August 26, 2020 — Meeting Transcript

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

All right, so it's going up now. We should be live in about 20 seconds. Gotcha. Okay, we are live.

Okay. All right. Well, welcome, everybody. Adequate notice has been given.

We're going to start a meeting, as always, with the pledge to that flag behind Sean. So we're just going to start with the pledge here. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All righty.

Well, I do want to say this is before we're going to start, of course, with recognizing our own. But before we start that, I just want to say this is really I see this is the first meeting of the year. I realize that the board and the administration has been working over the summer and there hasn't been a lot of break. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. I'm going to turn it over to the board. I'm going to start with the school year meeting. I know it's a little bit of a long week.

But this is certainly the first meeting of the school year after the school year has started. And I just want to say that as we start the school year, you know, we're excited. We're going to try some different things. We have a packed agenda tonight.

It's part of the reason why we took the strategic plan off the agenda tonight and moved it to the ninth, Thank you, Joe. I'm going to hand it over to Sean to recognize our own. Thanks, Joe. Can everyone hear me okay?

All right. Good. Well, happy new year to all of you. As Joe said, I kind of see this as being our first board meeting of the year.

And I'm excited to see what happens next. I'm excited to see what happens next. I'm excited to see what happens next. I'm excited to see what happens next.

I kind of see this as being our first board meeting of the year. And we are going to continue the tradition of having, recognizing our own in each of the meetings. We will spend time making sure that we're recognizing our students. We will also work to be in our schools again, like we've done in the past.

But tonight we are going to recognize two individuals. And the first individual is our new director of equity and inclusion, Mr. Cameron Poole. And so, and there he is.

And so we want to recognize him and welcome him to the district. We are unbelievably excited about having him in this position. He just really stood out to us. And I will tell you, he has been in the job for, what is it, two to three weeks now.

And his second day of the second day, he was thrown into leading a three hour workshop for all of our new teachers. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. More about some of the things that he's starting already a little bit later.

And so we have another person that we're going to recognize. And as we... Sean, we had Caitlin on and we just lost her about 45 seconds ago. So I'm texting back and forth with her right now to get her back in.

So I don't know if she's having connection issues or what. Well, she was the second person we were going to recognize. I'm going to turn it over to you, guys. And I guess I can just give the audience a little bit of background if we're waiting for Kaitlin.

Is that the Board of Education over a year ago decided to add a student board representative onto the board. It's a nonvoting member. But the board also wanted to make sure that we had a student advisory so that way it was more than just the voice of one individual at the board table And so last year we had Adam Jaffe as our student board representative and he is now moving off of that role And then he is still going to serve on the advisory and also serve as a mentor to our new student board representative. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Spervantage, Spermingham, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And so I am going to start sharing. Can all of you see that? Good.

Good. So being that this is the very first meeting of our of the 2020-21 school year, I thought it'd be really important for me to kind of give a state of the district type of presentation to all of you. So that way you can kind of hear about how we're starting the school year and just some important things that we're going to be focusing on this year. And when we think about the year 2020, probably all of us have had some type of image about this year.

It's been a very unusual year. Thinking about that we're in the middle of a pandemic. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Spervantage, Pursuit, and Change.

We have a lot of positives that we're going to have as a result of some of the work that we're doing. So tonight as part of our State of the District, I want to start with our mission and vision. And just to remind you as the board is that we inspire each student to love learning and embrace challenge with the rich and rigorous academic culture. And our vision is to develop leaders who shape the world through independence, creativity, and critical thinking.

We have started this year with 2,624 individuals that we're responsible for. And again, this number can fluctuate and we will know actually the actual count on our count day and that last day, last Thursday in September. This is this year we've seen the largest freshman class that we've seen in a very long time with over 256 students. So our enrollment is about the same a little bit higher than it was than when we started last year And we also keeping in mind that since we have started the school year with a lot of change we also going to be monitoring if we had changes in enrollment due to the way we started the school year This is going to be a year of change, and we're going to continue to have that mindset of how we, as an excellent school district, become a transformational school district in our work.

We can't be complacent in our excellence and the work that we do. We have to look deep into seeing the work that the areas that we need to improve and be transformational and be leaders. So, as I shared with you a few weeks ago, we had our return to learn plan that we've been developing since March, and we had three different options and we have decided to start the year with remote learning. And that remote learning was a very difficult decision because we wanted, we want our students back in school.

We felt it was the best phase to be in at the start of the school based off the data that we're seeing in the community and the recommendations by St. Louis County Health. Spertant, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We have a lot of opportunities for our students to be back in school and there will be opportunities for our students to be in our schools even during this first quarter.

The other option that we had available to our families was the learning at home, and that was a fully virtual model that is going to be for the first semester of school beyond the first quarter. I thought it'd be important for the board to know how many students actually are participating across the district. Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We're continuing to teach new content to our students.

And we're also holding our students to a high expectation with our grading. It's not just about work completion, but it's actually about doing the work and understanding the concepts. As I said, daily schedules where students are required to be in class with their teachers. And then we also are using Zoom as a tool that we are using beyond just Google Me.

And again, even this, there's sometimes things that we've had to address when looking at Zoom and making sure that we've had all the right safety precautions in place. We actually had a few issues this week with unfortunate Zoom bombings, but we have been responsive to what happened. And we've been able to put in some additional measures to make sure that we're doing everything possible to keep our students safe. And then the other thing too is that although we are in remote learning, we are looking at opportunities for our students to be in our schools.

For example, we have students, we're looking at the needs of students and getting them in for additional supports, such as students that might have IEPs. We also have students that might have some other needs that we are bringing, using, utilizing all of our human capital to give some additional supports. We're also having a plan that we're going to be rolling out that is going to get students in to get them trained and oriented to a new way of learning and feeling what it feels like to be in a socially distanced type of classroom. Our goal is to get back to school.

And we're looking at that second quarter. And so we are going to look at how are we going to get back to school in a safe way? And how will we know we're ready to move back to that next phase? We will continue to get recommendations from St.

Louis County Health Department. That is, we, the superintendents across the county are using them as a resource. We're also going to be looking at data from multiple sources around the region to determine whether or not it's safe. And then also we thinking about like making sure that everyone understands what it means to be in this type of environment and making sure people are ready for that I wanted to share this with you is that we are looking at multiple types of data And one of the pieces of data that we look at Thank you Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And what I'm hoping is that by October 1st, we will be able to make a decision and an announcement that will allow us to get people prepared for that, whatever we're doing for the second quarter. And so my hope is that we will be able to announce that our students can come back to school in some way.

The other thing that we are focused on is our work around equity and developing an anti-bias, anti-racist culture. Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We have been working with teacher leaders throughout the summer about developing presuppositions or non-negotiables that we are going to base a lot of our work on this year. And fortunately, Cameron has been able to be a part of those conversations.

And we're looking at the intersection between the personal, the institutional, and the curricular and instructional responsibility of having an anti-racist, anti-bias community. We have, it was great that on that first opening day, we, as I said, Cameron led an activity around the intersection between race and being an educator. And then we all, we had an assured experience for all of our certified teachers and administrators with anti-bias training. And we're going to continue to look at what training we're going to provide for anti-racism.

And this is going to be continual and on an annual basis. So these presuppositions are going to be the grounding for all of our work that we're going to do around equity, anti-bias, and anti-racism. Ultimately, there's going to be this intersection because we're in the business of developing humans. And those intersections is that we need to, if we are looking at the personal, the curricular, and institutional, it will help develop the full human being.

So, as part of our work, and as Joe mentioned, we have been working over the last few weeks finalizing just the final touches for our strategic plan. But we also have a plan that's just completely dedicated to this work. And we are making sure that we have assured learning for all the board and the staff. Cameron has developed a equity audit document and he's going to be starting those with each of the building leaders.

We were able to hire a director position which is giving us, we're dedicating those resources to this work. We're revising our standards of professional practice, which is going to hold all of us accountable to it, and that's part of the evaluation model. We're looking at ways to engage the community in this work. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

And the strategic plan is grounded in that profile of the graduate. Now, we have been doing a lot of work around our strategic plan over this last year. We've had community engagements, we've had surveys, we've had writing sessions, and we've had focus groups. And our subcommittee of the board has been working really, really hard on helping us put those final touches on the strategic plan.

And as Joe said, on September 9th, we're bringing it forward. Just because we don't have that final document and the wordsmithing finished, that doesn't mean the work is not moving forward. And I just want to make sure that people understand that. Our strategic plan, we have goals, which is our why.

We have objectives, which is our what. We have our action steps, our how. And then we'll have measures of success, which are our metrics. And when we're talking about our goals, we want to be aspirational and be big picture thinkers.

We want to be bold, but yet attainable. And when we're thinking about our objectives, this is what it's, the objectives are going to be what will be true if we are actually doing the work. And this is also going to include that SMART goal model where we're going to have measures attached to each of the objectives. And in the action steps, this is where we're going to have some fluidity in that evergreen model is that we will change our action steps based off of what is happening with our data.

If we're seeing that things aren't working, then we have the ability to change it. And that's why we're going to be building in times throughout the year for us to keep coming back to the strategic plan and then looking at those measures of success, which will include a dashboard. And the dashboard is going to be an opportunity for us to hold ourselves accountable and also to see where we're growing. Our goals, as I said, are bold and they are going to be like big picture thinking, but where the objectives and when the action steps come into play to support these goals, that's where you're going to see the change in the action.

So we are going to make sure that each learner feels safe and valued. We're going to commit to the educational growth of our learners through an equitable, personalized, and individualized learning experience. And we'll be dedicated to the growth of the learners and their social, emotional, and physical well-being. As I said earlier, this is just like a little snapshot of what a dashboard is going to look like.

And so the dashboard, we're going to try to keep that on just a few pages. So that way, when we're bringing this back to the board, it's going to be easily readable, something that you can see and question, and it's going to be an opportunity for us to monitor our growth very closely. As we get into the school year, I think the message I always tell the staff is that in order for us to grow, in order for us to really have success, we cannot stay in our comfort zone and we cannot feel, you know, this work cannot just feel easy. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Our ultimate, our tagline is that we educate, we inspire, and empower. And that's what we are ultimately doing each and every day. So that was a quick overview of the state of the district and our work around the strategic plan, our work around anti-bias, anti-racism, and then currently where we are with our return to learn plan. So, thank you.

Thank you, Sean. That was great. So, Caitlin, I know this is your first meeting, but is there anything, this is typically where we'd have the student rep give an update. Is there anything you want to give us an update on?

Yeah, I can give you an update on how school has been going. So my name is Caitlin Tran and I am this year's student representative to the Board of Education. I want to thank you all for providing this opportunity to have a student voice on the Board of Education As this will be the second year of having a student rep I am grateful to have Adam guidance and hope to live up to the big shoes that I have to fill I also looking forward to working with you all and Dr Doherty I am also excited to work with those who are filling the positions that were newly established to more widely represent the student voice These people are Neelay Hopper, the student leader of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the District Advisory Council, which now extends to represent all schools in the district. We are facing an unprecedented school year.

More than ever, we as a community need to come together. We must learn to care about the feelings, well-being, and needs of those around us, and to take care of each other. It's this Clayton community that continues to persevere now that the school year has started. Although we've only had three days of school so far, I feel that remote classes have been going well.

In my experience, teachers seem to have a solid structure for approaching asynchronous and synchronous learning. For instance, the organization system of Google Classroom features that teachers are using to share work with students has been easy to understand and access. And so far from the students that I have discussed this with, there seems to be a positive reception to the block schedule and shorter school day. Especially during these challenging times, I think that many students appreciate having the opportunity to interact with their friends daily again under the structure of a typical school day.

So I am excited to work with you all and I look forward to what this year has in store for us. Thank you. Thank you, Kayla. That's great.

Joe, one of the things we forgot to do is we need to swear Caitlin in. Oh, yeah, of course. So if you wouldn't mind, do you want to swear her in? Do you want me to swear her in?

You can, Sean. Okay. So Caitlin, I'm going to go ahead and ask that, you know, each of our board members has to be sworn in at the beginning of their tenure as a board member. So we're going to do that for you for this year.

And so if you wouldn't mind raising your right hand and repeating after me. I, Caitlin Tran, do solemnly affirm that I will support and uphold the constitutions of the United States and the state of Missouri, and that I will actively seek input from district students, Please stand and please represent their voices at the Board of Education table represent their voices at the Board of Education table. Provide a student voice to the Board of Education provide a student voice to the Board of Education. And we'll faithfully conduct myself as a student representative to the School District of Clayton Board of Education and we'll faithfully conduct myself Welcome, Kaitlin.

Welcome. And thanks, Sean. Sorry about that, Kaitlin. I wasn't supposed to miss that part.

Sorry. So we are going to move on to then policy study. So we've got two policies. And so we have a 5.01, which is first reading of policy BBFA, which is a board member conflict of interest policy.

Conflict of Interest Policy. So I'm going to give a little bit of an overview. And just as something else that's different is that in our conversations in our subcommittees, when we were talking about the board calendar and talking about board learning, one of the things that board members have mentioned is that as a governing body, it's integral that the board dedicates time to policy and making sure that we're dedicating it, dedicating enough time to it. Spervantage, and consideration.

It is important for us to have strong policies and that we are adhering to them. Board members suggested that sometimes in our previous meetings, the policies often seemed as like at the very end or something that was after After everything else was done. And so we decided as part of our shift of our board meetings is to put policies first. And even though some policies may take a little longer or a little shorter amount of time, it would be important just to have that message that we policies are really important and that we need to dedicate enough time to them.

So this policy is one that you have to approve every other year. And this is the year that we need to approve it. It's basically a policy that is holding board members responsible for any conflict of interest in terms of donations or gratuities or anything that might be financially given to the board. And so this is something that all the board members have to fill out a financial disclosure every year And so this is a policy that we have to keep coming back to One of the things that we are, we have looked at in, and you can see some of the changes is that there is a dollar amount that we can't go in excess of and the board has the, you know, board has the ability to change what that amount is.

Sometimes when, and we were thinking that presenting something that is between $100 and $200, and the reason we do that is because sometimes board members are asked to be part of a dinner as part of a vendor meeting as part of a conference or something like that. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I'm not, you could raise your hand. Nobody.

We need to pick a number though, right, Sean? Yeah, we recommended the number. We put 200. If people are fine with that, we can keep that, or we can keep it as what was 100, or we can split the difference, whatever.

What was it before? It was $100. Okay. And the reason why that it also has to align with the next policy, which is about the teacher's conflict of interest.

Right. And sometimes there have been situations where parents might have, you know, a gift card for something for teachers and it goes over a certain amount and it puts them in an uncomfortable spot. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I don't have a problem with 150, but Sean, is there a, it might be good to, just as background, do those kinds of gifts or contributions or whatever you get, whatever you want to call that, is there any mechanism where those things are reported or tracked or If I want to find out how many gift cards were given to a board member or a teacher, is that something that we...

We currently don't track that. So if something was over that amount that's in policy, then we would have to address that. But we don't have something that's a tracking of our gift cards. I think that would be really a difficult mechanism to do, actually.

For either staff or board. I think it would be easier with board if we wanted to put something in there like that, but I think with staff it might be very difficult to do. Yeah, I mean, I just think it's important for us to talk about even $100 or, you know, $150 or $200, like, I think we should just talk about the ways that that is made known or public or how that could be. I mean, the kinds of things that you're talking about as far as dinners and things like that, it's usually a part of a scheduled public event.

So I think it's easy for people to know what's happening. But this is a thought about how we would maintain that disclosure or kind of transparency. Yeah, I think for the board, it would be very easy to do because there's hardly ever times when, I mean, maybe it might be one, it might be a dinner at a MSBA conference or something like that. But there's, there has been, I mean, I don't know, from your perspective, you probably haven't gotten a lot of gift cards or vendors coming out to you except for those times.

And I think that we go to so few of those, I think it would be easy to track that. Yeah. I think that's something that we should, you know, maybe we could think about. I can't think of anything other than a sort of a professional setting and a meeting with a meal that's ever happened.

But I don't know. Maybe other people are getting gifts and I'm not. I don't know. Well I not getting gifts but it could happen with you know somebody invited to a baseball game or to golf or I mean those are the other places where things like that happen Yeah At least in the business world, right?

Right. Joe, I mean, do you have a sense of whether, is there a useful mechanism for keeping track of this or telling people about it or is it, am I looking for a problem where one doesn't exist? Like, what do you think? I don't see boards, I mean, I think it's an interesting and potentially good idea, but I think as long as you have a threshold and given that most board members were in the public eye anyway, typically there's not a need to track it.

But I mean, we certainly could. Gary, just from my experience, almost every company I've worked towards had gift policies, and it's basically an ethical decision to abide by it. It's not reported on. So I think it may be a solution in search of a problem there.

I couldn't remember if there was something I wasn't thinking about that we did have to or already did disclose it. I mean, I'm not, we're not making a huge change here in terms of the policy, you know, changing the thresholds and policy or anything. So I'm satisfied with that. And this is just a policy that we have to do before a certain period and that unfortunately it's the one that we have to start with tonight.

It's not one that's so directly related to our work, but it is one that we have to get approved. Yep. So I think I would make the recommend, I think that what the input that I've heard is that if we change it to 150 I think it's just that it's that moral responsibility of adhering to that policy. Okay.

Any other thoughts on this one? This is, it's not an action item yet. No, it's going to be coming back for approval. And then the next one is actually really related to it, which is actually connected to Tony.

And so Tony, if you want to just give an overview really quick of that and then see if the Board has any questions. Sure. All right, good evening, everyone. So the policy that I'm presenting tonight for the first read is policy GBCA, which is staff conflict of interest.

And really, it's very similar to what Sean has just presented. So MSBA has modified the policy to make it clear that the board's responsible for sending the appropriate amount for limiting gifts and gratuities that employees subject to this policy may accept. So when you look through this, The policy really just states that all employees of the school district should avoid situations where decisions or actions violate the provisions of the policy or conflict with the mission of the district. If you look at page five, section nine, that's the area, that's the one that was reworded.

It was reworded to now include vendors. And it's been updated to reflect what we currently have on there is 200, but I'm hearing you say that we will change that to 150. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Okay.

All right. Seeing none. Thank you, Tony. All right.

Thank you. So we're going to move on to 6.01, which is the Ready by Five legislation. And I'm going to hand it over to Sean to explain it. But I just want to say that we've brought this forward because As we've talked about the board's role in terms of advocacy and in terms in particular of advocacy for equity related things.

And I think this kind of fulfills, checks both those boxes. So maybe, Sean, you want to kind of speak to what Ready by Five is? Yes. So hopefully you had an opportunity to read the executive summary that I put in the Friday memo.

And Ready by Five is a group that is putting forth some legislation, are working to get legislation, a ballot initiative on the November ballot that would provide, it would be a tax that would, I think it's a half cent tax, that would provide funding for early childhood education. Now, and you might be, you might have done some reading. On this, and there is still some there's still some unknowns about this. And so we felt like it was important because some districts are having some conversations around this, and it could potentially benefit the district, but we don't know there is going to be a, there would be a mechanism of a committee that would decide how those funds would be used throughout the county.

And then there have been questions about whether or not the funds would be used for just public institutions or would they also be used for private institutions? And I also know that there has been some additional questions amongst legislators around this. And so, and Joe, I don't know if the current status is if they were able to move forward to get this on the ballot. Are they still within the timeline?

I think it's officially off the ballot for the county now, is it not? It is as yeah, as of yesterday, moving forward, but not on. It does not look like it will be on the November ballot. So, yeah.

And maybe just to add to what John said yesterday. This will raise about $80 million a year. So it's a significant amount. Thank you.

It's considered public. Yeah. Okay. It's considered public.

And so as an example, if you take the family center, right, so this initiative is really about both access and quality of care for zero to five. So we don't, I mean, you know, in fairness, our family center has very high quality. However, we've talked about that we might want greater access, right? We might want to give access to other folks.

So for us, it might provide access to other people to be able to access the quality care of the family center. In other places in the county, it might, you know, both improve quality and improve access, right? So what are folks thoughts, right? We bring this forward just to say, is this something that we would want to support?

I mean, it's not, again, it was moving a little quicker. They were hoping to put it on the ballot for November. It doesn't, again, it doesn't appear that that's going to happen. But they're still moving forward, trying to put it at some point, maybe April of next year at some point, and are asking various school districts, would they be supportive of such an initiative?

I think if it's going to provide more access to early childhood education, that's obviously a great thing. I guess I'm still would like more information about how it could benefit us or possibly do the opposite. I mean, in general, in theory, this sounds great. But and I also wonder about this other group, the coalition.

I don't know how you feel, Joe or Sean, about the pros and cons between the two initiatives. I mean, I think that it's interesting, the initiative, the other initiative, the coalition actually came out of some of the work that we did with the board PLC, which is a group of people that met through the board PLC and they met and formed and started moving forward. I think it's an intriguing idea as well. I think that no matter what, if there's any kind of mechanism that could provide more high quality and accessible early childhood education, because we know that research shows that how important that is, we need to explore it.

And knowing that this one is maybe it's not as pressing with the being off the November ballot. What we could do is think about, you know, even how we've been doing subcommittees. We could assign a few board members to get some additional information. And I work with me and we could actually become experts in learning about both.

But I do think this is one that we do need. There's a lot of push behind the ready by five and a lot of support already by it around it. I think that where I put our priority right now in terms of getting to know more about that knowing more how that money is going to be distributed to different entities knowing what are the criteria And so I just think that it would be worth getting some additional information And I think that I can help gather that, but I also think it'd be important for board members to be in the know about that as well. Do we know how it works?

How does it exactly work? And how does Ready by Five work? So, if, I mean, just like, tell me, so let's just say it passes and $78 million available for kids to go to school, and which kids and where are they coming from? That's, I think that's the additional information that we need to, unless Joe, you have some additional, know more about that, but I think it's, that's what would be good additional information that we would need to know.

Spervantage, Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Your question, I mean, I think they're still working out the mechanics, but the idea is that most of the money is going to go to those that are underserved, which tends to be black and brown kids who are from lower income backgrounds. So these kids then are able to go from their communities to like, I'm assuming, suburb schools?

Or this is any, because this isn't for the city, this is for the county, right? Yeah, it's just for the county. So, Jason, it could be that you could go to Urban Sprouts, which is the name of a private daycare center in U City. Or it could be that you'd go to the University City Children's Center in U City, which is also private.

Or it could be that you could go to the Clayton Family Center, which is public, or Julia Goldstein in U City, which is public. It depends where you live. And kind of you would, you would, again, it would be those spots, if you will, would be subsidized, would be paid for. You get, you know, and, and the idea, and again, this is still new, but the idea is that there would even be some expansion, right?

Because there are going to be obviously some facilities that don't have the capacity. But they might, part of this money might go to, you know, expand facilities or high quality facilities so that they could have more capacity. Yeah, so I guess I'm not sure if you all discuss these types of things at all, subsidies. But like, to me, if we're constantly subsidizing black and brown people, then we're not focusing on what needs to be fixed to make it so that we're not having to subsidize.

I'm not saying that we should be subsidized. It just kind of, and this is just a conversation, I want to make sure we have this conversation. It kind of perpetuates the imbalance that we have in our communities. So, in theory, I like the idea that we're trying to provide services and quality education to everybody.

This doesn't, this does not, and maybe I just got it all wrong, but this does not fix the issue that we have in our black and brown communities. Now, of course, this isn't, what makes this kind of cloudy and kind of weird is that this isn't just for black and brown kids. These are kids that are poor anywhere, right, who are under-resourced anywhere. And that's what makes it complicated.

Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried It all bundled up with all kids because it poor kids or underserved kids or disparaged kids everywhere Like it doesn really fix the issues that are important to black and brown folks also Like, it's kind of two separate issues. Well, so, Jason, I don't know if you've read the legislation, but I spent some time reviewing it yesterday. And I think that at least the group is, my understanding is the group is now pulling back and trying to decide what the next steps are forward because the bill that they wrote was so broadly written that I think that there was concern there could be abuse of funding and of power if the bill passed and it was to be put on the ballot and passed in its current form. But the bill as it was written had at least 25, 20% of the money which should be used for long-term economic development projects.

And so that does address some of the systemic issues that you're talking about. So that's everything from, hang on, I'm just pulling it up here. That's everything from like wastewater treatment plants for like lead and water to roads and street development projects and improving neighborhoods. And so I think that they have spent some time thinking about some of the issues that you're bringing up.

And there's a group of African-American women that are leading the charge as far as making sure that that stuff is incorporated into the bill. So it's not just 100% focused on childhood education. So back to Sean's question about how, as our school district, should we be involved and to what extent should we be involved? I think one of the main concerns that I have reading the bill is that public schools were not specifically called out in the bill.

And I think that we would want public schools to be able to participate when this does come on the ballot, if it ever does get back on the ballot. So what they talked about was a mixed delivery system, which includes everything that Joe already talked about. So that's in-home child care even. So that's somebody that's just running into daycare out of their house.

That's child care centers. And I think that we all can recognize that the quality of the early education that can be delivered, if it's not consistent throughout and doesn't include public schools, could vary. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I do know there was a stickling point for a governing body to have to administer the funds, and that was a big problem for a lot of folks.

But I think the conversation that I'm trying to start here is, is how does this fix the issue? It doesn't necessarily fix the issue. It doesn't go, and I want to understand, like, what is non, so what is quality? Tell me, if someone can identify or explain what quality education is versus non-quality.

Do we have, is anyone having a definition or examples of non-quality early childhood education? I think if you're sitting in somebody's house and you're plopped in front of the television for four hours a day and you're two years old, that would be the definition of non-quality education. Well, they have to get accredited. There's an accreditation system for early childhood programs, as far as I know, also.

Is that right? Yes. So I think that's part of it. And I think, Jason, to your issue and question, I think you're absolutely right.

It doesn't, it will not overall address some of the systemic issues. And so I think the question for us is, but sometimes the Band-Aid is better than no Band-Aid, right? So I mean I think that a fair statement but I mean that the question And to Sean point do we want to form a kind of an ad that you know talks about there might be an opportunity to influence it right I don you know I don know but I mean we might be able to have some influence whether it inclusive more of public schools or inclusive more of addressing systemic issues not what I call more Band But I will just say that I think sometimes the Band-Aids are worth it, right? $80 million of band-aids is still more access and quality care, even if it doesn't address the systemic issues.

Joe, can I say something? Sure. Go ahead. I just want to throw in there that I really like what the legislation says or what it's trying to do.

It might not be perfect right now, and obviously that's why they're working on revising it. But I like what it stands for and what it's trying to do. As for children of that age, I would love to know how, as a school district, whether it's this, the Ready by Five legislation or some other type of thing that's important for us, what that looks like when we do advocate and what people had in mind. That's really what I didn't understand.

We're having a discussion about it, but I don't have a good understanding of, yeah, okay, so we support it. Then what does that look like? How do we advocate for something as a board and help something get passed? Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We can influence legislation. And I think that it'd be important for our voices to be a part of this. And if there's something that's going to have a systemic impact, then we should be actively involved.

Well, and again, I think that's the point where, even to your point, Jason, where we can determine, like, what, how much, you know, what's the level of systemic impact that, you know, what's our threshold where we say, well, if it doesn't have that, we don't support it, or, you know, it's not perfect, we do support it, or we try to influence it. I mean, those are all things that we can consider. Again, trying to bring forward something or an example of something. I mean, I think we could probably all agree that early childhood is important, quality and access.

It's just a matter of if this is the right thing, if this does enough, if this is, you know, et cetera, et cetera. Right. I think it's going to come down to us having to do more research on just education in general. Right.

Like even talking about I constantly mention this and it always like goes past people, I think, for Brown versus Bord, having those kind of conversations about the impact about Band-Aids versus actually going to the root of systemic issues. I think right now the popular term nowadays is inflection point. We're at an inflection point right now in our society during COVID with a second shooting, for example, that's been caught on tape where in a neighborhood that are struggling and these issues are popping up. And we got to deal with these systemic issues.

And all I'm saying is that we need to have a conversation about what our philosophy is going to be. Is it going to be an individual, you know, me, Joe, Amy running out and you all backing your certain policies that will be put on bills? Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. What our philosophy is and what education looks like for everybody.

So this conversation is good, but I just want to make sure that if we're going to decide to do this, go this route, we need to make sure we have these kind of conversations that take longer than 10, 15 minutes. So, Jason, do you think they're mutually exclusive? Do you think it's, you know, let me be more pointed. Do you feel like it's detrimental to support a program that addresses a short-term gap, you know, compared to a bigger systemic problem, as opposed to taking a fundamental stand against that program and driving only for the systemic fix?

Do they have to be mutually exclusive or can they be driven in parallel? Yeah, I know. I think based on, so historically, historically speaking, I think if you look at Brown versus Bord, for example, I think that it's been a detriment because we have a whole entire community, North St. Louis City, that has been written off, that is totally underserved, totally disinvested in.

It is a whole horde of people that have, you know, legacy that has come through that and has lived through that. And it's been hard for them to get their feet stable in our community economically and jobs, the whole nine yards. So I think we need to discuss the impact of that. Yeah, I think that, you know, as of right this very moment, I would say, yeah, it's, it's, uh, I think some, you know, it's one of the other can, one of the other may not be the answer here.

But if I had to choose, I'm not, I want to make sure we address the systemic issues and stop doing band-aids to everything because systemic issues are where we're going to see actual change. So I think... But I think there's a difference between saying, yeah, we support education for, you know, zero through five. I think it's, I'm of the mind that they're not mutually exclusive, you know, because I think you can push for systemic change.

I think everybody has to push for systemic change. But I think you're cutting your nose off to spite your face if you turn your back on an initiative that we're not driving, that we didn't write, that would help kids in the meantime. Because we've got a problem that we could put real value and see measurable change and impact over the next, say, 10 years, whereas a systemic change can take a generation. You know, so I think I think that's a good point you're making.

But to switch to switch the needle a little bit to make sure that I highlight some of the things that you're saying is that it could take a generation. Right. And it's been several generations thus far, and we've gotten, we're still in a bad, bad place. We're still in subsidy phase.

We're still in high unemployment phases, high jail rates, imprisonment. All these things are happening in these communities for a reason. And COVID has really exploited a lot of the health risks that are happening in these communities. So we can't continue to use the, to me, the philosophy that cutting the nose off the spite of your face because it hasn't proven to be beneficial for black and brown communities or people that are poor in general, but black and brown in particular.

So I think what I mean, it's a great discussion. I think that I doubt we're going to solve it tonight, but I think it is a good discussion. And I mean, what I would recommend is that, you know, we form a, I think we've done pretty well with kind of having some ad hoc deeper conversations, right? Kind of an ad hoc committee that looks into this and then brings it back.

Right. And I mean, I mean, I think that's what I would suggest. Right. There's not a huge rush.

If it was on the November ballot, it's pretty important to move pretty quickly because November is coming quick. But if it's not until April or after, we do have some time. This is going to be one last thing I don want to sound I don want to push this issue But you know there is this you know this is one issue This is one topic that we have that we discussing it for But there are several topics on the table right now that we dealing with right now that this discussion will give us a strong foundation and understanding When we sit down and have these conversations, we're coming at it with strong perspectives, really strong understandings of the issues that we're talking about. So could I just add one thing?

I think that having this time would allow us to get additional information. But the other thing, too, I think is important is that, you know, how can we look systemically? How can we also look locally? I mean, we could also look at what we're currently doing in our district around our early childhood in terms of access.

Do we right now? It's it's sometimes difficult for students to have access to that. So, I mean, as part of that conversation in terms of what next steps, I think it would be interesting for us also to put that. What can we do locally and systemically?

So I just wanted to throw that out there. Yeah. And I might just say, in maybe closing this conversation out, that what I will say is, or what I'll just note something that I've noticed about our board. I actually think we do better in smaller groups.

I don't, I think sometimes when we try to have a big, healthy, you know, kind of deeper conversation as a group of seven plus one, eight, right? Plus Sean, nine. It's harder. And so I think sometimes it is, I think what we're learning is that we can be sometimes more effective and efficient if we break it out and then come back.

So I will say that too. Okay. I think we're going to move on from this one to reports. So speaking of smaller groups, right, we had three ad hoc groups, one of which was a, well, three ad hoc groups.

One of the groups talked about was the board meeting calendar and I guess board committees, right? So really in a way the next two. So I guess 7.01 is really the board meeting calendar. So I guess maybe Sean, do you want to set that up?

Yes, so we had a smaller subcommittee that looked at our year-long calendar and appreciate David and Kim and Amy being part of that. We also, as part of that conversation, looked at committees for the district, for the boards as well. And hopefully you had an opportunity to look at the draft calendar that we presented. And in designing this calendar and in the conversation, we talked about what are some ways that we can make sure that the board has more input in terms of the items that are on the agenda.

We also looked at what are some ways that we are making sure that we're not using certain items that have been on the calendar for past years that have a tendency to take a lot of the board time. So for example, we talked about the curriculum review process. It's really important for the board to have an understanding of what is happening with the curriculum. But does our process, is there some changes that we can do with that process that we do more reporting to the board and then build in some time for them to have an annual report?

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. To those throughout the year. The other thing is we built in times where there could be working sessions or times that we maybe didn't have two meetings a month, but the other time during the month would be used for subcommittees or the board financial advisory meeting to meet instead. Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried And the other thing I want to say is that not all of this is complete There still room for the board to add agenda items to this as we go through the year But and also we have to add the recognizing our owns But that was the thought of the committees and wanted to see if there was anything from the other people who served on the committee to add to that conversation.

Oh, David or Kim or Amy. Who was on the calendar? Who was on that committee? No, this was David, Kim, and Amy.

So just before we jump into the discussion, does either David, Kim, or Amy want to add anything to that? No, I'm good. Tammy, too, you did a nice job summarizing. Thanks, Sean.

The only thing that I'll add is that one of the things we talked about was, or maybe it was Joe and I and Sean talked about it when we were in our planning meeting, The first thing I was thinking was adding some additional topics that might relate to social issues that we're experiencing that are going on kind of around our country today. For example, like transgender bath, sorry guys, my son doesn't know how to be quiet. Transgender bathrooms or, you know, just other issues that our community might be interested in hearing what we think about or how we plan to address. So those are just some topics that we can think about adding to the calendar.

And Amy, I don't know if I did add some of those that you talked about. So we do have those on our calendar because that was something that was brought forth last year from our student board representative. We had some discussion as part of our safety. And then we brought it back on the calendar in the year in October.

But yeah, so there are some of those that run in there, but the board has the opportunity to vote on potential adding to the calendar. And we don't have to do that tonight, but we wanted to make sure that people saw how the meetings were structured this year. If you had any input about the way that they're structured, anything that you feel is missing, this would be just kind of the opportunity to have that discussion. Well, I guess we should probably hear like what you all thought, like what was the criteria and what were the things you thought about when you put this thing together?

Like what, you know what I'm saying? Like what were we thinking about when we put it together? So, I mean, we were thinking about all the requirements in terms of what's up for curriculum review. We were thinking about the strategic planning process.

We were thinking about the focus on diversity and equity and inclusion and the frequency with which we wanted to have updates on some of our top priority items. And then we were also thinking about how to make sure that the time that we spend together is the most efficient possible, regardless of what the subject matter is. So I think, I mean, I think that's kind of the basis for all the discussion that we had. Sean, to go back to what you asked, I mean, it seemed, it seems obvious, although we don't have it on the calendar, we didn't add it to the calendar, that as long as we're in this remote learning phase, that during every board meeting throughout this year, we should probably have that as an ongoing update for both our, you know, for ourselves and also for the public.

So we get an update. We can communicate, you know, what is the status of remote learning? Have there been any issues? Are there any new updates about when kids can start coming back into school, et cetera, et cetera?

Yeah, and I will definitely include that as part of my superintendent communications. I also, on September 30th, put the transition back to school as part of the focus because that's going to be a time when we're going to have to make an announcement. And I will say it's important to note that, right, you know, this is the kind of the committee's best thinking and best guess, right? As time moves on, we're going to need to add a topic here or there, right?

I mean, that's going to happen. So I don't think we should be under the assumption that this is not at all locked in stone. This is, you know, great thinking and a great job, but we'll need to adapt. Some as we move forward.

So does this coincide with like, with our committee's suggestions that we put forward? Like, does it coincide with any of that? I was going to say that, Jason. We talked a lot about this in our group too.

Say it again. I was going to say that too In our group we talked a lot about this and the meeting structure as well and the frequency So I know we going to get to that next but Yeah, I would say that we took into consideration the conversation that we had at the professional learning aspect of the board. There will be some additional meetings that we will have to add on as we do our professional development for the board. So for example, when the board goes through their anti-racism training, that is something that's going to have to be added to the calendar.

We have, the other thing was, is the switch of the agendas and making sure that we were looking at policy and making sure we were being focused on that. And then the other thing too, as you'll see in the committee, the outline that we provided for you, that we have tried to build in times where the financial committee is built into here. We still are going to have to schedule, Cameron's going to be working to schedule the equity committees, the advisory for that work. And so that still needs to be added.

So there are still some things. This isn't just the only times that the boards are going to meet, the boards going to meet, or individual boards are going to meet. Some of you might be meeting other times. This doesn't mean, this is for sure all the times when all seven of you are meeting.

So, Joe, can I? Go ahead. Just kind of follow up a little bit on that and not to get ahead to the work that our committee did too, although it does cross over a lot. So when Jason and Stacey and I met with Sean and talked about the professional learning and particularly focused on board effectiveness and meeting effectiveness, We actually spent a fair amount of time talking about the way our meetings are structured as well and how many of them there would be of what type.

And some of you have heard me say this before, so I apologize for repeating myself, but I feel like it's really important to emphasize in terms of the structural format of our meetings, the difference between business items and everything else. And if we do business meetings in a more structured way that doesn't, because there's more structure, there's less flexibility for how long things can be talked about and how long those things can go on and the ways that they can be discussed. Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, the Education Committee.

So, again, I think we can bring some of these ideas together and make some of these meetings that are of one structure and other meetings, whether that be a meeting of the whole or of a subcommittee or a committee that includes other people from the community. As those are, those are all appropriate. So I think if we can kind of bring some of these ideas from the two groups together to move in that direction, that would be a really positive step for us. I mean, I just don't, I don't want to be a broken record about it, but that structure can help us be more efficient in a lot of ways if we were to think about that.

Good point. Well, and I would just add, like I know Sean just said, these dates are all the dates that the seven of us will be meeting, but we did talk about in our group, Gary, Jason, and I, with Sean, about, you know, I know we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit. It ties into this. About the twice a month meetings and that kind of to Gary's point, are we more effective if one time a month instead we are in our ad hoc groups really working on things and getting more done as opposed to all seven of us twice a month?

So I know that messes with the schedule you guys were working with, but that was one of the things we discussed in our group was the effectiveness of meeting as a group twice a month, or did we break that up and make one of those look a little different? So I know we'll get to that next, but while we're on the topic of the calendar. That's okay. I mean, I think it's okay to begin to blend them because they're relevant.

So other thoughts? Yeah, I have a point. So two things. One, we all, we, three of us, Amy, Gary, and I talked about aligning the policies with, with, with curriculum, when we discuss curriculum or whatever, whatever issues that we're having.

So that the policies actually, when we're doing a kind of an audit, reading the policies, going through them, and making sure that whatever policy we're dealing with kind of aligns with whatever agenda item that we're dealing with. So I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Gary and Stacey, we kind of agreed that or kind of talked about we can do a better job of managing through policy versus, you know, this is where I call it diving into the weeds of a curriculum of things that we don't know about. Right, so we don't really know curriculum. I don't know education, you know, what a history teacher puts together when it comes to curriculum, for example.

I don't know math curriculum very well. But what we do know policy, if we're studying the policies and understanding the policies, we can really influence outcome and making sure that when they create these curriculums or whatever issues that arise on the agenda that we're discussing, Thank you. And like that, that was like a way that to me, that structure made a lot more sense is the way you were kind of distinguishing between the policy versus the, the, the, the example of curriculum is like what class is being taught at what time or what is being taught in what class is not policy, it's, it's procedures or whatever the next level down is. Right.

So, I mean, that's the, that's the perfect example, but the, the, the, the share of time we've Historically spent at meetings on curriculum is way more than the share of time on policy. So I think that was kind of how you. Yeah. That's how I remembered you saying it.

Yeah. Yeah. And we there and we can definitely try to connect whatever study items that we have to the policies there are. Sometimes we will be limited by that by timelines or statutes that need that we have to adhere to that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to add that I think it's important to note that we have to put something on the agenda or it may not necessarily connect to an item that we have on the on the on, you know, like that's connected to the policies so i will. So I think that's a great point.

I think we have to be more careful. It's important to be careful because we're talking about the policies that we're talking about. And so by putting more of a focus of the policies at the very beginning of our meetings, that's one of the ways, that's why we switched that as part of that conversation. It then gives us kind of that influence of this is what our policies are and this is how it might influence some of those other study items.

They're not always going to be that connection, though, but we'll try to do our best with that. But sometimes we're just, we have timelines we have to adhere to as well. Second thing I wanted to say was just my concern about, so I like, I do like the, I think there's pros and cons to the ad hoc group. I just want to make sure that we're not putting ourselves in a predicament where, I guess we can't.

So this is just me talking out loud, but like that we're not creating a faction within our own, within the seven of us. And we're all meeting, you know, if one group's meeting, one group's, another group is meeting, and we're not really, you know, sitting down having a group discussion, but making decisions in these ad hoc groups. And also be a little bit cumbersome. So I just want to make sure we're regulating ourselves and aware of those types of issues.

I think it's really important to remember that no ad hoc group can make a decision without a collective vote of the board. So they can make recommendations to the board, but it's actually the board collectively that has to make those decisions. I think to your point Jason it does take a little bit more trust to work in some broken out groups and a little bit of a different dynamic But I think that it It may not be perfect every time, but I think it's good to keep that in mind. But I think that's a good thing to aspire to, to be able to say, oh, that group looked at this.

I should at least take seriously what their recommendation is. I might vote against it, but I'm going to listen to what they've said because they've studied it. And then I'm going to decide what I'm going to do. Well, and if you think about it, we just from an efficiency point of view, we can't take on everything as a committee of a whole.

Right. I mean, that's why organizations have committees. Right. You, you, you.

And so we will actually get a lot more done if we have committees and then we bring recommendations and then we have discussions as a whole. Right. So, I mean, that's if we try to do everything as a whole. That's, we will limit our effectiveness and efficiency.

So I guess my question would be for this calendar group is, when creating the calendar and the topics, was that considered? Like, are there certain topics that we should push out to ad hoc groups instead of as our whole board meeting agenda, you know, at our public meeting agendas? No, I mean, so it's a little bit of a chicken and the egg thing here, right? So we have a conversation around, you know, changing the composition of how we hold our meetings at the same time that we're talking about building a schedule for the calendar.

So, yeah. So now I think, you know, yeah. So to Sean's point, you know, this is, you know, it takes a working session to pull the subgroups together and make sure we cross pollinate the ideas and the calendar will probably have to tweak a little bit. I think the dates probably are fine.

The agenda and the outcome of each of the meetings are going to have to be tweaked. And again, I want to say that I think we're also trying to quite honestly spread out the decision making. Because if we think about historically, what happened last year? Right.

I mean, we just went and, you know, kind of the board president, superintendent and, you know, with some input of vice president created, you know, calendar and topics and away we went. Right. So we're trying to get away from that and think, you know, think holistically. Like, how can we get everybody's thinking in topics and agendas and structure, et cetera.

Right. That's what we're trying to do. So what other thoughts do folks have? And I understand these are blending into one another.

I think now that we have a better understanding and some context around how this agenda was created, this calendar was created, Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Without other significant input, I think the idea is this is our working draft that we're working from in terms of dates and topics.

But again knowing that we can literally change those at any we have a mechanism to change at least topics not dates but topics at any given meeting I think that flexibility helps because we can move we can decide to move some of these topics to ad hoc groups if we want instead The dates are the dates. So whether we're meeting, you know, however we're meeting. But I think to your point, Joe, hearing that we can be flexible with a lot of it, I think, you know, I'm okay with that then. But not too flexible, right?

Because we got to get some stuff done. Well, some things have to be done by certain dates. Right. I would say that if you look closely at it, we have made sure that there are stop checks for our equity work, stop for strategic planning.

We made sure that was all built in. Coming back to some of the topics that we weren't able to finish last year, like the safety study and the gender neutral bathrooms, those are in here. So we tried to capture those things that we knew that we needed to come back to. But there is flexibility in terms of being responsive to things that we want to add on to this.

I have a feeling that we're probably going to be adding on something around early childhood again. And so knowing that after this conversation, bringing that back to the table. So I hope that you can see that we did try to capture those things that we knew that were essential for us to discuss. November 11th, that date on the calendar, I know we talked about, I'm not sure we all agreed upon this.

Maybe we did, maybe we didn't. But we were going to discuss like equity at like every meeting, right? Is that right? Or am I wrong, guys?

Am I wrong about that? So on that day, I don't see anything about equity on that day. So we built in times to give reports throughout. Equity is not put in every single agenda.

We built in times throughout the year that we were going to keep coming back to it and to give reports. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Okay, gotcha. So on November 11th, do I see that?

Am I able to see that in here on that date based on what you have on this calendar? So Jason, the first equity update is October 14th because we didn't want to push it. We thought we moved it up from November because we thought that waiting until November is too long to actually have a robust discussion about it, even though, as Sean said, it's embedded as a through line for everything we do. So we thought it would be important to move it up in the calendar.

It's on October 14th. And Cameron will give us an update on what his first 60 days in the district has been like. And there'll be other things associated with that topic. But we didn't want to wait until November to have that discussion.

So it's on the calendar. It's just moved up. It's on October 14th. I'm going to say this, but it makes me a little nervous because last time, last year, same kind of thing.

We had a plan and then COVID hit and then a couple other things, a couple other issues took place. And then our ability to get back to that agenda item about equity and updates about what was happening with testing, we kind of missed that. And I think it threw us for a loop and it kind of took our eyes off the ball. So my question is, I thought we discussed this in previous meetings over the summer, that we were going to have it on every, at least a small conversation about it every meeting.

I mean, I will leave that. I'll see if the other board members, what we had talked about was building in reports. Yeah, that was what I heard. I mean, I heard that we were, you know, I thought that we were going to put it on the agenda to do some in-depth updates.

I think three or four times during the year, which I'm looking right now and I see it on April. I see it April 21st and January 27th and October 14th. But then in addition to that what I I mean this was I mean maybe there was a misunderstanding or not everybody was on the same page but what I heard was that kind of what Sean said that it was going to be a through line in all of our work But then in addition to that we were going to get updates on our progress and updates to what we doing what working what isn working you know several times a year too So that was my understanding, but I could be wrong. And it's also important to know that the strategic plan has, it's connected to all the work as well.

So those reports will also have been updated around the work around our anti-racism, anti-bias work too. I wonder, too, if we're talking about the difference between Sean updating us as part of his update about that he makes every meeting versus it being on the agenda as a topic that the board discusses what we want to do in the area. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I would want other feedback on the calendar.

I mean, I think it's, not to repeat myself, I think it's important to clarify here when something is, you know, when we have study items versus things that we have to take action on. I mean, policies are on our agenda twice because we have to have a first reading before they're approved, the second reading. So in a way, that's an action item because we have to do it in order to eventually pass, you know, make a motion and pass that motion to adopt the policy. So those things group together as action to me.

But then we also have things here where like on the same meeting, we have study item of the CRSWC budget and then an action item of approving the budget. So those, in the way that we have historically done our meetings, that's going to become one item that eventually we're finally going to vote on something. Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Kind of improve our both efficiency and effectiveness.

We also have to pay, you know, quite honestly, we don't really pay attention to information items, right? We still treat information items, we're getting better, but we still treat information items as study items, right? So an information item is really a report. It's a heads up.

That's what an information item is. It's a heads up from the staff to us. If you have a burning essential question, so be it. But we often ask more curiosity questions on information items.

And so, you know, we just have, I mean, if that's what we want to continue to do, so be it. But we just have to own that if we're really trying to move towards a different place, then we have to also own things like that, right? It matters what we call them. And right now, it only kind of matters what we call them.

We talked about that in our group too, really distinguishing between those items on the agenda and sticking to what they are supposed to be. So what else on the calendar? Anything else on the calendar? Again, we're not, this is not a speaking of things.

We're not voting on this. I guess once again, dealing with equity. So do I have it wrong, the six of you all? Do I have it wrong?

Was that not the topic of conversation? Was that not proposed that we have on the calendar, on the agenda, at least a small topic of conversation about equity? No? Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

I'm not sure I understand. Did we agree to what we have on the calendar now? I think that's what we're talking about. No, that's not what we're talking about.

I'm trying to find out what we're talking about. You just said we didn't agree to what I proposed. I'm saying, so we don't have it on here, but did we agree to not having it on here is what I'm saying. Well, did you guys talk about it in the small group?

I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't think, I mean, I don't. I wasn't on the calendar ad hoc committee. We didn't specifically address individual report items across the full calendar.

Remember, we have the fiduciary responsibility from an agenda perspective is that we give due notice, which is roughly 24 business hours. Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We need to have a specific study or discussion topic on every meeting around equity. What I recall is we can't screw up this year and not have periodic touch points on progress against the plan and that we need to make sure that we're having those touch points.

And we had identified three or four, I think we said quarterly, but curiously, when we got into the discussion at our subcommittee discussion, we realized that quarterly on a calendar doesn't really correlate to quarterly with the school session because we have an entire quarter of summer. So I think we kind of had to tweak that interpretation a little bit, whether it was three versus four. But we didn't discuss having something that was line itemed out on every meeting, specifically targeting a equity update. Okay, so maybe I'm wrong then.

So I do want to propose this then. So with our focus on social emotional and with what's happening right now in the world, more so than ever before, it would be kind of narrow of us not to have that item on the agenda or at least on the calendar for a topic of conversation. Every time we meet. Now, I'm sure no one agrees with me.

I got that. I will say, I mean, I think in an ideal world, I mean, it would be great. I also feel like there are so many other kids and issues that we also need to make sure that we're addressing, Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Where do these other things fit in?

What things are you talking about? Well, things that I just mentioned that affect black kids, but also might affect other students that go to Clayton schools. Like I said, whether it be kids with dyslexia or gifted kids or bullying or alcohol or all of these other issues that kind of might fall into the social emotional stuff a little bit. And I'm worried about how we're going to fit that in and how we're going to make sure that we address those needs, too, because I don't see some of those items on the agenda yet.

I sure that they get there and I know it a work in progress I think that what Sean is saying when it a through line that we are going to have equity will be part of the conversation every week but then quarterly we going to have those you know dedicated times I don't know, even though like that he would have, as far as like our progress is concerned, I don't think that there would even be anything to say at every single meeting. I think it's good to let a few months pass and then we get an update so he could give us a broader, more comprehensive picture of what's happening. I don't know that the needle moves that much from week to week. I think it takes some time for things to move.

Does that make sense? Okay. I have a proposal that might, so since it is going to be such an integral part of all of our work this year, and we have superintendent communications that are on the meeting every time, I can definitely incorporate an update about some of the things that we are doing as part of the work and connect it to my, and make sure that it's part of my communications. And to Amy's point about then, we do have those more built-in points that are like where we are tracking the data.

So it may not be that we're coming back and looking at the data every single meeting because we may not see a change from meeting to meeting. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. So it's kind of interesting that if we have a student population or a customer base that's not getting what their needs met, then you would think that we would be trying to address that on a consistent basis.

We can't say, well, I take it back. We can say what we want to say. We've been saying it for a long time. But I was going to say, you know, how do we say we're the best when we have a whole section of folk that are underperforming?

So to me, this is tone deaf. And then the response, Amy, that you keep giving me is what I'm, this is a very, I'm used to hearing this, you know, how do we do that? We have other stuff we have to focus on. You know, we have other things we need to focus on.

I didn't say, I said we need to do both. I did not say that. I said we need to make sure to do both. I didn't say other.

I said we need to make sure to do both. And so it's important to make sure that we talk about both. So I'd like to propose we look at this differently. So Jason, I would like you, and I'm going to put you on the spot intentionally here because I think it's a good discussion point.

Can you list out for me right now five things that we need to hit every two weeks that will have material changes? Every two weeks that will be updated. Yeah, I mean, let's put them down on paper so we can go back and see what the feasibility is of tracking this. I think you raise a good question, but I'm of the same mindset of Amy in that if it's not making a material change every two weeks, reporting on it doesn't solve a purpose.

And we end up spending time building a report to talk about something that doesn't evolve. So what I'd like to understand is you want this agenda item. I think we owe it to you to have a discussion around whether or not that makes sense. But it would be a more productive dialogue if you can say, here are the five things that I think will change every two weeks.

Let's monitor these five data points week over week and see what the progress changes. Well, we've actually done that. We actually had this discussion in the springtime. I think it may have been before you got on the board.

We talked about monitoring things on a biweekly basis. So can you give me five of those things so I can jot them down and look at them? One is how are our kids performing in classrooms? But how is that one measured?

So obviously we only do the map once a year Once again this is where we get in the weeds right So I can get into the weeds but I don have an answer for you right now So that would be crazy for me to have an answer as if to say I've been studying this all along. This is my profession. This is my job to actually talk about and explain to you how we're going to measure each of these five items, right? So your question isn't even really relevant.

And what I'm asking is, is that race does change weekly, and we are underperforming in that area, period. Now, you all may not agree with this. And obviously, you know, it seems like we don't agree with this, but African American children are performing poorly. But Jason, I'd like to agree with you, but I need to help.

Pardon me? I'd like to agree with you, but I need to help. I need to understand, because I'm a data guy, right? So help me understand a handful of data points that we can look at every two weeks consistently, and we can trend that progression, whether it goes down or up.

And if it's something we need to take offline, we can do that. Let's ask the expert. Let's ask Milena. Let's ask Milena.

Is Milena available? So, is Milena available? Thank you, Dr. Bord.

Spervantage, Spervantage, Propriety, and Equity. We have to discuss it. And talking about an issue that affects anti-bias, anti-racism, and all the things that are encompassed in that NABAR is very important. Nobody's disagreeing with that here.

Nobody. So discussing it four times a year is like discussing curriculum. It's not four times a year. We just talked about discussing it every single meeting through Sean's update and talking about it at least six additional times in depth.

By virtue of our discussion around the strategic plan and equity in and of itself. So it's every meeting now is what's being proposed. And then it's in depth at least an additional six times. And just like we talked about when we discussed the calendar, flexibility to add things or subtract things from the calendar throughout the year.

Wait a minute. So now it is every time, every time we meet? That's what Sean said 20 minutes ago. That hasn't changed.

I think we're actually all saying the same thing, which is the data doesn't change. Most of the data doesn't change enough to have every two weeks a data-driven conversation around at least some data, right? You give panorama a couple times a year. You give a map test once a year.

You do. So that so we're going to do that three times for around equity, specifically race equity, three times around the strategic plan. However, qualitatively, right, qualitatively, not quantitatively, Sean in his update, what he suggested is and I think it's good. Right.

To your point, Jason, we should be talking about the wellness of all of our students. And so if any of our students are not well, are not performing, we should hear about it, right? Whether it's our black students, and if it's our black students that are, you know, that are the ones who are mostly not doing well, then we should absolutely hear about it. And so that's part of what Sean will talk about or update, right?

But it'll be qualitatively. It not just about data So let run it back a little bit Let talk about Ready by Five Like does anyone have a basis of understanding what that really what it about I mean how often do people talk about how often do you all talk about in your homes in your daily routines in life about people who are underserved How often do you all talk about race in your life daily at all Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Spervantage, About how messed up we are right now. About how our black kids are failing in our school district and how we don't give a shit.

Let's just start there. Let's just start there. Totally not fair. Why don't you start with adjusting your language since you're in a school board meeting.

You can say all day long about what's not fair, but the data can back us up. I'm personally done with this discussion. I actually think we're all saying the same thing. I mean, now we are, of course.

I mean, look how I had to drag my feet just to get there, resistance just to get there. Jason, that's actually not true and not fair. And so that actually isn't true. It was always six times, three for the strategic plan, which includes equity, three for equity.

That's what's in there, right, if you look at it. And Sean said, actually, I think Gary said it first, could Sean put in his updates something about equity? And then Sean also said, could I put in my updates? That's what we're all saying, right?

I think that's an important piece. We all agree that's an important piece. Actually, I do think we need to move on because I think our conversation has left the realm of productivity. I'm going to move us on, actually.

I'm going to take this on to the board committees. Does anybody have any comments on board committees? I would just say our group talked about, and this was mentioned in the email, the legislative one that instead of having one designated representative, that that's something that all of us or, you know, however many, that we should all be engaged in that work. So I guess I'm curious if everybody agrees with that.

And if so, if we can, as a group, kind of be committed to staying engaged and, you know, going to those meetings so that it's not just one person all the time. Because I did think that was a good move to not just have one of us do that one. Yeah, I think the key there, Stacey, is, and I think, I hate to say this, I think the onus falls down on Sean to keep us apprised of it so we know to engage. Because I think that's where, you know, I don't, I'm not sure how to keep on top of what's coming down the pipe.

Well, there's meetings we can go to. I guess what I'm saying is any of us, all seven of us could attend these meetings. So we should make sure that maybe Sean or Sandy is sending us the dates. So to provide some context for the new members, we have a collaborative legislative advocacy group that meets with six other school districts.

And we try to bring elected officials in to give us updates about legislation that could be impacting education. And so we have assigned previously one or two people to go to those meetings. We have a lot of meetings, but we've realized that more people are interested in that and more other districts are allowing more of their board members to come. So we just are saying those meetings are open to everyone versus just two people going.

We will host one of those meetings as well. Point, David, we will also provide in the Friday memo those things that you need to pay attention to as an elected official that we think that it'd be important to, you know, potentially advocate for or advocate against. So there will be times sometimes throughout the year where I'll say this is some legislation that we need to pay attention to. Here's a form letter that you might want to tweak and look at or hear the numbers to the legislators we need to call.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Not necessarily been the rep, but gone to a lot of them. They're good. I mean, they're valuable.

They're good meetings. I mean, they historically are at 730. And so some people don't like to be to a 730 meeting. But if you're okay with that, I do think the content is good.

And Gary used to be on it, so he could maybe speak to it more. But it was actually his idea, I believe, to say, all of us should be attending, not just him. And I think we lost Gary for the night. So I'll just say that.

Oh, he's gone. Yep. All right. Anything else on committees?

Any other comments on committees? Okay. So how about the professional learning group, which was Gary and Stacy and Jason? Stacy or Jason, you want to give kind of some, any additional flavor to that beyond what you've already spoken to?

I think we kind of covered it. And Sean, I know, took pictures or more detailed notes about what we talked about. We talked a lot about structure of meetings, which I guess we kind of just covered. So I don't know if Jason, you remember more of that or Sean.

We talked about efficiencies, structure, but we kind of concluded on the idea of what our job is as board members. Our job is to govern the policy. And so we were talking about, so this is where a lot of questioning comes from when we're dealing with the calendar, about how we structure the calendar. And we were talking about, we need to focus more on policy if we want to stay out of the weeds and let the policy be the way in which we can guide the work.

And so that's why, that's where a lot of questioning came from when we said, when we asked, how did you structure the calendar? And were these policies that we have on the calendar in any way connected to the agenda items that we're talking about in the calendar or that meeting? So what we did from that meeting and the posters are all over there that we used for, and I did snap those and put them in the shared drive. What we talked about is that when we looked at the policies, and again, that's why we did the shift with our meeting.

When we looked at the policies, we will try to connect those to any study items. We did have a few policies that we needed to put on here that just were, there were certain timelines on, so we had to put those on there. The other thing that we talked about is how we continue focusing on board effectiveness and governance, and also making sure that we are getting the training that we need for anti-bias, anti-racism, and everyone going through that training, that assured training. Spervantage, and working with Cameron to talk a little bit about what our next steps for that.

And then the other thing too is that as part of our strategic plan, how we are providing personalized learning experiences for students. And so, when the board, when that comes to the table, it'll be really important for the board to understand what personalized learning means. Spervantage, and the other thing we talked about is that board learning just doesn't need to be around what you need to attend. So if there are articles or books or any kind of materials that we're learning as a district, how do we make sure that's provided to you?

So it could be videos that we're providing to the board, creating a library of books and making sure that you have access to those. So you have context with the conversations we're having. I think we talked about two conferences, like the NSBA conferences and some of the superintendent workshops and things like that as well. So any other questions or comments about this one?

So our priority right now is to get the date on the calendar for the board to get their training from anti-bias, anti-racism. We will continue to look at ways we can utilize MSBA. I forgot. The consultant that came in last time, Janet Tilly, we're thinking about ways we can utilize her again in the future.

That's great. And I think we mentioned to like possibly engaging former members. Just if we ever need a historical perspective on certain issues that this young tenured board maybe doesn't have. That's a great idea.

If you look at the executive summary that we wrote up for this one, it does outline the essential questions that we put underneath each of those. And then also some other things that were follow-ups that were suggested by the committee. So, you know, the former board member thing is kind of important to me because I learned a lot from a couple of key folks that offered to help me put the committee together with former board members. Obviously, our current COVID situation doesn't really make that ideal, but I was happy to see that in there.

So, because I want to make sure we bring that to fruition this year. Yeah, I was, and sorry, David, and they want to be engaged with us. I talked, I've talked to a lot of them about that too. So it's a good way to use their experience.

I'll be honest, probably one of the best, you know, couple hours of, you know, my process of getting on the board last year was sitting around in a room with three or four listening to war stories. So it was not only was it educational, but it was fascinating. So I think we've got a wealth of knowledge just right here in our backyards that we need to pull in on the regular. The Board of Education is a very good organization.

I would say that they are a very good organization. They are a very good organization. They are willing and able and there is a tremendous amount of knowledge from former Board members. I agree.

The suggestion I make is in looking at that calendar again and after you review it again, there might be opportunities that we can build in, collapse some meetings or build in time for those types of experiences that we can schedule this year. So, I would say that the Board of Education meeting is a very good organization. I'm scheduled this year. So yeah, I actually made that note.

And then our calendar committee, our calendar discussion went off the rails, but I do think that we should put that in our calendar times that we want to engage with former board members. And if we have it on the calendar, then we'll be sure to make it happen. How about I will look at our calendar and try to put in some times in there. Great.

Great. Anything else on this one? Okay, we're going to move on. We do still have a couple action items.

Sorry, I didn't have one on that. This is kind of maybe related to the calendar as well, but we talked about engaging the, I feel like we talked about engaging the community or with the community, learning with the community as part. And the reason this might play into the calendar is one thought about that is I know we do have meetings around at our different schools, but if we maybe also met sometimes at the county library or the Center of Clayton, it might bring in more of our community members to learn with us and might be a more neutral space for those folks that don't have kids in school and maybe are intimidated by coming into our school. So that might be a way for some of these learning opportunities to happen with the greater community to use spaces like that.

That a great point because there are you know actually the majority of our voting population actually don have children in schools They might have at one time but they don So another avenue for that would be the Clayton Condominium Association and they have regular meetings so we could try to align some of our stuff with theirs Right. Yeah. Okay. Okay, so anything else on this one?

Okay. So we're going to move on to action items. We do have a couple action items. And the first one is 8.01.

It's the Memorandum of Understanding between the Clayton Education Foundation and the School District of Clayton. And since Gary's not on the call, maybe Amy, will you read the action item? Would you be willing to read the action item? Yep.

Thank you. I move that the Board of Education approve the memorandum of understanding between the Clayton Education Foundation and the School District of Clayton. Okay, it's been moved. Is there a second?

Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments about this MOU? Thank you.

You know, I think I may have forgotten, like the relationship, understand the relationship of why we're sharing resources like that again with the Clayton Foundation. Sean, you think you can give me brevity, man, explain that to me. So the Clayton Education Foundation is basically a separate 501c3 that supports initiatives within the district that goes beyond what we can currently budget within our district, within our budget. So they'll support projects such as teacher grants within our classrooms.

They'll support experiences for students. They have been, they're a mechanism for providing like charitable type of experiences. We used them this past spring for food collection. Spervantage, it's another mechanism for, it's basically like the development office for the district.

And so having a person who is going to be in charge of raising funds that are beyond just what comes in with our taxes. And so the Clayton Education Foundation is also connected to our alumni and helps organize the alumni events and keeping them engaged and making them feel like they have an investment in their community And their alma mater. And it gives them, gives potentially an opportunity for them to donate to programs and initiatives within our district. So I will say in my experience in the district, I've seen that the foundation has been able to provide experiences for students and resources and materials that we wouldn't normally be able to build into our own budget.

Chris, I don't know if you want to add any more to that. No, I think you did a great job of summarizing all that up. I mean, the foundation has been working for a number of years to support our teachers and our students. I mean, to kind of give a summary, you know, just in the 2019-2020 school year, I mean, they awarded $65,000 worth of teacher grants.

In just fourth quarter alone, they did their fill the food pantry drive, which provided resources to fill the food pantry, as well as direct contributions to district families that were in need. And that was north of $31,000 that were put together. So that's just kind of a quick one-year snapshot of the work that they're able to do. Sean, am I right when I say that another benefit we've got there is it provides a mechanism for funding things that would otherwise not be possible because of the constraints and how we have to manage school finance with the prescribed buckets?

Is that right? Yeah. Yes. That might be probably one of the other key things because, you know, Jason, it's funny you mentioned this.

I had a conversation with a couple of people today actually over this because my I. So just just in transparency for the folks that didn't read it, you know, the cost to us is about a is about half of an FTE and then an allowance of around 15 grand in expenses. So we're looking at an all-in probably somewhere between 50 and 65,000 bucks a year. So logically, the question would be, do we derive $65,000 of value from a $65,000 investment?

You know and if the indicator is not going in the right way we need to have a discussion around this But I this I know I met with Alex Berger I know Kim met with Alex a couple of times I think there's a lot of promise here. I think we have a lot of room to grow, and I think there's a lot of work to be done. I think we could move this from a $65,000 a year benefit to a $200,000 a year benefit. We really need to see this turn into a program that's funding an entire, you know, or I should say this should become something that funds an entire program.

It's just going to take some time to get there, and it's getting better every year. But that's just my probably more like five cents. That's a good point, David. I think that's what I was getting at, man, based on the numbers.

I was thinking, like, what's the return on investment on that $65,000? Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Its status as a 501c3 nonprofit, it has to operate at arm's length from the district. So it has to operate as its own independent organization.

So they have their own functioning board that makes those decisions and works with Sandy Strecker, their executive director, to set their priorities. That said, both Sean and Sean is an ad hoc member of their board of directors, as well as there is a rotating board member, school board member that sits on that, that provides input as well. I know that Kim is going to be taking that position this year. So, I mean, their focus is always to have the projects that they support aligned with the district strategic plan and supporting and impacting learning within the community.

That said, when COVID hit last spring and we needed to get really creative to find a mechanism to support our families, the foundation was able to step up and step in to the tune of $31,000 and help with that. So there's flexibility there, but we need to be careful that we don't get in a position of trying to give them directives or tell them what the district wants them to do, as that could be something that could impact their standing as a 501c3 nonprofit. And once again, just real fast, what was the reason why we have a shared resource again, like why we're sharing that person? Because I think it's the district is the direct beneficiary of the majority of their programs, right?

That's correct. And I mean, when in talking to a lot of in the foundation has a an executive director that actually only had that new position since February of this year. But in talking to a lot of people who work in development and fundraising and are a lot more in tune to that. Basically, it comes down to the person that's in charge of moving the foundation's work forward and going out and asking for money can't be the person that's updating the database or doing the mailings or doing that sort of thing.

So that is a resource that the district is providing to help support that effort and to the point that was just made. Our students and our teachers are the direct benefit of the foundation's work. And I think it's important to know the context of this as well, is that the foundation in not just, I don't know, Chris, five or six years ago, the amount of grants that they were able to provide was just a fraction of what they're able to do now. So they are building capacity.

And now this past year that we have actually them paying for the staff member, the director, it's showing the progress of building capacity with the foundation that was not there before. And I think that that's really, you know, thinking about when I first started in district, they were giving $7,000 worth of grants. And now they're giving $65,000 worth of grants. I mean, it's grown tremendously.

Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I was just going to add, since I was the board representative this past year, you just touched on it, Sean. The Clayton Education Foundation Board is like a very diverse, amazing group of mostly alumni.

So they have a real connection to our district, like a genuine connection to wanting to help the district. And I found all their meetings very productive and they all care very deeply about helping us. Any other questions or comments about this one? Okay, all in favor?

Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, passes unanimously, 6-0.

So we're moving on to the next Memorandum of Understanding, which is between the school district and the Glenridge Children's Center, or GCC. I move that the Board of Education approve the memo of understanding between the School District of Clayton and Glenrod Children's Center, Inc. Is there a second? Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments about this one? So, Joe, I feel like I need some time to work on this. It's pretty confusing, and it's like half of a termination and half of a MOU, but it doesn't really terminate.

And I think we need to work on it a little bit before we approve it. I mean, I guess we could approve it conceptually, but I think we need to work on the agreement before we approve the actual document. It probably needs to be split into two documents. Okay.

And just from a timing point of view, Sean, or even Mary Jo, is this something that we need to approve from a timing point of view, at least in concept tonight, or no? Not necessarily, but I will say that was a negotiating point with them. We originally wanted it in two documents, and they were trying to keep it simplified. But it just doesn't make sense the way that it is.

I mean, that was the original intent to have it as two. And so we can kind of go back to that. They just really wanted it all in one document. I mean, we might be able to do it, but it's like it's it's like called lease.

It's it's called lease termination. But then it says we're going to I can't even find it. I have so many things open. But but then I think it says that we're going to enter into a separate agreement to terminate the lease.

It's really it's really it just doesn't make sense. A lot of it. So other thoughts? So Amy, are you suggesting we approve it in concept with a revised contract?

Yeah, I mean, I think that we could approve that we're going to terminate the lease and we're going to enter into a temporary. I think we can approve that we're going to, we all agree that we're terminating the lease and that we're going to move forward with KidZone and that we're going to enter into a temporary. One year agreement with GCC to, you know, to, I guess, it'll be that, let me pull it up here. It'd be as simple as just removing that item A on both of the duties, the first item.

I think it's the first one. No, it's... Well, I think that this document should probably terminate the lease. This says we're going to enter into a lease with GCC that immediately terminates the terms of the lease agreement.

There's just a lot thrown into here. And then it talks about how... Can we bring it back? So again, just from a timing point of view, I mean, maybe so we don't wordsmith it now.

We can bring it back on the 9th if that's okay. Can we do that and maybe just work on it to... I think we just need to clean it up. Either I can do it or one of our other lawyers can do it.

Amy, I mean, I can have it revised and then shoot it over to you if that's okay. Okay. Thank you. So if that were the case, we did, there is a motion and a seconded on the table.

So we need to vote it down with the thought that we will bring it back to the next meeting and approve it Does everybody understand that mechanism So if you want that to happen, you want to vote no. I guess is what I'm saying. If you want to proceed with it as is, you want to vote yes. All right.

Any other discussion before we go to a vote? All right. All in favor? All opposed?

Nay. Aye. Aye. Oh, did I do that wrong?

No, you're good. Jason, we're yes or no vote. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. Yes.

You vote yes to approve it or no because we were saying we needed to change it. I'm going to vote yes to change it. Okay, okay, gotcha. Amy said it feels like there's a redundancy, so I'm going to support that.

Okay, all right, thank you. All right, thank you. I just wanted to make sure. All right, so it's unanimously failed, actually, and we'll bring it back.

All right, thank you. All right, for this next one, I actually need to recuse myself, so I'm going to log out here for a second, and somebody text me when you're done. Amy, do you mind reading that? Yeah, sorry guys.

So I, yeah, this is, I'm on 8.03. I move that the board approve the part-time temporary employment for Sarah Miller. Second. Okay, motion has been moved and seconded.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye.

Motion passes. Okay. We need to get Joe back, I think. I texted him.

Okay. Okay, thanks. So we're moving actually on to the consent agenda, which is, Amy, if you want to read the motion for that. Yes, I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda.

I second it. Okay. So it's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments about the consent agenda?

No, just the donations, the generous donations that were made by the, Thank you. We are then moving on to, and again, remember, we rearranged public comment a little bit to put it at the end of the meeting. And it was really, again, part of one of the ad hoc committees kind of thinking about doing meetings differently. So I know, I don't know, Sean or Chris, who's reading the public comment, but we want to go to public comment.

Yeah, I'll be reading the public comment. So we have we have seven comments that were submitted this evening. Several of them are for the first two are actually two halves of a whole comment. So I'll read those as closely together as I possibly can.

So the first comment is from Laura Horwitz. Laura writes, I am submitting this comment on behalf of the 706 community members that signed the petition calling for the board to share an anti-bias, anti-racist implementation plan. We appreciate the conversations with the board in small groups and via email about this petition and its demands. To ensure that the petition itself and the voices of the 706 community members are part of the public record, I am sharing its words here.

We the undersigned parents students and community members are disheartened by persistent instances of racism in the School District of Clayton Committees have been formed like the Equity and Excellence Committee yet their recommendations were not put into practice Members of our community have worked on committees, spoken at school board meetings, helped to develop specific recommendations, met individually with district leaders, shared stories of harm, and pleaded for anti-racist change. In every instance, district engagement has ended at listening and earnestly professing good intentions. Many of the recommendations in this petition are, in fact, mirrored right now on the district's own website. They simply have not been implemented.

This is the power of conditioning, a system of preserving itself through an interlocking web of habits and fears that prevent change. We're at a crossroads, and the time for talk, good intentions, and small changes has long passed. Therefore, knowing that the district has already gathered the data, has already analyzed and listened, has already requested and been granted our patience, and has in hand clear and specific suggestions for action, we insist that concrete change begin immediately. We plan to support these efforts in ongoing commitment to anti-racist practice in our homes and community.

Specifically, we request immediate action be taken towards implementation of a Clayton Anti-Bias, Anti-Racism, A-B-A-R plan. A plan that uses anti-bias, anti-racism best practice and then explicitly outlines smart, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound changes in curriculum, culture, and communication with the goal of creating an intentionally anti-racist school district. To be effective, the proposed Clayton A-B-A-R plan must be developed by September 1, 2020 for implementation during the 2020-2021 school year, be included in the district's strategic plan, and include year-end goals along with five-year goals for the stated areas of curriculum, culture, and communication, dedicate financial resources toward implementation, include an update of the district's equity and excellence website, Further recommendations of the Equity and Excellence Committee in 2017. The rest of this petition continues on in the next comment from Andrea Denny.

Curriculum. The ABAR plan must specify a cycle of reviews of bias to ensure that curriculum and core texts include history and perspectives of Black people as well as the creation of whiteness. A-B-A-R learning for all students from pre-K through 12. Goals for enhanced access of Black students to gifted and advanced courses.

Alternatives to gatekeeping and tracking in math, literacy, and gifted classes. Culture. The district must define the culture Clayton wishes to have, including anti-racism, anti-bias, and the definition. Own and work to dismantle the systems of white privilege and white supremacy that set up barriers for Black students and staff.

Believe students and families who bring stories of harm. Consolidate existing data and address each school's particular issues with racism. Implement steps towards reconciliation, including administrators, teachers, and staff taking responsibility for harm to Black students, opportunities for students and families that have been harmed to speak, be heard, and have their stories recorded, and restorative practices to heal the students and families that have been harmed. Embed ADAR values and yearly expectations, professional development, and evaluation of all staff members, including repercussions for those who fail to meet expectations.

Create rules and practices that shield district employees who speak about racism in school. Support the right and need for staff of color to meet in affinity groups and to share experiences in a safe environment. Apply recognized hiring practices that help reduce bias in the hiring process and preference candidates of color when all other qualifications are equal. Update district rules and processes to reduce or eliminate bias.

Create mechanisms to both receive and document feedback from anyone in the district on race-related issues and grievances. Publicly report only the aggregate data. Define the process by which the district will respond when racist incidents occur. Communication.

The district must report at least quarterly to the Board of Education and directly to the full community about progress on the Clayton A-B-A-R plan, using accurate and specific data about all areas of the plan. Radical transformation will require that parents and community members be part of the process. However, we expect that the district staff will do the work, which includes seeking out existing best practices and implementing required changes. So the steps outlined above failed to occur by 1 July 2021 We demand that the Board of Education begin the process of conducting a search for new administrative leadership that is adept in the implementation of an ABAR culture We must not only hold anti anti values we must act in accordance with those values for the good of our students and our community Respectfully submitted, Lori Anzalotti, Andrea Denny, Laura Horowitz, Lori Markson, Betsy Meehan-Smith, Becky Patel, Pam Washington, and Suzanne Whitman.

Our next comment is from Becky Patel. So she first lists, I requested the BOE modify the comment policy under COVID to allow for the public to actually speak in their own voices during the public comment portion of the meetings. This capability is available on Zoom, webinar, and other platforms. I've used it as both a panelist and an attendee.

Two, I request the district more actively share information on Board of Education meetings. You should be able to provide a mechanism for people to request notifications when meeting schedules are updated or agendas are posted. Also, creating a Facebook event is very easy and helps people share the details to their personal calendars and with friends and neighbors. Three, what can commenters expect regarding a response to public comments?

I didn't receive a response to the comment I made at a previous meeting. Four, I'd like to hear the BOE and superintendent talk openly about the influence of recent petitions from within our community, student-led, teacher-led, and parent-led. We must acknowledge the harm students, families, and teachers have experienced in our schools and a step towards repairing that harm. The next comment is from Pam Washington.

She writes, given BOE meetings are on Zoom now, it would be very helpful to communicate the notice of BOE meetings by sending an email within 48 hours and also embedding the BOE meeting link front and center on the district's homepage the day of the meeting so people don't have to search for it. Thank you. Next comment is from Lori Anzalotti. Lori writes, I ask that you please publicize the dates that the Board of Education will attend equity training and which training they will use, Crossroads, ADL, etc.

If the board has not selected a date and training group, please publicize why there is a delay and when the citizens of Clayton can expect their elected leaders to take this training. The board's having a shared experience. The board's having a shared training experience is a critical move, is critical to move anti-bias, anti-racism resolution forward. Thank you, Lori Anzalotti.

Next comment is from Suzanne Whitman. Good evening. The district has been making strides on the issues of anti-bias and anti-racism. The district has welcomed Cameron Poole as the new director of equity and inclusion, and we'd like to extend our own welcome to him on behalf of the more than 700 community members who signed the Clayton Anti-Racism Collective's petition.

We're pleased that the school board unanimously approved a board resolution that included nearly all the provisions in the petition, and that more than 260 staff participated in trainings led by fellow Clayton staff of color, in which personal stories and experience underline the teaching. This evening, we're eager to see the inclusion of these anti-bias, anti-racism values in the strategic plan. The Board and the administration have repeatedly emphasized that the strategic plan is the vehicle for turning resolutions into action. Unfortunately, this evening's agenda does not seem to include the strategic plan.

This will make it tougher for the district to meet the petition's demand that a plan for ABAR be developed by 1 September 2020 for implementation during the 2020-2021 school year. It's tempting to move at the pace of white privilege for these initiatives. Our children need these initiatives implemented now. We've turned the petition into a checklist and here are just a few of the items we'll be looking for in the strategic plan.

1. Anti-bias and anti-racism learning for all students pre-K through 12. 2. Enhanced access of black students to gifted and advanced courses and alternatives to gatekeeping and tracking.

And three, the date by which the district will have reexamined and refined their professional standards of practice and shared this with the community. We invite all members of this Clayton School District community to find ways that their own voice and actions can further anti-bias and anti-racism in our schools. Focus on issues like anti-bias, anti-racism so easily slip off white agendas. We ask that the Board of Education and District Administration share their inclusion of anti-bias, anti-racism in the strategic plan as soon as possible.

Final comment is from Betsy Mewlin-Smith. She writes, I wanted to make the Board of Administration aware Clayton Anti-Racism Collective has been formed in the name of the over 700 signers of the ABAR petition also mentioned in the public comments. The goals of the collective are advocacy to monitor and share out the district's progress towards the goals outlined in Petition, community to build relationship and strong community in support of anti-bias and anti-racism and growth to offer learning opportunities and share knowledge among the collective, which will contribute to our personal anti-racism efforts. We hope to have a collaborative relationship with the BOE and admin as we work together to becoming an ABAR district.

And that is all the comments for this evening. Thank you, Chris. Again, we're trying something different in terms of moving that public comment to the end of the meeting. So I realize that probably not a lot of committees have met.

And we certainly talked about some of the ad hoc committees, but does anybody have any board committee updates? I don't know, Amy, if you'd want to just give a quick update on the center of Clayton committee, because that's one that met. Yeah, I might need your help on this because I was a little late to that meeting. Okay.

But we did meet and talked about how the center has, you know, we are struggling financially right now, and the memberships are down. They have a lot of they have really done a nice job of trying of reopening in the land of COVID and taking precautions and exercising caution and doing their best to protect everybody We talked about maybe so right now I don know if everybody remembers but the seventh graders have the opportunity to get a free membership with the Center of Clayton So we talked about maybe moving that to next year to a time where the kids can actually have a better opportunity to enjoy the benefits of that free membership since it seems like many kids might not be using the center this year. We have a lot of questions about the Partnership to make that happen. So I don't know, did I cover every, I missed about the first 20 minutes so I don't know if I'm missing anything.

Amy, you hit all the highlights. The only thing I would say is that specifically the prediction right now is that there's going to be a million dollar shortfall. And per our agreement with the city of Clayton, obviously that's $500,000 from the district and $500,000 from the city. And obviously they've cut expense and I think done a really good job.

But, you know, gyms are hit pretty hard in the age of COVID. And so membership is just way down. And so it you know it a membership based or revenue based facility So there is going to be And by the way I haven personally seen it because I haven been in there because of COVID but I seen pictures of the renovation and it looks beautiful I can wait to go but there is going to be a shortfall So you should just know that Any other committee reports Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

I might just give a quick one just to say, obviously, we didn't talk about the ad hoc strategic planning committee, but we did meet. You know, obviously, we've had a packed meeting agenda, as we can tell by the time here. And so we pulled off this talking about the strategic plan until next meeting September 9th But Stacy and Gary and I had a good discussion along with Sean and we actually have another discussion next week in terms of the strategic plan So I think we've made a lot of headway, and there's lots of, you know, I'm excited to be able to share with the board kind of the objectives and the dashboard and all that good stuff. So I just wanted to add this, just wanted to throw this in before we hang up for the night.

And I just, I wanted to thank Sean and his team for, I mean, these guys have just been working tirelessly all summer to get us up and running virtually. Thank you, Amy. And on behalf of the team, we appreciate that. Thank you all for your gratitude.

It's a lot. And I do appreciate our team. So anything else in terms of committee reports? All right.

Do we have a motion to adjourn? I move that we adjourn. Second. All right.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. All right.

Any opposed? All right. We are adjourned. Thank you all.