##VIDEO ID:zV9OkNp6aZw## and it's something that continues then we're going to move on up with appropriate consequences after that but the heart of this is education and it's not meant to be reactive we want to have a proactive plan in place so that we are educating students first so that every single one of our students feels like they belong so they feel like they're seen and valued and heard and that has to happen by having something in place now so that we can avoid some of these issues we do have if you are interested in learning more uh Caitlyn Carissa Dr Funk and myself recorded a great podcast right Pony voices you are more than welcome to listen to it I encourage it I listen to it I don't like the sound of my voice it's great right like it's great uh go for it um it's really good and then there's also that QR code or the stillwaters schools.org identity harm you can go ahead and you can take a look um we are being incredibly transparent in all let this work because it's going to take every single one of us both in this building in our schools and in our community to make sure that our students are safe any questions thank you that was wonderful and I did listen to the podcast it was really good it was really good director kelber I listened as well and your voice is good um thank you thank you I I was writing a couple questions and I think kind of the boils down is the who who who does it so first I'm imagining an instance happens in the hall hway in the bathroom or outside school on the bus or even off school grounds uh who's so you denounce the ACT who who's doing the denouncing how has that happen and um we can take this one by one or and then also the communication and restorative practices again who's who's doing the counselors the teachers and sometimes the direct individual might not be real apparent if it's especially the social media that talking about somebody at school today and uh if they're going home and The Bullying happens on the phone how do we get involved with that and who does the communicating that's um so I I'll I'll start the first one is the who does the denouncing it's whoever hears it so we actually already have students who are denouncing acts um and I know what some of our high schoolers are saying is I am tired of being the one to always denounce the ACT I need the adults to step up and do that also so it's whoever hears it so if it's in the classroom and the teacher hears it we're asking the teacher to denounce it if it's in the hallway and it's professional that hears it or yeah teachers in the hallway and we know that this is going to take some training um it's we're g to have to roll this out we're gonna have to implement it we're going to have to train um and get everybody comfortable with just saying like hey I heard this or I saw this that's not okay here we can't do that um so that's part of that who it's going to take all of us together um the restorative practices I would say yes yes yes it's going to depend upon the situation so I think sometimes it could be counselors or social workers I think sometimes it could be classroom teachers we have some classroom teachers where things have happened and they've done that restorative piece with like social stories and conversations with the students and then they report up and let the principles know so I think it's really going to depend upon the situation and what is called for at that time um and then in every situ ation we built into the component of these protocols report up right so no one is ever making these decisions or trying to do this in isolation right so I think as Jac Leen stated there are some pretty significant PD and training needs that are going to come along with this but where we're going to start is with denouncing the act right because that's the that's one of the things on that protocol that's pretty much impossible to delegate right I can't necessarily I maybe could call on my colleagues to help me with a restorative practice or help me cover a classroom while I'm restoring um and repairing harm but as the adult that maybe Witnesses or sees harm occur the the key skill that they have to have is to be comfortable and able to specifically denounce that act so that's where we're going to start with our professional development all of those other components of the protocol require teaming and communication and um inclusion of families and processing through you know where we were where we are and where we're going and how we're going to support students through those things thank you and bus drivers will receive some some uh training on this as well I kid you not I was going to bring that up elsewhere but yes thank you students said it students said it over and over again repeated and they have lots of ideas if you want to hear some ideas you go talk to some fourth and fifth graders some middle schoolers they'll give you all the ideas on how you can train bus drivers I get them yeah great yes Dr pet so I want to follow up on the on the denouncing part of it um how is the training going to be rolled out I mean how are the teachers and the adults is supposed to know uh when and how to intervene I mean you know is there some sort of a dynamic list for instance of of harms that you are developing that they need to know about so that they can intervene at the appropriate time so um I'll give you the where we're at and then kind of where we're going so currently with regard to professional development and training we are working to just establish common language around identity identity harm denouncing what is you know we were I was at a building this morning and we were walking through these slides and someone asked what is what is denouncing what does that look like right and so so uh right now what is happening is at all of our schools between Thanksgiving break and winter break we have identity harm 101 so it's a just a short kind of meant to be 30 minute pey bite that all staff are getting and it's designed to develop that common language have an understanding of the components uh Within These protocols and then to listen honestly and get feedback from our teachers to say here are the resources I'm going to need here's the training I'm going to need to feel comfortable doing this so um one of the things that came up this morning that I thought was a really great idea that a teacher had is can I have some sentence starters like is there can we create maybe a Google folder resource list that has here different sentence starters for different maybe frequently occurring um identity harms just to get me going to understand how I can better be specific and denounce that harm so as we move forward and we are delivering these um identity harm 101 kind of PD bites at the building a component uh that will go out to the principales is that they will have a Google form to add feedback Reflections you know questions we can't be in all of the buildings um many of them run their staff meetings at the same time so while we're trying to be there for as many of these 101 conversations as possible we can't be everywhere so trying to gather all of that feedback all the reflections all the here's the barriers I see here's the resources I'm going to need need that kind of thing um we will take that feedback and then jacqu leine myself and Steph Gordy and of course Dr abamu if her schedule allows will go building to building and have onetoone meetings with principles and they of course are encouraged to bring maybe some members of their leadership team teacher teams to engage in a conversation around what does implementation at this building look like the reality um is that our schools are in different places some of our principles has have taken on some of this work earlier than others some of our um teacher leaders have taken on some of this work maybe just even self-directed learning in these areas there's been different opportunities offered by scea for learning in this area but there hasn't been a consistent approach and because there hasn't been kind of a system systematized consistent approach the needs of the individual practitioners regardless of whether what role they're in you know custodial bus driver parah teacher are different so what we're trying to do is be responsive to those differences and create building level professional development plans to kind of um start to to build those resources up and provide teachers with opportunity to practice this and reflect on it and practice and reflect because this is it's messy it's nonlinear and it also requires a lot of vulnerability and honesty about I'm comfortable with this I'm uncomfortable with this I need support and so you know my goal is if we can just start having those conversations then we're moving that professional development that training just in our ability to be comfortable and engaging in those conversations asking for help from other U colleagues who maybe may have more experience in navigating these things so we were working on those plans we'll be building out resources based on the needs of each building we're also up against the reality that we have limited professional development time and so not only is this good in that we can differentiate our professional development it's also good in that we can deliver this in short bites allow people to practice small components of it reflect and give us kind of a continuous feedback loop oh yes one more question um I know we keep student files already that um follow the student but with this will there be data kept somehow and then she pull some analytics off of that and what's happening and where and what kind there is we have already done a first um blush at training with uh documenting identity harm there are components in power school that we can't change because of reporting that we need to be a certain way but there is something in power school where you can add an action so what we are um training our principles to do is to be able to add actions when these instances occur and we have a drop down action that is identity harm so then we can run a report based on who is adding an action to a behavioral incident that has then added that identity harm drop down we can start Gathering some baseline data and understand you know what are the common kinds of harm that is happening you know that can drive our professional development that could drive um educational resources we put together if we see that it's specific in certain classrooms or certain grade levels we could even do some classroom wide or grade wide intervention to educate and um try and and prevent these things from happening again something where you pull the name out and then so the instant is there so you can we can just look and see what are the what are the themes sure so here's just an example this has been in the news recently and you're asking data uh you know people ask well why do we do this all right you know kids been bullied since you know time began well in the uh CBS news on December 13th um the um WCCO reported that um the Department of Human Rights the Minal Department of Human Rights announced Thursday that it has secured a $65,000 settlement with the Pine City public school district for alleged repeated racial harassment of a seventh grade girl who was repeatedly intimidated bullied and harassed for months by multiple students after her parents had reported the behavior and the district did nothing and they were found liable by the uh department of human right rights and they were were charged so as superintendent I take it very seriously that our students here are all treated in a respectful Manner and that we're consistent about it and we have a behavior Matrix that um we have administratively developed for certain types of behaviors that we follow but we have never put together a um harm protocol such as we have and it's an identity harm protocol because it's based on an individual's identity so this is our attempt to be consistent across the district and to make sure that our students have a um Equitable experience in uh how they are treated and uh um how they go to school here so that's what we're about um I know you might want to say something I just I want to make sure that the students know that you can offer your experiences and thoughts just raise your hand and I'll call on you as well so director okay thank you um okay I kind of have a lot of thoughts on this um but I'll try to keep it succinct uh first of all uh thank you for coming and explaining a little bit more about these protocols we don't normally get a lot of protocol presentations at the board table we focus more on policy obviously um and it's very clear that there are lots of things in policy that this is now creating a toolkit for our staff to um Implement what is already expected of them so um I appreciate the further information um and I also recognized that there was a committee meeting that was this week that we heard some speakers tonight as well um who shared their opinions on their thoughts on this protocol um and it's very nice to hear both the community side and also the staff side and the um um the podcast the presentation tonight and on that podcast in particular are the students there's a lot of students who start out that um presentation podcast um talking about their actual experiences in our schools and that was very um meaningful and um heartbreaking to me as well I know bullying is something that all of us have seen or experienced In Our Lifetime and it's something that we as a school district and me as a school board member want to improve um and that's something that I feel like we are making a concerted effort as a district to address um and make our students feel more safe in our schools so that they can learn because if they don't feel safe and if they feel like as you were saying they have to constantly defend themselves or advocate for themselves that impedes their learning they're much more focused on that than on the stuff that they're supposed to be learning the reading the math all of those academics they fall to the Wayside when people feel unsafe when our students feel unsafe so um I recognize that that is something that our students are asking for I'd like that this is a um clear toolkit for our Educators to take that burden off of our students so that they can really get back to the job their job of learning um and focusing on their schooling so I really appreciate this work and I know that it's important um and that I very much support it and I do actually have one question getting back around to it um so there's a piece in here where you talk about communicating both to parents and to students themselves I also know that there are privacy laws um and that how explain a little bit about how that fits into the picture here in being able to share information with different groups um we did I I mean students said this too like sometimes they feel like nothing happens there are things that we can and cannot that we cannot share but there are things we can share we can let parents know that an incident happened and we can let them know what we did we cannot tell a parent like so and so did this to your child and this is we can't share consequences share the consequences but that's what's great to that's what's great about this protocol is that when we're having these conversations with families and we're saying here's what I can share with you and here's what I can't and why but this just so this is the protocol these are the tools these are the resources here's our Behavior Matrix and these things go together so as we're working through this you as a parent can peruse and say okay if this is the harm that's called that was caused to my child here is what I can expect from the school district or from the whether it's the principal or the classroom teacher or whomever is is the one that's doing that communicating um so it does provide that consistency it does say yes while there are things I cannot share with you you can know that all of these steps are being employed for your child and many of our principles are already using that behavior Matrix they already tell principles or families this is what I can share with you and so I think that part of the conversation is something that's it's not new um I think the part that is new a little bit is students want to know okay well what happened and that's going to be the part where again principles are going to have to say I can't tell you the exact consequence but I can tell you that we took these steps and I think because we're being so transparent with this and we're saying this is how we're going to respond I think it's going to help to build up that trust because students and families will know what to expect from us great thank you has this been shared really quick has this been shared with um parents outside of um the curriculum advisory committee or has any I know you talked about students that have seen this but it will be yep so when when we were talking to students beforehand we emailed their parents we shared with them the protocol we made sure that we shared with them everything that we're going to do um I I will um be sharing this with our Native American parent advisory committee so that's something that I speak to them about quite a bit is identity harm so I'm going to share that with them after after break we also have our Caminos and our Washington County African family Alliance Group so we'll go in front of them also the other thing that I will share that was consistent when we were meeting with our student groups which really was our kind of our first share out was to get student voice and in doing so then of course there was some pocketed opportunities for parent voice um but students consistently said can you come back do this again um so I think that's one of the things that jacine and I have talk talked about is how can we expand these small group conversations with students and that is also a good kind of organic way to to gather parent feedback there because before we're going to meet with students we're also going to share with parents here's what we'd like to meet with your students on here's the resources and materials we'll be talking about and so as we continue to kind of circle back to the schools we'll continue to do those uh reach outs to families and I do appreciate that this went in newsletters and um there I saw the comprehensive article on the front page of our website and but I know because this goes beyond race because this can be maybe someone is heavier set maybe someone just got eyeglasses I mean bullying is an all way an all kind of sorry um uh you know it can be so many things and so and all of it is damaging and so I appreciate that I just want to make sure that we're going Beyond kind of our race based organization groups and going to parents in general and making sure they have because I think part of the Strategic plan which I'm so glad and superintendent Funk talks about this a lot it's you know you go through this process of listening to families listening to students listening to staff and then it just kind of gathers dust and this process really does check off a lot of what I'm seeing on this daily desired experiences now I'll be curious to come for you to come back and say you know how is this working in our schools um how are teachers responding to it but I mean I'm looking at one bullet point on our strategic plan and our teachers asked that they want to feel safe and secure and know how to respond when disruptions occur so to me training is a huge piece and our teachers want to support students and avoid um harm of any kind we want kindness and respect and service and and I think it's important to note that this is this is a fluid document right so as we are implementing these things and as we're getting more comfortable in denouncing the ACT we're going to learn more about ourselves as Educators more about the needs of our students more about what part components of this protocol are working well and what maybe needs more Improvement so it it's not meant to be a we draft it up it is what it is we're one and done it's meant to be an ongoing you know reflection what do we need to adjust and that would be I mean we have to have parent feedback on what are the and student feedback on what are the experiences so far as we're implementing these tools and we already did some changes based on feedback like one thing that student said was they didn't like the word rebuild and they're like how about repair instead so like that that word choice came from students um including the check-in with students and families that was on our larger document but not the graphic that most people are going to look at and students were like well can you put that on there because that's so important to us and then after we checked in or after we did did student feedback I sent an email out to the parents of all the students and I said this is what we talked about these were the common themes if you have questions if you have comments if you'd like for us to consider something else please reach out to us and they did and so that was just more feedback that we were able to include go ahead direct Wonder yeah well thank you both for the work that you're doing on this matter um no I appreciate the idea that this is a systems-wide approach uh just because it makes it consistent I think that what we talk about as a board is making sure that our students have consistent experiences whether it's around literacy curriculum or science or whatever you know access to playgrounds I mean all those things are important no matter where they live uh or what school they go to in the district and so um you know I think as as kind of been mentioned um you know I do see this as a helpful Tool uh I do as a parent I appreciate the transparency of understanding what those processes look like um and you know I I appreciate all the the public comment especially those you know willing to kind of share that you know they have had stuff in their past that you know where they had to deal with some adversity and and bullying um I don't think there's anyone here at this table that hasn't and it sucks um and you know it's something that um I think as Leaders you know if we have the tools and the ability to help fost of those conversations and it's not about you know you know anything that's above and beyond just helping each student uh maximize their potential in stillw water schools you know and I sit right across every meeting the pony Community commitments you know and so much of that applies to this um you know this procedure uh and protocol and and it's something that um I see it as a way that we can Empower our students uh especially you know I look you know my boys and you know and conversations that we have with them and some of their conflicts at home which um can happen you know as they grow um you know just you use a lot of the same type of processes and again it's not linear but it's the saying you know there's certain things that are just off off limits like you just that can't happen it's not productive does no good um and I think we all have stuff in our backpack where that's you know we've had to deal with that and you know I know for me um and thankfully I was able to you know persevere through that but I can think of you know several students from you know where I grew up that took their own life and I know for the fact that they were bullied um and you know it's not something that I didn't anything about you know I wasn't a part of it but I didn't do anything to stop it and I think that's just an opportunity for us to uh be more intentional about the work that we're doing so um I'm I'm in support of this as well I think it's a great way of just providing the tools and opportunities for students to uh do that it's not to eliminate bowling I it's just I don't that's G to be impossible I think but it's a great way that we can try to mitigate it um and make it a better place for all students um and you know I'm just you know hopeful for you know what those types of outcomes might look like moving forward and then also from a systems approach you know it's it's a risk management tool as well I mean Dr fun shared that you know it that will only continue to happen if schools aren't doing uh what needs to be done so um no question just wanted to provide some commentary and gratitude I will say that when we talked to students they they said that bullying's not going to stop but they also said that if somebody denounced an act if somebody said that's not okay and stood up for them that made them feel better that helped them feel like they had a place it helped to limit or decrease it's not going to remove it but it did help them to feel more positive about where they were at because they knew that there was somebody else who cared about them even if it was just one person and I think the more we do that and the more our students feel that support the stronger we are as a community and we're allowing the parents to be involved and to um have a active and primary role in this because I I hear that all the time from parents that I just feel like I send my child to school and I don't really know what is you know and so this is closing that Loop and that's also on our strategic plan that our parents wanted that communication they want to be able to be an active part of you know helping their child manage through difficult experiences um that's a part of life and um but if they don't know they can't help and we desperately want to partner with our parents and I think we demonstrate that time and time again so Dr Petri um yeah it it seems to me that essentially what you're trying to do here and it is going to be messy and it's not going to be perfect but essentially what you're trying to do is to set standards for behavior and I appreciate that you talk about it as denouncing the act because you're not telling anybody what to think right but you they can hold hate in their heart for Trans people but they cannot express that in this school right because we have set these standards um they can go home and express all the hate that they want but they can't express it in our schools those those are the standards that we are setting and so I appreciate that you are talking about it as denouncing the act and not the [Applause] thought so so let me give you a little feedback from from the high school students on this so we talked about this with with uh the student Advisory Group last Friday and their feedback was this that a they wish one one boy in particular spoke up and he said you know some of this misbehavior occurred when I was in Middle School at one of our middle schools and you know kids were joking and they were inappropriate and he said I had to address the issue and I wish a staff member would have the second comment that uh actually a couple kids made was that they're hopeful and they're glad to hear that this is a K12 initiative because they see some behaviors occurring in the younger students that can be addressed now and it will help us out from a longevity standpoint because we are addressing it at younger grades and so it will uh um help us systemically over the long term so those were some comments on this from from our high school um students and I thought they were both uh um quite insightful and I'm glad to hear that our bus drivers I know um just as a pair of myself it a lot of this happens a lot of stuff can happen out on the playground in the lunchroom um on the bus when things are you know when a teacher isn't around when a principal is not there so it's imp imperative and I'm glad you're including that in this process and and the other thing is is this and and I don't and they have done a a tremendous amount of work on this and this is a living breathing document that's going to be modified as it goes on but the the key thing and and we had a meeting with uh our teacher leaders this afternoon and we discussed this and the key takeaway for us at least initially is working with our staff and how to go about um denouncing the act and I think um if if staff is is uh effectively um um educated on this um I believe that uh um this will this in itself will make a profound dist um profound um change for the district um as the first initial step in in uh um in implementing these protocols um because it just this is unacceptable behavior these acts are unacceptable and um it it just stops now and so that's what our focus is and you heard you heard Caitlyn and jackleen talking about that is um how are we properly going to implement this over time uh but the you know when you're talking to parents okay yep Johnny or Billy can come home and say um Yep this happened in class and or this happened on the playground and somebody said this is unacceptable Behavior right then and there and that just sends a loud message that uh um we take uh these behaviors seriously here and I will say too I think that I like I too like the choice of the word denouncing the act because not only you did such an incredible job expressing that but I also think it's important we're not denouncing a person correct um this isn't most of the time when I'm you know in my school working on a playground it's it you're just helping people to understand boundaries and what's acceptable and what's not and um or they don't have the language to language they don't know how to process an emotion maybe someone said something to them and they did and so they think it's okay and um so it's not denouncing the person either so I think that's um something I liked about that language as well and even when you look at the protocol we have in their specific things for somebody who's caused harm to make sure that we are still checking in with them that they still feel supported if it's a more serious incident that we're making plans with them and their family to create a safe re-entry if that is what is necessary so it's not about ostracizing that student but about helping them to learn those boundaries and say like that behavior or that word isn't allowed but you are because you are a part of this community any other comments questions sorry public comment is over Mr McCarthy Mr McCarthy is public comment is over this is not a meeting open for participation from the public please sit or leave AC Mr McCarthy okay um thank you any other questions or comments okay thank thank you so much and please I'll look forward to hear how this is implemented and we'll continue to bring you updates thank Youk all right our next um item is an action item um Mark jousen Is Gonna Come and Talk Oakland Middle School good evening chair Sherman members of the board uh tonight we're here to seek approval for the Oakland Middle School bids of the addition and remodel of the the um bond from last year we opened bids on December 9th um last week in 2024 we had 34 different work Scopes um of those just uh we had some presentations and images but just a reminder in those work Scopes was the construction of a new gymnasium and a storm shelter we're adding eight additional classrooms we're connecting to Municipal Water and Sewer there'll be a boiler replacement renovate the current media center and gymnasium spaces and provide additional parking and emergency management access as well as some other miscellaneous improvements So within those bids um they came in at24 m1139 3329 so as we go through through this bid process these bids were within um our budgeting estimation of where the bids would come in so these budg these um bids keep us on budget and um on our current timeline as we move forward with the construction project so with Oakland there's going to be two different phases of construction this spring SL summer will be the addition uh the addition will be the first thing to go so we'll add the new gymnasium spaces um the classroom spaces as well as a science area and then next spring and summer we'll get into the middle of the building and do our renovated spaces so we'll do the addition um spaces first and do the remodel next summer again all these spaces should be up and running uh will be up and running for the fall of 2026 so with that I'll open up to any questions or comments that you may have um um I'm gonna go ahead and make a motion to approve uh is there a second second Dr thander with a second questions for for Mark I'm glad to see the progress being made so and that it's within budget we like hearing that so all good news and exciting for our students great okay seeing no questions um all those in favor of approving the bid package as presented raise your hand say I I I opposed motion pass and with that we're adjourn all right for