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Special Board Meeting 05-17-22

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okay welcome everyone special board meeting one topic on the agenda what numbers are you actually I think but I'm expecting her back resume so let's get started first item is the flag salute to the flag indivisible with liberty and justice for all you never volunteer to do the land acknowledgement I want to acknowledge our presence on the tradition ancestor on unseated territory of the teach and song with people who are the original caretakers of the slam thank you okay we have a single item on the agenda would you like to introduce thank you president loving can you all hear me okay thank you so much just tonight we have one item on the agenda this is the third time we're bringing this calendar to the board and I like to your commission presented with the statement the the count is so we started working on it since December 2021 a committee was kind of brought together a consisting of representatives from the from our acert CFT and management maccies and then in addition we have a student representative and a district facilitated mr. Jose Alarcon the process started in December and the meeting took place and beginning to look at you all the time all the aspects to the calendar and hoping that we can bring the calendar to the board for approval in about the bit of February so the committee were looking at the beginning to school holidays the end of the school number of students instructional days in minutes and work days and so on and so forth so it in the context of the word a survey was developed with in-depth discussion within the committee and disseminate to stop family secondary students and some questions when they came back to the committee questions were probably responded to and sent back out again now I understand that there are there additional concerns regarding the survey but it was developed in the Trudy with a lot of discussion with the committee and and and then week the committee took took all of the consideration took all of the input from our stakeholders do the consideration but not just through the survey we also put together a town hall or Communications via email from time making phone calls telephone calls and presenting perspectives with social me yeah and and also meeting with individual group stakeholders so the count has been on the board for several meetings now and the process of bringing it to the board meetings we also gather direct input from school board members as well at this time the committee have taken deep deep look into the religious and culture school days consideration for students when they are or when they're not able to attend do school days in the next school year and looking for a way to train our teachers to make sure that the students would not be compromised in any Academic Way when they have to take time off in the next school year cultural and religious significant days I'm in addition we also looking at some of the after-school programs that support program to make sure that we are would not inadvertently causing hardship for students who would need to take certain days off for the 4 year I'm in addition when the calendar committee became aware of some of those of the missed opportunity to State a friend how they can the birthday of President Lincoln being observed it was brought back into the calendar correction was made so today we are we honor to to bring back the calendar that have been carefully adjusted and reflecting the the the work that it was put to we have taken great efforts to listen to all the stakeholders to the best of our ability and I we are now believing that we have a viable calendar for just singular school year for next year understanding that there will be opportunity for us to re-engage the conversation with the committee a new in the next school year so that we can bring back a day not just singular calendar but more of a structural system whereby counters can be moving forward without delays in the future it is this calendar represent the collaborative effort to welcome members until, too many different needs about of districts are community and the consideration of the Lincoln's holiday as well as the New Year's Day that falls within 2000 2023 so I am requesting this point to the board of education to approve the 2020 to 2023 school year calendar and I'm I'm available for any kind of questions and clarification that you may have for me thank you thank you move by Mister Brian we have a s s by Dr mckeithen discussion questions but I want to get board members of the audience a chance as well yeah let me I want to make a cheer from the audience first mr. Longfellow find me spray I just want you concur with the superintendent that the committee made every effort on that we saw possible to engage a stakeholders as we could in this process including the survey Town Hall individual meeting email Communications and also this being on the agenda for several different board meetings for people to actually I'm give input different stakeholders to give input we did collectively bargain this I just want to make sure that was clarified that this was officially brought to the table for both ccft and for Ace and both of you ends and the district did come to an agreement on the calendar instead of presented to you today I'm through that legal collective bargaining process and I'm hoping that the board approves this calendar again saying that the committee did you know what we could I'm with the constraints that we could New Year's holiday Lincoln's birthday everything like that and hopefully board approval tonight thank you for bringing this back to the board and thanks again thank you Angela gray followed by Seth rosenzweig I just wanted to reiterate that on what Ray said that we work with hard on this calendar committee along with all our colleagues involved and we try multiple ways of finding what will work for us will not certificated teachers but the ace and Max and because the way New Year spell we had no other option in the sense of providing extra day for the needs to be matched it is unfortunate that it went into a negotiation I need a resolution thank you is 2 Reasons Why so it is sad and disappointing that since the initial survey was sent out on February 18th and there were immediate immediate concerns raised as to whether this process was inclusive nothing has really changed throughout this process the calendar has been tabled multiple times and voted down by the school board has a process being inadequate its once again presented with minimal to little change and very minimal engagement Community past three months the committee has been victims to a filibuster and if any of you changed your vote from a few weeks ago you are rewarding that filibuster I've spoken with each one of you in a position of authority a school board member District administrators to Union Representatives I left here with unfulfilled promises if we haven't done anything in three months and even 15 months I don't trust that the promises you're making now will be fulfilled in the next year to come 18 finger pointing from each side blaming the other as to why we cannot move forward and why after 15 months especially last week there has been no roadmap created for what the future of an exclusive countering process looks like how do we include more stakeholders input I truly value their opinion we cannot just except recognitions of holidays and cultural celebration dictated by those in positions of authority we must honestly engage our communities impacted in a way that is Meaningful to you as a board member you as a student a union representing music District administrator you cannot lie to yourself and pretend this was an inclusive process if this is what we deem inclusive and serious concerns about the future of our gesture if you really want to do work honestly we need to admit about upholding values we claim and we must focus on what we can add to the process and Auntie honest about ourselves of our fear I will commit suicide I am committed to learning more about different cultures and customs and religion so I can better Advocate on behalf of everyone not just the Jewish Community my greatest fear comes from 30 years ago it also comes from knowing that CC epd just said they're arriving anti-Semitism it comes from not a single School Board never acknowledged Jewish American Heritage Month it comes from me opening up a yearbook and Middle School in, sits a died you Hitler missed you you need more I'm asking you share with us what are you committing yourself to do better in the future what are you doing to uplift this community. We are and I also asked you share your fears because there are certain things to do with dance and other elements that were not willing to give but together we're more vulnerable that we can grow together and really create a new how to set calendar in Project thank you we have two were hands raised I see Thomas going and then Delena mulakum I'm going to close public comment after that somebody wants to raise their hand right away those will be the last two of the comet thank you for hearing from me I am a parents and I do remember the survey going around and I do work all us some conversations are being had with the very people in the district about a calendar and I responded to the survey and I do feel like the committee made an effort to reach out to people I mean I wasn't intimately involved I didn't go to the committee or anything like that but you know I think that the calendar reflects my needs as a parent and you know the sort of preferences of a lot of people for example I do like the the secular nature of spring break out the fact that it's on a reliable two-week a schedule every year because that's a really good time to plan a trip to visit friend her family are having a gestational opportunity it would be a shame to have it reduced to one week I know that was one of the choices and you know we have a very International Community here in Culver City and a lot of people do want to travel over please II travel overseas myself this year I heard the comments of the last speaker and I understand there is an alternative where you could craft fit in a lot of other smaller holidays one day here one day there and I guess I would just suggest that there's ways to be culturally sensitive and to provide in the school during school hours about other cultures and to try to raise people's cultural sensitivity without it being calendar an issue in other words perhaps Rhapsody the previous speaker was right that there's something more the school board could do how to create more cultural sensitivity but maybe the calendar is not the place to get assistant school okay sorry able to share me right now I think that this process has their plow through motions and has become widely political I only hear she likes to rest a student with everything and I only have my perspective on this and I think there's only how much progress I can be done when trying to move our school district to be more d i and culturally sensitive to make sure all students feel included in more than just really reaching out to them and the way that I feel like the calendar is the best way to do that but we're only just starting right now to be more Equitable and to create actual real change for students and students faculty everybody in our district at all our community to community members and I think right now we do we try to open everything up to the community and make the subcommittee process and that became ugly and everything and I think we need to work on becoming a better community and working collaboratively and realizing that progress takes time sometimes and that every step matters and you know steps like making sure that teachers don't put important Essence us on those days that I stood it on you know days were his students can't be at school we have to celebrate the holiday or feel like they have this need to take I'd like that part of themselves and everything I think that's an important step to progress I will lead us the you know maybe open up more holidays a different holidays and as many cultural holidays as possible and focusing on a widely diverse cultural holidays. specific one because we've always heard that you know we were we talk to you about 1 or holiday during this meeting or not realizing there are other people are district other communities are district that maybe don't have the same type of a Kind voice adding me to Media member them as well but also remember that word we're still taking our steps to progress and we need to recognize that we are moving forward thank you I'm going to close to board member that I have questions and comments but I want to make sure the rest of the board as a chance first whatever the feedback was I think every opportunity is a learning opportunity but I also do when I acknowledge that I personally do feel like the calendar committee did their due diligence to make sure that they were being as inclusive as possible and I'm I don't consider this to be us settling for are the best we can do right now I think this is something new that we've never done and I'm excited to give it a try and see how inclusive we can make this calendar now that we have the flexibility to serve all face and all cultures as opposed to being asked to hand select certain ones to amplify and others will still be left out of the discussion so I do personally feel like this is one of the most inclusive ways we can approach this and I'm excited to see how creative we can get to word all cultures that are represented in our community I'm not seeing other board members put me I can, before it goes vice president and president unless dr. mckeithan you had something to share okay yeah I just do like I do want it I did want to express appreciation for Miss mulattos comments and in particular was moved by the Testaments to progress being slow and hard I can I can really appreciate that so thank you and I I am going to be voting in support of the calendar tonight and I just wanted to say for such as Michelle. Why because it is not my opinion that we did the work this year that we promised to do last year and so I do actually need to say that for that I apologize to our community I do believe we as a district absolutely have to do better especially in terms of gauging all of our community important decisions and and in particular in terms of making sure we hear from the most marginalized members of our community it's my opinion that this calendar is moving forward tonight because of imbalance of power and I genuinely that we can learn from what has been a difficult period about what we really mean when we use words like represent and engage and include and I just want to stay publicly that I look forward to the learning that we will benefit and as a result of this process being integrated back into our negotiation was looking forward okay so I have a few things to say in a question or two as well first of all I want to comment a little bit on the question of voices being Amplified and stakeholders it is important to engage our it's also important to recognize that each group has their own specifics and each holiday has its own specific about what's important about the holiday or the servants and whether that can take place in school or not I think the reason that Yom Kippur has been such a focus and people is that for a serving juice frankly I'm not preserving Jews you're required to be in Temple on them so celebrating it on at school having a culturally observant day for Yom Kippur is a non-starter posed to be in sampling and not supposed to be in school there may be other groups that have days like that and we haven't heard from that was my biggest concern and back was whether we really engaged all the states there may also be other groups we're who we can help recognize what's important without taking the day off school but instead by focusing on observing it at school and there may be ways that we can help our community that celebrate Yom Kippur or needs to be in Temple feel comfortable doing that in missing the day of school by trying to make sure that what we do at school on that day is something where the students don't feel that they've lost something I'm not cleaning these things are easy and I also want to say that the main reason that I said in the past I wasn't voting for this calendar in the reason I'm now going to vote for it is that to follow a process in which we communicated with all the stakeholders we did so in a timely manner we did so two-way communication and the communication was literate why I want to watch through each of those things biggest one of those that I was most concerned about what time because in my opinion by the time the survey went out most of the major decisions were made the survey only sent out a couple of options for the count so that doesn't feel time when I push for then at that meeting was okay let's reconsider let's give people a chance to give input and then look at whatever other options they suggested we only come back with the same calendar that's the way it is but at least we will have given everybody a chance to feel like their input matter like the decisions were made before they even comic timely I think has been resolved because of the fact that he's now drag this out for and it's been at all the public school board meetings meetings were not up with people were not invited to come to a calendar meeting so the fact that the counter being tapping calendar committee meeting stopping over 132 time the effort and the care that was taken by the people in that committee but it doesn't speak to communication and end time however it's been awhile everybody I think who really news about the calendar as had a chance to hear that we are doing something about it and a chance to comment so in that sense at least the the timeliness of the communication has been handled by the unfortunate delay I told her involvement point is that counted committee was a good representative of all the District employees I had a student there didn't have anyone who whose job it was to represent the rest of the community in particular I feel that because this has been negotiated however brief that means we had the superintendent or the assistant superintendent for personnel or Foe would go she ate him on behalf of the poor whether or not they accomplish the goals of the board got everything they wanted the point is they were there and it was their job to represent the entire community and they had had adequate so that leaves two way and it earned it 2 way I think is clear we heard from both sides of this are many sides of this week I'd Community talking to us and sending it to discuss that leaves iterative and I want to just confirm with mr. Tran have people had a chance to follow up when you gave Communications or Mister out of time you did with the community did you know answer somebody and look and see if what if they had further things they wanted to stay and have an actual conversation rather than just something like sending out a survey email thank you Doctor Levin we have had quite a few emails going back and forth as well as letters going back and forth as well as phone calls going back and forth for the negotiation with the how would I do it I would do it differently but that's not how I do whether or not to vote on this calendar the main point here is the process I'm satisfied that while the process wasn't ideal it was eventually good enough to meet that requirement what I'd like to do is approve this calendar and then talk about a how we're going to do our best to be culturally and religiously sensitive with the calendar going forward and be how we're going to improve the process of future years so that it happens in a more timely way and give all of their important before any decision if your day is really important to this particular group I need to be a holiday or it's okay for it not to be a holiday so long as something's done at school that's a real conversation happens before we put together you know a survey that only has two choices on I'd like to have that conversation as well but I'm perfectly happy to vote for this calendar first I think however painful the process was it at least has met the the minimum criteria not just the microphone there should be hopefully you all can hear me an echo in here Osteen dispensary I was working with my it's fine. what is that okay well hi unfortunately I'm going to take a little bit of time because I feel like there's a lesson that I I learned from last boat and 21 and I don't want to make the same mistake so I'm going to go to do the right thing that I deal is the right thing for me and the reason is because I did my homework I did get community members to tell me what were their concerns I met with them on over the phone I read their emails and I do feel that although not the negotiations as Doctor care doctor Levin mention we're representing our Board needs maybe they were not representing all of our parent and student needs I think for me what's most important is that I really think it's important for our district to think about how we are doing things so for example if we want our calendar to be representative of our values I am very grateful that we do a land acknowledgement but here's an example October 8th 2021 Joe Biden became the first u.s. president to formally recognize October 11th as indigenous people's day as a national holiday holiday is not even mentioned my calendar what is one example and I'm sure there's many more examples secondly I hear I have met with the Union specifically Ace and they talk about how it is not Equitable for their members it's too many holidays are given without pay I think it's really important for the district to be thinking how we are take money to be Equitable for those holidays that are lowest-earning members of our district are not being compensated these holidays so I really think we need to take a look at how we're doing why and how we're doing that now at the last meeting there was a discussion about the time I have went back to my note and there was between 86 to 95 participant discussing their needs their values their depressed and at the last meeting I was said that it was only around 25 and I just wanted to correct that because I do think it's important for the for the body need to know that we had a lot lot of people present to give their feedback to input their feedback interred I feel that if the process was equitable it wasn't clusive it did egg knowledge all our stakeholders then why do we still have the exact same calendar that was presented to us last year there's something that did not does not make sense to me because this is the calendar that was presented to us with the previous administration with the previous cabinet and we voted it down and we said we want something different and we voted it down last time we want something different and here we are I want to end by staying a couple of things from different stakeholders so January 25th of 2022 you're some brief comments of what people were saying that gave public comment honor additional local holidays add additional days for African American Japanese heritage latinx discuss spring break at 3 days to the end of the school year we need a centech engagement of stakeholders survey Plus engagement meetings March 9th 2021 we had a student union representative teachers voted to take the holiday didn't shouldn't be Sports teacher should not be the only people who vote on the school calendar teachers need to care for the students third grade teacher I'm writing to remove the holiday from the school Cal this is an emotional experience the decision is disappointing Lin Howe parent shot them the school calendar it is just not about missing school we can you better let's be culturally competent 7th grader let the student and teacher Union speak to whoever they want to speak on conspiracy concern with the school calendar very upsetting in the comments went on and on and on most of the board members here were here when we had the community come out and implore for us to have a different calendar and I'm voting no because that is the right thing to do right now I've done my homework I've talked to the stakeholders that I'm representing and this is the right thing to do we need to improve the process where I'll come is different than where we are today thank you can I just say there's one more in this is actually a union representative set this I publicly acknowledge that we voted wrong this is a union representative saying that at the last time we voted with the last cabinet and this is on record yes last year when both calendars reported to us. Thank you so much for allowing me these few minutes to take us back into historical be back from Republic summer we can't hear you is on all speakers little closer can you hear me now I just think it's that I appreciate your comments Paula but I do think it's important if you're going to quote a union member that you provide some contacts that Union member was speaking about a calendar that had been presented without Yom Kippur the same year that it had been removed with no discussion it may not apply to this year's calendar because I do believe that that member was involved in some of these discussions so we should provide context and let union members speak for themselves I do want to say that the context was provided I gave the dates when these, were made and I did talk about that it was done two years last year when the two calendars were presented to the context was and I disagree sometimes we I'm not speaking for this member of the Union I am simply restating their public comment I try way back and I think it's important for us to learn from our history even the short history that has just happened last year so we're going to vote in a minute and I just want to suggest that we stick around for a few minutes after the vote and talk about the process for the future I said this at the last minute but I want to make sure that it's clear I think the biggest flaw we had here at was as a board not examining what the process was that we'd agreed to a year ago we talked about the calendar committee I for one was not aware that the calendar committee would be composed of whose job it was the reason they were on the committee was to represent the employees which is no legitimate interest in their supposed to do that and that we didn't have put it on the calendar committee whose Focus was representing the rest of the community in normally in negotiations that's how that works right people negotiate for their own groups like they're supposed to and District negotiates for the vision of the district in the school board about what sort of everybody else and we're supposed to gather all the input in it's incumbent on the administer inside of the negotiation to get all that input from parents because the other people in the negotiation aren't you know that's not their job I hadn't realized how that was going and for me the reason that even though I wish we had a different product process the reason that sort of reluctantly going to vote for it now is however briefly we did have a process this time constrained by time process where somebody in the room felt it was their job to represent all of those stakeholders I agree with Miss Amezola I don't like the calendar we ended up with I think the fact that it didn't change is more a result of the the constraints of the particular calendar this year where things fell and frankly lack of imagination early on in the process for if we started early enough and had the imagination to do so we could have said well will will pay for more days or we will figure out how to change spring break or winter break by only a day or two and still have people feel like getting full advantage of it or some other creative idea that I'm not smart enough for creative enough to come you can't do that in a few days of negotiating which is all we left ourselves after sort of botching the process I want to be crystal clear I am not saying that the calendar committee box the process I'm saying that the board myself included perhaps especially on board president right now watch The process by not realizing that we were composing a committee of people who were representing specific groups not the entire Community I'm sure they did their best to get the information from the community and pay attention to the stakeholders but their job was to represent the employer I have no doubt they did a great job of representing the employees it wasn't really a negotiation in the last few days we had however limited It Go sheet we had I'm hoping in the future will talk about it do that works instantly okay you said that there was not enough engagement with the public but should not have been our job as a to engage with the public we said we want to see a bunch more engagement and then we kind of forgot about it until the committee by the calendar to us I don't believe that sounded to me yes several members of the calendar committee we never we never actually brought it forward and said these are the people on the committee I can only speak for myself but I know that I did have several conversations with members of the public including members of the cow committee and I think if we want something if we have an expectation for a process this board and us as individual board members have to take some responsibility in that this mine personally I know that as a apparent by the time I got anything address to the parents asking for information it felt like all the important decisions have been made and as a board member I know I didn't follow up and go say hey why but I seen something address to the parents in you know September October so I agree that it's our responsibility sunsets everything in the district is our responsibility but this one in particular we called out and said we want to see this at the body we didn't follow up so I didn't gauge for the community and I feel that regardless of how much engagement I do with the community a distribution of power is not within the board and so does regardless of how many how much input we get saying we should have X number of holidays beer expected an honor we as a board member do not have that power to then go to the negotiation committee because it wasn't it go she ate it legally negotiate yes it was clobbered it but it wasn't To Go sheet of committee and we couldn't just ask them please put X number of holidays in this calendar that is not something that the board has the power to do and so we have the engagement for some of us I did take that responsibility and I did do that homework and in in in in in so what what's a wee wee have the power to say this will be part of the same negotiations where we negotiate salary and sell for in which we direct our negotiators what will and will not accept and they know going in out of negotiate we didn't do that with the committee it was nobody there Mr Alarcon told us at the very first meeting that he saw his role on the committee as a facilitator not negotiate and he didn't. call session consultations with us about what to negotiate about the calendar that may well be than what we need to do next year to take that into account and have the board have the authority to adjust the calendar the reason we didn't say we want to see these specific things in the calendar these days and as you say didn't have the authority to do that is it was not being negotiated it was being done collaboratively but with a group of people that didn't include the board and didn't include anybody taking direction from the war it's now in the meeting I don't understand what's meant by the end power I don't know I understand what imbalance of power means but I don't know what how it's being used who who or who is being considered of holding more power so I would say ultimately the way we set this up the board's Authority is we their vote yes or no on the calendar and we would have the authority to say look bring us something different or we're going to keep loading now so in that sense we have that Authority but I think in terms of real power I agree with Miss Amezola the way we set it up we didn't have any input but authorities until the last month or so when we turn this into it's actually going to be at the negotiating table I'm still not clear and coated and that the term in balance of power knowing that as a body it only takes one president or two board members to put something on the agenda we could have agendize a discussion about this at any point in the last 12 months because we didn't use that power or influence or authority doesn't mean that there an imbalance and I think we have to be careful about that because when you're saying that the power has been taken away from the board to whom are you saying it's been given and how was there an imbalance yeah I guess I think the calendar if we remember a calendar was agendas multiple times and it was pulled multiple times and I went back and I was like oh I was ready to talk about these things and yet we did not and I think when I talk about the imbalance there's words that you put into my into my conversation and I never said for example that the power was given to somebody and take him from something the power structure the way this committee was created did not allow for for example the students to vote 2nd MI parents to vote third floor board members to vote in the committee before it came to us and yes I do agree that mean hearing from multiple stakeholders about the problem with this calendar and me being the only person is going to be out no for this there is very clearly a imbalance of power it is just about the boat today I am one vote for once that's that is imbalance of power and I'm not saying that that's something wrong the board is structured this way so that if you get three then something passes and if you don't get three it doesn't pass however like I said the structure of the committee was to me ambiguous it was not representative of the stakeholders and I do think that the budget had a big component in it that was not considered in that we did not consider yes if the holiday New Year's falls on a Monday where where can we change that holiday even if it's going to cost us money that consideration was not thought of in this I'm bothering from a person that was in the committee that said no that was not considered it's beyond a preview to discuss to discuss a bud how the calendar was going to impact the count. and I do think that in order for us to balance the power in the future that the calendar needs to be part of the negotiations all the negotiations so that it's there is a budget items such as we need to pay one day for Ace that we support the people that are in the negotiation can have the power to say okay if this is best thing for our community because our district does not work in a vacuum we are part of a community and if the community is telling us he we want to change the calendar then we need to put money to change and I'm giving that one example we need to have people in them she ate and we go she ate some room that can say yes we're going to put money so that our calendar is represented about our valleys so it is going back to the negotiating table and I think that's a great idea after the price that we pay for that is broken trust with our employees and I think that's important to acknowledge because we've heard that from several employees who say that they were not interested to negotiate the days that they work which is meant to balance out that power because board holds a lot of power for five people in this district and that ability to negotiate the days that they work is going back to them and rightfully so but the price that we paid is broken trust so I think that's important to remember and I wanted to just this further and this is just going to be my last statement and I want to stay as a board we need to recognize that we have broken the trust of our community also I talked to a parent the said my daughter lost their middle school election because there were at service which is what I did not interrupt you okay I thought you were thank you and guess what this child is in our district could have been a leader maybe hopefully they run again but this is the problem it's not just our district. needs to trust us our community our parents and our students also need to trust us and I want to say that this calendar issue has broken all the trust not just the trust of our Community is hurting also and we heard it last year and we started this year thank you so much for allowing me to speak today I really do appreciate the moment okay I'm not done now because I do want to address that you you use that as a perfect example the student lost their election because they had to be at service I don't I'm not going to assume what faith that student is but stay we selected seven cultural holidays and a student is the 8th and 9th that didn't make it onto the holiday they would have still miss that election however with this calendar we're making it very clear that no elections no special events no test no assignments that are major are going to be due on the holy days which means all of our students not just a select few or going to be effective that's the point of this calendar and I think that once we get past this discussion we can get wildly creative with the way we provide those protections to all students and for the days that we know that they're going to be a significant number of students missing because of a holy day another opportunity where teachers and staff can focus on helping other students understand why this is such a special day and some of your peers are not here I think we're getting Beyond topic of this particular vote I don't what I suggest is we go ahead and have the boat and then see if we want to discuss a little bit about what the process will be in the future everybody all right so the motion was to approve the calendar all those in favor say aye I think that was 41 so the motion carries okay about the process in the future I disagree that having only the Christian holidays are only a subset of the Christian holidays makes it more inclusive than having some number of the other holidays even if but I I do want to note that the calendar committee and I think everybody in the room and on soon and in our community that I've heard from has advocated that regardless of which days we have no school we need to do better at identifying all the days that are important to the various stakeholders in our community and doing the best we can to accommodate them even if it happened on a day when school is in session my personal opinion is that we do that regardless and we need to do that regardless and that shouldn't stop us from also trying to do the best we can with which days we have off and recognizing that the majority culture has determined a calendar that's essentially Christian calendar but it doesn't have to to matter for the conversation cuz I fully agree with you mr. Pride babe I need to do is have this long list of all of the days that are important for various reasons and because their various reason what we're going to do about Alicia those some of them it'll be let's celebrate it at school and some of them it will be let's try really hard to make whatever happens on that day is optional as possible because they're people who can't be there and I don't know that we can have a prologue discussion about that at this meeting but I would like to hear from in particular from mr. Tran about how you think that might go can I just stay quiet cuz I was processing everything that everyone was saying and I'm trying to wrap my head and my emotions around what's happening right now and I would say we don't have an outcome that we'd like individually call it an imbalance of power and when when it comes goes our way we call it democracy and I think we can't we can't we can't get into that today I just don't think we can democracy is about imbalances. I also think that we are confusing process without come and we need to separate those two I think very clearly the conversation about I've heard the word inclusion and I've said this before I don't want to come when I call a bastardization of that work we we need not to do that we should be having a conversation about how to be more inclusive it does not necessarily mean adding a day off like you said I think we have to be very clear about that because I think we're putting the two in the same bucket in there not and so I think I'll come I think the next step for me is the conversation that you just said about how can we talk about how to represent our entire community in the school space not necessarily days off so I'm more interested in that conversation at this point I just want to say that I agree with you but I think it's important to acknowledge that there going to be specific examples where you just can't do it without somebody missing school that's called example that we getting hit over the head with on this particular calendar from one you know from Yom Kippur right but there are other day I'm sure that if we had a calendar that said we were going to Old School iron on Easter that nobody would say oh well you'll just celebrate it at school because they're people who have to go to church on Easter and I do understand. you know our Muslim Brethren have holidays and I'm not familiar enough with it to know which ones you know it's important to be at the mosque but I'm sure there are some just going to have to but I think I recognize that we can't make it all perfect but I think we have enough heard cultural holidays as well again it's having the conversation about what it what's the landscape and I think we're a little bit of head of rest I was talking about days off until we understand the landscape and that's what I expecting is too strong word that's that's what a year ago I thought we were setting up to do and then I say I feel like I personally and the board has a body at least dropped the ball on that we didn't see it if we if we stopped and thought about it and do that we weren't seeing something go out to the whole Community saying hey what days are important to you and how do we and we're going to hold these conversations and so forth back a year ago and I think it individually while I understand that's valuable that's not the goal right the goal is to make sure everybody in our entire School Community gets to say this is why this thing is important to me that effects this issue a request to this board and to stop the cabinet how's this coming here and I think we can have really productive conversation at this point not about future processes but about making this one this calendar that we've approved successful and I think that does include acknowledging that there are going to be days we got an email have to look for it but thank you too one of the members of the community who sent an email letting us know that the first day of school according to this calendar is one of the holiest days for Hindus and so they're they're going to be days that many of us don't even think about I think that's the work that we need to do right now focusing on making sure the thing is some holy days require observers to be at a temple or a mosque some don't but it is not our job to give weight to one versus the other based on how people practice their faith and I think that's a difficult thing to do when we're trying to pick and choose which days to celebrate people we do the best to give people what they need and if somebody says the only way I can observe this is by not being in school we give that more weight than somebody who says it's really important to celebrate this but we can do it it's cool yeah we yeah I think what I'm saying right now is until we do that work we can't pick and choose which days they're going to give people off without knowing how people celebrate their holy day that's the point that I'm making it took me so long to vote for this is we didn't do that work okay and I understand that but that also means that say we determined that there are 35 holy days that are on a calendar half of them should be observed in some way where they are not are we supposed to be in school then we're still left with trying to pick and choose which ones are the ones that we allow for day off I think this is an opportunity I see this as an opportunity for us to get incredibly imaginative about supporting all who are members of the community and now is the time to start that conversation and see how this can work but he said that to us and they're very first presentation I'd like to make a comment I appreciate those those come and see you both just made and I agree we have an opportunity in front of us and I'm and I'm optimistic about but I just I wanted to hello Clarity cuz I disagree with that characterization of imbalance of power of the imbalance of power in it since I was one of the people that Saturday I thought I should clarify what I meant and so what I meant is that you know the Box Tops that's quite literally the majority of us are they have expressed you know disappointment in the process and the product and we were elected to represent the community and our values both those things in particular where those two and yet we're passing something that we feel was not what we asked for it and doing our best to represent the community including students family stop residents taxpayers Etc but because of the date the negative impact it will our community and not have a calendar decided on in the immediate we weeks outweighs the benefit from a holding the line on demanding better and so rather than us being able to wield our elected power were voting based on our thumb being held McKee rather than based on what we think is best for our community so that's what I mean by that can balance of power but I do have really agree that now is the opportunity the landscape must be I think a couple of you use that phrase I really agree with that do you have all sorts of opinions on how we should do it I've stated them publicly during these conversations numerous times including last year as well as this but I will eagerly send them all collected and writing to the folks that are going to be representing the district at the negotiation I'll make sure that they live in that space okay what I'd like to do is get a motion to adjourn have that discussion about how to survey the land landscape properly agenda is meeting to Parts part of its public and part of it is closed session cuz it's to go she ate motion to adjourn further discussion today happens to be the anniversary of Brown versus Board of Education it's worth Knology acknowledging out of school board meeting I all those in favor say aye we are done for tonight

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