October 12, 2022 — Meeting Transcript

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Okay, good.

Good evening, everybody. Out of print notice has been given, so I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting into order. It's nice to see everybody here. And let's go ahead and start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, so, we, I think we need to approve our October 12th agenda, please. I move that the Board of Education approve the business meeting agenda for October 12th, 2022. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Motion passes. And I will turn it over to Dr. Poole for recognizing her own. Okay, so Dr.

Poole is going to be coming up here for our first Recognizing Our Own and our Amazing Parent Christina Blankenship, so thank you for being here today. Thank you. Thank you Good evening Good evening. Good evening.

Good evening. Good evening, everyone. Just to get the meeting kicked off, just to let everyone know, October is Disability History and Awareness Month in the state of Missouri. And tonight, Clayton Packett would like to present the School District of Clayton Board of Education the following proclamation for your consideration and recognition of Disability History and Awareness Month.

You should have received both a typed written copy as well as a copy in Braille of the proclamation. And with us tonight is our fabulous president of the Clayton PAC Ed, Christina Blankenship. And we're also going to hear from a CHS student, Holly Sears, who happens to be a senior, who will be presenting our proclamation. I didn't know if you were going to say anything.

Oh, yeah, sure. In my free time, I do musical theater, I sing opera, I do tap, I do ballet, I do, like, piano, and I do the ukulele. And I also do voiceover work. So, this year, I'm doing the school production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

I'm currently in rehearsals for that. And I'm playing the role of Miss Prism. Then I'm going to do our production of Beauty and the Beast as Mrs. Potts.

And then I'm going to be music directing Tug Everlasting. So, I'm studying for vocal performance in college after I graduate Clayton High School, and I'm done with the application process of Webster. The application is submitted, but I'm still going to audition for the School of Music. So, one thing, what I think is important for individuals with disabilities is that other people get to expand their knowledge and understanding of people with disabilities.

Thank you, Holly. And now we'll be moving on to the next question. Thank you, Holly. And now, we'll be moving on to Holly presenting the board with the proclamation.

Good evening, Dr. Patel, Clayton Board of Education, and Clayton community. Tonight, we would like to present to the School District of Clayton Board of Education the following proclamation for your consideration in recognition of Disability History and Awareness Month. You should have received both a typewritten copy as well as a copy in Braille.

The month of October, in accordance with Missouri House Bill 555, has been designated as Disability History and Awareness Month in the state of Missouri. This legislation encourages schools to provide instruction and activities to expand student and community knowledge, understanding, and awareness of individuals with disabilities. The history of disability and the disability rights movement. Approximately one out of every five Americans is a person with a disability.

The disability experience is a natural part of life. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is founded on four principles, inclusion, full participation, economic self-sufficiency, and equality of opportunity for all people with disabilities. A key method of promoting these four principles is for our schools to recognize the contributions by people with disabilities to our society and provide instruction in disability history people with disabilities and the disability rights movement through school curriculum school assemblies and other school activities As citizens, we should recognize the value and intersectionality of the disability experience in our schools and communities and the important role it plays in our rich diversity. Recognize the barriers presented to those with disabilities and the negative impact they have on both individuals with disabilities as well as our community.

Recognize that equitable experiences and full inclusion for individuals with disabilities is a matter of social justice. Thus, creating equitable inclusive environments is a shared community responsibility. As citizens, we should advocate for policies and practices that create and support systems that are truly inclusive and equitable for all, especially those with disabilities in all aspects of life. Now therefore, be it resolved by the School District of Clayton Board of Education, Clayton, Missouri, that the Board urges our schools to provide intensive instruction and activities to expand knowledge, understanding, and awareness of individuals with disabilities, the history of disability, and the disability rights movement, and encourages institutions to conduct and promote educational activities on those subjects.

Thank you again, Clayton Board, Dr. Patel, for having us again here tonight. As part of Disability History and Awareness Month, the Clayton PAC-N will be hosting a disability awareness video showcase on the district's website. This will include the award-winning video series that was created by the School District of Clayton's Communications Department last year.

If you haven't had a chance to view it, this will be your opportunity. Along with the film Intelligent Lives that we screened last year and had a panel discussion. Along with several other films from Dan Habib who is an internationally celebrated disability rights advocate and award winning filmmaker. So watch your emails for more details this week.

Thank you again. Do you have any questions for us? I would like to publicly thank Christina for all of her hard work that she does in this area. And it's such an important thing that you do.

And I know that you spend a ton of time and energy with it. And I know the entire board really appreciates everything that you do for us. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

I feel like I got 300 kids. So that's why I work so hard at this. Thank you. Really appreciate it.

Thank you for being here tonight as well. Oh, thank you. So thanks so much. Thank you.

Okay. Sorry, I'm having connection issues. It's okay. We can move on to our next group that we are going to be recognizing tonight.

I believe our librarian from Glenridge Elementary is here with our individuals that we will be recognizing. As they make their way up here, and Emma, I'm so glad is here as well. I happened to meet these amazing individuals one time when I was at Glenridge. And I found out the history by talking to them and how much, how dedicated they are to our district.

In particular to Glenridge Elementary and the programs they have. And Dr. Murdoch actually introduced me as well to this. So I just want to first of all start off by thanking you Trish.

You're an amazing person. Amazing librarian. You are dedicated. You are committed.

She is always so positive. Truly an example for all of us. So thank you for being here tonight. And then the individuals we're recognizing.

Emma is there, right? Yes, she's right there. So Emma, this is all for you. And then John and Fran for all your years of volunteering for our district.

So share the story with us if you don't mind, Trish. Sure Well thank you for recognizing this great team we have here So John and Fran and Emma have been coming to Glenridge This is their 10th year So they been coming to Glenridge John and Emma come several mornings a week and stand on the stoop and welcome the students And even during the pandemic when they couldn come inside John still came to the Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried And the students absolutely love it. And so just a couple quick stories, some of my favorites. Well, first of all, the first time the kindergartners come and read with Emma, as I'm walking down the hall with them, invariably one of the kiddos will ask, so is Emma going to read?

Like they want to know. That's what they grab. They know she's the reading dog, but they're not sure. Thank you.

Which are our students at Glen Ridge. So I asked them today, why do you love Emma? Or what do you think of Emma when she comes to Glen Ridge? And so Christian, a first grader, he said, she's soft, she's black.

And Theo, a third grader, said, Emma is probably the nicest dog in the world. And I've heard John say that before. And Mary Kate said, I love Emma because she reminds me of my dog at home. So bringing that home-school connection.

Archie in first grade said, I just love her. And my favorite, Azura in second grade, who is a big Emma fan, she said, she's kind and she makes me happy. So John and Fran, we so thank you for all that you do. The kids love, love, love Emma, and they love you guys, too.

Thank you. Oh, we love them, too. And I should also say that they are not only just Emma as a reading dog, but they're so community-minded. They have a little library outside their house, and you've helped with our school garden, and they help our community in many, many ways.

And their children went there. And your children went there, yes. So we're really connected to Glenwood. And I was a librarian.

Yeah, I was a librarian at Y-Down. So we've been connected for a long time with the district. Well, it's interesting that this month is Disability Awareness Month because Emma was supposed to be a service dog. And we were volunteering with Support Dogs Incorporated 10 years ago or 12 years ago, and Emma was our second service dog.

Thank you. I picked her up when she was eight weeks old. She was just a beautiful little dog. As soon as Fran saw her, she said, give her to me.

So it was love at first sight with this little one. But then she got certified as a pause for reading dog. And I've been bringing her to Glen Ridge since she was eight weeks old because one of the difficult things about raising a service dog is the public's not allowed to pet them because they have to be focused on the person with the disability. But I got a special dispensation with trainers there to bring her to Glenridge and let the kids play with her.

So from a very young age, Emma was very much used to the kids. And then we couldn't start reading in the school until she was two years old. So we waited anxiously for two years, and then when we started reading, and Beth Scott was the principal at the time, and she's a wonderful principal also, and she was very anxious to have Emma in the school. And we've just been so welcome there.

It's such a pleasure to walk through the halls and let the kids see Emma All the teachers, we became good friends with teachers, but it's been a joy. This year especially because we have a very special person that reads with us with the kids. This terrific lady over here stays with us and she knows all the kids and she does a fabulous job helping us. So it's so much fun.

We just love it. Well, thank you again for all of your years of love. Literally years of volunteering and being part of our community. People like you make us who we are.

So thank you again. On behalf of all of us. That's right. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Emma. Emma, sit.

Does she do any tricks? Emma wants to wave to you and thank you. Okay. Emma, wave.

Good girl. All right, well, Dr. Patel, that's a tough act to follow. I know, right?

I can't follow Emma. No. So, yes, superintendent communications. So, just a few things I wanted to update the community and the board on.

Obviously, last week was homecoming, so we had a lot of A lot of great events, a lot of energy. I was really excited to see the elementary schools also be a part of it and the middle school. We had our pep, the high school pep band went with our new mascot to the elementary schools and middle schools. So a lot of positive energy around.

We had the parade. I believe we had a record number of people also at the dance. A huge turnout for that. So I'm sure Carter will mention that as well.

But it was overall a great week and it was just nice to be back and fully doing this and some traditions that we always have. A couple of other things I do want to highlight. Last week I had the honor of going to Wydown Middle School and announcing that Frankie Senevec was our Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award recipient. It's an award that about 100 educators get in the St.

Louis metro area each year. Thank you. Truly a transformative force in our school. And I would completely attest to that.

And I know Jamie was there as well and Frankie was as surprised as anyone can be when we announced that she's the winner. So we'll have her at one of the board meetings so we can personally congratulate her coming up. And then on another, on the sports side, I am excited for our tennis team. They're advancing this state this weekend.

So we'll have this weekend it's singles and doubles players and then the following weekend will be the state for the team. So, looking forward to seeing how they do and we wish them the best of luck on that. And then, of course, the last piece of big news is the CHS library is open. It was amazing.

I went the first day when we opened it for the students. I don't think I've seen that many students in the library at any one given time. Carter, would you agree? Yeah, everybody loves it.

So many, and I was talking to all the different groups of students and they absolutely love it. And one group was actually in one of the side rooms, you know, one of the many side rooms we have, and they said that they literally rushed out of their classroom just to make sure they got that room so they could go in there and work on their project together. So very exciting for our high school students to have that space, the learning space there. And then finally, you know, I always end my update with the competencies that we want our kids to lead with.

And if you recall, last week, Dr. Garganino came up here and we talked about empowered learning. We talked about how, you know, the future of education and what we want teaching and learning to look like in the classroom. So along with that, we know that's a paradigm shift.

We know that that takes time. It's messy. How do we assess that? So for example, today only the administrators were at Y-Down and we did walkthroughs in the classroom to see do we see evidence of empowered learning happening.

And we're collecting data and we're having conversations about that to continue to move that forward. So along that track, we also have another conversation that we were having at our secondary schools in particular about grading practices. And this conversation, even I remember as being my first assistant principal role to a building principal role, That conversation continued to happen, right? What are like grading practices that really reflect what our student knows and is able to do?

Is the grade truly about achievement? Is it consistent? Are we communicating truly what the student skillset is Or are we counting behaviors in it There a lot of different nuances when it comes to grading and it very personal too So later today we going to have a presentation about that and just to let the board and the community know where we are on that journey and we'll be the first to say we have a long way to go, but we're also doing some things, right? And I'd love to hear also, I know Carter's going to be speaking about, are we seeing that from the student lens, and how is that working?

So I'm looking forward to that presentation later today. All right. So like Dr. Patel said, last week was homecoming, which was super exciting for all the students because this year we really got to get back in the full swing of things with all the activities.

Another thing that I'd like to note is that the junior class actually did win. Dethroning seniors for the first time in a while, so that's pretty impressive. Coming from a junior. Senior.

My 22 years here, it's only happened twice in 22 years. Wow. We'll take a special break. So yeah, that was really exciting.

Another thing is last time I talked a little bit about the Jewish holidays and sort of what we were thinking in terms of what school looks like on those days. So I met with Dr. Patel and Dr. Gajewski on this issue, And we had some really good conversations, and we sort of talked about how the issue isn't really, like, whether or not our teachers, our administrators are thinking about it, but just that, like, having school on a Jewish holiday in general is hard because those students are going to miss something, whether they're missing new content, missing a review day, missing a test, missing a lab.

Like, no matter what, they're missing something, which always makes it a little bit difficult. So we sort of all agreed that like the best course of action moving forward is just to hear from our Jewish students on like what we would work for them. So I think Dr. Poole and Dr.

Gattuso are going to talk to JSU about sort of what their thoughts are on the issue and sort of hear what they're thinking in terms of what would be helpful to happen in school on a Jewish holiday and like sort of what we do after those holidays. So the next thing is I talked to the students a lot about grading this week. We had an advisory meeting this week, which we almost exclusively talked about grading. So the first thing that we sort of talked about to sort of frame the discussion as a whole is just like what's the purpose of a grade from like a student's perspective?

Like how does it play into their experience at school? And at first, students, I mean, they were pretty blunt. They talked about how they care about grades so that they can go to a good college and achieve what they want to after high school. But then we sort of talked about how we can sort of get away from that practice.

Because really a grade shouldn't just be about what comes next, but rather about focusing on this moment, what we can do now, and how we can maximize our learning. So one thing that we sort of talked about is how we can make grades more about feedback rather than just a number. And one specific issue that a lot of students talked about was finals. Because with finals, it's sort of like you see a grade in the gradebook, but you never see that test again.

You never see what you did wrong. You never have the chance to learn from it. So they were thinking that something that could be very helpful is to actually get feedback on the finals, Which to me seems like a little bit of a no-brainer. And because, I mean, if we're having a test, we should be able to learn from it.

Another thing that we sort of talked about were two more specific issues with grading. The first one was about homework and how we're weighting homework in a grade. So really we talked about this from three main perspectives. The first was the perspective of the student who is putting in the effort, They're doing the homework, and maybe they need the little boost of that grade because maybe they're not the best test taker or other reasons.

And for those students, it is really helpful to have a little boost from doing homework, putting in all that work, and actually learning how to practice for the test. So thinking about ways which we can make homework beneficial for them in terms of grading. But then we also talked about it from the perspective of students who don't really have as much of an opportunity to get that homework done. Maybe they have a lot of other commitments outside of school, or maybe in some cases they don't really need to do the homework to learn the material in the best way they could.

So to sort of like maximize the benefits to both of those groups, we sort of came up with this idea which some teachers are using, which is you make homework like a grade where if you do it and you do it well, then it goes in the grade book. But if you can do it you don do it then it doesn And I know that some teachers are using this policy where if you don do the homework it just excused in the gradebook And if you do it it goes in as like a small grade to boost it And all the students said this policy has worked really well So that's sort of the student view on the issue of homework. And the next main sort of policy within grading is about test retakes. So, recently retakes have become a lot more mainstream in a lot of classes.

Most classes are having retakes, or not necessarily retakes, but follow-ups to test whether that's taking it again or doing revisions or whatever. But one thing that students didn't know is that it becomes a little bit tricky when you have different teachers with different retake policies. So, like, for example, if, like, there's two sections of the same class, both with different teachers, those two different teachers might have, like, vastly different systems of revising tests. And so while the students were like, okay, it makes sense to maybe have a different system for math than you have for, like, English Thank you.

That was great, as usual. And so since we're talking about grading, I will invite Dr. Garganiga to come on up and talk to us about it. I've got a whole team with me.

I love it. Come on up. Thank you. Carter, I feel like you teed us off really nicely.

I appreciate that introduction. So, speaking of introductions, I'd like to introduce the team at the table. So Dr. Kaczewski, Dr.

Dan Kaczewski, the principal at the high school, Dr. Jamie Jordan, principal of the middle school, Janet Cruz, who is our instructional coordinator, our secondary school's instructional coordinator, and our professional development coordinator within the district, and then Craig Super, who is a science teacher, a PDC member, so professional development committee member, and the CHS director of accreditation and school improvement. So this team here, they're the ones who actually like our boots on the ground doing the work. What I see my role tonight is initially to just sort of present some high level information of the connection between the two buildings and then turning it over to Dan and Jamie to give you some more specifics related to their schools.

So, contrary to what Jamie and Dan like, I'm going to start with an inclusion activity. So, the purpose of inclusion activities is really to get us grounded in the work. So, I'm actually going to ask you all to participate in this inclusion activity. And as you think about your experience as having been a student or as a parent, whatever role you want to take on in thinking about this, What have been, what has been your experience of what has factored into grades in your experience?

So just popcorn them out. Just yell them out. Participation. I feel like final exams were always weighted very heavily.

Yeah. Group assignments. Memorization. Memorization.

Extra credit. Extra credit. For me, also just points. Just how much, how many points you got?

Great. Thank you. So as I think about my experience as a student, in elementary school, the marks that I received were specific to individual standards. So it looked a lot like, could I add?

Or could I assume responsibility? And the feedback from teachers provided to my parents at that point was on a descriptive scale. But by secondary school, grades were given for almost everything, almost like a transactional relationship. So I did something, and in return I got a grade.

Grades were things that we used to compare ourselves to others Because I got a grade for literally everything I was afraid to take risks and even more concerned when I didn have something Thank you When I think about our work and what we do within the School District of Clayton, we talk about our profile of the graduate being our why. And on our day-to-day teaching and learning work is grounded in this profile of the graduate. And we're working to help our students to embody these competencies. And the feedback that we give to students should be helping them to grow within these competencies.

So when we began our work of focusing on grading, we had this goal in mind. So the idea of a cohesive, vertically aligned, so through our secondary schools, grading system that focused on learning as opposed to point getting. Prior to our initial work and discussion on grading, our practices really were more autonomous to the individual teacher. An individual teacher could decide what constituted an A, for example, and what factors weighed in on a grade.

So how much each learning component factored into the grade and when learning was to be completed and marked in a grade book. So the teacher was making all of the decisions. This autonomy created a certain level of inconsistency for us and uncertainty and didn't allow for grades to communicate a consistent message. So an A in one class didn't necessarily mean the same, and this is where Carter was teeing this up for us.

It also didn't allow for teacher professional learning groups to work as collaboratively as possible because a cohesive system will allow us to increase the likelihood of teachers collaborating and learning from student work together, as opposed to trying to determine what factored into that grade. So some of the agreements that we started to work from when we started with these discussions included this idea of like a grading scale. So an A or a B should mean the same thing in at least content-alike courses. So all sections of biology one or introduction to biology, an A should mean the same thing to all of those students.

We're teaching the same standards at the course-alike level, so we should be able to report on progress of those standards in the same way. A proportional grading scale. So ensuring that no one letter grade is disproportionately represented in the overall. So if you think about the traditional zero to a hundred scale and equating that to an A, B, C, D, F, the F is disproportionately large in comparison to those other grades.

And then proportion of overall grades assigned for different aspects of student work. So thinking about the weight of homework in comparison to the weight of summative assessments, thinking about how classwork factors into those types of things, and then the last one being the opportunity to continue learning. So with a focus on the importance of learning, we know that everyone doesn't learn at the same pace. And so we wanted a system that allowed for students to continue to learn and continue to grow, So our focus being on the learning and to value the process of learning and growing.

So these were some of the agreements that started to frame some of our work. So then three principles began to guide our work. The grades should be accurate. They should reflect the student's independent work and report on their achievement of course standards.

Grades should be bias resistant. So grades should be based on content knowledge, not things that are subjective for the teacher to report on or dependent on a student's environment. So that's the idea of what Nisha was talking about earlier of thinking about the difference between behaviors and achievement. So sometimes there's a lot of bias for a teacher with behaviors because you're looking for somebody to behave the way that you think that they should behave as a student versus what their achievement is within content.

And then the last one is motivational. So focusing on learning, not on point getting. We want students to respond to feedback and want to continue to focus on the process of learning and students should be provided the opportunity for redemption. So an analogy.

This is a parachute analogy. So when you, what you see on the right hand side, the course mark, is a grade for each student after five weeks of courses, of a course about how to pack parachutes. And so if I just look at the course mark column, I think most of us would ...agree that we would want student A to pack our parachute. 80% feels higher than 72%, like it is, it's higher than 72%, right?

So it doesn't feel like it is. But if you look at the progress over time, student A actually didn't really learn anything in the course. Like they were as successful week one as they were week five. Whereas student B was not particularly successful before they started learning.

And then as they started to learn, they became more successful to the point where in week four and week five, they were packing five out of five parachutes perfectly. So if I look at it from that perspective, I would want students to be packing my parachute. I probably wouldn't use a parachute anyway. I mean, I'm just going to say.

So as a part of our grading practices, it's also important to separate formative and summative assessments. So formative being the learning along the way. It should be feedback rich, low stakes, and summative assessments are more for after the learning and a way of showing understanding of the standards. So some examples of these are listed here.

And the idea of the proportion of a grade being assigned to summative informative, we believe, should be more of the grade should be assigned to summative because it's a reflection of a student's achievement of standards that have been established. And the formative piece doesn't have to be not any part of the grade. So to what Carter was talking about, homework being an example of formative assessment could be a portion of the grade, but should not take over the entire grade because of those bias-resistant kinds of things. We don't actually know who's completing the homework.

We don't know what kind of support different people have. And so to be able to sort of level the playing field, we should see that as practice. So if you think of this as another analogy, it's the idea of like a sports team. So working on a sports team, all of your practices are, you get a lot of feedback, you get a lot of input from coach, teacher, etc.

And then you get to the game, and that's your summative assessment. So that's like, you don't get to try it again. Like if we don't like how that shot went in the game, we just got to keep going. And so that analogy I think sometimes is helpful to thinking about the difference of summative and formative.

So now I'm going to hand it over to Janie for her to talk a little bit about some building-specific pieces, both around the journey of her building with this work. And I want to acknowledge up front, like I say this a lot to you all, but like our work is messy. And what you're going to hear from our principals is the mess. And us leaning into that mess, and we don't have it perfect.

Like Carter acknowledged some of the things, like we're not doing perfectly yet, but that's our growth mindset also, that like we're continuing to work on it. So Jamie will talk first about some specifics to Y-Down, and then Dan will talk specifically about the high school. So Y-Down began its journey around the same time that the high school, we all kind of started looking at best practices in grading, pretty much spring of 2020, and then kicking up into looking at things. So that school year we really spent a lot of time learning, looking, different kinds of grading, grading for equity, different researches.

Some of this work is actually years old and we just are really looking at the policies of how we implement it because to change practices of grading is a big deal. We really started last school year with trying to come up with consistent markings and then what she was talking about in terms of the proportional grade scale as well as grading categories. So making sure that what we call prep and practice is no more than 10% of a final grade. That's that formative assessment piece.

So one of the things that I think almost all of us around this table know and understand is that Y down in sixth grade is really where we transform from the elementary grade report cards to more of a ABC kind of a report card. Along with that is power schools. That goes along with that and that communication piece. And one of the things that we're continuing to work on in our specific mess at the time is that we're Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Thank you We keep that to be more than you can put it at any percentage level but no more than 10% of their final grade. Then class assignments and then assessments. And those are ones that each as a department, as Carter was saying earlier, as departments we're trying to make sure that they're equal to each other and that their departments are doing the same thing. Then also that it's graduated, that like sixth grade isn't holding to a different standard than eighth grade.

And actually, that's also a conversation that we're trying to have 6-12. But as you can imagine, it's one that's taking some time. But we don't want our sixth graders that are at a different level of development than eighth grade and then moving on to those high schools. So make sure that it's progression in that way.

We're also this year really checking to ensure that our teachers are keeping up on power schools and making sure that it's in there as a marking system Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. So, this year we're implementing that the students actually email their parents and CC their advisory or PAC teacher on that email so that they can have a communication for that. And what's been great about those emails is that really, some of them are based on grades, like as we would consider ABC grades and missing work, but some of them are based on the competencies of Portrait of a Graduate. Some of them are based on what the students are proud of.

So, the kids are able to take some ownership and make that a piece of it. So that's our sort of what we're working on this year. Being the end of first quarter, we're not where we need to be yet, but hopefully these will be policies and practices that will be implemented and kind of fluid into what we're doing to move forward. Also as part of this conversation that we've been having at the secondary level, particularly at the high school, was this idea of reassessment and making sure that students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning over the course of a particular class or project or the like.

And so we've had a lot of conversation, and I think the vast majority of folks would agree that learning shouldn't be a one-shot deal. But how do we make that happen? What do we do? When do we have time for that?

Because I have my next course. I can't just set everything aside and let these three kids reassess and not move on with my class. So that was one of the structural piece of that was a challenge. Actually, in our conversations.

Now, combined with that, when you talk about what did we learn from COVID, like when we went through multiple iterations of the schedule and we were virtual, we were half the school at a time. One of the things that came out of that, our feedback with students, was this idea of office hours and being able to connect with teachers and that students really, really appreciated this. There was a set time to meet with teachers to get help from teachers. Now, if you combine that idea with this reassessment idea of when do we do this, when does not only reassessment but also reteaching and relearning take place?

So as part of the new schedule this year at the high school, we put in greyhound time, and that's basically a chunk of time that is backed up to the lunch period on A and B days, so it's generally four days a week, that provides a chunk of time in the middle of the day that students are empowered to basically decide how they want to use the time, how they need to use the time. But what this structure also allowed us to do was provide opportunities and provide a designated time where all teachers and all students were off at the same time and able to do things like reassessment, get extra help from teachers, do some relearning. And basically, this structure, while there are many different reasons, including many SEL reasons, this is one of the really powerful things that I think this Greyhound time does. It really furthers our work around reassessments.

It really furthers our work around grading and reteaching. So it's been successful so far. I would say to, and I know that Carter mentioned it before, that the expectation was that course alike groups have the same reassessment policies. The caveat there is we're six weeks or seven weeks into this so we are still learning and it a work in progress so we will get better at that But no so far it gone really really well and I think this is just an example of some people say oh, you just put a break in the middle of the day, so what is that?

There's a lot of really thoughtful things and really important work that's going on during that time in the schedule. So now what we'd like to do is open it up for discussion and hear your questions Okay, well thank you for that presentation. It clarifies a lot of questions that I had. Stacey, do you want to?

Yeah, I have a couple questions. Thank you. How is, first, what What is the buy-in like from teachers? Because they are losing that autonomy of creating their own system for grading, and I think that's really important that they're all on board.

So I'm just curious how teachers are feeling about it. So, you know, honestly, most of our teachers are working in PLCs, Professional Learning Communities, and I'm sure at the high school too. And one of the things is they do find it's nice to have backup. You know what I mean?

So, like, as a group, if we've decided on this, and my other two colleagues are doing this, it's easier to explain, it's easier to have. So it's sort of like a team community of backup. So that being said, there is still a lot of discussion. You know, like when you're talking about bringing things together, there is some compromise.

And so that's some things that they're working out too. Like I know of a specific math team that there were some pretty far apart views on like where homework should fall. And they're inching it together and working it out and then coming back together and working it out. So there is some pieces of it.

I think where they feel confident in the autonomy is that they do understand the philosophies behind it. And so that's why they, the overall philosophy is they can get behind. It's just like, are we talking 10% or 15%? Are we talking, you know what I mean?

So that's where they're trying to negotiate between their different viewpoints. But the overall philosophy is, as teachers, I, please feel free to jump in if I'm saying this wrong, but I think they're willing to give it a shot because they know that essentially it is what's best for kids. And I think it was an easier, and Craig can comment on this, that it was an easier leap for some departments than others. I know in our building, for example, math has given, like, courses like groups have given the same quizzes, tests, homework assignments for years.

I mean, it predated all of this work. So this was just the way they already kind of do business, actually, in terms of it. And math isn't very subjective. Right.

And now some of our other departments, it's those conversations that are a little messy where, you know, is it 15 percent? Is it 10 percent? And then basically coming to consensus actually around those issues. But Craig lives it, so.

Yeah, I did. Thanks for the question, Stacey. It made me think about the intimate connection that all of us share with grades that we earn throughout our academic careers. We all know that.

It's just so germane to us. Superroportionate, Proprietary, and And then you suggest in this conversation or any other that there might be a different way that might be better. And that's a really strong discomfort because there's a wonder then if there's fear that comes in. Will this actually do some harm compared to what I was so committed to and passionate about and what have you?

So has there been... Or was what I did before doing some harm and I didn't realize it? Exactly. And so, no, thank you, Janet.

Has there been a lot of growth-oriented conversations about it? Yes. Most often when I've had those, it's interesting because folks weren't that far distant, if at all, with the way that they were assessing and reporting grades. And oftentimes what comes out is language.

It's a little bit different. Words have powers, and I certainly respect that a ton. So oftentimes, that's where clarity comes from. Yeah, we're not all in the same place, for sure.

But I'm really excited about the kinds of conversations that we're having. They different than even a couple years ago Like we talking about standards and we talking about you know are we on the same page Which you could be teaching next to this person next to you for years and not have any idea how they graded in the old system This is really forcing people to have conversations on things that we need to be talking about. Like Carter said, if one kid has Mr. Super for biology and someone else has someone else, is it fair that their grading systems are so different when they're learning the same material and they're performing the same way?

I guess my other comment that I had, which is not a problem I don't think any of you can solve, is I think we all agree on the ultimate goal is the learning, not the grade, right? But unfortunately, I think what's hard for a high school like Clayton, when we have such a large majority of kids that are so driven to go to college and competitive colleges, is that colleges aren't there yet. Like, they still want to see high GPAs. So how do we, I think they are starting to change and take a more holistic approach when they're looking at applications, but it's hard to convince our kids that you shouldn't be so focused on the grades when we know colleges are, you know, in our population here, I guess.

And I don't expect anybody to have the answer to that, but that's something that I'm sure you've heard and, you know, or hear from the kids at least. I don't have a second. I just want to build on what you were asking. So what are the competing philosophies between teachers who are slightly resistant or slow to move to the middle and the ones that are moving to the middle?

What are the competing philosophies? With brevity, you're going to go into a little bit of that right now. So the one I can speak to that I just sort of know about is like some of it doesn't, it's not so much anymore. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And it does become sort of a grade and content level conversations because they all flow a little bit differently. Jump in there. Exactly the same at the secondary level.

The change in the grade scale to 50 to 100 instead of 0 to 100, that was difficult for folks to think about. And we did that kind of early on and a year later. It's what we do now, and folks have adjusted to it, but that certainly was sort of a mindset shift. I think there's also, it's not that people don't want to do it, but particularly classes that are very performance-based, so like a language class or an art class or a music class, just trying to figure out how do I evaluate the participation that's part of learning this thing, but also not incorporate bias.

So again, it's not like a right or wrong. It's just they're trying to figure out. We're saying, don't grade on participation. And they're like, but my whole class is participation.

So they're just trying to have a conversation about, like, so then how do I set standards of, like, this is what participation looks like in this class. And I grade on that standard. That makes more sense than just saying, like, you said something or you said something this many times or, you know, that kind of thing. I think also that, like, with that participation piece, like, some of the conversations that I've had with teachers are related to, Because it's a practice within your class that you value as advancing learning within the class doesn't necessarily mean that there has to be a mark attached to it.

So what's the role that feedback plays within the learning process? So participation in a foreign language class, I think, as a previous world language teacher, I think that's a great example. I'm providing you constantly with feedback, whether it's in the moment or even if it's written feedback or whatever, And I think that's been a part of the conversation also of like what do we, so like going back to like school-age Milena who was doing everything for points, like how can we think differently about that so that it's not about the points, it's more of a This idea of feedback and providing that sort of feedback-rich environment. And you might see power school feedback that doesn't have a point assigned to it, but it's reported in there because we're encouraging, we want you all and the kids to understand what the feedback is, but it doesn't necessarily have to affect the grades.

So that's something that you might see people experimenting with. So I have a couple questions. The one, when it comes to retakes and retests, and so much emphasis on the test, and now you have the ability to retake it, How do we know that we're really measuring students based on their mastery of content versus mastery of the test? Especially when they have an opportunity to retake the test.

Because if I know that the test is 80% of the grade or 85% of the grade, and they're not really counting homework anymore, and so I'm not going to do the homework if it doesn't count. And I know that if I get a C on the test the first time, I'll know what's on the test and how my teacher's writing the test. And I'll retake the test then and get an A. But the test, no test can really grade the entirety of a course content.

I mean, you just can't write a final exam to cover an entire year's worth of work. So how, I mean, how do you, I mean, I know it's all subjective, and I know that you guys are trying to work some of this stuff out, but how do you know that it's not, you know, mastery of the test versus mastery of the subject matter when so much emphasis now is on the test? So that's my first question. And then my second question is, I do believe that, I mean, I seem to change in my own, not as, I'll speak now as a parent, parent less as a board member.

I've seen a change in how my own children respond to homework and the necessity of doing it or not. And I have three very different kids. And it is, it's, it's, it's a big change. So, and I also think, is there, should there be a difference between You know, subjects like math or mastering something you were once bad at and the only way to do it is to practice it.

Is there a difference in certain STEM subjects, let's say, versus art or music? Or, you know, and should there be a different approach because of the content matter of those two things? And should there be a different approach based on the age group? I mean, we've taught these kids now since kindergarten, here's your worksheet, complete your worksheet.

And then, you know, you change it on them overnight. The change occurs in middle school. You know, I got a guy at home, he'll, you know, slunk if he doesn't do his homework. I got another one that'll get straight A's whether he does his homework or not.

And their approach then to that content in the class is totally different because it isn't really kind of a one-size-fits-all. So I think in response to your question about assessment and reassessment, I think it's also in, one of us said this, in sort of grounding the work in the standards and the assessment of the standards. So when we have clearly identified standards around the content, when we provide an assessment, we're checking for understanding of those standards. When we provide an opportunity for reassessment, we don't always give the same test, but we're still testing the same standards.

Don't always or never? I don't know that I have, like Dan might be able to answer that question better than I, and that's probably part of our journey, too, is thinking about that. Because I've heard that concern from other people, saying, like, what's to prevent a child from sitting for an exam, seeing what the exam is, then going and studying and sitting for the exam again? Providing opportunity for teachers and students to interact in between the assessment and the reassessment.

Thank you. Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried It a nature for a lot of us humans to procrastinate right And so I just wonder where is the balance between and by the way our kids whether you know they graduate at the top of the class or the bottom of the class, will be asked as adults, and we all are, you all are as teachers and administrators too, to do stuff that is useless that we think has no value. I'm sure we ask you guys to do that all the time. So there actually is a benefit, you know, to actually doing things that may not be of value to you personally, but that are expected and required.

I mean, there is an actual benefit to learning that because you were asked to do this, you should do it because it is what is expected. Well, I think you bring up a couple different points, and you illustrated them with your children. I mean, when we talk about if our goal is to empower kids and to empower kids to take ownership of their learning, and you're absolutely right. We have a system where we have conditioned kids in a completely transactional way that here's the worksheet, you do it, I give you points.

And that's been the relationship that they've known for a decade of their educational career and kind of breaking that mold a little bit And being more thoughtful about, like, okay, why am I doing this practice? Why am I doing this homework? And how is it going to benefit me? Like you mentioned, I would say that your one child that, you know, is going to get an A on the math test, whether they do the homework or not, probably doing 20 of those problems that he already knows how to do is probably not the best use of his time, actually, to your point.

But we're empowering him to make that decision. And, but likewise, it's also making that other child see that, look, you know, in order to do well on the assessment, in order to do the practice, to demonstrate that I learned, you know, the standards or I can demonstrate my understanding of the standards, yeah, I'm going to have to do that. And that there's a correlation between doing this homework and doing well on the summative. Yeah, but there's also a correlation to, you know, those same two kids could, and this is entirely hypothetical now, but be working in the same business one day, be working in the same team one day.

And some of the best advice I ever got from a boss was people get there at their own time, which I think is what we're saying, but that you don't always solve the problems for the other people. So the one kid that I have that doesn't need to do the homework will still need to do the work when it comes to the real world and wait for everybody else. You know, so I guess I struggle, you know, with how, again, how do we make sure that what we're doing here is a reflection of what the expectations will be, Not just for college applications, which is a real thing that Stacey's talked about, that we can't change that perception, right? The one leads to the other, and what, like 98 plus percent of our graduates continue on to a traditional four-year secondary education?

And then beyond that, are we really teaching them stuff that is a reflection of what the expectation is going to be when they leave us? Well, so two things also I was thinking when you were talking is like also thinking about what we were talking about with homework. And this is where sort of the equity piece comes in a little bit. Because the research on homework and brain study is like if a kid goes home and is trying to do math homework by themselves and they don't know what they're doing and they're practicing wrong, it takes so much more time for them to come back and relearn it.

And then when we're giving grades for homework, I don't know if I'm copying Milena's, doing it with my tutor, or doing it by myself. So, like, that's why in terms of minimizing sort of, like, the traditional types of homework, prep, or practice, like we call it. But then what are kinds of things that would engage the kids around homework? Like, is there a math problem that takes at higher learning but is about something that they're interested in that makes them do the math?

Because I agree with you. Like, there is a part of, like, this is part of life. You've got to do what you've got to do to get it done. You know what I mean?

Like, so there are assignments that you have to do, and you have to do them. But, like, trying to make those assignments more empowering or engaging. So that the kids, and we're unique for those answers, versus like the homework we did, we were like open chapter 24 and write the chapter, you know, questions at the end of the book. So like learning how to develop your own questions, research your own questions, those things that can be, need to be practiced, but maybe in a different way.

We see some of that, like what came up with flipped classrooms, you know, things like that. The other thing you were talking about with college made me think even about my own personal journey. Like I played school, like learned how to play the game of school, Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried That I really learned how to okay I have to go to the extra math tutor on my own You know what I mean I have to do this I have to do that So like what I think we trying to ask our students to do is to do that at sort of a younger age Do you know what I mean? Like, to try to take that maturity of self-reflection and learning at a younger age.

That's why we need a scaffolding. Because six-year-olds, at 11-year-old, you're not going to choose. You've got 11, 12, 13. You know what I mean?

That's why at the high school it's a whole different level of retake, reassess, figuring out what your grade is, how that works. But there does need to be a scaffold, to your point. Because there are things that they're going to have to do just to do. And then there's things that we can be more creative around and kind of go from there.

And it's our hope that teachers are talking with kids about the value of practice and how that benefits you. Not only on the test, but in life. That's part of the whole conversation. We have some teachers that on the test, they actually reference the homework assignments on the questions.

Like, number one relates to this assignment. This number two relates to this assignment. So kids are seeing that connection of, like, when I did this practice, it's showing up here on the test that that connection is made. So it's not, like, a useless activity.

It really is connected. There's so many connections on it. I don't want to be redundant because it's almost like I had a thought on each comment that came out that related this. But anecdotally, I was working with a student, a student yesterday, that we were working on a lab write-up for an experiment that we did.

And it was a struggle. And the first time they tried it, it didn't go very well. So we sat down and kind of talked through it, talked through it. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Thank you. The importance of that action. There are other non-grade ways that we can address that. When I say we, I mean students, teachers, and families.

And when we do that, which I do believe we are because I've seen it in my classes, we're creating learners that earn the transportable skills of being independent learners. My daughter graduated last year, and last week my heart left because she gave me a call. So that was fun. And then a second time when she said, yeah, I went to meet with my professor during office hours.

And I was just like, oh, yeah. I mean, if that's the move, that's a good sign for what's next. And that's what we want our students to be able to do. And I always say that when you were saying that, I was thinking about our job, yes, part of it is to prepare them for the real world, but it's also to prepare them to help change the world.

Yeah. Go ahead Gary. So it's a really great conversation and topic and like all the other things that we've brought up and we've only had a couple of thoughts to what some of my colleagues have said. One thing that probably really challenged us on, this gets a little bit micro so I'm Sorry about that.

But in thinking about our grading principles as being accurate and bias-resistant and motivational, and then thinking about the power school conversation, I just think that we need to, if that's what our grading principles are, then that tool should also be that. And I'm just a bit editorializing, but I don't know if that's always the case. So I know I'm not telling you anything that you don't know. But I think you were talking to Jamie before the meeting.

We may have talked about this before. I apologize for letting you . But it's definitely something that I . But he's right.

PowerSchool is like the big brother of homework That right I been through banning it in the household It like a stop to it Let put it that way So you know I know you all know that but we should lift up those same principles evaluate powerful as well. And then I'm going to put our student rep on the spot here, but I'd love to take a look at that pie chart, which is a couple screens back, Just the summative versus formative graphic again. Apparently, you can't do that. Apparently, I think that's correct.

We've been here too long. The summative part is huge in the high, and the formative is small. And I'd just be curious, as a student, how does that make you feel to think about that? What's your reaction to that?

I mean, to be honest, for a lot of students, it's a little bit scary. Because like, you know. It sounds like it's all in the final. Right.

And tests bring a lot of anxiety. Like some people feel like they don't have as much control over that. But to be completely honest, I don't know if that pie chart is necessarily how it actually happens 100% of the time. While we're moving in that direction where tests are becoming a bigger picture, I think that in general teachers are still working with these day-to-day, not even day-to-day, but like these projects, these bigger, more interactive assignments with students, which are still having an impact, like a greater impact on the grade.

I think it's a really important point because if you look up there at the slide, the summative isn't just an assessment. There are lots of ways to assess progress towards a standard. I don't think there's any teacher who only gives tests. They do some combination of all those things for their summatives.

And I think it ties into what we talked about at the last meeting with the Empowered Learning. So, like, if I'm altering path, that means I'm altering the way that students are demonstrating, understanding those standards, which means that there's some level of, like, agency that students can have in determining how I'm showing my learning. So that could be through a presentation. It could be through something else.

And I think oftentimes people associate summative with assessment. And actually, I think in the slide before this one, I probably called it formative assessment and summative assessment. So, like, I'm contributing to that. So, I apologize for that.

Just to point that out. Because I know that that connection is real and that you're doing that. And the graphic distorts it a little bit. But that's, I mean, I don't think you get the point.

Carter, how many students are using Greyhound Time? And if I ask you the question, is it the students who would be at the top of the class anyway that are using it, or kids in the middle using it, or students that really need the help, are they using it? Or is it over-indexed to one demographic of students? We could ask Mr.

Super the same thing from a teacher point of view. Yeah, so what do you see in terms of your friends? Right, so at the beginning of the school year, I think I told you guys that people were mainly just using it as a lunch period. But I will say that as we've gotten further into the school year, people have been using it a lot more to meet with teachers, maybe having clubs and, you know, maybe reassessing on some things.

So I definitely have seen, like, a good trend in the use of greyhound time. And I think while maybe, like, the higher achievers maybe might be using it more, I think that this trend at least exists sort of across the board. And I would say, I mean, one of the things, we had this conversation this week, actually, that Craig is spearheading an effort to actually create, or actually to collect, like, concrete data from teachers around the use of greyhound time and, like, how much and how it's being used. I would also say, too, that there are students, some teachers that use Greyhound Time in a little more directive way, saying that that didn't go so well for you, you need to come in and see me at Greyhound Time later today.

Yeah, we did a Google survey, asked teachers to spend less than five minutes on it, and asked for the level of class being either Honors AP or non, so just two categories there, and then predominantly 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm wondering about 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade. And the other comment was just an open-ended comment about, you know, what strategies might you be using?

Otherwise, what are you using and what did come out as the most successful strategies than just what you said and what teachers are like. Okay, you're going to be here at this time or this time you pick, but it's going to be one of those two times. And then just following up with families if students aren't able to come through with that kind of commitment. So what is your experience as a teacher?

What are you seeing during grade 11? Straight up my experience, I need to be more direct with students. Okay, you don't see them trickling in and sort of say, oh, good, I have time with Mr. Supervisor.

Like Carter said, more than at the beginning. You know, at the secondary level, there's an avid flow, right? About every two to three weeks, you kind of have a cycle of papers due, projects due, summative assessments. Everything on that list kind of due, and it peaks and wanes.

So we're kind of right at that second peak, right? And moving up on the end of the first quarter. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I'm going to see Mr.

Sugar because I don't like what I'm seeing here. I really think the idea of keeping data on that, what's happening during that time, is really important. I'm glad you're doing that. Carter, you said your group's going to engage on getting student perception?

Yeah. That's going to be fantastic. I have a quick question about the proportionate grading. This is something that came up at our last meeting.

So I know that students are really grateful that we have this new 50 to 100 system. It makes it a lot more simple, and it's broken up by 10%. It's very nice. Everyone loves it.

But we did talk about, we were a little bit confused by the plus and minus system, because I think the way it works now, there's different amounts, different ranges for a plus, a minus, and just a normal grade. So the pluses and minuses are three points on the end of each rank. Is a plus of 97? No, because you can go to 100.

So it's 100, 99, 98. And then on the bottom side it's, okay, I think in... There's a little bit of a mathematical anomaly with an A. The way you round it, yeah.

Okay. That was just something. I'll just throw out one more thing. I really am impressed with what you guys are doing.

Really impressed. I'm really happy that we're going down these roads and that you've seen change just within the last two years. Melina, all your examples were really helpful to me, your parachute one, all of those. That's very powerful to see that, to see that you can look at how a student has improved from one area, from one point in time to another and see, wow, that not only is this particular student engaged in their learning clearly, but the teacher knows and can see very clearly that they're being effective in some way, right?

So I like that, and I don't know for sure if what I saw reflects that that is what's happening when we actually grade now or not. I mean, maybe you could speak to that. Do you understand my question? Yeah, I mean, I think what I think you're asking is about the, like, being able to look at grading in a way that reflects progress.

Progress, yes, that's what I'm asking. Or, like, growth over time. Correct. And I think the reason why we put that analogy in there really ties into the reassessment piece.

And the sense of, you know, I think about the fact that, like, I had a child go take the driving test. He failed the driving test. That didn't mean that he wasn't ever going to drive. Exactly.

It meant that we had to practice some more before he was going to drive. And I think the same is true in learning standards. Like, we all don't arrive at the same time. That's right.

And sometimes there's additional learning that takes place that now influences older learning. In our walkthrough today at Y-Down, we saw a really interesting thing in the classroom where a student had completed a project a couple weeks ago, had done, was moved into a new project, doing additional learning figured something out that actually affected the previous project and was going back So they were articulating to us when we were talking to them today that they were going back to make this change to the previous project because of the learning that had taken place And we were like, yay. That's awesome. Like that's what we want.

And the question we then asked was, does your teacher then reevaluate that assignment? And the student said yes. Awesome. So it was like evidence of learning, and I don't think we're ever going to get 100% away from the idea of what Dana and I both talked about, about the sort of transactional nature.

But it does, like it feels closer to this goal of grading for learning. Absolutely. As opposed to getting points, now we're done with this, move on to the next thing, now we're done with that. Thank you all so much for being here tonight.

We appreciate it. Good luck with that work. We'll see how it goes. Give me an update again.

We are going to take a quick five minute break. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you Good? Okay. Okay, so we are on, we're going to do our first reading of policy BHA, Board Training and Development.

Okay, for this policy, this policy is being amended to add 2.5 hours of required initial training for new board members. So they would go from 16 hours to 18.5 hours. And then the changes also require board members to undergo a one-hour refresher every year. So it's pretty much, it aligns with the BDE school board vacancies that we're approving tonight for second reading.

Does anybody have, I think the policy was provided in BoardDocs. Does anybody have any questions or comments on it? Then we will put that on the agenda to approve at the next meeting. And we are on to our action items.

So Stacey, for 8.01. Yeah. Okay. I move that the Board of Education approve policy GCI, professional staff reassignment and transfers.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions or comments? All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. I move that the Board of Education approve policy GCD, Professional Staff Recruiting and Hiring.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Questions or comments? All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. And I move that the Board of Education approve policy BBE, school board vacancies, for a second reading and approval.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Questions or comments? All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Question passes. And now we are on to our consent.

I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda 9.02 through 9.08. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments?

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes.

And I want to also thank the following people for their generous donations to the Clayton High School Globe publication. Ron and Elaine Weisberg, Philanthropy Fund. Robin and Ben Slinn, and Gail Workman. So thank you all very much.

If you're listening, we appreciate your generous donations. And we are on to public comment. Okay. This is our first public comment, I think, since COVID.

Live. Really? Oh, pressure. Okay.

In person. Oh, stand at the mic. Chris, how long do we have a time? Three minutes.

Okay. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Here we go.

Okay. Three minutes. Hello, friends. I am here to talk about an item that I'm surprised is not on the agenda or has been part of public discussion yet, which is the banning of the five books.

I know it's a topic on many folks' minds. I know it's a decision that's already been made. I'm not here necessarily to ask to undo a decision that's been made. I can have respect for that.

But I am here to, I think, say out loud what a lot of us are thinking, which is fascism is on our doorstep. And that this is just the tip of the iceberg of what's coming from Jefferson City. This is just, I mean, the smallest tip of the iceberg. I want to clarify first.

I voted for Senate Bill 775, which was a 68-page bill that was mostly aimed at protecting children who were In terms of sex trafficking, this was a very small portion of that bill that passed unanimously. The bill did not dissension. The section was highly controversial. However, my colleagues and I decided that because this section didn't actually do anything new in law, which is what MRH has realized, UCity has realized, the city of St.

Louis Public Schools has realized, I'm shocked that Clayton did not take that approach. I'm shocked that Clayton is instead keeping the company of Rockwood and not the schools that I just mentioned. That is something to think about in terms of our presence in the region. But more importantly, it was a decision that did not need to be made based on the words that were in the law.

And that I find incredibly alarming because what's coming next is going to be much more. What's coming next is going to require folks to get really creative, to maybe engage in civil disobedience, To realize that our teachers and our librarians are on the front lines of these political conflicts and to not react on our fear. If we let our fear control our decision making, we are going to defeat ourselves. I guess I'll end it there.

All right. Well, thank you. Ian. Thank you.

I don't think there's questions in public comment. No. Okay. Darn.

Okay, let's see. Renee Frielz. Hi, Renee. Hello.

I don't know, is this even on? It should be on, yeah. Okay, because I'm kind of a quiet speaker. You have to sing it to it.

It's online, so it's on for the streaming. We'll sing it to it to make it work. Okay. Gotcha.

Hello. Thank you for your service. I just want to say that. My name is Renee Friels.

My pronouns are she, her. I am a parent of a current Clayton High School student. I am also a Glenridge, Widown, and Clayton High School graduate, class of 1992. I wanted my child to go to the Clayton School District because I believe that it was a safe place for her to be herself.

I also am aware of the excellence in instruction and leadership. Thank you for all you do for our students every day. About two years ago, my child came out to our family as transgender. Loving our child as we do, we support her and affirm her true being.

Our family is involved with affirming support groups for parents and kids who are transgender, and we have made many wonderful friends. We are also involved in advocating on behalf of our child, our family, and the transgender community at large. During the last legislative session, I testified in Jefferson City against anti-transgender legislation being pushed by what I consider to be an ignorant, fascist group of people with a hateful agenda. As a parent of a transgender child I asking you for something Please take a stand against fascism and make a bold statement in support for upholding the rights of transgender students faculty and staff in the Clayton School District Doing this would be a very helpful tool to resist the incoming legislation that will remove my child's ability to access vital health care, update their identity on official documents, and be recognized as who they are by the state they live in.

When you give in to fascism, when books are shelved, you've sent a signal to those who are fighting and to our children that you aren't on our side, and I know that's not true. We have to take a harder line, and the time is now. Thanks for your time, and please consider drafting a statement in support of transgender and LGBTQIA rights. Thank you.

Thank you, Renee. And Kyle Friels. Hi, Kyle. I have my cell phone too.

My name is Kyle Friels, father of Chelsea Friels, a transgender high school student. I recently learned of the five books that have been banned by the district. My ask of the board is to allow the students and their families the option of which books to read versus which to leave on the shelf. I don't know what that was.

We sought forward and chose this district for the values it held and the openness of thought and the belief in each student to fulfill their potential. The band stymies that and does not follow the school's tradition, which supports everyone, no matter what their background is. Thank you. Thank you.

And Stacy Newman. Good evening. I'm Stacy Newman. I am an alumni parent.

I'm also a resident in the district, and I'm also a previous legislator who actually represented Clayton School District. I'm extremely concerned, as many others are, and I'm sure you've heard from them in the community about I know it is a reaction to Senate Bill 775. I'm familiar with the actual statute, which includes, as you all know, the amendment dealing with pornography and dealing with books in schools. However, you also know that there were several statewide organizations, library organizations, school board associations that strongly recommended to every district in the state not to do anything, not to react because schools do not have pornography.

I know there is a very strict curriculum process here in Clayton School District. I trust it. And I have been told there's been no complaints previously about these books. I understand that polling them was basically a fear of what the legislature, what you believe that a prosecutor or law enforcement will do to educators.

However if you go back to those statements you do not have pornography in our schools and this is not a new law I strongly urge you to reconsider the decision about the five books As Representative Mackey and others have told you there is a stronger agenda coming There are going to be more teachers more curriculum and more books that are going to be threatened because of the agenda in Jefferson City And on behalf of the Freels too I urge you and other students please reconsider the decision Thank you. Thank you, Stacey. Okay, so we are, typically we don't respond. Our board policy does permit, I am permitted to make clarifying remarks at the end of any public comment.

And so to the, Dr. Patel knows a lot more about this situation than I do, so to the extent that she feels like there should be any clarifying remarks made, I will punt to you. Okay, thank you. Thank you for all the public comments.

Just a few clarifications that I do want to make. First, I do want to say the school district of Clayton is not banning any books. What we have done is we have removed a handful of books from the shelf to comply with the new law. The law, and we did, then there was due process.

We spent lots and lots of hours talking to our individuals, curriculum coordinators, our librarians, our staff, And what we did was we made sure that we also spoke with our legal counsel. And what the part of the law that says that a staff member can be charged with a misdemeanor is something that we have to take into account. And so based on that, we have removed some books off the shelf that fit the definition in the law. So I just want to make that clarification that we have not banned any books.

All right. Thank you, Dr. Patel. And then we will also respond to each of you individually by email or phone call.

And as you know, I'm always happy to talk, too. I know that the other board members are happy to talk on the phone or meet up for coffee or whatever. So I appreciate all of you being here tonight. So I think we are on the board communications.

And maybe Parks and Rec? Do you have Parks and Rec? Oh, I'm sorry. Did you think I was talking about the TV show?

I don't know. You know I don't listen very well to what you say. We did have a Parks and Rec meeting since our last meeting. It seems like we've told a lot of these lately.

And we talked about one of the main topics, as I think all of you know, is the Shaw Park Commons, or the ice arena project. And we did as a group hear from the group that is doing a public engagement process right now and getting input from lots of different people in the community about what that space might be and what the priorities I going to turn it over to the next speaker In terms of what's going to happen there and what the answers are, I don't have anything more than we'll be talking about last time. That's what they're doing. They are engaging with some of the different groups that we talked about to get input in terms of the hockey organizations and things like that.

And a number of other people as well. That's good. You could be an honorary hockey ambassador for us, hockey playing families. There you go.

That was 90% of the part that I would say was about that topic. Okay. Anybody else? Am I the only one who does the meetings around here?

I think so. I know that's not true. You're all the way down. That's why we hired you.

You know, we gave reports last time. Yeah. Well, I have to say, I was just going to say, unless Jason Grove wants to, that Jason and I, And I know Jason's done more. Went on a walkthrough with Dr.

Patel to Captain recently, and I just want to encourage everybody, if time allows in your schedules during the day, to sign up for some of the walkthroughs that are always in her weekend updates, because it really does, like, inform my, like, thoughts when I come down to the board table, truly, like, seeing it in action. I was just actually telling Carter on the break that I only have college and high schoolers now, personally. So any chance I get to go into an elementary school or the Family Center or YDAL really helps me to see what's going on. And Jason actually has the opposite situation.

So it was great to be there, and it was great to see all the empowered learning that we've been talking about because every classroom we went in, I feel like kids were choosing how they wanted to do whatever the work was. Like some kids were sitting alone in the corner reading a book, some kids were sitting with a group, some kids had headphones on and, you know, were using a laptop or whatever it was, and I could see all of that choice in the room, so it was great. Also, just touring the Family Center is just a lot of fun. So fun.

So I recommend doing that. I'm going to try to sign up every quarter. Anytime you need to pick me up. Right, right.

Yeah. It's true. Anyone else? Yeah, I have nothing to say.

Really Jason? Shocker. I will say this though, Nisha had a good time this morning when you and Dan outside of the school cracking jokes as high school kids went inside. That was fun.

I'm doing it tomorrow. It's fun. Come on over. Great time.

Let's do it. I like it. That's right. All right.

All right, so let's go ahead and adjourn. I move that the Board of Education adjourn. Second. Thank you.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Gary? I guess. Praise for you.