no there is my little [Music] can [Music] it in it is now 6:30 and I am going to call our regular or actually a regular work session meeting of the S St step School Board to order thank you to our
community members that are here in person as well as those that are watching online the expectation of our community is that all participants and attendees will conduct themselves professionally and with respect for the other members of our community the first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United
States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay our first item is our school board procedures Rules of Order which we
let Matt take the lead on um thanks so I don't know if anybody remembers I know we had a discussion at some point back in June I just had requested that we follow no what's the policy my had 2031 um which is the one that has the
rules of order for our meetings and discussion especially um and I made the same request to Trisha when I talked to her on the phone a couple days ago um that especially when we're having discussion items on stuff that's kind of touchy or controversial or disagreeable
um that we follow more closely what's in our policy so um Trisha then asked me because we had heard folks might be in the audience um or for the audience this benefit that I just put a couple slides together to show on the screen um so yeah if you don't mind bringing it up um
I emailed them to mic earlier today one slide is just what's actually in our policy and then another slide is suggestions that are made during mba's officer training and this is all stuff that was in my email from whatever six well eight or nine months ago when I
first made this request so I can walk us through real quick yeah uh so policy that I put in here or the comments I put in here are straight from section 3D which is the one that speaks more
directly to discussion of motions or resolutions basically when the board is discussing an item that's up for vote um so there's four points here they're all in that section 3D uh the first one is that the chair is the one that decides
the order in which the other school board members will be recognized to address the issue uh second uh the chair should attempt to alternate between pro and con positions if appropriate to the discussion third a member shall only
speak to an issue after the member is recognized by the chair and four the chair will recognize each board member who wants to speak on an issue so um it is admittedly more formal than what we're typically used to since we're a small board we can get away most of the time with more informal discussion but I
think this will help us going forward when there's a discussion item that there's disagreement on if you want to go to the next one I there so then in addition to that what's in our in our policy already and we can discuss these tonight if we want to adopt any of these
um msba suggests other rules such as a member who has not spoken has prior claim over one who has already spoken so if everybody wants to speak on an issue we hear from each person once before we go back and repeat uh hearing from another person uh second the presiding
officer should ensure Fair opportun for both proponents and opponents of the motion I made a note that that's similar to what we already have since it already says in our policy you alternate between pro and con um that all discussion this is number three be must be relevant to
the motion before the assembly uh four debate must be fundamentally impersonal and five the person proposing a motion or amendment should be given first opportunity to explain the motion and they get to speak last on the it so that's my suggestion
that was my suggestion um when we were talking about staff contracts back in June and I thought it was helpful when we did adopt that for that discussion so I'm making the same request any discussion yeah um while I don't disagree with that I don't think that it should only be to controversial
issues then or what is quoted as controversial either we follow it or we don't I think making it a gray area just causes issues so I would say either we adopt the formal and keep it
formal or it's always informal that would be my request I don't know how the rest of everyone feels but again I I don't disagree with it I'm just saying it shouldn't just be specific to certain
issues and just to be clear that would not cons that would not be construed sorry that would not be necess necessary unless we're in a formal board meeting like our work sessions would not require this just to be clear or are we saying we want work sessions to
also I mean our work sessions do fall under a board meeting still so for policy they would apply we can make the decision as a board to be more informal at work sessions but I do agree that whatever decision we make it's uniform
it's not pick and choose when we use it um and I am all for using it at all times during regular meetings for sure okay I guess that's what I was more asking is do we want it to be something we do in both or is it just for regular meetings
um my first thought is I'm good with using it all the time at regular meetings and being more informal at work sessions up discussion at work sessions since I mean I'm looking back right now at policy 20 3.1 to see
um you know like section three I quoted a bunch of stuff from paragraph D um paragraph B and C that precedes that talks about motions and whether they're adopted or carried and you know how you get to that point who seconds it that sort of thing so it's as you get down to
D It's kind of in the context of a regular meeting deciding it's just the items yeah the purpose statement is the one I was looking at where it's to conduct meetings of the school board oh yeah to the first
suggestion find using it all the time at regular meetings Scott Chelsea have any no I'm I'm with that for consistency my question would be then are we good with everything on this list since this is stuff not necessarily in our policy the first page was stuff in our policy already we can't well we
can't unless we change policy we can't change that yeah and we can't adopt or we can't make changes we can't vot in a work session so recommendations could be brought to the committee okay moving forward but we wouldn't be able to officially adopt changes in a work
session because it's not a voting meeting but we can agree to to follow different procedures like if we want to say that a a a member has who has not spoken has prior claim over one who hasn't like mean it doesn't have to be a written rule it can just be something that we all agree is
what we would like to see happen I think that if we're going to adopt these orders suggestions but that we are going to follow them as if they were policy then they should be adopted into policy on the way that we as the S
St step Schoolboard conduct our meetings these are our Rules of Order so if we are going to agree to adhere to some all none whatever the change should be made officially in our policy then as well um I guess then this is my request that
be brought for the policy committee thanks um Mike you don't mind emailing them the slid so they have the language thanks okay any other discussion on Rules of Order is there a preference
for then if we do want to comment or talk how to get the board's the chair's attention so at the at the um training that I was just at for board chairs this last weekend they just suggested like raise your hand kind of like you're back in a
classroom I know that some boards do just in order down the table that's a little less of a childish setting please call on me so I think that would be a good way to start that's fine as long as we switch
up the starting point yeah you don't have the same person going first same person going last every single time we discuss something we don't have to change that se and it's okay if you have nothing to ask we just need more time to think about what is being talked about right well one of the suggestions that
um Mike and I talked about even just for like when we roll call vote is having a um a randomized list in front of me so I guess maybe what I would do is then ask that we basically just have a randomiz list that like it won't necessarily be in this order but like I will have a list of I mean that's random
every a different person every time that then I will just follow it that way so whoever is elected for chair will do that because it seems like that's been delegated to Emily in the past to take roll call vote well that's roll call Vote Yes but so you just I'm saying I could use the same thing that we are
talking about potentially doing for roll call vote so it's not just always going to be assumed that it's always Scott then Chelsea then you know following that order it would be like whoever votes would be decided when it's on that piece of paper okay exper I had with that is if there was an action item
coming up we already had a randomized thing that we provided to the clerk that District administration took care of and that way you never knew if you were first you never knew if you were last you just knew everyone was going to have I think that should get added to the list of suggestions that we bring to the policy committee meeting then I'm just
going to write that one down so we can discuss add that and that next meeting is in April just so everyone is aware okay any other that'ss
comments okay so then the next item on our agenda is Schoolboard self- evaluation I have been emailing with Gail from msba and Katie clande KY clud is the one that does the mutual expectations workshop and Gail is the
person that does the schoolb self evaluation um so I just want kind of give you guys a brief update um it sounds like if we were be agreeable that we could actually schedule a Schoolboard self- evaluation with her for our next work session if we wanted to move
forward then um we would be getting the surveys in our mailboxes tomorrow um it is a little bit faster than she normally would like but she said it was some something that she could do which I thought was great um but let me just read over some of the other information that's kind of the
most I guess from my perspective the most exciting so she said that the previous six board members took the school board self- evaluation and she refers to it as SB so if it's okay I'll refer to it that way okay and received the overview report for this review in August of 2024 now we have one new board
member and a new superintendent I suggest starting with the spsc facilitated facilitated discussion since ssse provides long longitudal data you would have responses from 2024 to compare and contrast with the 2025 responses which would be helpful during the discussion it would also be a good
onboarding tool for your newest board member as the focuses on the five standards of school board leadership which is conduct and ethics Vision structure accountability and advocacy and communication the sbse is useful in quickly identifying opportunities for discussion and creating agreements as well EMP as well as emphasizing the
board's role in governance during the workshop we would identify the areas that need deeper discussion following the workshop I would provide a summary of the agreements and agreed upon steps to move forward if challenges continue in the months that follow it would be appropriate to then connect with to consider a mutual expectations
facilitated discussion so again she said that she is holding April 3rd um for us um if we are agreeable we will she'll send us those links and instructions so the evaluation can be completed she would ask that we get them done as soon
as we can the preference would be a week or less the can anybody remember how long it took them to take that survey less than 20 minutes less than 20 minutes when she comes in April if she
comes in April she usually allows for about two and a half hours for the facilitated discussion so it would take up our entire work session um but she's opening to continue the discussion if needed longer the fee for the service is $1,095 for a virtual facilitation or
1,395 for inperson she does suggests that this is what we do first the spse um she will be assisting sorry I I asked lots of questions back and forth the board in addressing their current challenges and creating a plan to move forward during our April discussion the challenges
would hopefully be resolved and there may not be a need for the mutual expectations discussion however if the challenges continue and that's where we go through the other thing I thought and I asked her to write more to this was that the standards for Schoolboard leadership ethics Vision structure accountability is a great discussion and
the first step to become to to move forward with our strategic planning so I thought that was really timely for us as well since we are looking at updating our strategic plan um and that would really get us ready and then help us then move into the school board um strategic planning so
any thoughts what do you guys think would we be looking at scheduling another work session then after that to take care of any board business outside ofation we can decide um as a
part because it sounds like what she's saying is it would take two and a half hours of that night yeah that would essentially take up our Workshop that well we don't have it we don't have a hard stop time for work sessions I mean I agree I don't want to go to midnight but if there is things
that we need to be discussing whether prior to that next board meeting well I guess she said that allow she allows for two and a half but it could be longer so I guess I wouldn't feel comfortable putting more on our plates but I'm I'm open to the idea of putting another work session on the calendar if that's what we needed to do
that's what be that's what I'm saying are we looking at doing something like that then so I guess it would kind of depend on what we say is a topic that we need or I know our future topics right now
looking at this say says strategic plan and according to Gail this would really be setting us up to move into that more smoothly so and then I don't know looking at just our future topics we have right now now I don't know that we would need to schedule another one but well I would assume that the Strategic
plan is going to be a little bit of an undertaking so we're going to have to have meetings probably dedicated to that specifically I mean I wasn't a part of that last time so I can't speak to how many hours were spent on it but quite a
few so I mean from the District administration standpoint the Strategic plan as a future topic was was a planning work session where we think about when what would be the timing of when we want to do that work because I would imagine my perception would be about a
six week at minimum time frame where we would be working with stakeholder groups talking with parents all those things in the time of year that we would choose to do that even that I think would take some conversation amongst the board members so that was Hope from District administration that that work could be done before June 30th so we could start
thinking about next year when we would actually do the strategic plan sure so I'm not it wouldn't be a short conversation I agree but it's going to lead that broader so for the 1095 cost this is for what would occur
on April 3rd break down again what that all entails she didn't really break that down it's just that per like so 1095 would cover the virtual option of her facilitating the meeting helping us with um identifying opportunities for
discussion creating agreements as well as emphasizing the board's role in governance and what's the inperson cost 1,395 can you remind me was there a cost when we took the survey last year the survey part is is not a cost okay so we haven't incurred any cost yet
no but I I don't know how about the rest of you feel I didn't really feel that that gave me enough information to really help us but that was my personal yeah well knowing that she could be spending up to three plus hours with us that's pretty reasonable rate
for any consultant that we would hire other than msba to come in so seems to be worth worth it if it was much more than that I'd question it a lot more have you Mike worked with other
consultants in other districts related to school board evaluation cons strategic planning I have but not for this particular issue okay my understanding from talking to her and I I regret I didn't actually ask her to write it down an email because I
had her write down a lot of things in email just that I could remember everything but I do want to say that she said that this is something we would be able to potentially utilize like when we get through that Workshop kind of like how we did our um um our evaluation Workshop to know how to to move forward
with an evaluation tool for our superintendent we would be able to utilize this tool then to potentially continue to keep self-evaluating ourselves moving forward we wouldn't have to hire but that would be something I would actually want to confirm with her but that was that's my recollection so that would be included
in that cost as well I'm for I mean yeah it's hard to to wrate approve the spending of the money but I think that the benefit from it would be good and just yeah has a new board number like I said in the last I think work session that we talked about it I'd
rather see it done sooner than keep kicking it down thead so and I guess the question is are we in agreement that we would like to move forward with it tonight and have her email that out tomorrow we're moving forward with her sending up the survey or we are and then
moving forward with her coming on April 3rd are we going to do the virtual or we going to do the that would be the next step but I feel like we need to just decide yes we're going to move forward with with doing it yes okay and then yeah then it's what do we want the virtual or do we want the in
person from the cost saving perspective I would say virtual but yeah I can't think of a reason necessar somebody in person if they can be virtual well when I talked to her she said that is usually what she does as a virtual option um but I just not knowing
because we've done both when we've done different trainings I just wanted to know what both costs were so I'm perfectly fine with that'll work y very well when Barb visited with us on the screen okay well then I will email Gail tonight and let her know to get that
started tomorrow then our next update was the the consent agenda item which I believe we've actually talked about as a board in the past but having just redone the board chair training um they really went into a lot of detail about the consent agenda
and um how we really shouldn't be discussing it ever like so when we take our when we get a motion and we get a second it should just be immediately going to a vote um then I said well what do we do we're trying to read out our donations or any of that stuff and um
they're like well really you sure your donations should be separate remind me of the language um because they're a it's a resolution a resolution resol so I just I mostly it just as an update like they are going to be separate moving forward so that we can continue to have our board members share the
amazing donations that we are receiving and so that we can then make sure that we're following what mspa guidelines says to do with the content so in practice how I thought it we want to continue to read them all and celebrate that as our our commun get we
then have to make it a separate it if not just as say the consent agenda shouldn't be calling it out what MBA was saying on Sat okay so we can do that relatively easily so it would fall under an action item then that what you're
say and then we are talking about the districtwide survey which everyone has the envelope that was in front of you so I don't know if you guys want to start with discussing the survey from April 2022 and then move on to the ones
following um I guess just kind of deciding if these are questions that we want to continue to use or if we want to alter them in any way do we want to start with just before we get into the substance of each question or what not do we want to start
with does anybody have anything that their passion they just don't feel like should be on like we could remove from the 2022 I don't know that anything that I would remove maybe just change a
title make it less confusing or potentially confusing for people I think for me like I don't have any problems with the questions that were asked I think it comes down to what additional questions do we want to add and what is the kind of the limit of the number of questions we want to try to
keep to so that's where I think like it's not necessarily that I think that n should be removed but if we're looking to add some other ones that we think might have more value then maybe a couple on here just deciding
like how how many questions do we want to allow it to get to that's kind of where I was at to with just some of the questions some of the suggested questions could actually replace and I think we'd get more substance out of the
answers in the way that the questions are worded here than what we had in the 2022 survey so it would be a remove slash replace I guess with a similar similar question that we might get more value out of yeah yeah it one of the ones just since this
is what we're trying we ask it in every at every building what is the quality of education at blank whatever the building is I think there's multiple questions in the suggested where they might even be a little bit more specific um could maybe
get more valuable data out of the answers to that because people just answering poor Fair good excellent or na if you feel it's poor if you feel it's excellent why you know and I think some of the answers through some of these suggested questions would give us more
data there so that would be the only one I would suggest remove but replace so before getting to any substance my thoughts were how to structure because right now you have you know we lasted this three years ago and you've
got a survey where somebody who's got somebody maybe in ninth or grader older can fill out all the questions and answers on how everything is going at or pme which sure their kids might have gone through there but that's a long
time ago so maybe it's not I don't think so I think I think you'll just like so you'll select where your current and then it'll skip you to the right one so you could choose you could CH is a branched question like you could choose you have a student the way it's written here I wasn't sure if you just
go on through forve questions I mean admittedly I I did take all of them because I had a student yeah right and that makes sense I just want to make sure that I guess four but I think we're just seeing all of them but if we were actually a parent taking the
survey we would select the school and we would only see the questions relevant to that building and then probably the overall go of questions so now here's my question because let's say I've got I do I have a seventh grader so I fill a survey out in
2025 as a parent of seventh graders so I choose middle school but since April of 2022 my student was also at Riverview do in that time period do I not get to respond based on Riverview okay and as long as we're okay with that I just
wanted to make sure that that's that we're only focusing on where those kids are currently we're not ble to give feedback on the past two or three years since we last did this you certainly could and you could ask for that information it would be based on how we you know we're going to have a filter it based on how we has to filter what
you're saying if you've ever had a student who's attended metal please go down forgive me go down this hole and then when you come back up from that hole you can move on to the you hit River View on the way but then
you would we be able to do it like select the buildings that you would like to survey versus going and beginning with your youngest child and then all of those questions can just populate based on the building that you want to fill the survey out
for that way it would give people the opportunity if they want to fill them all for every building because they have experience is there room for uh each one of these for comments something like that
I'm all for me repas is there room could we create something within yes we could in the past in 20122 my understanding was there was not I think we'd run into the same problems Barb explained to us when we did when we got survey results and
superintendent search which is if you allow for comments then you're allowing people to potentially put in private data and Survey results can be a public data thing and so having to through through and take out private data if there's a request for this
public data that I don't think we want to go down that road that'd be my suggestion sounds to me a similar situation to what bar warned us against there are questions that do give there's one question that gives the option to explain
um is it number 32 well there's some that say other other please explain yeah so I mean not to say that we should do that on question I'm just saying there is some areas in which we must have had the option for people to
elaborate on whatever their answer was only on a few of these but well my other question is if I have one student currently enrolled in Sartell and I'm going to answer it for that one student about how many questions are we and I guess I could have done more homework
about how many questions are we asking about one student in the survey you go down each of the each of the ones specifically about how they I didn't but I I do know that as soon as go over 50 you're going to have
survey fatigue but you can also have the illusion of if you think it's question one and there's seven parts of the question some people will still feel like it's question number one so to allow for
comments could there be a link or something that would allow parents or community members to directly share feedback to you specifically sure like at the end of the survey could is there a way to say if
you have further comments or you want I don't know maybe they want to have a meeting with you or District staff or something like just to kind of prompt that at the end the survey CU I know that you've told me that you would prefer to have people sit down and have
have conversations with you about whether it be positive or concerns or and I and I think when you put it that way then it also makes me wonder well I I struggle sometimes when we do surveys and we leave a bit wide open because then it is kind of concerning what Matt is talking about or something like that
would allow for is there a pattern of things that maybe people keep bringing up because then that might be a topic of what I might ground about sure um so that could be a possibility I really like that idea or yeah it could just be as simple as if you would like to
discuss you know any of your answers within this survey further please click here and they can send you a request to either have a phone call or meet or something along those lines and I think we would do that but I also wonder even for those people who might not want to if there was a common pattern of a concern that maybe they or or
celebration that they didn't see in the survey having thatal information sure it was coming directly to my office or Mar and I that would be a little more comfortable right and just a cursory Rec count Trisha for
what you were asking I think I counted roughly 16 answers that you would give per building or per student I gu I shouldn't say per building you might have two in one building but real quick on the opening because
I'm I'm all for allowing if like you've had your child go through a couple different schools do we we also want to ensure that the information we're getting is relevant and that's where right like while great if a parent had a
child go through 10 years ago um at a school and if maybe they're still wanting to be passionate about the information they're giving but we then on our end don't have the ability to say this is feedback that's current
or how old is it and maybe things have already changed to to clarify I would only ever propose people be able to give answers for buildings their kids were in since we last did the survey like I going beyond that seems to me lat you're going
to get irrelevant information and feedback but maybe even I mean what I'm suggesting might even give us that I'll play devil advocate and say things change in three years in a school building so maybe it is a better idea to just keep it as where your children currently that's the questions you get
to fill out and we're going to get enough survey responses where you maybe don't need parents going back to in three years their answers to different school buildings we'll get enough from other parents whose kids are currently at the buildings I think a caution for the board to consider mad as you're explaining it that way is that 2022 we
still had a lot of things related to remote learning and Co going on that we could get all sorts of information that might be struggled to differentiate out but that's that's yeah I think sorry go ahead I I guess and maybe there's a
science behind a three-year thing but just a pulse point of the community on current culture you know um and their their current feelings if we were going to go and do what you're suggesting then I think that we should agree moving forward we should just do a yearly survey then if we're looking to really
get that pulse on what people are feeling every year you know moving forward we should just kind of change our practice but I I I'm taking it as we're just trying to get a where people are at now um because we know where they were at in 2022 so where are you at now three years later have we seen growth
Improvement decline whatever yeah I was about to say I think I'm convinced that we should not go with my suggestion no I that wasn't the that was even like a suggestion you were just trying to talk through like am I doing this for I think I'm good with the way
it is at least we consider it so how do we want to I just I feel like this is so overwhelming with the number of paper we have in front of us how do we want to tackle this so we can actually that's kind of why why I was asking like does anybody have anything
to really passionate about first removing and then maybe do you have anything about changing in the 2022 and and then moving from there putting the word Guardian next to parent on any appropriate answer in number one
or in any question if they ever see that's another question I had I guess and and Mike please chairman and everybody on this how granular are we trying to get tonight like there's just some things where we want to add the word guardian we should add the word school at the end of a couple of these
questions um I think if you if you want to trust the District administration to make those changes like what manages for you have the guardian I think you could send those to me as an email put a place for everyone to put their names on the top so it should be turning
in your work at the end of our time I get points um yeah and I won't use a red pen but those types of things we could move through faster the reason as I think I noted for a few of you is that there's a box there that if we go through and you
just want to check off the Box Yep this is great this is the one we want to keep um we could move through this page by Page um relatively quickly and then if there's edits related words or single words it's different than like the the content of a whole
question that would that would be my recommendation to how you can move through um question of clarification so the additional questions are these meant would um would these be nested underneath each
building if so any that we chose on here so that if we like let's say um how satisfied are you with the communication teachers and parents would that question would we Nestle that within each of the buildings so certainly they would get that or is it meant to be an overall
arching question either way we were fine it was brought forward just as being wasn't a question necessarily ask communication but I understand what you're asking then I would do what the board would so do we want to just start on page one and just run through each
question and our on the Yeah question is a winner right with Matt's request Guardian so check that what is your
age what's that Rel it's not it's been asked I'm just trying to figure out how that would affect data at all I don't think that I don't think we I think number one's much more important than number
two two you currently have a child attending school my question is what happens if you say no where does it send you it sends you down yeah because then it it you won't answer any questions specific to the buildings or right right I think
it'll jump you to the question of why aren't you enrolled oh yeah the one toward the very like okay yeah makes sense question four have you or your child participated in early trial but okay I'm just going to say it right
now I had to call Mike about this the SEL St step School District uh or I'm sorry I'm skipping ahead never mind I you're we'll get to we'll we'll get to it it'll be one of the next ones then if you say yes you get to go
to Five yes the quality what is the quality of education at the SEL St stepen Early Childhood Learning Center so is this for there was a suggestion earlier that maybe we get a
little more specific with this type of question yeah and I was like I was looking at it saying you know okay we've got a lot of far more specific additional questions that we could look at potentially replacing this one with if it would give
us more usable data well am I my uh suggestion would be is there a way to break that out by building and call it Oakridge Early Learning Center because
that's what we call that's the name of the building and then go into Like Preschool or bcfb uh kindergarten since those are the things that are in that building that's what I was getting at is
the sartel St stepen early tra Learning Center is what if you select Like Preschool that's the this is the building name that you're going to get on the survey will be the startel St stepen Early Childhood Learning Center yet like on your options for question
six you're going to see Oakridge Early Learning Center as your abbreviation so will that cause any confusion for people or can we streamline that so we're referring to the well it actually isn't called the S early early childhood Learning Center it's called orc right I
think that's how the building is called that I think we are trying to differentiate between s tell seeing Stephen Early Childhood learning I don't know why some in but I think we were trying to refer to preschool in that name and then oldd ear Learning Center
would be kindergarten Mike am I right so I think the question becomes when you get to question number six you want to have that to say something to what degree do you agree with the following statements about kindergarten programming at SEL St Sten Early
Learning or Oakridge Early Learning call because it is the one school where kindergarten is being asked about specifically versus a preschool program right and then that matches I mean we could also do it how
they do it for Pine Meadow which is the first question is if you have a child at Pine Meadow next question is what grade are they in grade one or grade two right that's what you say you have a child at orc and then you ask whether school and maybe they're not in
preschool but they're in the cuz ECF is even earlier than that isn't it most yeah so if somebody's enrolled in so maybe separately and then the next one would be do you have somebody ELC choose your
yeah yeah or is that confusing ECF also is ECFE in oakd so could you just list that as one of the grades so make it the three options so make it the three options what grade is your kid in ECF preschool yeah because then when we're
referring to or ELC we're going to use the same abbreviation we're going to be referring to the same building for all three questions but it will be dependent on what grade level you're selecting well or could you just leave
it because and just have the set of questions that would be for that building you do have the option of Na so if it's not applicable you could just say any yeah because then you wouldn't even necessarily have to fill it
out for each child if you had multiple kids in one building right you could or in this particular building then you could just fill out the questions that pertain to both children you be checking those boxes when you
said you PF a preschooler right but it would allow you the questions do differ a little bit for kindergarten questions versus the preschool question then you wouldn't be answering na because you wouldn't be you
wouldn't have checked that box right well I'm just saying if you wanted to do it even by building instead of based on like if you're checking how many kids are in there already and what programs they're in but here is the list of questions that we would ask for Oak
Bridge if one of the questions didn't pertain to your child you would just H any instead of having multiple I don't know what I would recognize for the board is that up until when you get to question seven those are
feeling very much like a preschool or early childhood question right move forward starts now opening up in the kindergarten questions and you get okay seven no I would say actually question
number seven is very specific to what I would be looking at for buying M SKS yes remain as broken up by age is that what you're saying it's one way of gathering data I think if the board is
asking how can we gather data in the best way possible looking at the questions that are in front of us um we can certainly come up with something I think with Kyle to make it be a little bit more user friendly if that's a feedback from the board for me it's do
do you think the questions sure are what we want to be asking but I also want the feedb on how we give it to parents because the community parents and sometimes the District administration this is the only building that I felt
like there was just is a little bit more convoluted just because of the names of the programming yes a little bit so uh that was the only reason why otherwise the rest of the buildings it's far more self-explanatory well my other concern
is is we have students that don't necessarily take a course that's called ECFE they have other ones will there be a way for them to distinguish that okay and just say four preschool programming I mean again when they're checking their boxes is more more
yeah um okay so so we don't like five and eight those support e good excellent or I think that's where we started I I think if it was given five or eight versus like the learning and teaching questions on that
proposed I think the learning and teaching ones are more specific but kind of speak to the similar as those for each building yeah I agree with that sounds good I would replace five and age well this question at every
voting the two questions so one and two from our additional underneath learning and teaching so question 10 then specifically kindergarten that 8 through 10 is kindergarten and all
those it's been a while since my kids were in kindergarten all those are areas that they cover in kindergarten okay this is the question where I feel which one number 10 we get to number
10 where I feel like that additional comment section would be very helpful because if a parent is saying you know they're satisfied with reading or not let's say not satisfied with reading well it would be extremely
helpful for us as a district to have feedback especially if there's a pattern on what about that was not satisfactory what did you see in your child that we could help improve on so I have a hard time with this is what do we do with the
information if they say they're not satisfied with reading well what if CU one of the suggestions I heard was maybe we have something at the end that says if you have any thoughts chair with superintendent email here or whatever
maybe at the end could we somehow have the survey compile a list of the questions they said that you were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied about here we noticed that you were dissatisfied on these certain topics if you'd like to get
further information on that please email Dr Mike rard at this address something like that we could explore that M I'm not sure if the platform reasing right now be able to do that it's a question I would never want to say four well if you only had a kid at
Oak Bridge would this be the end of your survey or like no right like where do you start back up it be after the building specific sorry um I'm just thinking like would that be a better question to end with like you're saying like it
could give us good information like if it's fresh in their mind at the end of the survey maybe it's better placed there but then it doesn't really make sense well and it's fairly close to the end because you have not well on this it
you have one two three four five six questions left six 16 so I mean it would it still should be freshen up in your mind that if you wanted to make a and or if you are saying that you're
dissatisfied about something I'm pretty sure you have your comment already true somewhat in your head just put it at the end is that saying no I'm just saying that it's probably they're going to have a fres their brain they're just I agree can I ask a question about
10 in general if we're going to put in in place of are you satisfied with the quality of Education or what is your what is your what is the quality of education at oid Learning Center we're to remove that we're going to replace with questions one and two underneath learning and teaching from the
recommender the suggested new questions how satisfied are you with your child's school and providing engaging and effective effective instruction that meets their individual learning needs how satisfied are you with the effectiveness of communication from the child school regarding curriculum academic expectations and
student progress do you feel that the answers we would get from those would essentially cover the information we would get from 10 if it's just a simple how satisfied are you with these
subjects meaning do we need question 10 and question one and two like new question one yeah no I see your point I would turn to Dr rard and say that's pretty specific as to what kind of data they want for there to be able to evaluate effective
teaching methods I and I I don't even know M would go as far as to say evaluated the type of instruction strategies or teaching methods I think it's it's really a an idea of getting feedback from our parents about how they're feeling their
child's growth is in those areas to some degree or whether they feel like we're spend we're spending enough time and I'll I'll say Arts because sometimes in school districts across our country they sometimes feel like art or music or biet doesn't have as much time as what we think we're supposed to be spending on
those saying would happen to start off even but that would be one of those things that that would be how I would interpret some of the feedback and as specifically about being very dissatisfied with our reading based on how we add the question for our reading
instruction it would be difficult to interpret really what that means are they are they saying I'm dissatisfied with your MCA proficiency rate are you dissatisfied with the growth that my student had um during this past year so
know that the way this question is asked it does leave open a wide array of subjectivity to how interpret the data and that's why when you look at the learning and teaching questions those are very general but they're asking
about your child that's that's the strength of those two questions and learning and teaching the other one is you get some specificity about the areas of content that we instruct across I'm not really answering your question M
because it's really hard to interpret on a nonscientific yeah so I guess my question then could we take how question one is written in learning and teaching and meld it with and then say how satisfied are you with your child school and
providing engaging effective instruction that meets your individual learning needs with reading with writing ra with math I mean add in in subjects for something right like kind of meld one and 10 together essentially how satisfied are you with your child's
school and providing engaging and effective instruction that means their individual learning needs in the following subject areas for somebody along those lines that that does give us information I think that's more significantly able to make
some interpretation from than how that wased in sound that backing up we're taking out eight we were going to replace with question one and two well we can still do two
right right but then so we're basically melding one with 10 and two two is just its own standable yeah okay and we're doing that for five as well CU wasn't five well I think we were just taking
out five we being replaced one and two two so so just be replaced with two it would change the order a little bit I guess because then you would be asking however we want the order to be I guess that may not matter
but I think you would go from number what is number four then you'd go into our number six would become our number five and then our number seven would become question one
melded together with question seven and then two would just be a standalone you would basically end on that question for your building I do have an overall proposal of changing the border of the questions a
bit so that we capture so like the way it currently is you start with a couple questions going to all the building ones and then came back to like some general ones but looking at the results from last year we lost 20% of our answers from starting to ending of like trying
to capture a bit more especially if we want to bring either some of the referendum ones in here or of like bringing maybe all the ones up front that we want everyone to answer and then go into the building ones yeah we'd really have to decide where where our priority
yeah do we want to continue just kind of choosing questions and go back in order after afterwards just reorder based on what we feel like as priorities I guess like to your to your comment I'm just I guess I'm wondering
if more people would stick around because they know they're going to be asked like building specific questions about where their student is and they would get not get through but persevere through to the end so they know that they'd be that answering those individual more personalized questions and then maybe we aren't necessarily
prioritizing it's just making it so that we make sure that all question you how do we know they will stick around though for their you know I think the the most valuable data is how parents are feeling about their child's education in our school district you know at the end of the day really what we want how do we
know they will persevere and give us what we're looking for as the most valuable data yeah unless we say at the beginning of the survey please P you'll be able to answer or we we could say like there will be child like building specific
questions at the end I mean that could be but yes I see your point well I think if we are able to condense certain areas that will help too because you're eliminating some questions or replacing them with
valuable ones instead of redundant questions as well so well I also think about like how that would be nice and fresh so if you do want to connect with Dr hard like gen had mention like then I mean not that you'll forget but it going be R fresh on your mind
questions about your child educ and some people might just skip it and say I'm going to email him I'd rather just have a meeting instead of doing a survey so which can be valuable so we're going to go back through the questions and just decide which
questions and then okay so are we go with 11 and 12 yes then question 13 we would replace again one and two of the learning but are we replacing it only with two because then we're replacing
one with 15 that's I'm a little confused well could seven also be blended with learning and teaching cuz that would kind of cover that preol and that's really what they're I was referring to but all of them I
mean seven they're all the same so then they would be seven 10 I think it's 15 yeah seven 15 would be blended with one I'm just more saying like we want to make sure that everyone is getting one and two they're just getting
them so number two would be just as it is here in this sheet but under each School B right as a separate question so I think we're clear on that so it's just blending number one with the appropriate questions for eacho
which would be 10 okay so 14 everyone's okay with 15 will be Blended 16 17 18 18 replace with question number two from learning and teaching 19 is okay 20 is
Blended 21 is okay please tell me if I'm wrong 22 is okay 23 is removed for question two 24 would be okay 25 would be Blended
one 26 is okay 27 would be okay 28 would get replaced with question two 29 30 is Blended y okay question
31 this is where it gets a little bit this changes so I gu everyone good 31 yes yes 32 so no everybody would take 31 whether you answer building questions or not 31
is for outside so if you answered no you weren't enrolled but I'm but I'm saying if you answer number three yes or no you should still take 31 because some people could have some kids in our district some out yeah so I just want to make sure that that everybody
takes 31 as a question and then if they answer yes then they get 322 right so everybody has to get feel you're not going to want these sheets Mike no but try to keep okay but
I will still collect all your um question 33 there this is one that I because I feel like we've kind of asked it within the buildings I'd be willing to swap it out for one that maybe gives us a bit different well but that would be a Community member
question as well and would we want I mean I would think we would want their right feedback on what their true perspective is on what they think the quality of education is yeah or maybe there's some of these that are generic
enough that maybe if you answer your Community member you get them but if you're a parent you're answering the building specific ones yeah is that possible for how how does that affect Kyle if he's having to
like because I mean it's easy if you select I'm a parent or I have a child enrolled in the schools or I don't you know it's going to take you to a certain area of the survey but if we're going to be selecting like okay if I'm not a parent I or if I am a parent I won't see question 33 of the overall
questions I don't I guess like as a parent with multiple children I feel like I mean this is my opportunity to not just talk about my one building it's my opportunity to talk about all the buildings overall so I don't know that there's an issue with letting people again super hard to quantify we to get
from this but I and the only reason I was looking is like I do like some of the additional questions and I just don't want to take it too long and so that was just one of the ones that again I like the question but it could be one of the ones is there a way to reword it
to get I think your audience is so Broad in when you're asking this is an everybody question your audience is so broad that it would be hard I think it would be harder to tailor it down because you may be
getting answers from people who do not have students enroll you know so it's more of like I guess it's more of a upper level view of what they feel the quality of education is even if they don't have students currently enrolled so leave as is I think
so so keep so keeping 33 yeah say 34 should stay too for similar reason and I think it'll be I mean the snapshot data may not be all that easy to interpret but I think comparing it to Prior surveys is where the benefit is in
this at like 35 we don't need the ash out but are these all still current CU like our district newsletter the saber Spotlight is right now with the community catalog so is that redundant and I just I guess
I want admin just double check that are these all the forms of communication obviously people can still put other but are they current right we'll I guess I'm more saying is there others that we missed since 2022 or others that
have combined if you guys can just double check that the principles did the work together but I did not necessarily all the question so I can do well has this has this one already been altered since 2022 question n you guys 36 yeah
um again I get for the perception of number of questions because the additional questions like on this first page kind of fit the format of 36 where instead of
having seven different questions if we called it question and had each of these as statements with a VAR Attis with the ratings underneath them or whichever ones of them we liked like how satisfied are you with in
the following areas Y and then list out communication between teachers and parents and then allow them have kind of like what we did with theic ones I like that yeah and that would replace 36 as as it is or we would keep 36 and then
add a 37 37 okay but your perception of what you're actually answering isn't as much one more question we are getting even though we're get a whole bunch more questions out okay so yeah yeah I think it still be good to
go I do like I mean I think for there right y I do like number one y I do like number two number three the only reason why I feel like we could maybe Chuck this one is because we do ask it in the building
specific questions for for the middle school and for the high school I don't think we ask it because it probably doesn't apply as much in the um earlier building levels but I feel like we touch on that already I don't know that we need to ask it
again and the building specific ones it's the that they offer a variety of extracurricular options and we ask them to strongly right disagree to strongly agree with us I think that would be fairly redundant get rid of that one if everybody feels okay with
that number four on that yeah number five so going back sorry going back to number four I'm just trying to think of not so much like just integrating
technology but what about is there something in here with cell phone use or anything like that where feedback can be provided yeah the question is worded from
uh from a stance of essentially positive view of Technology like already assuming that you have a positive view of more technology being added in the classroom well I look at it as yeah we
have great technology and but at the same time I personally would like to be able to say somewhere well the the district's efforts to integrate technology is great but how
can we maybe pull back the instant technology that students have access to you might answer dissatisfied if you feel as though there's too much access to te technology right but at the same
time so would you prefer it a bit more to be like how satisfied are you with the level of technology in the classrooms or would you have like SE well yeah I just because if I were a parent
answering this I guess where where I thought you were going with this maybe is I would say sometimes I think they have too much access to technology right with the inclusion of their cell phones and whatever you know so then my mind would go there and that might skew the way
that I answer this question where I'm actually satisfied with the district giving children a lot of opportunities and access to technology District technology but with the own it's with their own it's too much yeah I'm hearing two separate
questions right so this one so that's what what if the end of this question said so the question would read how satisfied are you with the district's efforts to integrate technology into classroom learning and then we ask another one about you know how satisfied are you with
the amount of time kids are utilizing technology in the school building or something like that I don't know I do like specifying that it's the learning component yeah yeah so we would keep Mike you have any suggestions if if
it's a if it's true we have a technology integration plan technology integration specialist so a school board and administration we made a Comm to technology into our classrooms because it's 2025 um obviously my my question for clarification if we're looking for some
specific information related to cell phones um I I don't think that's a bad idea by any means and I would say that's a that's question 4.5 or it's if it's it may specific to something like that yeah I think you I mean we might as well just say it
because the only technology in which children are going to be bringing in on their own with the district isn't overseeing or integrating themselves right but you could also you could also make an argument to ask what about the devices that are
going homeless students as well so is there a way to potentially word it about like how satisfied are you with technology within the following area I don't know the learning the like is there a way
to I I understand where you're going with the cell phone my bit of personal is that is more of like it's unfortunate the schools have to get involved with that to me it's a more of a parent thing like as a parent if you don't want your child having that much cell phone screen
time set parental controls don't send it to school with your child or like having some of those guard rails I think if we if we ask a question about cell phones I think it needs to kind of like if it is about screen time
in general or something but I think we are also going to get both ends of it right to of parents who are like I want my child to have their cell phone and be able to be on it and parents were like I don't want to but again as a parent if I don't want my child on their cell phone during the day that's I view it as my responsibility to be having those
conversations and not putting that on the district to necessarily yeah I think we'd have to think about how we I guess and and it doesn't have to be included in this it would just be more like the approach and the way we're wording the question because as a district we have a responsibility to ensure academic
success and if a cell phone or cell phones are hindering that and we're seeing that in our scores yeah and and in the academic progress of our students that is our responsibility in that regard so that would be that would be a totally different word in question though right and we don't have to ask it
in the survey I think I know what you're getting at Jen but I do think it would be valuable information if we could figure out a way to word it correctly and not just like do I think my child is on my cell phone or on their cell phone too much yes yeah so uh but how are we
doing as a district to ensure academic success and that while they are in our buildings they are focused um on their school work and not distracted by a phone why don't we just ask the people what they think of our school policy on
cell phones yes or no I like it yes or no no sure yeah and that could be a question under each building specific well I guess it'd be more there's different policies that I
mean yeah the younger schools are just bringing that's the policy I do like that plus if people are like I don't know what it is then they look it up well my other thought was going off of your like a district issue device is there a question that we should be
asking about like how satisfied are you with like being feeling prepared or knowing what to do or how to handle like having your child bringing that device back and forth like do you feel that you've been adequately prepared to know like it's your responsibility when it comes home like we aren't putting
filters on it at your home and your Wi-Fi like is that kind of what you were kind of going with too or is different I don't know how to articulate it fully but yes there's good technology being integrated we are
offering a lot of Technology based programs within the district as well but I'm just wondering are you able to potentially skew this because of maybe
policy or I I I'm just not entirely sold on the way that the question is written I just don't know how to Wordsmith it I do like the addition of learning at the end of it regardless of whether if this one's
meant to Target that adding learning and then deciding if we want another question should we come back to this should we just push this one move on to five and just kind of circle back to four here yeah sure decide how we want well I guess like we can move forward but then my question would be
like M could could um you and might Kyle work on potentially creating a question that would talk about technology policy or cell phone policy so we don't necessarily yeah before we move on was any of your concern having to do
with because you mentioned the amount of time that kids are looking at a technology device was any of the concern having to do with the amount of time in the class room like teacher technology use because that would be more relevant to this maybe right because cell phones
in general yeah because they're a distraction and it kind of goes back to the academic success of it so yes we're integrating technology but at the same time is that actually causing a
hindrance and I wouldn't necessarily want to say I'm dissatisfied about the integration of Technology right but being able to elaborate a little bit somehow but yeah is it is it too much technology
time in the classroom right so maybe have a separate question that talks about classroom learning and Technology use but more asks not so much satisfied dissatisfied but is there the right amount too much too little use of
technology in classroom Mar something like that something like that I think yes maybe more of like a the use of technology in the classroom is appropriate or the right amount and have it be like a strongly disagree
disagree yeah something like that thank you well then you don't know if it's too much or too Lev the way that was true so I I if we ask a question like that I'd like to know if people think it's too much or too little I think that's an important decision and I think I would
probably add and it's purposeful that you don't see an NA in some of these questions um I would almost want to ask unsure because I'm not entirely sure that a vast majority of our families would necessarily know how much time
techology can use they've trusted that we put a plan in place so it's being implemented well in each of our classrooms and some parents probably do have a good idea or a good feeling about that but I would want to give that opportunity for parents to say I'm un sure versus because these questions are
purposely either very satisfied or very dissatisfied with no kind of Middle Ground people have to choose to some degree um for a question like that I'm not sure we're asking people something they might not know so that would be my one thing i'
want to add but I can work with Kyle on that number five number six number yeah although what would we do with that
information like let's say we get an overwhelming dissatisfied with the quality of School meals like what do we do with that I mean I like the question it would be just I really there's not a whole lot that superintendent I I would have bring people
together I would invite community members and stakeholders who spoke or felt strongly about something like that i' want to bring okay you know most of that is set by the federal government about what we're supposed to feed our students right that's kind of but but I would still over I would be curious is what it
would Le for me and this will be another one I know this would be the first time asking it but this would be another one where survey after survey comparing the data might be more helpful than just what the number say yeah so you know if data is trending in the right direction then
that's sign okay we've already talked about learning and teaching questions so then our special ed questions I would caution the board that if this feels like we're moving into a demographic is one demographic and then do we want to explore multiple
demographics that the caution here is maybe we don't even do these um but I also recognize that 18% of our students have special education needs so the demographic gr that's a little higher however we we could survey our special
education families and students or children families special education needs in a separ put that not there and also recogniz a lot of questions yeah me referendum question so the referendum
questions board um just recognize that we do have somewhat similar questions possibly as you look at them one is related to being multiple choice answers one is related to being a strongly agreed strongly disagree that impacts your conversation
in general I tended to think to strongly agree to you know the range of whether they agree or disagree seem to be more helpful on these types of questions just multiple choice questions don't or the answers don't give the full give all the options gamut of what people could
potentially answer or want to answer but this time that's a recommendation for consult is the agre want to set the mice six and seven are almost identical have to do both of them they both talk about the tax
Ina well and then but then couldn't you say the same number one one is also considered do one of um an idea I had look at this list
something to add might be get more specific some of the feedback I've gotten through the process is well if I had known that private groups were going to give x amount of money toward this and that it wasn't all on me as a taxpayer they
might have I might have thought differently about it or that's a concern that I've at least heard people talk about so should we ask a question more specific to um if we had private funding in place for a portion of this project beforehand would that have made you more
likely to vote Yes or something like that I think that'd be a topic I'd want to get feedback on is there any false hope in that though in that question what exct well are we potentially setting up saying that we
would find that private funding in order to offset that and then can would it make sense to do that before or after um because if yeah that's an interesting question I mean so the people I've
talked to have raised that basically everything every time they raise it they compare us to some neighboring District like right rori who got a huge Grant from and I think it's maybe expected that that sort of thing be able to happen anywhere regardless of what's
available in our specific Community but um so yeah people's minds are going to go there on the one hand but I yeah I see your point that um if including that question commits us to something that can't ultimately be fulfilled or maybe not to the extent people would hope then
maybe that'd be a mistake in asking I don't know because I think at one point we had talked about the referendum would be the dollar amount any private funding or donations
or anything like that would go to it has to go specifically to that cost or that project and then it it would be potentially cost saving down the road because we're
paying off that sooner correct with that you're saying it if there were then private donations it would go towards the bond amount correct right yeah that would be the idea it's just whether you canuse it as selling
point prior to the referendum vote and be able to go out there and say we've got x amount pledged right if this passes I would feel very uncomfortable with that because what if I mean somebody May pledge it but what if sure there's no longer available and the
residual effect of that could be very negative on the district um yeah that's riskier it's all coming from one or two major donors or something when I mean when this State issue first came up I recall the list being pretty long of people who wanted
to donate and this is when it was I mean we never went down this road but this is when people were thinking how can we Finance this project entirely without having to go to a referendum sure so there were um and I I wasn't personally part of it so I don't know how firm the pledges were but there was a dollar
amount put out that you know basically said if we can fund how much ever of it through some other means we've got X am amount from private donations and the list of who was giving that pretty diverse so that I think insurance that spreads the risk but um yeah that's
that's a concern I just think and like what if the economic environment totally changes and it affects one of the businesses that had pledged sure you know yeah yeah because some of the pledges were not just a onetime gift it was
we'll give you x amount over the next X number of years right so yeah what if that business only makes it for two two more years and then last their pledge is gone right so that would be my fear on that yeah um the other switching topics the other
thing that I wonder if we need to ask is because I know there's been feedback um to our ad and stuff about maybe this design just wasn't whether it was too much or too little wasn't what we want at this time I mean this was a design that
essentially has been around for 10 years so when the building was first put up this layout of the fields was put in place and Design's been kind of in existence for quite a while now and maybe we need feedback on whether people thought it was too much too
little yeah and the feedback I had heard was that it wasn't enough right yeah there there wasn't enough included the Dome another Turf so I don't know is there a way to potentially itemize things if we do
something I mean is asked on number eight well do we want to decide between six and seven yeah sorry yeah I mean one I would think one is fine that was kind of where I was so we would get rid
of well and then could we word something more similarly to what we have done with like the additional questions for the 2025 survey like where you'd say like I believe the addition of artificial turf I believe the addition of Dome I believe the addition of X Y and Z and come up with some options that maybe we've all
heard and then you could say I strongly agree and I kind of go that way that satisfied dissatisfied question so how we're going to condense all of these into like yeah yeah I don't know because I mean eight is kind of set up that way
we could put in other OPP or othering or list them out yeah what if and then put other like how we have I mean I know that we talked about blending and I think I'm understanding what you're saying so if we were to look at the
building questions of 10 and then we blended it but we're still covering those specific right we would just list out specific ideas is what you're saying correct okay I think we would also just have to cover not only the additions but an option of just saying
like however you would capture that it wasn't the design I don't know how you would WR that but essentially that it would just be about the additions that if there was the overall design yeah we could put an overall design in there in that list and
then also an other in case there's an idea that is I don't know because of the format of all the other questions it would be odd but what if you just asked I would have been I would be or have been more like to support this if you know multiple
choices would have been included and you could select as many and you could also choose other have an area to explain your other but you could have Dome Turf you know you can list out some of the additional options and then leave an other spot for
somebody to put another idea in there which does not follow the format of any of the rest of the questions but if we're looking to just get that data be the last question to and then the format wouldn't necessarily have to
be Mike what do you think um I'm looking at question number two I'm I'm hearing and and liking what I'm hearing in terms of trying to elicit more information from our community I
look at question number two and my first thought is I want to know the answer to that um I look at question number three and it gives me some feedback from within our community about a cost um when they see $8.4 million um and I
would love to know the answer to that as we think about um future going back out to our community after that that's where I see is there is there more things that we could do with these questions I feel like five is very similar to two
yeah okay um but I'd like what getting it because two specifically asks about the proposed facility and five just says I believe that updated athletic facilities are
important so like could we five is a lot more General in the sense of do you support at all the idea of updating but two is specific to the ones we proposed could you list them as just three like important for the development of students physical education and extrac
activities is there a way just to combine them so taking the end of two and putting it on the end of five that's what you're St so like where physical education is okay so combining two and five two and five I already crossed out
five can we five and two I do like that or you could even list again you could so if somebody didn't agree for whatever reason the extracurricular part of it I suppose we could always just list them
out and then agree or disagree I or check the boxes of the ones that you see the importance to or we can I mean we could leave both I know what you're saying Matt I guess but right but then that's just
another question yeah I I like the idea of combining them um I just you know along the lines of if we ask ask a question about you know would a dome or Fieldhouse or whatever have made a difference I do want to make sure there's a question in there of whether
the proposed design right was and that's we were going to put overall design as one of the yeah things so as long as that's in there then I'm good with getting rid of two and blending that with five that makes sense getting rid of two now I have an
X put are people comfortable keep question number definitely Y and we said yes to three correct I'm sorry this is getting picky these questions where it refers to question number two can you make it say referendum question number two so they
don't think it's referring to surve question absolutely oh sure and of course when they see the survey we'll write out what referend question two is make no assumption that they'll know what referendum question number two is we'll make sure there's some information there probably won't be the things that you would see on their
ballots but it would be something that'll hopefully trigger people and then is question eight the one that we are looking at selling out options that could have I believe the addition of and then
list check all that I would yeah it would have been more likely to support and I can work on that question sure it'll be a reasonable number of things that were variables within question number two but probably not down to
grandular I thought we could just put an there can be an other on there I'm thinking like the visitor seating was going to be this number and the home SE I mean Bruce gets very excited I'll keep it to six or seven upward to eight they give us feedback on
related to what the ask the question and then would it be where you allow them to or encouraging them to reach out if they have more feedback I was just going to say would it be helpful to with this specific portion to also reach out to Bruce or give that as
a I don't know if I put that on Bruce at this yeah there reach out to okay so I am going to take back my assignment I will just keep my own you can keep yours I think I have enough notes what I would do is put these together over the
next week and then I would get them out to the board this is not something that I would vote on I would send it out as the BCC if you had concerns or whatnot about a way of question or how I interpreted our conversation this evening just get back because we wouldn't be doing this until the end of
April so we do have time even if we had to bring it back to work session discussion next time um but that would be my proposal to the so just because we're talking about surveys and I know this is well it says
districtwide but it's parents and community members one of the things that I had brought up and I know it's a separate survey but just to potentially I'm jumping I might be jumping ahead but and combining E and F here but getting staff
feedback as well would we we would do that separately Al together correct okay and I'm not sure if these would be the exact questions I would ask right but I just don't want to
lose sight of getting their feedback also on things okay and then we have future topics so if it's okay I'll just go around so Scott did you have any future topics you wanted to add to the list no one number two
is I'm more interested in and right now iect no no not that I can think of okay I also don't have anything Emily no and Jen I would just say what I
the staff the staff okay surve well just for a point of clarification Mike do we normally as a board have anything to do with staff surveys or is that something that you and your admin team would do I want to know that you're doing it but like like would we go through a similar process like this or is this just something that
you would I don't have an answer to that as new superintendent I'll find that out though and get out to you the weekly update I thought there was a stuff on that the board reviewed a couple of years maybe review but I don't I'm guessing I'm more asking if we actually help make it like we did
the district I'd like to look add some more information purpose of the survey what we've been doing with it in the past how you may want to change for the future any other topics otherwise if you guys are all agreeable I would like to
adjourn and give us like a five minute recess just so be the bathroom we may do so um it is 8:08 you guys want to stay 5 minutes or you just want to say 8158 okay so it is 808 and we are going to adjourn and we will be back for the
next meeting at so Mike you don't want this I wanted a sticker to [Music] EXP you're jealous I have to like fight over
over if it was a favorite I would children start I never played few [Music] just don't stand up in front of the camera you're good to go good TV right now
[Music] yes I saw that today sorry what your you stud we'll see yeah think it's spril you trying to this no giving it
back I can look it is now 8:16 and I'm going to call the special meeting of the starel St Sten School Board to order thank you again to our community that is here in person as well as those that are watching online we appreciate your interest and engagement in our school district the expectation of our community is that all
participants and attendees will conduct themselves professionally and with respect for other board members or sorry other members of the community the first item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance so please all rise with me to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands
one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all I will look for a motion to approve the agenda Mo second motion by Jen second by Emily any discussion hearing none all those in
favor signify by saying I I those oppos say nay motion passes and our next item is motion to discuss the election of board chair board officers chair um I thought and and Mike I gu
you can chime in on what your level of comfort is but do you want to give a synopsis of the legal opinion or would you so you have you have two alternatives to discuss before I speak about this is if you want me to get some
level of specificity related to exactly what she says versus a general statement I'd ask the board to make a motion to allow for us attorney and theard on that before I get real specific I General I think a general in my
opinion is okay but at the end of our last regular board meeting the board asked for uh District administration to look at some questions related to legally what our Council would be given advice on and some of the
questions were directly related to an acting board chair what happens if we are absent to chair um after the reord meeting so at that point in time what we heard from Council is that we are not absent to
chair that the board chair does act as the continuing board chair based on if the previous board chair from 2024 remains here in 2025 that board chair continues acting as the chair until new
chair is elected um and selected and qualified the rights responsibilities and limitations of an acting board chair is the same as a chair is what we heard and the vice chair was a specific question you asked most school districts
across the state of Minnesota do have a vice chair and they would continue to fulfill the role of the vice chair of the line Bo policy thank you for trading on that oh yes so that answered I guess one of the
questions from our previous meeting um moving forward so respecting the way that you guys asked that we do this just in our last work session I will open it up for a discussion I guess I wasn't 100% sure since I did not write this agenda um
what you guys meant with discussion because normally we make a motion and then we talk about it so I was a little confused admittedly um but if that's what we want to do is discuss the board chair then we would follow those same rules so I don't know if Scott you the start so that was what you guys kind of
proposed or if you guys just tonight want to be no we can follow we can absolutely follow that yep yep so Scott did you have anything you want to say on discussion of board chair I will answer after okay
Chelsea not mat um sure I'll share my thoughts I don't have a lot um so at the last meeting I made a point to mention
um for the benefit of people listening obviously I've been voting to have train as our board chair and at the last meeting um I made the point that I thought and the way I interpreted the election results from November for a school board School Board elections
since it was at tail end of tra's first year as chair that that was an affirmance by the community atric has done a good job and she's trusted in this role and I frankly was taken back by a board member who disagreed with
that um and was very quick to say that there was disagreement with that point so that got me really thinking about what else the election could have told us because I still believe that Trisha being reelected to this role at the end
of her first year as board chair does reflect positively on the community's trust in her in this role um I'll say something that I think everybody knows uh but probably hasn't been said out loud here which is there are multiple board members here that
would have preferred other candidates take my seat and Trisha's seat and everybody's entitled to their opinion that's fine but what you can't do is because that was the desire you can't then skew the results of the actual
election to say that it meant something else than what it really meant um and one of the things that the election told me also because there was very similar political views from candidates that were not elected to board members who
are seated at this table right now is that those specific views were not held by a majority of our community and to me in thinking about it I just can't comprehend how I would take my
vote away from Trisha who's got the community's trust overall not of course not everything is unanimous and install a board chair who aligns very similarly politically with folks who were not elected so that's really where I've come
down to um in my reflection on it I don't think I'm going to change my vote I don't know that there's anything that could convince me to do that I think Trisha has done a great job that's really all I need to say so I actually did prepare some notes I
feel as though I've been pretty silent in our or meeting and even at our last meeting so I'm going to try my best to not just be looking down at my paper but um just know that that is what I am doing so I did not come into the process of selecting a board chair with the
intent of being negative and I still do not want to go down the road of negativity but many accusations have been made Against Me by other board members that I can't stay silent to vote mainly I've been accused of poor communication and blame for causing the community outcry last June when contracts for 21 of our non-union staff
were about to expire I think those opinions are misguided at best that is my opinion on Tuesday June 18th of 2024 I called a special meeting of the sartel St Steven School Board to take place the following Tuesday June 25th I did not consult any other board members before I
set this meeting I expected that with a full week's notice all board members would join me in making the 21 staff contracts a priority by attending the special meeting to ensure those staff members would not only have a job come July 1st but also uninterrupted health insurance which was according to our legal councel this gave each of us as
board members who could not attend in person at least three business days to arrange a public location from which they could appear remotely between June 18th and the 25th I did attempt to find a more agreeable date for all board members to attend but after speaking with all members on the phone I know I
found no such date all members were offered the same right to attend remotely I do want to remind everyone that Matt did attend our June 28th remotely from a hotel lobby on his family vacation finding dates that work with six people schedules is a challenge with our other outside obligations given
the urgency and advanced notice I had hoped that all members would fulfill their elected Duty and attend I will also add that scheduling out a few months in advance has usually made scheduling with our current board much easier but that was not an option in this situation if anything the communication that was lacking last
spring was openness about how the contract's issue could be resolved with the appr appr of a majority of the board Jason Matt and myself continually voted to approve renewed contracts for all involved that gave a 3% annual raise to most of these employees gave a higher raise to our food services director as a
needed a pay adjustment and gave a lesser one and a half% raise to our HR Director also a pay adjustment ultimately even though most new contracts were approved by the end of June this issue was not fully put to rest until just this past November
when at our regular meeting we as a board approved a new contract for our HR director that included a more than 20% contract increase at the general in the general funds never once before July was it communicated to me from board members who had been voting the contracts down that the way to resolve this issue was
to give our HR Director a full-time status of a 1.0 a larger total raise than what I had I and two others have been trying to approve since February in fact it wasn't even communicated during board meetings or to me as board chair that the intent was to eventually approve all of the contracts had all
board members has been more open and transparent about their ultimate intentions I do believe we could have avoided the community spectacle that this issue ultimately became but I disagree that it was my lack of communication that caused it I've also been accused of Fanning the Flames of division in the media by other board
members I didn't reach out to any media Outlets there was a press release made by three other board members on June 24th and two more board members chose to sit for a podcast interview in the week prior to the attempted meeting on June 25th I was not a part of either of those lastly I've been accused of not speaking
out against harassing Behavior towards board members although I did actually make a request to our community to choose decency and respect and laid out expectations for proper behavior when I made a statement to those gathered in the boardroom on June 25th when only three board members showed up it wasn't until November that I was made aware of
the threats to the board members in June and I was told I didn't need to make a statement I do regret not doing that no I have also felt unsafe and attacked in the past and currently violence is not the answer threatening people is never okay there are six elected officials at
the board table and not one of them is doing this work to be made to feel unsafe in their own homes or our community I know S Health Saints even can do better we need to be an example to our children for any board member to feel unsafe is unacceptable just as I would extend that to our students staff parents families and communi it is
perfectly acceptable for us to disagree but we must do so with respect for the opposing view and without tearing others down personally or professionally Emily would you like to speak yes so I just took some notes I do have a
statement as well but to touch on a couple of the previous things that were just said um Matt uh your interpretation of the results of the school board election uh you made a statement that
there were board members who were disappointed with your reelection due to their political affiliation or leanings I believe is the way that you phrase that do you want me to
clarify I think a direct question to that can just I I think the way I said it was that there's board members here who would have preferred others sit in my chair I didn't phrase it as disappointed that I get reelected but but you made reference to the the
political affiliations or similarities I compared your yeah the political similarities to three recent candidates that were not elected to three members of the board here and I I guess I would have to ask
were the feelings similar when three other board members were elected in 2022 so my approach to the election in 2022 as a current board member at that time was to stay out of it that's what I did I didn't campaign for anybody I
attended the public forums as a Observer because I knew of the people on the ballot I had to work with three of them and it wasn't up to just me who I was going to work with so that's the approach I took I will have the same approach in two years I will not be part of any campaigning I will not be giving
my thoughts on who should be elected that's how I do it it's kind of a product of being a lawyer you're often opposing councel to people you're maybe not the best friends with and you just
got to make the best of it and work with fols but you voted you have to work with yeah of course I did and I'll never talk about my votes for any political race as a board member but you did vote and you of course have an opinion on who was seated in that election my question is I
voted that's what I will say that I'm not going to talk about how I no you don't need to but what I'm saying is everybody even though you're a board member you are going to vote whatever we vote doesn't matter but you have an opinion you're entitled to free speech but do is there some sort of
evidence or something you're pointing to that anybody else on the board was actively campaigning for other candidates okay so I feel like if you would like to have the floor to speak I think I'm just going to insist that you speak and stop asking direct questions
and you can ask questions and that can choose to answer them when it's if it was an insinuation on something uh like my thoughts or something uh I yeah I will question an explanation for those things so I am trying to get to the bottom of the
insinuation that was made by Matt clearly directed at me so for others on the board so I if if that's a statement that Matt is going to make the expectation so you have the option to speak right now and he'll have the option to speak again when he when it's
his turn guess I'm just asking you to make your statement and take your turn and stop with the back and forth because that's what we're trying to avoid by following the formal process so we'll Circle back to these questions then after the fact when we go around again I mean in the interest of time I
would say that's not the most efficient way to run the board meeting so I wouldn't recommend that we complete what I'm saying right now I'm sure you would and I'm saying that we're not going to continue that way we're going to continue with you make your statement and you can ask those
questions and when it circles back or once Jenna's had her turn and I all other people to just raise their hand and tell me if they'd like to speak then that's what the way we'll proceed okay uh statement wise Chelsea at our last meeting you
asked a question that I thought was very valid and fair um especially for you being your new on the board but I realize that as much as I know about Jen I don't really think that my colleagues have invested into knowing these things about
Jen as well um but what you had said is you wanted to hear more about why I had given my support to Jen um and you listed some of the traits you appreciate about Trisha when giving your support to her you had mentioned that from your own personal experiences from having know on her in
her school Bo role she has kids in every school seeing her commitment as a substitute teacher volunteering as a referee you see her care and concern for our community in our school district you also mentioned you have had some had to have some difficult conversations and she's been open to hearing your stance regardless of whether it goes against
her personal or religious beliefs and is open to hearing what all of our students and I believe all of that to be true thing is I could say a lot of the same about Jen she has four children in three of our schools she participates in District activities and all of our buildings she volunteers with youth
sports and I had to knock on many many many doors with her while running for Schoolboard and I had the opportunity to watch her handle some difficult conversations with the utmost respect while standing on the doorstep with complete strangers who may have had very different personal or religious beliefs
from her but while I appreciate all of the traits these traits in her as a person as a board member and as a friend almost none of them are reasons why I would support her or anybody else for board chare because the skills required to be a strong leader and facilitator of
the inner workings of this governing body are very different from the skills required to be a committed and compassionate Community member parent and or board member so my support for Jen in the role of board CH due to the following she has consistently been the
most self-motivated member to participate in the opportunities made available to us for continued board education as we saw in our last meeting she just received her second award in as many years of service from the Minnesota school boards Association recognizing her many additional hours of learning
through their organization although she has four children Works full-time and participates in all of the routine board work she has also made it a priority to attend these additional courses and has been in attendance at the msba leadership conference in Minneapolis every year since she's been elected the knowledge obtained through these courses
and workshops is all extremely valuable practical typically unbiased and necessary to effectively lead Jen and myself were also both elected by our board colleagues in Minnesota Schoolboard Association District 9 to serve as representative delegates to the msba Legislative Assembly Jen has
attended this annual two-day two-day assembly the past two years this has given her the opportunity to hear about potential upcoming legislation that could affect our district it has given her the opportunity to advocate for the needs of our district by offering proposals to the mba's legislative platform and to participate in the vote
of the assembly to determine which proposals the msba will Lobby on behalf of during the next legislative session the insight to these happenings allow her to bring information back to the board that helps us remain steadfast and being future focused she has historically been the
most Forward Thinking on behalf of of the board I mentioned this before but she often initiates the communication and planning when additional meetings need to be scheduled for the full board Andor board committees she is assertive in making sure board tasks are completed in full even if they take longer than planned this has always been evident in
our policy committee work as she is typically most closely tracking the progress on our required policy review cycle if we start tabling she is quick to initiate the request to add an additional meeting so that we can ensure we remain on schedule she is detail oriented and committed to statutory compliance and
due diligence she will always ask questions of admin and or reach out to the resources available to the board to ensure all of our board processes are aligned with State Statute through her time spent at the delegate assembly this year she realized we had a void of information on what kind of
representation was required from school boards to the Minnesota State High School league she reached out to Dr rard and together they dug in to find out what our past practices were and whether or not we had been meeting those requirements this Pro CL this resulted in us naming Jen to one of the
representative positions and she just intend attended her first lengthy Zoom meeting as a guest with the Minnesota State High School league this week um and lastly Chelsea I know you had mentioned Trisha working as a substitute in the district as just a
part of your rationale behind why you give your support her your support for board chair but I actually am going to State the opposite as part of my rationale for giving my support to Jen only because it is statutory and while there is a process in place to somewhat
circumvent that the reason behind the statute is that you are going to have a conflict of interest potentially when your employee is also your employer and so I would prefer to give my support to
somebody who's not going to have that potential conflict of interest um so these are the reasons that I support Jen for board chair and I realized that maybe a lot of that information was information that the rest of the board
did not have and I just assumed that so if that gives you more detail as to why I would support her in that role um I really didn't propose like I didn't create a statement by any means I just
want to point out that we have been at a 33 vote for the past few meetings since the org meeting in January and I would like to say that we do need to find a solution to move the for the district forward in a positive
way um I'm willing to stay here as long as it takes to reach that decision but I have also proposed being able to do this as a co-chair position being that the board is
perceived to be split while we actually agree unanimously on a lot of things um I do think that having a co-chair partnership would allow for a compromise and be able to unify not only the board
but the district the community as a whole um I did reach out to one of the co-chairs from Anoka henan um I also was made aware that
AIO has been doing co-chair for the last three years um I can definitely share more on that um but I think at this point I would hold off on sharing all the information that I gathered and doing so
after everyone's had an opportunity to speak unless Trisha acting shair you would find that to be beneficial at this time that I share it I I don't think that's just my decision but um I want to make sure that I'm following the order that we agreed
to I mean I think your like everybody has had the opportunity Scott that he wanted to wait so I Scott you'd like to speak now and then sure okay well again to address uh what Matt said um you know in our last meeting you you talked about
how you didn't think that in your experience that uh 2 years was enough time okay and then within three years uh Trish has taken over that position for a year trial run because she said she
wanted to try this and I actually voted for you during that to give you that trial run but then all a sudden now you're changing your mind saying oh we should have more education or more experience well in light of the
information received last month where we didn't find out until the end of the meeting uh how Jen has done 100 plus hours received the msba award for that I would say that's one of the reasons I'm
cast my vote for her is because she has demonstrated that drive and and that find and getting that learning experience she's passed two years now now and with all the extra experience
that that means a lot uh especially when you're talking about again with all the changes that are going to be coming our way um I feel that she's the best one right now for that job then your other statement saying that you got elected
into this position again and that you know the people voted well that's not how that's voting for board chair works it's not popularity contest it's finding the right person for that position and again without rehashing all the stuff
from last week I think Jen has demonstrated that she is ready for this position uh in light of what what has happened in the past um no well I'll thank Emily for putting that statement together I do
appreciate and yeah you listed off um a lot of great things that that Jenna has done and you know that um with the award that she was given last time as well for the hour so I I appreciate the focus on um your support for Jen I
do in regards to the conflict of interest my understanding is that the district is not our substitute teacher's employer um that their employ by an outside agency but that it is also allow because that is one thing that when I was going through training and there
talking about how if you have a board member that wants to work for the district that process and then it was specifically questioned about when you have the third party employer so I I don't consider the district to be her
employer in regards to that being a conflict of interest um and then in regards to the co um I haven't spoken to anyone at a district that has a co-chair my when I was trying to just do some general
research on Noah henen it also seems that they have a um in-house legal council that's on there yep and I do have information or that was spoken to yeah so and I think one of the things that I'm concerned about with
a co-chair is and I think we it was timely that we received an email um I appreciated the email today about just being cognizant of our costs that we're incurring as a school board with the activities that we're doing when we are
looking at having um to possibly make some difficult decisions when it comes to our budget and so I think there's a balance of of and I guess I from what I've seen um or what we're talking about with having a coacher that now opens it up
for I gu that additional legal council and I'm just I want us to be aware of cost and not use it as an opportunity of just having additional access to Legal councel that does cost
us money every time we consult with them um I am not in favor of having a co-chair so that is um willing definitely to listen to it but I I don't see how that would improve
from where things are at I think would add another layer of complexity um and added added work and potentially extra cost um I also the commment of thing that we're willing to
stay here as long as it takes I I don't know what that means by because to me that that says that it's not an option that we continue to have a three three split which to me is it it might be what
happens so I wasn't quite sure what that comment meant if that meant like the goal is to stay here until that doesn't happen um seems to diminish that that is an
option even if it's not an ideal option thanks um I'll respond to Emily's comment or question um yeah my comments were that um there's political alignment between three board members here and three that
didn't get elected in the last election and I'd Point straight to the survey results from the campaign that came out in the newsleter both of the last two elections which were almost identical in questions from two years ago to now and
were all answered in the exact same way by the three candidates who were here at the board table in 2022 and the 2024 candidates answered those the exact same way as each other and the questions that were the same were answered the exact same way as board members we have here
so that to me is enough evidence right there of political alignment which was my comment the basis of my comment so that's I mean it was two different groups I guess um I forget the accur from the group this year Patriots United
for common sense School Board I don't know I don't know from there but the previous time it was kids over politics many of the questions were the same worded the same and Emily and Jen we know the two of you were very
active in kids over politics so that is I think evidence enough that there's political alignment I wasn't trying to say like you were out there trying to undermine me at any chance you got not making that accusation at all my comment was you would have preferred that other
candidates take these two seats that's all I was king at um sorry I'm just trying to look over my notes um I guess I'll just speak to the conflict of interest because I feel like it came up even during the campaign um if I have an issue or something arises
or I get hurt while I am subbing um ultimately I have to go to teachers and call those are the people that that employ me those are the people that will help me those are the I mean my paychecks come from gun call so guess that's just all I'll say to that and then Emily if You' like to
start um yeah just in response to your comments Matt I did not actively or in any way campaign for any candidate in this last election um and the point I was making prior is that it was certainly well
known that there was of the board that were not happy when I was elected or when Jen or when Scott was elected so I I think that that comment and that statement can certainly go both ways
um and Trisha in reference to your comment about the conflict of interest the district pays teachers on call which is the only reason why I say that you know it's a circumventing of the statute and it's allowed it's certainly not that
it's not legally allowed but the money is still flowing from the district it's just kind of a it's a legal Lo loophole that exists so that was my that that was my comment of there could be potential conflict of interest because at the end of the day
the district is still the ultimate employer the end user that's all that I meant by that J do you want to know you te so as far as staying here and being willing to do so it's
because I do really feel that there needs to be some sort of resolution that comes from this the constant 33 is not it's not helpful for this board it's not helpful for the community um especially when emails come in saying
because it's a 33 it's a political alignment with three members but they for there are people that forget that there's also three members that are voting in
alignment so I guess it's political both ways then um I just want to see a resolution which is why I suggested the compromise of a co-chair um you are correct hennipin or Anoka hennipin has
their own legal council imployed by the district so any board member would be able to have access and be able to ask questions um with that being said they also will go they go through the superintendent
prior to um seeking that legal council so I do think there's a check and balance there so um they also talked about or this particular I shouldn't say they this particular co-chair um talked about
that things aren't just done by one of them they both agree again it's a unified front they're working together and the reason why I said that I think it should be Matt and I because I do feel like Matt and I work well
together now maybe that's just my own perspective and Matt maybe you feel differently but as I've said since I've been elected to the board you and I have had disagreements and have had conversations and we have worked through it and you have always treated with me
with respect and I feel like I have treated you with respect and if I haven't then I am sorry um but I do believe that having a co-chair does allow us to unify and we are no longer at a 3 three
vote so um Trisha to your request I can definitely share the questions that I had asked the one of the co-chairs um there they came to this uh agreement
because they were also at a 33 impass this was their compromise um as far as I know it has worked well for them um being that oio has been doing it for three years I would say I this is just my inference I
would say it's been working for them um they talked I asked about how they delegated the duties of the chair um and essentially what was said was for the chair to act both have to agree
um and in their case because of the size of their District some of those duties of the chair are outsourced to the superintendent and the district District staff I don't think that that necessarily needs to be the case for our district being that we're not that size
um I specifically asked who contacts legal again they have their own legal council employed so any board member is able to go through the superintendent to get legal counsel at any time I asked who presides over meetings
um the response was that both chairs um or that they take turns sorry they alternate um I think that could be negotiable about who does the regular meeting who does the work session do you
do it month by month what have you um I asked do both Chairs set the agenda and the response was yes both have to agree to items being placed on the agenda um having experience personal
experience of being denied being able to add things whether be to a regular um agenda in the past or a work session agenda I do think this would allow for robust conversation but there also being a check and balance um
I asked does the superintendent reach out to both um if both chair both co-chairs if an incident occurs uh the response was that the superintendent does reach out to both chairs when input is needed by a
chair I asked who responds to emails on behalf of the board the response was the superintendent will draft an email response and provide both chairs are in agreement the SI will send the response on the chair's behalf I particularly don't like that idea um I
think if if the board were to compromise um and go with a co-chair that statement would be agreed upon by both um and I think that would be value of again unifying and no longer
having a 33 appearance um I asked who puts out statements on behalf of the board again both need to agree on the method message uh but once that message is agreed upon either one of them can release the statement I also asked did you rewrite
District policy regarding board officers um the answer was no they did not rewrite policy they voted on a temporary Clause that turns the chair and vice chair into co-chairs can you just restate that last part about the Clause sorry yes um they
had voted on a temporary Clause that turns the chair and vice chair into co-chairs but they did not rewrite their policy okay so at this time I don't know that we need to keep going in the circle I'm kind of feeling like maybe it would
be better if we just kind of let me know that you actually would like to speak um unless you guys don't agree so does anyone have anything that they would like to say yeah I just have a Qui question I don't know the answer to this I don't know if anybody here
does how did an epin end up in this spot did they not have an acting chair coming into a certain year like did they have a chair that didn't get reelected um I guess I I don't know the answer on that definitively it sounded like or it was
that they were at an inass multiple times um it was a constant 33 this was the compromise and um I did ask how it was going overall I had not received a response at this
time so I can't speak for what they're saying however it seems like did they elect co-chairs again this year I think this is their first year or
no uh I guess I this is their second year I I would imagine so because it sounds like they're still in that co-chair um oio has done it for three years so I guess I had a question you during your when you were speaking you said that you had been denied yes I was
kind of trying to Rack my brain from the last year I don't recall the time where I denied a request for something on agend um I feel like you can correct me like I feel like every work session I've always opened it up to um you know other
people's opinions and ideas um so I guess my question is I mean I might have not agreed with you how to put it on an agenda but I don't I don't can't remember a time where I actually didn't um that was at a work session where we kind of went round and round
about what is the agenda of the work session I I'd have to go back try to find exactly which month it was but it was you can't add a discussion item to the work agenda or the work session
agenda and then I said well why if we can amend an agenda we should be able to amend the agenda but then it was but it's not really an agenda and I think you had reached out to to get clarification from legal
actually about that particular work session and the agendas and how if I recall right and I would have to look back as well but I believe that was the first work session that we had and so I had created an agenda and the
way that we had operated as a board was to we had a work session agenda that was the agenda we didn't vote on it so we didn't have we didn't have the ability to change it because there was not a spot on the agenda that said that we were approving set agenda um and when I when I reached out to council they said as long as that was what our practice
was then that would be the practice that we continue so thank you for clarifying anyone else have anybody else say no go well so I'm sitting here and I'm just trying to look at this big picture and I'll start with
a point of agreement constant 3 to3 stalemates aren't the greatest image I think we can all agree on that but to me the title of co-chair and I don't want to be critical of the districts that have done this or too critical
overly critical however I want to say that but having somebody with the title of co-chair two people with the title of co-chair to me shows more disagreement than having a chair who was elected with four votes remain chair until somebody else gets four votes that just having
somebody with that title to me sends even more of that message of I don't I'm not even going to try to look for the right word but I guess disagreement so that's where my mind is at on the co-chair idea um I appreciate
your comments I also feel like yes we've worked through disagreements heal healthy together but um yeah just in general the idea of co-chair to me is not not attractive at this
time I know it's probably not attractive but right now obviously we are split and we have been U and five of us have worked together for over two years and we've had our differences and we still
got through it and we finally came to a resolution every dang time so I don't know what the big problem would be with having two people from both sides that can come together I think it's going to offer more transparency and a little
more cohesion because you're going to be working together to come up with that solution folks I see how we work today before this special meeting we I mean we're sitting here taking these surveys and we're sitting here clicking everybody's
boun in the thing off and we're not arguing we're getting it done and I I've seen all the other stuff that we've done in the past uh and we we got things done yep some big ticket items where we have maybe a differences
from where we stand in this world it's not a bad thing I mean it's keeping us honest and it's keeping us you know transparent on both ends here I don't understand why we can't just get
past this and and make some concessions here we we've already voed our opinions of why we feel certain people should have this position and shouldn't okay I I'm not opposed to a co-chair because
again that's going to afford you the opportunity to work together I don't care who the co-chair is I just don't want to be it um but again seeing how we've got through this today Y and we have our differences we we're snapping with this
stuff you guys all have incredible ideas I sit back here and go holy cow what's going on but you guys each bring a certain strength to the table and you know obviously mine will be in the security portion of the field but it it's amazing
to hear everybody's brain and what you have to bring to to this so I would love to move on we we got two more years together let's get this done let's just make a decision I mean the
co-chair is not that farfetched of an idea to propose because again we're going to be doing this I don't think any of us can can see to who the board chair is going to be a single board
chair and then we're just going to be more focused on who's going to be in that position and and I don't think that's doing the community right if we can conceed on co-chair at least we can start moving
forward we made another agreement with each other saying hey I'm committing to getting things done for this community and our kids that's my opinion um Emily okay I'm going to go down the list
here Matt back to the comments about the political leanings I just want to again reiterate we have agreed as a board unanimous on all but three things and you think
about the amount of action items that we vote on as a board the things that we have disagreed on really aren't political any stretch HVAC does not fall into the political category but so at political leanings and whatnot
that you bring up I don't know how that comment could pertain to what the effect of any of what you talking about has been our ability to work together as a board I think that the largest hurdle that we've had is
trust amongst each other but I'll wait until it's your turn to return to respond to what about any of our work at the board table has truly fallen along political lines when we have disagreed um Trisha in response to the
statement you made where you again brought up the special meeting that was called the process of actually understanding the statute having to understand the statute in which the three board members called this spe special
meeting was very revealing in the fact that a special meeting cannot be called by just the chair just the clerk or any three board members without physically mailing not emailing mailing a notice 3
days days prior with at least three days prior to the meeting date so the meeting that was called by chair and the reason for that is that no one member of the board chair included should have the ability to throw a meeting on the
calendar and have the expectation that everybody Bend to that will and the gaslighting that has occurred that just because I threw it on the meeting everybody was supposed to bend to the will is actually in dis agreement with how the statute reads and so that was a learning
process that I had through having to Mele a notice for this so that special meeting was not called properly anyways and now we know that um Chelsea when it's your turn here again I just I'm looking
for more of an explanation on what is meant by co-chairs having to have more conversation with legal counsel because there's co-chairs that means that there will be more conversation with legal
council for some reason or what is the basis behind that concern can I say something about the legal part of it um again the agreement would be among the
co-chairs to even seek the advice of legal counsel it's not just one of the chairs saying by the way I'm now going to call legal counsel um again how it was relate to me is the
action of the co-chairs is only when there's agreement to it so there isn't just free will to say hey I'm going to call legal council cuz feel like having a conversation with
them today about I don't know the sky being blue so I would and again the times that we have even said to our superintendent to get legal has been an agreement of
this board so it to my knowledge I don't know of any chair since I've been on the board who has just free will called Legal to ask questions what some sort of Direction
given Chelsea yeah um so it's helpful to have that understanding or the proposal of how that relationship would work I do I would love to think that with the co-chair relationship um I I no doubts that there
would be a lot of agreements that would happen I guess my question would still be what happens when there's not an agreement and and does that end up stalling any action needed by the board if our
co-chairs don't agree on something um would be my question or concern on how that would work May I
respond yes go um I would say that not having sat in on how the agenda is set um that if there was a disagreement there would be some
sort of compromise that would be made or we could as a board decide what that would look like prior to but the the thing is is that we would actually have to agree as a board that that's the direction that we are going to go
is the co-chair and then let's hash out some of those concerns and get get an understanding that everyone can agree to as to what the duties would look like of a CO excuse me of a co-chair go ahead M comment um early in
my year as board chair we put a process in place that we went through during tonight's work session that accommodates everybody having a say in creation of agendas and that's you know we did it at the end of this work session we do it at the end of every work session I believe jenu were the
first to raise that request my's board chair that we do that so we can have a discussion of what topics every individual board member would like to see in future meetings so I think that concern I mean has already been addressed we've been working through
that for two years now um so that's that's my comment on that um go ahead Emily yeah sorry um I guess partially in response to you partially in response to Chelsea the concern that you brought of does that
stall board business well I know from experience that not knowing uh what's going to be on the agenda and having absolutely no input and then having something appear on there that may be
controversial has stalled board business because you have members who are a blindsided by it or have voiced their disagreement with it already and then it's appearing on there again and it's going to cause a stalemate so I think
that's the purpose or part of the purpose behind a co-chair relationship is to avoid that stall in board business Happening by having that agreement or that compromise occur before we're sitting at this board
table and going into a stal v that's just okay so I would like to respond to the special meeting process um the statute reads special meetings may be called by the chair or Clerk or any three members upon notice mail to each
member at least three days prior there too at our meeting and Mike you were there so if you actually do hear me saying something incorrectly please tell me but at at our to the Saturday meeting yes our Saturday training I I recall asking Terry specifically about this and
he said that because our standard was to post things on board book that that did actually qualify for a special meeting notice the fact that I did it instead of not just three days but with seven days um I find it kind of insulting that you call it gaslighting um but that's my
personal opinion and I feel like I'm entitled to that um I'd like to also talk about co-chairs I do have a a huge concern about when there is an agreement and to me we can say whatever we want and we can make whatever rules we want but if we don't agree whoever those two
people are to me that sounds like we're going to have to call legal and we're going to have to ask legal what we're going to have to do how do we get past this and I just don't think that that's us being that does not in my mind that's not being very fiscally responsible Emily it was Terry moral
just for reference that said if a statute say male explicitly it means US Postal Service and those are his words so take that for what it's worth but it was him that gave that
direction okay so I'll respond it was Terry also who gave me my Direction so I guess what we really have to decide is I guess we go to we I mean I'm not proposing that we do this I don't think we need to but I mean then it's we actually have to ask our own legal council so I got conflicting advice I
also in June of 2024 was looking to the superintendent that we had in place at the time who had had many years of experience having more knowledge than me in my first year of being a board chair um to know what that what that protocol
was and I I will stick with that like I I followed I mean I I made the request to have the meeting but I did I did look to Tom to tell me and direct me on how how I could do that and make sure that I was doing it properly and I did I did ask
Terry specifically about that and he said that the way in which I did it was okay and was acceptable so I it's conflicting and I don't know y it is yep yep because he in writing to me said if if the statute says explicitly male it
means US Post Service and done um as far as just the back and forth there no just to clarify not something that we would consult legal about but it is very explicit difference in uh
direction from the person also the superintendent is our resource for many things but when a a board meeting and calling a board meeting is the work of the board only and it is the superintendent cannot call a special meeting therefore the superintendent
should not be the person we are looking to to tell us how to call a special meeting that is something that I would hope our board chair would reach out to the msba about or in the instance of truly not knowing to Legal counsil about prior to doing it because it is not the
work of the superintendent to do that and that was part of the issue is how much difference there was of board work to the superintendent and how much of that was really being delegated that should have been board chair or full board work at the time and that's an
example of that that we can't do that that's that is a board function that we need to be Consulting people who have legal background on a board function like that not a superintendent that's my
opinion okay so I'm gonna respond um I'm gonna clarify so in my conversation with Terry Morrow he said that the reason one I'm the I was the board chair I don't have to do a mailing I believe that that's actually I can confirm that with that with him but because I'm the board
chair I did not have to do a mailing the other thing is is our standard practice for calling meetings was to post it in board book and so because that was our standard practice as a board um that was why it was an acceptable way for the board chair and only the board chair to
call a special meeting and I think the other thing I'd like to say is I don't disagree that I could have talked to msba but I was talking to a superintendent who had years of experience I'm not talking to a superintendent who' never called a special meeting before I would agree with you completely I would not ask Dr
RAR no offense in his first year being a superintendent to to give me that guidance but Tom had been a superintendent he had called many special meetings and so I don't think it's unwise to seek his guidance on the proper way to do that and that's my
opinion and I respect yours yeah I mean the statute just because you both have been going back and forth and Trisha as chair you actually stopped that so I appreciate you stopping it now but I do have a question I actually didn't call upon you
either if you want to do point of order well you actually appointed to me so I do have a question for both you and Matt being that you both have served as board chair and the topic of legal keeps coming
up how many times as board chair did you reach out to Legal without the board knowing that you were reaching out to Legal I can um most of my com communication with legal was in the first few months of my year
as board chair when the books issue was going on um I contacted legal a number of times without the knowledge of the board the superintendent had knowledge of it and told me it would be a good idea if I did it um one of the things I needed advice
on was what can and cannot be what speech can and cannot be stopped during public forum so we had a very graphic incident in my very first meeting as chair so I wanted to know how to handle those type of things in the future
um I had a threat of a lawsuit against me personally um so I contacted legal on that and those each of those topics had multiple conversations with our attorneys so yeah I didn't run those things by the board some board members
were involved in those things um so I couldn't some cases so okay um I will answer um I think I have talked on the phone with legal trying to think it's either two or three times um all in relation to the
contract issue that we were dealing with um yeah two or three times all may I ask a clarifying question sure was the superintendent in on those phone calls um for me for the phone calls I
believe Tom was with on two of the three and I so that was when Dr R ho was here if he was on any of them it was maybe one but mostly it was just but like I said he was aware of it
and I would update him but yeah I would add that caveat caveat as well um the one that Tom was not on the phone well aware that I was any anyone else um
Emily to clarify the statute does say special meetings may be called by the chair or Clerk or any three members upon notice mailed to each member at least three days prior there to
Terry may have had a different opinion about mail to you than he did to me but the chair does not have any special ability to go outside how the statue creats that is explicit and
clear so um I don't want to get too uh nerdy legally about this but this could be looked at as a um statute because it could be seen that the required mailing
of notice only applies to when three members call meeting or it could be interpreted as that applying to anytime the chair or the clerk or three members it's tough to say the way it's written so it is plausible that somebody with
Terry's legal background could look at it at different times and see it saying different things it's I don't know this is when as a lawyer you have to go to case law you have to figure out how it's been interpreted it gets very specific and the legal analysis gets very boring so I
just wanted to point out that maybe it's not worth continuing to go down this road because maybe both interpretations are possible Jen so it sounds like the board chairs both of you really have hav
contacted legal outside of the board's knowledge except for maybe a couple of times each less than 10 maybe even less than five and typically if we're asking for
any kind of legal advice at least in my experience we have directed that to be the superintendent who then reports that back so the my opinion the concern that a co-chair
is going to increase the calls to Legal it just I don't believe that to be true but that's my opinion I also do want to see us see find a resolution
so Emily just to move us forward I did look at how our policy reads for our policy is just copied and pasted the statute but how it reads for the responsibilities of our chair and vice
chair but essentially the only duties that are in policy for the chair are when present shall preside at all meetings of the school board counter sign all orders upon the treasurer for claims Allowed by the school board represent the school
district in all actions and perform all duties a chair usually performs it's incredibly bag so when we're talking about co-chairs and who does what well right now who does what isn't really all
that lined out in our current policy as it is it's extremely Broad and open so I think that that could literally always be up to interpretation on who does what for a lot of the duties that may have fallen on the chair Trish I know in our organizational meeting you
had said you don't necessarily feel it's just the chair's responsibility to respond to community emails that somebody else could potentially do that if they felt that that was like their Forte um which is true it isn't
necessarily a lined out Board responsibility it's definitely historically fast practice and does make sense but there are a lot of Duties that we're talking about like who does what when you're talking about shair well right now that's not even clearly defined in our policy so I think setting
up a whole relationship would be no different than us simply just defining what our chair currently is overseeing we should probably do that either way but co-chairs would just be a similar process of clarifying what each
chair would be doing and be responsible for yes I'll I'll speak um at that same meeting when I said that I would be open to either co-authoring or allowing like I mean I thought it would be a great idea like I also remember you very very
much opposing that idea in any way chaper form I said so then I did not I will call it you right that's what Jen has asked me to continue to do um so I guess I'm just really confused as to why you would bring that up and say that that would be a good thing be than that you
at the time maybe I'm remembering M incorrectly but I remember you saying something to the effect of we need one voice and so to me a co-chair would not then also have that one voice like now granted we could use that option that Jen had said that Anoka is using where
they have to agree um but as a person who's had that experience of trying to not even have a written statement that I was going to read but a statement that I was going to or not sorry I was going to read and not a statement I was going to give out in written form was really
difficult to get through and then at the end of that statement another board member then had to add to it and I mean it's it's my email like none of the things that were added were things were asked of me to add prior to me making
that statement so I guess I'm just really confused as to how a co-chair would actually help us so Emily I did just say that I think that that's there is one person responding to emails that was literally just part of my statement that
I just made so I am on the same of the same opinion I was then that I think it should be one person and the chair makes the most sense to respond to emails but if you were in a co-chair setup that just as we're giving permission to a
chair to respond on behalf of the board we'd be giving permission to co-chairs to be responding on behalf of the board and based on what Jenna said is that's respon and and actually you had mentioned that sometimes you would have reached out to Matt just to help you know formulate some of the thoughts if
you weren't sure how to respond well that would be a similar relationship you would be Consulting with each other to come up with a response that you were in agreement on and I believe you said one or the other sends out yeah once it's agreed upon either
one of them can release the S sorry I was out of order so I feel like and you guys can correct me if you're wrong I still feel like we're at a stalemate of three and three we have three people that would like to do a co-chair we have three people that would like um I guess I'm just I'm not seeing
any any movement Jen um we actually have never voted on a co-chair that was just a compromise that was discussed and there was a request to get more information so the 33 stalemate has actually been on a chair either you or
myself just to clarify okay so just to clarify my my words I guess I'm just reading the room that I'm hearing the discussion I'm hearing three people that seem to be very much in favor and from my perception of the conversation we have not a formal vote I don't feel that there are that we would have a four
person four people that would support moving forward with a coair I could be wrong in my assumption but that that's where I was coming from with that statement Emily yeah I think that what we have is three people in favor of
Jen as board chair and three people in favor of Trisha as board chair and then some people offering a potential compromise to be able to move forward because we are going to struggle if this continues as a board we're going to struggle
on everything from here on out we have a lot of big work coming up but because this is a trust issue a compromise is going to be necessary and I know that Matt you said you just don't think that that's a great thing well I mean elephant in the room
everybody knows we don't trust each other so let's just move past that it's a 3 three split on not very many votes but our perception of each other is not a trusting relationship okay so I mean
the reality is that we've been doing this for 2 years it hasn't improved so we need to find a solution that actually moves us beyond that so you may not love that solution but it is a compromise to be able to actually
conduct business in an effective way and that's where we're at because a stalemate continuing every single month I mean there's it's going to cause us more issues moving forward not just on a
simple split vote every month but more than that Chelsea I I guess I'm just not sold on how a co-chair would res I think we're still going to have issues with agreements um so I to me that's where
that's that that part of the argument I think is that would that like the The Wishful Thinking full part of it but it's not a guarantee we could still have the same issues with having a co-chair um Rel
relationship and still running into disagreeing on things and not being able to move forward to the solution and then I guess my other clarification would be I know this is being proposed as a compromise um with Trisha getting three
votes and Jen me three votes but then Jen you mentioned you and Matt being co-chairs and so that to me then is so clar I'm looking I guess for clarification on what the proposed compromise is two parts um I guess to that to what you
had said is there's no guarantee there is a guarantee that things do not go well if we stay at a 3 three stalemate we sure we've never had co-chairs before so there's unknown to that what's an absolute is that we are going to have
rough months ahead if we continue going in this direction um as far as the suggestion of Jen and Matt I think that came from two things number one I think the three of us have voiced our extreme lack of trust in having Trisha remain in
that position and I don't think that any setup in which she remains in that position is going to move us forward the other part is Jen and Matt have had to work together on particular uh committees where there is a lot of communication I mean they're on
negotiations together and they have had to actually be functional and effective in working together and they' shown they can do that in a respectful way and come to agreement on things so I guess that's where uh that suggestion came from and
again it's because elephant in the room again there's two sides both sides won't representation both sides feel that they can't trust the other side so you have to have one from each side then if you're going to be looking at a co-chair
representation these two have shown that they can effectively work together which is where that suggestion came from Char and I just it then seems like instead of selling it as a compromise it does feel like I'm being
asked to fully concede and and to not just say like if you know I my voters for trity chair um to me the selling of a compromise would be then having representation from one of you three
co-chairing with Trisha would be a compromise in in my book but saying it's not going to be Trisha and it's going to be a co-chair feels like I'm being asked to fully conceive on what what I would like to see
happen Emily I do understand I understand what you're saying I do I get that um you did suggest potentially nominating Matt at our last meeting as just one of the many options we were throwing out is just nominating Matt
alone for chair so I don't feel as though you are not supportive of Mt in that role um being that was one of the suggestions but I I do know where you're coming from I understand how you would feel that way I guess the hard part is
is that um yeah the relationship of trust with Trisha's been in the role we've rehashed this a million times we're not going to be able to work together moving forward with her as chair that's just where we're at
the trust will point of order please the trust will not be able to be rebuilt in any effective way in time to get anything done so that's I get what you're saying I totally get that I guess it's just a solution it is a solution there is
representation from both sides then that would hopefully appease most of what we're trying to accomplish go ahead now um I just want to ask a clarifying question to anybody but specifically
Emily now several times tonight you've mentioned that we're not going to be able to get anything done if Trisha remains chair are you for lack of a better term are you saying you're going to be obstructive if this remains a three to three vote and Trisha remains our acting chair what is
what where is that comment coming from and exactly please so I just want to know where the comment's coming from and what exactly you're saying by that I said we're going to have a really rough time um and and it's because so yes I mean no
there's going to be decisions and things that get put on the agenda that maybe we question that we shouldn't but it's because there's a lack of trust there's going to be questions on okay do I trust Trisha to respond on behalf of Me no and that's that's one of the roles of chair
so I'm referring to all the things that occur either within our meetings or just outside and the duties that we have you know historically had the chair doing am I going to feel comfortable with her remaining in that position and doing
those duties no so it's going to make work moving forward very difficult how can how can you go ahead mat but will you do the work is the question whether it's difficult or not
we all face difficulties in this job this job is not easy can can I I'm so I guess I'm kind of you're talking about a situation that happened in June of 2024 we
worked I didn't hear anything from anybody in um July didn't hear anything from anybody in in August I didn't hear from anybody from September October you and I did admittedly have a conversation in November I didn't hear anything from any of you in December so I guess I'm
just really struggling to understand why we're going to have so much hardship now in March when we were able to successfully continue in July August September October November and December so for six months none of this was talked about at a board table none of
this was really brought up um I'm not saying that it didn't exist I'm not saying that your feelings are not valid I guess I'm just really trying to understand if if that was really an issue for all those six months why why was it waited why wasn't it talked about um I and that just kind of frustrating
because how how can someone change something how can somebody fix something how can how can I do anything if I'm not even aware that anything had happened outside of like I mean I know June happened I was there it was it was it was difficult I think for all of us that
sat at the board table um but but none of the other stuff that you've now since shared more openly at the or meeting and then even last month like how do you expect somebody to be able to even make positive changes when you don't say anything and you don't actually engage
in that conversation for 6 months and then it's all my fault because I didn't do anything or change anything for six months but I didn't know that there was a problem and I find that to be incredibly hard and I find it incredibly
frustrating Jen I'm going to ask a question of certified mail was was provided for the call of this meeting I know that
two for sure two of three board members received their their certified mail Friday by Friday evening I was sent screenshots
about the alleged bully mean that I have done that there was a need for public outcry and support for three members because the other three members
are bullies and my question is if you want me to trust you how can I trust you when any kind of I shouldn't say any kind this specific incident yes it's a
public meeting it was communicated to you that it was a to all of all three of you um my question is why was it posted on THS or on Friday prior to it being posted by the district
that there was a special meeting and why was there why did it feel like it was an attempt to intimidate me to vote a certain way once again because it feels a lot like
June particularly May to June and because of the happenings of May to June I emailed our superintendent requesting that an officer be present tonight because no board member should have to walk through a gauntlet of
people like you said no board member should ever be threatened no board members should have to have extra Patrol monitoring their house no board member should have to tell their children that they can't play in the front or they can't play in the front yard because
you're you're worried about they being protests held outside of your house or your children being confronted because I've personally witnessed one board member's children being verbally
attacked walking out of that meeting so you want me to trust you and I I can't I can't okay so Chelsea I will um so I I
did I do want to um at least clear up in regards to the comments about the certified mail when it was delivered and when there was already Facebook posts I was equally confused as so like I did call Trisha and I
said I did not share this information with anybody did you share this information with anyone I asked her specifically and she said no she had not so I also just want to be like just because and right social media we have a
large community that that doesn't mean that it was one of us that said something or posted something um it was an item that I I called Trisha on and asked her about
it as L him I was on vacation so I wasn't going to ask him and I assumed that none of you three were probably um out communicating that necessarily as well so that was that was an item that I questioned that I called into um just back to the comment that
you made Trisha we were in very open and obvious disagreement on something from like February until June and I I spoke to you about this before that you know as board
chair you're kind of the quarterback of the team you knew that you had three board members that were on a very opposing side of you or you didn't necessarily even understand or know why but at no point did you reach out to at
least not me and I don't believe you reached out to the other two members just to try to get an understanding of our position during any of that and maybe find a way to find consensus for like an upcoming meeting and I've spoke to you about that so when you say well you never reached out to need to tell me what I was doing
wrong at at that point in June when you had made no attempt to even speak to me knowing full well that we were on very opposing sides of an issue to even make a phone call to me to try to understand it or maybe find consensus and
compromise in any of that I mean we're now five months into that I'm not going to look at that and be like well I think that she's really looking to mend this relationship and move forward because I felt there was wide opportunity for that conversation
to happen and I and I do 100% believe that as the board chair when you know that we're going to go into meeting after meeting of a stalemate vote on something like that that is extremely becoming extremely controversial that the board chair does have the quarterback responsibility of reaching
out to members from opposing sides and at least trying to get an understanding of where they're coming from and looking at potential opportunities in which we could have a compromise or agreement before we come to the next meeting and do it all over again that is a board chair responsibility and that didn't happen so the trust was already gone and
the relationship was already gone after June and so as I and and I expressed that to you in our meeting in November I told you that communication and the lack of complete lack of none was a huge issue and even through this you know
board share conversation you've never reached out to me one time and there's never been a conversation not after the organizational meeting at all go ahead we sat down for many meetings in
public last spring about the contracts issue that was the time to put everything on the table um I believe trishy said this in her opening statement tonight that it wasn't communicated how this was
going to resolve none of us who kept voting for those contracts could have foreseen the Way It ultimately ended up in November with the information that was given to us at the board table that's the appropriate time to have a discussion so that it's in the
public eye and it's open to everybody and that's when I mean sure having a specific grievance against a chair is one thing but when you're talking about a position you're taking on an item that's being
publicly voted on it's at the board table that you bring it up it's not up to somebody to have to make a phone call to get your opinions on it and here is what we're doing it's what we're doing right now talking out in the open about the board chair she doesn't have to call
you to get your input on that we have the discussion here on yeah she doesn't need to call me to get my input but because we need to function as a board and one onone any board member can have a
conversation one-onone with another board member that is not a violation of open meeting law and if you know that you are embroiled in controversy as board chair I think that you would want it to be priority to try to at least have an understanding like you said how
it was going to resolve well if you really wanted to know where any of us were at you could have called you could have asked so I'm going to go ahead um I could have you're right could have called you also I'm just going to take a
breath you also could have called me the phone does work both ways I get really frustrated with my own family my sister will say oh you didn't I haven't talked to you in months not usually months but it's been a week like okay well yeah I love you but you could have called me and so to say that to sit here and tell
me that it was just my responsibility um I remember when you were elected and I was we were all assigned um I'm trying to think of the word mentors mentors I tried calling you you didn't answer you
did not return my phone call um and then I I did you can shake your head but I did I did try calling you um and to say that I should have called you after the org meeting Emily I don't know of any person that would have wanted to talk to
you after the way you spoke about me and to me in that meeting I won't dis here and disagree about February to June to June although I do very much agree with Matt and I feel that I did a I tried really hard to to listen to re to repeat
what I was hearing from you to restate it in my own words so that I could ask clarifying questions I feel like I did that a lot and I still never really F really felt like at the board table it was explained the stance that was being taken and I I do feel like that was the
appropriate place for that to to happen but um the phone does work work both ways and I find it I find that kind of frustrating Emily again I strongly am going to stick
strongly to my belief that that is a responsibility of the board chair though to be committed to us having a functioning board at the table and you have the responsibility as board chair to reach out to a member that you
know that you are in full disagreement with and see if you can get some standing there because if if so when you come in to run the next meeting that you preside over you can feel more confident that you've had those discussions have a better understanding and maybe have a
better idea of what we're going into at our next meeting and that it doesn't become a public spectacle because that is the responsibility of the board chair Chelsea just having freshly gone through a few the first couple phases of the
school board and the treasury I I guess I get from those trainings that it is our responsibility as board members to be transparent in the meetings so so that is where even as an observer I did not know
why there was not like what the end goal was with not approving them so I'm just saying like it wasn't clear to me having observed those meetings and so to hear you say that it's the chair's responsibility call you and find out why
I believe based off of the trainings that it's our responsibility to speak up during meetings and to be clear as to why you did not have it be the board reaching out to individual members to find out and I I agree with that specifically
but the difficulty and this is a very specific situation the difficulty with the contracts is there is also data privacy and we had to adhere to that so it was kind of unfair a little bit to expect to be able to have a fully transparent conversation in public when
you can't because of data privacy reasons when it comes to uh staff so there was that was a difficult thing to navigate which is why I say especially in a situation like that that is a conversation that you can have oneon-one as board members because you're not violating open meeting laws but maybe be
able to discuss a little more openly so that there's an understanding at least amongst the board the public is going to struggle with that always and and that I totally understood but amongst us amongst the chair and an individual board member that would have been
something that could have been discussed um in more detail and it was difficult that it couldn't be really at the board table not everything but some things sure I don't think there's any data
Privacy Law that would have restricted the comment in February April or May where those voting to separate out into individual votes on the contracts they could have said we intend to
approve all of them I did I didn't see that I don't at our at our at our June meeting I said let's get approving some contracts that those are my exact words June not not not at our final meeting our final meeting at at our regular
meeting matter you I didn't say June my only point was June would have gone a lot differently if that had been communicated up front and I don't recall that ever being communicated but but there was a commitment to approve all of the contracts if they were voted on separately
so that's all I have to say yeah I said that at our June regular meeting I said let's get approving some contracts okay Emily or sorry Chen I'm looking at you um there were public meetings and there
were closed meetings and there were times that I shared what my concern was and it was always specific to a
contract for different reasons I made multiple motions to separate those for individual consideration I even brought it forward in the negotiation meeting that we first
had so I don't think it's fair to say that there wasn't any conversation when there were closed and open meetings but it was never and I'm the one that made the Amendments I
tried but nobody asked me if it was just one specific or multiple and I did have some questions but ultimately all of the contracts were approved so the end result was all of
them have been approved all of those employees are still employed here as far as I know Chelsea um first of all I do appreciate how we the manner in which we've communicated with each other
tonight at this point I'm also wondering what next like I don't find it to be productive for us to continue to discuss the contract situation I do understand
that it has been used as a um example of Mis where mistrust was created but at this point to continue to move us forward um what what would the ask be or what is there an action that we need to
take my ask is that we as six voting members seriously considered no longer having a three to3 vote unify the board compromise where I understand and I hear you where it feels like a
concession I have been in that position where I have felt like I've had to make a concession is it a great feeling no but in the end a 3 to3 vote is not moving the district forward in in a positive way and I do believe a co-chair
would and I have offered up a suggestion of those two co-chairs again I feel like I work very well with Matt we have had diff difficult conversations at times I trust
him but I do think there needs to be representation since it is an appearance of a three to free I don't and again the the vast majority of things we unanimously agree on and we have I would like to see us move forward
in a co-chair partnership at least for the remainder of the year and then again it can be temporary this isn't a permanent thing Emily yeah I and I don't I mean I think based on Matt's
comments we might as well just say he he believes it is a 33 based on political alignment I guess so we don't even need to say appearance anymore based on his statements it just is um and again a
guarantee that things are going to be difficult is to remain 3 three stalemated on this that's a guarantee a co-chair option at least gives the opportunity to move forward
and maybe maybe be able to have a better working relationship together so I think at this time unless there's more discussion which I guess I would ask that you signify that for me I think it's the only other options we can do is vote to actually take a vote on
co-chair and then move on from there but look for motion before I just want to ask if we still meet again tonight we need to then look at what are how are we going to delegate
duties because they aren't laid out in policy there are things that the chair does that are not laid out in polic if you have three people that are not comfortable with the person in the position doing some of those duties that are not laid out in policy for that person to be doing how do we want to
delegate or how do we want to address that moving forward because that will continue to be an issue mat I I don't want to sound craft about this but I don't think think it's a question of comfort at that point it's a question
of legality and we have a legal opinion that says if we stay mate 3 to3 nothing changes it as if we're in last year's chair that's that's what legal said so that's what it is what duties then uh because according
to this she is still acting chair to Pride over meetings sign checks treasur is there to represent the school district in all
actions and perform all duties a chair usually performs a chair I mean it is very very B we do I mean at our organizational meeting we are we have to vote on who does speak to Legal I mean there are things that we
delegate to an elected chair Chelsea so I'm hearing then that the requests would be for us to identify some of those and that it would have to be a majority for at least a four person vote to agree on someone right so my
question would be then if we don't have a majority vote on if your proposal is to say and it's a lot of ifs right if there's not um we don't have an agreement for majority vot on the co-chair then you would propose that we
would and I guess um I think from a legal perspective and again performing all duties as a chair usually performs would probably be a historical reference to what our chair has traditionally done in that role um
but if your request would to say that we would alter the policy I guess or to have an amendment of specifically calling out certain things that then that would also have to be a majority vote on who would do those right well we already have to vote on like who speaks
to Legal that's already a vote that the board is required to make and have a majority vote for um when it comes to responding on behalf of the board the emails are speaking to the media on behalf of the board that's a duty that isn't you know
outlined in policy but Ty delegated the chair that's a responsibility that I would not be comfortable with shisha performing so do we have majority support to delegate those duties to the chair still
and if not what do we do Matt I think you have it backwards I think there's got to be majority support to change the arrangement we had last year that's what that's what the legal opinion tells us is that she continues on until she's no longer chair because
somebody else got votes she continues on with the duties outl the policy well she continues on as shair so whatever she did or whatever Authority she had as chair or whatever our common practice was last year is how she operates there's nothing more to be there's nothing more to be decided on
that question Emily that's where it'll get difficult because okay then she's going to make a statement to the media that I don't agree with or that I don't trust what am I going to do she's going to respond to an email on behalf of the board but it's not on behalf of me then what do we do what do I do then I
respond as well I mean this is where it gets extremely ridiculous this is ridiculous okay so I'm going to go ahead like we when I first got on the board that is not what our standard practice was the board chair responded I never saw what the board chair responded with
that is a change that Pat marusan did when he took on the board chair role one that I very much appreciated and the reason that it is shared and you are all bccd when the board chair responds is so that if there was something that the board chair does say and it's not
something that you agree with or maybe you want to go into more detail with you are still welcome to offer that so I can think of a couple emails that even Pat or even Matt answered and you know I was like you know what I want to engage a little bit more with this Community
member and I wasn't necessarily that I disagreed but I just thought you know what I I want to I want to speak more to this person I think I want to give them more detail or give them more of my opinion or my insight and I as any of you could would have that opportunity yes can we
take once it's once you have made a statement on behalf of the board it's silly for especially if I'm in disagreement with it then it's silly for me to then respond and disagree with everything you just said like that that's what I'm talking about is it's just that setup
and that Dynamic isn't going to be effective Chelsea so I guess if I mean if if people still feel discussion as needed but looking at the agenda of the special of this meeting the next like we have discussion as a possible action on
election of board officers chair I guess I would like to move on to that I don't need a motion I would like a motion to move on to item
do I have a second second Chelsea made a motion to take action on the election of board chair officer is that board chair officer that is that your motion
yes that's what I'm reading and Matt has second any discussion J I saw your hand up um yeah it has to do with the the statement and I'm not sure if this is well it's my only opportunity at this
point because we moved on um when you read the statement at the last meeting about the superintendent I didn't say there was anything wrong I just said that it was I felt that it was missing context I also
put in there that after being told that you were uncomfortable making any further changes which there really wasn't a whole lot of Chang even though I requested some I did look further at other evaluations to be able to try to
articulate some of the things that I wanted to add that I then realized that I felt was the reason for missing context and that it was incomplete I didn't say it was incorrect I said to me in my opinion it was incomplete
so if it continues this way where the statements are coming and I said multiple times that I didn't agree with it then I am afforded my ability to clarify why I don't agree with something because I'm
not going to say behind a closed door that I don't agree with it and then publicly say oh yeah that I agree with that statement that's contradictory so I'm just putting it out there so everybody is well aware that if
statements are made on behalf of the board in public settings that I don't agree with and that I've stated I don't agree with I will add context so and any other board member is able to do that
but that's all that I have for my discussion okay so I would like the opportunity if everyone's agreeable because this is not on the topic of the motion that we have in hand um to just respond so I wasn't trying to say that you said that I was incorrect I guess my
point in my in my bringing it up was that none of the information that you ended up adding on was what you had shared with me in the email um the reason I shared with you that I was uncomfortable is because you had messaged me and then another board member had messaged me and had one more
board me me member messaged me I was worried about the appearance of open meeting law violation because here IID shared a statement so maybe the moving forward it would be that full call option of saying okay let's talk through this instead of having it be an email um
and that would I mean we'd still have that issue but in some ways but it's just it's like the the concern of open meeting law because if I had three people emailing me about the same topic then that would be a violation and I I don't want to be in that situation I don't want to put you in that situation I don't want to
put other board members in that situation okay so I in writing verbalized that I didn't agree with the statement and now you're saying that there could have been a phone
call but you didn't call me and you were the one that was going to be writing the statement on behalf of the board knowing that I didn't agree but you didn't even reach out to me so I mean we're completely out of order I you asked for discussion okay so any discussion on the the election of
board chair so I am of the understanding that we are voting on the same two people that have been put forward as potential board chair which would be myself Trisha
Ming and Jen Smith am I correct I would like to make an amendment to add the option oh I would yeah I would like to make an amendment to add the option of voting on on co-chairs second can we do that at a
special meeting well it does read action of board officers any discussion on co-chairs Matt just want to clarify are when we vote on the amendment are we voting on whether there should be
co-chairs not specific people is that the amendment Jen you're allowed to speak yeah I I at this point that would be I would amend to have this role be as a
co-chair any other discussion okay so to clarify we are voting on the amendment that would make the officer position of chair into coach is that correct looking for make you
sure I word right yes okay um Just for future reference another thing I learned at the msba leadership conference is that typically the clerk would actually reread the amendment so moving forward if you would be able to do that for me I would really
appreciate it um okay so all those un favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed say Nay n does not pass so now we are back to the original motion which which is election of board officer or the chair
and we have Jen and Trisha as our two people up um wasn't the motion to that just add the chair on there that's the amendment so the amendment
F right to add the chair when she said I did you say I or nay I said I oh sorry I thought you said nay I apologize so then we are making it to co-chairs so the vote is just whether we would have them co-chairs right because the
amendment was to change the item to say whether or not co-chair to add to yeah well right right okay so now we are voting on whether or not we want to have correct co-chairs okay I apologize order yeah please clarify I am
not we voting to add we were voting on the amendment amendment to just the amendment of the vote for the co-chair okay so we haven't voted on whether there should be co-chairs correct we have not that's the clarification I needed thank you okay so
now we are voting on having co-chairs okay correct okay now that we're all on the same page okay any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I
all those oppose say nay n I'm just looking if anybody wants to make any other motions wouldn't I go back I'm out of order so well the amendment passed so then we voted on the motion that was originally made with the amendment and
it failed right so then wouldn't it then we would have to have a whole another motion motion to conduct the election of a single chair between Jen
SM a second second okay so then we will vote if there's no other discussion I apologize thank you so do we want to do it the same way that we have been doing it with raising our hands okay so all those in favor of Jen
Smith raise your hand all those in favor fing raise your hand okay we are still at our same 33 motion toour second okay motion to adjourn by Matt second by Chelsea any discussion hearing none all those in
favor signify by saying I iOS motion okay motion passes with a five6 and we areed a I'm sorry I was a so should be a 51 you guys are welcome to take these
but I plan of just keeping them in the up to than