June 10, 2020 — Meeting Transcript

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

All right, Joe, we're good. Okay, everybody good? To go. Everybody okay to start?

Yep. Yep. Yep. Gary, you good?

Just want to make sure Gary's good. Yep. Sorry, I'm here. Okay.

All right. Awesome. Okay. All right.

So thank you, everybody. Adequate notice has been given. And we are going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. So I'm going to ask everybody to stand.

And we've got that flag and Sean's background. 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. Okay. As we start, I just wanted to say a few things that kind of before we start the meeting.

I want to start by saying I think it's interesting that we say the pledge at each meeting, and it ends with liberty and justice for all. And right now in our country, we don't have liberty and justice for everybody, right? In particular, people of color, in particular, for black people. And when you look at the stats, right, whether it's around incarceration, whether it's around discipline, whether it's around COVID, whether it's around who we have in AP and honors, it's disproportionate, right?

And so I just want to honor that black lives do matter. And I want to challenge us as a board to do what we can to be a part of the solution. And so I just wanted to start there. I know maybe Sean wants to say something real quick.

And then I'm going to open it up. Actually, I know it's a little bit unique, but I'm going to ask each of you if you want to say something you can. You certainly don't have to. So Sean.

Thanks, Joe. Well, good evening, everyone. It's good to see everyone and good to see our new board members, too. I will say tonight I'm having a feeling of mixture of emotions, and I can't help but feel a little discouraged right now by a lot of the events that are happening in the world, such as another wrongful death of a black individual by the hands that were meant to protect him.

And then I also am discouraged by some of the things we're hearing from alumni recently about examples of racism that they've experienced or have seen against our black students. And so I also can't help to be feel hopeful. And recent marches and protests have really been a cry for change, just not for these individual situations, but for systemic racism that we see. And I feel like there's a momentum that we haven't felt in a long time or ever, probably.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Evaluation. And one of the things he said is like, tonight was like an example of the profile of the graduate. And thinking about students who are culturally competent, thinking about students who are collaborators, and thinking about empathy.

And so as the leader of the district, I am committed to always being better. And so I just feel it's really necessary to say that. I never want any of our students or parents or community members to feel marginalized in our community. I am committed to looking closely at our systems, our behaviors, and policies that would contribute to racism.

We can go back and change what happened in the past or things that have occurred but I will say that we committed to moving forward in a direction that is going to really focus on how we can be better with racial equality And so I do appreciate being part of a community that holds us to a high standard and holds me to a high standard So that all I had to say Thanks, Sean. So I am going to open it up, but I do want to just note something which I should have said is we didn't put this as a topic to discuss. So these are your comments, but this really isn't because we might have a discussion another time, but this isn't a discussion. So I'm going to open it up if any other board member wants to say something.

But again, I just want to emphasize it's not a discussion because we didn't put it on as a topic. I know Jason, you had told me before you wanted to say something. Do you want to go next? I'll just say this.

I really want to once again thank Laura from LESCUE and Grace, Mom, for putting that event together. I'm honored that it would ask me to speak at the event along with some other great alumni, Liam, who actually works for me right now, who used to work for me for the last two years. And seeing all these young folks convey their feelings about their time at Clayton and how Now they're feeling about it and what they had to go through and what they're thinking about as older adults now that they're completed their first year or second year of college. And so I want to say thank you to those folks.

And, you know, the last thing I want to say, I don't want to continue my stump speech, not stump speech, but the speech I had on Monday. But I do want to make sure that everyone is on board for change, real change. Often we talk about these amazing words like equity and responsive teaching and all these things are cool. And what happens is we're smart, we're academics, we're trained, right?

We went to college and got our masters or our PhDs. And we become good at adopting language. But then what we're not good at is implementation. So, you know, I think this is a moment in time.

And this, by the way, this isn't just about Light Lives Matter or George Floyd, Don, although the spark is that incident. But it's also just as a board in general, we need to be thinking about, as we've all said and articulated over and over, how are we going to make our school system, our school district, the best it can be? So anyway, that's all I have to say. But it's an unfortunate situation, but I'm glad people are engaged and tuned in to what's happening.

And we'll see how it goes. So thank you. Thanks, Jason. Are there others that want to say anything?

You could unmute yourself or raise your hand, either one, I guess. So I'll say something. Okay, go ahead, Amy. It's good to see everybody tonight.

So I was thinking about how with everything that's been going on, especially the situation in Minneapolis, that it's so sad and unsettling and concerning and unfortunate that in this day and age, We're still trying to deal with this systemic type of racism that we're dealing with. But it also kind of occurred to me that it's, while as sad and unsettling as it is, it can also present a unique opportunity for us to teach our kids about collective action and coming together as a community. And how our collective action can affect change and impact the future. And also learning about linking the past move.

I hope sincerely hope that all of our educators shares the common belief that we need to eradicate racial inequities and that we are going to continue to address it head on and directly So that's really all I wanted to say. Thanks, Amy. I think I saw some other hands. I might have seen Stacey.

Go ahead, Stacey. Yeah. Thanks, Jason. Sorry.

Thanks, Joe and Jason and Amy. I just want to say to add to that, I want to thank Jason for speaking on Saturday. I think his voice is so important as a leader in our district and our community. And I was so energized by all the young people that were there.

Thank you. We are making sure that we are providing an equitable education and that we are making sure that all of our students are socially and emotionally healthy. And I think that this gives us even more reason to check in on our black students on their social and emotional health. But I also want to thank Sean for being such a great leader in this work.

He has prioritized racial equity in our curriculum. And I know that that will continue to be a priority of his in the district. And I just wanted to mention that as an example, the Educational March for Justice, which is scheduled for this Saturday, I think is a great example of our district providing educational opportunities for the community to learn about the history of African Americans and Black families that lived in our community and as a hands-on activity for people of all ages. So, like I said, I just think as a school district, we have such a huge responsibility, but also are in an ideal situation to provide change and opportunities to facilitate conversation with our young people.

Thank you. Thank you, Stacey. Others? Maybe I saw somebody else's hand.

Anybody else want to say anything? Go ahead, Lily. I just, I didn't know we were going to have an opportunity to say something so I don't want to just kind of off the top of my head. I'm going to say a goodbye real quickly in a bit.

So, I'll say a little something it just happens to be part of my goodbye, but yeah I think you all, I hope that you know Thank you, Jo. I know that had I prepared it, I care about this very deeply, and I'm committed to it. So had I prepared a statement, you probably would have heard a mouthful. So that's all.

Thank you, Lily. Gary, go ahead. Thanks, Jo. I just wanted to say two things really quickly, Thank you, Mr.

Chair. I'm going to turn it over to Jason. Thank you, everyone. I'm going to turn it over to Jason.

I'm kind of relating to Monday's event. Number one, I told Jason this. I was sorry to have to hear him talk about the things that he talked about that he's experienced. I also told him that I admired that he did it.

I'm sure there's a lot of that that's not hard. I appreciate that. I think about on this day, a little while, some of us have to say an oath. And in that oath to be sworn in as a board member, it talks about defending the Constitution.

And when you're a lawyer, you're in law school, and you read about the Constitution and all these things, and you think you know what they mean, and you think you know that phrase, it sounds very patriotic and maybe even a little bit trite to defend the Constitution. But it's just, it kind of takes on new meaning right now. And to be honest, in a painful way that we have that duty that we need to be thinking about because there are some people that have not done that. And we need to, we need all be thinking about that as an example of defending the Constitution and all of the freedoms that it expresses.

So that really struck me I guess I didn remember saying that before in my Board of Education oath but defending the Constitution is part of it for all of us So when I say that, that's going to take on a heavier and a more impactful meeting tonight. Thank you, Gary. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. The power of students.

And I think now would be a good time as much as any. And so I did want to thank Grace Mom and Laura Parvalescu and Brooke Becker and all the folks who helped out with planning the protest and who did such an amazing job. I thought it was really successful and it was amazing to me, not only because it was the first time that I had seen a lot of my friends in a long time, but the fact that so many of them were there and that it did feel like I was with my community and that I was standing there with my community and marching with my community, which I think was really important. And for me, it was important knowing that and knowing that they were there with everyone else and that we were standing together.

And I thought, again, hearing the voices of alumni was really powerful. And hearing their stories is the best thing that we can do as a community. And hearing stories of oppression is important and it's what we need to do. And so I think that that was just another great example of how our community is rallying behind those voices.

Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. In 2003, seventh grader Gwendolyn Sanders helped organize her classmates and hundreds of kids from high schoolers down to first graders who joined her in a massive walkout defying the principle of Parker High School, who attempted to lock the gates to keep students inside. And that day was a turning point in the history of protests and a turning point in what we know as what it means to march. And there was a new leader in protests, there was a new leader in walkouts, and that was students, that was young people, people who know how to make change.

I think that now more than ever, it's important that we recognize those students who are trying to do that today. And so I just want to say that I appreciate them and that I will stand there with them. Thank you. And again, I thank you for everybody's comments.

Again, we can't we we will have a discussion at some point, but not right now. So we're going to move on to public comments. I do want to just say one thing about public comments. We often don't read kind of the fine print of the public comments, but this time I feel the need to because we had a number of public comments that we can't read tonight.

So if a public, it says very clearly, I'll read to you, speaker's comments are not to address the board concerning specific personnel issues at a meeting. A comment will not be read if it's addressing a personnel issue. So we do have a couple folks who submitted a public comment around that. So I just want to honor that we can't read those.

Certainly the administration will take note and respond accordingly, but we can't read those in public. So having said that, I do think there is a public comment or two that we can read, but I just kind of want to say that for sake of the public. So I don't know, Sean or Chris, if you're going to read the public comments, we can. Yeah, correct.

Yeah, so there is one public comment left to read, and that's from Arian Sehi, and that comment reads as follows. There are not enough words to describe my outrage and disappointment in the complacency of the School District of Clayton and Clayton High School in its treatment of black students. As a non-Black student of color, I am incredibly heartbroken to know that there were countless instances of covert and overt forms of racism, bigotry, and oppression of my fellow Black students and friends throughout my 13 years in the district, and their concerns were ignored or they were silenced. The core values of the School District of Clayton are excellence, trust, inclusiveness, innovation, and accountability.

Our district is not excellent when they are not meeting the high expectations of their community to do more to actively combat racism and extremism. Schools. Our district is not trustworthy when students do not feel comfortable speaking up for the injustices they face year after year, knowing that the school will do nothing to address the situation. Our district is not inclusive when our honors and AP courses are not diverse and inclusive for all individuals and support their academic development, not discourage them from achievements.

Our district is not innovative by relying upon an anonymous tip line in anti-bias training that is clearly not effective, that is not actively being practiced. Our district is not accountable to its actions when it refuses to address serious problems of racism and bigotry and take the appropriate measures to sanction any students, teachers, or staff that engage in any acts of racism or bigotry. One way in which our district can make immense changes in its conversations about race and identity is by revising the K-12 history and literacy curriculum to include a more accurate representation and less whitewashed version of African and African American history. The curriculum not only should be accurate and comprehensive, but must be made part of the core curriculum so every Clayton student is educated on the painful yet essential facts of American history.

Students should not just learn about Martin Luther King Jr., but also Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and countless other civil rights leaders, Black artists, musicians, actors, athletes, inventors, and business people. Students should know who Henrietta Lacks is and how racism pervades all institutions in American society.

Education, healthcare, housing, banking, the criminal justice system, voting, and more. Clayton students deserve to have a thorough and accurate education when it comes to these incredibly important topics. By not providing education to them early in their educational careers, the district is not only complicit in the ignorance of its students, but it is not developing leaders who shape the world through independency, creativity, and critical thinking, as it so envisions. Now is the time for radical change and to set an example for the rest of school districts in St.

Louis and across the state of Missouri. If you choose to ignore our pleas at this time, just know that we will not give up this fight. We will not back down until all of these changes are made. Every policy change, every administrative decision, every substantive discussion that district officials, elected or otherwise, has about these issues needs to be publicly summarized and available for review so that all concerned students, staff, parents, and alumni can hold this district accountable to its promise.

Thank you, Ariane. Thanks, Chris, for reading that. Thanks, Ariane, for your public comment. So we're actually going to move to the election results next.

We're going to do election results and recognition of service, which is 3.01. I guess before we move to the actual results, I know, Lily, I certainly want to thank you again for your service. I know Kristen couldn't make this meeting, but I would thank her also. I know, Lily, you said you wanted to say something, so I would certainly give you an opportunity to say something now if you'd like.

Thank you. Boy, this has been a long last term. It extended a few extra months and a week. So thank you, Joe.

I want to say congratulations to Kim and Gary and David. And please do great work for our students in our community. Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I will follow through on my promise.

Jason said something similarly. We kind of toss around the terms like using a racial equity lens or equity as a through line in all of our work. We all need to push to get beyond the words and make this a reality. We need to disrupt the status quo.

So I will see you all very soon at your next meeting. We plan to revisit the racial equity initiative and I plan to be there Thank you Thank you Lily So we're going to move on to the actual, I'm going to read out the results. And so the results, just as they appear on the agenda are David Gulick with 1,213 votes at 20%. Kimberly or Kim Hurst with 1,432 votes at 23.6%.

Nathaniel Millett, 792 votes, 13.1%. Gary Pearson, 1,422 votes at 23.4%. And Christine Wynn, 1,204 votes, 19.9%. So, of course, that means the winners are David Gulick, Kim Hurst, and Gary Pearson.

So, congratulations to all three of you. So, what we do, it's a little bit different for a board meeting. We actually adjourn this board to what we call a scene a day. And the superintendent, right, Sean, takes over the both the swearing in of the three folks, right, Gary re-swearing in and Kim and David, right?

So David, you can come on, you can come on. And then we actually move to, as a new board, we move to the election of officers in our board orientation. So I guess we need, we probably need a motion to move into the adjournment of the board to Sina Day, right? All right, I move that the Board of Education adjourn Sina Day.

Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments? All in favor?

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

So, Sean, it's yours. Thank you, Joe. So, according to state law, we shall swear in the new board members within 14 days of the election. And so, the first step that we're going to do is to swear in our new Board Members, and we're going to go in alphabetical order.

So the first one is David. So David, what we're going to do is have you come on the screen, raise your right hand. I see you now. Raise your right hand.

And then you're going to repeat after me the oath of office. Okay. And first of all, I just want to say thank you. I want to say congratulations to everyone.

I know how much work you put into this and truly appreciate the time and energy. Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Do solemnly affirm that I'm at least 24 years of age. That I'm a citizen of the United States.

That I'm a citizen of the United States. And a resident taxpayer of the School District of Clayton. And a resident taxpayer of the School District of Clayton. In St.

Louis County, in the state of Missouri. In St. Louis County, in the state of Missouri. And that I will support the constitutions of the United States and the state of Missouri.

And that I will abide by and uphold And that I will abide by and uphold The School District of Clayton Board Member Code of Ethics The School District of Clayton Board Member Code of Ethics And will faithfully conduct myself in office. And will faithfully conduct myself in office. Congratulations, David. Welcome to the board.

Thanks, Sean. Appreciate it. Next, we have Kimberly Hurst. So, Kim, if you could please raise your right hand.

I, Kimberly Hurst. I, Kimberly Hurst. Do solemnly affirm that I'm at least 24 years of age. Do solemnly affirm that I am at least 24 years of age that I a citizen of the United States That I a citizen of the United States And a resident taxpayer of the School District of Clayton.

And a resident taxpayer of the School District of Clayton. In St. Louis County and in St. Louis County in the state of Missouri.

In St. Louis County in the state of Missouri. And that I will support the constitutions of the United States and the state of Missouri. And that I will support the constitutions of the United States and the state of Missouri.

And that I will abide by and uphold the School District of Clayton School Board Member Code of Ethics. And that I will abide by and uphold the School District of Clayton Board Member Code of Ethics. And will faithfully conduct myself in office. And will faithfully conduct myself in office.

Congratulations, Kim. Welcome to the board. Thank you. And then Gary Pearson.

And Gary's our incumbent. And so, Gary, if you could please raise your right hand, sorry. I, Gary Pearson. I, Gary Pearson.

Do solemnly affirm that I'm at least 24 years of age. Do solemnly affirm that I'm at least 24 years of age. That I'm a citizen of the United States and a resident taxpayer of the School District of Clayton. That I'm a citizen of the United States and a resident taxpayer.

of the School District of Clayton in St. Louis County in the State of Missouri. In St. Louis County in the State of Missouri.

And that I will support the constitutions of the United States and the State of Missouri. And that I will support the constitutions of the State of Missouri and the United States. And that I will abide by and uphold the School District of Clayton Board Member Code of Ethics. And that I will abide by and uphold the School District of Clayton Board Member Code of Ethics.

And I will faithfully conduct myself in office. And I will faithfully conduct myself in office. Congratulations, Gary. Welcome back to the board.

Thank you. I love all the clappy things that are on the... So, we now have sworn in our board members. So as the next step of this process is the election of the officers.

And so at this point, as the superintendent, I'm going to call for nominations for the president of the Board of Education. And so do we have any nominations for that role? Sean, can you guys hear me okay? Yeah.

Yes. Okay, because I've got a bad reception over here, but I would like to, I move that we just, that we keep the officers the same as we had last year. So your motion was to keep the officers in the same positions as last year. So that would be Joe as president, Amy Rubin as vice president, Jason Wilson as treasurer, and Gary Pearson as secretary.

Did I hear a second? A second. Second. I have something to say.

Any discussion? Yeah. So, you know, I've been on the board for two years, and I've seen a lot of things in the way of plans and, like I said before, a lot of words about equity and things that we're going to do. But yet and still, we kind of wallow in this space of complacency.

And things aren't necessarily getting done. And this is not a knock toward any one person. But it's more so a knock toward the ethos around the school board of Clayton. And the community as well, like the overall Archon community.

So I say all that to say, it can be tough to sit here for another year and possibly watch things not change. There's a history of things not getting better. Now, that's not on all levels. That's not an indictment on one person either, or one regime or term where a principal was in charge.

This is just an aggregate perspective of what transpired over the years And I think a lot of you all would if you said and thought about could agree with me Things have not changed. Test scores for African-Americans, kids have not gotten better. Racism is the same as it was maybe 10 years ago, 15, 20. There's still these issues that keep popping up on a consistent basis, not just with black kids, with Jewish kids, with kids that are Asian, kids that are of all ethnicities, all faiths.

And it's problematic for learning in the classroom. It prohibits the best of us. I have a thing, I'm saying that's not my thing, but steel sharpens steel. So if everyone isn't great, isn't at their best, how can we be better?

Steel sharpens steel. So if we're all not playing at the same pace, we're all on the same field, metaphorically, in basketball, for example, then we all can't be playing our best game. And once again, this is not an indictment toward Joe Miller or anyone else on the board. This is just me saying that I know history.

History hasn't changed. And I want to see the ball get rolling on a lot of different things, a lot of things that we talked about. Another thing I want to mention is that we do these two-year studies. So we have new people coming on the board.

We started a study in 19. And so when someone rolls off the board next year, that study comes up for review in 21. And there could possibly be no one who's familiar with the study. Sometimes it has to do with race, equity, especially the word equity.

It's loose terminology, loose terminology that is, the word equity. And then it becomes tertiary or quaternary in terms of importance. And now all of a sudden today, for the last two weeks, everyone is now engaged in the idea of race being at the forefront and very important. Well, I want to make sure that it is.

I would like to be the president of the board. I think I can help steer the district in the right direction, help Sean, help the board. It's tough doing it from this position. Not that I can't do it, not that it can't be done.

Like I said, this is not an indictment toward Joe Miller or Gary or Kim or David, Stacey, and Amy Nolan. This is just me saying we got to make some stuff happen. And I, uh-oh. You hear me?

Yes. Okay. I'm back. I don't know what happened, man.

The screen slipped out. All right. So my point is that we got to make some stuff happen. And I want to be a part of that process.

I want to be an impact player. I want to be on a team that has an impact on the long-term effects of the school district. So that's where I am. Okay.

Thank you, Jason. I, you know, since I'm sitting in the chair, we're... One more thing, one more thing. Also, it's kind of odd that...

Yeah, I find this process that the day people are voted in, then they are then forced to vote on a process that they're really not privy to firsthand. I find that to be problematic because they may not know. They may be going off of a relationship that they have or something, And that doesn't bode well for obsessive governing. So just wanna make sure I say that one last thing.

Sorry about that. I didn't mean to interrupt you, I apologize. It's okay. I'm muted.

So I appreciate your comments. Jason, I guess what I would just have to say, and I just have to respectfully say that I will say that it's hard for me to hear that saying nothing is being done. And I think that I have to represent the work of the administrators who are sitting in this room, sitting in this meeting and the teachers that are working each day. And I will say that, yes, we have we we have heard some really difficult things recently, but it can't negate all the work that we have been doing up to this point.

And I can't sit and just say that nothing has been done. And so I just have to say that because it's not true. I think we definitely have done a lot and have had some difficult conversations. We haven't arrived, but I just feel like I need to say that.

I hear what you're saying. All I'm saying is that I'm not saying that we need to get caught up on the one thing I said of people. Things not getting done ever. That's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying that we have put in the work. We have put in some work. We've done some great research. We have moved the ball, if it's 100 yards, we moved the ball some inches though.

If this were white students in any way not getting what they need to be successful, we would be up in arms. And I said, and so what's funny is, and what's interesting is that this is nothing new. This is nothing new that I haven't said at the board table. I think when we first sat down and saw the scores, the test scores of the African-American children, black and brown, compared to everybody else, we were all like, some of us said, I'm not saying this is a quote unquote, but like this is kind of the part of the course.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Yeah. The resources that we have and the privileges that we have, we're not just slightly better, we should be heading shoulders above the rest and leading the charge in education as well as innovative stuff and working with other folks who are doing good things in other areas with less resources. I'm not saying we haven't.

I'm just saying we should be doing more of that. And there's, you know, just because we're a wealthy district doesn't mean we have all the answers. There are folks out there who are doing some phenomenal things. Joe, you did a test of patent.

You did some amazing things in some amazing areas. Madhu is doing some cool things. Brent Lloyd is doing some cool things. But we're talking about Clayton and we're talking about being leaders and being head and shoulders above the rest.

And one area I think we need compulsion that I think will affect, will impact all other areas is having an impact in African-Americans' experiences at the school, specifically in education. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Can I speak to the motion? Yes.

So I appreciate the comments of others. I will speak in favor of the motion of keeping the officers or essentially appointing the same officers in the same roles that we had for the last year I gave that a lot of thought myself in terms of what I wanted my role to be on the board and felt like I had the capacity to put in to the board and to what I thought the talents and the strengths of each of us were in terms of that leadership. I don't think that I make a perfect secretary. I don't think any of us are perfect in any of these officer roles, but I do feel confident in the roles and the experiences that we have.

I did want to also clarify one thing because it's not on our agenda. It was brought up why we would do this at this meeting. That is actually according to the statute that the board has to organize itself and Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Jason, I appreciate your comments.

I'm a little surprised by them, but I appreciate them. I'm still in favor of the motion. I think we ought to have the continuity. I think it's helpful for the district to have a continuity.

I agree there's some changes we can make, but I respectfully disagree with your decision in putting yourself forward as president. Any other discussion? So all in favor. Can you show by your hand all in favor?

Okay. All opposed. Okay. So the motion passes 6-1.

And so we're going to maintain the current officers, Superroportionate, Joe Miller, president, Amy Rubin, vice president, Jason Wilson, treasurer, and Gary Pearson as the secretary. And so, Joe, at this point, I'm going to turn back over the meeting to you. Great. Thank you, Sean, and thank you, everybody.

I think actually at this point we would have done kind of some facsimile stuff, but since the officers are the same, We don't need to do 5.01, I don't think, right? Right. We don't need to sign anything. Yes.

Yeah, we just move on to the orientation. And I think, Sean, so really this piece is just as a reminder to the board. Typically what we would do is we'd have somebody from the outside come in. We had somebody from MSBA come in last time.

Last year we've had attorneys come in. But we thought that rather than have somebody come in virtually, we kind of have a discussion amongst ourselves and an orientation amongst ourselves. However, what we would do is hopefully do that later. So we have kind of a Sean's going to talk a little bit about kind of the first part.

And then and then Amy and myself will talk a little bit about kind of being a board member. So I guess I'll turn it back over to you, Sean. OK. So one of the things that I wanted to do first was to, I shared a folder with all of you, and I know sometimes it's hard to look at documents and to also be on the screen at the same time.

So I am actually going to try to share my screen with you. But what I want to do is start off by just saying that we're going to spend some time just kind of launching us. And as Joe said, that this is just an initial or onboarding type of meeting just to kind of get you acclimated to being a new board member. But what we've cited that it's really important that every year we give our board the opportunity for learning and to come back to some of these concepts that are so imperative to be an effective board member.

Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried And hopefully this works So I'm having a hard time doing that, but I'm going to turn it. I'm going to go ahead. And if you wanted to look in your shared document, the norms that we have been working by are demonstrating respect for one another and our mutual learning, Making sure that we're contributing, making sure we're actively participating, and demonstrating collegial relationships. I think that one of the things that's really important is that as a board, you have the ability to debate issues, have the ability to not always agree on something, but it's really important that you maintain that collegial relationship.

We want to make sure that our meetings are purposeful, organized, and include adequate time for processing, and then also practicing that skill of listening with intent and making sure we're sharing the airspace. One of the things that we did this year as a board was spend some time reading a book called The Governance Core by Davis Campbell and Michael Follin. And this was an opportunity for our board to do some common learning around what it means to be a highly effective board. And when we read this book together this year, one of the things that we felt was really important was really making sure that we were working with a moral imperative.

And that moral imperative is that relentless commitment to the learning of all of our students, no matter their zip code, no matter their race, no matter their background, is that we are committed to their learning and growth. That moral imperative also includes that we lead with collective action. And so when we're discussing and debating, we may not always agree upon something, but once something is decided upon, we move forward collectively and support whatever decisions made by the board. And then that moral imperative is something that always drives our decisions.

So some of the examples that are given as part of this book is that a moral imperative might be that all students achieve, and we will not allow for disparities in achievement. All students will have quality teachers and all students will have a safe and healthy learning environment. Safe meaning both physically and emotionally. And so when Fulon wrote, when I've seen Fulon talk sometimes a couple times about this book, is that it's always having us come back to that moral imperative at every decision that we're making.

And that when we are, when we are disagreeing about something, if we always come back to that common moral imperative about what's in the best interest of our students, that will help move our district forward. The other thing that's really important as part of this work was having that governance mindset. And when we're thinking about a governance mindset is that the decisions we make, we have to understand that they impact other things that are happening within the district. There's decision, all of our decisions are intertwined and a truly effective system is one where decisions permeate throughout the entire system.

We also need to make sure that we have a strategic focus. And when we talk about strategic focus is that we have measurable goals and measurable steps towards those goals. That as a board member, you always come to the table as a learner first and making sure that you are taking time to learn about programs, learn about issues, learning about what's happening in the district so that way you can have to make the best decision possible. And then also, just as an elected official, knowing that that public manner that you have, that our students are looking to you to be a model and our citizens are looking to you to be representatives of their voices.

As a district, we are constantly needing to push ourselves from being what we call an excellent school district to a transformational district. And we are in, you are joining the board at a time when you have the opportunity to be true leaders of change. And when we are talking about the next steps of our strategic plan, we are looking at doing things differently than we've ever done in the past in terms of providing personalized learning approaches for our students, making sure that each student feels safe and valued, and also making sure that we're doing whatever is possible to make sure that we're doing what we're doing. Superexpensive Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Examples of the action steps that we are going to be taking as part of our strategic plan And one of the proposals that I going to present to the board tonight is that I want to set up new structures to the board and new collaboratively develop them where we have an advisory that connected to the strategic plan And that advisory would be coming, looking at the goals, looking at the measurements attached to those goals.

And then we would then, that would inform the work at the board table. The other thing that I am going to propose that we look at differently is that starting a new advisory around equity and race. And in this folder that I shared with you, we had a summary report of our current equity and excellence summary report that speaks to some of the work that we're doing around racial equity within the district. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

And so there are proposals in here and the areas are focused on those systemic steps that we feel are necessary for us to really make some changes around our work around racial equity. And I think that one of the things that we need to do is be even more explicit about it. When this initiative started in 2016, that was the best thinking at the time. And our focus was on African American students because we saw that there was disparities in our data and there was disparities in representation in our programs.

And we initiated different steps and focus areas that were around five different dimensions. And we have been taking steps towards those. But one of the things that we do need to do differently is that we need to be more explicitly focused on systems that promote institutional racism. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Spervantage, and the future. So, connected with our strategic plan, when we're talking about equitable experiences, this document that we've shared with you is the steps moving forward towards how we look at that equitable approach for our students. And we really have to be very explicit about dealing with racism and really promoting anti-racism within our district. And those aren't just words.

Those are what we need to do. And we are committed to that. And so I'd ask the board to take a look at that. We're going to make this document public tomorrow and put it on the website so people can start seeing some of the things that we're working towards.

But so as a board, when we're talking about your responsibility, it's about holding us accountable to that strategic work, holding us accountable to making sure that we have the right measurements in place, holding us accountable to make sure we're having those action steps. And the way we're approaching the strategic plan is that we don't want to develop one that is going to sit on a shelf for three years. It's going to be one that we keep coming back to, and it's evolving, and it's an evergreen model where we're reviewing it, we're revising it, and we're making sure that it's evidence informed. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

We need to be together. It's hard for us to have this two-dimensional type of meeting and we can't have time for really strong interactions. And so we were intentional about pushing back our orientation and making sure that we were able to have a really strong meeting. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Who's going to make sure we stay on task, that we continue to revisit this on a consistent basis? Who's going to hold us accountable to that? I think that our community, but also we have to hold ourselves accountable. And so we have to keep coming back and asking the questions.

One of the things that we've heard this year when we did our equity update in March was that we don't take enough time to come back and have these conversations. And so we feel like if we have a structure that has community members on it, students, parents, and board members, that is going to be a mechanism for holding ourselves accountable and also giving us direction in which way we want to go. Right. So, I appreciate that.

That's a great answer. That's a good point, Sean. I guess my question is, the interest in doing so, where has it been prior and why do we think it's going to be effective now going forward? We've been talking about this for the longest.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. That group of people came together and came up with the focus areas for what we wanted to do in terms of the dimensions. And then we started with that. That steering committee was in place for a few years.

But what I would say is that sometimes our best ideas kind of need to be revised and revisited in order to make sure that they actually are having they're being effective. Superexpensive. At some point, I feel, at one point I felt like that steering committee was more centered on just reporting out versus taking action. And an advisory board, you think, is more around keeping the board on the, making sure the board is truly informed of the work that's happening, making sure the board has voice to the work that's happening, making sure community members have voice to that.

And then it's basically kind of just a new iteration of the work that we've done. But I think that this has been something that's been on, as you see all the documents that we've come forward with and that we've tried to make this a focus. And I know people feel like the word through line may not be an effective word, but through line is that every decision we make has to have that, it has to also say, is this in the best interest of our students? Is this in the best interest of our black students?

Is it in the best interest of their learning and their opportunity? Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Same direction. Gotcha.

I guess what I'm thinking is, you know, we've romanticized the idea of it by writing these amazing pieces, documents that explain what the through line looks like. But, I mean, I'm just looking, you know, I want to make sure that we are going to implement, like you just said, practice, right? There's some action-oriented directives on the back end of all this. And it's kind of hard to have this conversation over Zoom, man.

But like yeah I mean I just want to make sure there some action next steps I mean I honestly feel like Sean that we done a lot of stuff kind of already We kind of already have a good blueprint I guess my question is, and this is just a question, what are we going to do? What low-hanging fruit things can we do right now to ensure the public that we're going to crack down on the idea of discrimination and racism, especially when it comes to ethnicity? What low-hanging fruit is out there right now? For example, like, I don't know, I can, I'm just talking some stuff out, so don't hold me accountable for this.

But like, teachers, for example, if something happens, automatic, you know, I don't know, automatic suspension with no pay for investigation. I mean, really just trying to, because these are non-negotiable, right? I think discrimination and racism is so violent, it's a non-negotiable, and that when it happens, we need to treat it as such. So what low-hanging fruit, similar to what I just said, but what low-hanging fruit is out there that we can implement rather fast, Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

This topic was not really on the agenda for tonight. We're supposed to be doing the onboarding and we didn't post it publicly. So I'm wondering, Joe and Gary, if this is a problem that we're going down this, I think it's an important rabbit hole, but I'm just wondering procedurally if it's problematic that we're, without posting it for the public, that we're going down this rabbit hole tonight. I think that's a fair point.

I mean, we're not, it's board orientation, right? It's listed as board orientation. And we're, we're going to a different discussion. So I do think we have to be careful.

We can have that discussion, we can post it, we can, but it's not really fair to the public. I'm just, you know, in bed. It feels like a discussion that a lot of people might want to be able to listen to as well. I guess what I'm.

Yeah, and my intention of including this information in the orientation documents is that I feel like it's important for the board to understand the strategic direction we're going. I apologize if I was the one that inserted that, but I just felt it was important that we made this part of knowing the direction where we're going as a district and with the board. Right. No, I mean, it's obviously, it's super important.

I just don't want us to be talking about something and then our community isn't able to hear what we're talking about. Maybe to that point, I did want to clarify, because I think you said this, Sean, and you're talking about the folder of, in the folder of information that you provided to us, the board members, there's a report about, there's a number of documents, including a report, the equity, sort of a progress report, 20 page report or something. Yeah. And that is what you said is going equity and excellence for equity and excellent summary.

Sorry, I was trying to use the title, but I couldn't pull up. That's what you said is going to be made public, but has not been made public yet. Is that right? Yeah.

And so I'm going to we're going to we're committed to putting that on our website and similar to the other reports that we've done. But I just wanted to, we told the board that we would have something by today and wanted to have that. I think what I was going to do is give it as homework, as future discussion as we think about an advisory, and also wanted to get some input later on down the road about what that advisory would look like. But I just wanted it was an update about really a summary of where we been this year and where we moving next So and then Thanks Matt Appreciate it guys So at this point, I wanted to see if Amy and Joe wanted to talk about what it means to be highly effective boards and thinking about some of the ideas that we've had and some of the work that we've done around protocols.

Protocols to be highly effective. Thanks, Sean. I'll jump in. And again, it's hard to, if you looked at the presentation that Sean was kind of starting to go through, you would see there's kind of four points.

He talks about highly effective boards. First, they're student-centered. So hopefully that's obvious, right? That's our mission.

We should all be focused first and foremost. And so proud, by the way, that we have a student on our board. I think that's awesome. You know, second, that we can debate without compromising collegiality.

So we're not always going to agree. We shouldn't always agree. But we do have to move forward with one voice. And that we use protocols, right?

So that we have certain agreements of how we're going to work together. And I just want to say a couple other things maybe that aren't in the presentation that Sean sent out. You know, one is we're, it's a very interesting time in the history of Clayton School Boards, by the way. We're not only a new board, but we're in terms of years of service.

We're one of the newest boards, certainly that I can think of, right? There is nobody among us that is in their third term. Everybody is in there, which is really interesting, right? Amy is the most senior member of this board, moving into her sixth year, and I am the next most senior, moving into my fifth year.

And that's pretty unique for Clayton, right? Clayton has had folks 20 years, nine years, 12 years, 15 years. And so it actually gives us an opportunity, right, to, you know, we've talked about some of the historic stuff, and that's a great benefit, but it actually is a great opportunity, right, because we're all relatively new. And so I just, I want to honor that, right, and note that, right, if you all haven't noted that, I will note that.

So that, I think we want to use that as a positive. You know, and then you think about the role of a board member, right? You know, we're overall fiduciary, strategic, you know, we're policy, governance. And Sean talked about the governance core book, which I think is great.

Well, part of the homework, if folks haven't read it, you know, so I don't know, Kim and David, if you're aware of it, but if we'll get you a copy of it and you can read it and we'll kind of talk about that as we move forward. But I want to also note that, you know, and Lily said this a little bit in her goodbye remarks, but, you know, we each have one vote, right? We're one of seven, right? No one person, right?

We work as a collective, right? Which means that it takes four, five, six, or seven votes, right? No one of us will get anything done, right? We have to work together and that's important.

That's really important. And I just want to honor that, honor the relationship, but also honor the collective working together. It doesn't have to be 7-0, but it's got to be 4-3-5-2-6-1 or 7-0. They all pass.

They all count the same in terms of it moves forward. Right. And then just a couple other things I'll say, and then I'll let Amy say anything she wants. But I also want to note that in the Governance Corps book says this, and I believe it very strongly, you actually can't take your board member hat off.

Not in public, not in private. It's not the way it works. Right. So when I go talk to my 10th graders math teacher and I say, you know what, I'm just Joe Miller, a parent.

Doesn't work that way. I'm Joe Miller, a parent who happens to be on the Clayton School Board. And we have to remember that. Right.

And be sensitive to that. Right. That is. And it's not to say I'm not going to advocate for my own 10th grader at Clayton High School.

My youngest child are well now 11th grader, I guess, moving to 11th grade. I have to realize and recognize that, and I would ask each of us too, right? We need to be respectful that you a board member We all board members And then just the final thing I want to say is it really is the seven of us plus our superintendent It's a gang of and actually really eight of us with a student rep. So nine of us overall, Spererntendent, student rep, and our superintendent.

And I don't know if any of you are familiar with the social discipline window, but it talks about to, for, with, and not. Right? So our relationship with our superintendent, by the way, which is our only employee, is with. Right?

We want to work with our superintendent. Right? We don't do things for, and we don't do things to, and we don't blow off our superintendent, and we don't go around our superintendent. That's part of the deal.

It's a with. And I'm happy to send that to you. It's a kind of restorative justice practice kind of philosophy that we work with, not to, not not, and not for. that speaks to kind of the final part, which is the protocols.

You know, you all, right? So David and Kim, as I look at you on my screen, you were at the high school library when we were talking about protocols, right? And hopefully the protocols are with the board too. So we need to actually finalize some of the onboarding and protocols.

But what was part of our challenge, because we hadn't codified some of the protocols from before, quite honestly, a couple of the protocols we created felt like more like two protocols. Because we had some board members who weren't following, right, kind of the general norms of working together. And so the hope is, though, that we don't get to that point, right? We don't need to address that as a board.

We get to work with one another. And so maybe I'll just pause there and see if you have anything to add, Amy. Thanks, Joe and Sean. I think you guys are both did a great job covering it.

The one thing I'll add, and I think that Sean or Joe, one of you guys mentioned this, that really, you know, we're here. The reason we do this is for the kids. And it's not for, you know, as a board member, it's, you know, it's not for my kid or your kid or any of our individual kids, but it's for every kid that walks through the doors of our school. And so when we make decisions, it's incumbent upon us as a board member to make that decision in an informed way such that every single kid that walks through our door is going to receive, you know, an equitable education and a fair education and a top notch education too.

So, you know, there's times I think when you have, you might have to, you know, put your own, I don't, I don't know how to, you might, you put your own, your own wishes aside almost for the, for the good of the entirety. And what's best for every child. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I think you guys kind of said it all.

I wasn't prepared to say anything, but I think that covers it. I lost audio for a little bit, so I might have missed a little bit of this. But I just felt like you were kind of opening it up for other comments. One thing that I think I said to both Kim and David, I know I've said it to a lot of other people over the last however many months this campaign was, I think that Joe's point about always being a board member and not being able to take that hat off is one of the most, for me personally, difficult.

And challenging things and it was, The main reason that I was not sure I wanted to do another term for a while because I felt a real tension with that. So if that feels like a struggle, well, you certainly have me to sympathize with that. Any of you, not just me, David. That's the hardest part for me is just feeling like in some ways, I'm not able to be as much of a parent because I'm always a board member.

And that tension there. So I just want to acknowledge how hard that is. Jason, you got anything? Yeah, man, I want to say, David and Kim, welcome aboard again.

And the main thing is to be yourself. You know, be yourself, you know, at all times. Don't abuse your power. I think that's what Joe and Amy are trying to convey to you is don't abuse your power.

But be yourself for sure. And, you know, be kind and sit about what happens in certain conversations. Be wise and not to get involved in certain things because it does, you know, word travels back to the wrong people all the time. It can be very messy, as you can imagine.

But just, yeah, just be, you know, be careful about, you know, How you communicate certain things. If something comes out, I think Joe and Amy will mention this to you as well. If someone reaches out to you about a pressing issue, you should probably refer that email to Joe, right, to the board, so that Joe can see it and then he can then make the proper, as a whole, comment to that person as opposed to, once again, Speaking out individually for the board. It can be problematic on a simple level, but on a more serious legality level as well.

All these things you will definitely have no time, but if you just take a look at the packet that we've given you, and if you have any questions at all, please feel free to reach out to anybody on the board. And yeah, let's get after it. I thought of something, Joe, can I say something? Go ahead.

I just wanted to say to Kim and David first of all welcome to the Board And I wouldn feel like you always have to say something I feel like I spent the majority of my first year listening to a lot and not necessarily speaking as much because I think there is so much to learn from everyone that been on the board longer than I have So I just wanted to point that out. I think that you'll spend a lot of time this year listening and learning, and I don't want you to ever feel pressured to contribute if you don't feel prepared or you're not ready to. But if you certainly have questions like Jason said, come and ask any of us. That's a great point, Stacey.

Yeah, so those are all great points, thank you. And what I want to say too is, you know, we're trying to improve as a board and make this board as strong as it can be. And I think one of the things that maybe we haven't done recently, maybe other boards did it, but we haven't, is we want to actually offer you each, Kim and David, kind of a direct mentor. So I'm going to work with you directly, Kim, as a mentor.

And David, Amy is going to work with you directly. And not that you can't reach out to any of the board members. Of course you can. Of course you can.

But I think that's something we didn't do and maybe should have because even to Jason's point, there's some simple things like the public sends us an email and not everybody responds. Because one, it can get us in legal jeopardy. But two, it becomes a public discussion, right? So the board president responds on behalf of the board, right?

And when you're a new board member, you might not know that, right? Or whatever, from the small to the large, right? So Amy and I will work with you even on that. If you haven't read the governance core book, right?

We can talk to you about that and all other things and kind of help guide you. And my hope is, as we move forward and have new folks on the board, we, you know, something we've talked about, again, probably something we should have done and some in something all of us could have benefited from, right, that didn't have that. So five of us didn't have that. But for the two of you and moving forward, we want to try to have that, right.

So because we want you to have that opportunity. And I think we also, Sean talked about homework, right? And this is really for the whole board. There's a folder of stuff, right, that Sean sent us.

And it has everything from a five or six page summary from MSBA on you know kind of a mini tutorial on Robert Rules of Order and how a meeting should run to you know the equity piece to you know the kind of overall Superroportionate Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Analyze that as we move forward. And we purposely waited, by the way, to have a new board. So we purposely waited because we wanted, we knew, right, we were going to have a couple new board members. And so, you know, that's material to have two of seven new.

And so we want your voice, Kim and David, and we want everybody else's voice too. And we'll have a new student rep too, right? Adam will roll off. So we'll actually have another person too.

So maybe I'll just pause there. Any questions or comments? Any other questions or comments? So I just wanted the board to know that the onboarding document is linked in that agenda.

And you could go to it. I've shared it with both David and Kim. And then we also purchased these books for you. So that way you have them.

The other thing that we'll have to give you an orientation on is how to use board docs. And board docs is the mechanism for us to store all the information. And you've probably seen the public side of it, but there's a board side of it. And so we will be giving you some training to get logged in.

And so you can get access to all the documents, which include executive documents as well that are confidential. So I think the only thing that I would say is that being on the board, you have, it's like a real opportunity for change. And I think that there's a lot of joy that you can experience in being part of the board as well. Spervantage, and I think that it's a lot of work, it's a lot of time, it's a lot of prep, and it's the hardest volunteer job you'll ever have, elected official.

But I think that we can really have some fun with this and really think about ways that we can be different and innovative in moving the district forward. So I think this is, it's an exciting time. And I don't think, you know, I mean, our next piece really is to move to adjournment. But before we do that, I do want to say one other thing, which is we are going to have another meeting, right?

Yet this because remember we delayed this meeting from the 3rd to the 10th What we talking about because I know actually Stacey has a conflict next week So I want you all to check could you have our last meeting Because typically what we do is we have a last meeting sometime in June. It's usually early June. And then we don't meet again until August. Of course, if we had to have an emergency meeting, we would call it.

But typically we take July off. And so the question is, could you all have our last meeting in two weeks from tonight, which would be the 24th? Would you all be available for a meeting, our last final meeting? Because we do need to do some things to close out the year.

We need to finalize the budget. We need to do Sean's review. That will be an executive session, by the way. We need to vote on a student being on the board.

And there's probably a couple other kind of things that we need to address, right? So is the maybe, I don't know, maybe since we have everybody together, will people put thumbs up if they can do the 24th? Can you do the 24th? Either way, you know.

Kim's going old school. Yeah, that's good. All right. That's good.

It's all good. Gary, are you good? The 24th? Maybe.

Oh, we might have just lost Gary. All right. Well, tentatively, we're going to go with the 24th. We're going to check with Gary because we just lost him.

But as long as Gary can, and because we'll do an executive session and then a regular board meeting, we might need to start that just so you all know, like, at 6. Yeah, probably at 6 or maybe even, yeah, 5. 5.30, I think, would be helpful. Maybe even 5.30.

Just to do the executive session. And then at seven, we'd have the open meeting. And Gary, I don't know if you're back with us. Can you do the 24th?

Maybe. All right. Well, this is what it is. Okay.

So I think that's it. Again, so excited, Kim and David, to add you to our board. Fantastic. Really going to be cool to have both of your voices.

Really excited. So I think we just need a motion to adjourn. Somebody want to move to adjourn? I'll do it.

I move that the board adjourns. All right. Second. Second.

All right. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

All right. We are adjourned. Thank you all. Appreciate it.

Have a good night. Thank you. Bye-bye.