointed and in the next coming days or weeks the Senate will be confirming them. I just think it's important for us as a community and citizens and staff members to really just pay attention to that because obviously the Missouri State Board of Education has a lot of work that they set all the educational policies. They really overall give you the direction and vision for the pre-K through 12 school system. They oversee 500 school districts involving over 860,000 students. So it's important to pay attention, close attention to who our new state board members are and what they do for our education system. So I just wanted to put that on everyone's radar. Next, a just quick update on our Long Range Facilities Master Plan. Obviously following our last meeting we have advanced our search for partners to support the three outlined priorities that we've found from our Long Range Facility's plan. And you can look on the screen the timeline for our RFQ on April 23rd. We did issue it. It can be found on the website. The deadline for partners to fill that out and submit for the RFQ is going to be May 13th. And after that, we're gonna have a selection process. Our goal is at the June 4th board meeting, which is the last board meeting of the school year, we would announce who our partners are in the next phase of this plan. Obviously, the selection process is going to be important. We're going to have a committee put together that's going to include district leaders, Board of Education members, Clayton parents and community members. And we'll do an interview process with the interested parties who have submitted for the RFQ. And again, our goal is to have the partners selected at the June 4th board meeting. So we look forward to that. And as always, we'll keep the community engaged. We want to be very transparent with all our processes and we're going to be communicating all of it out. We've created a website, obviously links and everything is all on there. So we want to make sure that everyone is aware of that process that we're in right now. Next, we are going to have two presentations tonight. The first one is Dr., well, one of them, Dr. Garganego will be at the table to talk about the Success Ready Student Network and our membership in that. And then we're gonna ask the board for approval for a resolution supporting the work. And part of that includes a waiver for the MAP assessments that we take and replacing that with interim assessments. So she'll be talking a little bit more about that. And then obviously our next other presentation, the first one for tonight, Dr. Gachewski and Dr. Jordan and Dr. Garganego will be here to give us an update on that. So if you recall... Last year, we began with new practices at each of our levels, elementary, middle, and high. And we began by, we did a survey of our own. We surveyed our parents, our students, our staff, got their input. Then we did a board of education presentation where we said, here's our new processes, outlines for the school year and practices. And then we did a first reading of the policy of personal electronic devices. And then we followed up with the second reading and adoption. Since then, we've been working on implementation of all the new practices at the different levels. Based on the implementations, we had also said earlier this school year that we'd come back at the end of the school year, towards the end of the To do that, we did a survey again for our high school and middle school students and our staff. Obviously, we're sharing some of those results with you tonight. And I want to be very clear in saying that we, too, recognize and acknowledge the areas of growth for us. The two main areas, one obviously we're going to look at more closely is at Whiteown Middle School and the number of confiscations. And then the second, and I know Dr. Jordan is already going to talk about it during the presentation and give us specific steps on how to address that moving forward. And then the second big area is really enforcement at the high school level. With the stat that I believe you shared with us, right? 36% of our high school staff feel that it's not being enforced. And that's not a number that we're proud of. That's not a number we're like, look, this is working. We acknowledge it and we want to make sure that what are we going to do in terms of next steps to make it better. And so we're going to talk about that a little bit more in our presentation as well. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Lucia for our student update and then we'll begin our presentations.

Thank you. I would like to start off with some shout-outs. Earlier this month, Merrimack hosted its first ever week of service, with each day dedicated to a different way for students to give back. From composting and recycling to working with buddies to plant flowers, pull weeds, pick up trash, and complete other tasks, it was a wonderful experience for the school community to come together to support Merrimack and one another. Captain Elementary students celebrated Earth Day on April 22nd with engaging hands-on learning experiences organized by teacher Kim Bielman in collaboration with her fourth and fifth grade student leaders from the Recycling Club. The day included student-led lessons, crafting opportunities, and an Earth Day picnic for the school. Beyond this event, these dedicated students worked year round to promote environmental sustainability at Captain through initiatives like managing school-wide recycling and participating in litter cleanups. Glenridge fifth grade students took the stage earlier this month for their annual Agents of Change presentations. These enthusiastic students delivered persuasive pitches for school improvements, addressing topics like fostering kindness and creating more engaging lessons. The event not only highlighted their public speaking abilities, but also built momentum for the change they'd like to see in the school. Okay, and prom festivities. Going off strong, I would like to start off by sharing one of the most recent events that happened in the high school, which was prom. For a little bit of context, this is last year's student representative, Mohini. And we, of course, had to take a picture, so I thought I would add it to the slideshow. And then the other two photos, those are in the actual prom venue, just for a little inside look. inside peek at how it looked. Prom was an incredible success from the energy all around to the beautiful roaring 20s decoration. It's safe to say that the students had an unforgettable evening. The spirit was high and I'm happy to report that the event went smoothly thanks to the hard work of our student council, staff, and volunteers. The weeks leading up to prom with prom court nominations and all of the pre-prom events, it's a nice and exciting time for all of the students before AP weeks and finals hit us. Overall, it's a celebration not just for juniors and seniors. but for the whole school community and it was celebrated very amazingly. Okay, regarding the elementary school updates, unfortunately my meeting with Merrimack students had to be pushed back to later this week so I will be giving the joint elementary student update at the next board meeting, I promise that there will be one. I would like to however share about a meeting that I had with the Wellness Youth Council a little later. I was genuinely drawn into the welcoming atmosphere. The Wellness Center is helping students transition more smoothly from middle school to high school by offering a consistent and supportive environment. It's not a place to goof off. Students come to take a breather, recenter, and return to class feeling more grounded. The Youth Council is working to make this space even more effective by creating weekly plans, promoting outreach, and preparing events like Wellness Week and Senior Wellness Week, which is already in the works for these final months. Senior Wellness Week is actually... I think this week and even there are like some senior spirit weeks that's going on. And the Wellness Center and the Wellness Youth Council actually prepared gifts for all of the seniors to come by and pick up at the Wellness Center, which was an amazing surprise. Students are always encouraged to be a voice for the people, and the Youth Council is truly empowering students to care for their mental and emotional well-being. So a big shout out goes to the Wellness Center and Youth Council for all of their hard work. And that's it for my update. Thank you.

Thank you, Lucia. Thanks for the picture with Mohini too. Okay, Dr. Milena Garganigo. You are

Thank you, Lucia. Thanks for the picture with Mohini too. Okay, Dr. Garganego. You are

up.

And Dr. Kosiewski and Dr. Jordan. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for having us this evening to talk. Sorry. That's okay. No, that's all right. I'm not used to starting things off. I know. I'm in the big chair now. Okay. So our purpose this evening is to share with you an update on our journey since we implemented the new practices. We will share discipline data, survey data, and next steps. Our overall goal is to foster a more focused and productive learning environment while allowing students to thrive academically and personally, while also acknowledge the unique situations of each grade span. So our current practices at Y-Down, cell phones must be turned off as the students enter the building. And then they are to be put away for the remainder of the day. If they are wearing a wearable smartwatch, they are also supposed to be turned off or in airplane mode for the day. And students should only be accessing the internet through the school-provided district networks on their Chromebooks or things like that. We also, just for note, don't allow Chromebooks to be used at lunch either or in the mornings while we're waiting for classes. So that is our current practice as we started this school year.

Okay, I'm sorry. Can I just

pause

right there? Is Jeff in here? I just got his text to take a three-minute break because we lost Pam. Oh. I'm sorry. That's okay.

Round two will be better.

Just pause. Just time out. I just...

I think there's an issue with the Wi-Fi.

Yeah, he said that's why there's an echo. something and I want to make sure Pam is here for this do you want us to start over yeah I mean I don't know that you just totally need to start over but let's I don't know he sent me a message like 12 minutes ago that I just saw so I don't know well

let's see if we need to

Oh, we're using that thing. Okay, maybe, hold on. I'll just text her while we're working on it. What?

Hey, Pam. Yeah, we're working on getting you connected.

Oh, I was just texting her.

Oh, okay. Well, then I could just... Well, I think we suspended the...

Okay. Everyone at home, hold please. Technical difficulties. Can

you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, I'm going to mute myself. You guys

are the best. Thank you.

Next, this year at CHS for the first time we had unified expectations around the use of personal electronic devices where cell phones and earbuds were prohibited during instructional time. Smart watches and similar wearable devices are expected to be placed in airplane or school mode while in class. The only exception to this would be with the express permission of a teacher for a specific instructional activity. Then students who violate the policy, we have a series of progressive consequences that go into place that involve confiscation of the device and ultimately loss of privileges.

At this point, sorry. So in regards to YDOM this year as we've implemented As we've implemented our new policy, we've had 170, as of today, cell phone confiscations for the year. We've had 66 different repeat offenders. And I can go into detail about that if you'd like now. We have had 100 first-time offenders of that group of 66. I'm sorry, 100. Sorry, let me back up. Of the 170 cell phone confiscations, 100 have been first-time offenders. Most of those 80 out of the 100 were within first semester. I only bring that up as a part of the learning and the cultural change that has occurred, which is a good sign for us as we've been looking and going through that. Thirty-nine children have had their cell phone taken twice, which at that point in our policy is when we focus call the parents and say, if the cell phone is taken again, you will have to come and pick it up from the school. 16 have had it taken three times, 10 four times, and there are two children who have had it taken five times. So when we get to that number of students that have had it taken 5 times, those consequences look like because we don't want to pull them out of class or give them in school or out of school for those that's defeating the purpose. So we actually have them check their cell phone into the office for a duration of time and then check it out at the end of the day. So that's how we work with those kinds of things. These have come from 20 different teachers across the building at different times as we've gone through the different parts of the confiscation working with this. The months, if you would guess, in August and also in January are our lightest months as we've initially rolled it out, which I also think is a learning for us that when we really hit it hard with the students and the teachers, reiterating the rules, reading the incidences, where the biggest months have occurred is around November, December, and February. Now, January also, we had a fair amount of snow days. So let's be honest about that. So those are the discipline data that came with that. We also had this year four incidences of other types of referrals that involve cell phones, such as videotaping, cheating, or refusal to give up the cell phone. So we've had four incidents of that. Previous years, we had eight last year. The year before was 16. And the year before that, so 21-22, was 12. So those are the different kinds of referrals that have come with beyond just the confiscation referrals. Those are the referrals that are occurring with cell phones. So I think that's also a sign that we're moving in the right direction.

At the high school this year, actually, as of today, we're actually up to 42, actually, cell phone confiscations. And we have had three repeat offenders. Two students have had their phone confiscated twice. And one student has had his phone confiscated three times. The confiscations have come from 18 different teachers. In addition to the cell phone confiscations, we've had five different disciplinary incidents involving cell phones, four involving academic integrity issues, and one involving filming without permission. What I would say relative to prior years, the number of – I don't have the exact number in front of me because we started – kind of logging things differently this year as we started logging every cell phone confiscation. In prior years, we did not necessarily do that, but I can confidently say that the number of cell phone confiscations last year was in the single digits. It was less than 10.

So I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about the survey information that we've collected this spring. So Panorama is a survey that I know you all are familiar with that we've been using for several years for our SEL data, as well as staff or family input in different areas like special education or school programming. Earlier this year, Panorama shared with their clients a new survey related to cell phone and use within schools. And from feedback in October when we came to the table, we heard a desire to have professional survey writers create surveys for us where possible. So that initiated us exploring these surveys a little more deeply. Dan and Jamie and I reviewed the cell phone surveys for students and for faculty. And if we were going to have an opportunity to have the district responses compared to national responses Which we had also heard was a desire at the table to get some information nationally That we would need to give it as written at least the first time so we gave it in its entirety so that we could keep the validity of the survey in place Since this is the first time that districts across the nation have had the opportunity to administer the survey, we don't yet have those national comparatives because windows are still open for school districts. So it probably won't come until later. I've been in communication with Panorama and they're trying to sort of get a sense of when we will have those data. The survey looks at three areas. So cell phone impact, and these are questions that evaluate the impact of phones in general, not necessarily related to education, to policies, to practices, but just related to teens and phones. Cell phone practice impact, and then they call it policy, we call it practice. And then cell phone practice implementation. And you'll see in the data that I'm about to present that this really is our biggest area of improvement. So we surveyed faculty at Wydown and at the high school. And in October, we shared a series of thoughts supported by literature. And some of those beliefs are supported by the responses from our teachers around impact, including connections between cell phones and learning disruption. Additionally, teachers strongly believe that there is not a helpful effect of phones on safety. And why don't faculty report that they rarely ask students to use a phone in the classroom setting and the majority feel that the cell phone use in general for teens can hurt learning? Okay, the overwhelming majority of Wydown faculty feel that the current practices are positive for both the learning environment and for student social interactions. And there's a theme in their comments about this year being a better year and an overall improvement in the environment at Wydown. And then Y-down faculty also overwhelmingly believe that the practices have been clearly communicated, both to students and to families, that they're easy to enforce and that they're consistently enforced and they see a support from the leadership team in that enforcement. So then with the high school faculty, similar to Wydown, the high school faculty believe that phones in general are harmful to teens and their learning. So that supports the conversations that we've had at the table before. The majority of the faculty believe that the current practices help meet that goal of minimizing distractions for students and that they believe that the practices are effective. But the faculty practices have been clear, the faculty believe that the practices have been clearly communicated and have support from the administration. But the most obvious place for improvement from the faculty's lens is the consistency of enforcement. And this is an area that we need to spend time focusing on in making those adjustments. When Jamie and Dan and I decided how to use the student surveys, we recognized that some of the questions related to impact could be seen as not important to ask teens. We decided to administer the survey in its entirety for two reasons. The first one that I talked about, about being able to nationally norm that information. And then also we believe that by asking these questions, we could get a sense of what our next steps may be as far as education lessons or curriculum design. So for example, adults agree that in many instances phones can be harmful to safety, especially when we need students to be responding to the directions of the adults in charge. When we see that 46% of students say phones neither help or hurt safety, that information tells us that we need to adjust our lessons or our instruction to help them to see this differently. So that was a lot of the reason behind us keeping these questions in there was for us to get a sense of like how can we calibrate and get a sense of what the students believe to know what would influence our curriculum and our teaching from there. Why don't students have a neutral response to cell phone impact on learning, to safety and friendships? And this also is helpful to influencing where we go with our development of curriculum moving forward. We feel like there's obviously space to grow in that area. Similarly, students have a neutral opinion on the impact of phones on learning, safety and friendship. And these data will be used moving forward again in developing materials and lessons for students. And while they say that the rules are clear and the staff is likely to enforce the rules, they also acknowledge that there's room to grow with student compliance. 19% of students saying that they follow the rules a little or not well at all. At the high school with the student responses similar to Wydown, CHS students are pretty neutral on their opinions of phones impacting their learning. They report that teachers ask them to use them sometimes, and they would agree that cell phones can be a distraction, but also 48% report phones not having an effect on their learning. So these seemingly opposing responses give us something really to dig into deeper. CHS students don't report a strong opinion one way or the other about current practices and their impact of learning, attention, safety, and friendships. And like with YDOWN, this is information that's going to be helpful to us as we move forward with curriculum design, which will start this summer. And then the last part with the student responses, the majority of students report that the rules are clear, but there's obviously room to grow in the area of compliance from the student's lens like we see with the teachers. We acknowledge that we're working on a culture shift within the school, and so one of our theories of practice that Dan and I had was to disaggregate the data by the class of 2025 and the class of 2028 to see if there was a difference. in their percentage of responses because the class of 2028 is coming from a system where they had some enforcement last year. And so when we look at those data, we do see some difference. It's not a significantly better increase, but it does feel like it was something for us to acknowledge within this culture shift that our senior class and our freshman class are responding differently to some of this work.

So updates on the digital citizenship curriculum. The elementary has an assured experience at fifth grade. At one of the elementaries, it is for all grade levels, but it is an assured experience at a fifth grade. At White Island, it happens within the health curriculum. And you may remember Bob is one of the lessons that we use, and they use that as a way to teach around sexting, online predators, digital footprint, online reputation, The health teachers do a very good job of being explicit and also understanding and giving lots of different examples of what's going on with the lessons. And finally, at Clayton High School, they did add this year half the story to the CHL's health curriculum, which was a recommendation that came out of a person that helped consult with the wellness center. However, after they implemented the curriculum and worked with the students, the teachers felt that it was not up to them par of our Clayton High School students and their maturity and their level of really taking it in. So the health teachers recommended that they work to develop their own curriculum that will actually be at a level that the kids will receive it better.

So in summary, at the high school we recognize that enforcement is not where we want it to be actually and that we also recognize that this is a huge cultural shift because we're going from basically a group of students, the majority of whom have never had any sort of restrictions or organized restrictions placed on cell phones going to a uniform policy and uniform expectations that are formalized with like a consequent structure. We have communicated with kids and with teachers, and we're having conversations about how we can best support teachers. Overwhelmingly, the teachers said that they feel supported by the administration, but obviously when we look at the enforcement numbers, that we feel that it's clearly not consistent across the board. So one of the things that we have done is to ensure that all teachers have a dedicated place to store phones in every class on campus during teaching and learning time. We use the SHU organizers. We have those in every classroom. We've continued to partner with the Wellness Center, the EdTechs, and the All In Coalition for Parent Education events. We have started to note cell phone violations in teacher observations. So we're going into classrooms, and if we see a cell phone out, because a lot of times you'll be sitting in the back of the classroom or moving about the classroom, if you see a cell phone, we're noting those in observations so that when we have the post-conversation with the teacher saying, hey these two kids had their phone out did you know that like what kind of what's the story um and so the idea being it's formative in nature but uh and then for those teachers that um that are kind of it seems to be an ongoing issue um obviously we offer support with that but then ultimately we'll start documenting that in in evaluations one other thing that we're doing too is we're working with teacher teacher leaders actually right now to talk about uh the how we might how we might uh do some i'll call them sweeps or walkthroughs uh within the classroom we do a lot of we do a lot different walkthroughs within the classroom whether it be equity walkthroughs or mtss walkthroughs or curricular walkthroughs um and one of those things are one of the things that we're discussing now and looking at a way that we can formalize it for next year is the idea of can we incorporate um a for cell phones in a way that either empowers the group or the teachers that if we see a cell phone as an observer, we just confiscate it and then move forward, which also hopefully will be affirming to the teachers or give the teachers an overt form of support. Now, admittedly, we also want to make sure that we don't we don't make it seem like a gotcha event for those teachers that are also trying to enforce the rules. And so we don't want it to seem too punitive towards the teacher, but we're in the early stages of that, but our plan is to roll that out next fall.

Thank you. I'm not necessarily gonna call on people, but I do wanna start with Lucia. before the rest of us ask any questions we have. Do you have any questions or comments? I'd love to hear

your

response to this.

First of all, thank you so much for the presentation. I don't necessarily have any questions but I would just like to make a couple of comments on the student perspective. I know of course we've just received a lot of data and amazing presentation but I also wanted to mention that like when I've been like talking with the students and teachers just saying that specifically of course I can speak for the high school that there and the students have felt that there has been a really big improvement on cell phone usage in classroom so of course there's a bunch of data still saying that showing that cell phones are a big distraction and students really identify that this is a distraction but seeing as how it was junior year, like how this policy was enforced junior year to how it has been senior year, there has been a lot of change in classrooms and just regarding cell phone usage. There, of course, are occasional times that you might see a classmate pull their cell phone out and the teacher, or maybe even it might be a student, is like, dude, you're going to get caught. Put it away. That actually happens a lot. And then you just quickly put it away, maybe for whatever reason it was. But genuinely, cell phones aren't used as a means of tuning out the teacher. That's one of the biggest points I'd like to say. I think last year, especially when the cell phone policy wasn't as strict, I can mention that there were a few people who you could see just maybe scrolling through whatever app it may be to, because okay, maybe you're a little bored in class. But this year, especially with the cell phone policy, cell phones have not been used that way at all. at least for the high school and in the classes that I've been taking and the classes that my friends have been taking, when cell phones have been used, it has been for... Usually, like let's say if it wasn't really education focused, it would usually be texting probably a friend or maybe even a parent. But mostly I can always say in an educational context, it has been taking photos of boards. Lots. If you scroll through my friends or my like photos, you can just see a bunch of like notes on whiteboards. And it's usually always just like. photos that you're taking of the teachers notes or of the whiteboard of presentations and that's for example one of the biggest way that cell phones are used um educationally in class and also when you'll see like maybe it on students desk when we're going through like big note topics and we're just like take a photo and then take as many notes as you can and then take a photo and continue your notes um but i so speaking about that i'd like to say that enforcement varies and is greatly dependent on teachers and in the type of classroom that you're in. For example, I've noticed a lot that in more of the language classrooms, whether it's like learning a new language or an English classroom, cell phone use is at all seen very, very rarely. But maybe for a math classroom or a science or STEM classroom, you do see it a little, maybe a little, I'm saying more on like students' desks or just out and about. And it is more for that like using it for labs and then photos and everything. So enforcement, of course, has been seen as an issue in the high school, but I can also say that I truly believe it's because it's just so dependent on the classroom that you're in and on how it might be utilized either for education or maybe just a bit of distraction. Yeah. Thank you. Thank

you, Lucia.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for everything that you just told us. It's really valuable to hear what you're seeing and hearing on the ground. So we really appreciate that. And I'm so glad to hear that you've seen this big shift, especially from last year to this year. It's amazing. Yes. In your experience, Does every teacher ask for the phones to go into the shoe pouch?

Not every teacher. So in the beginning of the year, especially when the announcements went off, I think it was the first three days of high school, like reminding teachers and students about the cell phone policy, most teachers were like, okay, everyone put it into the shoe holders. But then usually after first quarter, it changed for some teachers, and usually it was like If I see it, I'm gonna take it away. But you didn't have to put it in the holder. But for language classrooms, for my language classrooms, in my experience, you do just immediately put it into the holder and then you're not allowed to take it out for any reason. Like if you're going to the bathroom, it just stays there for the whole 90 minutes.

Could you see utility in ensuring that every single teacher has that happen in every single class? Is that a better, is that going to help students get on their phone less, in your opinion?

I think that of course it could because you just wouldn't have it there. But even for the classrooms that sometimes do have it all the time, there's a couple of people who might not place it there and you won't see it during class but it's just like you don't want to put it on the wall and you want to have it in your backpack. That's how I've seen a couple of people just have that but I think it would help with the distraction maybe a little bit like again I want to mention the distraction because of course it is something that's seen in the classrooms and when I've been talking to other students it again occasionally happens but mostly like cell phones when they are used in classroom are for that educational purpose and so when I'm thinking about placing it there every day for the more STEM-related classrooms, which are usually the ones in my experience that you don't have to put them on the wall for. That might be a little bit of a complication because just because we're just so constantly taking photos of all of the whiteboarding that we're doing, usually also we assign a person in class who takes photos of the whiteboard for people who are absent. Because I know a lot of the golf players, they go for day-long tournaments and they aren't at school at all. So for those STEM classrooms, when it's heavy on note taking, we're taking those photos and posting them on Google Classroom for those students to see. So maybe in those instances, it would be like, stand up, grab your phone, sit down, grab your phone and sit down. But I think there could be some positivity and some benefit to having it on the wall. But I just think it's so dependent on the classroom and the teacher that, yeah.

What do you think about that, Dan?

I think Lucia, I mean, I think she framed it pretty well because I would say what she stated actually is pretty consistent with the feedback from the teachers when I went to each of the core department heads and said give me concrete examples of who and how you're using them in the phones for instructional purposes. Science by far gave me the most examples. I mean physics in particular about using video to document motion in physics labs. There's apps that they use to measure distance in some of the labs that they do. They frequently said, like Lucia, that they encourage kids to take pictures of notes or diagrams or things that they put on the board. Some said stopwatch and biomed. They said they use them to videotape blood draws on mock patients, actually, and crime scene photos and crime scene reconstructions. They also mentioned basically doing... videoing their suturing practice actually so that they could be graded on their sutures. And then like within English, they said that they use them for their public speaking units actually where they record partners and then they evaluate, you know, eye contact and speaking skills tone, that sort of thing. World languages, they mentioned that they do, in French, they use them for a review activity where they have stations and use QR codes that have embedded video, audio, and website extensions. But what I would say is overwhelmingly it was science actually was the department that reported that they used them the most. So I could see that being Like a distraction if you were getting up and getting back down and having all the kids get their cell phones and then sitting back down. But I mean, I do know from just being around the building and I made a reference the other day to Dr. Patel. We were giving out the foundation awards and then the number of classrooms we were in that were actually using the shoe holders. Actually, one of them was a science classroom, actually. But like I said, it's really kind of teacher dependent.

Are you good with that?

So, yes. I mean, I think that giving teachers autonomy to basically use it as they see fit instructionally, I mean, I want to empower our teachers. But, you know, I also recognize that there are teachers that need support, actually, and that even though we have folks that, you know, like – Overwhelmingly, they say they feel supported by the administration and the cell phone policy. I mean, like anything, particularly when you have implementation, you have implementation fatigue, I think. And I mean, Lucy alluded to that. And I was talking with a couple of our teacher leaders today about it. They admitted themselves that, you know, I was on it actually for the first quarter and on it for the second quarter. And we give reminders. But, you know, in fourth quarter, they're kind of like they still enforce the rule, but they're not snatching every phone that they see. and the idea that if a teacher walks in, I mean, according to the guidelines, if they see the phone, they're supposed to take it and turn it into the office. I know that this teacher self-reported that, look, if I walk in and I see a phone on a desk, I remind everybody that the phones need to be put away, and the kids will put the phone away, but he said, I recognize by rule that... that I should actually turn it into the office, but he goes, I admit that I don't do that actually. And so I think that, you know, it's also one of the things that we're what in month six, so month seven of the implementation and, you know, I definitely see the culture changing that there's certainly more work to do and we're working with teachers to try to see how we support them.

I think Lucia brings up a good point that you just did as well, Dan, which is, that it's six months of this new practice, new rule at the high school and that you've already seen a huge change from last year. So I'm like thinking ahead when the current ninth graders are seniors coming out of YDOM where there's even stricter rules, like what will that look like in our high school? And I think the culture will have shifted because they won't have known any different which is why I was glad you pointed out the seniors especially separately. I have other questions, but I'll open the floor up

to

anyone.

So if the default shifted, though, if the default shifted to having it in the cubbies, if the expectation was that it be in the cubbies and then if a teacher has a recording situation or you gave a long list, They they would be pulled out that wouldn't that help with the enforcement fatigue issue because you just have a default That they're put away and they pull out. I mean, that's a possibility here to create a clearer expectation because I do think clarity leads to enforcement and Just something to think about

Yeah, and I would say It is interesting to me, to be honest, that I understand, and I'm not an educator, but I understand wanting to empower your teachers. But I have a hard time with you knowing that teachers aren't doing, that the teacher said, I just wonder what your response is to that, because to me, as the leader, you know, again, I understand that there's a balance with empowering, Dan, but to me it's really important that if we have an expectation that we expect our teachers to follow that. I'll put it, I'll stop.

Do you think, which by the way, I love your idea about taking notes of it in your observations and then when you feel it's necessary, adding it to their formal evaluation. First of all, the teachers know that that is that, have you informed them that that's gonna happen? And how do you think that'll help?

We've been doing it. We didn't make a specific announcement that we're putting this in your evaluation, but when we've seen it in observations, we have noted it and obviously those teachers that we're working with certainly know.

Okay, good. Because I think when they know that they're going to be held accountable, that'll also just proactively hopefully get them to change their practices as well. I don't want to monopolize the time, so anyone else? Pam's on the

phone. We can hear you. Go ahead, we can hear you. Thank you. Hi. So thank you, all of you. I also want to thank Alicia, Jeff Pulse, and Luke Heider for making this happen so that I can And it is clear that it is not being followed, especially at the high school. It's not being implemented at the high school and I have a lot of details to say to back this up. But I guess I just want to start with saying, what is your plan to do things differently? You have said, you know, make sure everybody has the shoe holders. That's one option. Another one is to look at them through the walkthroughs. Another one is too. you know, make these a part of teacher evaluations. What are other plans? What are more systemic plans or proposals for plans to make this happen? Because we decided as a district and we made it a policy in the fall that we will have phone-free learning environments and that is not happening. So I wanna know some other plans because I don't think that the three mentioned are enough.

Do we lose you, Pam?

No, I'm here. I just... I guess I was waiting for a response to that. Like, what are other things?

No, I mean, I would argue that the idea of doing observations and incorporating it into evaluations and doing organized walkthroughs are systemic issues. I mean, as we put those structures in place. I think that... I would also say that we were looking for... Ideally, like I said earlier, the numbers aren't where we want them to be, but I also think that we are new at this. And I think that you don't change a culture overnight. I don't think you change a culture in one year, to be perfectly honest, especially in a place where you have an open campus, where you have a ton of freedom. and then we're trying to rein in actually some of those expectations, there are certainly going to be bumps in the road. I feel like we have made progress. Have we made enough progress? No, there's certainly room to grow. But I think that as teachers see the benefits that they've noted in the survey, that we're going to continue to build that momentum. And as we continue to have students that have experienced these expectations over a period of time that we're also going to see greater compliance with that. I think that teachers, when I mentioned empowering, I think our goal is to have distraction-free classrooms. Now, and while I think there's the letter of the law and then the spirit of the law, and that... And while in the case of this teacher, if this teacher reminds kids to put their phones away and the kids put their phones away, I really don't have a problem with that. I mean, because ultimately it's getting to where we want the classroom environment to be. If it's in the shoe holder, great. I'm like, if I were in the classroom, I would use the shoe holder. But some teachers prefer to just have it away. I'm like... I'm fine with that, but our ultimate goal is we want the distraction gone. Actually now, like I said, that I do wanna allow teachers to have that freedom to do what they feel works best in their classroom. And now as we move forward, we're putting systems in place where we're, and I hate to say checking actually to make it sound punitive, but we're monitoring the situation and then addressing the situation um in a systemic way

so i guess i'm not the principal i recognize that um but i i don't like that we are making the teacher be the enforcer of us like a nationwide problem i think that the implementation of this policy needs to come from above the teacher level We want the teachers, I think, to focus on teaching and on building their relationships with their students. And if teachers are constantly carrying this fear that someone's going to walk in and I'm going to get caught or that I have to constantly monitor my students, it's going to burn them out and it's going to impact the student-teacher relationship. And I really hope that there are proposals in the future for something that takes this away from the teachers having to be the bodyguards of this. I wonder, I would like to maybe go through a few other points. A lot of my things I have based on page numbers but this presentation changed since I last saw it so my page numbers are going to be off. So I appreciate that you did this survey that you used Panorama to write the survey and You know, I had asked that question about why are we including some of these questions about safety and friendships when I don't think that those answers are important. And so, Malayna, I really appreciate your explanation of why you use those. So in the high school, and if anyone wants to interrupt me, please do. In the high school, you wrote that there is still, quote, still room for consistency and implementation. It was on page 11 of the initial slides. I would like to hear something more concrete. Question one of your survey said 49% of students say that phones are used in the classroom for non-class purposes, sometimes a lot of the time and all the time. That's half of our students in the high school are using phones for non-class purpose. If we include once in a while in the classroom for class purposes, that number goes up to 79% of our students are using phones in our classroom. That's too much. Question number two says 41% of students find usage by other people distracting. And so with these policies, we are just letting one student who chooses to use their phone impact the learning environment of the people around them. I mean, 41%. In terms of the safety, I guess we already talked about that. Okay, also under CHS faculty responses, it was initially on page 13. I don't know where it is now. You reported that 63% of teachers say the policies support students engaging with each other. That is true. But those are the policies. That's not what the question actually asks. If it asks if the policies support that, 63% say that policies support students interacting with each other. But they also say in that same section of the survey that the policies are not being enforced. They're not saying that the current implementation supports students engaging with one another. They're saying the policies do, but not the implementation. In fact, question four of part one of your survey, 94% of teachers say that phones do not support students positively engaging with each other in school. Page 14, the consistence of enforcement and ease of enforcement are quite low. I wanted to hear more reasons about why you think that that is the case and what you plan to do to remediate that. And I'm guessing that you've already shared that. I mean, we have a 36% consistency rate. Is there anything you wanna add to that?

Hold on, they're looking. Hang on

one second. I'm sorry. Which questions are correlated

to? I'm

sorry, the

presentation changed and I didn't follow it in there.

No, I mean, that's the data that I was citing before. I mean, now I know that that category, the 36 percent refers to quite and extremely. Now, if you use somewhat, that increases that response to over 70-something percent, or I believe it's 74 percent actually in terms of. consistency if you use the somewhat consistently response. But that being said, I would argue that in terms of the response, this is also perceptual data from the teachers. And so I think you'll find most people, if you ask them, they'll say, I'm enforcing the policy, but I'm not sure if my neighbor is. And while that's not a good excuse, I also think that there's an element of students trying to wear teachers down a little bit because they self-report this all the time where they'll say, oh, you're the only one that actually enforces this rule. You're the only one who makes us use the shoe holder. And I think after a while, teachers are like, maybe I am the only one that's actually doing this, which I think can have an impact on the data. But if you're asking me for theories on the response rate, I do think that has an impact.

I appreciate that, Dan. And I guess that just further reinforces to me that this should not be left to the teachers. it seems like it is not fair to the teachers when these things are being sent to them. And so I really think that whether it's us as a board or the administration, we need to come up with a better plan that takes some of this control, that takes some of the implementation or the enforcement away from the teachers.

Well, I do wonder, though in all seriousness, I mean, Y-Down has a bell-to-bell ban on cell phones, yet they've confiscated 170? 170 phones this year, and the teachers are the ones doing that confiscation, correct? Generally?

Yeah, generally. There's a few principal ones in there, but...

Yeah, and I've been talking with some of the board members recently. It's like, well, a middle school student is a very different student to engage with than a high school student. And I'm sure that that is some difference to it. And still, even at the middle school, they have a great policy but it's also not enforced consistently. I think it's a 76% rating of enforcement.

From the student perspective? So,

1 of the 8% of students report that students follow the rules very or extremely well and 33% follow it somewhat. Well, so it's still a C rating.

I do want to also, when you talk about this student survey, also some of the things to bring up, like when you're specifically talking about the students. And I love student voice and talking to students, but you also have to remember they're 11 to 14 year olds. So some of the things I also said was like, I'm making sure I got the right thing up here. But when it talks about is our cell phones going to distract you? I think they said like none of them said, nope, they don't distract me. 287 kids said not distracting at all. So I feel like there's some caveats in our student data that we need to think about as we're looking into it. Not that we want to discount the student voice, but it is also one of the things we think about as we are looking at some of the pieces.

You know, in the way that the question was asked, and I know that you didn't write the question, it says, you know, do students use these, quote, during class? But what wasn't asked, and I think is also important, especially at Y-Down, where there is a bell-to-bell rule, is that, you know, it wasn't asked, do students use things in the hallway? Do students use these during lunch? Do students use things in bathrooms? And all of those we hear from parents are happening, and I'm sure you know that too. Yes.

I'll respond, Pam. So, yeah, so the bathroom thing is a problem. I agree. So we really walk a fine line. So, you know, our overall goal is sense of belonging, right? Students are supposed to have their phones in their backpacks. That's where they're supposed to keep them. We know that majority or some students are keeping them in their pockets or in different places on cross body bags or whatever they have them. So it's a fine line to like accuse a student of like, hey. Let me look at your body to see if I see a cell phone outline before you go to the restroom. And also make them feel like they're valued and these things. So there are some things that we can do in terms of like, if you have a cell phone, put it on the wall. But also that's an if, you know what I mean? So it's a piece of that. So some things that we do to help support that is like, there are apps that parents can put on their phones that turn the phones off. So, like, we need to, like, not just tell that to parents but, like, have nights during orientation that teach parents how to turn the cell phones off during the school day. You know, like, go the step further. Not just say, like, here's an article, here's a brochure, but, like, here is a workshop. And I've actually worked with my ed tech on some, like, things that they can do to help support the parents to support the schools. and, like, social media and things on the evenings and the weekends and things like that because, you know, those are some things that we can help. That'll minimize it right away if they're not allowed to operate their phones during the school day. The other part is monitoring the bathrooms, and this is also a struggle. Like, recently it's been my job to stand outside the bathroom during lunch and watch if large groups of girls go in there to do TikTok videos. You know, like, not an awesome job, but, like, also something that, like... We open the door to say, everybody come out. Now, they also don't love me when I open the door and say, all you girls come out. So it's, again, a balance between feeling a sense of belonging and going into the bathroom, you know what I mean? All those things, and then the monitoring. So I do appreciate that we have work to do there, but it's a little more complex, you know what to make sure that the kids really understand why they aren't using them. There's a maturity factor there, but really engage our parents. You know what I mean? If a parent calls and says, there's video being shot in the bathroom, well then we can investigate, look into it, and then we take the phones, we offer consequences, we go from there. But we have to engage better with our parents to get that information to us. so that then we can investigate and look into the situations or teach the parents how to, you know, remind them like you've bought the cell phone most of the time. You've bought the cell you pay the bill. You get to decide when it's on and off, you know, but that's a that's a piece that we need to buy into. And we are also seeing a cultural shift like the sixth graders are a very different group than our eighth graders in terms of like when the eighth graders were sixth graders. Like, they're coming in with a much more educated viewpoint of, like, no cell phones. They don't have as many Apple Watches. They have different things. But it just has to be a partnership with the parents as well.

I think that's a really important point, Jamie. And I think, like, educating, I mean, like, I personally don't know how to turn off my kids. I mean, my kids are way older. And out of the house. But I don't know how to turn off their phone. Like, as simple as what you just said, I think so many parents would appreciate knowing how to do that. And also reminding parents, like, you don't have to even let your kid take their phone to school if there's not a need for them to have it, you know. I realize there are needs sometimes. But I think that parent- The partnership is

great. That idea of, like, a night to teach the parents how to do that is fantastic. And as Stacey just said, like, a lot of parents don't know how I don't think not sending your kids to school with phones is a reasonable solution because so many people need them either before school or after school. But I do think that at the middle school, the yonder pouches could be an incredible system of support when they are already not allowed from bell to bell. I don't see a reason why we don't just get yonder pouches for the middle school. I

guess, can I add to that?

I have a whole lot of points here that just kind of share back the numbers to you that you all already have. Pam, do you mind if I? This is hard. This is hard. On page 21, the initial one, you wrote that a bit more than half of students you show, a bit more than a half of students say that students don't think that phones impact their learning or attention. Yet the data you receive counters this with saying that 82% of students say they are distracted by other people's phones. What we know is that students and adults are addicted to these devices, we all are. And what we know about addiction is that people do not have an accurate understanding of the impact of the use on their functioning, the impact of the whatever the substance is on their functioning. These teenagers, they don't know any life without a smartphone. And so their perspective on whether these phones help or hurt them is not accurate. And I urge you to pay attention to the difference between the two. I believe that your role as educators and our role as a district is to go above and beyond this. The digital citizenship, you wrote that the elementary schools are getting a lesson as of April 1st. I know that Captain had had that, but Glenridge and Merrimack, I was told, had not had that as of April 1. And so I want to make sure that that has been added since April 1st. So saying that it is an assured lesson for fifth graders.

So... In working with them, they're working with the map schedules also. And so they're trying to make sure that all of these things happen before the end of the year. So we knew that Captain had done theirs and then the other two buildings when I worked with them, we were trying to adjust around the map schedule.

I'm sorry, I didn't hear the end of what you just said.

Just that we're trying to work around the map schedule to make sure that both things happen. the lessons and the testing okay thank you

um okay so in summary and then i'll be quiet i we i think that we need to do better and i think that it needs to be a more systemic approach and i would like to see the approach be taken away from teacher responsibility i'm not saying that they have no responsibility but i would like for it to be much greater than just teacher responsibility

Thank you, Pam. Okay. Chris, did you want to?

Yeah, I want to follow up on what you said, Pam. Boy, what was it? Jeez Louise. Oh, she talked about pouches at White House. She was saying that. I was, you know, again, you don't want to stand at the bathroom every lunch period. I don't want you to have to do that. So if they didn't have them with them, that would solve that problem. You wouldn't have to be scanning their body, you know what I mean? That's not appropriate. So again, partnering is awesome. I love the idea that you came up with. I think it's huge. I also think that we could do more even without that partnering. I think both have to happen. But things like pouches in the rooms, but in middle school could even be simpler that they just leave it in their first period class. It never leaves that spot the entire day.

So I did reach out to several school districts around the area around that. Good. Actually, no one who I spoke to, they do that because of liability and issues that would go with where they are, how that works, all those kinds of things. So they do similar to us. All of them have policies similar to us. Some of them do allow them during halls and in lunch, but most middle schools are similar. And they also do what we do. With students who have multiple offensives, they confiscate those at the beginning of the day and give them back at the end of the day. But no one has a policy that they... are taking them at the beginning of the day for logistical reasons of getting the kids back to get the cell phones, for liability with parents, for all sorts of different things. At

least at this point. Okay. And I'm less interested in what everybody else is doing locally than I am about what we're doing here. And I also know that nationally this is happening. I understand we consistently seems like we you know look around our local area to see what's going on but clearly like Pam said this is a national problem so we really need to be looking nationally because as a nation we are starting this process of understanding how to deal with this in our schools. So we really have to be looking broader than that. You can find on the Internet schools that are having them leave it in. And from what I'm reading it's not a logistical problem. There's enough time at the end of the day they each go you know it's not like all the kids are going to one room. They're all going to their first period class. So you leave enough you know the five minute window for them to go to their first period classes retrieve their phone and you add that to you know the parent education Again so much less enforcement issues if they cannot get to it all day long and like Pam said it's not on the teachers you know it's that first period class teacher yeah but otherwise for the rest of the day they don't have to think about it. So I would really think about not just comparing us to what's going on in fact I would say where we look at ourselves as leaders in this area And if we're concerned about not just academics, but SEL, which we are so good in both of those areas, this can only improve both of those without a doubt. So that's what we're trying to do, right? We're trying to continue, like Pam said, being an excellent school district and making sure our students have the best environment to have their education. To me, I'd really consider and it's the logistical part is not a valid reason not to do it. So I'll just say it that way. It's just not. We figure out logistical stuff all the time. So I'll go back to having said that, I'll go back what I said in October, which is we always ask in any public health issue We always ask for all community members to be involved in it. We never just ask parents to be involved. So 1946 is when National School Lunches became something that our government said, we need to make sure that these kids are getting fed properly. And so we didn't say to the parents, hey, send your kids to school with great food. We said, hey, schools, we actually need you to be involved in this. And I would say that this is an area where we also need to have primary prevention, which is having our schools be in line with our thinking, which is that phones are addictive and a distraction, like we all agree. And therefore the schools are going to be a part of making sure that they are not accessible during the school day. There's very few times when we have, because of smartphones, And these kids especially, there are very, very few hours when they could be fully present. As a society, we don't do a lot of that, especially in America, where we are just with ourselves. We are getting bored and or thinking creatively, all of those things. And if we could give them the gift... of having eight hours, where they not only get to be present, but they actually get to rely on their own resiliency to get through what they're trying to get through. I watched a really great webinar around this, around a phone-free school movement, which is a nationwide movement, and they had a psychiatrist, an adolescent psychiatrist speak about the fact that a lot of parents will say, well, my kid needs it for anxiety. And again, this wouldn't be available at Whiteown, but it would be, you know. And so when they're in the hallway and they kind of get anxious about something and they text their mom and say, I'm anxious about, or they even just scroll because scrolling gives them that little distraction. She talked about how that's called avoidance coping. And again, if we can't control whether they do that at home, we certainly can help these kids have a space for eight hours and where they can't participate in that kind of coping, where they're using other skills. They're going to have to cope in other ways, which hopefully they go to the wellness center and find out what those ways are, right? Because, again, in my view, we're sort of talking out of both sides of our mouth. If we're going to have a wellness center that doesn't ever say, yeah, you should get on your phone and do this to help you feel better, and yet we're allowing them to go to their phone for coping by having it available during the school day. Although... I love that we are talking about instructional time is not the time for it. But I'll segue to, I do believe that bell-to-bell is not the time. That it's truly eight hours. Because let's talk about when the kids getting it out like you said take pictures at that same moment a big text could come up a snap could go out there's other things that can happen during those two minutes or one minute or less that they're going to see on their phone that has nothing to do with academics it's just the nature of phones so In my eyes, there is very limited. I understand physics, but I really don't even understand. We got along without phones in our classrooms for a long time and we all did just fine. I didn't have, we're all here. We're all here, you're all here, being very intelligent, amazing leaders in our schools, didn't have those phones, worked out just fine. So I have a hard time with us relying on phones in any way for instructional purposes. You may probably already know that because I said it last time, but I'm going to repeat it. What else? There was a... Okay. A couple things. A couple specific things. The... One of the things... And thank you for addressing the surveys. That was really helpful to me. I'm very... I didn't love that survey. I liked that it was put out in a way that was uniform and that you're going to be able to compare. For those reasons, I understand exactly why you said it. I don't like the idea of asking students or teachers whether they think that makes them safer to have it or not because we already have facts on that. We are very aware. It's just like asking students if they think broccoli is healthy. You know, whatever. What they say about it doesn't matter. We know that broccoli is healthy. So I don't love those questions, and that's a bigger problem, but I understand why you used that survey, so thank you for making that clear. Have you considered the fact, the idea, the concept, of a student, and it could be at YWD too if they're taking it out of their backpack, would see some sort of school threat or violence or something come through on their phone during school hours. I mean can you imagine during passing period a student gets on their phone and reads, I put a bomb in the Clayton bathroom, it's gonna go off in three minutes. Tell me about how having the risk of not just what you would do about it, because I honestly don't want you to tell me what you're going to do about it because I don't want it to happen. But like, I just I feel like it's a. If we can protect our kids from having like we had at Y down false alarms and or. actual alarms. We have such a great security system already, and for them to see these texts and get alarmed, it actually, even if it's a real threat, is not helpful. It could actually decrease the response time because we now have kids screaming in hallways, right? And people not knowing what's going on and have wrong information. I think it's the here, but maybe it's there. So I'm having a hard time, and I feel like it's a ticking time bomb. no pun intended, that this will happen in our schools. That eventually at Clayton High School, possibly Y-Down, if they're not in a first period class, some kid will see something and it will alarm them and it will cause panic a very traumatic event.

We've experienced this already. I mean, a few years ago, there was a threat made towards the high school, along with a couple other high schools, actually, that was seen during the school day. During the school day? It was during the school day, and what happened was almost simultaneously, a student went to the SRO and reported it. A student came to me and reported it. And then we were able to connect immediately with the Clayton PD and begin an investigation immediately. Luckily, it was unfounded. But the sooner we know about those things, actually, the quicker we can start investigating them. And that's what happened in that case.

Have you spoke with Michael Parkinson, our new safety and security director, about what he thinks? Because from what I understand, the student getting the word out about this potential threat is not any faster than us as our system exists being able to respond to that threat.

Yeah. So he and I had, um, have, have had a couple meetings, um, since he's been here to talk about this and part of what we talked about, um, he comes from an environment that has an open campus. Um, and so he has said to me that he agrees with, um, sort of our approach to our theory of practice being tight during instructional times. Um, but knowing that particularly at the high school, because of the freedom that, that children have. He actually believes that the phones could be helpful in that instance if something were to happen while kids are at lunch, that we could engage with the phones to alert students of something and for them to sort of have an accountability piece back to us. We don't have any of those systems in place right now, but he's like, that could be an option for us to look at, but he agrees with keeping it tight during instructional times.

That goes against several things that I've read and something that Jack Boger said to me directly during a meeting earlier this, or last week. So that's something we'll have to think about. I also want to say that K through 12 is different than where he is from, which is higher college level, and so the way that a student would use their phone to help, like he's saying potentially might be very different when you're talking about 19 to 21

year olds

versus the

younger. The other thing that he and I talked about was in a classroom environment, if there were an emergency situation, so like the article that you sent, he and I looked at that article together and talked through it, and we would agree with that article in the sense of in a classroom setting, in an emergency situation, We don't want kids on their phones. We want the kids to respond to the adults in the room and in that setting. And so one of the things that he and I had talked about was what does like already our training for students as well as our training for teachers, what does that look like and how to embed that within that training? So like the four years training that we do, what are the ways that we can embed that learning also for children as well? And that feels different to me than when the kids are off campus or something like that. Sure. So this idea of like in the article it talks about if kids have their phones then they're alerting parents, parents are clogging things up and then first responders can't get there and stuff. And so he would agree with everything in that article also. So I want to be clear in like what he and I talked about. It wasn't about like the response to an emergency. in a classroom setting of them having access to the phones, he agrees that they should respond to the adult. We talked more about what does that open campus look like when kids are off campus for lunch or something like that and something were to happen. Is there a way for us to leverage those tools to help communicate things to kids and for kids to help communicate things back to us? He and

I spoke about that too, but kids have their phones when they're off campus, so that's not a problem. No, he's

saying you can leverage the technology. And can

I, I want to just add to that. Yeah. At our PTO council meeting last week, I think, I think you were, you weren't there. Um, we talked about this with Gina. Um, the parents, the incident in Y down had just happened, you know, where there was a threat right as kids were leaving school, the parents in the PTO council meeting were actually asking because their kids have phones. If the kids could have gotten a direct text saying it was a false alarm. They wanted their kids to get a notice, like a false alarm, because it took so long for the kids to hear from their parents. Because it was after school and they weren't with a teacher to tell them it was a false alarm, they had to wait until their parents called them and said it's false, and that took too long. I don't know if, Jamie, you heard this too, but I'm just saying at PTO Council, the parents were asking for what Dan's talking about, leverage the phone use to push out to students.

That makes perfect sense after school. You wouldn't do that during the school day because they're in school. They're going to know that it's there. What I think the parents were talking about,

I don't want to – I wasn't at the meeting, so what we've discussed in our after-action meeting around that incident is one of the things we learned is like – and this is something – if you are in a lockdown situation, the time that it takes to clear versus like we may have known that it was accidental within like I'm going to make this up. for public record, this is all made up. We may have known that it was accidental within five minutes, but we have to wait to clear and look for things, whatever. So you have children who are in a lockdown situation. It takes a minute. So I think what they were sharing was like, and there were kids that were also at our rally points that were waiting to hear things. So they were away from the building and, you know, but the kids that were in those classrooms, if they could have heard sooner, we think this is an accidental thing. That's, I think, what they may have been talking about. I wasn't in that meeting, but that's what they were sharing. And the kids in those situations and the teachers in that situation did a beautiful job, all of them. And the teachers reported that there were some children that were texting their parents, you know what I mean? Like, you know, because they were fearful and, you know what Now it was after school, so the kids that have, you know, it was 3.15, the kids had their cell phones. So, you know, I don't know what it would look like if it would have happened at 3 o'clock. But, you know, that is something that we're learning in as we had to go through with all that.

I would really agree with what those parents are saying after school. I just don't think it helps at all doing this. In fact,

it's not necessary. No, and I was kind of just concurring. what Dan was saying about open campus in that time, that there's a way to leverage it. There is, open campus, yeah. To

push out a text. So I agree with Mike there for sure. Okay. No, we're good now. We got it, we got it.

I guess I can kind of like share a little of our story because my little brother was at the false alarm. He was at track practice and he was waiting in the little like grass, like indoor patio area that they have at Y-Down when they heard the alarm sound. And they like, they climbed the gate, opened the gate for the other students that were there and then immediately left the rally points. And he was telling me like, he called me and my mom called me asking if I knew something about it. And then there were definitely lots of calls made, but my mom was the first to tell my little brother and their friends that like, it was a false alarm because of course they had no way to know that it was a false alarm yet until a teacher like started going up to them and was like yeah like a couple minutes later was able to meet with them at that rally point and say like it was a false but that um i agree maybe like a text after school or at least what i've been thinking maybe for the high school just kind of this whole topic of conversation like made me think about also the open campus for example like if an emergency or lockdown were to happen at clayton high school and students were at Chick-fil-A, eating there with their friends. How would you know not to come back to school when there is an emergency? Yeah, exactly. And that would be, yes, I completely agree.

I wanted to just respond to your comment about not looking at other schools.

I'm not just limiting it to looking at local schools.

Okay, okay. I just wanted to respond to that because, which I agree with, like we should look everywhere. But we have so much, like even tonight parents mentioned other local schools. So I think it is important for us to respond to that and look into that. And we've even had board members. And even like Parkway, for example, they have their new rule. It's really no different than we're doing. Like their high school is allowing phones during passing periods and lunchtime. So the headline says a ban, but it really is what we're doing. But

are you guys of the opinion that because everyone else is doing it X, Y, Z way, we should? I mean, that's right. That's not who we are. That's not what we teach our kids to do. We teach them to do the opposite. We teach them think for themselves no matter what. Because everybody else is doing it a certain way doesn't mean that way is right. So I have a hard time with this idea like, well, everybody else is doing this basically too. I'm not saying that's what you're saying or you're saying. I just need to make sure that we all hear that that's not what we're going to do.

Well, our district is, especially our high school, is also very unique. It's hard to compare our open campus situation. So I think there's not another high school in the area we can compare ourselves to probably because of that. For that reason. Okay, I want to get back on focusing on the presentation and the instructional time, and I want to open it up to anyone who hasn't spoken yet. Ben or Karen

or Jason? Thank you all for your presentation and for the discussion. I had actually quite a few questions, several of which have already been kind of addressed. Actually, I did have a question for Lucia. Do phones go off in class? Are there like dings and distractions just from phones? Is that a common occurrence?

Very rarely. Actually, a lot of people I see, they just completely power their phone off at class time, especially the ones that put them in their backpack. They just either put on do not disturb or just completely power it off and then put it in their backpack. The only times we actually hear a ding are when they're on the wall in the socket and then the teacher's like, can everyone go check if your phone is going off? And then everyone goes and puts it in silence. That's more of a distraction. Yeah a little bit but

Yeah, it's right if you have a whole bank of phones. You don't know which one just right

yeah, so Powering off the next step, but but when no, but almost never

okay? No, that's helpful um you know I have a question that you know we talked about some of the you know kind of valid uses of phones in classes and You know, and some of the things like around recording video or maybe even taking pictures. It seems like, you know, all the kids have Chromebook devices. Does that just sort of represent some of a deficiency of those devices and how they function? Absolutely.

Okay. I should let the principal say that.

Okay. So, sorry. Okay. So why don't

you ask them to see if she uses the Chromebook? Look what

she's using right now. Does

anybody use their Chromebook at school?

Yeah. I very, very recently got this computer. Since I'm going off to college, I finally got my own personal device. I guess if you ask me how it's compared to use my own device to the Chromebook...

Don't be shy. We've already talked about

this. It's much better. It works a lot better. I've heard... A lot of people with just the Chromebooks, there's a lot of problems just with connection, with speed too. It takes a long, long time to load Chromebook devices up to go to Google Classroom and complete any assignment that just takes a bit.

Well, I guess I would suggest that that might be something we continue to talk about. And it might be the form factor, too, a little bit, right? I mean, laptops are kind of, you know, you don't have a huge amount of desk space. And it's like to break them out. If they don't load quickly, you know. They're very

heavy.

They're heavy. I mean, all this is sort of like. The chargers are heavy. But there is a collaborative platform here, right, with Google Classroom and other things to share. You have email. You have Google Drive or something. You know, so in a way, like, I mean, I'm just kind of think corollary to like the corporate environment whereby, you know, there's a strong emphasis on keeping all information like tightly within the environment. So with phones, things kind of go all over the place. So that's just maybe something if we could find maybe a better pathway there, we might be able to limit the need for phones. The other thing, there was a mention in the policy about students should only access internet through district provided networks. I'm assuming that means primarily the Chromebooks themselves because you're not supposed to be accessing your phone. But although I hear performance issues like with Wi-Fi is common. Go

ahead. In the quad, I know like in the quad and specifically in the cafeteria, it just really doesn't work. Sometimes even cellular service but also Wi-Fi. So for this sometimes I do know that like people use their phones to connect to a hotspot to be able to work on their homework during like in the quad. That's like an example I just wanted to share.

Okay, so I guess we have two questions maybe for Dan on that. So one, does that apply to cell phones also? Is that internet provided through district-provided networks? Is that for phones also?

So it can be. So we have what's called a courtesy Wi-Fi. So like we can connect to the courtesy Wi-Fi, the kids can connect. You put your credentials in. When you put your credentials in, it recognizes the student as a student. And so then has the same, their phone would sort of have the same capabilities as their Chromebook would have in that way. So they can access that. They can also turn it off and use their data plan.

Then I would assume kind of that there's content policies related to those networks, right?

Sorry. We even signed the technology use agreement.

Right, exactly, yeah. And there's also like, I think there's like SIPA is another adherence, right? Okay. Oh, yeah, so one of the, and this has already kind of been talked about a little bit. I was sort of struck by on the disciplinary data screen how much fewer confiscations there were at the high school Is that just, I'm curious why that might be. I obviously have a lot more kids. Any commentary on that?

No, I think we touched on that a couple of times. I think that part of it is I do think that some teachers are enforcing it and set the expectation pretty clearly up front, and they're not having a problem. Other teachers, as I mentioned before, are more inclined to give a warning or a reminder to put your phone away, actually rather than immediately confiscating the phone. I mean, I do think that that's part of it as well.

So just to follow on to that, we would expect probably with a little more focus on enforcement that those numbers would go up? That's correct. Okay, perfect. I was thinking about one, do we have any signage at the high school around the policy? We do? We do? Okay. Okay. That's helpful to know. It

says

no phone. Yeah, and we put them in, we had them in all the classrooms. I haven't checked them lately, but we started putting them in all the class rooms. But it was like the cell phone with the red line in the circle through it. They're

in Spanish and Spanish.

Oh, is that right? I mean, anecdotally, I've heard that the language class is where the strictest policies occur. I'm not sure why that is, but that's good to hear. Well, that's really all I had. Thank

you. I'm not in a hurry, but I'll go. Yeah, yeah. So it's fast 830. That's true. The number that needs attention is the enforcement consistency number. Everyone said it. I'm going to say it again. Could you, I think you said it before, but could you say again what you attribute that number to? In other words, this is faculty responses about enforcement consistency. Are they saying they themselves are losing consistency in enforcing it? Are they saying their neighbors not enforcing it? Or are they saying the administration isn't backing them up? Which, or is it a mix of all of those things? What do you think's going on with

I think it's a mix. I mean, not to, you know, I'm biased, but the survey results actually have been pretty consistent that people feel supported, actually, from the administration in terms of enforcing the policy. What I think is exactly what I mentioned in terms of teacher walks in, gets ready to start class, sees a phone out on a desk now, and the teacher says, okay, reminder, phones need to go in the holder or be away. If I see it again, I'm taking it. Kids put it away by the letter of the law that they should have taken it. The so I think that that's part of it. I mean, there's also an element of I mean, I imagine that this is purely speculation, but just knowing human nature. If I'm on the third floor and I see a phone and I can tell a kid to put it away and I know that they're going to put it away. It's it's less disruptive and and the less disruptive to my day that then Pocketing the phone and taking it to the main office actually and giving it to an administrator The I mean I do I I mean if I'm being honest, I think that they're just being human I think that there's probably part of that as well.

I Guess You know that that's the number that needs to be focused on. You said it repeatedly. We don't need to say it again. I do think that clarity of expectations and uniformity can both improve that number and make the enforcement easier, because it becomes easier to enforce a rule when everyone knows it's going to be enforced. And I would I know why you're giving a lot of autonomy to these teachers. I think it may be necessary to create a little more uniformity so the expectation is a little more level so that kids aren't walking into the next class and saying, Mr. So-and-so lets me. And the little I know about schools that have had, at least they perceive, more success on this, it really is It's just the culture that everyone knows that their phone is not going to be out during the day. And that works. And I'd ask you to think about that.

All right. I just jotted down a handful of points. I'm going to try to make them not repetitive. So bear with me, but I want to start off on the positive. So I actually, Dr. Guchewski, I really appreciate all the stuff that you say that you're planning on rolling out, whether it's the spring or this year, all this stuff. I do think that those things are systemic. I do think putting the shoe. Box or whatever you used to call it in the classroom is systemic. I do think observing it in class That's all part of building culture and I appreciate that you're doing that I said last June that I viewed the core part of this problem as a culture problem, right? And one a culture of enforcement accountability and all the things that we talked about my my struggle is that This type of culture change does require consistency, and so it plays off a little bit of what Leo was talking about. And just if only 50% of the faculty at CHS almost never ask students to use phones in class, that means that roughly 50% are asking them at some point during their curriculum to use their phones in class. And I think that just, again, to play off of what Leo said, You know, it hurts your the hard work that I believe that you're doing and putting into this. My my own perspective is that it hurts our ability to make this part of the culture. So I think I said something similar last fall, but I guess I'll say it again. So along those lines, you know, Ben brought up the technology issue. That's another thing we talked about last fall. I think there is general agreement among the seven of us that you know, we need to probably make some investment technology just to eliminate the need for students to use their cell phones in class. And so along those lines, I know we're entering into a two-year technology review. If there's an opportunity to accelerate some of those recommendations for consideration of the board next year, I think this is a board that would be receptive and not having to wait two years for those investments. technology is going to be in the classroom um we you know and we should we should be okay with that and let's just have as much control over that technology in the classroom as we can so i'll just in terms of what the board can actually do that's one place that the board can help support this culture change that you're trying to drive um I like the splitting out of the surveys. Someone else said it between the seniors and the freshmen, you know, if we can continue, it'd be interesting to see year-over-year trends around that because I suspect that by year three and year four, we will see culture changes. You know, I'll just say that if, to just sort of put this out there, you're clearly, we're all clearly putting a lot of work into this. Dr. Gaciusi, you're putting a lot of working into this. I do think at some point, if it's just not working, just as you've told us, hey look, we have some issues to deal with here. I expect you to come back and tell us it's not working. And that's when I think, as far as I'm concerned, that's when we need to look at doing something else. But we'll see what the next year brings. And then lastly, I would like to know how much school does the golf team actually miss? Like that was the one thing that I actually learned in this presentation that's new. And maybe, you know, I don't know if Steve's around. Actually, as

sports go, they actually miss the most. They miss the most because in the spring their meets are so long that they go during the day. My recollection is,

you know, we used to have like afternoon tournaments. But, you know, all right. That was my last question. So thank you for your time.

Yeah, so I'll be brief as well. I mean, I agree. A lot of good things were said and I think you guys have gotten a lot of feedback. I appreciate that you guys are seeing positive change year over year and there's more work to be done. I think, Dan, your comment on form versus substance is important and also the teacher autonomy piece is important, but we also are responsible for making sure that the teachers have the tools in place so that they're not feeling like they have to always be the policeman in the classroom. And the one example that I was thinking of as I took a step back from this is, you know, we put in place what we could debate as a popular or unpopular attendance policy for the high school this year. Only for the high school. It's separate than the other schools. And it was very clear what it is. And there are no exceptions to the policy unless, you know, they were individually appealed. Right? I mean, you could do something different. We could have taken, if necessary, and this doesn't improve and it's not working and you need to come back and say, hey, it's not working, I need to do something else. You could take a similar track to this. We have this policy. There's going to be no exceptions to the policy now. Everybody's going to put their phones into the pouches at the front of the class. Yeah, it's going to be a pain in the butt if you have to go use it to take pictures because we haven't yet found a better solution than Chromebooks, but we'll do that if that makes it easier and it makes it a better learning environment. Yes, this is a cultural change, but so is the attendance policy for high school students in terms of a cultural change that we basically enacted overnight for this school year. There are ways, I think, to accelerate cultural changes that may be unpopular but that everybody will grumble about, nobody will be happy about, and then it's done. So I just encourage you to think if that's something that makes sense. And then I do appreciate the, you know, I'm now board treasurer again, and I do appreciate that although we can overcome logistics issues, Chris, I don't know where current came from. There is a real liability issue from a personal property standpoint when you talk about cell phones. They're personal property that students bring to school. It's a value of $500 to $1,000 a cell phone. 20 cell phones that are kept in the classroom is $10,000 to $20,000 of personal property that's in every classroom if it's kept from... you know, from the start of the day till the end. So there are ways to get around that, right? Or there are ways to limit the liabilities for the school district. Parents can sign a waiver at the beginning, just like we have them sign all kinds of waivers about, you know, this is our cell phone policy and if you decide you're gonna keep it at the beginning of the day, if something happens to the cell phone, it's not the school's responsibility, right? But it is a real, like, there is true liability there for this school district as far as collecting personal property of that value across that number of students and holding it in one place. I

was saying the same thing. I thought to myself, they would have to sign

something before school starts, the parents

and the students would have to sign.

So yeah, I mean these are expensive, more expensive than sometimes than these, right? Depending on what students are bringing to school. So that's it.

Okay. Thank you, all of you. I just had one question that hadn't been asked yet. Jamie, I think there was a data point that said 20% or something of the students don't follow the rule, or 19%. I don't remember where I came from that. But my question for you is, I don't have a basis of comparison of this compared to other rules at school. Is 20% of kids not following this a little or a lot compared to... other rules you have. And I don't know, maybe you don't need to quote a number off the top of your head, but I don't know if we should be proud of that or upset by that.

So about 10% of the students have had some sort of interaction with cell phones. That's probably what I would compare that to is tardies. Okay. You know what I mean? Like, we have about probably a little more than that with tardies, maybe 20%, you know what I mean, like depending on what kind. But so it is more than we would see any other infraction for sure. Okay. I mean, that's for sure. Like, if you think about when I mentioned there was four referrals out of the 600 kids for the duration of the year around that have cell phones written in them, you know, we don't really necessarily have that many. But yeah, so it is higher. Okay. That level is higher. 10% of our kids involved in something is higher than a normal infraction for sure. And that is something that we'll try to work on for next year. You know, like I said, the bulk of them were in first semester, hopefully. Right. And, you know, it's funny, like... it improvement or is a lack of enforcement you know what i mean like it's going to be tricky to tease out as we go forward and making sure that we're keeping the maintain and what we what we have to rely on then is what the teachers are telling us at the middle school it's like what the teachers are tell us if they feel like it's better things are being happening and they can teach their classes i think that's what we have to relay on as well as the numbers to balance

and did you see a difference like we looked at numbers the high school between this freshman and the seniors do you see a difference between 6th and 8th grade.

Yeah, I mean, 8th grade are the repeat offenders.

Yeah. Well, and I think, again, that goes back to... Sorry. Dan's getting up next. And it has to do with their age and development and what they're doing. Well, I think it also goes back to what we've talked about as a culture shift. It's new. And so my hope, like I said before, is that the 6th graders and the 9th graders, by the time they get to 8th grade and 12th grade, will have been more used to this, and so the entire school will be better off.

But I will tell you what I also think we're not remembering also is adolescence. So the 11-year-olds are different, maybe more fearful, maybe more working with their parents than the 14-year-olds. Like when Dan and I were talking about this and he was telling me the names of the students who were the repeat offenders, they're 9th graders, 10th graders. they're not using the phones in the same way. I mean, what Lucia described is like what you would see in a corporate setting, what you would see at, at wash. You know what I mean? Like it was actually, I know this, I should, it was, it's like that is maturity in action. You know what? I mean, that's not what we're seeing with eighth graders, ninth graders, right. The

infraction, right. The cell phone use in the classroom at white own is not the same as the cell phone use in

And that's why our rules are stricter. That's why our teachers look at it differently. You know, all of those things.

At the high school, she said. Yeah, she said it. Because she was comparing it to what? Yeah, right. Right.

Right.

Well, the high school, you know, well, there's different reasons. You know, Greyhound time and lunchtime give students a huge break in the middle of the days to socialize and do things where they don't have that at White Owens. So meeting your friends in the bathroom is your time to socialize. No, you're right. You know, the high school they don't need to go seek out those other times to socialize as much. So that's probably it. But I just wanted to close by saying I truly appreciate all three of you, but Dan and Jamie especially, your honesty with what is reality, what's really happening here, and recognizing where the weaknesses are. And to me, the overarching thing is just enforcement. The practices as they're written, I agree with and I think are good if it's enforced and followed. So, I appreciate your honesty in recognizing that that hasn't worked as well as you've hoped yet. and even your honesty, Dan, with specific examples of teachers that have self-reported that they're just not enforcing it. I don't like to hear that, but I appreciate you being vulnerable enough or humble enough to share that. So I am optimistic with what Jason said, the steps you're taking to better enforce it and better support and encourage the teachers to enforce it. And I think hopefully it comes through that all of us at this table just at the end of the day want a distraction-free learning environment. And so whatever it takes, whatever you need to do to get there is what we're hopeful for and what we want. So thank you very much.

And I think for the community that's listening, I also want to reiterate the fact that we understand and we hear that this is an important topic for the community, including parents and staff and students. And hence, we're spending so much time on it. And I do want to thank you, Dan, Jamie, and Milena for putting in the time and the effort in this topic, because I know how much energy you have spent on it. And we want to assure the community that we continue to do that. what gets measured gets done, right? So we know 36% of our staff at the high school is saying that it's not being enforced. We now know that's the problem that we are going to address. Dan gave specific steps and will continue to measure that. I think those cell phone sweeps or observation noted, those are specific examples that will take it to the next level, right? So I just think it's important to know that we acknowledge it, we know it's an area of growth, and we're going to address it. So thank you, all three of you, for all your work. All right, Dr. Garganigo, you're up and Dan and Jamie, guess what? You get to go home.

Go watch the Blues game. Thank you. It's what, Tide 1-1? Oh. Thank you, Betsy. Okay, Dr. Garginego, yes. Oh, do we want a bio break? Yeah. Okay, three minutes. back, Jeff and Luke? Okay. Dr. Garganigo.

Okay. So I'm here to talk and give you an update on the Success Ready Student Network. So if you remember in the fall, I came to you to talk about this. You all approved a resolution at that time for our participation in the organization. So I'm going to give you an update and then ask for another resolution for some future work with the group. If you remember, we talked about this before, the Success Ready Student Network is a collaborative of Missouri school districts. So we're part of the third cohort. So at this point there's about 50 plus school districts that are involved in a more intensive part of this work and then there are a lot more districts that are just involved in a professional development opportunity. But the goal of this group is to build district's capacity to understand and use a competency-based approach to learning. So why this initially really resonated with us was this idea of the competency-based learning really falls under these kind of eight bullet points, and they parallel a lot of our work with our strategic plan and our profile of the graduate. So thinking about the definition of the competency-based learning, having those breadcrumbs there, empowerment. So that's our second goal within our strategic plan. Meaningful assessment with actionable feedback for all students. Differentiated support based on learning needs. So that's similar to our multi-tiered system of support process that we've shared at the assessment report. Mastery of learning over seat time. So that's a little different approach to learning, but I think addresses individual student needs pretty well. Varied pace and path, so that's a part of our definition of empowered learning. An equity focus, so students getting what they need. Learning is personalized. Common expectations for learning, and then this idea around real-world learning experiences, which Nisha and I have most recently talked about with some of our work moving forward. So Clayton's membership within the Success Ready Student Network in 2023 and 2024, you all approved our participation in what was called the Innovation Learning Design Zone, and that was a professional development opportunity. So at that time, Julie Power, our literacy coordinator, and myself were participating in monthly professional learning. The main focus around that being competency-based education and assessment practices. And so they were bringing in people from around the nation to share learning with us. And then I came to in the fall to ask for our participation in the system design zone So we continue with the professional learning piece, but then we also have cohort meetings in Jeff City Robin Hogg our director of assessment and professional learning and Julie power attend those with me So that we have a team going and then dependent on the topic We will pull other people from the team to be a part of that so Angie Caracciolo or math coordinator has come to be a part Of that etc And then the demonstration project is the piece that I really want to spend the time talking about tonight, because that's what we're coming to you to ask for. the new resolution to be signed. So the demonstration project is a new component of this for us. It's an opportunity for the district to request a waiver from state requirements and to join in a federal waiver from certain assessments and accountability measures. So what that would look like from the perspective of the district would be that the waiver includes an alternative annual performance report. So if you remember at the assessment report that we present each year, That's a main focus of our state data that we talk through. It would change the way that student achievement is measured and reported, and in the immediate it would allow us as a district to use what the board already proves through our assessment matrix as our district approved reading and math assessments to report our data. Why that is appealing to us is it's multiple data points throughout the year that allow us to look at growth for students in both literacy and numeracy, as opposed to the map assessment, which is, and the EOCs, which is one final thing, and it's happening right now, We get the data late, it's difficult for us to respond to. So we believe that this, looking at this alternative APR and in the immediate using our district assessments will help us to better respond to student need and report that to the public, not just in the annual assessment report but in more public ways. Sorry. In the long run, the work would look like us being a part of the development of new literacy and numeracy assessments initially in grades three through eight and then ultimately in high school also to replace the current map and to replace the end-of-course exams. We are currently... Some meetings some initial meetings with those to look at blueprints and prototypes of those And we believe at this point that it's important for us to be involved in that work as opposed to that work happening around us So we we believe that our voice is important to be at the table and we've already started that so we're excited about these possibilities and Those assessments would measure standards. They would allow multiple opportunities for us to measure the priority standards from the state and allow students opportunity for retesting. So if they have not yet met that standard, then it gives us an opportunity to provide some time for that. So that matches our belief around assessment. It matches our belief around learning and proficiency. So in addition to those pieces, the other things that would be a part of this waiver that we're asking for is what the state is referring to as market value assets. Nisha and I prefer to call it future-ready skills. And so the future-ready skills that we see, it's this idea of thinking about after graduation, what are we preparing students for? And so what are the skills and dispositions that we're looking to help and the opportunities that we're providing within the school before they graduate to help make them sort of more marketable when they leave us. So the state examples of market value assets include things like internships, client connected projects which would be sort of real world experiences where you're thinking about a client and engaging with that client and then responding to their needs in what you develop for them. Entrepreneurial experiences, industry recognized credentials which are similar to our project lead the way courses and the assessments that go with that and then college credit, AP and dual enrollment and dual credit. For Clayton, what we have talked about most recently of sort of expanding some of that to include things like a global education experience that would allow us, we feel like that parallels our work within our profile of a graduate. The seal of biliteracy which we haven't spent a lot of time talking with you all about but it is an opportunity for seniors that we believe we can expand. and we believe there's a connection between the global education piece with that. Catalyst is our clearest example of entrepreneurial work. Project Lead the Way assessments, like I said before, the early college program, advanced placement, and then the client-connected projects, the things that we have in place already, and then I put in ellipses on purpose because I think we have a real potential to grow there. So our global STEM squads that Steve Beecham has come to talk to you about before, Our Amped on Algebra class is the class that's coming online next year. So it's a connection between CTE and algebra, and it'll be running the school store at the high school geometry and construction that will come in online the next year, which is about putting geometry in place in a really practical way. So we're excited about these opportunities. We predict that MVAs will become a graduation requirement in the state moving forward. And then the other commitment that we would be making with the waiver is to have a public-facing data dashboard on our website, which we already have a data dashboard on our but what we would be committing to is something that right now would reflect the data from our local assessments. So that's NWA and STAR. grades three through eight, and that we would be reporting that from proficiency, from growth, and then this idea of the quadrant piece of academic readiness by growth. We would be partnering with Marzano Research in order to build these so that all the school districts that are a part of the demonstration project, that our websites look the same. And so that will require us to have some conversation with them about data sharing Um, and those kinds of things. So I have already alerted the SRSN that we're going to have to have some conversation about that, um, before we move forward. So there is some work to think about trying to do it through DESE, um, which actually would be much more comfortable for us, um, in, in those ways. But those are the big pieces that we're asking. Um, those are the big let us sign on to be a part of that. Part of, before coming to you tonight, one of the things that's a requirement of this is engaging community groups and the public and our staff. And so we've sort of been on a circuit. So Robin and I have worked with the coordinators, we've worked with the Professional Development Committee, we've worked the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council, and now we're coming to you to ask for that support. So our timeline would be asking for the resolution to be approved tonight. Then in the fall, we would go to the State Board of Education for approval of that resolution. We would begin to use these alternative assessments in the fall, but I want to be careful that you know that because we currently don't have a federal waiver, we would still be required to give the map next year. But we believe that it's still a good thing for us moving forward because depending on whether we get a federal waiver or not would make that determination. But what we would be publicly pushing out would be our local data and not necessarily our map data. And then we would have the ongoing work with the cohorts around the development of the new state assessments. What questions do you have for

me? Hi. Can you talk about how you're going to measure the equivalent of I guess the student group. How we've seen in traditional academic assessment reports how are you going to evaluate student groups moving forward?

Yeah, so the same way that we disaggregate data from the state data, we do with our local data. What we believe with this process is it allows us to be more responsive more quickly to those data points because we're giving it three times a year. So it's similar to what we're already doing with our practices, but it'll allow us to respond and because those assessments are more aligned to to our curriculum, to our practices and our instruction in the classroom, we can be responsive that much more quickly. And so it's similar to what we talked about with the assessment report with the involvement of Educlimber in our MTSS process, that that allows us to stay on top of those data and respond to them.

So should we still expect whenever, which is kind of my next question, but whatever this report out looks like to the board, should we expect to see student group data as part of that report out?

Yes. The same way you do now.

The same way we do now.

Yeah, I don't envision that our annual assessment report will look much different, except that I think we're going to tip the scales to using NWA and STAR data as sort of a more prominent part of that report than MAP. Right now, we're still going to have both of those data points. But I think the way the report will be written, it'll be a bigger proportion to the local assessments.

Okay. Well, so I'm comfortable with that. So I appreciate you clarifying that. Thank you. I'll just say, just to pontificate for 30 seconds, at least once a year, I ask for us to really explain how we view the opportunity gap and how we define that and how we plan to attack that. And so one of these years it's going to get, I'm going to make sure it gets on the agenda and we're going to have real discussion about it unless someone wants to come forward with that information and volunteer it to me ahead of time. So, you know, I'm still looking for that answer. So I'll just say that. But I appreciate what you said about how we're going to report out on that moving forward. And then my last question is like as the board Do you envision the cycle of reporting? I know it's going to be more real-time data, which is going to be great. Are we going to get something in the fall and the spring? And it's okay if you haven't even gotten to that point, but have you thought about that at all?

I haven't thought about reporting it to you more times than we already do. Perhaps I

think about that more than you do, naturally.

But I don't, I mean, I don't see a reason why we couldn't. Okay. We currently give those assessments three times a year, but we only report them to you once. Yeah. We could report them more.

Yeah. I mean, I just, I was reflecting on after the last academic assessment report, which is, you know, like we only get it once a year and it's about literally like how are our kids learning, you know? So, you know, if we have to have, if we get to have two shorter reports, that might actually be good, you know, to consider. But anyway. That sounds great to me.

It's kind of like lemonade. Well,

I'm prepared to say second on that agenda item. All right. Thank you.

Yeah. I just have a question about there's a professional learning component that I saw in the actual commitment that we'll make if we approved it tonight. And so will that professional learning piece be aligned like with the PD here? Because I would expect that this change has to take place kind of across the schools, so have you guys thought about how you're doing that with the PD schedule that's already in place?

Yeah, and Robin and I have already started to roll out some of this stuff with our coordinators. So the focus this year with the coordinators, so our theory of practice there is as the curriculum leaders within the district, We need them on board and really thinking through this idea first. And then how does that then sort of trickle down to the teachers? So Robin's been leading the charge with the coordinators and that learning. And then their last piece at their last meeting is that they are coming with sort of skeleton slides of what that's going to look like for their teams moving forward. So we feel like it's all going to parallel what we're doing. We also have... Each district is given one seat in a sort of a larger more in-depth PD opportunity and we currently have Craig Suker attending all of that PD to help the high school is going to be the place where this conversation I think is is going to be sort of the biggest lift at the elementary level if you think about it we're already sort of doing a lot of personalized and individualized stuff with a like AP alignment and those kinds of things, it's a little bit harder at the high school. And so we felt like it was important to have Craig be a part of that work. And so I think we feel pretty comfortable with that. We have learned a lot from the professional development opportunities that we've already been a part of, which to me is really encouraging. Like we have room to grow. We've been learning and then we've been bringing it back to the team here.

Great. Yeah.

I have a quick question from the sky. Milena, thank you so much. Robin, I think you're in the background. Thank you so much for this work that you all are doing. I just want to make sure I understood the very beginning that what you will be, if we approve this, what you will report moving forward is data from tests or assessments that we already give. Is that correct? We're not bringing in anything new.

Correct.

It's just that we will report those rather than the annual math.

Correct.

Okay. Thank you so much. Yeah. Anyone else have a question?

So if I follow that, so basically overall assessment time and all that will be reduced because there'll be no longer MAP as part of the equation? In the

immediate, it will be the same. Okay. If we get the federal waiver, then it will be reduced. Okay.

I'm sure the students would appreciate that.

Yeah, and then in the long term, once the new assessments, like the new state assessments are written, we would have to have some conversation within the district about what does our assessment matrix look like? Because when those new state assessments come online, they're called interim assessments, so there's multiple opportunities for children to take assessments. That could be relatively redundant to what our district process is right now, and so we're gonna have to have a pretty significant conversation about what does that mean, because I think the value that we have on instructional time, and like we can measure students and measure students, but we need time to respond to the measure. So I anticipate once those state assessments come online, and I'm optimistic that they're gonna be really high quality, that then we can have some conversation about reducing some of the other places that we're collecting data now because we'll be able to respond to those data in a similar way.

Okay, thank you.

Chris? I just want to say thank you for all of this. I think it's sensational. I'm so glad we're a part of it and thank you for leading this because yeah, it just feels like exactly what we need to be doing as a district to move forward and continue to improve. So thank you.

And I also appreciate Dr. Garganewa, this is a lot of time and you already have a very full plate so I appreciate you making time for this because I think it's really important and will really positively impact our students so thank you for that. Thank you. And if there's no other questions we can make the motion.

I move that the board approve the success ready student network resolution as presented. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Okay, motion passes. Thank you. Okay. Yes, John. We have a first reading of three policies.

Good evening. I'm presenting three policy revisions for first reading. They're fairly simple. The first one is policy FFA that deals with memorials District facilities and grounds We're going to propose to rescind this policy as the provisions of it are moving over to a different policy, which is the next policy KH Second policy is policy cage related to public gifts. It's receiving the provisions These are all just first readings The second one is policy KH related to public gifts. It's first off receiving the provisions of policy FFA that's planned for recension. It's also establishing policy related to crowdfunding. The third one is policy KK. which deals with visitors to district policy and events, and it makes it clear with this modification that visitors cannot possess, use, distribute, or be under the influence of marijuana even though Missouri law allows adults to possess and use marijuana. These will be presented for a second reading on May 14th. Yes, ma'am.

Which is in line with what we did with the other policies that we're doing a second reading for, which is to use the word cannabis rather than marijuana or use both words as we did in the others.

We can certainly adjust that. I had the

same suggestion, Pam. Thanks. What was that? That I had the same. I was just saying I had the same question. It's been noted and we'll make that change. Thank you. Any other questions or suggestions on these policies?

I just have a quick question on 24B. Does CEF adopt the same policy? Like, what responsibility do they have to follow our – I mean, I know there's an MOU, but like – I'm fine with this. I don't really care. But like, you know, it does occur to me that.

You care very much.

That CEF might. That they

need to

officially also be on.

Yeah, yeah.

So I have a similar question. Not and it's just in general, but as well as with CEF. How does this crowdfunding also apply to things like individual sports crowdfunding for high school teams that happens? So the basketball team has crowdfunding. The girls volleyball team has crowdfunding, the soccer team has crowdfunding? Do they have to? Does that fall under this? Does that fall into a different umbrella? I have the same question, but across other organizations.

All dollars that are gonna come into the district's bank accounts will be subject to the policy.

But the dollars don't come per se into the district's bank accounts. Is that the distinction, is only if it comes into the district bank accounts? Because by reading this policy, it looks like use for district per sanction activities. But if that's the distinction, then they don't have to follow it and either do the boosters for the sports clubs.

But we have an MOU with the foundation. And I assume that they – and perhaps – I don't know. Maybe it's just a matter of just telling Allie, like, you've got to follow this thing. You know, she's fine. You know, like, I don't really know. But, you know, I just – it just occurred to me that there's, like, maybe a logistical step that needs to be taken. It's not about this policy. I just – I don't how that works.

It's just the CEF needs to know about the policy.

Yeah.

And follow it.

Right. And if the MOU says they have to adopt it, then we need them to adopt it.

The option that Captain, you know, like when the PTO raises money, do they have to follow this? Yeah. They're raising money for the district to be used for district facilities or activities.

Yeah. But

it's not going into a district account that we keep track of. Right. So it's just a question. It's...

With respect to the PTOs, they are a separate entity. They have their own rules and regulations, they have their own bank accounts, and generally when they raise funds it goes into their accounts and we don't. We try to maintain a separation between the two of us. They sign their contracts, we sign our contracts. We don't really cross over. We do have funds that they have raised that we maintain in an activity account. which is a small amount of their money, but generally most of their money is over there. And when we receive those monies, they spend them in accordance with our purchasing policies. When they spend their money that's not in our accounts, they spend them and accordance with their policies, and there's not a crossover between those two. And I would expect the same for the foundation. We don't actually hold any foundation money.

Oh, no.

No,

I thought there was some MOU that we, that we maybe have some banking services for them or do something.

Uh, we hold no foundation money. Okay. I

mean, I believe you.

Okay. Well, this does reference the

foundation though in the district

foundation and it's less, I don't see anything related to bank accounts specifically in here, John. But what I do see is it says all gifts the district accepts will become district property. Fine. makes sense, and the board in its discretion may expend or use them in accordance with board policies. And we have to vote to accept Gifts are real property and gifts. We don't vote to accept gifts that booster clubs make for district use for sports. But those aren't district-approved crowdfunding. It is, and it says that the district doesn't even need to be named, even if the district is not specifically named. District-approved crowd funding. Any agent or volunteer acting on behalf of the district, even if the I

think I can add some clarity. So the Clayton Education Foundation is a separate and distinct entity. There are districts that have a captive foundation. We don't have one of those. And this is really referring to that captive foundation. Well. We can't make policy for CEF.

No but.

I'm sure you're going to end up proving me right after this meeting. And so I'm fully prepared for that. I look forward to your email proving me wrong. But I recall, as the former board liaison to the CEF, the first meeting I went to, we were going, remember, we spent like six months talking about the bylaws. And one of the things was dealing with the MOU. Gary Feder talked to us about that, was dealing with the

I'm sure you're going to end up proving me right after this meeting. And so I'm fully prepared for that. I look forward to your email proving me wrong. But I recall, as the former board liaison to the CEF, the first meeting I went to, we were going, remember, we spent like six months talking about the bylaws. And one of the things was dealing with the MOU. Gary Fader talked to us about that, was dealing with the

Something we have an MOU between us and the foundation that deals with how We support them in certain ways. So One way we have supported them is we've put their executive director when they have one on our payroll and they reimburse us for that and We also grant them a certain number of hours of secretarial help as part of that, that we give to them without reimbursement. But there's a couple other things in that MOU, but we don't hold any of their funds and we don't dictate their policies.

Okay.

Is all this policy does is just encourage people to give gifts to them, not us? I mean, with respect to CEF. It doesn't do other things, but that language

just... Right. Generally, if somebody wants to make a significant gift, we're going to encourage them to go to the foundation and make that gift. Now, not all gifts go through the foundation. There was a gift that was to support... SEL work. And we receive that particular gift on our side of the equation, but...

And we have them in consent agenda.

Generally, we direct them the other way.

Yeah.

We do approve.

No, I... Yeah, I get all that. And like I said, I'm probably off on this. I just... I read this policy and I read District Foundation to include Clayton Education Foundation.

Okay.

So... What you do with that, I'm totally open. I guess I'm just making that comment. I wonder if we need to

clarify in our version of the policy that our foundation is a separate entity. I

think we should. Because it'll

just protect us from violations.

I'm more worried about the protection part. That's really my concern.

This does not include activities of the Clayton Education Foundation and or... Or any separate entity. PTOs. Yeah. Because, for example, I know... In the last couple of years, the soccer team has raised tens of thousands of dollars and made improvements to the locker room at Gayfield. Like physical property improvements in the locker room and donated personal property, right? I don't think we've ever formally accepted that or had to accept that as a board. And this policy says, well...

I

think.

We should. We

should.

Well, I wonder how they define district-approved crowdfunding, too, because the soccer team doesn't come to the district for permission to do that. But they don't have to

under this.

Right. That's what I'm... So that's what

I mean. Yeah, I'm

not sure that's crowdfunding.

It's got a definition here. The activity of process of raising money through solicitations typically via an online community to your platform. Yeah, when I think of crowdfunding, it's like chipping

three bucks for, you know, if someone's like chipping... I think this is like a

GoFundMe.

Yeah. Or like a What's the Teacher one.

Yeah, the teacher one. I forgot what it's called.

DonorsChoose. DonorsChooses.org.

I agree with what Kim is saying.

DonorsChoosed.org.

Yes. That that definition is in line with what the sports teams ask of

parents. Almost across the board. I mean, it's gone to where...

We do maintain some booster raised funds that come to us directly and we put them in booster accounts. There are cases where there are external booster clubs that maintain their own resources and sometimes contribute. That's not a big, it's so much of a deal here, although that soccer one was.

It's a big deal. It was a big deal. And like the basketball team even. There are districts that

have numerous

external booster clubs.

I'd like to ask for some clarification on this. Like this also says the superintendent has to give approval in writing after it's been requested. Like

The problem is that people use our name with their fundraising efforts, and they aren't really entitled to do that unless we give them permission.

Okay. But they do it for the benefit of the student.

They do.

Specifically in this policy.

And the requesting party hosting the solicitation is the agent of the school district for financial aid.

So the situation is we have a good policy, but the enforcement... It's a little loose.

Well, it's a new policy. It's a new

policy,

Leo.

I think, John, if you could work on some language that would clarify this for us and protect us from violating it, that would be good.

I agree. I think we need some more language in here. We're not there to regulate the PTO or the foundation.

of the community that is hosting these fundraisers independent of the school district in their independent accounts for the benefit of the school district or its programs. But if we're going to say yes to a policy like this, then we might have to say, and when you do that, please come so we can thank you and formally accept the gifts, which is what it says here.

But before you do it, get her approval and write it. Yeah.

But the other thing we don't want, which is what this policy was written to prevent, is people using our name. To do things that are

not sanctioned.

Right. Right. And so the PTO

shouldn't use the district's name?

No.

No, it means that they should come and say, hey, we're, yeah.

Right. Yeah.

They exist and their bylaws exist only because we exist and they raise funds to support the district.

I mean, I could take this down even a but I think we get the joist and let's just. Well

look, let's let John come up with some suggestions to clarify this. It's the first reading. I will work on this. It's a first reading, it's a first reading but it isn't. That's

when you make the comments so you don't make the comments in the second

reading. I hear everyone's comments, I'll work on this for a better outcome.

I bet this wasn't on your bingo card for

tonight. You didn't think we'd have any questions. It is now. It is now, you bring up some good points. Thank you for your critical eye.

Okay, Chris has some other questions too about these.

Not about this policy. Oh, okay. We're done with that one. Is that okay? Yeah. John's still here.

Chris still has one.

I have one about, what is it? KK. Under district property. I don't know. Here, yeah, the top of the page, right? District, are you with me? Okay. You know, it says, let's talk about the doors nearest the, all visitors during business hours, including board members, must sign or check in at the building office prior to proceeding elsewhere in the building. The building principal or designee, okay. So when it says building office, I'm just curious if we should talk about whether or not that has a vestibule. Should it say something about should go to the designated two-way entrance with a security vestibule? I understand it's trying to get at that by saying office. Do you understand what I'm saying, John?

Yes, I understand.

But the designated main entrance or something.

Well, I'm just thinking about the fact that we're going to have two vestibules too, so that would be confusing. But yeah, designated main entrance, something along that line. So it's a little more clear because I do want them to go in through the vestibule entrance. We might, we'll have two maybe, but yeah, the main.

Designated main

entrance or something

like

that. Yeah. Okay, that's it. Okay.

It just seems like this wording is old from before the days where we had vestibules. Yeah. and you can't get into the buildings without going through the vestibule anymore.

Okay, anything else for the first readings?

Pam,

Lucia's leaving. Hi,

Lucia.

Can you see me now? No. Okay, thanks, John. Okay, so now we have some second readings with Dr. Poole.

All right, good evening. Our first policy for second reading is policy JEC, school admissions.

Do you want to read the motion first? I don't have any questions about this one. Let's read the motion first, and then we'll get to questions.

Hold on. It's 7.4. I move that the Board of Education adopt policy JEC school admissions with the proposed changes. Second.

Okay, I actually do have a question, and I apologize that I maybe didn't catch this in the first reading. In this policy under entrance ages number two, When it says St. Louis City School District, is that the formal name of St. Louis Public Schools? Is that what that means? And if not, it should say St. Louis Public schools, right? SLPS. I just didn't know if there was an actual name that were not. It's very weird that MSBA wouldn't know what that was called. So I think we can still, somebody correct me on this if I'm wrong. We can vote, we can make a motion to approve the policy with that change, but then you'll, he can make it afterwards. Yeah. Right?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. So does anyone else have any other questions on this by chance? Okay. So Chris, would you, we have to rescind that motion or anything because it's been seconded? Okay, I move that we move to amend the motion to adopt this policy with changing St. Louis City School District to St. Louis Public Schools.

Second.

Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes. Okay, thank you, Cameron, for making that little change.

For sure.

Okay, we'll go on to the next one.

Next policy is JECA, eligibility to enroll.

Okay, well you want to read the motion for this one and then we'll ask. 7.5. I

move that the Board of Education adopt policy JECA eligibility to enroll with the proposed changes.

Second. Okay, any questions on this one?

I do. Okay,

Pam?

There were edits that we made in the last reading and none of them are in here. There's no blue edits in this one. Oh, wait. So... I want us to go back to those notes.

Okay.

So, for example, on page 2, number 9, it says our children whose parent, and we had said to change that to parent slash guardian.

I

didn't know. On page 4, number 8,

what

is it? Oh, transferring is still misspelled. I'm sure that there are other things that we also discussed. but what's posted here is

not. Yeah, you're right. This doesn't have any of our changes. Is there not another version of this that Felicia, where there was changes and we just didn't get that

maybe? Like Cameron, do you think we had those changes?

We did. Felicia, we did. I

wonder

if she just shared the wrong version. That's what I'm learning too. It was the day that Felicia was sick and so she wasn't

here. Oh. Yeah, but we went over it. I know we made those grammatical changes.

That's

what, yeah.

Can we just pull this, let's just approve this at the next meeting. So... Even though we've seconded it already. I

move to cancel the vote to approve this policy until

the next

meeting.

Second. John looks like he knows what to do. What? Just

withdraw the motion.

Okay. Oh. Do we have to vote on that? Okay, I'm withdrawing the motion. Chris, or Chris, withdraw the motion because you read it.

I'm withdrawing it. I'm drawing the

motion. Thank you, Chris. Great job. Okay, well, let's make sure, like, we'll get that at the next meeting, okay, Felicia?

Yeah.

And Cameron? Okay, thanks. Okay, now 7.6, read that motion.

I move that the Board of Education adopt policy JO, student records with the proposed changes.

Second.

Okay,

any questions or comments on this one? No? Okay, all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, motion passes.

Next one. I move that the Board of Education adopt policy JFCH, student alcohol and drug use with the proposed changes. Second.

Any questions or comments? All those in favor? Any opposed? Oh, sorry, I was too fast. Did you have a question or comment? she said I oh sorry I thought she said wait okay motion passes 7.8

I move that the Board of Education adopt policy jhcd administration of medications to students with the proposed changes

any questions or comments I just noticed

that this

potentially opaque for parents to know what those rules are so I just wanted to ask you whether you would give me some assurance that there would be consistent rules for that parents could follow and it would be available to them if we're taking them out of the

Yes, so at the beginning of the school year where parents go to input their updated information into PowerSchool, the menu pops up for medical-related documents. And what pops up, and it's also on the website as well, is a checklist of all of the things from a medical standpoint that they would need to turn in in terms of... physicals, annual student health information forms, current immunization records, medication administration form, authorization to self-carry, prescription medication form, asthma action plan, food allergy action plan, and CSER action plan. So those documents pop up as parents are putting in that information at the beginning of the year. And then a link takes them to the website to get those documents and then have those turned into their school notes.

Thank you.

Pam, you can go. Thanks. On bottom of page two, kind of the bottom third of it, there's a part redacted the nurses and other staff administering medication. I had asked at the last meeting why this part was removed. So I'm wondering if there has been an explanation learned from MSBA because that seems like an appropriate, from a medical standpoint, that is an appropriate statement to have.

Under which heading on page two?

Just above, on the bottom of the page it says over-the-counter medications. Two paragraphs above that, it's marked out in red, nurses and other staff.

Administering.

I didn't find that written somewhere else or moved somewhere else. And so from a medical standpoint, that is an important statement. And so I had asked if we could find out why that was removed from MSBA. Okay.

If we don't have that we need

that Yeah, okay

I withdraw the motion. Okay,

great. So we'll bring this one back too. Okay, so we'll move. Thank you, Dr. Poole. We'll move to consent agenda.

I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda items 8.01 through 9.5. Second. Okay, any questions or comments on consent?

I have one.

Kim. John, I'm sure you have the answers. Everybody knows John on the disbursement reports kind of puts the unusual expenditures on the top, so that's appreciated so you don't have to go through the next 50 pages. Yes. But John, there's just one other that stood out to me, a public school retirement agency check. It's on page 91. It looks like maybe it's just a catch-up payment because it was twice the amount. I just want to make sure it's not a double pay for $400,000. Okay. Okay, and then what's Missouri HOSA? That was the other one that was like a $600 budget line item, which was like 60,000.

Okay, that's fine.

Yeah, and I know I'm not new to the treasure roll, but I'll just start scheduling like once a month with you, like we used to do back in the old, good old days.

Okay. Oh, Chris. I just noticed that in that disbursement report, when you call out those more expensive ones in the beginning, the Paragon Architecture one says 85.000 instead of a comma. That's supposed to be a comma. Yep.

In Europe,

it would be correct.

Okay.

Anything else? It's right in the actual report. It's 65 and 25 or 65 and 20.

All good. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Okay, consent agenda passes. So we're moving to board communications. Who had any committee meetings?

Leo? It's been a little while, but I think It's the first meeting since my legislative advisory. And so we got a good update from Dr. Hockman on the goings on in Jeff City and I do have a request that for our next meeting we consider these legislative principles that this group has developed and I'd like to have a vote ratifying those principles as the legislative Principles of our board in our district. I you know As the process, I think it just requires a request and then kind of an affirmance. I don't know if we need a motion, but That's through we don't need

a motion I don't think I think it's just a formal request from you. Thank you, I think it's a good idea. And especially to do it before the school year's over so that we can start next school year with these understood and communicated to the community too.

Right, and the committee then, you know, we spent some time this year developing these principles. The committee could then act and have some guidance on what's appropriate board supported action.

Yeah. And thank you for working on that. Any other committees or anything else to communicate? I had a PTO council meeting, which was actually their last of the year. They just meet quarterly. So they reviewed their slates of officers for next year, talked about recruiting, succession planning and PTOs. They talked about the back-to-school bash, which they're going to do again. Gina Tarte, our new Chief Communications Officer was there and shared her ideas for improving the website and the app. And she got a lot of feedback from PTO Council about better integrating calendars and school calendars. And Gina has a lot of great ideas for how to improve all of that. I shared a lot of where we are with our facilities planning and got some good feedback from them on that as well. Also, I wanted to say we have begun the process of choosing the next student representative to the board. Chris is helping Dr. Patel and I with that process. So we will keep you updated there. And also Pam and Chris and I along with Dr. Sahlberger were at the Glenridge Agents of Change, which Lucia mentioned earlier, which is the fifth graders at Glenridge, advocating for improvements they want to see in their school. And I just have to say some of them are longer recess and longer lunch, but there were also topics like using biodegradable silverware at lunch or composting at lunch and things about being kind and stopping bullying and let's work at tables instead of desks. And anyway, I was so impressed with these kids. They, um, did surveys, they used data, they quoted like research and experts that they found in the subject. And I just found just the practice of public speaking in front of your peers and adults and the collaboration the groups had, and just even the lesson in advocacy was so impressive and great. And what came out of that a couple years ago was the Glenridge Playground. It was the kids who really pushed us for that. And so you never know where these changes will lead. It's not just a practice in advocacy and collaboration and public speaking, but it really leads to change. So anyway, I was really impressed with that. It was fun to watch. Can I add one

Yeah. And thank you for working on that. Any other committees or anything else to communicate? I had a PTO council meeting, which was actually their last of the year. They just meet quarterly. So they reviewed their slates of officers for next year, talked about recruiting, succession planning and PTOs. They talked about the back-to-school bash, which they're going to do again. Gina Tartt, our new Chief Communications Officer was there and shared her ideas for improving the website and the app. And she got a lot of feedback from PTO Council about better integrating calendars and school calendars. And Gina has a lot of great ideas for how to improve all of that. I shared a lot of where we are with our facilities planning and got some good feedback from them on that as well. Also, I wanted to say we have begun the process of choosing the next student representative to the board. Chris is helping Dr. Patel and I with that process. So we will keep you updated there. And also Pam and Chris and I along with Dr. Sahlberger were at the Glenridge Agents of Change, which Lucia mentioned earlier, which is the fifth graders at Glenridge, advocating for improvements they want to see in their school. And I just have to say some of them are longer recess and longer lunch, but there were also topics like using biodegradable silverware at lunch or composting at lunch and things about being kind and stopping bullying and let's work at tables instead of desks. And anyway, I was so impressed with these kids. They, um, did surveys, they used data, they quoted like research and experts that they found in the subject. And I just found just the practice of public speaking in front of your peers and adults and the collaboration the groups had, and just even the lesson in advocacy was so impressive and great. And what came out of that a couple years ago was the Glenridge Playground. It was the kids who really pushed us for that. And so you never know where these changes will lead. It's not just a practice in advocacy and collaboration and public speaking, but it really leads to change. So anyway, I was really impressed with that. It was fun to watch. Can I add one

neat thing about that?

Yeah.

I only went to one of the classrooms that my son was presenting at, but my sister noted that none of all of the groups and their ideas for what they could do to change. None of them asked for anything to be bought or given to them. They all spoke about ways that they could change their behavior to make their school environment better. And I thought that was a great thing she noticed.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. Okay. Would you like to, Adjourn us, Chris. I'm a Board of Education adjourn.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. Board is adjourned. Thank you.

Bye, everybody.

We did it. Three hour meeting, what do you think? Let's keep going.