Coraggio Consulting
Manassas City School Board Work Session - May 14, 2026

Date: Thursday, May 14, 2026
Place: Manassas City Public Schools / School Board meeting, Virginia
Length: 2h 29m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYEbTXKTyD4

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-17. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll?

[00:00:17] Yes, ma'am. Chair Spall? Present. Vice Chair Dr. Jones? Here. Mrs. Bieber? Here. Mrs. Stevens? Present. Mrs. Brescia? Present. Brown? Present. Miles? Present. Thank you. Madam Chair, we have a group.

[00:00:34] Mr. Newman, are there any additions or relations to our agenda? Is there a motion to approve the public meeting agenda? Chair, I love that the school board of the city in Manassas approved the public meeting agenda as presented. Second. I have a motion by Ms. Stevens.

[00:00:50] I've been in Bernice Miles to approve the public meeting agenda. Is there any discussion? Any hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Item zero. We will now move to the work session agenda.

[00:01:10] First item is Ms. Loesch, she will lead a discussion on the current and future school board priorities, including a review of feedback gathered during the April 16th and the April 26th school board session. Hello.

[00:01:25] Hi. I think that Ms. Harza gave you a packet. Yeah. Okay. So tonight the outcomes are to review the feedback that was gathered through that survey and then provide you all an opportunity to respond to the feedback and then use that discussion to make adjustments as needed to the priorities to then be presented earlier.

[00:02:04] To get us started, I'm going to ask that you do a silent reflection. And so your packet, what you'll see is the front page is a summary of all of the data by question. And it just gives you kind of the big overviews, the commonalities, and that type of thing.

[00:02:23] Under that first part where it is the summary, you have everybody's direct response to each of those questions. So if you remember, we had four questions. One was the biggest accomplishment of the board. The other was which priorities do you believe should be unchanged, which needs some adjustments, and what do you believe in mixing.

[00:02:47] And so if you can spend some time just reading through those, feel free to mark up those copies. And we will then have the opportunity to engage in a cooperative learning structure like our teachers and students do to respond and share out your thinking. So we'll just start with an independent one.

[00:09:44] Another minute, please.

[00:09:46] So to engage in a cooperative learning structure called Talking Chips.

[00:10:45] So while you were reviewing your packet and the responses, I put two chips or popsicle sticks next to you. What I'll ask is that you put them out in the front of the table just so that everybody can see when you're-- I'll give the directions, sorry-- when you place your chip down, that you put it in the front just so that everybody can see the chips.

[00:11:06] It's harder to see if they're behind your screen or closer to you. Everyone has two chips. So there's no-- in some cooperative learning structures, it's turn, you go around in a circle, round, round it. this one anybody can talk at any time the idea though is that if you have a chip and you have something to say you would put it down um and then anybody can either add on to um ask a question around that or um you know also bring up something different right so if i had said something and then miss miles you had something to either add on or something completely different you couldn't

[00:11:44] state state it and you put your chip down once both of your chips are down though and you can do both chips back to back or you can do them spread out just whenever you feel called to add to the conversation you once they're both down you are down for now meaning that everybody else would put their chips in so they'd add to the conversation put their chips in once everybody has both their chips down you can everybody takes them back and then you just continue the conversation but the idea is that you have your two things to say and then that just provides

[00:12:19] for everybody to have that equal participation in the conversation. Any questions about the structure? So anybody can start and I am going to take some notes around the conversation just so that way you can use them to help with next steps around the priority. But anybody can start with just what stood out to you, what your thoughts are in reviewing that, things that are resonating with you suggestions ideas anybody want to go first I'll say that I noticed that

[00:12:58] several people said refine and refine the priorities but there was also a specificity time for refinement and specificity I mean for me it's kind of so there's a whole bunch of things going on as usual but for me the specificity is I guess best

[00:13:36] summed up by what we just experienced the other night with the I wonder kind of statement you know I'd like us all to think about when we get to the SOL goal that I think is inevitable you know what does our school system look like then like I don't want us all to be like oh it's time to celebrate and then what do we do next like I want to know exactly what next looks like um so I put in my specific thing which are not you know all encompassing but they look like you know us working now on a CD center the robotics that we've been talking about the you know minute clinic that

[00:14:15] we've been talking about the um you know adding welding um aviation academy like all those things are and i don't know that we can all say even tonight that we're doing all those things but we can pick a couple so that's just you know um all of the academics are important but i also think that it's our job i personally believe it's our job i wonder what our school system will look like when we achieve this more immediately so i kind of kind of going off of this my reflections are

[00:14:55] and observations are very similar to yours and i like that contribution but i think something before we go too far into this is we have to decide what kind of exercise this is because i was reading this uh and some of the responses seem to be taking this in like a 10 000 foot vision direction you know like this is a vision document with longer range and less specifics and some of the responses were taking this in a concrete steps like almost like to-do list kind of direction and i think we need to decide which of those things it's going to be because when we

[00:15:33] did this the first time before half of you all were here it was very specific we want to buy 8700 fix our salary scales you know this is our punch list of full board objectives we want to accomplish over the next year and it was great and we did it we did those things but then when we all got together for the first time as a board last year I think it went more in a vision planning kind of direction and we have to just kind of and I don't I think there's merits to either approach, but I think we're going to keep kind of missing each other and

[00:16:10] that we're not going to have as productive as an exercise. This won't be as productive as an exercise until you decide. I noticed that, are we allowed to stay somewhat in the comments? Is that okay? Okay, okay. Dr. Jones mentioned that taking the wording of our actual priorities and starting them with a verb, and I thought that was really good. Like, should strengthen, develop, expand, support, implement, prioritize, integrate, and improve.

[00:16:44] Because not only, I mean, if we're showing this, obviously, to the public, it would be important for them to also understand what we're trying to accomplish and have an action word, and like Sarah said, we need to know where we're going, and I guess we need a plan too, and understanding where our plan is might help if we actually have our priorities start with the brand.

[00:17:14] I agree with what I think Ms. Bredge has said, that we need to decide because we have had very long involved priorities and we kind of teared them down a little bit.

[00:17:33] So deciding how we want them to look, do we want to be really specific or do we want to have these being overarching themes? Because I see a lot where it seems to be we're moving towards more involved, more detailed school board priorities.

[00:17:52] And I don't have a problem with it at all. I think we just need to decide do we want to go more specific or stay more high level.

[00:18:09] So for me, I think that Ms. Brescia said something really important because we did in the past write down five or six actionable things and we have accomplished them. And I think that when we don't or we're not specific, it's hard to know.

[00:18:26] I mean, I think every single one of us has a good heart. And I think every single one of us wants to look best for our school board. but I don't think any single one of us would describe what our mission is in the same way, you know? And I do think that it's important that we're using language that people can depend on.

[00:18:44] I mean, I think it's really, really important because we lack that type of specificity more recently. And that's why I put down maybe putting a verb in front of what we're doing.

[00:19:01] Say, for instance, like storytelling. To me, there needs to be a baseline and we need to see where we are. But when we say storytelling, how we measure if we're meeting our priority and then kind of too when i was answering these questions like the first one says what do you believe are the school board the boys largest accomplishments um that was kind of difficult for me because in many ways um the teachers i mean the central office the administrators teachers they're the ones that are working and we're supplying the resources and all of that so in some ways it's difficult to even answer that because

[00:19:35] great things are going on but um and technically we're tied to it but how much are we tied to it so kind of looking at what can we specifically say the board is doing for the betterment of monastas city school let me use my second one it feels like a huge event i know

[00:20:12] well i so kind of going back to what kind of exercises is it a specific holistic exercise is it a vision exercise yeah I heard a case for specifics is there a case out there for upper-level vision because I will tell you having gone through myself the different iterations of this exercise that first exercise where we put and build a new dean that was the third bio 8700 fix our salary skills build new dean bam bam bam bam bam we did it and so that was so I kind of like

[00:20:49] the idea of specifics myself but and we do have a strategic plan process that is unfolding now that I think will handle the vision portion so with that in mind so I want to kind of support what Sheriff Spall had said about going into specifics and trying to think of what those might look like for us but if there is somebody who wants to make the other case I want to make sure that

[00:21:22] that doesn't get you know brought out of that if people have thought about use mine i do um like dr jones idea of using the verb because it that it shows our priorities as being actionable and not static so i do like the addition of a verb and it kind of cracks me up because it makes me think of us a little standards where you have a verb and the level of verb is blue so kind of But I do like the idea of having the verb because it shows things are actionable.

[00:21:57] Whereas when we have the list like this, it's very static. And each of these requires a definition. And maybe sometimes everyone's definition is going to be different based on their perspective.

[00:22:13] So I am totally fine with more specific actionable priorities.

[00:22:38] I started with things that stood out to me, and I liked some of the things that Suzanne said about funding public education, and so you had some great points there.

[00:22:57] Specifically, though, what Dr. Jones said, she suggests that we should look at all our priorities after the data had been compiled for testing attendance, graduation rate, teacher retention, to determine if any changes are needed. And I think that is important for us to, and we talked about this before, that looking at the data really pushes us to our priorities.

[00:23:19] Because if we don't know the data, it is hard to make certain priorities as far as student achievement. But, obviously, we don't always get that at a time where we can do that. But I feel like having a list that we've already compiled, refining that list, and making sure, like you said, all of us are saying the same thing.

[00:23:43] Because if we're saying, one person's saying this, one person's saying that, we definitely need to agree on all our priorities. So I see some people have both of their talking chips in.

[00:24:05] I also see that some do not have all of their talking chips in. So in order for us to collect those, we do need everyone to put both in.

[00:24:14] I will say to add on to Chair Spall's comment about the CTE thing, I like that to be more, to add more specificity, but I also think from being on the CTE advisory, there are changes coming from BDOE, and I don't think we necessarily should specify which pathways, I mean, that's just me, maybe I'm wrong,

[00:24:47] but expanding CT opportunities and refining the pathways in accordance with BDOE regulations or whatever, but also student needs and community.

[00:25:10] And as far as our priorities, I mean, I definitely see where the overall student outcomes, stakeholders, engagement, and vision, those are good categories. But as I said, I think we can refine them and make them more so that we know exactly what we're talking about.

[00:25:28] The community knows what we're talking about. But I definitely think those are things that we should be working on and should be concerned about as a board. I don't have much to say because there's a lot of confusion about what was a priority, what needs to continue to be a priority.

[00:25:51] And the first time I'm hearing about a mini-clinic, so I don't know what that's about. I haven't had any conversations with anyone about many clinics, so we need to have that. I do want to reiterate that it would be very good for all of us to know what our mission is, our collective mission is.

[00:26:16] So I agree with you, Chair, that it shouldn't be difficult for all of us to put into words, collective words, what a mission is and describe it, because if we don't know how can Dr. Newman move forward and how can the teachers get by them.

[00:26:44] So I think everybody should look at your statement. Dr. Newman, if you have a lot to speak, you should have some. Yeah, get him some tips. I don't have a stick left.

[00:27:12] It's okay. I was going to say, you can all take a stick left by a question. Okay. Well, my clarifying statement is, let's see if we're on the same path. Our vision is to fulfill our responsibilities to the citizens of the city of Manassas, recognizing that a high-performing school division is a top priority.

[00:27:34] And I would just like to ask my fellow members if you agree with that. - Is there a way to have it up on the board? - It's on our last year's priority. Alba, can you bring anything from our last work session? - There we go. - Or maybe you have, where?

[00:27:50] - I, can I say, okay, I like that, but I feel like it needs to have some bullet points underneath it. - Yeah, it's part of our priorities from before. And then we put one, two, and three below.

[00:28:06] Okay. Then I'm good with the, because that should be our top priority, and then having bullet points. Well. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. But does everybody agree with that division? It's pretty broad. Yeah, it is broad.

[00:28:22] Very broad. Yeah, that's why I said the bullet point. Right. Yeah. That's coming. Yeah. Do you agree with that, Sam? I wish that students were in a high-performing school division. The students are kind of, like, implied in that, but they're not actually mentioned in it.

[00:28:38] So it's not like, I agree with the sentiment. Okay. but I don't, I would word it high-performing students. - Yeah, yeah, that would make it. - How about a school division with high-performing students, or?

[00:28:55] - I don't know if we should say that. - Are we, is this activity moving into the defining division and refining division right now? 'Cause if we're gonna move into that, that's a subject. - I really would not put high-performing student because we serve all students.

[00:29:13] Sorry, I just, it's my health, I cannot say high performance student, because that alienates our students as a whole. So, this is a little bit of a juncture, and we also do have time that we could build into, you know, our retreat to delve deeper.

[00:29:36] You know, the last time that we, so when we went through master board training, you know, when we described our own board, we called ourselves a diverse group working together to use their individual strengths to achieve collective goals.

[00:29:52] You know, that's the last time that we really, like, constructed something that was definitely, you know, short enough to be repeatable. But, you know, I feel like it doesn't really necessarily totally fit the bill right now.

[00:30:08] but mission and vision are important, and we've come from, we just attended something through counseling at Osborne where they are showing our school mission vision, they're showing our division mission vision, their school mission vision, and then their department mission vision.

[00:30:30] So I wonder, I wonder, at what point, you know, are there too many competing missions and visions, But I also sort of feel like from a marketing perspective, we can't do much of anything without having a new project. Now, we've gone in the past to a point where, you know, we just accepted the school division mission and vision.

[00:30:53] I would say it's an opportunity to open that back up. You know, is that too many missions and visions or are we, as a separate entity, you know, we've got the word vision up there. But I just feel like that's kind of like the backbone of where you need to grow from.

[00:31:18] But I know that that's like really veering off from what Ms. Loach was asked to do. So, you know, it's another time that we have to make some decisions.

[00:31:41] Never been to set it. You want to phone a plan? Phone a plan or a mic? Okay, I'm right. All right, buy a mic. I was going to point out that the way that's worded, recognizing, does not say that we actually want that.

[00:32:01] It says recognizing. So to me, when I hear that word recognizing, I am acknowledging the fact that that's important, but I'm not saying that that's what our priority is. So I think that it needs to be worded differently to make sure there's, without a shadow of a doubt, that that's our priority, to have a high-performance coefficient.

[00:32:22] So I feel like that recognizing has to be removed. So I think we have to decide, are we focusing on priorities or are we looking at the vision first and then focusing on the priorities?

[00:32:40] Because if we think we need to update, amend, edit, or change the vision, then we need to, in my perspective, we need to think more about the actual priorities underneath it.

[00:32:56] I don't know if anyone else feels that way, but I think if we start going down like three different paths right now, we're going to get really muddled up. So we have to decide, are we talking about the vision statement or the mission statement or the actual priorities underneath it?

[00:33:13] We have proposed that we save mission and vision for the retreat and do some preparatory work before then so everybody can have their say, similar to this, and then just work on defining the priorities.

[00:33:31] Okay. That's it. Does everyone agree? They have sticks. I think that's what we all say. Do you agree? Do you agree? Oh, I mean, I don't know what we're doing.

[00:33:51] What is the purpose of the activity? Back to that. To refine our priorities. And we will work on the vision and the mission at the retreat. Sometimes we need to repeat it to make sure we all heard it.

[00:34:07] How many sticks are you going to borrow? It's put output. So the conversation's continuing around priority. Yeah. Okay. So why doesn't everybody take their sticks back?

[00:34:23] I need more sticks. How much money do you have? Yeah, I got one for sale. So then thinking about now we're back with 15 bags that was provided.

[00:34:40] And in thinking about before the conversation went to the mission and vision, the ideas, the question was more concrete steps versus a vision, like bigger vision.

[00:34:56] There was lots of discussion around starting with a verb because it allowed for it to be measurable and actionable and not showing it was just static. There was also comments around when there were five or six actionable things, they have been accomplished.

[00:35:14] And currently, the way that everything is written does require a definition, and then those are potentially interpreted differently or shared out differently by board members. And those were the big points of conversation before it got into mission and vision.

[00:35:41] I would like to ask if everyone would support keeping number one student outcomes but putting in the verb, elevating student outcomes by supporting year five of the strategic plan and then BCDE underneath strategic plan.

[00:36:09] Maybe adding inclusion under B.

[00:36:21] She said I went to tremendous state. This is good. This is like a little icebreaker here at least. All right, so I kind of, so I like the idea of elevating student outcomes, I think that's a good idea.

[00:36:42] I think that whatever we put under it should be, like it should be, and that might fit, you know, as an example, sustaining pathways is elevating, right?

[00:36:58] So I think that maybe that's the structure. Go for pathways as mentioned. I know there's many tests around everybody's response.

[00:37:24] - Do others have ideas that go along with that that would help to elevate student outcomes that are specific? - Do you think too specific? - No, no, no, I just wanted to say I'm a very visual person and we're making edits.

[00:37:42] Is it possible for us to have it up here so we can see as the edits have been made? It's just, we did that when we did our board development book. It was just easier for us. - What we did when we did prior. Yeah, if you're editing it.

[00:37:57] Yeah, so I'm not editing. I'm happy to, if you want to pull up a copy of the font. Yeah, give me one second. Yeah, we could always copy and paste it in Google. Is that what we're doing now? We're going to edit? Yeah, I think that's what we're, just be nice to see it.

[00:38:15] So I didn't know if I need a stick for that. I was just, it wasn't a comment. It was just a, okay. You're good. Thank you. Appreciate it. So you want me to do that?

[00:39:05] Elevating student outcomes. Elevate, elevating. - Elevating. - Elevating, right? - Elevating student outcomes by supporting year five of the MCPS strategic and being.

[00:39:25] - I guess the bullets under that need to reflect that. If we're doing an outline, so how can we elevate student outcome? And that first starts-- - Do you want verbs for all each of us?

[00:39:41] - Well, I mean, it just starts with staffing, fully staffed schools, quality staff, I guess high quality staff, 'Cause that's under there and you're supporting elevating student outcome.

[00:39:56] - What does elevating student outcome mean? Naming them, making them a priority? Were they not in priority already? - I think like-- - What does elevating mean specifically? - Okay, I guess that is true. - Would you like to offer a different one?

[00:40:12] - No, I don't have a different word. I just, were we not naming them correctly? Were we not making them a priority? But what elevator means, I'm just asking. I think in my perception, elevating means not that we weren't looking at them before, but it just says what we're doing is an elevating as in increasing, improving, growing.

[00:40:41] I don't know of another word that has that same sound to it, like increasing, improving, strengthening. Strengthening student outcomes. Yeah, yeah, that's how I see it. And then underneath that would go the bullet points as to what our priorities are to strength.

[00:40:58] We can say strengthening, elevating, and then underneath that, what the specific priorities are, the actionable steps to. Yeah, maybe the actionable steps is what I mean the bullet points should be. Because how are we going to do that this is the way?

[00:41:15] Here, this is the way. I think that's too soon. So for what it's worth, I like elevating because I think when it's improving, it says it's not like adequate already, but elevating means more than, other than, better than.

[00:41:32] I like sustaining pathways, just throwing out there, prioritizing workforce offerings, engaging families. I had integrating something, but I can't read my writing, and then staffing.

[00:41:53] A terrifying question. When you said engaging families, the second one down said stakeholder engagement, are you removing that? I don't know.

[00:42:09] I haven't thought. Okay, because I do have suggestions for that when we get there. I may be off here, but, I mean, if we're going to strengthen or elevate or however you guys land on, we do only have two schools on track, so I would like to elevate nine schools to be on track.

[00:42:32] What did you say before workforce? She was saying state. Prioritizing workforce offerings. It's just so hard. Further prioritizing, you know, expanding.

[00:42:50] Expanding workforce offerings. expanding yeah I wish everybody could have seen what was happening in Winchester but it was you know like I mean integrating workforce you know with local arts general requirements like they have all of the kids every kid in

[00:43:26] their CTE program they have to take a CTE semester and when you're in your CTE semester you take your English class in the CTE building. Consequently when they are in building construction they're building you know sets for like Macbeth or they're doing welding you know that somehow relate back to a story that they read. So I mean they had every opportunity to tie it to math but they chose not to because they you know they want kids out in the world that know

[00:44:04] about my best right um even if they're not necessarily college bound just to have that kind of exposure i just thought it was really a really cool way of looking at it so somehow integrating

[00:44:23] and expanding what's offering the so integrating expanding what folks conference i have no to that

[00:44:55] or anything but it's also not launched aviation yet right like it and going back to a here high quality staff but when we did this in a specific way two years ago it wasn't high quality staff it was fix those dang salary scales yeah yeah right so what about you know we fix the salary scales so I'm going to check mark because those were hot mess express you guys happy you all weren't even here when they were like really hot mess express those salary scales come a good long way so

[00:45:28] what do we what actually is the thing we want to do for high quality staff and is Is that, what is that? Is that continuing to support competitive compensation? Is that promoting high quality professional development?

[00:45:47] Is that encouraging cooperative learning? - Or retaining needs? - Or retaining, like what is it that we want to do for high quality staff? And the same thing with integrating and expanding workforce operations. Okay, but what do we want to do with that, right?

[00:46:03] That's where I think that this exercise super helpful two years ago what is it you want to do under those that's my saying recognize and retain so I think not shouldn't say so I think um so I'm wondering like when it comes to high quality staff something that we're always we haven't talked about too much just recently but when it comes to high

[00:46:36] quality staff competitive salary looking at our benefits all of those things I i think play a role in attracting and retaining high quality staff so maybe that should be um hiring no not hiring i just totally lost the thought but it should be focused on um attracting

[00:47:09] high quality staff and retract attracting and retaining high quality staff and then under it and then not necessarily putting that on the priorities but with the thought that that includes things like competitive salaries um benefits packages because we do know that our staff they look at benefit packages so i think there's play a role but attracting and retaining high

[00:47:34] quality staff so getting our schools on track is not part of this it's not

[00:48:23] What are you trying to say, Dr. Jeff? No, I'm just saying that's why I have such a gathering. I'm a good listener. I'm listening to take it so I can gather it all in to give input. Well, I think we, I see elevating strictly student outcomes.

[00:48:46] And I see the attending. I mean, it's kind of like, my thing is, I see some confusion in what we're doing. I'm not sure. we're trying to set up priorities, but I'm not sure exactly, what do we want to be our priorities? I mean, I see where we have student outcomes, that's a major one, and I think that should be the main one, but then I'm kind of confused as to the bullets we're putting underneath in some way. So that's why I'm sitting quietly trying to get a grasp on what

[00:49:21] we're doing I agree I do have D I don't know that engaging families fits under there and I agree with Miss Brown that student outcomes really need to be student outcomes what we want our students to be able to do and I don't think that engaging families doesn't belong anywhere in legislative priorities I just don't

[00:49:58] necessarily think that it goes right there and that we need to have a bullet point under there that addresses student outcomes and maybe something having to do with and this is just wording this is not necessarily how it would be written but more participation in dual enrollment more participation in advanced placement exams, something like that, because I know that's something we're looking for, not necessarily those exact words.

[00:50:48] No, no, you're fine. Yeah, I'm good. I'm done for now. So when I just tried to, sorry, I just tried to back down. I know you said not those words. Right, right. Not to lose the idea. Right, thank you. So thinking about schools on track, that should be number one.

[00:51:04] And how do we get our schools on track? It's by elevating student outcomes. It's by attracting and retaining high-quality staff. It's by integrating, expanding workforce offerings. Also, what she had mentioned about increasing enrollment and dual enrollment.

[00:51:20] It also has the WIDA piece in there, too, because the growth, the WIDA growth has to be in there. That's 10%. And so anything that will get us on track should be underneath that. And if that is the goal, all those domino effects affect the on-track.

[00:51:37] So I know obviously student outcomes, but they're not going to be on track of our student outcomes or not where they should be. So that's just...

[00:51:54] Thank you. And this is why on the priority student outcomes, I just felt that we had settled before by doing student achievement, which would be a schools and tracks and academic excellence. And since student outcomes and staff and academics, I also thought that D and E were pertinent.

[00:52:18] So C, D, and E were the pieces that I thought we were going to prioritize. But right now, I'm a little lost about what we're doing. I'm thinking I sticked out. I agree. Attendance, engagement, and belonging, and behavior, SEL, and mental health.

[00:52:35] Those are all part of the student outcomes as well. and I don't know that they were necessarily purpose I don't think the intention is to leave them off but absolutely they are important because they do play a role at student because we know when students are engaged and they have a sense of belonging and when they come to school they're gonna do better and that you know as educational institutions we definitely play a role in the areas of SEL and mental health so I think yes yes it's going back to Sarah, she said it and she was the one. Under Student Achievement and Academic Excellence,

[00:53:11] I think right there we need to put one, two, and three of the things that we want. Do we want all nine schools to be on track? Or do we want, you know, whatever it is, all graduates or graduate in time? Like, let's think of a list under each one of C, D, E, and E, and then we can feel like we're accomplishing something like let's name what it is under student achievement and academic excellence that we want to accomplish under attendance and engagement and belonging what is it that we want to accomplish i think we're pretty good on behavior so i would even just say we can

[00:53:50] maintain or you know continue to sustain whatever we're doing for behavior sal or mental health because I think we're excelling in those areas so if you ask me for a refinement I think I will then be A and B and just focus on seeing CDME and figure out what goes underneath there that we can check as okay we have accomplished something this year that we feel has moved the needle for the

[00:54:21] students for the teachers but that can be moved for us and just to say I also like the idea of Speaking more to student achievement, to me, we want to increase student achievement.

[00:54:38] And we can do that by many different ways, by many things that we've already said. These student achievements would be our focal point. Would be what effort? Our focal point. Yeah, the point that should be yes. Yes.

[00:55:08] So I think we're all kind of clear on the goal, right? And we're kind of chewing on different ways to say it or different ways to phrase it. But I think all of us are clear on the goal. it's what actions are under that i think we are struggling with and our list that was highly successful only had three things on it a long list is not a very useful you know the successful

[00:55:38] you know version of this had only three things on it bam bam bam and so i think that you something like sustaining pathways because that's kind of an easy one i think we all agree on and does support our student outcomes like that is on the list it's actionable we've got to keep finding room for that in our operating fund either by getting a convincing for a sustained additional infusion or finding it the room ourselves whatever it is you know that's an action list but attracting and

[00:56:17] retaining high quality staff I can't disagree with that we all want to do that that's part of that but I don't know that there is like a punch list underneath that the same way it used to be when our salary scales like you know we had 72 teachers that were getting paid this way and everybody else getting paid that way and it was just topsy-turvy left and right and we fixed that so that's not a I don't necessarily think that that belongs on our immediate we want to do this year action list because there's a lot of things that

[00:56:54] we're doing just all the time anyway and that is something that and it's in our strategic plan document it's all the time anyway so what are the three or so things that we really want to get done us as a board that's in our power to do this year that supports student so suggested so start I agree that this is messy you know a lot of entities are you know accused of knowing what you want the outcome to be before you sit down and have these conversations and that's not true for us

[00:57:33] We don't know exactly what we want. Again, I think everybody has good intentions, but I don't know that we all have the same ideas. So it's a little bit of a work in progress because it's imperfect. But, you know, we're getting there. I agree. You know, I think we should really check ourselves at the door and say, what are Dr. Newman goals? What are division goals versus what school board goals are?

[00:57:57] And that's always been a point that I'm trying to think about and get other people, you know, to think about as our actual role, what it is that, you know, do we really want a checklist for now or are we reaching into the unknown for a checklist for this time next year?

[00:58:19] And I'm in favor of, you know, this is our checklist for next year. So it's not things that we're doing. It's things that we want to do, which is, you know, a scary step into the, you know, the unknown.

[00:58:35] But so I am kind of back to pathways because it doesn't have a certain future. I have seen in the past we seem to be doing okay with salaries right now.

[00:58:52] But in the past it would have been very helpful and we kind of chastised ourselves for not having a place on a piece of paper that we could say, you know, within 90% of surrounding divisions. Like those are actionable things that we could, you know, have in here. I don't know if it's the biggest priority or not, but it certainly is wording that could have helped us in the past if we could tell the world that is our priority.

[00:59:17] So I'm just throwing that out there, trying to remember past mistakes. So I don't have a third thing that's come up yet, but those are two things that I would say are not for sure in our future, that we could make it be so, or we could help it along quite a bit if we put it on.

[00:59:48] Knowing that we were going to come back to this right after our discussion, I'm wondering if, since everybody seems to be in agreement that number one is about elevating, strengthening, improving, getting 100% on track, if it is, and there are a couple things under there, But if there's an opportunity for people to reflect on that and then think about, like, the, I'm going to borrow the punch list item list, right?

[01:00:20] And then be able to submit those. We could do another Google form. And then have all of those ideas and then as a board be able to process through. So, like, independently think what might that be and then bring all of them to the board to then narrow that list down.

[01:00:38] knowing that we have only talked about number one so I don't know if there is discussion that you want to have around two and three which then if so we could do the same thing right like get to where you all are comfortable with two and three if there's a two and three elicit the items for underneath and then be able to refine and confirm those the next time we're together that would be acceptable

[01:01:18] okay so then if you want to take your list there sorry your um six back and then do you want to talk through maybe number two here it was like getting schools or using that word elevating I just think it's a shame we can't come up with what we need up there.

[01:01:42] It's just, I just don't know. I put your stick. No, I do. Okay, here's my stick. Here's my stick. Regarding number two, I would like to expand stakeholder engagement by implementing the PCLA, which, for those of you that were not here, the Parent and Community Leadership Academy is an Academy that we put on that lasted several weeks five or six weeks and what was great about it is Jill and I were in the original one and I'm Lisa was -

[01:02:19] that's right we didn't know but what is great about it is because people learn about all the challenges of the school how we do things I think they it it built trust and I think we only had three or four of them because we didn't have it every year we had it like every two years on an off election year so I propose we do it next year either in the fall or the spring and you know if if we look at the results of what came out of those leadership academies a lot of the

[01:02:57] people came and worked for us because they like what they saw a lot of people ran for office although that would not be my primary goal it's really to build trust with the community and we had ours going before the city had their leadership academy going and it's not been possible to be a part of their leadership academy so i say we do our own but everybody's going to have to contribute i'm willing to contribute great and be the

[01:03:27] the trivia. Any questions? I love that idea. I love that idea and I support 100%. I wonder, based on the little bit of the snippet of training that we got yesterday about our brain and how it works, I wonder if it may be a good idea for the CBD

[01:04:01] an e on number one for like to divide and conquer like maybe two of us take student achievement and just put things in there that come to us in the next two weeks three weeks and then you and you can take attendance engagement or belonging and then two other people can take behavior and sal and just come with concrete things that maybe might make it easier for the retreat or the next time that this topic comes about, and just make it palatable and more feasible for all of us to do.

[01:04:38] So I thought the plan, I'm making eyes at Erica, at Ms. Lowe, I'm like, do we have a plan? I thought I would understand any different plans.

[01:04:54] I thought the plan was that number one is elevating student outcomes slash 100% of schools on track slash, you know, elevating strength and improving, but that number one is a student achieved one and all she's going to give us a Google form and all of us are going to give our three action items into that Google form and then we can digest them at retreat later and now we're trying in number two to look at expanding what does that expanding stakeholder engagement if we want to keep that as a second category and you know what that second category might look like

[01:05:34] Like, I'll say that I like the idea of the PCLA. I wasn't here for that. That wasn't hashtag COVID baby over here. So I wasn't here for that. But it was, it sounds good.

[01:05:50] My only concern is that I don't know how much we do versus staff does. And then, you know, how much, how, whose plate that falls up on. And then we've got so many people doing two jobs already as it is. So that would be my only concern about it was making sure that it doesn't get in the of the core functions of Manassas City Public Schools, which is not something, which is not to say that.

[01:06:16] - Are you done? - I don't know, it makes it difficult because I want to keep talking while I've got my stick down. But I also want to hear her contribution 'cause I also know what I don't know about her 'cause I wasn't here, so if you wanna clarify, I should know.

[01:06:33] - Could we have Al in her communications reporter retreat present to us what it was and maybe she could give or put the copy of the PCL Leadership Academy documentation in the retreat documents for review.

[01:06:53] I have a notebook and I'm happy to share it with anyone. - Oh, I wasn't, I did a little stick relay. I would be happy to learn more about it at the retreat. But just because I don't know that much about it, I think that we should just, like expand stakeholder engagement just as a general like that's a good verb in there and then we can discuss later whether that gets on the action list

[01:07:27] once we all have an opportunity to learn more about it but I like that that is an action I like that's a good example of an action a thing that can actually be done to expand that stakeholder engagement and if the board actually is contributed to that that is something that we do in our roles so that is but I'm all aboard you know adding the verbs in front of the categories and then taking the punch list home and each of us adding our top three yeah I do like

[01:08:02] the idea of having our one two three and then for each of us what are our top three priorities under each of those three and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of us end up having things that are very similar um because i think what i hear is we're all talking about very similar things we're just using different verbiage for them and i think it will be easier if we each just have because right now we're thinking about what we are envisioning but we're also listening to what everybody else is envisioning and it's kind of getting muddled

[01:08:36] in our heads whereas if we're sitting down okay what are my top three priorities under one under two under three what do i view as being important because you know i'm hearing great ideas from everybody and my brain is trying to incorporate how do they fit in with my ideas and you know we're we're all kind of moving in slightly different directions but to bring us all together um that's my thought and i think it will in the long run take us less time than if we go through

[01:09:12] each of these abcde abcde i think it'll streamline the process i think i mean i'm i'm liking this is called dialogue right now we're just discussing and i but i'm hearing that we also um are making the decision to eliminate abc and d for number one which i i like i like anchors and i like the

[01:09:47] overarching framework that we put on top that we came up with elevating student outcomes but I still think that we needed the anchors at least but am I did I hear correctly that we decided to delete all of that no we're going to do the Google Drive thing that and then then she'll take all of our answers and

[01:10:14] populate up correctly. Okay, so then the first A, B, C, and D, what are those? Those were just ideas that would come on. Which may show up through the Google form, right? Like somebody might put those on there or people might put those on there.

[01:10:32] Yeah, I know. You just want to finish with it, but I'm glad that you pointed out. I don't know how I didn't hear you say that, but anyway, I'm glad that I understand. Okay. So then the second one expands stakeholder engagement. I feel like there was some consensus around that. And then you'll contribute specific ideas underneath of that, such as maybe the PCLA. Oh, we're going to do that in the same way, Google form? If that works for the group.

[01:11:00] Okay. Great. So then the third one was vision. Some of these are repeating themselves. We just hadn't gotten there so like F number two F talent workforce sustainability you know is akin not saying to what we talked about high quality staff you know so I mean I think that we actually are not adding many topics as it looks we just you know we would try to fit everything into number

[01:11:32] one for some of us might have been perhaps perhaps a chair but I think that there's you know there's room that's already been created for that space i just wanted to say the storytelling i know it's kind of been a topic we've had over the course of two years and going into our second year almost our third year of being on the board and i think that like we said we need action steps so that doesn't become a footnote again what what are we going to do with

[01:12:08] that storytelling so i feel like that really needs to be something because we've had it on our priorities for years but we haven't actually done it and we haven't had something that we can hold or so put it in his course okay so then should we take it off of there then because it's okay so put it right here well that's what i mean because if it's not something we're doing um then we shouldn't have it on our priorities right or oh if i may i don't want to speak out of turn but you know we do have we do have some jenny dean stories now i mean we have made some

[01:12:44] progress over the last year and that directly speaks to storytelling that project right you know the QR codes and everything that's not everything but it is start but also I believe that at retreat we're going to be getting some pretty hefty update from communication so you know if it can live in that space still I think that it's going to be something that you know will show progress in the next year so I don't know that we should delete it but I just maybe there was a confusion was there a confusion as to what the storytelling was because i guess i

[01:13:21] was under their impression he was storytelling for the public to know what we are doing as a school district or was it just for us i just know it's just clarification it's lock stock and barrel okay you know i'm just i'm trying to yeah be generous and that you know there are strides that are being made it's not um there are many many many many ways we can tell our story right you know and we're just trying to kind of just like what we're doing today you know we're trying to figure out where do you start what's the middle you know what's the goal um and i think we're going

[01:13:56] to have some updates so right now these two ideas will come to you in a google form and then the actionable items would be what you'll contribute through a google form and then they'll be brought Everybody's ideas will be brought back to the board for you all to kind of finalize and narrow down what would go under each of these.

[01:14:27] So if there's a way to make the storytelling more concrete, that could be something that's suggested through the Google form for the board to consider. Is there anything that you want to do with vision, number three? I don't have a mistake.

[01:14:46] Since we're moving on to the next one, I just pulled the signal back. one thing I have for vision I mean I kind of rewrote it on my thing foresee the future of Manassas City Public Schools acquire and inspire the community input through our 50-year salvage because will that be yeah inspire the

[01:15:18] community for input through the 50-year celebration that's an extra yeah um I was gonna say also I saw that Suzanne put on exploring alternative funding forces that could be our vision to like looking into ways to find it's a funny that we need. Which, I mean, we have done

[01:15:56] an amazing job with Bava. I mean, I think that credit should be given when credit is due. Major stride. We would have been hurting. Maybe also with the funding, alternative funding sources, it's our connection with City Council on how we kind of fine-tuning our budgeting cycle to make sure we can communicate, like, the whole 3 and 2 or whatever we call it.

[01:16:26] Oh my gosh, I always get that instead. But maybe talking about that, because, you know, funding is crucial to our budget, and so that could be a vision for that, too. Yeah. That's a question.

[01:16:42] Well, I'm hearing lots of action steps. We haven't really defined what the category is. So I would like to offer clarifying vision as a verb.

[01:16:58] I like that. And then all of us can develop our systems. So for me, the term clarify means to make clear.

[01:17:16] And I don't know, my brain was thinking vision as in, like, next steps, moving forward. You know, our vision for the future. So I don't know what other verb would go there, you know.

[01:17:36] Because to me, when I think vision, I think it's looking ahead, looking forward, next step. So I don't know if. Can we talk about clarifying the mission?

[01:17:55] Mission? The vision. The vision. We're talking about clarifying the vision, not using clarified as a verb there. We're talking about, we are like an action step that we're going to take.

[01:18:12] We're going to think about what our vision is and clarify it. Is that what we're saying? No, I think I'm with what Ms. Stevens is saying, that we're looking forward. what are our plans in the next 10 years or moving like in two years.

[01:18:30] What about fostering the future of Manassas City Public School? And since that was my last stick, I also want to throw in. Facility planning. It's a big one, and we're kind of shawled right now for facility planning because we don't have the money to pay for the study all at once.

[01:18:52] So that's something we need to figure out. shouldn't that have been in our unfunded leaves though we had figured out our way to pay oh but it to somewhat to our detriment because we're not going to come out all along so yes but also okay so increment i mean asking for you know money has not been something that we've been conditioned to do and in fact we've been told not to do it right so this is you know changing our way of thinking

[01:19:27] and this is the first step in my to my way of thinking you know it's clarifying the vision it is looking forward and it is knowing what we need and then asking for it in unison with one voice and I agree with you and the smiles that we do need to do something as far as budget and funding. So we need to be a lot more vocal in what we want. We need to get a lot more people to speak up for what we need. So I think that's something that definitely should go out for all of you is how we do that. I don't even remember who said it, but

[01:20:04] clarifying and looking forward. I think putting those two together because in reality it's talking about clarifying how do we identify future sources for funding then how to we reach out to get sources of funding so I think maybe clarifying and looking for clarifying vision can't look at the see what I think

[01:20:40] I clarify I kind of seem to me you don't know exactly what you do please clarify what do you say no I was simply like the word clarify because to mean I mean it's like well I didn't understand what you said you can you repeat that can you say it again yes so I don't really like the word clarify before we talk about our vision because we should kind of say we're moving

[01:21:08] board I mean I think we just need to think of another yeah yeah yeah we can

[01:21:44] I'm not attached. I'm not married to clarifying. However we want to say this, like fostering the future, communicating the future, however we want to say that is completely fine. I think we're all coming to the same concept. We're just having a freedom.

[01:22:07] - Yeah, exactly. Word, or text messages? - The, hope so. There, one other thing I'm gonna suggest for this document, like I assume we're gonna circulate, or see it, if we can put a footnote in there, this is a working draft document, so that we don't look closely for us.

[01:22:33] - Yeah, so that this is contextualized. - Well, I'm gonna put a brainstorming document, yeah. - Draft document. - Yeah, this is something we're gonna have to pull together, but I like what we're saying. That's three sticks.

[01:22:55] They had to get there with their sticks. I got my stick. I have all the power. I like removing clarifying vision and looking forward, just leaving fostering the future of FTPF, like that.

[01:23:23] Oh, I have to use all my chips? I don't know. Okay, budget consensus. Love it. So, you can take your sticks back. I feel like I've never seen people move up.

[01:23:43] So, I heard this proposed, seconded, any other thoughts around that? It's like the third category down here that we would then put a bucket, or the punch list.

[01:24:00] Any other discussion around that? Good job. I'll use a stick for that.

[01:24:17] I'm sure this is not what you're saying. Thank you for your patience. So I will create a Google form and share that with Cher and Alba to get out to you all and work on timeline with them.

[01:24:37] And then the idea would be that I think it would be at their retreat, being able to see everybody's punch list items and then narrow that down and get consensus under those three categories. Thank you.

[01:24:53] Thank you for your work on this. Thank you. Thank you. I dropped my stick in the middle of the island. I'm sorry. Oh, my legs don't reach that far. Okay. You need your stick back? Can I grab my stick back? Can I use them for professional learning? Yes. If you want them.

[01:25:09] I could always make me. Actually, my daughter could always make me. We do this with our structured conversations for miles. It's like big. It's a whole chip system. Thank you. Yes. It forces us to talk. All of us to talk. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

[01:25:24] Okay. Next up is job chair description and chair election plan. So this is, at this point I have, is this topic priority focused on student outcomes?

[01:25:48] Not exactly. The significance is because I'm trying to make sure that this stays on the agenda so it doesn't get lost, because this was originally asked for by Ms. Brown. So I'm asking for the board development committee just to give us an update, which I believe is going to be that findings will be submitted at the retreat.

[01:26:10] But that's not for me to say right now. And my ideal outcome is for there to be an understanding that this is a board priority that will be recorded on. So may I ask for board development to give us a brief update?

[01:26:29] Yes, I can give you an update. Anyway. Yeah, so we have met twice, the Board of Development Committee has met twice, and the draft is coming along.

[01:26:50] It is currently 2,355 words and 8 pages. Very detailed. But there are things there, like, you know, some of those words are references to policy.

[01:27:05] So it's not as bad as it sounds, I promise. But we did, so the board development committee last year, we all worked together on the operating protocols and on the code of ethics. And this was the kind of last remaining to-do list on this handbook.

[01:27:24] And the goal of the handbook is just to clarify what already exists so that we can orient a new board member as to how they go around here and what to expect. The problem with the chair election, vice chair election process is that there were kind of two ways that people were doing things.

[01:27:41] And one way was the, we'll talk about it at the meeting way, and the other way was we're going to call each other beforehand way. And so I did some research and looked into how other divisions, to the extent those are easily publicly available because handbooks are not necessarily posted online.

[01:28:00] But to the extent I could find what other divisions did, we looked at those and we have generated a section that we're going to recommend and that we're all going to digest along with the rest of the handbook in June. But that part was pretty well tackled.

[01:28:15] There are other things in here that still need to be, yeah, the draft isn't ready for its debut. We still have one more meeting before the retreat before it can be, before it will be released. But the work is well off the way and has been taken.

[01:28:36] A lot of progress has been made. And we were discussing in detail the process for the chair election, chair election plan, including outcomes from the meeting we had.

[01:28:54] And we really did have a robust conversation on it as what should it look like and how should it be done. Yeah, we didn't copy and paste from it. We took it and we thought, like, this is something that we do. Because there was a lot of really good input from all of our board members on how it should look or how it would move forward best.

[01:29:19] We also have a good section on the duties of the chair and the vice chair, which has had multiple input, including, I think I owe you your BSBA binder, but has had multiple inputs from the places I could find that were regional.

[01:29:41] Yeah, I stuck a lot in our region, you know, what Tazewell County has a little bit, yeah, they're kind of, we're not as connected with them, but they might have a different set of norms, but that has been well-researched and well-developed as well.

[01:29:57] So it's underway, we're all going to dig in together, and I'm actually thinking that this will be a pretty, I think everyone's going to like what we come out with. I think so as well, because we really, as we've been working on it, it's been a very positive process and really thinking about input from everyone else, input that everyone has shared off and on throughout the process.

[01:30:22] And since, you know, since we got three new board members on the board, really changing and updating the way we do things. Because one of the big things was, and I think you may be able to speak to this and you may be able to speak to this. But when I first joined the board, there was not a lot of anything in writing.

[01:30:43] It was more kind of a handshake type situation as to how board dealings were done, how board decisions were made. so there really wasn't a whole lot of a strong structure to start with but i think so far it does look really good and of course you know we don't make the final decision on it we move it forward and present it to all of you and then it is the will of the board yeah i know everybody is gonna it's gonna be our our collective doc yeah we're doing the drafting and researching stuff

[01:31:19] like that but all seven of us are going to hopefully all agree I think I think so far I I think for the most part everyone's going to be pleased I'm pleased with how it looks right now because it really does I and I think a lot of people who are on the board experiences but like when I started the board I didn't really have a reference document to go to and this would be a great reference document for people for new board members to go to when they have questions or concerns and we've got it so it's going to cross reference policies so that you can actually click

[01:31:58] on the policies that are referenced and it will take you to the actually actual policy as well so I think that's a really helpful thing also I think it yeah I think it also offsets any you know communication errors we may have had in the past because you have one place to find all those answers because a lot of times you know one person might have said this one person said that because that's the way that was done now it's all one place so you can reference that I mean I think our history has been our conflicts comes out of misunderstanding and some people have different suspects so hopefully this will be a way for us to just all have well we're getting the work is underway

[01:32:37] we'll talk about it at the retreat and I hope that answers question so I've sat in on some of the meetings I do find it to be a very impressive process that people seem to be taking really seriously and I do think that it's been you know for lack of a better word more up until now some of the new people would get really frustrated with me because I'd say you know and I've tried to refrain from this going forward but you know that's really it's always been but like we didn't have anything to point to because that's the way it always been so now there's a lot of structure and I would like proudly call it sort of the story of us you know

[01:33:15] I mean it really does represent who we are and how we do things and you know the future board wants to change it There's a base now to start, but there's a reason why there's a reason why we did all the things But it does I mean like you said it's not a cut-and-paste shop It was very fun Their next item if we're ready to continue is external policy review Okay, so this one is my item, and the topic priority I'd like to discuss is an external policy review.

[01:33:52] It is not solely focused on student outcomes, but it impacts student outcomes in a certain way. It is significant because policy is the backbone of what we do as a school board, and getting it wrong impacts all sorts of things, not just our legal liability, but also our trust.

[01:34:11] My ideal outcome for today is that we agree that an external policy review is necessary and this is something to give everybody some background on this. I see your confused face. Some background on this. I feel like every time I've gone into the policies I see something in there that we have a policy for example that we were supposed to be getting periodic updates on the financial standing of our services.

[01:34:39] And I brought that to Dr. New's attention, as you all noticed, we got our food services through our budget process, which we had not previously done. And so that was concerning to me. Like, we had this stated in a policy, and we weren't actually doing it on any kind of regular basis.

[01:34:54] If we remember a year ago, Ms. Whitesell came and left a public comment for us and brought to our attention that we were not doing academic career plans for our 7th and 8th graders, which was really bad on multiple levels.

[01:35:11] just you know it wasn't good for the kids we had a policy saying that we were supposed to be doing it we weren't doing it it was bad for the kids and it was also against the law that we weren't doing it like it was that was based in a statute and videoe regulation that we were supposed to be doing that and going through this recent round of policy committee work there were all sorts of things in there we're supposed to get an annual report according to our own policies we're supposed to get an annual report on field trips which in four years i've never gotten we're supposed to get an annual review of fundraisers undertaken in the full position, which in four

[01:35:46] years we've never gotten. More concerning was we were supposed to have approved, and I know the staff is looking into this, but in theory we are supposed to have reduction in force guidelines that we're actually supposed to approve, and I've never seen that. Obviously we haven't needed a reduction in force, and hopefully we never do, but if that's the something that we do need to do, People will sue us for that if we are in violation of our policy.

[01:36:13] So I spoke with Dr. Newman about this. It seems to happen a lot, that we have a policy that says something and then we're not doing it. And we have some insight into that. Like I know I haven't gotten a field trip report in four years. I know that. But I had no way of knowing that we weren't doing academic.

[01:36:30] And so in talking with him about how to solve this problem, which he agreed is also, I don't want to speak for you, speak for yourself. it's a problem when we have policies that we're not following it's a problem and it's a major liability well how do we solve it the conclusion that he and i came to talking through it there are other divisions larger divisions have staff full-time who basically do this like this you know like the governor's school for example pwcs's finance department it was just their turn for the pwcs finance department audit department you auditors to come through and make sure that

[01:37:10] their paperwork was all aligned and they're a big enough school division that they can support a full-time staff to do that we are not a big enough to do that the division to do that so dr newman suggested that this is that we hire someone to do a review for us to ensure that our policies are or to at least make us aware of the areas we have where our policy says one thing and we are either not doing or doing something different and so that was the conversation that

[01:37:47] he and i had but and that we agreed on but cost money and it's something that is not just in his power to do like the whole board because there needs to be four of us to agree that this is a problem that needs to be solved so looking for my stick i almost actually went to read for a stick to put it out but remember it's not here it is policies in some ways are difficult because there are so many of them and we do try to review them but it is a full-time job because we have alba

[01:38:27] but that's not alba's only job alba wears more hats than i can count and it shouldn't fall directly on her shoulders but at the same time it shouldn't all fall on the policy committee shoulders because it is such a large task because there are so many policies and some of them become very complex. Like, um, I think on the agenda, it's a policy BBA was the policy that you had referenced. And if you look at policy BBA, it's a huge policy. Um, so I don't think it would be

[01:39:02] a bad idea to actually have an external policy review because it is a huge undertaking. Um, And there's no way any one person can go through every single policy and do it in their spare time.

[01:39:19] Because we all have other tasks and duties we perform. But the question is the cost. And my question would be to Dr. Newman. Have we discussed or entertained the idea of having our own on-site attorney?

[01:39:34] We've discussed it. It's way more than what you have set aside. You have $105,000. That's it? Okay. And you go over it. we have to look at that increase it but when we look at the salary of attorneys locally united closely do we have to have an attorney at a bakery to handle the policy review sure well i think it's just like you hire oh you answer the question i took your question as

[01:40:13] get rid of santa anderson and have our own attorney now we just are we just we're talking about the policy audit then that may be no right not to play okay I and I found it like that the most overwhelming task to go through the policies online and there's no book that I was given that I could highlight you know as I go so it

[01:40:52] It does make me uneasy not to know what I don't know, because we are the overseers of policies. So how much would it cost?

[01:41:07] I guess that would be my question. And is there a way-- I mean, we do have technology right now. Is there a way to simplify the list of policies that are mandates for us that we need to, like, uh-huh, these are annually reported on us?

[01:41:24] Yes. I mean, we do pay the SBA for policy services, but this is beyond the services they offer. Yeah, I just wanted to know about that. And we are, so we are moving to, because I do agree, sometimes it can be very awkward to search up policies in, or docs.

[01:41:43] In fact, and I think for a little while, we had gone away from paper copies when we were doing policy updates, but we're now back to paper copies, which I think helps out. And yes, I have lots of binders. And I actually remember when I first joined the board, Kristen Kiefer was very happy to hand me a huge box of binders.

[01:42:02] There were all the policy updates and she was like, I'm so glad to get rid of these because I was now the policy chair. But yeah, it is very difficult to search through them in board docs, but we are moving to diligent. So supposedly diligent is going to make it a much easier process.

[01:42:20] I haven't seen diligence, so I don't actually know yet, but I completely understand what you're saying because for me, and Alba's much, much better at this than I am at searching policies, but, you know, it's hard sometimes when you're searching with a keyword.

[01:42:38] And so I agree 100% it can be a huge challenge, and it's difficult to navigate. But ABBA has gone back to making paper copies of everything, and I don't know about anybody else, but I do like having those physical paper copies. I think it is very helpful.

[01:42:54] In fact, from our last policy committee meeting, my policy updates are still in my bag because I know where they are, and I won't misplace them. So the audit that you're seeking or that you're proposing, that would be to revise what's necessary and then kind of create a document.

[01:43:17] So, thank you for asking. So what I'm envisioning is that, and this is a function that exists as a full-time job in other divisions, that we have somebody read our policies and go through it in some systematic way.

[01:43:33] I'd say, okay, all teachers shall be evaluated at the mid-year and at the end of the year. And then go through and do a check. Okay, here I am at Baldwin Elementary School has every year. Oh, that's normal. Here I am at Baldwin Intermediate School has every year.

[01:43:51] Because when I was speaking with Dr. Newman, I was going through all of the waterfall of options that we had. Like, could the policy committee just convene an audit on its own? Sure. And we could do something. We know the reports we get and we don't get. But that's kind of where our insight ends. Like if we have a policy saying everybody should be, shall we get two evaluations a year, we don't have insight into that.

[01:44:18] like that academic and career plan policy that had been updated just in 2023 or 2024 like we the board had reviewed it the bsba had updated it we had reviewed it we had voted it in this whole time it wasn't happening and we needed a parent to step forward and say it wasn't and we didn't have a way to see that it wasn't happening because it's not because getting the report is one thing but it's not for us to go in and be like hey have you done a b and c so it's way outside

[01:44:50] Right. It's outside of ours. And I think having an external policy review would enable us, you know, some things that are problematic, like let's say with the career development plan, that would then get flagged so that we would know and then be able to move forward.

[01:45:12] But it's not to review or modify policies because the thing with the policies we get from the BSBA, those are built and vetted by attorney. So they're legally sound. So I think it would be kind of redundant to have that audit committee or audit individual or whoever it is come in and edit them because they've all been.

[01:45:36] What I'm generating is what I'm envisioning as a final product. Yeah. right like this policy check mark check mark blue checks out everybody's following this exactly and then if there is something like question mark you know every single policy that we have in place that needs to be implemented and whether or not it has been implemented right how much will that cost well that's the and that's the question i think that he needed us to agree oh i just want to ask the question are you assuming that some policy the documentation is not there because people don't know? Is that what your assumption is? Or people don't know or people, you know, there could be all

[01:46:14] sorts of reasons. Yeah, like I'm not really bringing any kind, you know, the person who didn't know retired and the knowledge never got passed on as to what you're supposed to be doing. There's a thousand reasons why this happens and this is why a lot of school divisions have like a permanent ombudsman or somebody who just rotates through the division and just does this all the time. So like a checklist that each policy right yeah everything right and right and not saying anybody's acting with any male intent I don't think there is anybody who's like haha get away with not doing academic career plans kids it just there was a transition in the counseling department and it

[01:46:53] just stopped happening that we put out for an RFP or do we just have our return who might do it I'm like, "Who might we consider?"

[01:47:19] Is that the SBA, a retired principal? No, who did our special ed audit? You know, we just did a special ed review. Special ed review. That was the prep review.

[01:47:35] So there's places to do. Yeah. I mean, and it could be places where I'm in a retired principal or somebody, a retired teacher can take a part-time gig and do it in a couple of months or something. - And I also envision this report coming back in something like the school board shall receive an annual report on field trips too.

[01:47:54] Well, we would have enough, and we haven't gotten that. - That seems easy to me 'cause you're still out of-- - Right, well, but I mean like-- - No, but I'm saying it seems easy to get it to you. - Right, if we wanted to, but we also as a board have an opportunity to say-- - This is important, this is important.

[01:48:12] - Yeah, and we can say like actually we don't care about the field trip, you know, actually take this off. you know or keep it keep it in and let's keep doing it because as you said that that one's pretty you know something like tracking down every single fundraiser in the division that might be a little bit harder to do I like this proposal for accountability purposes and for us to be transparent too and see what we're getting done and also to give him the credit for all the things that they are doing under his leadership And some of the things may just be added with his monthly report.

[01:48:49] Like the field trip thing could be something you just added. And we may also find that there are policies that don't actually apply to us anymore. Because from the VSBA, policies don't always get updated very often. Most often they're updated when there's new legislation or when there's an issue that has come up somewhere.

[01:49:11] So some of them don't get updated very often. occasionally we've had ones where it's like well we don't do that anymore so we don't need this policy so yeah I think it's a good idea I mean I think it could make us a stronger board I would just caution that we already know that we couldn't afford the facilities study you know in totality so it's just kind of like I sort of envision this as you know plan B is more of plan a like we need to go back to what Ms. Loesch is doing and I find this is something that needs to be

[01:49:49] funded and you know it could happen maybe next year. Well let's see what the price tag is and we don't know what it is. Show of hands who wants to proceed at least for the cost. Can we explore different forms because I mean I get it that you want like a formal thing but if we might be able to afford something where we hire a part-time...

[01:50:17] Like a teacher on special assignment or something. yeah yeah whatever the options he's got the objective thank you everybody that concludes my item so I would like to put a pin a final pin and make it very very quick and we got some answers about food provisions at meetings but when

[01:50:54] interpreting the answers there were a couple problems did everybody work sessions and special meetings that everybody work sessions and for me regular board meetings so if I could if you would indulge me you know I'd like to just do a show of hands very quickly do you all four of us want food at work session yes or no so that was um I was okay special meeting do you want food at

[01:51:30] special meetings those are like long closed sessions yeah yeah and the entries that's five two and then regular board meetings do you want food or regular I do so sorry is the topic right focus on student outcomes not exactly it's

[01:52:06] significant because board members travel to and from places there are three types of meetings and to cover all is costly and time-consuming the ideal outcome is for us to identify for sure work sessions regular board meetings committee meetings or just meetings that start early so I think that you know we have four more people for every single type of meeting I just want to make sure like everybody that that is a huge thing to ask like one part-time

[01:52:44] clerk to do she's never complained about it not once and I did I did bring this up myself because guessing how long the meeting is going to go was not a sustainable way to proceed but I want to make sure that you know everybody is willing to take whatever the public may say Oh so it has to be for a vote for something like that we had done it and it just the text string wasn't very clear when I said all meetings not

[01:53:22] everybody thought I meant all meeting so I just wanted to go so where what are we at right now we're at six one five two and i think four three for all meetings we have four people who responded yes no we have six people that said they wanted work sessions right five people wanted special meetings right and four people wanted regular board meetings so we do have

[01:53:56] you know consent enough people to authorize did you put my was my hand wasn't up for all did you count me as being home i didn't say all meetings i went meeting type by type so i didn't that's what i asked for in the in the text okay all meeting okay and i realized i hadn't exactly defined all and so i wanted to do that so what did you put it so well it doesn't it doesn't matter my only request is that we revisit in about six months to look at the cost that

[01:54:35] would be excellent because I I do worry I think it's nice it's appreciated but I do worry about the cost when we're talking about having unfunded mandates and the burden that it puts on our clerk I show of hands that agrees with that That would put us at November, mid-November to recess, though, if we wait six months.

[01:55:00] And I would say I'm not opposed to the items that you get in the past, like the Chick-fil-A cheaper than some of the other places, so maybe exploring cheaper options. I believe that there's going to probably be something that's a little bit more systematic. You know, we will have this, or you can expect this, or here's three things, you know, that will rotate and move on. It's not going to be something that's necessarily as specialized as it's been in the past. But we will be getting food and we will revisit. So if I may move on.

[01:55:39] Graduation ceremony. So is this student focused? Not exactly. Council has withdrawn their request process with us so I'd like to offer a compromise we can go down the line you know vote on every single iteration but because council has withdrawn I wonder if you all would be okay assessing with everyone but then getting the VIP seating instead of sitting what what's going to equate to the back of the other room so

[01:56:15] So you're definitely going to have a much better view if you were to take advantage of the IPC. So wait a minute. Are you talking about the seating that we had last year? Yes. Okay, so we would stay there. You would process with everyone.

[01:56:31] Okay. As the students go up on stage, you guys would take the left. But you would come in with everyone. Sort of like what we do at summer graduation. Does anyone want to take that comment?

[01:56:51] I think that procession is the most important piece. And I like the VIP seating on the edge. Because we get the best view. And we get to see all the kids when they get off the stage. And we get to say something to the kids as they come off the stage. People that we know, the kids that we have relationships with, too.

[01:57:09] And to see their facial expressions is my favorite thing. Because there are a couple who are really shocked that they actually did it. And they're the ones who are just super excited. Okay. So just to make sure that there is a head nod, all in favor of walking in with the graduate, moving to the VIP section, peeling off in that way when students go up on the stage, raise your hand.

[01:57:38] - Great, so when we process with the kids, well we process with the staff, not with the kids. Yeah, and so you guys go up. - Chair, the lor is chair and vice chair.

[01:57:54] - And then we go to the side. - Yeah, perfect. - Chair and vice chair? - Chair and vice chair. - I mean, that's the way it was last year. - Were you on the stage chair? - I was on the stage chair. - So you all have robes now.

[01:58:18] So I would say that, you know, as long as we're all as a group doing the same thing, you can wear your robe or you don't have to wear your robe. - Our own? - Our own. Yeah, I mean, we can help outfit anyone that needs it, that you need to let us know in enough time. But I think for summer graduation, everybody-- - I'm just ready to have them.

[01:58:37] I have some black ones here, so I can give you guys. - I have one, okay. - I think everybody needs to come to study. - Yeah, absolutely. - I won't be participating in the procession. - You're just gonna sit up there? - I'll sit in VIP. - She'll save my seat.

[01:58:52] - Save my seat. - Okay, well, there is a request for everyone, once a decision is made, for everyone to try to do the same thing. There's nobody gonna police it. Because I think it's precedent, you know. I mean, we want, my greatest hope going forward is that when we make a decision as a board, whether individually we disagree, that we all go forth and promote that decision, whatever it is.

[01:59:19] Food, calendars, graduation robes, processing. We expect you to eat at the meeting. I'm sorry, if there's nothing vegan, I will get my protein bar out of my bag. it's a best it's a good faith effort that's all i'm asking i'm not going to tell what if we're going to like actually like not accidentally we're not letting you in the doors are closed listen this is the okay nobody no everybody's going to police you if you don't want to do it but i think for the board members that are here the ones that are coming next again this is part

[01:59:58] of what we do is part of the story that we develop and it's part of the expectation and I think listen having to do it in different settings for different students they there is a prize when they do see their school board process for them so it does mean something to kids it's only one high school it's not like we have to go to like five different high

[02:00:23] It looks like we have at least four people saying yes and I think that we can move on if you know if you're late if you can't participate like you know there's gonna be with some level of forgiveness but as a board I would ask when we make a vote that we leave this room unify as much as we possibly can. Moving along to optimize and

[02:01:00] standardize job fair presentation. Do I have a motion to take a five minute I have a motion by Mrs. Brown, seconded by Ms. Miles to recess until 7:07.

[02:01:19] Yes. Ish. All in favor? Aye.

[02:01:25] We return to session.

[02:05:48] Second. I have a motion by Ms. Steven, seconded by Dr. Jones that we return to session. Guys, number six on our agenda, we get to see what's behind the phone door.

[02:06:05] Dr. Jones will leave this discussion regarding optimizing and standardizing job fair presentations. Okay, so that is our topic. So is this student outcome? I'll come up with yes. As you've seen, they're getting a chance to see careers. This is significant because at the career fairs, we want our students to see real world what people do. So the school board is an example of real world, and all of us can talk about our other careers in addition to the school board.

[02:06:35] so it helps them understand what they can do in the future and I would like the outcome is for us to come up or to think about to start to think about standards so we get we're uniform in our presentation so when I went to D I asked Chair Spall what did I do she said you have to make something so this is what I made okay but this wasn't great so first of all it was too tall

[02:07:05] because I couldn't see over the kids, I had to come to the side and talk to them, but I did try to do what the school board was, we had some more pictures, who runs our school, our pictures are there, what is the school board, what does the school board do, and why this matters, and then I asked them a question, if you were on the school board, what's something you would change in the school, and they said, you know, recess, airplanes, lunch, buses, all that type of thing.

[02:07:37] But I think we should have a beautiful one, so I was wondering if we could have some retractable banners that you pull up, you can carry easily, they're not heavy, and pull them up and actually say what the school board is.

[02:07:54] I think we would have to have a go-to committee to actually talk about it, but if we had retractable banners, if we come up with a game or some type of activity for students and also have some giveaways, and then I think also if there are multiple school board members, we could all be at the same time.

[02:08:09] place same table or we can take shifts i think it's important for them to see us but i do think we need something that's uniform and not everyone doing their own little thing or just doing something different but i think what we stand for should be uniform and be consistent so that's what i wanted to bring forth today i love it yeah nice i know it's so beautiful mm-hmm that this

[02:08:34] in had a great presentation for families. Oh, what's a family? Oh, teachers. Oh, that was for PEP. Yeah, yeah. But that's for families, right? For parents. So perhaps also add in that piece so that we are able to present to families if we get invited to different events to come in and present to them. That would be a good idea to have.

[02:09:03] especially yeah i mean i think that i mean i remember showing up to me and be like oh you're here too you know like um i think it's not a bad idea for us to that way we can be at all of that you know what i mean and then can do a sign of genius in terms of getting it covered because you had to leave at a certain point and then i ended up being there all day when it turns out i could have just shown up when you left right so so i think there are some ways that we can

[02:09:31] I would like to add that this was an activity that we were supposed to do on day 3 of the retreat last year we had wanted to do a design a board that we could take to career fairs I think it's important that it's not I don't mind the picture of our group as long as we can change that picture in and out but it shouldn't be for self-promotion it should be for promotion of a governance

[02:10:04] role so to my way of thinking you know this would be I like the idea of you know maybe some canned or customizable within reason you know different things I mean I don't think it would hurt if Suzanne's willing to share you know I mean a parent thing she's given some other speeches you know I mean if we had something for, you know, business opportunities if Rotary invites us somewhere.

[02:10:35] So, I mean, it would be nice to have something that just kind of lived, that is a good guide that, you know, we can somewhat make our own, but really a standalone kind of thing that we just, you know, you have done some really good work, and if you're willing to share it, it would be nice to save it.

[02:10:55] And then this, I would like it to be, you know, able to be checked out. You know, I mean, I don't know how many kits we need right now, if there are very many schools that have two career days at the same time. It seems like they're pretty well spread out. But even if no one could attend, you know, we could go set up our board and there could still be a table there so that they understand.

[02:11:16] I mean, if it's somewhat self-explanatory, it seems like we can participate in those opportunities in a pretty easy way. And then if we want to participate, it's even better.

[02:11:34] That's when we would be able to do whatever the giveaways were or whatever. I mean, it would be nice to step into that environment and already kind of know. I know that-- I understand your comment, but, you know, I'm trying to ensure that we give each other a little bit more grace because I don't think that there's any member here that goes and takes time of their day to self-promote.

[02:12:03] Just for the cost of self-promoting, I will think that everybody that's in here that takes time of their day to be in front of kids just because they really want to be in front of kids and they want to kind of add a layer of knowledge to the kids. So, but also in that same vein, I do have to say that some of us are now well-known as veterans of, you know, you guys have been on the board for eight years plus, you worked in the district for 40 years plus.

[02:12:33] So those opportunities do come in a natural lens, that lens that people can get to know us, just like you guys have plenty of opportunities in the 8, 12 years, or however many years you guys have been in the district.

[02:12:51] So it's important to acknowledge that, too, for the newer board members, that they need to get out there and get their faces recognized and get their, you know, just so that people know that they are working for them and with them. When I went last year to do the forward talk to kindergarten, because I signed up for kindergarteners and I didn't know what I was going to do. I thought I was going to talk about special education or I thought I was talking about community service, but I landed on teaching them about what I do.

[02:13:23] I had to think about very specifically about the activities that I wanted to leave them with and how I would talk to them about. So standardization is really good with the caveat that if you go for kindergartners and fifth graders, the activities may not be the same or the verbiage that we use may not be the same and we will have to tailor that to the group.

[02:13:50] But I really did enjoy last year going and teaching them because even the kindergartners got really excited that they wanted to be school members. And so that was really great for me to know that, you know, I was probably one of two little kiddos who want to do what we do.

[02:14:10] And some of them didn't even know. But I also talked to high school students who don't have any idea what the school board does. and I'm finding myself simplifying even for them so I guess we can figure out how to do it like the different grade levels and like Dean was like in the gym and you know tables for some schools you go into the classrooms so you have to you know adapt to you but I just think you should be more uniform or the message that we're getting so it's a committee referral

[02:14:40] what do you want us to come out with a prototype first or yeah I mean I think some suggestions and you know something that's actionable your support a type do you like it or not yeah or what you want to change yeah it doesn't have to go for

[02:15:09] but I mean Dr. Jones has ideas she's on the committee so yeah you know it doesn't have to be overthought but it's not lost on us that you know what a 12 grader might be interested in might be different than that but really I mean I'm telling you I look at the artwork that

[02:15:47] these second graders can do it's unbelievable so I mean I think that the audience is you know kids but if it needs to be somewhat managed then that's okay um okay is everyone happy with that outcome i know i am well dr jones is going to answer oh yes so our final item is continue discussion on the speed of trust and this round will continue leading a discussion regarding the speed of trust and we're going to do that speed like speedy gums out all right so we had agreed

[02:16:26] uh the last time that we were going to focus on behavior 7 through 13 and that would be pretty much wrapping up the book the rest of the book you can read on your own create your own plan of intention if you wish or if the board decides that they want to do another big title something then we can agree on that but the 13 behaviors is the last piece that we could stop at this point

[02:16:56] So if you review behaviors, get better, confront reality, clarify expectations, practice accountability, listen first, keep commitment, and extend trust, which one of those resonated with you?

[02:17:13] And if you can tell us which one and then talk about the counterfeit of that one. So, is it necessarily the one that spoke to me in the way you're asking us, Ms. Brown?

[02:17:36] But it really kind of stuck out to me when we talk about behavior 13 extend trust. And they were talking about how, you know, you need to extend trust to the workforce. And one of the things that kind of popped to me was it said some might argue that 3%, so that 3% of whatever population of people can't be trusted with whatever it is, is unrealistically low, that it's more like 10% who can't be trusted.

[02:18:06] But even if that is true, what about 90% you can trust? Are we letting the few define the many? And if we are, what's the impact on speed and cost? And I thought about it as in when we think about our students. You know, when we look at our students by and large, and i feel like it was dr chapman who said it when we had our first one of our very first meetings about the upcoming cell phone policies way back when that first became a thing and she said something she said you know 85 of our students are going to follow a cell phone policy no questions asked but there are 15 that we know aren't going to do it so it to me i i put this in that frame

[02:18:46] in saying, are we going to let those 15% or 15% of students who struggle to follow expectations, are we going to let them define us or let that 85% define who we are? And when we focus just on the 15%, what is the cost in student achievement? And that's how I thought of that. Because if you think about it, look at how many kids are doing the right thing and focus on them and focus on on all that they can do and that was just how my brain processed that and it made me think of when

[02:19:23] Dr. Chapman literally said 85% of our students are going to do what they're supposed to do and 15% won't and of that 15% maybe 5% will be a huge issue and so I thought that was just a very interesting commonality or parallel. So I should not read I was a little occupied last week but you Thank you, send me the PDF.

[02:19:54] Leave yourself with books. Summer is coming. Yes. The one that resonated with me was get better, grow, continuously improve, be a constant learner, learn from failures, regularly receive feedback, be an open link, act on it, and appropriate.

[02:20:11] And I do feel like I have a lot of growing and learning by the book and counterfeit, be a making flavor of the month improvement that never take hold, trying to force that everything is good, talking about growth and growing.

[02:20:27] I mean that's, it resonated with me too because my attention span is sometimes not the longest so the flavor of the month thing was like being some of your growth initiative that one stuck out to me as something that I have, yeah I feel like I've done a lot about it so that I can still even now improve upon with my neurodiversity.

[02:20:58] I know that we're looking at the counterfeits and everything, but I know in the past that we've looked at things that spoke to us. Is that okay just to do that? This is a really good book, especially page 188.

[02:21:20] Yeah, it's just a good leadership book. 188. Is that or am I wrong? We're 173 to 178. 178 to 236 is what... So 188 is in there. Yeah, I said 188.

[02:21:35] Did I say it wrong? No, you're good. I'm reading the thing here and it says pages 130 to 177. Oh, I think that was like a while back. But it said smart leaders create an environment that encourages appropriate risk-taking, an environment that makes it safe to make mistakes.

[02:21:52] And that's just that balance that you want to encourage, I think, even amongst us that... you know we're open to the ideas of going beyond what the norm is um and if we end up doing that and say a mistake is made um it's still an environment to give grace you know if we take this risk and it doesn't work out so i just think in any like we're in leadership capacity um you know we need to be willing uh to make those risks but also understand that if a mistake is made that

[02:22:29] we give grace to those that perhaps or to the idea we have so there's a lot more things in this book um i would say um i think and i'll say just one more um when people see you as learning growing or a learning person or the organization they develop confidence in your ability to succeed in a rapidly changing environment and that's what we have and they enable you to build high trust relationships and they've been incredible speed and that just that's kind of the person I am

[02:23:05] but I know that we're still working to that um but I feel like um our school board is learning and growing and as we continue to do that um the trust we have with each other the confidence that the community has with us um is going to be built and we'll have those stronger relationships and we'll be able to make decisions quicker like right now we're making them pretty slow but as we build trust amongst each other, community trust us, we will have that confidence to make appropriate decisions.

[02:23:38] To tie on what you say, too, I think the trust will improve when we have the systems in place that we can see clearly as well, because that's what causes a little bit of anxiety or conflict.

[02:23:53] I want to do keeping commitments and explicitly saying what you're going to do, then doing it, no matter what. And making the commitments mindfully because sometimes you commit to a lot of things and there's no intention behind it or you don't know what you're doing, why you're going somewhere or why you're saying that you're going to commit to a thing.

[02:24:21] So becoming more mindful as to what you're committing to do, especially in our roles because we're asked to do many things. I think that's helped me a lot, and then making sure that keeping them, and then not suggesting like I have implied commitment of being vague about that, but also being honest if there is something that you cannot do, inform the other parties, and the counterfeit to that is overpromising because you just want to please everybody, or under delivering and

[02:25:00] disappointing people about that or being so afraid of breaking commitments that you don't make any commitments at all and nobody can count on you being reliable so that's a common fit so keeping commitments is one of the I think I have grown a lot in that area specifically after I got into this role because I couldn't be able to wear that I wanted to be so intention is good I'll have to take a pass I apologize of my book and my homework at all I will say that in my

[02:25:37] journey to build trust or to live an authentic life I liked behavior number 11 listen first and the counterfeit to that is pretend listening so the quote that starts the chapter is a good one it just says if there's any great secret of success in life it lies in the ability to put yourself in the other person's place and to see things from this point of view as well as your own so that's just to try to be leaders in the community where people know that we're

[02:26:11] being or feel that they believe that they're being authentic. That was the one I was going to say so I'll do another one so you're fine. That's okay you can do it. No, I'll do another one. You can use your perspective. No, I'll do confront reality so it talked about have you ever been a participant of meeting after the meeting so think about sometimes you leave a meeting and you get in the parking lot and you start talking about oh i should have said that or did you think about this or you know think about you know phone calls after the meeting uh i know exactly we used to sometimes put up a board

[02:26:48] that said parking lot discussions and tell people to put a sticky on what you're going to talk about when you get to the parking lot so we'd be aware I think as you build trust you will there won't be any I think they use the word undiscussable you'll feel free just to say what you have to say in the meeting and not have to get to the parking lot and talk to where you feel safer so I think sometimes we don't feel safe you in the meetings to say what you want to say but I think it's definitely something that you know everybody needs to work on and it says

[02:27:25] take issues head off even the undiscussables address the tough stuff directly acknowledge the unsaid confront issues before they turn into major problems and I think sometimes I know sometimes of those we go back and talk about something the second time or the third time but maybe if we had discussed it and been honest with each other and been willing to discuss it we wouldn't have to have the second or third discussion you know when I when I I read that I kind of thought sometimes about our joint meeting where sometimes I think we all feel like we have some undiscussables and we're not sure what the outcomes will be because I know

[02:28:01] sometimes I feel like that when we have some of those meetings because they're high stakes and so that's something to definitely work on confronting reality and that's a big thing and I also yeah listen first I hear that a lot that one of the most important things you can do is not what you that you listen to um that matters more well i want to thank you for taking on this book study um the rest of the book like i said there's a plan in there and i think i shared a handout last

[02:28:37] time that we discussed the book um and then there is a survey in there as well that you can take to see where you are and where you want to be i do think that the 13 behaviors um in front of us you know as priorities can change a lot of things not just here but also in our respective roles at home and at work if you do have a job so thank you and the rest of the book you can do on your own unless everybody wants to continue reading the recipe but i think we can do a stop here i think

[02:29:13] you brought some valuable topics to our table so we appreciate that um 7 30 is there a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second okay so i have a motion by mcbrown by steven any discussion uh all those in favor aye aye opposed woohoo

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