February 10, 2021 — Meeting Transcript

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Okay. All right. Well, welcome everybody. Adequate notice has been given and we are going to call the meeting to order. As always, we will start our meeting with a pledge of allegiance to what's become the famous flag in the back of Sean's background there. So we're going to do the pledge to start. of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All righty. Well, today we have a special treat. We have Representative Ian Mackey and State Senator Brian Williams to start. So welcome to you both. I'm going to hand it over to Gary Pearson, who's going to tee it up. Gary.

Thank you all, and I appreciate everybody being here. And I know that our representatives are still down in Jeff City working hard and having a long day, so we appreciate you checking in with us and for the flexibility of shifting things around on the agenda with everyone else to be able to talk about this. So I'm just going to give a really brief introduction to a topic that we wanted to get their input on. For the last five years or so, while I've been on the Board of Education, one of the things that I've really enjoyed is being able to hear from people that were involved in the legislative process and who were invested in that from around our region and our county talk about things that were going on in Jefferson City and It's been really educational and I've learned a lot and watched different things get proposed in various bills and watch how the process happens and how issues that are important to all of us as people who care about education sort of surface and get discussed and debated and you know, analyzed in the public forum. So this year is no different. There's a lot of issues that have surfaced. It is a little bit of an accelerated process in my mind and that some of these things have come to some of the issues that we've seen that have been brought up during the legislative sessions They've come out early this year, and there's a bill that's pending, Senate Bill 55, that has a lot of issues that potentially affect public education not only in our district but across the state. And so we're just very much looking forward to getting some input on this. I'm just going to give a really quick summary of some of the issues that are raised in that. There are... a number of different bills and ideas that got sort of combined into this. But among the most important, at least in my mind, are a few different topics. Number one, an issue of school board member recall. That might not be as important to some people as it is to those of us on this call, but there's a process that's been proposed where people like us could be recalled. So that's an interesting idea that's come up there and been put forward. I'll leave it to you all to decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but that's one of the issues. Another important concept is charter school expansion. We currently in Missouri have charter schools only in some pretty limited areas of the state. This would expand that quite a bit. You know, an additional 61 districts I think is kind of how it's been estimated and plus other cities of a certain size would all be the possibility of charter schools would come into play. There's also a concept of vouchers or sort of an educational scholarship account type of a concept where people who paid for private school education would get eligibility for a certain type of tax credit and be able to apply for that. There are a number of other issues in there too, virtual education and some sports participation in MESHA sponsored activities and things like that. But these are some of the concepts that have been put out there and the most important ideas. And I think it would just be great to have our representatives give us their take on these things, what's happening in the legislature on these issues. and where things stand and give us their input about what the importance of these things are. So again, thank you for being with us and I'll turn it over to you all and let you take it from there.

Okay, I guess I'll start. First, I want to say good evening. It's really good to see all of you. You know, a lot of you I'm proud to call friends and you've been doing not only just very difficult work this year, but exceptional work keeping our children safe in Clayton School District and ensuring that they're getting as quality of an education as they can. I also want to recognize Superintendent Daugherty, you've done a tremendous job. I'm proud to call you a friend and you've been someone that's been a tremendous leader, not only in the school district, but someone that's also been an effective communicator with myself in terms of keeping abreast of what's happening here in Jefferson City and throughout the legislature. Senate Bill 55, it can come to the Senate floor. I mean, perhaps as soon as next week. It's a bill that combines several pieces of legislation and now has three major components. As stated before, to take tax dollars away from public schools through a voucher scheme. It would expand charter schools without accountability and local oversight. It would also limit local control on virtual education. Senate Bill 55 would also create a voucher system in this state. The fiscal note starts at $100 million a year with annual increases. Now, that's $100 million that would not be available for public schools and districts like Clayton each year forever. The bill also does not use the term voucher because our Constitution prohibits that. So instead, they call it empowerment scholarship accounts. But the end result is the same. Less money for our public schools, less money for roads, less money for the things that your community need. So, for example, Missouri school transportation program is already underfunded, as we know. The only reason school buses run on time in Clayton is because your local taxpayers have stepped up to pay for a system that works. If $100 million is taken out of that state budget because of school vouchers, then it would be your local taxpayers that would be asked to step up again and close the gap. So this voucher is bad for students, it's bad for schools, and it's bad for your wallets. Another piece is expanding charter schools with that accountability and local control. Right now, our region already has charter schools. Charter schools were the magical solution to all of our education problems. Remember, St. Louis would be in great shape But what we do know is that charter schools are not a magical solution. In fact, more than 40% of our charter schools have failed despite the high rate of failure. Senate Bill 55 would expand this failed model to any city with a population over 30,000 people. So this means that it would apply to Clayton School District. Once again, it's clearly an attack on your local money. This is a group of people in Jefferson City telling you that the voters and school leaders of Clayton, that you have to give a portion of our local funding to a charter school, even though you would not have any input on where that money goes or how it's spent. You know, I think that decisions about charter schools should not be made by parents and leaders. I'm sorry, decisions about charter schools, should be made by parents, and leaders in the communities that want them, and not politicians back here in Jeff City. So, you know, that's something that we really need to keep in mind. It also would limit local control on virtual education. And finally, Senate Bill 55 would undermine that local control. The pandemic has opened everyone's eyes to the benefits and setbacks of virtual learning. In my opinion right now, if a student in your district is enrolled in virtual learning, they're still counted as a student in Clayton School District. So you'll receive X amount of funding for that student, but you're also held accountable for their success. But Senate Bill 55 removed that student from your enrollment count and the state would pay someone else money for that student's virtual education. So less accountability at twice the cost. So once again, I just, you know, I think this could potentially be bad for students, bad for schools, bad for your wallet. And I'll end on this. You know, there's a lot to be concerned about in this legislation. And I don't know when it will come to the Senate floor, but it could be as soon as next week. And there may be changes, some to improve it. There could be some to make it worse. but it's also difficult at this point in the process to really predict it. So, Missouri's teachers, their students, their families, I truly believe are the bedrock of which our shared future is built. And they are my priorities because they're yours. And I continue to be honored and humbled by the opportunity to be your voice in the State Senate. So again, I want to thank the Board of Education for the opportunity to speak tonight. And I'm truly grateful for all of your service.

Thank you, Senator. And I will pick up where Senator Williams just left off in terms of charter schools. I completely echo the sentiment that it should be up to local communities and not Jefferson City to determine where charter schools go. I am not someone who views this debate as pro-charter school or anti-charter school. If you're for charter schools, you're against public ed. If you're pro-public ed, you're against charter schools. I don't view it that way. I don't think very many of folks that I talk to who are public school advocates view it that way, but certainly if a community is going to... If a charter school is going to pop up in a community, it's going to be because that community wants it. If I have anything to say about it, it's not going to be because Jefferson City dictates it. On the House side, we have a number of bills. We do we do have the tax credit and education empowerment account bills. We also have a handful of bills that we heard in the Education Committee this week that are raising a lot of eyebrows. in terms of folks who are looking for some sort of compromise ground. The speaker, the new speaker this year, Rob Viscovo, spent the bulk of his introduction address making it clear that school choice was his priority. It is something, it is his top priority, it is something he believes strongly about. There are 48 Democrats in the state house This is about as bipartisan an issue as it gets because we've got a lot of pro-public school Republican legislators from rural areas. And also, despite some significant events nationally, we actually have a pretty decent bipartisan spirit taking hold here, particularly with the speaker. And so we got a lot of folks collaborating and working together, which doesn't always happen. And I say that because I see myself in the position of not necessarily towing a line to vote no on a bill that I might be audiologically opposed to 60 percent of, but in a position to try to make bad bills better as best I can. My position is very different in the House than Senator Williams. I have such little weight and control and power as a member of a super minority party. in the House of Representatives. And so any amendment that I can add to a bill and anything that I can get done in committee work to improve a product can look like support for something that folks who sent me to Jefferson City might take issue with, but is something that I always do to try to make a bad bill better. So some of the bills we heard were open enrollment bills. Those were two big issues that we saw that had a lot of folks who were traditionally pro-public education Taking a hard look at whether or not this is something we might consider in the state of Missouri. We all, I think all of us here anyway, the Democratic colleagues I speak to here, know that there has got to be, that some reform has got to take shape. That something has got to be done about schools that have perpetually been unaccredited for decades or more. or provisionally accredited. And so 44 states have some sort of open enrollment system for public schools, and that's certainly something that we're looking at. The final package is far from crafted, but it's a conversation I would love to have. We can briefly talk about it here, but I would love to individually have in-depth conversations with each and every one of you who I assume are interested in that topic, would love to really dive into the bill language with each of you and talk about it. And the same goes for the accreditation bill that we heard that would set up a bell curve accreditation system. And we can talk about it in the context generally of is this good for public education, which is an important discussion, and we should also talk about it as is this good for Clayton. Um, and the same conversation I have with the university city, Maplewood, Richmond Heights, Brentwood, we'll do the other districts that are in my, in my district. And Brian's got a ton more. Um, you know, we also have to think about it in terms of, is this good for our local districts? What does this mean for us? What is what? And so, um, those are two sometimes very different, uh, sets of analyses. And so I don't think we'll dive into the weeds on that here. I think maybe some questions will spur some of that, but I would love to have individualized conversations with each of you sort of about the specifics around those. So that's all I'll say for now, but look forward to the conversation.

i appreciate you both uh you know talking about this and i'll i'll jump in since this was um something that i was was really excited to talk to both you about and then let my uh my fellow board members ask questions as well i mean um one i really appreciate you both like giving some insight into the process including things like you know amendments and things like that and where things can sometimes not look as They get muddy for those of us that don't follow the legislative process from start to finish. But I really appreciate your insights into it. One of the questions that I have is, we as the Clayton School District and the Board of Education, we're constantly thinking about students in our district. We're also thinking about how we We fit into the region and how we can cooperate and work with the folks around us. And I'd love to get your insights into how these kinds of things that are in this bill and the other things that are potentially out there. affect that balance and how things like we're seeing in St. Louis City and the rest of St. Louis County and things like that, how does it fit into the greater and the larger landscape and what we're seeing in public education right now?

Yeah, Gary, that's a great question. You know, when you think about one and Representative Mackey, you know, he did touch on some really important parts of this. Clearly, it has to be a discussion. We have to figure out what the future of these bills is going to look like. And that's going to require, you know, several hours and days of debate. But, you know, it's about accountability for me. And it's so important that we really focus on making sure that parents and teachers and folks who educate children every single day are at the table when we make these decisions pertaining to education. And that's how I feel about it. You know, we recognize that we do have struggling schools. And in my Senate district, I have 11 public school districts, including Clayton, but also districts like Normandy and Ferguson-Florissant, Hazelwood, Jennings, Riverview Gardens. And those school districts as well cannot afford to take a roughly $100 million funding decrease. Yeah. So if we're going to do charter schools, I don't think they should be at the expense of roughly defunding public education.

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. No, I completely agree. And that's sort of, you know, my district's much smaller and very different set of dynamics in terms of districts and their history and their funding mechanisms and their per student spending and et cetera, et cetera, et Again, the two different scenarios of what's good for my district versus what's good for the region versus what's good public education as a whole in the state. Like Brian said, requires so much work to flesh out because they definitely do take divergent paths. And so that's something that we have to think through and work through particularly around certainly with charters but certainly you know probably more so around conversations around open enrollment and things like that and the accreditation curve and other sorts of things that maybe won't see the light of day in the Senate. Maybe we'll fly through the House in week three and sit and die over in the Senate because they do their own thing over there, as Brian will attest to, and they really have much more control and say over what's public policy at the end of the day. But in terms of the conversations and the work I'm doing in the House, that's where my effort has been so far.

Awesome. Thank

you. Go

ahead, Jason. That's fine. Go ahead. You go next if you want. Then I'm going to start

calling on people. Okay. All right. Hey, guys. Brian, how are you guys, man? I appreciate you guys coming out tonight and talking about this. This is important. I'm thinking about the counterarguments in this also, which is we have in St. Louis City a plethora of charter schools and it hasn't it hasn't necessarily affected the St. Louis public school system where it's put them out of business. The issue I think is that, you know, we thought that public schools weren't, you know, the way it was funded and the way we have public schools in the city wasn't good for our children. So they put charter schools in there and we still have the same issues we've had before. I guess my question is What do you think is gonna happen if they have it in the county? If they have it in a school, in a district like ours in Clayton where we have a charter school option? Like what do you think is going to happen?

Yeah, well, I mean, Jason, you pretty much answered the question. I mean, we've seen in the city where there's charter schools and we have not seen a different outcome. And I don't think the conversation is about whether you prefer charter schools or not. This is about how do we sustain public education? How do we ensure that public education is getting the adequate funding for the majority of students in the state who use it as a primary source of education are getting the best tools possible. And, you know, it's not a cookie cutter fix, but I would argue that we've seen the same result. I don't think St. Louis public schools have gotten any better. at the expense of charter schools. And like you said, I don't think that the children have been educated any better who have chosen to go to those charter schools. So I think the conversation needs to switch more to how do we fund an already existing system and how do we make sure any new system is accountable for students and it's responsible for providing them adequate and the best education possible.

Let me ask you this question, Brian. Do we have any data on charter schools in districts where they're, socioeconomically, it's doing much better, where the zip codes are doing much better? Do we have any research on that?

I mean, I'm sure my office can provide that. I don't have it on hand, Jason, but I will tell you this. You know, I've evaluated and I've seen St. Louis public schools, and I mean, they're decreasing. The city is decreasing in population. They're closing schools. Clearly, folks are not keeping their children in public schools. They're not even keeping their kids in school in the city of St. Louis. So, you know, that's where I think the focus needs to be. Why are folks sending their children to either other schools outside of the city of St. Louis and how come there has not been an improvement in the quality of education for students who have had an opportunity to attend a charter school?

That's a good point. Yeah, I'm on the same page as you. I think what I'm thinking is more broadly and then coming in back to the point, which is You know, St. Louis City has been disinvested for years. Like that's the main point. So when we talk about equality, there's no true equality in education across the board. And so it's interesting to have this conversation about having charter schools in the county when the conversation wasn't quite the same than we had in the city. And now that they're proposing it, one could actually argue, you know, not saying I'm for or against this, but one could argue that competition is good, right? I think some of our people I know have argued that competition is good. So having another alternative in the school district for kids who might not bode well for going to school in Clayton, for example, or Western Grove, It could be a good alternative to stay in their school district, but I'm not necessarily saying that school that's, you know, the Clayton and Webster growth school district, for example, England charter school. So it's just interesting because there's no equality. It didn't work in the city. It's only been worse. You know, we've defunded more of the public school and money's being spread all around now. It's a volume game. And so, but my question is, I wonder how would it look in the county? I know because the county is different. It's got more money, it's got more revenue. So I just want to know, have you thought about how it would look? And then what's the counter to all of this?

Yeah, Jason. And I understand exactly what you're saying. So, for example, in my Senate district, there will be a charter school in St. Louis County and it actually would be a Normandy school district. And it will be the first in St. Louis county. It would be the first in that part of the region. And, you know, it's been very controversial because it's a lot of folks that are very fearful that this charter school within the next five years would ultimately derail Normandy School District as a whole. And, you know, whether that's true or not, competition is definitely good. But competition in a situation where there's already a struggling and underfunded school district, I don't think that school district has a fighting chance, whether it's a weak opponent or not.

So, you know. That's my point.

You know, so I, you know, when I look at this, and as Ian stated, we have very unique districts. And I look at it, as you stated, from an equity lens. And I sit down and I talk frequently with superintendents. Shawna tell you, not only do I make myself available, but I take the initiative to call him and say, hey, what's going on and how things are happening in Clayton? And I do that with 11 other superintendents. And I hear firsthand what their challenges are and to think that we would look to add additional education opportunities when we have children in North St. Louis County that don't have access to broadband and don't have education environments that allow them to be able to come to school and be in a healthy mindset. You know, so it's so many challenges and disparities. And that's before we even start talking about mental health and behavioral health that are already impacting these children. And I don't know how we make a transition to alternative education as in terms of a charter school. and still haven't figured out how to ensure that the current education system is doing well in the process.

So I guess my question, one last question, is how would it work in a... So this is Normandy you're talking about.

Yeah, and we'll have an opportunity to see.

We're talking about in a district where it's got revenue, where it's a Ledoux, a Clayton, a Webster's Road, a Maplewood at the height, like a parkway. Like, how would it play out there is the question because we're fearful of charter schools because what we know is happening in the city schools, but I mean, or districts where they're disenfranchised already. So economically, it's depleted of resources. But the question is, is that fear getting in the way of charter schools becoming, you know, being available in districts like ours where there is resources.

Yeah, and Jason, I hear you. And I know exactly what you said. I don't want to cut you off because I do have to jump out here shortly. But if we can govern by line item, my job will be so much easier. If I could vote on issues and it be by line item, I guarantee you our state would be in a better place. But we can't. And I have to vote and make decisions that impact the entire state. And unfortunately, I can't craft policies or support legislation that's particular to Clayton School District or another school district on another side of the state. We have to take a look at the entire state and look really at... school districts throughout the entire region and even school districts that may not directly impact people that I represent in my district, but can be detrimental to some other part of the state. If you go to Southeast Missouri, that's one of the poorest regions in the state. They have a poverty level that exceeds any part of the St. Louis region. And they have to go through the same challenges that we see in North St. Louis and North St. Louis County. And we have to figure out what's going to be the best option for education there. So, you know, I understand what you're saying. Yes, it could possibly be a great alternative for Clayton, but would it be the worst decision we've ever made when it comes to Normandy or some other school district? Right now, I have to look at what I think is going to be best for the greater good than the sufficient few.

Yeah, no, thank you. I just wanted you to be able to explain that because I think some people would argue the point that I was trying, that I was just, you know, explaining. But that's what I want that to be heard because it is a problem. It's areas not just in St. Louis City or St. Louis in general, but it's also in the rural areas that are suffering. And this is why it could be a disservice to... Yeah,

and I'll tell you this also, you know, keep in mind, one of the biggest issues that inspired me to go into public service was education reform, but it was more in a sense of not only challenging our students, but making sure that we hold our educators and teachers accountable as well. And that cannot be left out the conversation either. As leaders, we have to make sure we have quality teachers in every school district and teachers are being evaluated just like we evaluate our students. And that's something I think needs to be a conversation moving forward as well.

Well, I want to make sure I get some other voices in here. Sorry

for taking over the conversation. No, no, no,

that's okay. I just want to make sure other board members if they have questions. So Stacey, you got any questions?

I do. Thank you. Thank you, Brian and Ian so much for joining our meeting that this is so beneficial to us. Um, I just can't help but think how much good that a hundred million dollars a year could do elsewhere. When you mentioned that number, um, it kind of shocked me and, uh, I made some notes prior to talking to you and I put equity in huge letters. So I was glad Brian, you brought that up because I think there's so much about this that is inequitable. for our region and for our schools. And so thank you for touching on that too. And I just, I can't help but think that not just us as board members or whoever's watching as parent, whether you have kids in our school district or not, but I just think being taxpayers and members of the community, we need to pay attention to this because of where they're wanting to divert our tax dollars. So I would just say, encourage everybody to contact brian ian or anyone else um involved in our politics to tell them how you feel so they can advocate on behalf of all of us um i did i did also have a question that um why do you think this could be brian or ian i guess brian um what does it mean to you or what does it tell you that this came up so early in the legislative session earlier than normal i

should say So it's a priority for many of our members in the Senate. And so they really want to get done. Well, well, absolutely.

Yeah,

well, it does. But, you know, it's kind of a unique situation. I mean, full disclosure, but also in respect to my colleague who is currently dealing with some health issues. She was the bill sponsor. And at the moment, she's dealing with personal health issues, which has delayed the process. So that's why when I stated earlier, it can happen. This bill can come up any any week now, depending on when she returns back to Jefferson City, because she's currently dealing with personal health. So, you know, it's a little bit unclear for us now in the Senate, but it is a priority for many of our members. Got it.

I just wanted to also say, and Jason kind of touched on this talking about Clayton specifically, but I think very often as a school board and as a community, you know, we are in such a privileged school district. So we tend to maybe not pay as close attention to some of these bills as we should. This one, we all need to be paying attention to because we It will affect Clayton and the region, and we need to care about our neighbors as well. So I just want to encourage, I attended our last legislative advocacy group meeting. Gary did too, and Sean's always on those calls too. I would encourage the rest of the board to get on the next meeting too. It's February 19th. Um, I learned a lot. It was the first time I ever attended one and I think it was a great idea that this year we opened it up to the whole board. Um, I kind of got the feeling on that call that the other districts, I think it's Webster groves, Kirkwood and new city. Is that it? Are there more in our group? Um, I kinda got the idea that they just seemed as boards more organized. They had as groups maybe done more. advocacy work as a whole than I felt like we had done. And I just would love for us to become leaders in this advocacy work like they have. So hopefully you guys can all come to the next meeting too. I was actually sorry I hadn't started attending sooner because I really did learn a lot about this. So I just want to encourage everybody to educate yourselves and the community to educate themselves and and contact Brian, Ian, and anyone else if you feel strongly about this so they can tell their colleagues that they've heard from other constituents and that's how we feel. So thank you again so much for coming. And Ian, I just got your survey in the mails and he asked questions about money for public schools in his survey. So hopefully you all got that too. That's another way to communicate. But thank you to both of you for being here. I appreciate it.

Yeah, absolutely. And keep in mind, one thing I will tell you, Ian, someone who was an educator in the classroom at one point in time, he spends a lot of time focusing on these issues. Clearly, I'm kind of forced to focus on more macro issues, but he's been a great resource for me in a lot of ways as well. So, again, you know, he's doing tremendous work in a far more far larger body with more ideas of whether we think they're good or bad. So he's doing

good work with that. Thanks, Brian. Yeah, likewise. You know, it's been a great team effort. I've really enjoyed working with you. And Stacey, to your point, I will reference what we talk about in this conversation in my next committee hearing on these bills. That's how important these conversations are. When it's my turn to ask questions or speak up in committee, I will reference our exact conversation. I will say I talked to a school board in my district. I may even say I talked to the Clayton School Board and here's what we talked about and here's what folks back home are thinking. That's how crucial the conversations are and how important it is that we have them so often. So thanks for bringing that up.

Thank you. Amy, any questions?

No, I'll be short. Brian and Ian, thank you for your time. I appreciate you being here tonight and explaining the Senate Bill 55 to us. I agree wholeheartedly that if it was to pass, it would be disastrous for us, but probably even more importantly for some of our neighbors as Stacey touched on. And I would love to see that conversation be redirected to what we could do to be supporting the public schools in Normandy and some other underfunded areas that are adjacent to us. So Ian and Brian, let me know if there's anything I can do to help. And again, we appreciate you being here tonight.

Yeah, absolutely. And thank you all for what you do. And please reach out if you have questions. You know, all of you know how to reach me. And again, I want to thank your superintendent. You know, Sean has done a tremendous job communicating with us as legislators and really keeping us abreast of what's happening in the school district, as well as making himself available when we have questions. So again, thank you. And I wish you the best in your next endeavor.

Thanks. So in Brian, I don't know if you have just a few more minutes just to see if so Caitlin Tran is actually our student board rep and I want to see if she has any questions.

Yeah, I have a couple questions about virtual school since I know that that's something that is really pertinent and directly affecting students right now. So you mentioned a little bit about local authority. So why is having local authority important in that what decisions do you think will be made that the community will disagree with if local authority is taken away?

Well, I mean, you want to... Okay, Ian, you can take it.

No, go ahead, Brian. Go ahead, go ahead.

No, I've talked enough.

That's quite all right. No, great question. To your point about local control and communities, the vast majority of the folks that Brian and I serve with, some of them have been to a Cardinals game, but for the most part, that's all they've seen of the city of St. Louis. and maybe they went to the arch as a kid, and that's it. And they certainly have not been exposed to the education system. They certainly don't know what it's like to go to school in the city of St. Louis. And so for them to make such drastic decisions that impact the economy, that impacts the education system, and that impact the livelihoods of folks, if it is counterintuitive and counterproductive to what the folks in that community are saying they want, That's exactly the type of government that most of my colleagues that I serve with the majority claim that they do not want. And it's not really the type of government, that I want or that I think Brian wants either we want local control and we want folks in communities to be making their own decisions, particularly when it comes to how to educate their kids education is about the most one of the most nuclear topics you can discuss. I mean, education starts at home and then it goes to your neighborhood school and then, you know, it goes to your school district. And that is, it's so personal. It's not a decision that can be made from, you know, some perch in the state Capitol. And so I think that's why local control is so important when we discuss these topics.

And I guess just to follow up on that note, will there be any lasting impact after COVID-19? Or is this just something that will be important for the duration of like the next few months?

In terms of virtual education, I think COVID-19 has really changed the conversation. We had a lot of folks who advocated for access to virtual education and who still sort of make the argument that students should get a choice or that families should get a choice if that's the type of education that's right for them, they should get virtual education. But they are the same folks who have railed against their districts that have decided, or any district that may not even be theirs, that they see as an outrage that has decided to educate students virtually. And, you know, they advocate thoroughly for in-seat education during the pandemic. And so it's really sort of contradictory. Those two arguments don't really jive. And I think there's a lot of folks sorting out what the future of virtual education will look like. I don't think anybody really knows at this point what it will look like. We're all on the same page on this call about what we want the end result to be, but I don't think we know at the end of the day quite yet what it will look

Yeah, and then really quickly a question moving on to open enrollment. So I think you mentioned that like 44 other states have open enrollment. So what are some instances in these states of open enrollment being successful and unsuccessful?

So the first time I got that stat was in a committee hearing this week, yesterday. So I have not had a chance to really dig in and see how long they've been in place in each of these states, whether or not schools in those states are satisfied with them. That's not research or work I've had an opportunity to do yet. But I do think it's noteworthy that the vast majority of states do have some type of open enrollment system.

Thank you.

David, any questions?

Sorry, Brian and Ian, again, I echo the others. Thank you for being here tonight. I know it's a long evening for you. I have two questions, hopefully pretty short. One, Ian touched on this point from a House perspective. I'm curious as to what the mood is in the Senate, whether supportive or opposing this bill, at least from your perception. And then the second question for folks that watch from home and aren't involved in legislative action, what are the just at a high level what are the next steps for for a bill like this

yeah in the senate um you know it's very unique because you have members of the body who represent rural parts of the state that are very happy with public education so this doesn't come down to party lines as much it'll it'll it'll be uh democrats and republicans alike on on on both sides um in terms of the um the bill. But, you know, we're fortunate, which Ian is not afforded that luxury and that's the filibuster and the ability to debate as long as we like and as long as necessary. And it's very rare that we end debate and take things to an up-down vote. as they do in the state house. So, I mean, this is going to be a very contentious issue as far from out of the weeds. So in terms of passing out of the Senate, I would say that it's still pretty dim just because you're going to have a lot of folks that feel very passionate about it, like myself. And, you know, I think if this bill does pass out the Senate, it will have and it will need to have several accountability measures in place to ensure that there's accountability moving forward. And that whether it's a charter school or not, it's held responsible for educating our children at a high level, just like we expect our public education system to do as well.

Ian, I didn't know if you wanted to add anything about that from the House side.

Yeah, I think, you know, I sort of mentioned earlier and certainly agree with what Brian said. It definitely cuts party lines. We've definitely got now we are seeing some deals be made in the House in terms of carving out rural districts because we have a lot of Republican pro-public education representatives who live in towns and cities less than 30,000 people. And they are willing to sell out the kids in the city of St. Louis to save their own hide in their party and vote for a bill. So we may see some of that happen in the House, but I hope and I pray and cross my fingers that in the Senate, that's not the same scenario to be repeated.

Thanks. Good question. Let me just ask, hey, Jason, let me just see if Kim has any questions first, all right? I just want to make sure everybody gets a chance. Kim, did you have any questions? You're good. All right, go ahead, Jason.

I'm

just a follow-up question.

Brian or Ian, what's the motivating factor behind this movement towards charter schools, open enrollment, all these items that we're talking about? What is like the, what's the origin of why this is happening? Is it capitalism? Is it the opportunity to make some money on this? Like, what is the deal here?

I think it's truly folks who have a combination of their perspective on what they think education should look like. Some may have reservations or concerns when it comes to public education. And you may have folks that just believe that there should be some sense of capitalism. I don't ever want to assume That someone is advocating for an issue returning to education for money. I'm just, you know, I haven't allowed anyone to squeeze that much hope out of me to assume that but you know i think it's it's just a perspective of ideology and philosophy when folks think about education. And, you know, I think personally and just based on the region that we live in, we should be figuring out how the state provides more resources than to take away resources and then shift them to an alternative that has not been proven to work.

And what's the strategy if they, like Ian mentioned, if there are backroom deals where rural areas because they're Republican dominated are being carved out, but we're going to go ahead and sacrifice these city schools in urban areas. And what's the strategy behind that? And what's our

strategy? Well, I can tell you my strategy may be bringing the entire Clayton Board of Education to session with me the week that this bill comes up and you guys hang out with me in Jefferson City. But no, it'll be a moving target. I can tell you my strategy is to one, ensure that there's sufficient debate. We get to the full details of what this bill does and we make sure that there's accountability measures in place to ensure if we were to move in this direction that charter schools or any entity is held to the same standards as public education. And it's not at the expense of defunding public education.

Thank

you,

man. I appreciate it.

But I just wanted to quickly follow up too. I agree totally with Brian that in terms of the elected folks, I think the motivations, at least from the folks I've talked to are really pure. Our folks who really, everything down here is based on personal experience. It's based on what your educational journey was like. Did you have a good experience in the school or did you not? We've got folks with chips on their shoulders based on the education they think they received. We've got folks who study data and charts and look at other states and say, you know, school choices worked here and here's why it's great. I think the motivations from elected folks are pure. I think what happens on the ground is a different story. I think there are certainly profits. you know, virtual education, I think being the biggest. Folks who are certainly, you know, that the corporatization of schools is definitely something that happens as a result of the laws that are passed in that regard. But I think in terms of the folks who are drafting the legislation, I don't think that's necessarily their end goal. And in terms of being in Jefferson City, to Brian's point about coming down here, I will just really briefly tell you that in the hearing committee and every education committee hearing that I've been in, it's been tough, guys, because what happens is we have paid lobbyists who all sit down and talk about how schools are going to lose money. They talk about the bottom line. They talk about economics. They talk about we need our money in our public schools. We need our money in testimony from moms, from kids, from kids with disabilities, from people of color, from people who are struggling and fighting for their families. And they think school choice is the way and it's worked for them. And that's their story. And, you know, to sit there and go through that for hours is really compelling. And we need more folks. We need parents from public school systems. We need teachers. We need folks to make the trip and travel and tell their stories and advocate for public education. Because I'm just going to tell you that the testimony, the hours testimony we sit through is really compelling for the case they're trying to make.

And can I, can I ask you a quick question. Yeah, I just, I want to, I'm kind of switching gears but and I and I don't know a lot about this at all but I, I know that Missouri is one of the five states that a bill was introduced to ban education around the 1619 project. Have you heard anything about that? And, um, that's really scary to me too. Um, it

is, yeah, it's, it's, I've not heard about the success of movement in that bill. Um, I, I don't, I should look, I'll, I'll look up after the, after we get done and see if it's been referred to a committee, um, and what committee and, and, and things like that. Um, I have not heard about, I, I, I did know that it was filed, but I've not heard Hopefully it's something that if it gets a hearing, it's in late April and it's a throwaway and it's this big raucous and whatever. I hope that doesn't happen. But if it does have to happen, I hope it happens late. I don't know what the chances of success are for that. I will tell you that I have been working with a retired educator who has just dived into our school curriculum, our curriculum framework for junior high and high school history teachers right now around the Civil War and slavery. I'll just forward you the three or four pages on it if you haven't looked at it in a while. It's absolutely insane. It addresses slavery from the context of economics. It's definitely a both sides approach. It's definitely good guys on both. It's, you know, Charleston on paper. It's, find people on both sides kind of stuff. So I've been working on that sort of quietly and privately with Desi and talking about, it's a huge thing obviously to change curriculum at the state level, but it's a conversation I wanna keep having with them Because it's atrocious what's already in our state curriculum.

Right. All right. Thank you for the follow up. Thanks.

For

sure.

So Ian and Brian, I'm going to just defer my time to all the questions that were already asked because you've given us so much time already. I really, really appreciate it. This has been really instructive just about the process and certainly specifically about Senate Bill 55 and the things that are important for us. the whole community to be thinking about. So thank you both. We really, we know you're really busy. We know you're still in Jeff city and we appreciate your time. So thank you again for being here.

Hey, thank you for having us. And again, thank you all for what you do for our students in Clayton school district.

Thank you both.

Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Ian. We truly, truly appreciate you. For sure. We appreciate you. Look forward

to following up. Thank you all.

Thank you.

Awesome. So we're going to move on to recognizing our own. And I'm gonna hand it over to Sean in terms of National School Counseling Week.

Yes. So thank you. And we are this we are so last week, actually, we celebrated National School Counselors Week and our counselors have been very patient. They've been on the line waiting and we asked them to be here tonight. So that way we could say thank you to them. And I'm going to have Robin Weins talk a little bit about our counselors.

All right. Good evening, everyone. So tonight I have the privilege of recognizing our outstanding counselors in honor of National School Counseling Week, which was celebrated across our nation last week. You know, the amount of responsibility that this team has managed during the pandemic has been both admirable and astronomical. And I can't even begin to list all of the different things that they have been doing since last March. So I will just say that they have had to adapt and juggle all the things they normally do and adapt those things to about eight different educational settings. And through all of it, they have been such fierce advocates for our students. They have worked tirelessly to keep all of our teachers and administrators up to speed with all of the different things happening in our families and our community. And they've been a source of strength for our students. those students' families, and then of course our staff. So to all of the counselors who are either watching remotely or have joined our Zoom meeting, I just want to personally thank you for everything you've been doing to take care of the whole child during these complex times and for all of the times that you may have gotten knocked down with exhaustion, but you just got up the next day to do your best all over again on behalf of our students. So I want to say a special thank you to the counseling team over at Clayton High School, which consists of Carolyn Blair, Mary Ann Mazzalufi, Joyce Bell, Homer Turner, Jacelyn Cole, and Toby Smith. And then our awesome team over at Y-Down, Mark Snyder, Liz Tucker, and Jason Thompson. And then across our elementary schools, Anthony Henderson, who also serves as the Counseling Curriculum Coordinator, Rachel Spann, Crystal Taylor, and Adam Montruso, who's one of our practicum students with the counseling team, and is actually a former Clayton student. So just a huge thank you to everything you've been doing. We appreciate every single thing, large and small, you have been doing for our students, for their families, and for our staff.

PB Harmon Zuckerman, Thank you so much. Robin and I just want to introduce because some of you don't know are out some of the counselor. So I just, some of them are on the screen. And so Anthony Henderson, if you could just wave. I'm just going through and then I see Jason Thompson. PB Harmon Zuckermann, And then Toby Smith. PB Harmon Zickerman, She's still connecting but she's right there and then Homer Turner. And we know that some of our other counselors were on the line too, and they may have had to step off. But again, I just want to say thank you to all of you for all that you do, especially during this unusual year. You have had to pivot in so many different ways, and we are very grateful for you. So you're welcome to stay on and listen to the board meeting too, but you're welcome to go do some other things too. So we really appreciate it. And Toby's now connected, I think, to audio. So we wouldn't wave to her. All right. Thank you guys.

On behalf of the board, I want to say thank you so much to all of you too. You are, you all are awesome. And I do want to say, sorry that that discussion beforehand took so long and I'm sure some people had to jump off. So sorry, sorry about that, but we really do appreciate you each and every one of you. So thank you.

Okay, and so we have also have another recognition. And so we are actually going to celebrate school board recognition week as well tonight. And so this is an opportunity for us to recognize you for your service on the Board of Education. And I've said this in the past, you are the ultimate volunteers, you're elected officials, but When I talk to the students at the high school around board governance and school governance, it's one of the things I have to tell them is that school board members don't get paid. They have a lot of time that they're dedicated and it's the ultimate volunteer. We appreciate that what you do is a collective entity, but what I also appreciate is that you bring your individuality to the group and that helps make us even stronger. And so I just want to say personally, thank you for all the support that you provided me over the years, providing us an opportunity and a space to think differently about our approaches. Our strategic plan is evidence in this in terms of our focus on equity and new learning approaches, and in making sure that we're addressing the social-emotional well-being of our students. And so I just want to say thank you to you individually. So Gary, I want to say thank to you for being a passionate individual who always ends all of our conversations with how can I help you? Or like, is there any way that anything I can do? You're extremely thoughtful, organized. And I think that I would also say thank you for being a person who's willing to ask questions that allows other people to have deeper thinking. So you put the questions out there, others might not. So I appreciate you, Gary, for that. And then Joe, thanks so much for over the years being a tremendous coach to me. And when I say coaches, being someone who's a thinking partner is willing to push my thinking in a respectful way and also just being there when I need you. And you're a systems thinker, you understand education. And I think that you constantly always try to maintain a sense of positivity and pushing us to think about the whole child in academics is really important but we also need to take care of the social emotional being. And then you've also over in your leadership has been working on the effectiveness of the board and really truly appreciate that. Jason. I want to say thank you for challenging the status quo. And you don't like the status quo, and I appreciate that about you, and you're always willing to question that. And I love the questions that you ask because you push us to have a different lens and cause us to see different perspectives. And what I love it too is that you bring your whole self to the work, and you're unapologetic about that. And I appreciate that. And you're causing us to think differently as asking us to act differently. Stacy, thank you so much for coming to the table with the lens of an educator and always taking that into consideration. And I like that you always ask questions about what about the teachers? What about the educators? You've been a tremendous thinking partner to me. Um, it's nice that sometimes I just need someone else to have that conversation and you've been there and you're a listener. And I like that you're always really intuitive about making sure that you're hearing what other people are saying and taking and really taking a deep understanding of it. Um, the work that you did in our strategic plan really helped us move forward. And I really thank you. And you're just a kindhearted person who has contributed much in your short time on the board. Kim, when I had the opportunity to work with you with Prop E, I learned so much about you as a leader and really enjoyed that time and was so grateful when you decided to run for the Board of Education because you have great ideas. You're determined. What I also love about you is you're very pragmatic and you understand things very quickly, but you're really direct and thoughtful about responding to questions and also putting things out there to cause us to think differently. I love your confidence, but I also love that you're a person who's willing to laugh at yourself. So David. Thank you for being someone who's always thinking about different possibilities. You're analytical and humorous at the same time, so that's a real unusual trait to have. I also appreciate that you respectfully challenge, and if everyone remembers those EF Hutton commercials where it's like when EF Hutton speaks, do you listen? So like you don't, you're very thoughtful about when you want to speak, but when you do speak, everyone makes sure that they listen. So I appreciate that. And, and I also love that, you know, it says a lot about you and your boys come in at the end during the meeting to say goodnight to you too. And you're just out there. And I love that. So. And then, Amy, thank you so much for your optimism and your leadership. And it's been so fun to be on the board with you, seeing you as you started on the board and where you've come in terms of your leadership. You have always challenged us to make sure that we're looking at all students. And I appreciate your willingness to be vulnerable. You put things out there that I think others might be afraid to say, and you put it out there. And also we appreciate that we have your great legal expertise too that you bring to the table for us. And you're just a genuinely funny person. So I just need to, I just wanna, we spend a lot of time with one another and people don't see all the things that the board does. And I'm truly, truly grateful for your service because you are taking us to the next level and you're holding us accountable to doing great things for the students of our district. So as a gift to you, each of you is going to get a book in the mail and the book. And I did want to send it first because I wanted to explain it. But the book is where will you be in five years from today? And I think that it's a great book. It just offers all kinds of questions about, you know, things that just to kind of reflect on your own personal life and your professional life. But I wanted to share this book with you because you're constantly not thinking about the present moment as a board member, but you're also thinking about what is going to be your legacy? What is going to be the decisions that you make today that are going to have impact on students five years from now? So thank you for your service. Thank you for your time and I really appreciate all of your support.

Thanks so much, Sean. We appreciate you and are going to move on to superintendent communication.

Okay. I recognize your own. So we wanted to give you some updates about our current learning model that we are in and wanted to just share a couple things. One, I wanted just to say to you is that in terms of around creativity in the second semester, We know that the end of the school year often brings traditional events. We have different things, different celebrations. We have like field day. We have performances. And what I want to say is that our schools are really trying to think differently about what that could look like. And we're just not trying to be status quo. And so I also think that at the high school, we're getting student voice in terms of some things that we want to do for the end of the year. the ways that we're not gonna be able to do things the way that we've done in the past, but we can continue to think differently about how those things can look. And also thinking about ways that we can, what we were doing this last semester could potentially move forward into the next year as a creative way of doing things. The other thing I wanna let you know is that we're having conversations with the staff at Wiedown. Jamie Jordan has been leading meetings around bringing the students back to a full day. And so one of the reasons why we wanna have that conversation or why behind that is because giving the students a full day of school is an opportunity for them to be with us for a longer period of time, giving us an opportunity to address some of their academic needs even more time. I know our teachers are doing a tremendous job already but even more time would be beneficial for their academics and also for the social emotional wellbeing. The other thing too is that we've been implementing risk mitigation measures within our schools that have proven to be effective. And I think that gives us some other reasons why it's important for us to say, if we are able to do this with risk mitigation, then we can be able to do that for an extended period of time and making sure that we are doing everything possible to keep everyone safe. And then by having an extended day, it also is having the students in a space that is safe for them for a whole day. So in this process of this conversation, we're engaging staff. Jamie Jordan has done a great job with engaging your staff around this. And then we're also working on communication out to the parents and then making sure that people understand what it's going to look like. We don't have all the answers yet, and I'm just going to be upfront about that. And I also know that there is fear in terms of change. Our teachers and community have had to almost feel like the first day of school four different times throughout this year. And that brings a lot of fear and upset feelings. And we're working to try to address those and try to be as supportive as possible. The other thing is that people, you know, we keep hearing things about vaccines. And I wish I could bring... information to the table saying that we have information about when our teachers are getting their vaccines, but we don't. And that's the reality. I'm really sad about that for us and for our state, actually. We're still in the waiting game. But I want to say is that we did get some good news today, some hopeful information about some signups for our staff. And we're going to be learning some more information about that tomorrow. But I will say that once we get the vaccine, that doesn't mean that's the end all, um, be all in terms of risk mitigation. So we're going to have to continue to have risk mitigation measures in place. We don't know what variants will do. And so we just, we have to make sure that we don't use the vaccines as the end all solution to this problem. It's school is still going to look the same way as it's looking right now for the rest of the school year and potentially into next school year. The other thing too is that we are continuing to still monitor our data and the data is showing that we have a small percentage within our district of positive cases among students and staff, which is very positive. The other thing that's really positive is that within the region, we're also seeing a dip in the data. And so those school age case per 100,000 is going to those levels that are considered to be safe. And then also that they are not the reproduction number is going below one, which means that the total number of cases in St. Louis County is decreasing. So these are positives that we're seeing. Now, that doesn't mean that they won't fluctuate and they have fluctuated, but I do think it's important that these are things that we continue to monitor and want to make sure that we're looking at. But most importantly, we're looking at the data that's happening within our schools. I also have been, I've said this to you before, is that we can't make everything that we're doing about COVID. And so we're continuing to do great things in terms of learning, great things in terms of some of our traditions. And during the month of February, we have celebrated black history in a lot of different ways within the district and we have been limited this year. But I wanted to share with you that our schools, the elementary schools, fifth grade teams have worked across schools to put in this project called Black History is Essential. And it's a series of 20 videos that we're doing during the month of February. And it's evidence of students doing research. It's evidence of students who are doing public speaking. It's a really, truly great learning opportunity. And the other thing, too, is it can be an archive that we can use for future years. So I encourage you to visit the website because it's really an incredible project that we're very proud of. Oops. Oh, and that was my link went to the website. So this is the website so you can see it. The other thing I wanted to share with you is that we're making parent learning as a priority is like we have done in the past. And so tomorrow evening we have Dr. Tim Bono who is going to be doing a continuing our speaker series that we started last year. And he is going to be focusing on tools for resilient families in turbulent times. And if you haven't heard Tim speak before, he is an excellent speaker. He connects his speeches to research. And so he was well received last year. So we brought him back again this year. And hopefully we will have a lot of people join us on that Zoom call tomorrow. So we're going to continue to do that. And then the other thing I was going to bring forward is that there was a question about policies that are connected to equity. And we have found out that some school districts have done some work around policy development that's connected to equity. So one of the recommendations that I might make to the board is that we should pull together maybe a small ad hoc group, again like we've done in the past, to study some of these policies and write some and work with the administration of the school district and bring those forward as possible considerations. So wanted to let you know we've looked at some other districts that have put some energy into this, and I think it'd be a good opportunity for us to also do that and connect it to the work that we're doing around equity within the district. And then the last thing is I want to share with you our second last thing is that we found out, I got a call last week from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that Widown Middle School was nominated as a National Blue Ribbon School. And to give you some scope to this is that only eight schools in the state of Missouri got recommended for this. And so Y-Down was recommended for its excellent performance. And so there is a process to get to the final award, but it's a true honor to be nominated for this. And it's interesting because last year our high school was named a Blue Ribbon School and now Y-Down is being recognized. And so it's quite an accomplishment for our district to have two schools within this period of time. And then the last thing is that I'm continuing to meet with Dr. Nisha Patel, And we're having weekly meetings and those meetings are going great. And it's an opportunity for us to talk about the work that we're doing around our strategic plan. Anisha is asking such great questions, and I just feel so even more reassured about how wonderful she's gonna be as the next superintendent. And we will continue to hold ourselves accountable to report back to the board all the things that we're doing to make this a successful transition. And then now I'm gonna turn it over to Caitlin for her report.

Yeah, so good evening, everyone. I'll start off my student report by talking about another thing for this week that COVID school has taught us. So from having a lot of conversations with students, I learned that a lot of students like the block schedule. And that's particularly because they only have to worry about homework from half of their classes at a time. So that's broken up more. Another advantage that students have liked is that there's more built-in time to talk to teachers, especially if you have a free period. Although online school is a bit different in that the classes are shorter, so school opinion may change when classes will be quite long in a normal school setting. I think it's still important that next year we consider looking into a block schedule and looking into student opinions on that. and then moving on to some things that are working with online school so some teachers have been using microphones in classrooms so that way students online are able to hear the students speaking in class without the teacher having to repeat it so that has been helpful and also to give you a peek into what clayton high school is doing for black history month every day on the announcements there's a new person who is talked about and recognized for their work in Black History Month. And so I think Mr. Poole will talk about this a little bit more when he gives his equity week update. But Neelay and I, who is the student leader of diversity, equity, and inclusion are working on planning student panels with Mr. Poo. And the purpose of these are to have students of like diverse backgrounds and especially intersectional identities engage in conversations and having the staff and the rest of the school be able to virtually hear from these students. And that helps with humanizing their experiences. So Neelay and I are very excited to be working with Mr. Poole on that. And in addition, clubs are starting to move back to a normal school year as well as classes. So classes have started having socially distant students presentations again, which is pretty new and hasn't happened yet until starting around this week. And culinary arts is also getting to use the kitchens for the first time and robotics are substituting their in-person competitions for having virtual at home challenges. And some events coming up are that mock trial is having their first trial on Thursday. And also speech and debate is having their last regular tournament before districts this weekend.

Awesome. Thank you. Thank you both, Sean and Caitlin. So speaking of Mr. Poole, we are going to move on to 6.01, which is the 14 day equity challenge. Cameron, you're up.

All right. Thank you. So I'm going to share my screen and then we can get going from there. OK. So I'm going to talk about the racial equity challenge and kind of what it entails and, you know, how the board is going to be a part of it and kind of what that looks like too. So we're starting the challenge on Friday of this week. So I'm gonna present my screen and each building will kind of be doing the challenge, you know, within their own building as a team building activity within the building. So we have equity challenge leaders within each building who are going to be going through this slide deck and doing some inclusion activities, dividing their building into cohorts and really kind of giving the gist of what the challenge will entail. So I'm gonna go through the first few slides. The first slide is a video that I put together for each building to kind of go through as an introduction. School District of Clayton, happy Friday. As many of you know, my name is Cameron Poole and I am the Director of Equity and Inclusion for the district. Thank you for joining me today for our professional development. Racial equity has always been a huge part of our learning and development as educators. It is imperative that we are able to humanize each person's experience and grow together as a community. And building upon that, today we will start our 14 day racial equity challenge. The 14 day racial equity Challenge will be an engagement and cohort learning about racial equity, justice and systems by reading, watching, listening and connecting to a variety of resources related to racial literacy. For 14 days straight cohorts will choose one source each day and complete the task by reading, listening, watching or connecting. You will have tools of reflection along the way, and we will end the experience with a reflection day on February 26th. I'm excited to join you in this journey of racial equity. I look forward to us growing together as a district to better serve our students. Up next, you will be hearing from your building PD leaders on the structure of the challenge and participate in some activities to kind of get things kicked off. Thank you for your commitment to racial equity and to our students. Please have fun and enjoy this racial equity challenge. Take care. So that's the video just to kind of get things going and then kind of go into some guidelines. Kind of like I said, each building will split their building into cohorts of four to six staff members. And the cohorts will have, they will choose one source each day to which they will be reading, listening, watching, or connecting. In just a second, I'm going to go through the website that kind of is like a one-stop shop for the entire challenge. That'll have tools of reflection. That'll have all the sources listed and kind of, you know, put some accountability pieces in there as well. And with the challenge ending on February 26th, we'll have another PD day where cohorts get together with their buildings and they reflect on the challenge as a whole building. So... For the professional development day, we have some norms for the equity challenge. Of course, we want people to assume goodwill, listen with the intent to understand, speak your truth and respect the truth of others, accept non-closure. Again, just change as a process. Be brave about sharing oops and ouches. So really, we like to create norms. And then a couple activities for them to choose from. Um, in terms of, you know, kind of getting them warmed up for it. Um, and I am, but I am not, uh, exercise to where you list characteristics of yourself and then common stereotypes that might, uh, you know, pertain to the identifiers in terms of the characteristics that you put down and then kind of just having some exercises to share those as well. Um, or you can choose from a challenge one, three, two, one, three thoughts on your equity learning journey so far. two personal goals you have for yourself while participating in the challenge. And then one question you still have about equity and the work toward achieving it, and then sharing that with your cohort as well. So buildings will have a choice of one of those two activities to choose from to kind of get them done for. So the main thing I want to get into, which is our one-stop shop, and our equity committee did a fabulous job of preparing for the challenge and putting together this website for within the district. So here's the website here. And there's so many resources. So during the 14-day challenge, each building or each person can click this link and get a spreadsheet where they can keep a reflection of their individual choices for the challenge. And the goal is that each cohort goes through the exact same sources so that they can reflect along the way. So the first one is just for personal use. And this is the Jamboard that was created Each group will be able to click it and make a copy and share it with one another. And this is kind of an interactive piece for each group to use as they go through the challenge each day, especially if they're not able to connect each day. So for each source they look through, they'll be taking either a favorite quote, a takeaway I want to talk to someone about or I want to go deeper with. So this is the cover page for that, and for each day you'll have another slide to go through in terms of putting a sticky note in one of the four quadrants with the resource that was looked at in the middle. And they'll be able to do that for all 14 days of the challenge. So that's kind of a reflective way, and they'll be turning those in at the end of the challenge for the equity committee to look at to kind of get a good gauge on where we are as a district from an equity standpoint and use this to kind of spur professional development moving forward. within the future. And then another portion of the website, again, once teams are picked and they choose their source selections, they'll be filling out basically the click on the building. So for example, let's say it's Glen Ridge and they'll be able to fill out a Google form with every selection for the day that they choose. so that each group has an opportunity to see other groups in their building or around the district to kind of compare and contrast. And the goal with that is to have different groups and cohorts connect with one another through the challenge, and that be a part of their reflections as well. So then the slide deck that we're going through also will be available for them to look at as well. So the main thing that I'm excited about is how we have our sources kind of broken down between reading, watching, listening, connecting, and discussing. So if you take a look at the reading portion where we have books, it's a plethora of books that people want to start to dive into an entire book, different things that they can look at in order to connect with. So tons of book titles right there, as well as different book lists. And then under read as well, we have a little bit of everything, which are articles, documents, guides, and blogs. So we have it broken down by source. at Utopia, Reader's Digest, New Jeffery Yorg Times, The Atlantic. Learning for Justice is on there, National Association for the Education of Young Children, plus a plethora of articles from other sources as well. So tons to choose from from there. And then in terms of watching, we have videos broken down to 15 minutes or less, 15 to 30, 30 to 60 and 60 plus. as well as films, talks and other TV shows. And we understand people are busy, which is why we have a plethora of sources. So if it's a seven minute video or eight minute video or five minute article, the goal is just to, you know, have a crash course of something each day in order to just to kind of build understanding. So we have tons of videos and things to choose from that, as well as different films, talks and in other avenues as well. So different movies, movie lists that people are able to embark on. And then kind of the listening section, we have tons of podcasts that are available that people can start to dive into. The Abolitionist Teaching Network is a good one. A bunch of other ones like the Eight Black Hands Podcast is a real good educational one. The Equity Podcast, a couple of Brene Brown's podcast episodes on there as well. as well as a bunch of other sources that we go into as well. So in terms of number of sources, we could use this website for the next three or four racial equity challenges. And then the connect and discuss portion. This is the one I'm most excited about because it makes it a bit more personal. We want people to connect, discuss, and go through experiences. So a couple of questions I'll highlight on here. One thing that we did at the beginning of the year is that, you know, our educators of color that are in administrative roles within the district got together and, you know, had a sit down talk where we talked about our experiences as kids of color within the school system and kind of some of the things that we had to deal with. So when we start the challenge on Friday, different videos will be updated, highlighting these different administrators within the district. So you have a familiar face and are able to connect with someone's story that we see on a regular basis. As well as last week, I had the honor to speak at the State of the Black Educators Symposium last week. So updated part one and part two of that as well. So those are some experiences too. And then jumping in, we want people to do actual physical experiences. we understand things are limited during COVID. So, you know, we put things up as in terms of like maybe going to a restaurant or, you know, visiting a part of town that's different than you were participating in some interactive program. For example, you had a black owned restaurant that's recommended from the Sauce Magazine. Northwest Roasting Company is on there as well. So that could be an option, especially hidden close to home. So tons of different opportunities and opportunities things to do in terms of maybe influential Black educators and social media, intended anti-racist collective meeting. So terms of things to get involved with for everyone to do, again, one thing each day for 14 days. So we're real excited about that. The Equity Committee within the district putting some good work in terms of getting things together. Tomorrow morning, I will send all of you the information and the website links and everything so that you all can take part in it. And I've chosen some cohorts for you all. So you'll be able to see who you'll be linked up with on that. So yeah, we're ready to get going and to kind of build on what Caitlin was saying. And I had an idea to use this within the equity challenge, but then I kind of wanted to expand it to something larger in terms of, you know, really humanizing the, you know, each, you know, stakeholder within our district. So on our April 30th professional development day, We're going to get together and, you know, have panels with, you know, multiple student groups, multiple stakeholders in the district in terms of parent groups, so that we're able to understand every avenue within our district and, you know what exactly we need to do in order to better serve them. So that's something that I've been meeting with Caitlin and Nealey about in terms of figuring out how we want to structure that and getting student voice in the process of equity within the district. So I'm excited about that as well. So we had some good things on tap and I think we're heading in the right direction.

All right. Thank you. So I'm going to share my screen and then we can get going from there. OK. So I'm going to talk about the racial equity challenge and kind of what it entails and, you know, how the board is going to be a part of it and kind of what that looks like too. So we're starting the challenge on Friday of this week. So I'm gonna present my screen and each building will kind of be doing the challenge, you know, within their own building as a team building activity within the building. So we have equity challenge leaders within each building who are going to be going through this slide deck and doing some inclusion activities, dividing their building into cohorts and really kind of giving the gist of what the challenge will entail. So I'm gonna go through the first few slides. The first slide is a video that I put together for each building to kind of go through as an introduction. School District of Clayton, happy Friday. As many of you know, my name is Cameron Poole and I am the Director of Equity and Inclusion for the district. Thank you for joining me today for our professional development. Racial equity has always been a huge part of our learning and development as educators. It is imperative that we are able to humanize each person's experience and grow together as a community. And building upon that, today we will start our 14 day racial equity challenge. The 14 day racial equity Challenge will be an engagement and cohort learning about racial equity, justice and systems by reading, watching, listening and connecting to a variety of resources related to racial literacy. For 14 days straight cohorts will choose one source each day and complete the task by reading, listening, watching or connecting. You will have tools of reflection along the way, and we will end the experience with a reflection day on February 26th. I'm excited to join you in this journey of racial equity. I look forward to us growing together as a district to better serve our students. Up next, you will be hearing from your building PD leaders on the structure of the challenge and participate in some activities to kind of get things kicked off. Thank you for your commitment to racial equity and to our students. Please have fun and enjoy this racial equity challenge. Take care. So that's the video just to kind of get things going and then kind of go into some guidelines. Kind of like I said, each building will split their building into cohorts of four to six staff members. And the cohorts will have, they will choose one source each day to which they will be reading, listening, watching, or connecting. In just a second, I'm going to go through the website that kind of is like a one-stop shop for the entire challenge. That'll have tools of reflection. That'll have all the sources listed and kind of, you know, put some accountability pieces in there as well. And with the challenge ending on February 26th, we'll have another PD day where cohorts get together with their buildings and they reflect on the challenge as a whole building. So... For the professional development day, we have some norms for the equity challenge. Of course, we want people to assume goodwill, listen with the intent to understand, speak your truth and respect the truth of others, accept non-closure. Again, just change as a process. Be brave about sharing oops and ouches. So really, we like to create norms. And then a couple activities for them to choose from. Um, in terms of, you know, kind of getting them warmed up for it. Um, and I am, but I am not, uh, exercise to where you list characteristics of yourself and then common stereotypes that might, uh, you know, pertain to the identifiers in terms of the characteristics that you put down and then kind of just having some exercises to share those as well. Um, or you can choose from a challenge one, three, two, one, three thoughts on your equity learning journey so far. two personal goals you have for yourself while participating in the challenge. And then one question you still have about equity and the work toward achieving it, and then sharing that with your cohort as well. So buildings will have a choice of one of those two activities to choose from to kind of get them done for. So the main thing I want to get into, which is our one-stop shop, and our equity committee did a fabulous job of preparing for the challenge and putting together this website for within the district. So here's the website here. And there's so many resources. So during the 14-day challenge, each building or each person can click this link and get a spreadsheet where they can keep a reflection of their individual choices for the challenge. And the goal is that each cohort goes through the exact same sources so that they can reflect along the way. So the first one is just for personal use. And this is the Jamboard that was created Each group will be able to click it and make a copy and share it with one another. And this is kind of an interactive piece for each group to use as they go through the challenge each day, especially if they're not able to connect each day. So for each source they look through, they'll be taking either a favorite quote, a takeaway I want to talk to someone about or I want to go deeper with. So this is the cover page for that, and for each day you'll have another slide to go through in terms of putting a sticky note in one of the four quadrants with the resource that was looked at in the middle. And they'll be able to do that for all 14 days of the challenge. So that's kind of a reflective way, and they'll be turning those in at the end of the challenge for the equity committee to look at to kind of get a good gauge on where we are as a district from an equity standpoint and use this to kind of spur professional development moving forward. within the future. And then another portion of the website, again, once teams are picked and they choose their source selections, they'll be filling out basically the click on the building. So for example, let's say it's Glen Ridge and they'll be able to fill out a Google form with every selection for the day that they choose. so that each group has an opportunity to see other groups in their building or around the district to kind of compare and contrast. And the goal with that is to have different groups and cohorts connect with one another through the challenge, and that be a part of their reflections as well. So then the slide deck that we're going through also will be available for them to look at as well. So the main thing that I'm excited about is how we have our sources kind of broken down between reading, watching, listening, connecting, and discussing. So if you take a look at the reading portion where we have books, it's a plethora of books that people want to start to dive into an entire book, different things that they can look at in order to connect with. So tons of book titles right there, as well as different book lists. And then under read as well, we have a little bit of everything, which are articles, documents, guides, and blogs. So we have it broken down by source. at Utopia, Reader's Digest, New York Times, The Atlantic. Learning for Justice is on there, National Association for the Education of Young Children, plus a plethora of articles from other sources as well. So tons to choose from from there. And then in terms of watching, we have videos broken down to 15 minutes or less, 15 to 30, 30 to 60 and 60 plus. as well as films, talks and other TV shows. And we understand people are busy, which is why we have a plethora of sources. So if it's a seven minute video or eight minute video or five minute article, the goal is just to, you know, have a crash course of something each day in order to just to kind of build understanding. So we have tons of videos and things to choose from that, as well as different films, talks and in other avenues as well. So different movies, movie lists that people are able to embark on. And then kind of the listening section, we have tons of podcasts that are available that people can start to dive into. The Abolitionist Teaching Network is a good one. A bunch of other ones like the Eight Black Hands Podcast is a real good educational one. The Equity Podcast, a couple of Brene Brown's podcast episodes on there as well. as well as a bunch of other sources that we go into as well. So in terms of number of sources, we could use this website for the next three or four racial equity challenges. And then the connect and discuss portion. This is the one I'm most excited about because it makes it a bit more personal. We want people to connect, discuss, and go through experiences. So a couple of questions I'll highlight on here. One thing that we did at the beginning of the year is that, you know, our educators of color that are in administrative roles within the district got together and, you know, had a sit down talk where we talked about our experiences as kids of color within the school system and kind of some of the things that we had to deal with. So when we start the challenge on Friday, different videos will be updated, highlighting these different administrators within the district. So you have a familiar face and are able to connect with someone's story that we see on a regular basis. As well as last week, I had the honor to speak at the State of the Black Educators Symposium last week. So updated part one and part two of that as well. So those are some experiences too. And then jumping in, we want people to do actual physical experiences. we understand things are limited during COVID. So, you know, we put things up as in terms of like maybe going to a restaurant or, you know, visiting a part of town that's different than you were participating in some interactive program. For example, you had a black owned restaurant that's recommended from the Sauce Magazine. Northwest Roasting Company is on there as well. So that could be an option, especially hidden close to home. So tons of different opportunities and opportunities things to do in terms of maybe influential Black educators and social media, intended anti-racist collective meeting. So terms of things to get involved with for everyone to do, again, one thing each day for 14 days. So we're real excited about that. The Equity Committee within the district putting some good work in terms of getting things together. Tomorrow morning, I will send all of you the information and the website links and everything so that you all can take part in it. And I've chosen some cohorts for you all. So you'll be able to see who you'll be linked up with on that. So yeah, we're ready to get going and to kind of build on what Caitlin was saying. And I had an idea to use this within the equity challenge, but then I kind of wanted to expand it to something larger in terms of, you know, really humanizing the, you know, each, you know, stakeholder within our district. So on our April 30th professional development day, We're going to get together and, you know, have panels with, you know, multiple student groups, multiple stakeholders in the district in terms of parent groups, so that we're able to understand every avenue within our district and, you know what exactly we need to do in order to better serve them. So that's something that I've been meeting with Caitlin and Nealey about in terms of figuring out how we want to structure that and getting student voice in the process of equity within the district. So I'm excited about that as well. So we had some good things on tap and I think we're heading in the right direction.

Thanks so much, Cameron. That actually sounds amazing. So I just want to see if a board have any, it's an information item, but do you have any quick questions or comments? I'm just going to start with David. You got anything?

No, I don't. Cameron, I always appreciate your updates. Thank you.

Thanks, David. Kim, you got anything? I think you're on mute. Sorry, I've

got three screens up here at work, so I've got to scroll around. Cameron, no, thank you for the update. I said, I think I was texting David on the side and what's really impressive about what you put together, I think, is the amount of choices and optionality that's reflected. So, you know, everybody's on a little bit of a different path here depending on, you know, where they are. So the fact that you can kind of choose where to start, I think is really thoughtful of, you know, it's a very thoughtful way to approach it and to get everybody on board. So I think it's great.

Thanks, Kim. Caitlin, any comments or questions?

Yeah, thank you for your work. I look forward to our next meeting and potentially even talking about how students can get involved in some of the cohort stuff.

Cool. Thanks, Caitlin. Jason, any comments or

No, no. Cameron, good job on putting that stuff together, you and the team. That was excellent, man.

Appreciate it, bro. Thanks, Jason. Gary, any comments or questions?

I just, this is going to sound repetitive, but appreciate it, Cameron. I love that you followed up on all this stuff. And I love the go do something in the physical world part of it. I'm telling you like get your Northwest coffee and go to the Scott Joplin house, go to the Chuck Berry house and go to Sumner high school. And you will have experienced something that most people who live in our region will never have experienced the whole time they live here.

Thanks, Gary. Stacy, any comments or questions?

I was just about to say what Gary said. Thank you for the concrete suggestions like that of activities and things people could do in businesses that people could support. And I also like what you said and what Caitlin brought up about getting the kids involved in the cohorts too. But thank you for all of your work. It's very thorough and I appreciate it. Thanks.

Thanks, Stacy. Amy, any comments or

Nope, everybody. I again, everybody kind of echoed what I was going to say. So I'm not going to take up more time. But thank you, Cameron, for your work on it.

And Cameron, I would just say that I'm not sure I know of another district that has such a comprehensive kind of link to the website and all the activities. So well done. I mean, I think it's really you and the equity committee and have really done a really nice job there. It seems like there's literally something for everybody at every level and all kinds of different experiences. So I think that's, I'm really excited to see how people get engaged with it. So thanks.

Thanks to you all.

All right. So we are going to move on to our action items in today board. We have quite a few, we have eight action items. And so the first 7.01 is a resolution on COVID-19 leave. So Gary, will you read that please?

I move that the School District of Clayton Board of Education approve the resolution on COVID- 19 leave as submitted.

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions on this? All righty. All in favor? You got one?

Yeah, yeah. Sorry about that.

That's all right. Go

ahead. Just want to talk through it real fast. I know it's kind of a simple read, which is kind of nice every now and again. It's nice to have a simple read. On the first page, page 101, I have a printout. Can you all hear me? I have a print out. But it's a, it says allows the district to require more documentation of the absence there was allowed under federal law. Let me ask you a question. So, so is that something that we need to do? Do we have any instances of people taking advantage of this, this situation that's happening with COVID and leave?

No, we haven't had anyone taking, you know, misusing it to our knowledge. It's just something that was recommended from MSBA when we looked at this. It would allow us, if we suspected individuals that might be abusing it, that we could ask for that documentation. Because this is an above and beyond of what would be the typical leave and beyond the federal regulations.

Okay. And also, let's see... Yeah, it just, there was another question. Is this the same thing? I think it's about where it talks about, okay, so on the second page, or on the, it looks like this. Can you see that? Mine's a printout, so I don't have, I'm not looking at the screen. So it's at the bottom, it's number five, and it talks about, it says, for use of LEADS, COVID lead cannot be used intermittently or on a reduced schedule, but must be taken in a single block time during qualifying conditions. So just kind of like, if you can just kind of, what does that mean exactly?

So with the original leave that we had, we allowed individuals, depending on their situation, to use leave intermittently if it was due to a family situation. We did encourage for consistency of our students that we would try to avoid that if at all possible. So with point number five, the use of leave, we're saying that we cannot do it intermittently. So not if you were exposed, but if you were having to cover for your child because of their daycare, that sort of thing, because their daycare or school was closed and that component of this was removed. Okay. Okay. So the, the, uh, emergency paid leave is no longer valid for if your child's school closes.

So your child's school poses, you can't take your emergency schooling doesn't qualify.

Yeah, you would not have paid leave.

Are we happy with that? What is that? Is that something where guys agree? They have other forms

of leave that they can use.

Oh, okay. Okay.

Okay.

All right. So as long as everyone's happy with it.

So can I follow up on that, Tony? With this form of leave that we're talking about versus some of the other categories, is there anything that we should know in terms of that explanation of what qualifies as one versus the other? Can you fill us in on that?

Sure, so basically what this leave does is provides additional paid days. So it doesn't deduct anything from teachers sick days and it ensures that if they have COVID or if their child has COVID or a family member they're caring for, that this will cover them for up to the 10 days. The part that was removed was the emergency paid family medical leave. So like for example, if they needed to be out to care for under the original law, if you were, you would qualify for the emergency FMLA under the original law. If it was anybody that you were caring for, it could be a neighbor that had COVID that you were caring. This new version does not allow that. It's basically like your regular FMLA in order for it to be paid.

Any other comments or questions?

Yeah, so just make sure one more thing. So if I'm a teacher and my child is sick, I can take a different leave, right, Sean? Right, guys?

If your child is sick and it's not COVID-related, yeah, you would use paid family illness

days. And if it's COVID-related though, like say, I'm in fifth grade and the fifth grade got exposed. And the kids now speak, but we gotta be out for 14 days.

I'm sorry, say that again. You teach fifth grade and you're, say that again? Can you hear me now? Is that better?

What I'm saying is that if I teach fifth grade and the sixth grade, my son's class or a class is exposed and we're supposed to sit out for 14 days Am I allowed to stay home with my child for 14 days? Or actually 10 in this case. But am I allowed to stay at home for that reason?

Does it cover that? Yes, because you'd be at home with your child who's quarantined.

Just not my neighbor.

Not your neighbor. I want to

make sure. It's kind of weird how they would specifically say it. Anybody else, but right, right. Gotcha. Okay, perfect.

Yeah, I think originally the original intention with that, with FFCRA, the original federal regulation with this was so individuals that you might have in your neighborhood that didn't have a family member nearby, this would allow people to help take care of them. And we didn't have that utilized at all up through December 31st. So we are keeping the core of what was utilized and what we think will be possibly needed moving forward.

Okay. All right, cool. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Any other comments or questions? All righty. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, passes unanimously 7-0. Okay, we're moving on to thank you to 7.02, which is the personal tax credit tuition rate for the 2021-22 school year. Gary?

I'm 7.02. I move that the Board of Education adopt for the 2021-2022 school year, an elementary personal and tax credit tuition rate of $17,800 and a secondary personal and tax credit, tuition rate of $23,750. Second. Okay. It's been moved to seconded. Any comments or questions?

Okay, all in favor.

Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, passes unanimously 7-0. So we're moving on to 7.03, which is the tuition rates for the early childhood education for the 2021-22 school year.

Go ahead, Gary. 7.03, I move that the Board of Education increase early childhood education resident tuition 3% and non-resident tuition 4%. Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions on this one?

Yeah, I always have a question about this. It's always kind of weird to see that we're who are charging private school prices. You know, it's always weird. I mean, I know we can do it, but it's just, just wanna have a little bit of a dialogue. If you all don't mind, I would love to hear your feedback on this. Like, what do you think about us charging $23,000 and $17,000, almost 18,000 for a school? I know it's a way to generate revenue, But that's what I understand. What do you all think?

We already voted on that one, didn't

we? Jason, that was the last one that we just voted on. This is the early childhood one. Oh,

I'm on the wrong one. Oh, shucks. Okay, I'm cool. All right. I'm looking at the papers and I'm, you know, whatever. All right,

cool. So any questions on this one, on the early childhood one?

Not really, man. No. Excuse me.

Okay, any other comments or questions on this one, the tuition rate for the early childhood education for the family center?

I guess this is kind of just a clarification question, but why is there a difference between resident and non-resident and like do taxes come into play there and how so?

Yeah, any of our programs that are supplemented by the district, which this program is, it's basically supplemented 40% by the district. We do charge non-residents more. So...

Go ahead, Gary. Mayor Joe, just to follow up on that. So for the Family Center, even though we charge tuition, I mean, tell me if I'm wrong, but I think this is right because I think you've explained this to me before, actually. We charge tuition, but our tuition that we collect from enrolled students in the Family Center doesn't cover all of the costs. So the district supplements some of that tuition Those costs. Is that right so far?

Correct. The tuition basically is covering the cost of all the teacher salaries, none of the operational like administrative or building costs or anything like that.

Okay, so that is kind of why as a district, anything that the district is kicking in funds to make up the difference between the funds collected for tuition or whatever the activity fees or whatever it is versus the overall costs, we differentiate between resident and non-resident. I think it is interesting just in the context of all of the attention and interest on early childhood education and funding sources for that to think about where we get the funds to support the family center as regionally we think about early childhood education and possible ways of expanding that. So it's interesting to actually kind of break it down and think about that. So appreciate the question, Caitlin, and the explanation.

I have a question too. Go ahead. I apologize if this is a little off topic from the tuition, but do we offer financial assistance to families that want to come that can't afford that?

Yeah. And Sean can probably speak a little more. In the past, the PTO has had a scholarship fund, but the foundation has supplemented that now.

Yeah, so we have been able to get funding that has filtered through the Clayton Education Foundation. And the PTO at the Family Center has always traditionally raised funds as for scholarships. And then recently we've had some support from the Clayton Education foundation from donors as well.

HAB-Juliette Boone, Okay, and have we made any progress in enrolling any of our like vick students younger siblings in the family Center has that I apologize that's not about tuition. We could talk about another, but I know we've talked about that before.

Yeah. I mean, it's, we have not in, so in order to do that, we'd have to have another conversation about, um, students being able to enroll and whether or not we would use the, you know, our model for Vic to be able to extend that into the family center. I think it's a great conversation for us to have. I think it'd be great for us to think about ways that we can look at diversity within at the family center and would welcome that conversation.

Okay, let's have it one day. Thanks.

Any other comments or questions? Our strategic plan, that's one of the action steps that we put in as part of our action steps.

Great. Any other comments, or questions on the Family Center tuition? Alrighty, all in favor? Aye.

Any

opposed? Okay, it passes 7-0. So we're moving on to 7.04, which is the second reading and approval of policy JCB, which is transfers within the district. Gary.

7.04, I move that the Board of Education approve the policy updates as presented on policy JCB transfers within the district?

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions on this one? All right, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? OK, it passes unanimously 7-0, thanks. So we're moving to 7.05, which is second reading and approval of policy JCC, which is transfers outside the district.

Gary? 7.05, I move that the Board of Education approve the policy updates as presented on policy JCC, transfers outside the district,

Second.

Okay, so it's moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? All righty, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, passes unanimously. Thank you. So we're moving to 7.06, which is the second reading and approval of policy JECA, which is eligibility to enroll. Gary?

7.06, I move that the Board of Education approve the policy updates as presented on policy JECA eligibility to enroll.

Second. Kinsman moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? All right, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, it passes unanimously. 7.07, which is the second reading and approval of policy DFI setting the tuition rate. Gary?

7.07, I move that the Board of Education approve policy DFI setting a tuition rate updates as presented.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? All right. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Passes unanimously 7-0. We're moving on to the final action item, which is 7.08, the approval of the meeting minutes for the January 27th, 2021. Gary. All

right. 7.08. I move that the Board of Education approve the meeting minutes for 2021 meeting as presented.

Second.

All right, it's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, it passes seven zero unanimously. Thank you. So we are moving on to public comment. Chris and Sean, do we have any public

comment? Yes, we have three public comments this evening.

All righty.

So our first public comment is from Betsy Melan Smith, and she writes, thank you to the elementary teachers, administrators, and amazing students who have done such a great job creating and sharing the Black History is Essential video series in celebration of Black History Month. The videos have been so well done and informative, and I know it's been a collective effort and a lot of work to execute. Thank you all for your commitment to the project and for bringing it to our community. I hope the videos are being featured in our schools and we'll be safe for ongoing learning about essential figures in black history throughout the year and into the future. I also wanna thank Mr. Poole and the team who put together the equity report from the January 27th meeting. It was great to hear from all the different areas of focus within the administration about how you're addressing issues of equity and inclusion, The follow-up discussion among board members was also really robust. I'm happy to hear you are all thinking critically about ABAR work and how it impacts our teachers, our students, our schools, and our region. Finally, I'm really heartened by the work being done in our parent community the Clayton Anti-Racism Collective, and more specifically, the Stamped Book Study, organized and facilitated by the wonderful captain teacher, Eileen McGaughy, in partnership with the Captain PTO. In a time when we feel so disconnected, she has done an amazing job of assembling the captain community in a virtual way to have meaningful discussions about equity. We've been able to learn more about our history by reading the book together, but we've also begun to build relationships within our community, something we've all been missing this year. So thank you, Eileen, for dedicating your time and your energy to this really meaningful work. Our next comment comes from Amber Kempf. She writes, as the parent of a fifth grader in the district, I wanted to take a moment to send my thanks to the board for all of its hard work in the past year towards further supporting and resourcing equity and inclusion work within the Clayton School District. This work is very important to me as a parent in the district and a resident of Clayton. I was especially pleased to see the creation of the Director of Equity and Inclusion position, and I'm thrilled to see the great work that Cameron Poole has already accomplished in just a very short time in that role. I'm excited to hear about our new superintendent, Nisha Patel's experience and background in the areas of equity and inclusion and what her plans are to further support that important and vital work in the district. This attention to an action towards equity and inclusion are wonderful first steps toward the district delivering on its goal of more culturally competent students who can graduate from Clayton High School and go on to be good citizens in our communities and our world. I look forward to seeing the board's next step in this area. Thank you. And our final comment comes from Jenna Schomburg. She writes, when we made the decision to transfer our fourth grader to Captain Elementary due to wanting her to be in sync with her siblings who are already in the district, we were excited to have her matched with Miss King. Knowing they would both be new to the building made our daughter feel at ease, but this was only the beginning of why we are thankful for her presence in Edie's life. While everyone was virtual at the beginning of the year, I got to hear firsthand her honesty and compassion coupled with her professionalism and intentionality to connect with the kids. I recently began substituting for the district and was excited to sub for her this week. Seeing the amazing discussion points she is facilitating in her class was truly inspiring and makes me so thankful we decided to move our daughter to captain. She's led the kids alongside Ms. Taylor in considering two columns of thinking. what I used to think and what I know now. I saw some topics like asking someone for an easier nickname if their name doesn't sound American versus learning how to pronounce someone's name, and in discussing a poem, asking questions like what perspective is centered and what assumptions am I making based on their view? These are deep topics and compelling questions to ask ourselves, and I'm heartened by the idea of our students growing up with these ways of considering information, stories, and the people who carry both. How much better equipped they must be to understand and empathize with others because they've learned the tools of the hard work of communication and care. I'm so thankful for Ms. King's bold adherence to listening, to leading with compassion, to telling the truth, and leaving room for growth. I hope her voice and presence will continue to guide the students at Captain for many years. And that's all of our comments.

Great, thanks, Chris. So we are moving on to board communications. Does anybody have a board communication that they want to share?

Hey Joe, I'll go. Go ahead, David. So PTO Council had their meeting last night. It's kind of interesting to hear the kind of the feedback across all of the buildings and what all the schools are doing. And really the focus, and I'm not giving this enough credit because there's a lot of really cool stuff taking place in each of the buildings but there's been a tremendous focus on just fundraising and helping to support the food pantries and the teacher and the classroom initiatives and the parties and trying to maintain some semblance of normality if you will for the kids. So it was really, that's probably my favorite part of this meeting is hearing what's going on in the other buildings. A lot of chat around changes with how we handle spirit wear concessions and opening up and allowing all of us to get our livery going. I know Chris is working on some challenges that I've had with that, so I think it's exciting to see that it's going to be And of course, you know, I think probably the topic of the hour was was the buzz book. And I just feel like I wouldn't be doing justice if I don't just float the idea that we recognize that the buzz book has got challenges this year and there's a lot of eyes on getting that fixed. So if anybody is sharing that pain. I know with my wife being a co-president for PTO, I've heard about it. So it's definitely top of mind for a lot of folks. And then the other thing, I just want to do a public announcement and broadcast on behalf of all of our PTOs across the district. This is the time of the school year, although it does seem weird because it's not a normal year. But we are still maintaining a regular schedule and cadence, and that means that this is the time that new officers are being selected to serve on the PTOs. Even though it may feel like unusual year and maybe, you know, families that are watching haven't been as engaged, you know, this year as they have been in previous years. I would like to share the request that if you are open to the idea of serving in the school and volunteering your time and helping the kids. I know the PTOs would like to hear from you over the next few weeks and, you know, probably, I'd say probably the next four to five weeks, they need to start shaping up what the executive boards look like across the local PTOs as well as the PTO Council. So just something to think about if you'd like to reach out. But otherwise, Joe, I think that's probably all I've got.

Thanks, David. Other board communications?

I just have a small one. This is from the CRSWC Finance Committee meeting. just a few things that, uh, are kind of, uh, I guess new, some newer information you guys might already know, but apparent, but, uh, in the capital update, we talked about, um, apparently the, the roof over the pool is leaking. And, um, so there might be a fight, some financial responsibility there, um, from the district. We don't know yet what that number would be to fix it, but we're, it's being looked into. Um, And I don't know if you guys knew, but I think Sean had mentioned this, that there is not going to be a summer quest this summer. But they are in discussions with the district and the center of Clayton are talking about the center of Claydon taking over some request next summer.

Thanks, Amy. Gary, did you have something?

Yeah, just because it goes along with that, the Parks and Rec Commission also met last week and some similar topics, but we also had an update from that group on the planned renovations and updates to the playgrounds in Shaw Park. I just would encourage anyone who's interested to go and check those things out on the website. There's a great group that's behind that and helping to support that effort. So appreciate that. I just want to mention that for everybody.

Thank you, Gary. Any other board communications? I'll just say... Thanks to Stacy and Gary, who really suggested that Ian and Brian come to the board meeting based upon going to the Legislative Advocacy Committee. And hearing about some legislation that could affect our district. So thanks for suggesting that. I think that was helpful to learn.

Well, and just maybe to follow up on that, Joe, I will say it's been one of my favorite things to do over the last four plus years is to go to that group. And I've just learned so much from it. But if Stacey hadn't also been there and then we hadn't talked about it afterwards, this last one, we would have never thought of this and put it into action to have them come and talk to us. And Well, you know, we spent a fair amount of time on it. I think it's really important. And so I just encourage it's open to anyone like like Stacey said, we can all come. It's on Zoom. It's early, but you can you can click in and listen in. And, you know, so drop in if you can. I really would love it if more of us did that. There are other districts that have larger groups, including parents and students and other people there all the time. So I'd love to see us be more involved and take more leadership in that. And thank you, Stacey, for coming and then talking to me about it after.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other board communications? All right, how about a motion to adjourn?

All right, I move that the Board of Education adjourn.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?