 Dr. Reichsburg Board of School Directors meeting at 6.32 October 7th. So first order of business is public comment. We have seven members of the public either use the raise hand function if you understand how it works and if you don't basically if you hit the participant button you can if you don't understand how it works just make yourself visible and raise your hand physically. Okay that's a good two. Meredith Horner and Missa. To start with Meredith please announce yourself to the camera so people at home know who you are and also since on the record. Thanks. Hi my name is Meredith Horner. I'm a community member and one of the members of the just schools initiative I'm here seeking on that group's behalf this evening. I first want to just say thank you to the board for all the work you've been doing especially to the charge committee for hearing public comment for all the work you've been putting in we really appreciate it. We have a little bit of feedback and a couple of questions we we'd hope to hear about tonight. We first want to appreciate the commitment to the composition of the committee being 50 percent plus representation from BIPOC, LGBTQA plus and representatives of disability justice and we'd just like to offer that we can help to achieve that goal and we could be a resource to you on that. We'd also like to see that same goal applied to the survey of stakeholders and really stress that students, caregivers and community members be included in the survey of stakeholders because their perspective is really essential to cleaning a full understanding of the impact. We recommend the charge also include the exploration and reporting of data or lack of data on SRO arrests, referrals to community justice center or other interventions including complaints against the SRO. The reporting should look at broader exclusionary discipline practices and all data should be broken down by race and disability status. And then finally I just have a couple of questions that drill a little deeper into the creation of the committee itself. So what will the process for selecting the committee members look like? Is there going to be an application process for students and community members? How can interested community members, parents, caregivers, faculty, staff and students express interest and what would outreach to those groups look like? Who will be responsible for choosing the designated representatives from the district, et cetera? And beyond the aforementioned targets around representation, what if any criteria will be used to select committee members? And again on behalf of Just School's initiative we're really appreciative of your time and thank you for giving me a space to give comment. Thank you, Meredith. Yes, thank you, Chair Murphy. For the record, my name is Nissa L. James and I'm offering public comment tonight as a Vermont resident and a mother of two students currently attending Main Street Middle School for the board's consideration. I am extremely concerned that the educational opportunity available to each student at Main Street Middle School is not on substantially equal terms when compared to other towns. Specifically the April to June lack of educational opportunities, the 1-10pm dismissal time which limits academic activities from September until now and the inability for Main Street Middle School students to access remote educational offerings for students attending in person at Main Street Middle School is furthering the inequities that existed previously. This is clearly compounded by the fact that Vermont's number of instruction days comprising the school year already falls behind the majority of other states. In response to the announcement that schools could move to step three the week of September 22nd, many districts communicated the process of reviewing local data and reviewing teacher feedback in implementing step three plans of which normal school start and end time and be a component. It is extremely important that this type of information is shared with parents of students at the Montpelier Roxbury schools. Our family received a letter on 922 after that announcement indicating that a move to step three does not change our plan but parents were not actually listed among those who had developed the plan. The letter did mention that transitioning from step two to three allowed athletic teams to play against other schools. With regard to risk for exposure, I am perplexed why a normal school start and end time would not be implemented if the decision was being made to allow athletic teams to play against other schools. So my request for the board is to add a specific agenda item to these meetings for discussion of the COVID-19 response enacted by the Montpelier Roxbury school. Thank you. Thank you, Nessa. I think that concludes public comment. Those all the raised hands. Last call. Other board members, let me know if you're seeing the screenshot. I'm not. Okay. Thank you much. Now we are on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Before the consent agenda, because it's kind of like public comment, I just wanted to say that I'm going to be resigning from the school board and my last meeting will be the first meeting in November. So there'll be a vacancy on the board, just while people are, we have members of the public here might be heard more widely. Just wanted to share that news and share it with my fellow board members. And I'll be sorry to leave the work, but I feel like I've reached a point where I can't devote the time that I need to to be a responsible board member. So sorry to interrupt the agenda, but I wanted to say that. Well, thank you, Bridget. I am understanding of the news, but also sad and it's been wonderful serving with you over how many years? Four or five? But I cannot express enough what a wonderful colleague you've been on the board and also how much work and great work you've done for the school board. The district is in much better shape since you came on the board and you have been a big part of that. I think you've really done a great job of directing the board and directing the school through some changes, both the Roxbury village or the Roxbury merger, the change in administration, a lot of other changes along the way. And you have been razor sharp and definitely the hardest working board member that I've experienced since I've been on. So I completely understand. I will be very sad to move forward without you, but also you're well due the rest. And we thank you profusely for all you've done over the years. The district has benefited greatly, and I think we all, the whole community owes you a big gratitude of thanks. So thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. That's very kind. It has been an incredible team to work with for all these years. And I also just want to say that I'm happy to talk to anyone interested in serving on the board. Really encourage people. It's a great opportunity. Feel free to email me and I'm happy to talk to anyone who's interested and has questions. And thanks, everybody. No, thank you, Bridget. Do you want to make the honorary motion to approve the consent agenda? And I move that we approve the consent agenda with the addition circulated by Anna. Do you have a second? Second, I'll second. Any discussion? Jill? Andrew? Ryan? Hi. Anaket? Hi. Nama? Hi. Bridget? Hi. Jerry? Hi. And Ryan, who I'm not. Oh, did I call you Ryan? Hi again. Okay. I think I've got everyone. You're all mixed in with the crowd. I'm sorry. You're a phone number, sorry. And Mara. Hi. Okay. Thank you. So now, it's not a board discussion. We just want to talk briefly about protocols over board communication. I had Libby send this around just because there's a lot of new board members. We've obviously had some, we've had some issues where there's been a lot of community feedback. So just want to kind of go over the basics of communication. I'll just do it very quickly. And then if there's any questions, let me know. I think the biggest overview is we want to keep things as much as possible filtered through the particularly request of the administration filtered through Libby and directed to the administration. And then obviously if there's not a satisfactory answer that can come from the administration, then the board will take it up. But I think our biggest job is to listen to what's being said, try to direct the person to the correct person administration. So if someone comes up with an issue about UES, try to direct them to Ryan or MSMS. Have you talked to Katie? And if they have and they've had an unsatisfactory conversation, then ask them if they've talked to Libby. And if ultimately they've talked to everyone, tell them to come to public comment or to write the board. And there are some things that we may have been able to put on the agenda, but try to direct them first to the administration because that's oftentimes the easiest place to get an answer. And you'll find that some community members will come to you as a board member and you're the first person they've talked to. But they know you, you're their neighbor. Your job is first to redirect them to the person administration who can address the problem. If it's another place you can direct them, you also direct them to me. Again, if they've gone through the particularly administrative ranks, put it on my radar, I can talk to Libby and see what the story is. She's at a conversation. If they have a conversation with the UES issue, conversation with Ryan, a conversation with Libby. Libby and I meet regularly. We can discuss it. And if it's something that needs to go to the board, I can take it to the board and obviously check back with me, see how that conversation went. It's keeping constant communication. And again, if it's something that the board needs to take up, we can do that, but that's kind of the last channel. Another thing, try not to directly, you're in a tricky position as a board member. If you have a direct issue, go to Libby or me. Don't go to the administrator or under Libby with your board hat on. It can really send confusing signals. You may think you're doing it rather innocently, but if you go to, say, Ryan or Katie or Beth and say, boy, it would be really great if UES did this differently or if MSMS did this differently, you're in a weird position of kind of being part of your bosses, of their boss's boss. So they may interpret that as a directive. In years past, there were not third channels like that. It caused confusion and some conversations that board members saw were innocent conversations with administrators. Again, it caused some confusion and some misinterpretation that created, I think, some unnecessary issues that if you have a clear third chain of go to Libby, Libby will help direct you. You can also go to me if you're only the response you got from Libby or if you want further help, but don't go to the administrator directly. You obviously can go to any administrator as a parent, but make clear that you're coming with your parent hat on and make a request that you think is a parent request as opposed to a board member request. Social media, in general, if there's an issue that on social media that really requires a response, alert me to it and I will try to respond. We can certainly discuss the response that's needed. The biggest trap with social media is if you're responding, if you're responding as part of a chain conversation and doing it in a board member capacity or something that could be perceived as a board member capacity, a lot of the board members are on these chains. Comments are oftentimes hard to see. Once you get to a certain number, three or more, you are arguably in a position where you've created an unnoticed open meeting. While the law is a little unclear on that and it hasn't been tested, there definitely is the possibility that board members on a social media chain discussing a school matter could create an unnoticed public meeting. Something to be very careful about. That is also true with email chains. If a discussion is started on either our private or our Montpellier-Roxbury email, particularly about a substantive discussion and multiple people chime in, that also becomes where people get on the chain. There's an open meeting violation that likely occurs. I think that's most of it. If you have any questions about whether a correspondence is appropriate or not, let us know. Obviously, you can definitely respond to constituents just in terms of I've got your message. I understand, particularly if they're giving feedback for a board matter, like the recent SRO position, obviously that's something that's already before the board, we're taking it up. You can definitely respond. Let them know you've heard them, give them information about what the board might be doing, here's our agenda, et cetera. That is all perfectly fine. Any questions about that? I know it can take a little while to figure out the nuances of it, but I think the biggest thing to remember or the biggest things to remember are direct people as much as possible to the proper administrator if you get specifically a specific question. Be very careful about starting any sort of chain on either social media or email that could violate the open meeting law. Be very careful about your correspondence with administrators other than Libby to make sure that you're not giving the appearance of giving them some sort of directives. Questions from the board? They might have a quick question. If we get emails, at what point does it make sense to maybe direct to you to be a point person or a voice for the board and when does it make sense for us to just reply? Let's say someone emails the whole board at once, who replies? Generally, I will reply. That's been the protocol in the past. I would do one of two things if you want a specific reply. One, you can definitely acknowledge that you got it and say thank you for the input. If you want to make sure that a certain substantive thing gets communicated, I would communicate with me first because technically we are supposed to be a body that speaks as one. So I would do that. You can definitely acknowledge, thank you for your note. We heard you and it's on the next agenda. That type of communication is fine. If it's something substantive, talk to me before I respond and we can discuss it because what we want to avoid is a situation where the board appears to be speaking with two voices. Emma? I just want to clarify the document that was included in our board packet. It says that it's a protocol document but I can't find the protocol or the procedure in our policy documents that are public on our website. So I find the expectations for Montpelier-Roxbury board members but no procedure there. So I'm wondering if this is just sort of like a summary that Libby maybe you put together or if it's an actual adopted procedure of how to interpret the policy? It's not an adopted procedure. I think it comes largely from materials and trainings we've had with the VSBA over the years on this subject. Yeah, we had a board member asked as well, how do I respond to this new board member? So Jim asked me to put together a protocol for it. So it would fall under one of those policies but it wouldn't be up as a procedure. Procedures aren't adopted. The policies are. Okay. Well no Jim, we do have a policy about communicating with the superintendent that I believe some of this, not all of this by any means, that some of this touches upon. Yeah, if this falls under the board expectation policy as well as the board superintendent relationship policy, both of those policies it touches on. The social media and I actually think would be helpful for us to have a training with Susan from VSBA because she's really well versed in the open meeting law which ultimately, not all of this, but half of this, and I talked with Jim about this beforehand, half of this is really aimed at ensuring that we have open meetings and whenever a quorum of us is meeting whether as a subcommittee or as a committee we're doing it in a transparent way and in an accessible way to the public because it can be a slippery slip. You might just be talking about something very trivial with some other board members but still we have to watch it because of our role. Jim, I also think it might be worth touching on the power of the board as a collective versus the power that individuals have as well as none of this precludes an individual's first amendment rights. I mean, and we're not always going to agree on absolutely everything. Sometimes the board would make a decision and I think as a board member it's best to say the board has made a decision on this. We're moving in that direction as a board. I and Drew, I don't agree with this. My general perspective on this is A, but the board decided B and I'm going to respect that and the board ultimately as a collective has the authority and we're moving forward in that direction so that's the situation but I understand where you're coming from and I do in favor of this. You can definitely explain your personal positions. But at the end of the day, it's supposed to be one board that speaks with one voice. So if you're articulating a different position, I think you have to be very clear that you're doing that as an individual and not on behalf of the board. It might not hurt since we're talking about all this communication process again to maybe reconfirm the norm that the board has operated with regarding the superintendent's executive assistant. We've historically interacted with what is Anna's position now a little bit differently. We might ask for a warning or we might ask for specific documents or something kind of directly from the superintendent's assistant. It seems like the relationship there is a little bit different than a normal administrator and as I understand, I think everybody has been comfortable with that so far but I just want to get that out there again too as we're discussing all these relationships and how we're working together. Yeah thanks for saying that right. Anna does play a different role for the board in terms of warnings and things like that so I think it's appropriate for you not to use me as a mediator when you're asking for a warning for a policy committee. For instance, but feel free to see see me on that as well because Anna actually knows more about that than I do so she would be the appropriate person to talk to for warnings and things like that. There's another example that came up recently in our policy committee that made me think about you know when I read the actual policy it didn't seem like anything that we were planning to do would be in breach of that policy but then when I read the board protocol document that is included in the board packet today it seems to signal otherwise. So there was a moment Ryan maybe you can remember this or Mara you were there and I think Bridget was there too but we were looking for more information about whether power school or something would allow us to do what we wanted to do under the new gender policy and one of us said oh I'll give Ryan a call or I'll give you know one of the principles a call and so but that communication should go through Libby. Libby we want to know if power school does this you cannot go directly to that would be a breach of the policy. You wouldn't be able to email like a clarifying question. Well I mean some clarifying questions are they seem easy but sometimes it's you know like boy could you give me the budget numbers from the last 15 years on on x and that goes to grant you know the middle of budget season when he's working you know 60 hours and he doesn't know like well do I need to drop all this and and you know find this information for you know Andrew or Jill you know it's hard to tell a board member you know too busy so you know that's why it's good to have Libby be the gatekeeper of what we can see even seem like a simple clarifying request. Well the other thing Jim I was just referencing the expectations for the for the board members and in there it does mention the chair can speak for the board but it also clarifies that the chair cannot act independently or direct any actions by themselves which gets back to the collective power of the board not any no board member has any special power to act on behalf of the board but without you know the will of the board that the chair is the de facto spokesperson of the board if you will speaking on behalf of the board. Yep other questions or comments yeah I feel free to ask ask me or Libby as it it comes up it it you know it takes some it takes some time so. And Jim maybe you and I can talk about whether it's worthwhile to have Susan Holson come back from the BSBA because I look around and without Bridget and a new member and Bridget's Bridget Square here on my zoom screen will have an overwhelmingly new board I think Andrew Bridget I think you were there Jim I think Andrew Bridget and Ryan might be the only board members who participated in that training Ryan were you in that yes all there so it might be a good idea that was a good training yeah no I think that's definitely I think regular comms training is very helpful um yeah and things evolve too especially with with social media and and now with with zoom yeah I mean there's yeah we're we're interacting with the public in in ways we haven't in the past and you know the laws aren't necessarily catching up so it's it's always good to make sure we're more compliant and be effective um okay so uh we're gonna move on uh Emma or Mar do you want to talk about the the committee charge do you want me to to lead that discussion I'm happy happy either way you can go ahead yeah great so uh I believe last week days are blurring the three members appointed at the last meeting to put together a charge and some guidance on the discussion around school safety and police relations which also encompasses the SRO position met to put together a proposed charge and also some recommendations around both timing and composition of the committee the proposed charge is in the packet it roughly follows the the resolution that was passed basically you know highlighting and putting together a committee to look at the aims and expectations for school safety evaluating the district's primary safety concerns the historic roles and duties of the SRO successes of the SRO challenges and concerns that have arisen around the SRO and how the SRO position and district safety are being and have been evaluated and accounted for also defining the aims and expectations of justice in our schools more generally especially evaluating the impact of current and historic systems on all of our students and in particular by BIPOC, LBGT, IQA, disabled and other students that have that are members of historically marginalized groups defining the aims and expectations and the role and conduct of the police in our schools given justice safety and DEI concerns as well as you know the values that the school wants to move forward with and also to conduct a survey of stakeholders as well as you know taking interviews and testimonies of you know key members who have a role in decisions around safety including the district administrators, city officials, police officers, teachers, guidance counselors and obviously you know parents and members of the community at large. The proposed committee composition was three board members as well as two students and we also felt that in students we could include some recent graduates who are freshly out of the district especially with more than usual perhaps being still local given COVID or able to participate virtually from you know from afar especially since we've had some students in the past who have had both experience with the SRO and deep involvement in the evolution of the district's commitment to diversity equity and inclusion. Two faculty or staff ideally guidance counselors or social workers but recognizing that some of them might be in a position where they're reluctant to speak out given the relationships they have with students and with the SRO over the years. Two administrators are feeling was that Libby should not be a member of the committee just because she has a vested role in carrying out the the safety charge but obviously Libby would would come to the committee and give testimony and give her perspective. Three community members, three board members who would likely be the three board members already assigned to this. One member of the city council and one member of the police department who we felt should not be either the SRO or the police chief but obviously we would want to hear from the chief and potentially the current SRO or former SRO. Efforts would be made to make the committee as diverse as possible and to get as many voices of historically marginalized groups. Efforts would also be made to represent both the communities in our district as well as our all four schools. The board can discuss a way to recruit members to the committee assuming that they accept the proposed composition but you know one way we've done in the past is to open it up to the public and have interested members write letters short letters of interest to either the board chair or the board as a whole and then come back and pick from those interested members. For the provost committee timeline we kind of thought about having a staggered timeline given that we feel there's there's a couple decisions to be made given the budget timeline there's an immediate decision or a relatively immediate decision about what to do with the SRO position from a budgetary and other perspective that we need to make in time for you know passing the budget so we would need a recommendation by December so that way Libby and Grant can can accommodate that in the budget that they put forward and that we approve in January but we also felt that that was just a piece of the conversation and a piece of what this committee should be charged to do so and also that doing doing the work of putting together a really broader report that looks more holistically at safety in our schools and in our district you know through a diversity equity inclusion lens was not something we could do justice to by December so we set the timeline of a broader report and recommendations for that by March so Laura and Emma in particular anything I missed that you'd want to add? I just want to emphasize the the real the real intention and also the fact that intention is not enough to make the committee be 50 plus one or majority black indigenous people of color LGBT when disability representation just because it is really easy for organizations to say um we want to emphasize this and we're going to try really hard um and it is another thing to do the thing um and so I just want to recognize that it's easy to to make a commitment and not try and I think it's really important that um you know as a community we work really hard to do what we can to to abide by the uh commitment that we made to do our very best to get um that kind of 50 plus one just because inherently in a district um where well inherently in Vermont where this is a little indy percent white and inherently we are um there the disabilities the community of folks who represent disabilities rights and LGBT rights are numerically smaller right they just are there's no getting around that they are numerically smaller so inherently when we go to fill this committee it is going to be really easy to fill it with a bunch of white straight temporarily able-bodied people because there are just numerically more of those folks and a lot of them who are already in positions that we want on this committee places with voices that we need to hear so I just really want to emphasize that because I know it's not going to be easy to do and I wanted to say out loud that it's important even if it isn't easy yeah I agree um any other general comments and then we can discuss the the the charge and then the composition um and then I think uh we need action approving the charge and the composition and the the timeline and then we can uh start soliciting members Jim I have I have some questions but I don't know if now is the right time or if Emma has something that she wants to add um I don't know how you want to do this yep um and if you have anything to add go ahead and then also I'm wondering in terms of procedure should we have someone move and then discuss and amend the charge or should we just have a general discussion for us we probably should have someone move to approve the charge and composition and then we can discuss any amendments and then vote on an amended charge if we have an amended charge does that make sense yeah I am particularly interested in what other board members think of the composition in particular because a lot of um discussion went into how do we make this balanced how do we make the composition um balanced and you know depending on the way that you look at it um if you consider people to have a bias walking in if you're a school official do you have a bias walking in um if you're a city official do you have a bias walking in you know and I'm sure everybody has their own biases but a lot of discussion um went into that and so I'm eager to hear the thoughts of other board members on that um so I don't know if that discussion like Andrew said should it happen now or should it happen after a motion is made I think probably we should have a motion and then have the discussion I don't know Ryan I know you're a parliamentarian which I know me I was just going to say I'll go ahead I'll make a motion that we approve the charge that was presented to us in the board packet that's great discussion Andrew now now it's all right okay so I have a I have a number of of questions and comments um first of all um this is very minor but if we are approving the charge DEI I assume means diversity equity and inclusion and I think it would be good to spell that out in the charge and it's called out in some places and not another so I apologize for that but um it's all right um I you know we've received some public comments on this and I I had the same exact comment when I went through this with regard to the survey of stakeholders um which is I wasn't clear so this is a general question I wasn't clear why you know students community members families weren't included in that list of stakeholders for perspectives on the SRO because I think those are important perspectives and um so I don't know what the general thinking is there so I wanted to ask that I think we can definitely add them I think the list was not um it is not an exclusive list I think these were I think part of the idea and and it certainly expanded is that um that the committee itself would have representatives of those stakeholder groups in the public and that the people we listed are the people who are involved in the administration of safety in our schools but will not be directly involved in the committee other than um there will be representatives but there's going to be some key people that we did not want directly involved in the committee um like Libby like the chief um you know like Bill Frazier people who are at high level and you know decision makers but people who we feel need to inform the committee about um you know what the day-to-day challenges are about their jobs and how you know various positions relate to those challenges um but obviously uh I think it would be easy to uh include those other groups as well because we certainly did not mean to exclude them I think we should um include it in the language there if um and then and maybe we can say but not limited to yeah something like that also under the aims and expectations I realized I jumped over one of my other comments we have um the well-being of all the district students and staff I'm wondering and this is this is a general question you know it it's it is students and staff but it's not just students and staff I believe we are talking about families that the police sometimes um works with as well through our schools I believe um and when we're talking about um the aims and expectations um of school safety and justice I I do wonder if it should be something like students staff and families but I I don't know maybe that's expanding this too much I I am you know I understand scope creep but it's just something that I thought about there I don't know if you guys have any thoughts about that so I think that made sense but say that again because in part I was under the aims and expectations it says in the well-being of all the district students and staff I wonder if we should expand that to students staff and families sure why not and then um my several higher higher level um questions slash comments one is so to turn this around by December 2020 by December you know we're talking about the two months from now that's a really tight timeline and we the committee isn't even informed yet which can also take some time having been there um what kind of what how long do you think it will take to organize the committee and what kind of meeting schedule are you guys thinking about pretty rigorous it's kind of happy I mean that's why we wanted to limit it to the SRO decision by December so my my feeling is that we take between now the next meeting to solicit applicants that that we open up the period till the next meeting and then at the next meeting we go over our list of applicants and you know the board being guided by the desire to have this be as diverse a committee as possible and as representative of a committee as possible you know choose from the applicants we have and then we set a schedule where hopefully we can have you know perhaps a meeting in late October maybe a meeting in November where the focus is very much on the SRO position and you know what that entails and you know how another alternative might might line up for next year and you know and then have a recommendation come to the board by you know sometime probably that first or second meeting in December but you're right I mean not only is it a tight timeframe there's the holidays etc but I think we can get guidance on the SRO by by December but it will you know it'll probably entail a couple meetings one late October maybe two and you know maybe early November mid November late October to November whatever should we say the end of December I'm just I just don't want to set this committee up to miss an important deadline but I also understand times of the essence so what is it sir it just says December I mean that can be the end of December um you know people are you know once you have the 20th December it's well I guess you know people aren't going anywhere this year but they might be flipping their laptops down and tuning out for a week or two okay I agree with Andrew though like a lot of people might read that just semantically as by December right that's that was my concern that's I read it I'm like wow you're by end of November we're going to have this on our plates and what would happen if this is the end of December if that makes it clearer what would happen if the committee realized by the end of this December that they weren't going to be able to make a recommendation could they extend the deadline or is it the charge the charge could it be I think the problem is we've got other deadlines with the you know the budget like I think the latest once the latest we can make a budget change Libby it's it's that like it's early January early to mid-January right keep talking I'll get back to you I'll just have to pull up the timeline yeah right um so to my last my last two thoughts on this but I really appreciate all the work you've done I think that this is an important issue which is why I've thought so much about this and I read it several times um do you think that this committee might benefit from a committee chair to kind of organize things there's no committee chair here uh well would you need the facilitation option which is something else we need to discuss yeah right that yeah that's right yeah so the process is a okay so I'll I'll table that or do we want to talk about that now you know I think it's worthwhile because as we're having this conversation talking about the representation of the groups and the membership as it's listed here we have a 14 person committee doing a lot of work in a short amount of time it is going to be tricky to get that group together their schedules to align to make this happen um yeah I think it is worthwhile pointing that out that if there is a chance to facilitate here to have a little more structured it would be worthwhile because we are talking about a big committee for a lot of different um populations trying to make this happen yeah and that's the next thing I think we need to discuss um is facilitation um so we have we actually have till January 20th on the budget so we could I think we should put in the charge end of December and if we feel we need a week or two um it's better to have that in our back pocket and extend it and the board could extend it rather than giving us till the deadline because people always take till the deadline it's just human nature so um in light of that then in light of the timeline and I know we're jumping a little but um having a facilitator and you know we can pay for it I know the city is offered to pay for part of it if there's discomfort with that we can pay for the whole thing um I'm not sure this you know given the scheduling challenges of a 14 member board uh given the need to you know think between meetings you know synthesize notes etc make sure the next meeting is a smooth transition from the meeting that just happened um that's going to be a tough charge without someone passed to it um does the language for a facilitator need to be in the charge is that what we're saying I think we could just do a separate motion um authorizing uh authorizing the district to hire uh i'm a susan it would be uh susan and kisha and I also on that issue I do think we should be the one paying for it we've had some emails and some different concerns that have been raised about conflicts of interest and the city has a financial stake in this and ultimately we aren't this is a community issue without a doubt and you know taxpayer dollars go go to the pay the police department the city council makes decisions about taxpayer dollars as do we ultimately taxpayers ultimately non-purity residents make decisions about how those resources are used um after the city council and after the school board put those budgets which are reflections of our values to the community um but that being said this really is about school safety and it really is about police involvement in our schools and it's about school justice and for the price tag I as I understand that I just think to avoid any of those situations it's not meant to disrespect the city in any way whatsoever we need to um we need to collaborate with the city on this as we do with the community but I personally think having that level of independence would be helpful yeah I agree I mean I really appreciate the city's offer and and it was it was generous of them but I think for uh yeah to ensure that that this is you know fully a district venture um we should we should be the ones paying for the solicitor related to that um the issue also came up in emails to board members about the potential of having the city council member and the um pillar police department member be non-voting members of the committee um to protect from any conflict of interest what do people think about that so I that was that was the last thing I wanted to ask ask about actually um and then I'll shut up um but this committee as I understand it as I read this charge does not have any power to make any decisions about this this committee is making a recommendation to the board which has the discretion and the board it were the elected representatives for the community you know empowered to make these decisions so I definitely appreciated those concerns and I do appreciate those concerns but and I do think that there are going to be a number of interested parties on this committee um that you know working for the auditor's office for example if if you have a bias in one direction or another you have to report those types of things this is not an audit right this is this is a community committee that is meant to represent a range of interests to address some major community issues that that we want to that we want to move forward with so to that extent to the fact that this committee doesn't actually have any decision-making power I'm not certain how much of a risk there is um but that's just my that's just my two cents I'm curious the other board members have to say um I'm not I'm not sure this is even a committee that might vote I think the recommendation might be a uh you know the majority of the committee felt this way express you know concerns of the other way were expressed by committee member x who stated this um you know here's what the test here's what we learned from the testimony so I I think the report's going to be kind of more in a narrative form than a you know by you know 12th to 2 we decided to do x and then there could be like a consensus recommendation with you know here are some dissenting opinions so I'm not sure we even really empower the committee to vote they just you know have to put together uh you know a report that that reflects um you know the views of of the committee uh you know the varying views of the members um and kind of you know the overall consensus recommendation great point yeah for where it's what excuse me for where it's what that's how I saw the report coming from the committee that would help the board member make that decision so the committee you know the the facilitator would you know facilitate the meetings and then capture um supposedly what the discussion has been and what the different viewpoints are and the report will contain that which will help us make that decision when when the time comes so to have the the you know opinions and and recommendations from one or multiple members of that committee I would agree that I think the narrative and the reporting of what's learned is going to be the most important thing and if if through facilitation and communication the committee reached a consensus that would probably be very important information for the board but if ultimately it were you know split six to six to two then probably the specifics of that split it's not going to be what's helpful to the board it's going to be the information and the collaboration and the reporting back on what was learned as opposed to very narrow if you know if it's a very narrow vote on something very specific it's not going to be as valuable in any event so I also want to take some time um you know I'm so appreciative of all the work that the just schools initiative has done and so much time and thought has been put into their various communications with the board and recently they've given us some recommendations as to what might be included in this charge and so I just wanted to go through some of those and make sure that we were considering those thoroughly as we vote on the charge should I just get started um so I think we already and are already addressed the survey of stakeholders issue and then there's a there's a call to gather data and I think we sort of say that in the charge but we could be more explicit with the language there I'm trying to I'm going back and forth between two documents so if anyone wants to help out I think we could put in will in order to conduct this analysis it will comma using you know data as available yeah and it could even be something as it could be something that we do after the December you know I mean I think some of the data will help guide the conversation needed to make a recommendation in December but further data could be gathered after yeah um there's also a there's also a line item a bullet point underneath um in the proposed charge the first bullet point and then the set the last sub bullet point is um how the srl position and district safety um and just really quickly on that last point with regard to data I interpreted it as not not just creating a data set from existing data but beginning to collect data on um some of these actions and some of these issues yeah yeah I did too so it's like there um we recommend that the charge include the exploration and reporting of data or lack of data um and then there's a list of things so SRO arrests referrals to the community justice center and other interventions um complaints against the SRO broader exclusionary disciplinary practices broken down so you know I think I think it's sort of twofold do we have the is there any data that we have that's district data or from the police department or from the city um and and take a look at that and then explore the possibility of how do we collect that data in the future some of that data is not public right I mean if children are involved in the criminal justice system yeah it's not a public data source our end size is also too small yeah that's another issue yeah so we're gonna have legal limitations on what we can kind of look at and that can be helpful for informing conversation about this though as well um I know from the work that our office does whenever we deal with third by day that's really really restrictive even more so than hip um PHI and PPI data um so there's a list of questions that I just want to make sure that they were answered it seems like um most of them were it's what will the process be for selecting committee members and we talked about putting out a call a public call and people would be sending in um a letter of interest to apply to be on the committee yeah I think that's the best way to do it I think we can yeah hopefully put some info on our website and um maybe have Libby send out an announcement and have the principal set out an announcement to asking for you know interests and community members to submit a letter and um yeah it can go to uh it can go to give me probably having to go to me as the cleanest um just giving them you know one email and then I can forward forward them along to the board as I get them who is responsible for choosing the designated representatives from the school district city council students etc board so typically when administrators are on a committee they're chosen by the superintendent yeah are we gonna stick to that I think we stick to that but I think you know Libby I think would would forward us the names of those she you know that are interested that you'd recommend and I think we'd have the final say I'm guessing we'd be on the same page about that and but um does that make sense no that makes sense to me and I mean I I mean it it seems to me in terms of the city council they can kind of decide I mean multiple members of the city council want to express an interest to the board then I guess the board can decide the city council wants to send the delegate yeah I mean can send the delegate I will say too I do think there is with regard to some of the conflict of interest issues I do see real value to a city council member being on this because of their ability to coordinate with the rest of the city and make requests of the city that we frankly might not get the same response on I found that with the MS MS building committee having a couple of city council members was very very helpful and then the police representative will also have provide be able to provide very quick insights into issues that a lot of us don't know that some people might know a lot a lot about but a lot of us don't know about so I do think there's value to those stakeholders being involved in this process what do you think about the balance of stakeholders that the number of people for various stakeholders I mean that's you in general all of the board members not just Andrew the way I do the math is that there's three community members two students and three board members so that's eight out of 14 who are really people that represent the community overall and then more six slots reserved for more specific stakeholders within the the school in the city it seemed like a good like a good balance to me I agree that I think board members represent the community I wonder if that will be the perception of the public or if they will be seen as school officials you know it's a fine line you know what hat you're wearing I mean we do have three separate community members I mean we are the community's representatives for the district I mean we're chosen by the community not the about the administration and or accountable to the community I personally I personally think it's it's pretty balanced and in addition to the eight that you mentioned Bridget there's also the city council member who also is held directly accountable to the public and is meant to represent the public and city city matters one one thing I will I will say is with this tight timeline getting all these schedules to align is going to be very very difficult yeah your team member committee is um that's big yeah I mean I think we needed to be that size to be representative but um it's it's a big thing it's big and the first meeting will just be kind of setting the context so you kind of lose the first meeting just laying out the background the directions the structure I'm indebted to you guys for pulling this together and thank you for doing all that work um it was really nice to see this and I think the makeup makes a lot of sense um for me what I was really looking for which I do see here is that we're not starting from just the place of SRO or no it's what what the problems are that we're trying to solve and what our students and our staff and our families need and then what are the resources we need to get there not just one path so I think it was really wise to set that timeline and I understand the concern about getting the committee together that quickly but I think we do have to try because I would like to be able to make that you know start January off with with some solid um information specifically about the budgetary impact and then to have that little bit more time to really talk about stepping back and addressing the problems because simply having or not having the SRO position doesn't undo a lot of those problems and some of the examples that we've heard of what we need as a district for safety for our students are not going to go away and we need to make sure that we actually do have those resources in place in some way so that our students and our staff and our community can stay safe so I think considering the the the timeline and considering the charge um I think I don't know that there's any other way that you folks could have gone to set this up and pull this together and and I do think it's going to be really hard to keep sort of steering back to the one that's due in December versus the larger conversation that'll probably be the biggest challenge but if you're successful at that then I think it um I think it can work thank you I have one other question just um that I'll direct to Jerry and Ryan there there was um we made an effort to try to be inclusive of the Roxbury school district and so we might need help making sure to recruit a Roxbury member community member absolutely um maybe a question I'm pretty sure that the charge does in general cover the question but for me one of the important things that's kind of come to the surface through all these discussions is there really is a lot of fuzzy area between the district and the police department in terms of contract and salaries and budgets and I would really hope that when the report comes out in either the December or March report we have a lot of recommendation but we do have a bit of an answer on what would be the best way to structure an SRO or a similar position if that were to be the case and so we don't end up in the same work area that we are right now um so I'm pretty sure it would be covered in the general terms of the charge but I just want to state that to make sure that it might not have been overlooked now I think it definitely was considered um it can be put in more specifically um it was just a line about including formalizing the relationship between the district and the city p police department it does though say define aims and expectations of the role and conduct um but yeah I understand what you're saying right and you'd like to see something a little more formalized between have it be more established whatever that relationship is between the police department and the district is that what you're saying I am yes if it were to continue if the district were to continue to have an SRO position I think it does make a lot of sense for us to be able as representatives of the community to tell their community this is the board's control over the position or it's not how the administrators react to the not how many they react but the oversight that the administrators have versus the police department just so the work clear on how the relationship is established do how about how about this um my sense is that that charge is in there and if there is a recommendation to continue with the SRO or to continue with some other formalized relationship that would probably be a recommendation of the committee to the board that it be formalized in an MOU do should we leave that to what the decision of the committee is and if the committee come back and say says you know we feel that you know an SRO or a police liaison that's different from the SRO be established and we feel that that needs to be formalized along these four principles in an MOU rather than a charge for it to come up with an MOU because it might decide that the best relationship is that you know the district treats that or the city PD treats the district like it would treat any other entity in the city I think it doesn't make sense because it will depend on what the recommendation ends up being but yeah I think it is probably covered in general in the charge as written but I just want to raise that question and the consequences or I think we probably need a motion to approve the charge as amended because there's been some some changes most of which I think I've at least jotted down in notes in order to approve the charge as amended can you read through the changes so there's a record of what we're proving um so the major ones I had uh spell out diversity equity inclusion um include that the safety concerns of student staff and families uh under proposed charge in order to conduct this analysis and we'll using data as available and by available there's a discussion that that also means what the the district can can disclose in in addition to what it also has so available in terms of a public sense survey the stakeholders this will include but is not limited to the ones we have listed plus families students and community members and that the the committee will meet the following timeline uh with a resource officer position with a recommendation on the resource officer position being at the end of December rather than December 2020 um those are the changes I have did I anything I missed were we going to add any language around data I'm sorry did I miss that yeah I did say that that we will evaluate conductive analysis it will this is using data as is available so Ryan would you accept a friendly amendment to your motion the charge be approved as amended I would be happy to accept the amendments as presented by chair Murphy um do a second a second um Jill hi Andrew hi Ryan hi etiquette hi Emma hi Bridget hi Jerry hi Mara hi and I believe that's everyone um and then I think the second piece is to approve the district hiring of facilitators to facilitate the committee Kim do we also need to appoint board members to this committee as well or is that this is to it all next week when we have everyone I think it's it's likely to be the same three but um that's just that's the point the committee call is one when we get applicants next week that's good I would move that the board um hire facilitators to chair and facility not to chair but to facilitate this committee do you have a second I second it uh any discussion yeah really briefly is let me does that come out of fund balance because we're not budgeted for that I first check what the board's budget is because you have a budget as well so we and you don't use it all usually so I'd check what that is first and then yes the rest of it would come out of fund balance okay then we're talking about an amount of roughly $4,800 yes thank you any other discussion uh Jill Andrew hi Ryan hi etiquette hi I'm uh hi Bridget hi Gary hi Mara great so we are now on to um board training um and only half an hour behind schedule so uh uh so Mara thanks for the reading and I will I will turn it over to you in the interest of of uh getting going awesome so I have a proposal for you board folk um and I don't know if it's possible given that this is meant to take place in the public portion of the meeting but in order to allow us to ever go to sleep on time I was going to um make ask that you watch the video portion maybe separately so that we don't have to spend those extra 20 to 25 minutes I don't know how to make that available to the public except to offer them a link but if that's okay and we're allowed to do that then I will gladly cut those 20 to 25 minutes off allowed yes who's everyone's favorite board member right now Mara okay so um what I want to do is we're going to discuss the work that Tema Okun did on um trying to describe white supremacy culture in organizations now one of the things that the video was going to do was it was going to kind of break down what is systemic racism what is white supremacy culture sometimes when we use these words people freak out a little bit right like they sound like big heavy scary words and they contain words like racism and white supremacy in them which automatically make people think like Ku Klux Klan right levels of that's what we're talking about but that's not actually what we're talking about when we talk about systemic racism or white supremacy culture and mind you the same way that we're talking about systemic racism we could be talking about systemic systemic sexism systemic heterosexism systemic sexism systemic you know preference for the middle class right so um we're talking about race because I want to specifically center race as a discussion because it's really important that we do that but I want us to understand that all of these isms operate in similar fashions even when they're separated from one another and a lot of times they're actually just in mesh with one another so I don't want people to think like okay well we're only talking about racism and we're not talking about all of the other things that are discriminatory we're talking about racism because it's a really central critical discussion to have and because we can kind of copy out some of the strategies and understandings from starting to get a capture on what we're talking about when we talk about systems so I'll just start with the systems piece when we say stuff like systemic racism or um people say something like oh the biases are baked into the system what do we mean by system I'm guessing that's not rhetorical no it's not because you want some answers there I'd say it's everything that's around us every processing place that's that we have cohabitated absolutely that that's really actually a really awesome description Libby thank you so the systems when we talk about it sometimes you'll hear people say things like that's a cultural construct right that's not real it's a cultural construct we as human beings created the world in which we live it shifts all the time but we create the reality in which we live so we decided what the rules were going to be as we moved into animal husbandry right we decided what the rules were going to be as we moved into agricultural sustainability right humans over time have decided how they were going to be with one another and how they were going to operate together who had the right to do what thing in what place and sometimes those systems are really formalized like we discuss the rules and we agree to them and sometimes the systems are actually more along the lines of what you think of as culture right the unspoken norms that we teach to one another even when they aren't officially rules on how we're supposed to act if you ever want to test what we mean by cultural norms if you are a person who grew up in say a metropolitan area of the united states that had elevators but that also catered predominantly to white people you can experience physically what our norms are like if you get too close to other people on the elevator so some pieces of culture are like no one ever comes to anyone and says hey in our culture growing up in Iowa you are allowed to stand this far from other people in the elevator or you will get in trouble no one ever does that right but we learn through observation we learn through listening we learn through paying attention to consequences what the rules of how things are going to be are and so we learn things like lots of folks who come who come from like white culture and especially who come from like a middle class white culture like and in the united states especially like a lot of personal space between them we have like a specified actual amount of personal space it's actually kind of interesting that we will mentally move we will move ourselves physically away from people now this is pre-covid before the the circle around you needed to be six feet in any direction but you can actually notice what happens if you watch in elevators or on park benches if people get too close to one another when the folks don't know each other and you can also watch what the differences are if people might if people are maybe coming from different cultural realities so that's what i mean when we say culture we mean what are the ways that we live amongst one another the things we accept as normal the things we accept as good and bad even if we don't talk about them out loud and then the systems part of it gets even more formalized when we talk about what laws are we going to agree to what are the paperwork things going to look like what is the physical environment going to look like those are the systems so all this to say that is what the video more or less would have said to you so that we could understand just a baseline about what we're talking about with systems that said the whole concept that tamo to okun gets at in her work around white supremacy culture is that there are elements of culture in the united states and around the world that are shaped by the culture that has dominant power and when we're talking in racial terms that means white people and that is coming from a history of you know colonialism around the world it's not an inherent way obviously that humans had to be if you know dominance and power had worked out differently we would have different isms that we're addressing but the united states comes as a result specifically of european domination of this space this land the people on it all of the things the cultures the understandings the objects all the things that were here were overtaken sometimes eliminated sometimes erased and those things were replaced with white ways of doing things and those things are often unexamined so that is why i assigned to this article because the first time i read the list of tamo okun's white supremacy culture in organizations i said no that's just how you're supposed to run things which is exactly the point of white supremacy culture and that is to say there is one right way of doing things and this is the right way to do them and other ways to do them are inferior or less good or less effective in some way so what i would love for you first to give me is just to the extent that you've got that you have some courageousness talk about in let's say five words or less emotions so that's feeling words right um that you felt or ways your body felt as you were reading the assignment so we're focusing on emotions and the way our body felt not things that you were thinking about not things you were pondering no reflections just things you felt anyone bored folks willing to offer some things that you were feeling as you read i can start to start the brave superintendent i can i felt disappointed because it doesn't have the answers in there for me disappointment what are some other feelings people had anger or sadness i do i thought of examples okay throughout my life and like every i was like oh yeah that's that i i see that manifest itself i see this concept manifested itself in the workplace like okay you felt some recognition yeah i i definitely felt recognition too i also felt a sense of of change and generational change as much as as diversity yeah a sense of change is good we're really going to focus hard on the emotions part here and let me tell you exactly why we're doing that because good pedagogy explains to you how your brain is working so that you can learn it better in the future we are working on the emotions part because one critical part of white supremacy culture of white culture in general is not discussing feelings not couching things in terms of feelings and often not even being able to identify one's own feelings so that's we are literally undoing white supremacy as we do this exercise right this second focusing on oh a lot of the culture that i grew up with tells me to think about this first but that it's going to be a little bit weird if i just tell all these people what my feelings are if you're getting the sense that something i'm asking you feels a little bit weird or a little bit awkward that is probably an indicator that that's a dominant culture piece at work that we're going to do some work to get through so i really appreciate this did anyone notice any body sensations things you felt in your body as we were doing this the as you were doing this reading i think if i read it for something like this for the first time i may have been a little i may have bristled out a little more but i've i've been through a lot of diversity training is a lot of these concepts i've i've internalized and jerry were you gonna say anything i was gonna say um like anxiety yeah absolutely a lot of us when we encounter the things like this for the first time or even for you know several times out there's a tension that rises and that tension can even be like in your body you can be noticing like what when i read this for the first time and someone asked me these questions i realized that i had been compulsively taking the camp off of my pen my body had been compulsively managing its stress and i actually had developed a little bit of like a cut because i had been so like my body was managing the stress without my conscious input and that means that there was a lot for it to be processing stuff that i didn't even realize was going to cause me stress to read it so if at times you felt stressed angry anxious sad confused maybe even hopeful if you noticed like oh i can see some places where this changed a lot of those things create tension and i just want to also mention that as we're diving into this because some of that tension is also a defense mechanism that keeps us from talking about this that makes it so physically emotionally and mentally uncomfortable to even read about that we put it down that is actually part of the function of that sort of one of the things that you saw in there was like defensiveness or right to comfort those things are actually part of the culture that serve to protect the culture from changing so just something for us to notice that if you felt anything along the lines of like this really makes me uncomfortable i don't really enjoy reading this that that is actually some of how the system keeps perpetuating i say that board members administrators and assorted community wonderful people because those are the things that will keep us from doing the change that we need to do it will keep us from having the conversations we need to have it will keep us from having the conversations at the depth we need to have them it will keep us from raising a point when we have a concern it will keep us from speaking up at the Thanksgiving table or in the grocery store or at grandma's house for a birthday wherever you are that you're with other people and you notice things come up that like seem like oh that doesn't feel right but i don't feel like i'm supposed to talk about it or i feel like it'd be really awkward helpful for you to notice that that's also part of the culture working so that's part of our job to push through i say that because this SRO discussion if you haven't noticed is going to be replete with that stuff and this is going to be something that we dive into for months so just think about the fact that your body and your mind will sometimes be resistant to change pieces and it is your job to push through the discomfort and keep doing the work anyway all right so i also have another question that's pretty basic and that is what surprised you or interested you or what's something you came across in there and you're like specifically that noise no other curious noises and for this one if possible i'd love to hear at least one thing from everyone who read the article it's um my response was it felt very american it's very reflective of our current conflict and transition we're in right now a lot of it has been the bill of goods we've been sold that makes you a good worker or uh whatever and that that's what we've been indoctrinated into so i had a somewhat similar reaction mainly because i came here when i was an adult so getting into this culture from a completely different culture to me this is how things are and so to be able to integrate i have to pick up on these things and rule with it so reading the article it's like oh this is you know this is what i've been told or you know i've seen it um and that's not right or you know that that's the kind of reaction i had for me one of the the interesting things was the connectivity of the different concepts like perfectionism and defensiveness like you know we should be able to have honest honest conversations about what's working well and what's not working well and be open to examining those issues but you know these concepts of this perfectionism striving for like this perfect way of being a knot and and putting on like this front paired with like the defensiveness of when you identify something that's imperfect how like that's just an example of how these concepts come together and many of these concepts to me represented obviously they're toxic elements of our culture but they they're they're huge barriers to progress in so many facets of our lives and i like i said i just saw so many examples as i'm reading through this i like see so many examples in the workplace and so many examples in everyday life um but lots of lots of good examples of people um i could think of at the same time people trying to move beyond these these um ways of thinking these structures so yeah no i think it it captured um yeah the culture we have in the workplace is really rewards self-promotion and i think has a bit of a zero-sum game approach to um kind of power and influence and i think it captured a lot of the you know the unspoken things that we kind of think of as virtues that that uh are really impediments oh i love that word think of as virtues and i also don't want to imply that these things are inherently bad what they are are things that we don't acknowledge all the time but that often we do think of as a good worker is one who does a ton of work all the time works over time produces produces produces right good virtues i like that one what else i had the reaction on the piece about the worship of the written word because that's pretty much what i do late all the time anyway so for that reason i you know it made me pause and stop and think about that and then i also was thinking about the conversation we had in policy committee recently about how dense some of these policies that are supposed to be promoting equity how they're written in such an incredibly dense and legalistic way so i was struck by just how deeply entrenched and how many anecdotes and how relatable they were and it just started to feel overwhelming really quickly um because i tend to be like a solution-oriented person and i like to problem solve and so when i start you know the further and further i got into it i'm like this is so much and i i tend to try to like pick out little things and um and try to implement those things and and work on you know one or two goals at a time but it but it definitely was a lot so i guess for me having grown up in a very german small town culture um i always thought of it as that culture and not american culture so that would be sorry dogs that would be sort of an aha moment like oh it's not my little town culture it's actually the whole country and and the reason i say that is because i have worked my whole career with extremely diverse teams i'm married into an indian family so i you know i've i've kind of embraced all these different cultures and i love learning about different cultures but i always thought of my original foundational culture as that small town german rather than american so that was kind of aha moment like oh okay this is just american anyone else or i can share an apology with you actually wish i could be my assignment ryan i unfortunately did not to be honest i would have rather spent my time doing this challenging work than what's been on my plate for the last week but yeah i apologize i'm not going to be able to be a great part of the conversation this evening that's totally okay because sometimes there are limitations on what you're capable of and thank you so i want to just respond to a couple of the things that came up and then we are and i know this is going to sound kind of simultaneously relieving and frustrating then we're going to be done for tonight we're not actually going to do a lot with this because i want you to spend some time really noticing so i'm going to give homework if you will so one thing that i wanted to mention is we heard like good worker and that really comes out when we look at our like our our quantity over quality our sense of urgency how fast can you get things done perfectionism how close are you to perfect and how much do you do you get it right all the time a lot of these things are things that we see as being virtues like jim said of good workers good people in the united states now i say in the united states there there are other places in the world where lots of these white culture pieces are similarly part of the foundational like organizational culture of the area but when we talk about the united states it is a little bit different because the united states is not and never has been only white people right the the land here did not start out but start out populated by white people and the number of people living in the united states bringing different cultures and different ideas is staggering right when a lot of us grew up hearing that america is a melting pot but something that is true is that america sometimes the way anicate identified is a melting pot in that it kind of requires you to to melt down into the same thing that everything else is is when in fact we could be a toss salad right we could be a composite thing that was made up of lots of different ways of doing things but a lot of what we do especially in business culture and in education is require people to be the same all the time and try to shape them into being this kind of good worker model or to value the the things that we value like that sense of urgency being on time all of those things that sometimes are even like well what would we even be how could you even function if you didn't value being on time so i just want to play with that one not only because good worker but good student falls in that line too right our idea of who a good student is sometimes also conforms to these expectations and so that leads me to a next piece which is um andrew raised the idea of barrier to progress in some ways these cultural values are intended to try to push things forward faster but in only one direction right so that all the things that we build keep being based on and in line with all of these values that we already had but it does mean that we lose out on all of the things that come from creativity diversity of thinking diversity of experiences so a interesting fact that i learned when i was a study abroad advisor was that articles that are published in peer-reviewed journals that have multinational authors on them rather than being from any one nation are actually cited at a much higher rate and they often produce better scholarship overall that gets used by more people than places that were one team from one country so a team of only americans only japanese people only south african people often doesn't produce the same level of work that groups that have people coming from lots of different experience levels do there are lots of examples of that it's not just an academic paper writing but it's a chance again for us to think if our idea of what is good if our idea of what is appropriate if our idea even of what is lawful and to bring in Bridget's point like we law is a way that we function in some ways we use lots who try to create equality and then we what we have to have there is kind of like a backup is an understanding that no one way that we do things is going to result in the best possible outcome trying lots of different stuff experimenting breaking our own rules sometimes is much more likely to result in not only a culture where everybody can feel a little bit more comfortable and a little bit more like they can be themselves instead of having to change to be something else but also means we get the benefits of people's authentic experiences and authentic perspectives so that's also a thing that i think a lot about in the classroom and with learners it's a lesson that we've had a really really long hard time grappling with when we think about things like access and ability when it comes to thinking about what is learning what is school does an assistantship somewhere count does the tech center count because the answer once upon a time would have been no right so as we expand our idea of what it means to be learning and what it means to be a good learner and what it means to be a good worker and a good contributor to our community it's going to mean that we push on some of these pieces that we read here in this article um and a last another thing that i wanted to address real fast that worship of the written word gets out another thing that i want to make sure we go away from this particular talk with and that is just because something can be limiting or can be a barrier or can be operating in a way that is holding people back or doing damage of some kind doesn't mean that it doesn't also still have some functions that we may need so worship of the written word when we're talking about white supremacy culture sometimes what we're saying is well if i can just write this document in a way that you can't understand it i can always get my way or if i can just say that we never wrote it down and you didn't know that that was the rule i get to do the thing i wanted to because i made up the rule about writing it down and the loss as we had to write it down right but on the other side of that is stuff like if you never write anything down it becomes really easy to take advantage of people and say no we never said that we never agreed on that so i want us to understand that with these things there's often a balance that can be achieved we're not saying throw away all sense of time we're not saying throw away your sense of what comfort is or throw away the written word we're saying notice the patterns and notice the places where we hold them so rigidly that it could be blocking people out but then also take the opportunity to notice what would happen if we let go of this completely who might be locked out then so that's just a piece to keep thinking about in in multi directions and i think like i said i'm going to send you the video but what i really love for you to do is sort of going away from here this won't be the only time you ever have this discussion start trying to notice and maybe even take a few notes of places in your everyday life where you see this crop up when we're in board meetings i i have mentioned on more than one occasion that i'm like robert's rules of order is white supremacy culture because it is it is a culture's way of saying this is how we have to do literally everything that sometimes locks out the ability to do dialogue or the ability to be more flexible so look for ways that things like this might trigger in your mind jot them down and ruminate and that is literally your homework is to just notice things that are happening in your work environment in your board environment notice things that are coming out of kids mouths right because we start teaching this stuff to one another really early so that's it all right i'm done let's let's do the next thing thank you mara yeah that was excellent and all your trainings have been excellent we're super super happy you're willing to do them and super glad you're here on the board and able to guide us through these things because they're they're tough and needed conversations um so next item and i have misplaced my agenda um i believe is the policy monitoring here's my agenda um fourth reading of the transgender and gender non-performing students policy um any questions or additions or edits otherwise um we didn't we didn't get the new version until earlier today correct the it's important to note that the new version would have had one word difference did we want to identify where that one word difference would be so that people could glance at it it's in the it's toward the bottom where we talk about former or current students having the capacity to change records and we just took out current because the rest of the document refers to how we're dealing with current students and that paragraph specifically refers to if you're a former student and therefore you interact with the school differently than you would if you were a pupil what does it look like for you does that sound like a good sum up i remember did ryan thanks for that was the only difference and maybe just to re-clarify the policy that's in front of us right now was the same policy that we read two meetings ago there is no changes actually made they had been discussed and somehow got included in the draft that came out on friday but the one that's in front of us right now was the same policy that we read back in september which should be could explain why we left the language the same my brain is not ready to explain our logic there but i think i don't know i can yes so so when the language is here before there were concerns there's a question raised about why the piece about former students didn't include current students and the policy committee discussed it and as mara said the rest of the policy is about how the district interacts with its current students and there really isn't a and actually a big part of the challenge of how we interact with our current students can be that we have students who identify differently from their legal name for a period of time and so that's kind of so that's like the a big focus of how we want to have guidance for the district in how the district interacts with current students this piece about former students and the focus on a legal name change is kind of it's just a different piece that's because former students might never you know they might otherwise not have any basis for the district to be able to change their records unless we put this in there because normally there's not much interaction between former students and the district where so we so it's a specific protection for former students to make sure that their records can be updated it's really a different issue i think we're just trying to keep the two things separate the guidance the guidance for current students is a separate thing from former students did any uh questions or can we consider it read so is this ready for adoption next uh board meeting i i think it may be it's been a long i think that means it can go on my consent agenda at the next yeah okay thank you bridge because you know we probably asked you that anyway well that's right this has been a year long effort hasn't it yeah yeah thank you for your policy committee third it's arriving in great place yeah thank you yeah well crafted well thought through so finally policy monitoring of student attendance and student freedom of expression in school sponsored media do you have any questions or discussions about that otherwise we can um have a motion to approve the monitoring reports i move to approve the policy monitoring reports never second second um any discussion no uh jill i andrew hi ryan hi anaget hi amma hi jerry hi mara and bridget hi so approved um next is motion to adjourn bridget do you want the honors i'll move we adjourn uh seconded uh jill andrew ryan hi anaget hi nova hi jerry hi mara you're welcome and i uh and bridget hi thank you all and again um huge thanks to bridget for all her her fantastic work over the many many years um we will miss you um it's definitely but you have certainly put in your time and i'm sure it will be nice to have your wednesday night's back so thank you everybody thank you again