##VIDEO ID:XcSWz-xzWYA## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right good evening everyone uh and welcome to the January 28 2025 Lakeville Area Schools board meeting um please rise with me and recite the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right we're going to start with roll call if we could start with a directors on my right then moving left Amber Cameron Brett Nicholson Paul Carbone Matt Swanson Michael Balman Kim Baker Carly Anderson Brian Thompson and if the executive cabinet would want to introduce themselves Brenda alre executive director of administrative Services Emily McDonald assistant superintendent Michelle free executive director of student services and Bill Homan Executive Director of Business Services all right and as always we have Kim Elon with us helping out thank you Kim I'm going to turn it over to uh superintendent Balman for the good news thank you Mr chair start with uh students of the month Lakeville are schools has a students of the month recognition program that highlights three students each month students can be nominated by anyone in Lakeville area schools community students staff families and community members and we're excited to announce that January students are cello renon uh grade uh second grade in East viiew Elementary School Jackson jungers uh seventh grade in uh from Kenwood Trails middle school and Lincoln Colo who's a ninth grader at Lakeville North High School just want to offer congratulations and way to go [Applause] [Music] staff of the month I got more we're not done all right there's so much good news in Lakeville we have a lot to do tonight staff of the month Lakeville Area Schools is excited to have a monthly recognition program that also highlights our staff members who are nominated by anyone in the Lakeville area schools community and we're excited to announce the January staff our Tyler Emanuel special education teacher at Lake Marian elementary school [Music] yay and Stephanie kaller an eel specialist at Oak Hills Elementary School Mr chair wait there's more this is a great one not that the others aren't great too Lakeville South celisa Smith is named physical education teach of the year so congratulations Lisa Smith who has been named the 2025 shape America Central District High School physical education teacher of the year shape is Society of health and physical Educators is a leading organization dedicated to advancing the work of health and physical Educators across the country as a district Honore Smith is now eligible for the prestigious national teacher of the year award which will be announced at the 2025 shape America National Convention and Expo set to take place in Baltimore in April of this year so again congratulations Lisa and as always if you want to read more about the amazing things happening in our district isd194.org newws is where you can find that and that is good news Mr chair uh thank you superintendent Bowman we're going to move on to the approval of the agenda um if there are no requests for modification to the agenda i' be open to a motion to approve motion to approve right is there a second I'll second second by chair b or by Baker uh all in favor say I I I'll oppose same sign all right it is approved uh on to the consent agenda uh were there any items for discussion that anyone wanted to talk about on the consent agenda yeah I've got two questions here in the consent agenda we've got um in section c employment recommendations looks like we're hiring a interim special education coordinator and then looks like we also have another special education resource teacher that we're hiring as well so I guess my question on those two is for the district um are we caught up yet in all of our special education hiring needs because I know I think at the last meeting or two couple weeks back we were 20 26 resources short the answer is not cut up in our needs but working as hard as we can toward that I'm sorry I should have no so Jump Right In and the second question that I have is that I think I saw in the non-affiliate staff change request they school Success Liaisons uh We've now I think there's was it four six of them uh looks like there is an increase in the days per school year from 185 to 205 so I'm just double-checking uh where where are we getting that funding out of how is that being covered uh how many do we have and then maybe some clarification on the role that they have within our districts I'm going to ask Nicole Adams to provide that thank you good evening thank you for the question we currently have five Liaisons with a six starting next week they currently are on 185 day contract they are uh moving to a 205 day contract with approval that is funded out of our AI budget um what was your other question what what will they be doing if since we don't have kids in our schools in those extra 20 days R spend a tremendous amount of time connecting with families um and so a lot of their time is actually working with families to ensure that they're able to adequately navigate our system so um though we don't have students in the district they spend a lot of time doing home visits and going to a lot of community events to make sure that they're liasing with the community and the school district and that's coming out of the AI budget so we're not going to be over no we are well within range okay yeah all right thank you I had one question um on the resignations is this a and just so the public knows so this is the first time we've received or a number of the new board members have received this packet um I was just wondering is this a normal number of resignations for this time period or I'll ask uh Brenda alre to share um I know there's fluctuation and it's not uh same number every time but uh I'll let her answer yeah yeah I would agree with superintendent Bowman um it depends on the time of the year uh what time of the year some people decide to retire um sometimes we have people resign for personal or family reasons um but it is a large district and uh you will see on the Personnel recommendations at each meeting it it is quite lengthy whether we're hiring or people are resigning yeah do we do exit interviews and and get some feedback in regards to why now not retirement but for other reasons to leave yes when someone uh resigns they receive a email with an exit interview and they can elect to answer the questions in that exit interview or not okay thank you you're welcome thank you Brenda any other questions all right with that I'd move to approve the consent agenda items is there a second second all right second by director Cameron all approved say I all oppose same sign the motion carries all right on to reports and discussions uh we're looking at our second reading of the proposed cell phone policy for the district we discussed this a couple weeks ago and then Brenda is GNA fill us and on some more information I believe yes thank you good evening chair Swanson superintendent Bowman and members of the school board you have before you this evening a second reading of the proposed cell phone policy new legislation requires a school district or Charter School to adopt a policy on students possession and use of cell phones in schools by March 15th 20125 this provision effective May 18th of 2024 also requires the Minnesota Elementary School principles Association and the Minnesota Association of Secondary School principles to collaborate and make best practices available on a range of different strategies to minimize the impact of cell phones on student Behavior mental health and academic achievement and presenting on this uh policy this evening is principal Kim booty from Lakeville North High School hello everybody I don't know that we've all met so it's nice to see you um last reading uh the first reading of the Schoolboard policy there were several questions that people had about how does this actually look at the high school um and and the proposal that 912 is different than the middle school and so I wanted to give you just some real life facts of where we're at and what what that looks like at the high school first of all I want you to know that our high school kids are amazing kids and they are very compliant when it comes to the expectation of phones now we're all we're all um attached or Tethered to our phones so we definitely have our moments right um but the reason the proposal is coming to you that 912 looks differently is We Believe at the high school not only are we teaching curriculum but we're teaching lifelong skills and if we think about what we're sending our students into the world to face they will probably check their phones during lunch on their lunch breaks in their jobs they'll probably check their phones on the way to one meeting to another and so we feel strongly that from Bell to Bell during class phones should be put away because we want them to truly focus in on instruction but we also understand the reality of our students um are the transportation for siblings and so there may be a change and they need to know know that information we have a lot of students who um are in activities and their coaches or advisers do not actually teach in our school so they they need a way to be able to communicate with those uh practice schedules and things along those lines and the reality is is that uh a lot of our students work and so there's that piece as well uh as we try to help our students navigate what that next step in life looks like we feel very strongly that giving them the chance to learn when it is appropriate to have your phone and when it is appropriate to put your phone away is a very valuable lesson so um I'm trying to think to some of the questions that were asked and I I do know the question was asked like what about during uh lunch well it's the whole gamut because when they're eating they're not on their phones they're they're talking they're visiting and I would say if you came to a lunchroom at North or South you would hear conversation um and at the same time there are some people who need a little break from the the stress and the things of school and they're going to they're going to play a few games on their phone and they're going to kind of have that time to kind of decompress um so I would say that what you would see is a wide variety in that lunchroom um sometimes they're on their phones and sometimes they're not and that is a kind of a personal preference in that space um there was a question about recording things at school yep they also record things people record things at the airport at the mall at the driving past an accident that's reality our our mission is to help them understand that if you've recorded something why and if it's something you shouldn't have help them understand why it's not appropriate to keep that information and that it's never appropriate to film someone without permission so again trying to give those life lessons um in that setup did I catch all of them or have you had new ones oh I think there was another one about social media yeah I I mean that is a monster we can't battle um I would say that when we deal with social media issues at school they are not issues that happen during school they're issues that have happened over the weekend that carry into school and so those are things that are not happening um right in front of us we address when we can and we follow through when we can um our teachers are are very good about being consistent about protocol you you put your phone away if it's a test you put your phone in the pocket um and that is how we're rolling so hopefully that has given you some other ideas of what it looks like at the high school just one quick question for you um so do you agree with the policy as it's drafted or do you think would you recommend any tweaks to it I as drafted so that 912 is um students have phones away during class but they have the ability to have phones out from uh during passing time and at lunch right one more question just so I'm clear if a student post something online on social media when they're not in the school is that something that they would you know be in trouble for when they come to school if it becomes an issue or how do you address that it depends on if it actually becomes a school issue so there's a lot of stuff that goes on that we don't ever know about but there are sometimes when it becomes a big big enough issue that it disrupts the school day and when there's a dis disruption in the school act U the day-to-day operation and things like that then we do tend to get involved thank you director Nicholson um do we do any sort of um training at the beginning of the year for kids in high school to give them awareness in terms of what the phone can do to them nowadays in terms of recording in terms of you know recording all conversations and the potential liability that they can open themselves up to have we ever done anything like that maybe that's a broader question to it you know it's a great question and there are we do go through what's in our handbook about expectations and follow through um we do not I don't know that we get into it as deeply as what you're suggesting not opposed to that and that is definitely something that we can do more of um and I think that that that education has to start before high school like we need to talk uh about what what that phone does and what it doesn't do and and how it can carry with you uh I do know that as we talk about your careers and what's your next steps and what do you post and how that can come back to you uh we do have those conversations very regularly director Anderson I very distinctly remember um a few years ago there was this amazing training that was not training presentation done by um some of the district leadership in terms of it was for parents um and my husband and I both went to it and it was basically talking about celf phone use and kids and all the threats I mean my mind was blown in terms of what our sro's are finding out about um that's going on in not just our community but in our surrounding community and um I just wanted to commend our district for doing that and I think it would be great to have that offered on a more regular basis because I don't think parents I mean I feel like I'm kind of up to speed on some things in life and I I mean we both walked out of there just so surprised about what's actually happening that was a really fun um partnership with uh the Faith communities the police department and our school district so yes we've talked about bringing some of those pieces back director Thompson uh yeah so I am I think directionally aligned with the cell phone policy so no cellones kindergarten through 8th grade uh 9th through 12th uh you know I think I was probably on the camp of no cell phones from Bell to Bell I spoke with my son and his friends and they were not in favor of that so but the ultimate goal is to minimize distraction have a c questions I'll sear but the question I have for you is that how do we then enforce this while we ask students not to bring their cell phones into High High School classrooms and is it going to vary based on the based on the teacher um do we put them in little pockets do we do we confiscate them for the day and and then are we taking something away from the student that is that belongs to them so so the the policy it reads is they either need to keep their phone in their backpack's purses or away or if a teacher collects and has a phone pocket that they need to drop in the phone pocket a lot of our teachers will use the phone pocket especially on assessment days because they don't want that Temptation or they don't want any any sort of um distraction um and so it we have given our teachers some freedom to how they want to enforce it in their classroom uh there is a a plan in place that if a student has their phone out you ask them to put it away if they do not put it away you ask them to place it on their desk and if after a third third round then it is brought to the office so we try to give our students as many opportunities to self-regulate in that process of not having those phones out during class and I mean there's a lot of high school kids here and I know that they could probably also speak to the fact that um you know there is some Freedom sometimes and there's also some that are are some teachers are very strict about it so it's about also figuring out who your bosses are and how you're going to work with the rules that they established in that space can director Thompson oh just a follow thank you just a followup to that so when it when it's brought to the office who takes it to the office like are we are are teachers responsible for taking the phone or confiscating the phone or whatever you want to call it uh are they then do they or do they just take it in the classroom and then they bring it to the office when they have a free time do we call her an SRO I just want to be mindful that we're not putting teachers in a position where I don't want to say they're the bad guy but if they're not following the process uh what are we doing to making sure that it it's not them it's the policy and and how do we enforce that I I think it depends on the teacher some teachers are very comfortable just bringing it up to the office some will call for a security person to pick it up and bring it to the office and some will call directly for the assistant principal to come down grab the phone and bring it to the office Dr Anderson yeah I was just I was just wondering um I know we talked about this in the in the back a little bit but um what is happening with the earbuds and watches and that kind of stuff because I feel like that's a little bit I would say on behalf of the watches we don't see a lot of a lot of infractions or issues with the watches we do see more with the earbuds um and that is sometimes a struggle to I'm not going to we're not going to wrestle a kid and get the earbuds out right like the reality is again we're going to ask them to remove them um a lot of times they will keep one in and keep their music playing on their phone in the pocket so we try to just have again those conversations use those as teachable moments to explain you got to pay attention you got to have both ears you got to be ready and there are times when yes you may listen to music because we're doing work right now and so sometimes permission is given for that right thank you principal buddy yeah Mr chair may I interject here a little bit please do um I think uh with regard to the policy there is one uh area in the middle school and I asked Dr Alexander to to come and address that that I would like to uh refine the language so that we are clear on storage of uh Middle School cell phones and lockers and uh I asked Dr Alexander if he would share and explain uh what the practice is so thank you for having me here tonight um I represent all three middle schools Kenwood Maguire and uh century and so for all of us we did send messages out to our families in the fall same letter all of our community knows because the changes were coming from our legislative our body from that so with us our key though with the change to the policy we ask that it be in their locker away not on their person uh when a student has it they're going to check it you know our our kiddos are don't quite have the maturation of a high school student who can kind of regulate self-regulate so for our kids taking away the Temptation it's in the locker it's not a problem for them so that would be a recommendation that we would choose uh as as the middle school is having that device in the locker not just away and out of sight but in a physical other place in their locker and all of our students at the middle school do have a locker are are you finding that it is disruptive in the classrooms for the middle schoolers if they have their cell phone on them uh not this year we haven't had a lot of issues this year um last year yes uh years before yes because kids would want to check they'd have it out uh they'd have it out in the hallway then that's where you really get into that social site of who's texting whom and you get into all that so so this year did you switch to the must be in the locker policy or practice all three schools made that change this year yes okay and that's been successful this year it has been successful it's great to hear chair so I'm assuming then we would change the language on number two where it says uh cell phones and other personal electronic devices should remain silent and out of sight that would be in in their locker correct is that the language change you're looking for yes ma'am okay ready to what is the policy I mean if you see a student and he looks like they have a cell phone in their pocket know what's a procedure then sure well there's a relationship you try to have with all of your kids whether it's a teacher whether it's a principal or assistant principal Dean um if if you were to have it in our building and I would know you have it I would ask you i' would say Matt do you have your cell phone on you and you'd probably say yes Dr Alexander I do and I would say can you please return that to your locker and they would comply our kids are great as as uh we said before we have great kids in Lakeville they do what's asked of them and their parents are great because they enforce that um but they do they return it and if they don't then it's a different conversation I need to have your phone and the kids okay and if that's the case we take it we have a uh place in our student services area where we keep the phones for our kids end of the day for the first time if it if it's their first offense they get it back second offense goes to their parent we have their parent come in and actually pick it up third time we actually have a parent meeting and say we have an issue here we're not able to get past that here's our policy here's what we've set up for that and our parents have been great to support that thank you Dr Cameron um Dr a this might not be a question for you necessarily but um in editing number two do all Elementary classrooms have lockers I I I don't I think my youngest doesn't so I just wanted to I don't know if we need to have a separate thing for prek five to just to or like how do we handle that I guess when there's not the physical Locker available I I actually connected with with uh Mr hellberg who is our principal at cherryview elementary and my understanding is the majority of kids do have a locker or a safe place to be able to a cubby uh something that if they do have a phone that they can put that away as well okay and that is the expectation at the elementary as well I do have uh what they sent out for the families as well this year great so so maybe just lockers or something yeah something like that direct Thompson I don't have any questions for you so I've got three Poli or content questions so I don't know if you guys have any other questions and he can go sit down if he likes but no no thank you very much appreciate it you thanks for having us so so the first one that I have is just the second paragraph or the last sentence of uh the cell phone use this policy includes cell phones personal electronic devices earphones Bluetooth or wired um I I'm just wondering if that needs to be a broader in scope uh with uh AI devices AI glasses that might be coming up or do you call that as personal electronic devices um and then also maybe a statement that says devices that may have a direct or indirect access to the internet in any capacity so I'm just wondering if this is going to kind of confine us to just cell phones and and that's it so that that's my thought on that one is there an area that you think personal electronic devices would not cover I don't know I I I just don't know if that's broad enough I was going to say I feel like that's vague enough I mean the reality is this technology is so rapidly changing all the time that I think we want a policy that if if that terminology kind of captures the majority of things that kids are going to have now and potentially in the future I feel like it's vague enough to fall under the policy that okay do you have a second question too yeah uh second one that I have is on Section B number two uh cell phones or other personal electronic devices blah blah blah blah blah with the exception of medical management are there scenarios where uh a personal cell phone device might be used that that's not MediCal but might be like your IEP or like a 403 the 403b pl I don't think that's the one 505 504 504 504 yeah are there scenarios where cell phones are included in that and so I'm assuming go ahead so um typically when we assign assist of Technology device to a student uh we try to use the um electronic equipment that the District offers because kids don't like to look different than their peers so um because we're a onetoone device um District we would use like I think for elementary it would be the iPad or for um secondary it could be like the Chromebook um so technically they're using the devices that everybody uses we just add extensions on our different apps so like the um Google read and write is one that's pretty common and then um you know if there's an organization thing we add apps to the devices that they already use for the district so that they look like their peers and so the last one that I have is uh section three respect for privacy rights uh number one students shall not record photograph or video other students or School Employees on school property and so I think that's the one that I have questions around around School Employees on school property uh are there scenarios where a student needs to take a picture they or should they not take pictures or are are public employees public employees and are they like do they can can students take pictures and video or is that something that's illegal is that against the law um it is on school property it is a public education system uh so that that was one where I wasn't sure uh could because could a student get in violation if they recorded something of a teacher and then here in the statute or here in this policy says that they can't you're talking about without their the teach permission yeah so what is it I mean what's the definition of a School employee and do they do they have those uh privacy rights on school premises yeah well I mean I guess some of it would be is it during class time too because that would be a violation of the policy versus you know outside in the parking lot or something like that um but no I yeah I don't know the answer to that an employee would be anybody that is in our payroll uh substitute teachers could be any any of our staff um the policy is a guide by which if it's violated you know you have uh you have this document and these words in order to do any followon enforcement of that um I think if as I I'm an employee of the school district and I get photographed don't know why a lot um and I think there's there's context that's probably part of that and that we would want to apply our judgment in that but in general if there's nefarious purpose to filming or video digital videoing uh you you'd want to have a mechanism to uh mitigate that and or deal with it because uh you shouldn't be doing that and we know that we have to provide consent to photograph our students for anything that's kind of uh not kind of but is official District activity and if uh a parent or Guardian hasn't authorized that then you know we we go to um links to make sure that we don't violate that so uh I think it's for personal protection it's the Wild Wild West sometimes uh and I think to have a policy that gives us something to uh go to and to work from is probably a good idea any questions no all right with that I guess we'll move on um oh dror Cameron um I know at last week's Mee I think it was right we established the policy committee um chair would you like and I know you're on it um would you like the three of us to meet revise this and then bring it back for Vote or conversation at the next meeting like would that be helpful to the board or like what what are next steps I guess that you would like to take yeah I mean we and again we don't have a resolution as far as how the policy committee works or what that procedure is yet but no I I'd be fine with that I know there's some initial discussions of I know we have to check on timing What time meets for or works for all of us to meet and go over that but I'd be fine with that and I think our deadline superintendent Bowman is March first part of March or March one March 15th okay so we have a little time to get this in place just reminder that those are still public meetings so make sure that you share that date with Kelson so that she can publicize that we'll do all right um any reports from the board members uh did anybody attend any Council in the last couple weeks that they'd like to share some information about director Anderson um I was at the gifted advisory Council um probably a couple weeks ago now two three weeks ago and um I just wanted to um say how happy I was to see several of our students come and talk about their experience in the district um and they they answered a lot of our questions which was great um there was some presentation of data across the different levels of the gifted programming and um I think the great news was that um overall our our students in this programming are very happy with what they are being offered um so that was great to see and uh the one addition that I had to plug because um I care about the counselors in our school a lot was the students there talked about how helpful the counselors have been at the um High School level this year and how important they have been to help them consider um what are next steps for them in their in their academic or career journey and they just that that was unprompted and they all kind of talked about the importance of that so just something that I think we should we keep hearing about this in multiple different Avenues and I think we should keep on our radar thanks Carly anyone else all right we'll move on to the superintendent's report Mr chair I'm going to defer we have a lot of people here and uh I think they want to get to public comment so if that's okay with you absolutely all right public comment um I think this will be the first meeting for most of this board where public comment is taking place or people have signed up um we did have a lot of people sign up so I'm just going to read uh what I believe are the published rules for public comment um and then we'll get we'll get rolling um so I am going to open up the floor for 30 minutes to allow for public comment uh to address any comments or concerns to the board uh in order to participate in public comment individuals would have had to register in advance using the form on our website if you want to do that for future meetings you have to do so by noon on the Monday before the scheduled public comment session uh we will be having public comments at all standard board meetings so three times a three times a month until April and then we're going down to two times a month so um there will be no board responses during the session to your public comment uh the board I'm assuming most what most of you are here to talk about will probably be addressed uh in a little while once the board actually engages in that discussion um public comments framed as complaints and or concerns about students and or staff are not appropriate in the public forum due to data privacy laws uh these comments should be addressed to the administration outside of a public meeting likewise complaints about Schoolboard members should be privately directed to the board shair Andor the superintendent uh typically if the public comment isn't about something that's already scheduled for a vote normal no formal action will be taking on a topic presented during public comment um and as needed the administration will follow up with the appropriate personnel on any concerns that need to be individually addressed also if necessary the board will follow up during board Communications at the next regularly scheduled board meeting um individual remarks are limited to 3 minutes uh we will provide a signal when the participant has 30 seconds remaining of their time uh please try to keep the audience noise to a minimum so that everyone can be heard uh and just show everyone respect as they're speaking uh we will go for 30 minutes you don't have to speak for 3 minutes so if you go for Less we'll get through more people um your everyone's name who signed up for public comment has been put in a little bucket here and uh director Carbone will pull a name out and get things rolling uh director Baker will be timing everybody and uh you want to raise your hand maybe when there's 30 seconds left all right with that we ready to start open it up very good Natalie K hello board um I would like to thank you for your time and opportunity to speak and support of removing the inclusive signs series which includes the politically charged BLM signs from all schools including the district offices I know that no one on this board has been responsible for these posters being placed all over schools and it's not fair that you have to be responsible for the previous board's choices and decisions which have included to um these posters that have failed to represent all of the children that live in our community these posters have isolated divided and caused children to wonder why their life doesn't matter and why they are not represented on the school walls this has also caused the district to spend so much time resources and money and legal fees the most responsible thing would be for the district to remove these posters in order to avoid further legal issues the fact that the against a school district has gone as far as the Supreme Court proves that these posters are indeed political and divisive in nature it is time for the district to move back to a neutral position and create a positive learning environment for all students free from distractions posters can't welcome children they can't love on children include children or make them any safer only people can it's their teachers and the school staff that make every student feel welcome and safe in their classrooms all the teachers that my children have had in Lakeville schools have done just that let's move our districts Focus back to include all children to help each child grow and flourish in Reading Writing Math and Science it's time to shift our Focus to academic Excellence for everyone Let's help each child feel included by teaching and read write and do math at grade level and Beyond let us uh let's focus our money time and resources on helping these children to rise to high standards of academic learning and to support those who are struggling thank you for moving this District in the right direction thank you Natalie thank you Natalie yeah uh just out of respect for everyone if we could maybe not clap in between otherwise I could get a little crazy yeah very good the the second the second speaker is Austin M uh hello everybody my name is Austin Meyer and I am a teacher at Lakeville North High School I am also the adviser for uh Sage which is our school's lgbtq plus Alliance Group um I just um want to um imagine that uh I am interviewing for my job at my school and I were to uh say that not all students matter and that uh diversity is not important or celebrated um and that actually I should discriminate against students based off of their gender race sexuality socioeconomic status Etc um and I can promise that I would I would not be hired by the school um that goes against our values as as as teachers and uh the belief that every single student has a place to belong um I talked to some of my students um today they approached me uh they were very concerned about um this proposal and some of the students had some important things to share it's not about these signs being political it's the idea that these signs show students that you are welcomed here CU a lot of our students go through the school day not knowing whether or not they will be accepted or loved and appreciated and if you go enter into a room where you don't feel safe or valued or seen there's no way that you can learn right our effective filters go up we shut down and there's no way that we can do what we come to school for which is to learn and make connections and learn how to become better citizens some of the things my students said um uh they shared with me is that um some students have some of them have suffered anxiety depression self Haring or suicidal thoughts and uh this the when you when you see an environment uh when when you see in your environment that uh that you are loved and belonged it changes things another student said um that inclusive posters made her feel a lot safer to be herself and around people who aren't her friends and if they got taken down she would most likely revert to closing off and refusing help that saved her life if mental health is important like why would we not keep up these signs um another student shared that they've had many things thrown at them in class because of their different colored hair their different looks uh and their their sexual sexual identity and uh gender expression and having um seeing these posters and seeing where spaces are safe that has buil built connections where they know that they belong and that they have succeeded academically because of that another student writes 30 seconds another students WR writes getting rid of all um signs attempting to bring awareness to minorities and communi such as the lgbtq plus Community can further damage groups and people such as themselves the the signs um um this person writes um with the even though the signs may not they they might just be a sign um it will it will show each other that um sorry um just a sign is is a really important thing for these kids to know that they're valued and they're loved appreciated please keep them thank you Austin [Applause] the third speaker is Sarah R Sarah R is she here started for 30 minutes no there's no way okay okay there might be a delay on the recording yeah Sarah r do you want to call another name and we'll rotate her in if she comes there are going once twice third time okay Danielle C good evening uh members of the board okay I've done some research of my own and to my understanding the main concern is specifically about the black lives matter posters let's do a little quick refresher here the black lives matter movement was created in 2013 by three black women following the death of Trayvon Martin to raise awareness of the social of the racial injustices that black people face every day these posters don't have any political ideologies on them and the purpose wasn't to say that all lives don't matter its purpose was to shine light on the black communities affected by systemic racism and police brutality I'd also like to share a fact that I remember from my AP Psychology class last year during the early years of child's life one M children make 1 million neural connections every second that statistic is just a number but it also reflects how perceptive how perceptive children are and how crucial their environment is when navigating their first few years those first few years are in a classroom as a member of the community it's imperative that we help guide this environment ensuring that children are exposed to a setting that encourages respect and equality these values of respect inclusive and inclusivity are not political they are necessary to a modern society by showcasing these posters around schools we are teaching our children that all backgrounds race race gender or abilities should be respected and treated equally the point of these posters is to create an environment where students feel seen heard valued and accepted for who they are as they are I want to emphasize again that kids brains are like sponges they soak up any information they see or hear at home on the playground during any activities and in schools their brains are so impressionable with which is why they're Expo what they are exposed to is so important during their education they will learn critical math and science skills but most importantly life lessons these learning environments are what shapes their understanding of the world and eventually their adult life if you are listening to us high schoolers the ones that this vote affects here is when we say it's not about politics 30 seconds it's about creating an environment for our future generations to value a compass passate and diverse World by supporting inclusive messages and images we are teaching our future Generations that everyone deserve to deserves to be treated equally removing these posters sends a message to your students that you are not ready to take affirmative action in promoting inclus inclusiv inclusivity equality and the justice for your students I urge you that's time okay thank you Daniel thank you than you never mind I was going to say I thought you sitting at to clap the next speaker is Lily L we're going to do just students right hello all my name is Lily lonach and I'm a student at Lakeville South High School while posting inclusivity signs might seem pointless to many once you look deeper into the issue you know they that they are instrumental to uh sites to promoting a respectful environment in our schools even in a seemingly respectful place like Lakeville area schools it is important to remind students to be respectful of all backgrounds cultures and identities we must create a safe space which eliminates bullying and harassment and while these posters do not eliminate this issue they bring awareness to the fact that it is still prominent around us seeing that people have an issue with these signs and what they're saying is an alarming example that shows how this systematic hate is still prevalent around us today which is exactly why we need posters that are saying that say everyone is welcome because backlash is being made towards signs that say all are welcome here it is the direct example that currently not all feel welcome on your website you state that you quote believe in a in fostering a sense of community in every qu classroom building and team our school leaders reinforce the shared commitment end quote I urge you to continue to reinforce this commitment and to not ban the signs that encourage the very same community that you promise saying we value and respect those around us is not political it is showing the sense of community that Lal area schools values we must encourage supporting those around us regardless of gender race sexuality and religion from a young age these posters help us do that it is not political to advertise support for your peers it is not political to promote Unity but it is hateful to remove signs that are saying that everyone is welcome thank you for your time thank [Applause] you Scott R Scott are going once twice is that Scott Scott is that you with your hand up no it's all right all right another yeah if Scott r or Sarah R comes in we'll let them speak next okay Beth m going once are you Scott okay very good are we ready go right ahead sir all right thank you first let me thank you for the willingness to hear me speak on a subject I didn't believe would ever have to be entertained by the sheer Ridiculousness of this subject matter as a 10-year Navy veteran I can tell you point blank diversity inclusivist is one of our greatest strengths since they train us to be leaders where the main message is to stand for those that cannot I will stand here and I will tell you I am opposed to this to remove these uh posters the same individuals who support removing these posters are the same ones that gleefully protested Ruby Bridges from being the first black woman to attend a white school these are the same individuals that were deputized to prevent Martin Luther King from walking across the Edmund Pettis bridge and gleefully beat him and those that marched with him we do ourselves no service to entertain this idea letting children feel safe and welcome should be the priority of this board but they decided to make it so a group of people will feel less safe and less welcome do better let my final message be this trust is a bedrock in which everything is built how do you the school board and those that are in this room expect anyone to trust you when you will not allow children to be trusted with who they are bring your ignorance somewhere else it is not welcome [Applause] here oops Greg a Greg a think we were doing is he coming can we draw one in the meantime let's draw another one in the meantime we can get to more no Greg they're saying there was no Greg no Beth Katie G hello I just want to say thank you to to all of you for you know working with the community fighting for our kids your job's not easy especially today so thank you all um I just want to say that I would look I want to encourage you guys to vote Yes to taking down the inclusive signs that bear the phrase black lives matter I am completely behind the meaning of this black lives matter highlight exclamation mark hands down they matter this is not what this is black lives though it actually carries BLM is an activist movement found by Marxism the theory and practice of Communism these signs were created with the intent to cause division not Unity hey please be quiet all right everyone else has been respectful for everyone yeah very much so all right if we continue to allow these signs to be displayed in our schools then we need to be inclusive like an ad blue lives matter all lives matter um as we are all aware these phrases have a political Foundation to them as well you cannot hear the phrase blue lives matter with thinking of the riots or the BLM without thinking of the destruction of Minneapolis in 2020 I'm asking you to stand by your policy 535 stating the school district will remain neutral as to all political campaigns and issues please vote Yes to taking down these posters and to end the lawsuit and unnecessary spending of the district's finances thank you thank you thank you [Applause] Bill G is there a bill I think he's coming up along the side of the road there thank you for the opportunity and I had a lot to say but some folks have covered most of what I was going to say and I'll try to be very brief to allow some others um I had an Irish grandmother and she very much taught us all that treat everyone the way you want to be treated good advice I've used that my whole life I've been around a lot of people a lot of different countries 44 different countries I think everybody's pretty much the same they want to be able to do what they can for their families they want to be happy they want to be left alone to do whatever their their cultures um include I think that everybody should be embraced everybody should have a welcoming place I think that that at one point the uh Supreme Court when they decided about gay marriage I made a statement that um everybody is entitled to happiness I think it's very very true for everybody all of us I can understand that that some things may be offensive I think that that you could look at what you want to do you want to be welcoming to everybody accepting everybody and you can do that without being that specific that somebody's going to be offended and I very much wish you could work on that and come to a settlement that's good for everybody uh you know it's it's your job I think to to have everybody know that they should treat everybody else with respect something that's short these days not a lot of that it's too decisive that to to have the respect for others and others opinions and to uh make them welcome I know that the world is big and has plenty of opportunity for them very much I would like Educators to do that [Music] uh without exception yeah to to respect the rights and Humanity of everyone um it's not about politics it's about basic humanity and no doubt we're all stronger together so thank you thank you Bill thank you uh Cynthia C good evening board superintendent the District of 194 I'm a resident of Lakeville and a parent of the district thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of many individuals and families in our community who support my stance on this issue I'm here tonight to encourage the board to do the right thing by sending approval of the inclusive poster series pull down the district's BLM posters immediately and follow its own School Board policy 535 on politics since 2021 the district's beum posters have been sending the wrong message to our students staff and the community for one these posters promote the political organization black lives matter supporting the social justice movement they're tied to BM Incorporated Marxist political and activist group you can still see today on their website they're an entity uh with a political agenda highlighting candidates for Congress and other political offices scho uh the public schools should not be promoting any political organization or political movement so please keep politics out of our schools secondly the BLM posters don't affirm students it's only been alienating the non-black students dividing students based color and skin it's uh BLM is a Marxist black Supremacy and racial uh racist ideology that's very hostile to the white people and demeaning to black people so the posters have been lifting one group who agree with the Marxist ideology while excluding and even demeaning everyone else with different ideological viewpoints this has created tension in our community and schools especially in the secondary level individuals in the community and courageous students who verbally don't agree with the BLM um ideology have been shunned sometimes even called racists or bigots this type of environment has been racially hostile and should never have belong in our schools so please keep racism out of our schools lastly the posters BLM posters continue to violate the school's own policy 535 on political campaigns and activities they should remain neutral and not use funds or resources on political or controversial issues I ask the board tonight to please enforce policy 535 do the right thing by resending an approval of the inclusive um poster series and move the BLM posters immediately most importantly let's get back to focusing on academics to our students raising the bar for each of of them to reach their full potential no matter what their back background or race thank you so much can I can I just call can I just call for I've seen you twice take that down and mix it up can you just keep it here when you're drawing names thank you Tavian Tavian s Tavian S I believe she's coming right here hi my name is tevan sson and I'm a parent of two students at Lake Mar and Elementary I'm here to represent my 8-year-old second grader who I asked you ever seen these posters that's all I asked him he's like oh yeah mom there's one right across the door from my classroom I see it every day when I walk out of my class and I said what do you think about it what does that tell you and he goes do you know what that means mom that means that it doesn't matter you look like on the outside it matters what you're like on the inside and I was like boy that's really smart buddy I go do you ever think about it when you're in school what do you look at it and he goes yeah we have kids in our school that bully each other and it gives me words to use this is an 8-year-old that recognizes the value of these we're talking about not a black child I mean this is my little white boy and he loves these and he thinks having them throughout the school is very helpful to him to stand up for himself to stand up for other kids in his class and to remind him that everybody is important and I want to remind you that we're having these conversations after my children have spent about two or three weeks in school learning every single day about the history of our country Martin Luther King Ruby Bridges they came home every single day and told me about what they learned and what it meant and they were mortified about our history and to them they cannot understand why we don't need these reminders why this is unimportant they're going to be distraught if you take these out I think it is a significant tool not just to kids that are in a minority but everybody that goes to school there thank you thank you T about like six minutes six minutes two more two more all right Laney Q Laney Q okay going we'll hold we'll hold her spot but we'll call one more are we good all right Allison K Allison k no someone's cominging she here ly Q Laney Q Laney Q is here and if Allison K is out there she can make her way too sure can you check for Alison K as well yes yeah hi I'm Lany quentis I'm a 10th grader at Lake Fall South High School and I'm Latina the inclusivity posters in our school serve a purpose the they let me let me and everyone like me and everyone who is not like me know that they're welcome in the school it says that everyone has value everyone matters here the school needs to make sure that message gets through the posters serve as a reminder there it is a lot of bullying in our schools bullies like to pick on who those who are different from themselves these posters say that everyone no matter their race gender disability or belief belongs here and that helps fight bullying it's a it says differences are good and we should celebrate each other and not put each other down or divide us we really are stronger together I've heard one want to go to a school that wants me there that it wants to include me please stand up for us keep those posters thank you Lenny the other Alison this will be the last one okay okay I'm getting there's nois no Alison k no I don't think she's here um okay uh forgive me I may mispronounce this Anish B good evening members of the board my name is anbaa and I'm an eighth grader at Century Middle School and um I stand before you today to address an issue of much discussion and debate throughout the community in the past I would say week or so and it's regarding the issue of taking down these posters and I believe that you should keep up these posters in our school because it makes children feel like they're included it makes them feel like they can go into a classroom where they feel like they belong and for these children School becomes almost a sort of second home for them in a way so if they aren't feeling like they're represented accurately and respected in that second home almost aspect for them then I feel like it's not a good environment for them to be learning in if they feel like they're necessarily ostracized in a place of learning and in a place of safety for them within our district and we as a district should pride ourselves on being an inclusive district and we shouldn't strive to be a district that necessarily tries to or does things that may Fe make students feel like they're ostracized from the community we want students to feel like they really belong and it helps to create a really like cohesive community and make sure everyone feels like they fit in make sure everybody is kind and inclusive to others and I urge you to consider the impact that the removal of these might have on our students as a lot of people have previously stated um I sure a lot of us in this room can agree that it is the job of the school board to be the people helping shape the future of these newer Lakeville generations and it's imperative to avoid actions that can undermine the Integrity of the basis of Education in Lakeville and possibly have a ripple on the entire of entirety of Minnesota so please stand together to affirm that inclusion in our school district is not a privilege but a right to all the students thank you thank you uh I want to thank everybody that was willing to come up here and speak today it's not easy especially want to thank our students um they did an amazing job and um I also want to thank those that uh emailed the board members and shared their thoughts uh we do really appreciate that um and we we will read them even if you send multiple ones um even if we don't agree with you we appreciate the emails so uh keep them coming um before we get into the discussion that I'm assuming most of you have come here to hear today um I wanted to provide some context that I think is sorely missing from what has been conveyed to the majority of the public so far and which has really LED uh to some the comments and sentiments that have been expressed here today uh context in this Cas case helps provide an understanding of what this discussion truly is and what it is not uh contrary to how this may seem this issue did not arise simply because superintendent Bowman and I I decided to put the matter on the agenda for a discussion and vote this week uh the timing unfortunately coincides with certain actions taken by our federal government lately but I assure you they are not related uh for those that have not followed the school board meetings in the in the district for the number of years the school has been engaged in litigation over this inclusive series posters for over three years now uh the posters themselves were put up at a time when none of the current board members were part of the Lakeville school board and the decision was made at a very unique time for our state and our nation uh there are a number of issues and challenges that have been raised to the manner in which the poster series were approved or arguably not officially approved and that has only contrib contributed to the dispute concerning the series shortly after the inclusive series posters were displayed in our schools there was a request by a parent to allow for the posting of an additional Viewpoint to be displayed along with the new posters that request was denied and a legal challenge to the posters ensued while the the district was initially successful on a motion to dismiss the case at the trial court the case was appealed and made its way to the United States eth Circuit Court of Appeals which is just one step away from the US Supreme Court the eth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the plaintiffs which revived the case if you haven't already I would highly recommend that you read the eth circuit decision in Kajun versus Independent School District 194 you can Google the case and the a copy of the cases available online for free anybody can download it and read it uh the Court's decision in that case is very informative on the background facts and the legal issues that our school district is confronting in that litigation one of which is whether or not in a approving and displaying the inclusive series posters The District in essence has opened its walls to All Views not just those sought to be conveyed by the district once again I recommend that you read the decision for a fuller understanding of the legal issues that are at play because it's not as simple as some may have put it out to be uh this board was briefed by our legal council on the status of the pending litigation just two weeks ago in a closed session uh the briefing was required because the case is still in process and decisions have to to be made um some of the pre-existing members of this board had a very similar briefing and discussion with legal council last year in a closed session so once again while it may seem to the public like this issue is coming out of nowhere I can assure you it's not it's been an issue that's the board has been dealing with for a while now uh unfortunately the rules of a closed session do not allow the board to take a vote on well I take that back fortunately the rules of a closed session don't allow the board to take a vote on board matters in close session um so that is why this issue is being pulled out of the closed session and the issu is being brought in the public so we can vote and discuss it in front of everybody here today uh in light of the pending litigation and the number of varying viewpoints expressed through the emails that we have received uh and now the media attention that this this case or this matter has drawn uh it would be difficult to argue that the poster series are not a point of controversy within our district whether socially or politically driven and unfortunately the line between the two is becoming increasingly blurry this board's agreement or disagreement as to whether or not it is time to shift to a new Focus or chapter for the district is not a decision that is taken lightly and should not be construed as an indication that any board member does not value each and every child in our schools any such claim is just ridiculous no vote of this board will change the fact that every student that walks into our schools is valued regardless of their race religion socioeconomic status sexual preference gender identity disability or immigration status the presence or absence of posters on the wall does not change that fact and this vote does not mean that every one of the students is not deserving of respect and equal treatment and we demand as much from our students and staff in the Lakeville School District if our schools require a poster series to make students feel welcome we really may have a bigger issue on our hands that we need to address shifting over to my personal thoughts on this discussion um I view this discussion and this vote as an opportunity for a fresh start for the district and a shift to an academics first focus in our schools this V vote is also an opportunity to take a position of aggressive neutrality as to All Things political and controversial that we display within our schools our schools do not have to be the Battleground for every hot political and social issue and those two are becoming more and more synonymous in our divisive culture we have a big enough task as a school district in educating Our Youth and we cannot be distracted from our primary focus of improving educational outcomes by exposing our district to further legal battles now I know my fellow board members have more to say on this matter so I'm going to get our discussion rolling um what you don't know we took a straw poll during our Clos session um in essence to remove the posters from the district walls uh in order to move that issue to this meeting I will make the motion uh if there is a second the matter will be discussed and deliberated by the board uh once again I would appreciate it if everyone refrain from interrupting the board while we are deliberating and ultimately having a vote on that matter uh so I will start things off um I move to have the inclusive series posters removed from all district property is there a second I'll second that it's been seconded by director Carbone um I'm going to open the floor for discussion on the matter director Baker I have a hard time speaking in front of public I have social anxiety so um uh if you bear with me I did write down a few thoughts um that I wanted to get out um I have a very personal connection to uh inclusion within this District um and I I do not want my children to be a political device in this debate um I'm using it as um a talking point just to share my experience as a parent we moved to Lakeville in the spring of 2012 at the time my oldest son was in second grade and had an IEP for autism after a week of starting at our neighborhood School in Lakeville his desk was moved outside the classroom in the hallway I questioned his teacher and the response I received was she felt that some of the humming noise he made were disruptive to herself when she was teaching his classroom time when he was supposed to be with his peers was spent in the hallway working one-on-one with a Pera not with his peers I was hurt angry and as an educator disappointed in the lack of understanding of autism the following School Year my son was moved to another school in Lakeville to receive support through a program that focused on autism I met another parent who invited me to the district special educ ation advisory Council the council was focused on developing inclusive practices in Lakeville schools it felt great to work with parents and District staff to help support inclusion in the district through the council Lakeville was one of the first districts in the state of Minnesota to celebrate inclusive schools week an annual celebration the governor recognizing our work as a district also started to make a proclamation for in inclusive schools week and as years went on several districts surrounding us started to do it as well as part of inclusive schools week the council established the inclusion Awards in 2014 to honor staff students and community members who promote inclusion these annual Awards honored all levels of inclusion and just to include a few teachers and staff that we have recognized um teachers who support adult education bus drivers who create a welcoming environment students who were teaching other students with disabilities music and staff who work in nutrition and welcome all students just to name a few the council recognized that parents needed more support through the special education process and started a program called the special education parently aison program another firstof its kind program in the state of Minnesota the program would provide support to families and teachers through the IEP process by a parent of a child with a disability as part of this program the family connection support group was formed through District support and led by the special education par L aison this support group provided parent education and a place to connect with other families of students with disabilities the council continued to grow and find other ways to support inclusion within our schools and became one of the most active councils in the state of Minnesota within the past few years I witnessed the momentum we had gained as a district with inclusion starting to slip away this included reduction of the special education advisory Council for monthly meetings to three times a year discontinuation of the special education parent aison program I know this because I was the last parent aison I stepped down when I became a board member and my position was never filled discontinuation of the district support of the parent support group family connections the parents have made it a PTO to try to save that connection discontinuation of the celebration of inclusive schools week discontinuation of District support of the inclusion Awards again the PTO is trying to keep this going on their own discontinuation of honoring our staff did anyone know was par recognition week last week nope nope um what happened to the recognition we used to give our various departments I do applaud the recent efforts to recognize staff and students of the month but we also could celebrate the work that our staff are doing every day in the individual departments um also discontinuation of monthly recognition at board meetings of the amazing work that happens within our buildings there was a time when principes used to come to the board and present on the different things that are happening in their buildings and it was amazing to hear about the work that was happening I share this from my perspective as a parent of children with disabilities many of these items do not have dollars attached to them words mean nothing without the action and intent behind them we have forgotten what the true meaning of inclusion is the heart of the work inclusion is how we treat one another is the Golden Rule that we learned in kindergarten treat others how you want to be treated it has always been my goal to work with the district to educate to Advocate and to make things better for the future it is the reason that I joined the special education advisory Council became apparently aison participated in family connections and ran for Schoolboard we can't just put up a poster without doing the work I would like to see a goal with initiatives and action items along with discussion groups within our community and how to move forward the work of inclusion within our district I also would like to see us come up with our own message around this work and picture of our students to support the message however we move the idea forward the one thing is for sure we need to do this work together director Carbone yeah thank you the chair said that we want safe schools for all and he's absolutely correct it's the vehicle that's being used here and that's what this discussion is about in the classrooms teachers accept they nurture they cultivate the individual and they do a really good job from everything I've seen let's see the individual through character and through ability and not through socially constructed groups expect expect expect respect no bullying or harassment of anyone for any reason I go back to what director Baker just said there's a golden rule treat others as you expect to be treated that has no social construction it goes across all humanity and that's the way we need to look at this I also have to say the board should remain neutral on political ideology we shouldn't Advocate one side or the other please and schools really need to focus on academic achievement and not political social stances thank you George Cameron uh thank you um I want to Echo Cher Swanson and thanking students for participating tonight it's great to hear from um students in our school district um I wish I had your public speaking skills like this eth grader here [Applause] amazing um uh that being said like um director U Baker and others I um wrote some comments about um my thoughts tonight um just to make sure I stayed on track um uh was focused so um bear with me as I um kind of share these with you um our discussion tonight provides me an opportunity to communicate to my colleagues on the board and the larger Community about how I go about making decisions for our entire 194 community in a short time or in the short time that we've been a board we've had already articulated the importance of keeping students at the Forefront of our decisions working to ensure that we create a learning environment within our schools that supports the academic achievement of all students I agree with you agree with you Paul we have had an overwhelming response from students parents community members recent alumni and Educators in 194 discussing how this poster series creates an environment that Fosters that Student Success we've also heard from a smaller group of community members who suggest that the posters are distracting from academic outcomes I think it is important to separate feelings and political orientation from this conversation rather our district including this board should be making decisions rooted in scientific evidence so what does the research say about this issue and how might posters contribute to academic success a National Science Foundation research study out of the University of Washington has important implications for our discussion tonight the results of the study were published in the Journal of policy insites from the behavioral and brain Sciences which is a journal aimed to share scientific um research on relevant topics to help policy makers like us create sound policies on a variety of topics the article titled designing classrooms to maximize student achievement is divided into two sections the first half of the article discusses how a student structural facilities have a profound influence on learning I'm incredibly grateful to the Lakeville Community for supporting quality school facilities in ISD 194 the second half of the article is focused on quote the unexpected importance of a classroom symbolic features such as wall decor in influencing student learning and achievement this study has been cited more than 400 times in further research a clear indication of this study's rigor the study abstract states that quote symbols inform students whether they are valued Learners and belong within the classroom with far-reaching consequences for students educational choices and achievement the research notes that symbolic features such as the posters we're discussing tonight tonight are far from trivial and powerfully influen student performance this is true for all students but especially true for under represented students the research notes that such displays affect students from historically underrepresented populations in subtle but yet important ways for example in one of the studies cited in the research article female students completed an assessment in a male teachers's classroom who they thought would be evaluating them when the room contained objects that did not signal anything positive about the teacher attitude towards female students female students who had prior concerns or experience with gender Prejudice performed worse on the assessment than students without this concern when the same assessment was completed in a classroom with objects that signaled the teachers positive attitudes towards these female students the performance Gap was eliminated the article goes on to dis the article goes on to discuss that the objects and the decor of a classroom must be considered of course like we all know with the context of a set of larger factors that promote educational attainment such as curriculum development and teacher training however the research is clear that a plethora of evidence suggests that teachers and staff are able to modify classrooms relatively easily such as hanging one of our 194 inclusion posters and in doing so improve learning outcomes for students and help produce racial and gender achievement gaps as a member of this board elected by our community to Pro to support our students I will base my decision tonight on community input and scholarly research in this case regarding the inclusive poster series The the results are clear in addition to Broad Community Support of the posters especially from our students parents and Educators scholarly research concludes that such posters are an effective tool in improving student achievement and reducing identity-based achievement gaps I um will have more discussion tonight but I am firm that I refuse to remove a tool from our Educators and from our students that is proven to support uh their outcomes we have heard from so many students through emails and tonight and also from Young alumni nothing but the positive influence these posters have had on their 194 experience and more importantly their educational success [Applause] you want anybody's up Brett so looking at this issue I've I've had a lot of time to talk with a number of folks um read all your emails I appreciate it I understand I think where everybody's coming from the problem I have is that again there's a legal suit there is summary judgment that came down from that decision there's even msba which is the Minnesota School Board Association training slides that provided a recap of the appeal and the implications to school districts without going into a ton of detail on it the Minnesota Schoolboard Association training slides basically describe the situation here in regards to free speech in school as I read it pretty clearly suggests or implies a limited public form was created and Viewpoint discrimination occurred which I believe this is actually in the hands of the courts so I don't know how they say that however what it does Clearly say is that it's a warning to all the school districts to be very careful that you're not creating these situations maintain political neutrality and do not engage in viewpoint discrimin ation I'm going to I just want to say I don't like this I don't like the Divide I think we're all better than this all of us and I think a lot of this is driven from adults this isn't the kids at all nothing the kids didn't do it with that said I would love to see us move forward in a new way have an includ series tie in academics have the students to have the students create it bring it to the bring it to the administration bring it to Mr Balman he did I understand and I will even go through it with you so I don't I don't have any issue with your poster that you're holding up I'll address it I have no problem with it I age please don't interrupt all right hey please don't interrupt I understand I agree everyone is welcome everyone and as long as we are doing what we can to avoid any sort of conflict there I think that is the type of thing we need to do you want to use some of the same language I will support that I have a problem with the stuff that has gotten us into a lawsuit that has divided the company or this entire group here I mean it's divided the community it's divided everybody how do we how do we move forward say we take them down you got at least 50% of the people here who are going to lose it and be really mad at everybody say you leave them up you got another 50% that is not going to be very happy with this decision everybody please please keep it down the community the community is complicated we don't have like a complete majority either way so like how do we move forward together I mean I honestly ask all of you this how do we move forward in a way that isn't be divisive that isn't going to split everything up why can we not create a new outcome for this like I I honestly I I seriously what what can we what can we do sir please please no serious chair sir please if you interrupt we're gonna have to have you removed okay all right uh director Nicholson um I just want to take a moment to uh to respond to your request um you I don't think it's the message on the posters um obviously there's there's litigation that's um uh around this specific um poster series a lot of that has to do with the process and procedure that was used to approve and post um this across the district um I look at I look at it as um I I want more than posters uh which is exactly what I stated I I want um initiatives and action items I want us to talk about this and say these are the these are the things that we're actually going to do because inclusion is nothing unless we do something um I hear from students that say that you know that they they don't feel safe in our environments um I want more for them than than a poster I I I love the posters I I like the posters but I want action items and things that we're going to do to make sure that students do feel safe like what can we do to further this work besides just a poster like I don't want to just check a box on this like I I think that we have an opportunity to build something in our district and as I stated like the things that we have done in the past we were the first district in the state to do those things we were the leader and and that work has has stopped for some for whatever reason I want to see us be the leader again I want to see develop something that everybody says oh my gosh Lakeville schools got it right like we know what we need to do here inclusion is everything it is everything it's everything that we do it's how we treat people so obviously we're not treating PE our people very well so what are we going to do about that that's what I want to do director Thompson H thank you um I appreciate everyone here and it's uh it's we received a lot of emails uh for for against uh and and that tells me again back to what you said director Nicholson that this is a a topic that's of concern for many folks um but you know as I read some notes and I did some research too as well there are uh we need to get to a position where our school district our school board uh is able to deliver on our core Mission and that core mission is preparing students to succeed academically and equipping them to be with the skills to thrive in in this environment I will say that uh when we when when our core mission is reading and writing Math and Science you know how are we doing and since 2001 until now while the MCA metrics uh may be various ways of interpret interpreting it but as of now it is the only metric that we can use across the state that tells your District if you're doing well or if you're not doing well so the data here shares that in 2001 our math scores were 55.4% and now it's 53 our reading scores are were at 70.3% and now it's at 61.4 and our science scores were at 56.9% in 2001 and now they're at 48 so there is a decline in our metrics over the past 3 years so if other syllables or symbols or whatever may be Elevate metrics I'm not seeing it in the data uh when I compare our district to other districts like Yetta y Zetta has a math score of 75 Yetta has a math score of 75.4% Edina has a math score of 71.7% and Lakeville sitting at 53 our reading score w z is at 72.8% and their reading score at Ed is at 75.4% and our reading skills are at 61.4 and so sence please wett is at 61.4% Edina is at 66 and we're sitting at 48 and so whether it be funding whether it be Staffing whether it be curriculum uh we've got to get back to the core mission of improving academics and so I I'll share this last statement here it's just a story it's relevant for me because there you know if your student walks into school and they're unable to read at grade level grade level uh they see posters on the walls promoting inclusiveness but they'll feel excluded from academic success because they're not there uh because they like the skills to probably catch up and I can tell you that because I've got you know kids in the schools and they're not at the level that they ought to be at times and so does a student you know when they see a pollster do they feel valued I don't I don't know uh they needed uh but I will share with you that what makes them successful and what makes them feel valued are the teachers that were there uh that help them that help them get to to exceed to give them the extra minute the extra time as well as the district making it a focus that academics is our core Mission and so if we prioritize that uh we help every student feel confident and because they've got the competence and the skills to be at the level that they need to be now with what director baker said I would agree that we do need to take action and while these signs that we've had that none of us on the board were involved in two boards ago or four three years ago except for you uh they we need to make sure that uh are we going to set our district to be able to scale for growth have the right campaign the right messaging and the right objectives as we move forward and while there's a lot of controversy let me rephrase that there's a lot of opinions and input on this topic tells us that is this a topic we should be talking about when our math scores reading scores and science scores are where they're at but more importantly last week we had a two-hour session around teaching and learning about assessments and how academics impact and how they operate in our school and we had seven participants here watching seven stakeholders on that very important topic so thanks director Cameron um thanks director Thompson for those um comments and chair Baker or sorry your former chair um director Baker as well and and director um Nicholson I I agree that this is part of a larger strategy this is for me it's a both and conversation not an either or um tonight's the discussion about these eight posters um and I'm not saying can't discuss other things of course but I think to stay focused on the goal of the vote um and director Thompson I I I know that there's conversation on like our MCA is like the best way to evaluate performance right or and but it is one way right that we can look at at metrics and I looked at that too and um I think it's important um to drill down in the data right like it's like to have these overall numbers is important and I agree that all schools including Lakeville need to be doing better um that being said like if you look at our our um math scores over the last 3 years when I looked at um the MC's last night our black students are doing 10% better than they were three years ago our native students are doing 7% better and our um Asian students are doing 8% better so I'm not wait I'm not saying that there is a direct correlation or a causation between these posters and their performance but what I am saying is that the research says that this has an the that wall objects symbolic objects on walls have an impact on Student Success and we are seeing Improvement especially in our underrepresented students academic performance on the MCAS thank [Applause] you director Anderson all right um I want to thank all of you who came here tonight to use your voice and advocate for uh what you think is best for the students and staff of our district I also want to thank all of you who took time to email the board that was very overwhelming this week I didn't actually make a count but I'm guessing we received what close to 200 emails um was close so what 300 okay way to go everyone um you have participated and it takes courage to do this and it is important for our board to hear your perspective and gosh our students you are so impressive and way to go um when I became a Schoolboard member I very quickly realized that the decisions that I make have a broad impact and must be grounded in what is best for the students of our district I cannot make a decision based solely on my personal beliefs or what will work out best for my family or my neighbors this came up during the boundary adjustments trust me um I have to consider what is best for all the vision of our district is to provide a safe respectful engaging rigorous and Collaborative Learning environment for all students families and staff where every person belongs is valued and can succeed I was elected by this community to help fulfill that Vision as a neuros psychologist I have expertise in both brain development and functioning as well as mental health I know what it means to critically analyze the peer peer-reviewed literature to determine evidence-based practices and education there is considerable evidence in the educational literature to show that student factors teacher characteristics and environmental factors all matter when it comes to student outcomes it is very similar to Mel's hierarch hierarchy of needs whereby our basic needs must first be met before we can succeed at higher levels for students in our schools we can optimize their performance by reducing or eliminating factors such as hunger and safety threats uh that serve to distract their brains from learning there are many things that matter as we work to create a safe and supportive School environment representation matters consider the importance of girls seeing women succeed in the fields of Science and Math currently in our district our students are far more diverse in their backgrounds than our staff which can contribute to lower achievement when students do not see themselves in their educator Role Models this is something we need to work on and it is part of our AI plan and unfortunately we haven't seen these numbers move in the direction we want them to removing these posters will not help us recruit or retain more diverse staff to help build representation for all creating an inclusive environment matters if we look at the evidence Spas what is put on the classroom walls matters as Amber has very astutely pointed out posters don't make relationships but they serve as a signal to students that classrooms are safe in welcoming and open the door for those relationships to flourish removing them will send a message to many that the leaders of this District at the highest level do not value the importance of an inclusive environment ensuring safety matters our district has spent millions of dollars on the most advanced security system um Mr Balman you were a big part of that uh to prioritize the physical safety of our staff and students in reality our students are far more likely to face bullying discrimination and harassment in our schools than they are at school shooting we must therefore also prioritize their mental and emotional safety these posters communicate safety for all students especially those who have experienced bullying or harassment related to an aspect of their identity removal of these posters may send a message that we don't we do not value all of the unique identities that our students and staff bring to the school environment to enhance the learning experience for all if I am forced to vote on this issue tonight it is obvious that I will vote to maintain the inclusive poster Series in our buildings however I would like to challenge our board to consider our process that led to us having this vote on the agenda tonight there have been many times that director Thompson has advocated for and I have supported a multi-step process did you want to say I'm kidding um a multi-step process where we are introduced to a topic we then have time to research this information and allow for stakeholder input we then discuss the topic again and then we vote we have not followed this process in any way as a board we have yet to determine whether any of these posters violate school policy until we establish sorry until we establish a violation of policy I'm not sure this should be on the agenda as it is not a board issue it is public knowledge that we have an active lawsuit in the district as of yesterday it is also public knowledge that the lawyer representing the plaintiffs has said that our removal of the posters will not will not impact the case I do not know of any formal complaints from students or teacher teachers about these posters therefore we are potentially causing unwarranted and unnecessary harm by removing the posters without clear purpose we have not discussed this publicly as a board and allowed ample time for Community input to inform our decision-making if we were going by emails alone these 300 emails that we received the overwhelming majority I would say more than 90% um I didn't count but I could go back recommend keeping the posters up however however there may there may be a selection bias at play we may not have all the information when the data is not being collected anonymously as I said earlier takes courage to email our board and we might not be hearing from all I um I am open to further discussion but my um plan tonight is to make a motion to table the vote on this issue to a later date doing so will allow time for our district and Schoolboard to become more educated on the matter and to gather survey data to understand the views of our students staff and community members to more in uh fully inform our vote thank you [Applause] so I don't I could form I could formally make that motion at this time but I also appreciate when you make such a motion it ends discussion and so I do want to make sure I can wait um and allow for additional discussion yeah I'll jump back in now that everyone's had a chance to speak um I think it's a misreading of the case if we don't if you don't think that the eighth circuit decision is a problem for our school district right now um and the question of whether or not we gave up the right to control what's on our walls which I think is important um because we're essentially saying we've opened it up it's a limited public form as the eth circuit said um to Brett's comment though I think we can do better I mean I think we could rerun this essentially we could agree that hey there are legal issues that we need to take care of with the way that these posters were approved and adopted by the district uh and displayed and then come back because I I don't think come back with a new series you know which would probably come up pretty quickly I'm guessing um come back with a new series that not only addresses in its adoption we would address the legal issues that are currently plaguing uh the inclusive series we have right now but then as a board commit to adopt a policy that prevents us from being in this legal situation again and then we come up with a new series that is not only Viewpoint neutral focused on education but it can also include statements like We Are Better Together everyone is welcome you matter I mean those are Viewpoint neutral statements so again why not why not move on just as as a point of trying to work together as a board if there's value here which I Amber which I hear you saying that there's hey there is statistical value here showing that it can help improve well we can do that we can do it in a way that doesn't subject us to Legal challenge moving forward as well um satisfy some of the requests of our our constituents um and also provide those that resource to the children so that would be my proposal you got one over there I'm just going to say I don't have any problem with six of the posters I mean essentially we're it's very hard to argue with the statements the statements are very strong they're inclusive and I fully support that that's it Mr chair Thompson well I I like the idea of of having an action plan and so the things that you've shared earlier make sense because when we uh make any decision uh what are we going to do and and this is a a new board it is a new Direction it could be something that we can pivot and I I appreciate an Excellence campaign or something of that nature where we have pictures of our students on our walls we have pictures of them excelling at stem excelling in art excelling in the theater Sports whatever it may be and so um you know I'll make like like I'll make it before I make a motion yeah right all right I don't want to override your motion but I do want to like amend your the initial motion where where we commit to a new a a c a new campaign a new Excellence campaign where we focus on uh the academics and making sure that we can get our students uh where they need to be so are you making a motion no no because I think there was a motion aheed are you making a motion to amend the motion yes all right and just so I'm clear is your motion to amend to amend to say we will one take down and two move on to a new series yes all right is there a second for that motion I'll second it all in favor say I discussion oh sorry and this is just a motion to amend the motion yes so discussion on the topic Carly I just I I think my concern is we've invested considerable taxpayer dollars in the series that we have um and the series that we have and I would I mean um Mr Balman you could speak more to what actually happened but my understanding is that different groups of people came together to create this series um so it wasn't just done in isolation it was students involvement I believe some pre people from EML and District leadership was involved and so I feel like we've done that um and it would be one again I I I maybe I didn't say this earlier I I worry about the harm we do by taking them down um whether or not people really you know lot of people don't watch our meetings I know this is probably one more people will watch but kids don't see this they don't especially little kids they don't know why these posters are coming down you know I asked my son he's he's eight honey have you seen these posters at school he's like yeah I was like do you like them he's like yeah I said why I don't know you know I mean he doesn't have the words to exactly say and articulate it but he he sees them as positive and they come down and they can cause damage so to me we don't take them down and do something different because we've already had a very thorough process you can argue that two of the signs you know people see them as more political but six of them everybody on this board agrees probably are not political and so why would we scratch all of those um I feel like we've invested the money it's a waste of ta taxpayer dollars to do something different when it was a comprehensive process to start with and Mr bow I don't know if you want to speak to any of that but I would love an opportunity to say something here in in all of this um and as I've been listening to the comments the the actual fact is I was here uh as part of that process um and the process and procedure and the responsibility of the board um in that uh I think was was not done with Fidelity and I would hope that we would do it do whatever needs to be done with Fidelity and so I think director Nicholson and others have offered a couple things I think there's a couple of motions and amendments um and I would ask the board to at least consider this as I've listened to the conversation and I'm hoping I can Prevail upon you to consider this uh process to deal directly with the situation that's at hand here uh and and I acknowledge that all of you sitting on the board were not here um but you have to take responsibility for where you're at I take responsibility for where we're at and I want to just say as I look at this my my recommendation my Council would be that uh first and foremost we deal with the policy 535 issue and that we leave all the other posters in place for now and that uh for all the reasons that have been articulated here and and everybody has I think said some profound and important things and and I don't want to diminish anybody's opinion on that matter I counted 314 emails I've read them all um but that that's not every every opinion in in Lakeville um but it's important that you took the time to do that and I I personally appreciate that um and I think then we take the time to Define and Define displays in policy and if we want to introduce a new series that uh it it's done by stakeholders and that we put our faith in our students and our teachers and our families to help us with that process because we're a community and we have to be a United Community around these things I think we should put our hope in our community the whole community and I think think that we should have charity for all it's about faith hope and charity in each other and I've heard those comments uh consistently throughout this and if we could get to that and we could put a motion to that it would allow Administration to do its job and to continue to March forward and I can see an opportunity to expand and refine our message based on a codified and refined policy that is the governance role of the school board those are what I would like that is what I would like to see happen right thank you superintendent Bowman um we still have discussion on director Thompson's motion anyone else have any comments director Anderson I just I'm wondering um I do want to make a motion to table this um and as my understanding anything that um I actually wrote it down cuz I wanted to remember correctly that any motion that defers or eliminates a related action is of higher um precedence and so I do want to table this um with the hopes of gathering survey data from our community you know as everybody is pointing out here we may not have full representation of our community I think what we have heard 100% from our students is how important these posters are um and I would prefer to table this until a later date and give our um give our Administration time to to collect some data from our community so that we can be more informed so that would be I would motion to table this is there a second can I make an amendment on your motion wow we're getting triy here so I heard what uh superintendent bman said and um and and director uh Anderson you made uh mention of it as well that um we haven't even decided if the posters violate policy because we haven't discussed the policy so if we're going to table um the motion or the topic then I would amend your motion to say we we're going to table it and then discuss policy 535 sorry any related policy and any related policy all right is there a second on the uh Amendment to the motion to table point of information what what's the difference what's it what's the difference between motion to table versus motion to postpone I'm because I don't know are they the same thing yeah it' be the same thing okay a second all right any discussion well actually on the motion to amend the motion to table any discussion all right all in favor of the motion to amend the motion to table say I I I I all opposed same sign n n director n clarify so this is the motion to amend the original motion now this is the motion to amend the motion to take so policy related to these posters to discuss the policy so it would be correct it'd be part of the motion it' become part of the motion to table the discussion to a later date so if we table it we have to discuss the policies at a later date yes if we don't do that then we're voting tonight or we what are we doing well then we' vote on the motion to table then we vote on the motion to table correct and then if that was if that was a nay then we would back then we vote on the amended motion or the motion to amend the original motion I'm so glad I'm not chair no all right all right so now we're back to the motion to table is there a second on the motion to table I believe we had one actually did director Cameron second the motion to table think so yeah yeah all right uh any discussion on the motion to table I would I would only be in favor to if we're if we're tbling the motion if we actually discuss the policies related to that because that would be the only reason to to to table this right now because we don't have enough information and we need to discuss the Poli policies related to it yeah I and again I I'm a little confused on that um just because if the question is do we have an issue with 535 um I mean that is addressed in eighth circuit's decision um I mean they've already essentially said that we violated our own policy um so I'm not sure what we'd be what we'd be discussing so my director Nicholson so can we make a motion to follow superintendent Bowman's recommendation can we make a motion to follow superintendent Bowman's Direction well that's what I was doing like he had said that we needed to discuss the policy because that's the the purview of the board well just to clarify I wasn't suggesting that we clarify the policy I think the eight circuit said what it is I'm offering a pathway ahead head where we again discuss it we move forward with the conversation that I think we've had here about leaving the posters that are not in question with 535 in place that we yeah work because I've heard this a couple of times we we don't live in a static world we live in a dynamic world we can improve our messaging if we have a codified policy whether that's 535 or that is a display policy you all as the governing entity of this school district I think need to do that with Fidelity and we can work with our students our teachers our families our community to improve refine expand our message yes can I make a motion to follow that uh you cannot no not yet not yet it's got to go it's got to go backwards all right so we're back to the motion to table uh director Anderson yeah I I know we can't disclose information discussed in close session but um and I I don't know if everybody knows when we're talking about eighth circuit and all of that what that really means but my understanding about the decision um was that basically you know earlier the the lower level District Court dismissed the case without any um without seeing it and so then it was appealed to the ace circuit and the ace circuit said it should be seen and so I'm not under the impression that it's clear interpretation of violation of policy more so we have to now if we're going to continue go through the route of Discovery and all of that Gathering of information depositions those kinds of things so I am not under the impression based on information available to me that this is a sunk deal so I want to be very careful about how we present that because this sounds like it's driving a lot of decision-making and I don't I don't know how accurate that representation is of what has been presented to us so point point yeah point of clarification please I want to go back to director Thompson and my understanding was to go forward with a vote today to clean the Slate if you will and to look at this with a fresh start to focus on academics and also to have inclusivity be careful with that that word but that kids are welcome in the school in the classrooms and so forth okay now please help me understand where we got from there to tabling all this when in fact I thought director Thompson had a motion and I thought we were moving forward with that and now this is all getting convoluted and I'm a little uh I need some clarification on this please so the the motion to table um does take precedent as far as being answered by the board so we do need to vote on that um and if it's if it's approved we don't move any further on this issue if it's not approved by the board then we move back for discussion on director Thompson's um motion to amend the original motion okay all right is there any further discussion on the motion to table I I just want to say I'm not motioning to table to make this go away I just think yes you it is very um it is very clear that there has been a swell of community response to this and I want to make sure that we hear from our entire Community about this to make a decision that connects with the value you know I've heard many of you talk about Community Values and when we have every single teacher and every single student telling us to keep these signs up I don't I did not see one single email from a teacher or student that said take them down it makes me wonder how connected we are to the to the values of of that that are in the walls of our schools so I'm not saying that we table it to make it go away no matter what anybody thinks at this table I'm saying let's pause on this we have erupted the news people are here because this is such a major thing let's not make an impulsive decision let get more information to make sure that we are fully representing the community [Applause] director no direct Cameron I think um going back to the conversation about I think Kim that you brought up around policy I think for me my understand I mean it's our third meeting as board right but that um we have not had a discussion about how we as a body um understand these posters to violate or not violate any of our policies we're responding to the litigation that um Matt that you alluded to um however we are our own governing body and no decision has been um no no final outcome has um been made with litigation and so for me I want to make all my decisions based on as I said before earlier but also on what are our policies and how does this um and have a discussion with our board about our thoughts on how this relates to that and I don't I think we've just jumped to procedure and operations rather than starting from the policy discussion all right so I I agree that tabling and to have that discussion um I think there's lots of reasons to table what Carly has mentioned what Kim has mentioned um to to just ensure that we are doing our um due diligence on this topic any further discussion on the motion to table if there's none I'll call it for a vote all in favor favor of tbling uh the motion say I I I I'll oppose Nate n all right the motion fails all right we are back now to director Thompson's um motion to amend the original motion to replace the posters with a new series any further discussion on that Dr Nicholson no I've already said what I any further discussion if there's none I will call it for a vote uh let's do a roll call vote well actually it's just a motion to amend right and then we'll vote on the actual amended motion can you say what we're actually voting on because now I'm confused all right so now the question is whether or not we are amending the original motion to add in um which we would then discuss add in the re the understanding that the board is going to remove the current inclusive series post posters and then move forward with adoption and implementation of a new EXC poster series I think that's right is it is that correct director Thompson restating that correctly yeah so the so the intent was that to uh uh establish a new um uh an Excellence campaign whether it be uh you know pictures of our students on our walls Excellence of our students in excelling in stem in art in theater uh having pictures of our students on our walls something of that nature so some sort of all right everybody hey point of M so some sort of uh uh student campaign is what I was is what I was envisioning versus a vote where we just ended and then there's nothing so if we're going to do something as we move forward as we focus on academics as we focus on on uh you know moving our our district forward uh I think this has been a very L uh good dialogue conf conversation input from others uh especially via email and so forth but how do we move forward back to your question and and and how we move forward is putting our students first putting uh showing our students in a in a campaign where we celebrate all right everyone where we celebrate and highlight the uh the the the Excellence and the achievements that our students have done academically athletically Arts whatever may be can I ask very long story can I ask could you be opposed hey ma'am please we're this this is our deliberation I mean if you don't if you don't want to respect that if you don't want to respect that you can leave okay all right you can leave all right all right director Thompson uh would you be opposed to having similar statements that are not you know going to get us into legal trouble such as right in the front front front row here Better Together everyone is welcome you as a part of that new series proposal no I wouldn't I wouldn't oppose that I think that would be great to have I think it would be better if we had uh our students in in the background in in whatever success that they're doing uh whether they're robotics Champions debate Champions chess Champions whatever it may be so that when students come into our school when you're a student and you walk into our school building you are a Lakeville student that's that's how I see all of our students that's how they we ought to see ma'am please that's how I see that's how we ought to see all of our students and so when our students are uh celebrated with their successes I think that's the right path to go but when our students can't read and they can't uh you know they're not at the level where they need to be grade level for math or science that that's the core mission of what we're supposed to do all right uh director Cameron um I think for me what I'm struggling with is our role in this um my understanding of a being a school board member is that we work at the policy level and what we're talking about right now is operations and management I think we can say to superintendent Balman and the cabinet we want you to take on a new poster series but to get into the details of what they look like what is on them is not what a school board should be managing I mean like you said Brian like we have like larger issues so let's delegate this to the students facult sorry work at the University students uh teachers and others um in our community to design something that we could respond to but I don't think it's the board I don't think it's the board's work to start dictating or or even brainstorming what should be on posters I think that it we and but um my other point here hold on my other thing that I want to share is that I just want to for the record for for clarity for me is that we are deciding the motion is not taking superintendent Bowman's recommendation we are discarding his recommendation for a different motion is that correct we're not discarding his motion we just have to vote on the original motion that was already on the table and so the one that we're actually voting on right now is the amendment to the original motion but we could Amendment this could be amended again it can be amended again but we got to vote on his motion first through Robert's Rules yeah correct any further discussion on the motion to amend the original motion all right I will call it for a vote uh all those in favor of amending the original motion to now be a motion to uh remove the existing inclusive series posters and replace it with an academics Focus or excellent Focus series uh all those in favor say I I I I I all right the motion pass well you should call for you should call for knowing can we do roll call please just yeah we can do a roll call thank you so I I thought we were just voting on his Amendment am okay yeah uh Miss eling Le call a roll call vote on that head Swanson I Brett Nicholson I Brian Thompson hi Amber Cameron no Carly Anderson no Paul Carbone I Kim Baker no all right so now we are on the motion the amended motion uh any discussion more discussion on the amended motion Brett can I make a motion to follow superintendent Bowman's path forward so am I allowed to I guess whole motion has to be turned for I think we'd have to vote on this motion and have it fail and then go because you voted for his motion yeah and then you could make your motion confusion about what Happ so I right now the motion the existing motion original motion has been amended and so now that is the motion in front of the board so if there's no discussion on it we'll vote on the amended motion which will be to remove the existing poster series and replace it with something with a new series academics and excellent focused so I'd like to make a I'd like to amend please don't I'd like to amend this motion um I want to amend the the the motion that we that has been approved or the the motion that's been approved the amended motion that's been approved I like to amend the uh amend it by um uh instead of excluding all uh keep that we are stronger and everyone is welcome everyone belongs those two posters that is my Amendment to the amended motion two posters or three posters just two the we are stronger the first one and the everyone is welcome everyone belongs poster and then we'd continue to but we'd still do a new those are the two that I that I uh suggest we keep can all right can I just clarify Mr Balman you you recommended keeping the ones that six of them okay want to includ well with you don't all right hold on you guys this is a discussion of the board it's our deliberation uh yeah you guys are more than welcome to be here but if you're going to disrupt the discussion so we can't finish this we are going to have to ask you to leave so please be respectful so we can work our way through this L we are talking out loud I I again what all right please be respectful I I mean we can ask people to leave I don't want to delay things I'd rather not remove anybody but let's be the adults in the room okay you yelling people yelling things is not going to help push this along chair we can also take a recess um if if that need be for audience to calm down or for people to be escorted out all right are we good to continue all right um so you're making a formal motion I just so I'm clear which ones are you talking about uh the first one on the far left where it says where the kids are drawing on the uh on the street or on I'm sorry on the ground mhm and then the third one where it says everyone is welcome everyone belongs so those two can I can I just make one point I think some of these are some of the can you answer this Mr Bowman are some of them more for the elementary schools versus the high schools I I think they're displayed well I know the black lives matter one has a an ed an elementary version on a high school version are the other ones all like those ones are up at the high school I think those are Elementary so like that that is where we probably want to be mindful of we don't just want them up in the elementary schools right right I mean I I think that we are stronger together everyone is welcome everyone belongs should be in all of our schools I mean those are those are and and and the reason I think I like them is because they have similar style similar uh artistic design uh but that's that's my Amendment to the motion all right uh is there a second on the motion not not I'm not seconding but point of clarification yeah so you you mentioned to director Nicholson that he's not allowed to make a motion so I'm or make an amendment I'm sorry so I'm curious why are we amending then so the he wants to make a new motion yeah yeah so he's making an amendment to his already Amendment of the motion I think his also an amendment so he can amend the motion to remove everything or just the black lives matters posters is what I'm his is an amendment as well is that the motion you'd like to make I would like to make the motion to follow superintendent Bowman's Direction because I think that was part of what got us in this situation in the first place and if we followed his Direction I think I think it's beneficial I I would only point out that um we still have a motion I'm sorry we're still waiting for a second on director Thompson's motion to amend uh if there is no second we'll be back to the original motion is there a second all right there's none so the motion fails um we're back to the original well the original amended motion Brett are you requesting that we amend that can we just vote on that one start I would love to vote on that one cuz I I think at the time right now it gives us a good compromise between what people want what I think were the situation that we're in and I feel like it actually gives us some level of path forward in terms of moving forward we can develop an Excellence campaign we can start a poster series that lines up with what this board has envisioned for the school district as well as incorporates everybody I I like his the way he phrased it the way he laid it out made a lot of sense to me is that personally I like that and I would love to make a motion like that no so can I just want to I just want to raise one concern about that um I I Feel Again I come back to we haven't talked as a board about whether any of our posters violate policy so someone very astutely pointed out today that black lives matter is a statement we should all be able to embrace and get behind has an organization been politicized absolutely but it doesn't make those three words political in our schools and I would personally love to hear and I please please I would personally love to hear from our students it might be the case you know we have a black student union union in our high schools it might be the case that they don't like those signs I don't know maybe they do so part of this is we don't have inventory we don't have data on what these signs are doing and we have not discussed as a board whether or not we really feel those violate policy director Thompson yeah you know back to what you guys shared earlier it it um it says it violates our policies I think in the a circuit it it said that but but that that defeats the purp I mean let me rephrase that the these po these posters are designed to be inclusive and so when we've got posters that are designated based on someone's skin color does not make it inclusive uh you've got uh if we want inclusive posters we need uh pictures of Asians Indians whoever like a variety of different things and so when hey all right when so if we want inclusive posters where it gets challenging is that where do you draw the line who's in the inclusive poster who's not in the inclusive poster and so when we've got two that are specifically calling out a specific skin tone like that doesn't make any sense you're you're causing we may be causing uh uh you know results that we may not be uh with positive intent uh you know with with that with that particular uh design and so I don't know I we weren't here when these got created uh my recommendation is it's a new year it's a new board we should start scratch start fresh uh and and focus on academics but that's that's my perspective I would agree with that all right I think we're back on the original amended motion so let's if there's no discussion on it let's call it for a vote we'll do a roll call vote uh again the motion is to U the amended motion rather is to remove the inclusive series posters and replace it with a academic Excellence theme and whatever additional variations we agree with as far as including inclusivity in that discussion misson will you call the the vote Brian Thompson yes Carly Anderson no Kim Baker no Paul Carbone yes Brett Nicholson yes Matt Swanson yes Amber Cameron no all right the motion passes I think that probably wraps up our discussion on the topic I don't know I want um I still want that you repeat that it was the wrong I think that wraps up our discussion on the topic did I have to say we'll be back here in two weeks to discuss finances if anybody wants to be involved in that in another three weeks to discuss academics again um make a motion to adjourn I'll second the motion all in favor I I I weed during youra you never resp e for