Special Meeting — February 11, 2025

and we specialize in uh superintendent search and we specialize in uh superintendent search and placement uh but the work that I've really come to enjoy maybe the most is this work working with Boards of education and superintendents on governance and often when I do the work it's when a new superintendent has begun and a major part of our focus in those

meetings is really defining the roles and responsibilities of the board and the roles and responsibilities of the superintendent that's not really going to be our Focus today because it's not the beginning of a brand new superintendent working together but it is coming together with some relatively new board members and I think it's a good timing to do this kind of work when

you do have a couple of new board members joining a more experienced board so uh the very first thing I want to talk about and it's in the binder is what I anticipate as our outcomes for today and then I'm going to ask you to add what you anticipate and hope to be the outcomes for today so we you'll

notice what it begins with that you'll understand the possible dysfunctions of a team and the importance of overcoming the issues that could PR that can prevent a team uh that from functioning at a high level and I always like to bring that into workshops because teams of all sorts face the same potential issues whether it's a board of education or a

team working in the private sector doesn't matter we will understand the Elements of Effective governance and you have an outstanding board handbook governance handbook that addresses that which has actually made it easy for me today because I often have to bring a lot of materials to share that I didn't have to bring today because uh the information's in your board handbook so

I appreciate that we will review the adopted governance handbook and some other relevant bylaws and those are in your binder and we want to focus moving forward on the board's Norms expectations and operational procedures as you work together it's going to be a major Focus so there'll be some things in the handbook that maybe we don't have

to spend as much time on but really come back to that whole notion of what are your Norms as you work together your expectations of each other and your operational procedures to make your work together effective go over to the next page if you will whenever I facilitate a meeting I like to begin with our Norms at this

meeting today so uh I only have a few and I'll ask you if you want to add any number one is to be fully present and engaged be a willing and active participant I've sat in some meetings where even though we encourage people to participate not everybody does and I think we lose something when that happens so I really encourage you all to

speak up during the meeting at the same time listen actively and carefully to others seek to understand others point of view ask to clarify and practice inquiry the understand of others point of view is critical not to assume that you know what somebody has in mind but to really listen and to inquire the next one speak openly

express your point of view without reservation don't hold ideas and opinions back so this is an opportunity to speak openly and to not feel that you have to quote unquote walk on eggs next one to treat each other with respect and consideration give everyone the opport opportunity to participate so yes we speak freely we speak openly but

we treat everybody with respect and consideration and I would assume that we we all believe that are there any other norms for today's meeting that you'd like to add anything that we should add to this list okay so we're good on that together with these Norms I bring certain assumptions that in my work I think underly the work of a board and I want

to bring these out first one the Board of Education and superintendent are a team the definition of a team is a group of individuals who come together with a common purpose and work together to achieve a common goal that's what makes you a team although you are individuals being a team requires that you put your common goals and interests above

individual interests now that may sound easy but it's not always easy in practice when you come together as a board with the superintendent you focus on those common goals of what's in the best interest of students and families in the district and that means sometimes you have to step away from your own Comm from your own individual

interest second assumption the same factors that impact the success of any team also affect the success of this team the same rules for effective team functioning apply and the third assumption which I think perhaps may be the most important the success of the board and superintendent depends on earning and maintaining the trust of stakeholders your District staff parents community

members and I think I'd like to add students as certainly among your stakeholders if you do not maintain the trust of stakeholders if you are not perceived as working together for the benefit of all students your positive influence on those stakeholders will be severely limited and I'm going to share a little story that I think might illustrate this uh this goes back

a few years ago when I did a superintendent search in a district in the analou valley and when we first came in one of the board members came to me and said we are in trouble as a board we're not getting along with each other there are times at board meetings that we argue with each other we really need

to come together because we're not successful so in the superintendent search we met with a number of different groups what we call focus groups from uh staff to parents and community members uh Community groups students and we asked them what we thought what they thought the strengths of the district were and what they thought the biggest issues were and we heard repeatedly what

the biggest issue was and what do you think it was it was the board because people noted how the board did not function well together they did not function as a team so when I came back to meet with the board after all those uh interviews had to say to the board well we found there was a really common

belief in what the biggest problem facing the district is it's you and they actually said well we knew that but we didn't think the whole Community knew that well they watch your meetings they pay attention so what we agreed upon was this was the opportunity to do something about that this was the opportunity to regain Community Trust

because they understood they had lost a great deal of trust because they were not working together effectively and I want to give them credit they did an excellent job and working with the new superintendent as well but it was really a eye openening for them to realize how obvious obvious it was to the community that they were the problem that people

had identified okay I want to ask you a question before we go on to the next part of the handbook and I'm going to ask everybody to just give me your answer kind of briefly what do you hope that we can accomplish today meeting together what is your what is your goal for our time together today and I don't

stand on ceremony I just kind of go around and maybe start with different people at each time but I see Emilia you have your hand up so in looking through the governance handbook I'm hoping that we can establish and these words are really important to me unity in purpose because I think that that is what has been holding not only this board but the

previous board the struggles that have taken place um on these boards this one and the previous one is that we have not established our our unified purpose and that's something that I would like to uh talk about today very good I would add that that doesn't happen just in one meeting you can come to understandings about what that looks like and hopefully

you will but it has to be something you approach in an ongoing manner to to maintain that who else what would you like to accomplish today Joseph I'd like to have the question answered uh one Community member said is this board salvageable after the last board meeting and I don't know but I hope I can find out today one of the

things I'm looking for is can we work as teams currently I'm working with Mr Barham in subcommittee Mrs Worman subcommittee Mr schwarz's subcommittee I'm looking forward to working with Dr Anderson so I don't want us to be siloed and going back to what Emil just said Unity or purpose part of that grounds on the Mission Vision Values that our

divided board all voted in Mr Schwarz was here Mrs WMA that's a common starting point so for me can we work as a team and not be siloed I'm hoping that can be answered today good good thank you uh how about Melinda by the way I hope you don't mind that I'm inal and I'm addressing You by first name

informal um I want to see less Division I I know um I had a a someone call me from another board and and just said I mean it was rough but they said like we're disgrace right now like we we need I'm hoping that we can be less divided find more common ground um I think we do have more in common than

differences so I'm hoping that we can focus on that and I want to see less division because I think that we we do all have a lot of common values and goals so well we'll find that your handbook addresses that what the Common Ground should be and hopefully we'll have widespread agreement on that Jennifer what would you like to

accomplish today so I have a one minute synopsis and I think why I'm here today is to really figure out who I'm working with just to let you know Dr Alexander and Mr baram campaigned as candidates aligned with the values of Dr K and I our policies and after they were elected they formed an alliance as they

have a right to do with Mr Schwarz who has opposed A lot of those policies and values together the three chose Melinda as president with no experience and then pushed through really significant bylaws restricting speech public comment access to legal counsel they even stripped me from working on important policy that I've dedicated 15 months to for parents I feel like on top of it new

trustees are meeting with people in the community to drive doubt in their minds about who we are and it feels really disrespectful and disparaging and so because things are divisive and they've each accurately spoken to it my hope today is that we can have hard conversations not platitudes we need to talk about things and move forward with

truth and transparency understanding where we're really at and I hope for a positive outcome with that thank you and that does fit with my hope that you will all speak frankly about what's on your mind and there may be some topics on your mind that are not addressed in the agenda and may not be directly addressed in the board handbook

so one of the things I'm going to ask in a moment is is there anything any specific topic you also want to address that would not be included here but as we have discussions please speak openly yes Stephen I guess it's fitting as a senior member of the board that I speak last there you are so I was elected in

20 and I was reelected in this past election and for the first two years we had a board that probably our board meetings were maybe an hour hour and 15 minutes uh we had three new board members elected in 24 uh in 22 and uh I became part of the minority with another board member uh and then one of our board

members resigned and we we added a board member that was before the election and for two years uh this other board member and I sat here and were bullied and made fun of and our ideas were put to the side while the board majority pushed through their ideas and uh it was a very stressful time for me and Allison barklay who was

The Other Board member there was lots of unrest in the community covid was a big part of it but um most of my constituents and most of my email that I got they supported me and Allison and what we were doing and we just kind of had to sit back and take it because that's how it was we were the

minority now we have two uh two new board members and one board member who was reelected and people who were on the other side are now complaining that they're in the minority well you know sometimes that's how it goes I have three issues that are I'm on the board for and I've spoken to my constituents about it and they know what they are I'm

here for students I'm here for schools and I'm here for fiscal Integrity everything else is irrelevant if our policies don't work for kids and schools and saving money and saving the taxpayers of our district money than I'm against it those are my three priorities I'm not interested in politics I'm not interested in a political agenda I don't

talk about politics those are the things I want to do and I'm very happy that I have two new board members who have so far agreed with me on those policies and moving the district forward along with Dr Woods and our cabinet and keeping those things in mind thank you well you mentioned a couple of words that struck me that I think we need need

to be open about not occurring and that is you mentioned the word bullying and you mentioned being made fun of and regardless of whose position it is politically or otherwise I hope that one of the things that the board will agree to is that that's not acceptable that board members will work together without getting into personalities without

bullying each other no matter which side you're on and just talking about which side you're on ultimately you're all on the same side which is the student side you may disagree in some other issues and that's normal but ultimately what brings you together in my opinion is more critical than any division but not bullying not being made fun of those are

things that I hope will have no problem agreeing to among board members so I and I appreciate and thank you for your giving me your input as we go along there may be a few other things that come to mind that you want to get out of today's meeting I want you to turn to the next page

which has the uh graphic of the pyramid and tell you where this comes from Patrick lenion has uh done a great deal of work and I've been a an Avid Reader of some of his books and he focuses on what effective teams do and what ineffective teams are like and he's actually entitled this particular book the five

dysfunctions of a team which is interesting because we want to turn it around obviously and talk about what makes teams function well and he's put it in the form of a pyramid meaning that if you can't achieve or talking about a dysfunction if you can eliminate the dysfunction at the base it's unlikely that you'll be able to accomplish the

other things and so the very first dysfunction he mentions is the absence of trust and I will tell you from my experience and Gary as a superintendent on my guesses that you would agree that if you can't have trust among the members of a team if you can't build it and occasionally have to rebuild it when it falters the team is not likely to be

able to achieve your goals because that lack of trust the suspicion that people don't have Goodwill the feeling that I as a team member can't necessarily trust you to uh to not do something harmful to me those kinds of issues isues they interfere with all the work that you need to do together so the most critical piece is

building trust and from what I've heard a little bit today that's got to be critical for this group to be able to rebuild trust where maybe it hasn't existed and and start from that perspective because if you can't trust each other to be of Good Will and not mean harm to each other it's unlikely you'll be able to work together to to

accomplish what you want to move up the pyramid and this is an interesting one he says another dysfunction is a fear of conflict meaning that people choose to ignore differences or ignore conflict because they're worried about not being able to handle it I don't think fear of conflict has been the issue here from what I'm hearing but it's how to handle conflict

in a way that's respectful and productive I was working with the board a couple of weeks ago where the board president said one of his goals and I thought it was well stated is that we can as a board we can disagree without being disagreeable and I like that I hadn't heard that one before but I thought well

that's really a goal you're not always going to agree and sometimes you may be one person who disagrees with four or you may be two people that disagree with three and it can go back and forth but the notion is to do that and to be able to deal with that kind of conflict on of ideas without making can get personal

conflict the next uh dysfunction is a lack of commitment where people don't necessarily buy into the goals that everybody has agreed to and one of the things we're going to be working on today from your handbook are those goals the avoidance of accountability is next and that becomes interesting because what he's saying is it's a responsibility of members of a team to

hold each other accountable that when people don't don't live up to the agreements that you've made as a part of a team you as a member have a responsibility to hold the others accountable and when people don't do that teams don't function well now again you do it with respect you do it with consideration but that lack of

accountability can become a really high level dysfunction and then the last one that he mentions is in attention to results sometimes losing track of what your results are supposed to be what's most important and sometimes focusing on things that are less important but first of all understanding what what your results are what you're here for what you hope to accomplish and paying

attention to those results critical in attention to the results will be a high level dysfunction so it's kind of interesting to see that from the negative perspective obviously any team wants to turn that around and say we have trust we're able to deal with conflict in a productive way there's commitment we hold each other accountable and we pay attention to

results those would be factors that I hope you would all bear in Mind questions are coming so far I know I'm rushing through this and I don't want to do that but uh anytime you have a comment or a question as we're going forward please interrupt me I don't mind um I would love to make a brief comment

here I think that trust is of the highest priority and what do need to talk about today is when people are creating division in the community and giving misinformation it's a huge huge problem and I really feel like the true leadership is helping people become bigger Bolder and braver versions of themselves not to kind of squelch someone to elevate yourself and I feel

like that's what's gone on and it's that struggle between the new guard coming on and the people that have been here for a while and I'm so happy we're doing this and I wish it had been done sooner because in going to the first couple of meetings and seeing things pushed through with major bylaws without collaboration was a total bullet in the

thought of trust and looking to the new people to understand we're here with you but we didn't have really important discussions first and then so media as you know you you know what people are saying and where the messages are so I think we all have to remember that if we're putting something out it better be truthful and that the onus is on all of

us to do that I think it's really important that right there is going to establish trust again if we're actually lifting each other up and not defending ourselves by pulling the other person down so I think that's really important something that I heard you say that I think it's important to bear in mind as the board takes action and you mentioned

some bylaws but when you take action on any issue that comes up is and tell me if I'm quoting you correctly that you feel there needs to be adequate time for collaboration and discussion that you don't like the notion of something being pushed through and I would agree that that is important boards function well when everybody feels they've had an

opportunity to be heard now collaboration doesn't mean you'll always have everybody agree but the opportun collaboration also means we've all been heard and now we're going to make a decision and we're going to vote and sometimes it's a narrow majority sometimes it's a greater majority but the collaboration involves I think being heard so I think that's something moving

forward as an expectation that the board would have that nobody feels I haven't had a chance to be heard the other thing you mentioned is that we nobody on the board should be building yourself up by putting other people down and again that's an important part of trust that you can't really have trust if people feel that you're doing something that's

harmful to them so I I again think that that's an assumption we could make that that's an expectation that we would have for everybody any other comments on that topic yeah when this goes south this pyramid the concept of Justice comes in and that's probably what all five board members want without even saying it that there has been a a rift between Rights

and Wrongs goods and bads and especially senior board members you know there might there might have been more Injustice you know the longer time you're on a board there might you might have been rubbed the wrong way so that's going to come out here and it might come out sideways but I think that needs to be talked about and that's that's the

ugly part of this meeting is there there have been injustices but in the other sense our community outside of this there's a lot of fighting going on on but what I'm going to do is hold the accountability and blame on this board right now and here's the analogy I'll use imagine we're in a boat in the middle of a pond

and a rock gets dropped it causes ripples to go outwards those rocks being dropped are from us we can set the the the um the tone on leadership by example all five of us right now and say look I don't think I want to drop the rock anymore create the ripples because it really harms the community I agree with

you we lose stakeholder interest when they're like you guys look like jackasses fix it man fix it bro that's why we elected you I hear this all day long and so one thing that I value is trustworthiness and honesty I'll work with any board member you start lying to me and manipulating the truth I might still work with you but it's going to

diminish our results one thing I refuse to value is bitterness I don't want to be bitter anymore I don't want any other board to be bitter anymore and when I say that I'm willing to talk to any member of the community right now sitting in here possibly been laughing me or not laughing at me that's what I

mean I don't want to be bitter you want to talk I'll talk so I think the leadership starts with us I really appreciate what you said in that the responsibility when there are riffs lies with the board to fix it yes often when there's division among a board it reflects division within the community we know that people are

elected by different uh attendance areas and you have constituents that may give you their input and so you're aware of the division in the community and if you're at a board meeting and people come up to make public comment the division becomes obvious but you can't fix division within a community you have to start with yourself you have to figure out

although we'll disagree on certain issues but as you just said we can fix it we can see that we're honest with each other we don't lie that we don't operate out of bitterness we don't operate out of one person elevating themselves at the expense of somebody else if those things are agreed upon the bitterness in the community tends to go

down a bit too because they see the board has made an effort to fix it so I think that's well stated now as we're talking today if you have if something comes to mind again please speak up I don't want anybody to leave here today to say I had something on my mind and I didn't get a chance to say it so please

remember that you have that opportunity yep Stephen I I wasn't going to speak again because I thought I said everything I wanted to say and um I agree with Joseph that there is a lot of bitterness in our community there's a lot of different points of view but I think if we can agree to focus and I'm

going to say it again because those are the three things I want to focus on I want to focus on our students on our schools and making sure that we are fiscally sound and don't waste money and if we can keep those three things in our vision and and put aside all the other political or other agendas that are

irrelevant to what we're supposed to be doing as board members uh I think that maybe we can make a new start but if we can't agree on doing that then I think what's happened in the past is going to recur and I'm willing to for I mean people know I took a lot of Guff for two years

I'm willing to forgo that and move ahead only if we can agree that we're going to move forward with those kind of priorities and focusing on what's important for our district Melinda okay I too am GNA agree with Joseph um I liked your analogy of dropping stones and I feel like I know that I think it's been out of

frustration that I'll express my frustrations to people that I feel like are my friends in the community and by doing that I am undermining the boards one of my concerns is I I think that we all know that every single one of us has created Ripples and I I truly believe that we should all like I'm glad you brought it

up because I think I'm my first thing is like I want to call my friend and tell my friend or I want to have coffee with my friend and tell them all of my frustrations and then I throw everybody else under the bus at and it's not my intention is isn't to tear people down I'm actually trying to lift myself up

and feel better but then I do think I'm undermining the board because the people I'm affiliated with are affiliated with Joseph and Jen and Emil and so then we I think that's part of the problem is I'm hoping that we can all take accountability and say like this isn't a oneperson problem like as a board I think we've all contributed to this um I

do agree with Steve on um the important thing is the students uh fiscal responsibility and and that being said I think that sometimes there are some issues that we want to look at that that we that don't have to be as political as they are but I'm I I agree with Jen and Joseph and Emil that there

are some things that we want to look at and say is it better for the students if we look at some of these policies that we want to put in place and I think that we can and and back to what Jen said like if we slow step them and and make sure that we get a lot of feedback and

involve the community that we could actually maybe get a a greater consensus not everyone's going to agree with us on on on these policies but I think if we brought the community in and and worked more as a board we would have a better success um as we get to like do this again um so I kind of I agree with you

but I also agree with Joseph I think we're kind of all on the same page well I also want to point out that something you mentioned that I think everybody should pay attention to and that is the danger you run into sometimes as a board member when you get together with friends or other constituents and talk about your

frustrations because you may not mean for this to be the case but that's often interpreted as being negative toward other people and it creates more sense of division and you're perhaps just trying to get your frustrations out but really what the message it gives is something negative about other people so I would say when you do that you have to

understand what the consequences could be so when you talk to the community I think you have to be very careful it's one thing to express your opinion that's your personal opinion but it's another thing to express it in a way that might make the the entire board or other board members look bad and I think that's that

destroys trust right there so I think you Melinda I just want to thank you for hearing me and acknowledging that because I know you and I met this weekend and I totally appreciate your words in in saying that because we have all had deficiencies and I am hoping for a breakthrough Mr Schwarz I hear you too and we're going to talk through some

more things today I think it's recognizing we are here for the students Our World Views are going to be a little bit different so we're never going to completely align but I want you to know as we work through this I do want to apologize for hurt that you've been through and I've got some that I'll talk

about later but that's where it starts is listening and going I acknowledge that and then moving on so thank you this is good I'd like to say something you okay so I would like to address the alliance or the perceived Alliance and I would like to ask you and you Joseph why is the approval rating of Congress as low as it is before I

start Why is the approval rating of Congress for years and years and years so low amongst the American public you want an answer I want an answer from from them from them go ahead why why do you think and and if you don't have a response that's okay and then I will go into what I want to go

into in terms of the alliance but why do you think the approval rating when the American public is asked why uh you know the approval rating of Congress is so so low amongst the American people why do you think that is people have a high level of cynicism for a variety of reasons they see the waste they see the

division they see people running on a platform and then getting to Washington DC and flipping or changing their mind or going with what's convenient in the moment and I think we ventured a Great era in this country where a lot of things are going to change and I'm hopeful for that I think this board has that capacity as well but there's been a

lot of dishonesty along the way and you and I need to talk about this later in the meeting but you're right people get cynical let me and they want to see collaboration let say they that's exactly where I was at that's exactly where I was going people have a low approval rating of Congress because people across both sides of the aisle

the American people expect them to reach across the aisle and to work together and that is what I have done okay with Mr Schwarz because he and I and we have talked this through politically our ideologies we're really not on the same page he said I mean in conversation he may say something and I may say stop

okay or he may bring up something about what's going on with our current president I may say stop and we go back and forth okay but he and I we love kids our priorities are education our priorities are safe schools our priorities are fiscal responsibility and we have been able to find common ground in that and I think

that that is what this community expects that this community expects this board to be functional and part of that is Reaching Across the aisle which we have done together he's the only one here who's been elected twice to a four-year term he he represents a fifth of the community okay and I think that that means something I think that that's what

the community expects overall I know that there are certain people in the community who do not expect that that have expected that since it's you know the Assumption has been that we're we're for conservatives and he's on the other side that I would come in and just crap on Schwarz okay well that's not how I have rolled in my life okay that is not

how I have uh been successful in my life in terms of business and in my career and education we work across the aisle okay we put our political differences aside and we find common ground and this guy I mean when I have seen him at schools he is great with the kids he loves the teachers he wants the best for

the schools and so do I and that's why I can work with with this man on policies um but I think that the expectation has been something different even from the both of you okay and that's not how I want to operate here so I have to answer you right here because it's the appropriate place to do it okay

so let's just do this because it's really important in the December 17th meeting you specifically went after my prayer life on the deis in a very personal way it was extremely unprofessional and here's the thing you and I did life for six months my time my resources my family my husband walking in 110 Dee heat me working clerking

presiding full-time trying to parent my adult children talking with you on an for an hour on the phone giving you every Network consultant thought tip anything that I could give to you I don't blame you for meeting and and establishing a relationship with Mr Schwarz but what you did that night in throwing me and Dr K under the bus was

saying you two have accomplished nothing in 2 years you need to understand that was the deepest form of betrayal for me because I went out of my way seeing exactly what you can offer as a trustee and will that is a problem okay not that you have decided Mr Schwarz is someone to work you brought up the you brought up

the alliance you brought up the alliance so I wanted to address the alliance there's no formed deliberate Alliance here it's this is how I op operate and I want to address your thoughts okay I don't want to dismiss them because I think it you're you're right it's important that I address those things with you but you brought up the alliance

originally that it's you're making it sound like it's some sort of a conspiracy okay and it's not okay I genuinely feel like we are on the same page and we should be on the same page because that's what it goes back to it goes back to Unity and purpose now so I want to address you okay I was fully fully behind you okay

all the way until these purb decisions okay came into the Forefront here and they really Disturbed me because as I began to investigate what took place with these per uh decisions that came down that cost the district roughly $100,000 and it's not just just parental notification and it's not just the flag policy but it's also about the release

time with Mr di which we never even talked about we never even got to that one that that the way that you and Dr krosi operated okay was not at the advice of your attorneys who in my discussions with them and with the executive staff said don't do these things that you ignored C de and assists okay from the teachers union and that

really bothered me okay the and and the fact that we talked about this at your house two nights before the board meeting and I gave you an opportunity okay to take some accountability which you did not do okay and that was my issue with you and I want you to know up until the very end okay and you can ask

and I didn't discuss these issues with the these people here out of a concern of a brown act violation but Cole man Suzanne all knew that I was struggling because you helped me I and I want to acknowledge that you helped me in my campaign but at the end of the day I could not reconcile you not taking any

accountability for what you did okay in terms of uh ignoring the advice of the attorneys in terms of Parental notification and that flag policy and with the president of the union and costing the taxpayer money that you cost both of you okay that was my issue with you to the very end and I struggled till the very end now I want to talk about

the prayer life okay let me address that as a Christian how does God command us to pray he commands us to wait okay and to be patient to wait on him okay and I apologize for bringing that out into the open but I was so frustrated okay by the fact that you were not waiting okay and that was the basis of my comment that

you were not waiting okay that you were calling people and I know that for fact okay you were calling people to try to get them to influence my vote to vote for you okay and it got to me okay I'm just going to come straight out with you I mean I was with you okay up until the fact that you

would not take accountability and that is not true and I'm going to address that okay you know what I mean I I'm telling you like it is okay I'm telling you from that is from my perspective and like I said I struggle to the very end but at the end of the day when and it's just like what you said when you're out

campaigning it's one thing when you're going to be a trustee it's another this is about making decisions which impact the taxpayer money and what about the hundreds of thousands of dollars that were wasted as the union sued us and tried to recall Dr kroski there is an entirety of context with I agree with and while you were in the district

office you weren't getting our perspective or the additional legal advice that we had in closed I agree with you on May m versus I I not I'm not talking about those legal fees I am not talking about those I am talking about the decisions that you made okay in terms of Parental notification and that flag policy when the union said cease

and deist and when the attorney said to you don't go forward with this okay you did it anyway you made a decision and you cost the taxpayers $113,000 as a result of those in my opinion very very poor decisions we had alternative legal advice we were told we could appeal it we did not know that Mr Gonzales was going to leave the state

that we would be hamstrung and that they'd send that back to us without having any way to further address it and rectify it the union made their decision that it was decisional bargaining and not effects bargaining they were given multiple opportunities and here's something I think we need to address with the district office when on boarding happened

there's an issue because I know you mentioned you spent three hours with Dr Woods and going to coffee and hearing from the cabinet when I fully believe if Dr kroski and I had been in that office to talk to you about additional information that wasn't being included you would have fought through that information differently we've lived it

for 2 years there has been funds spent for me fighting for our kids it's been worth it because at the end of the day I feel like the representation we had fighting perb was somewhat anemic it is what it is at this point but we have always done dayby day what we feel is best to protect kids and there has been

hundreds of thousands of dollars in waste to try to recall him when he's back with the way the unions decided to spend taxpayer dollars you mentioned it was a lawyer who gave you numbers when Dr Woods asked who that was you didn't give it to him you then were told to talk to me you refused to give it to me now in an email

from the public I hear that you got that from assistant superintend lawyer and superintendent so here's my so here's my problem wait it does matter Dr Woods here's what I'd like to request when trustees are on boarded I think there should be more transparency it should be it's nice to meet you let us talk to you about the process here's your computer

it shouldn't be 3 hours of discussions where we don't have the ability to know it should not have been it should not have been even as far as I'm concerned you've hired and fired so many attorneys okay it's like which one are you going to trust when attorneys tell you don't do these things okay you need to take

their advice there is one that we had for that that I that I did not trust because there wasn't information given that I needed the point is here we're at a place where we do need to get through this okay and I'm hoping you can give me a public apology for on the day addressing my religious life and prayer

life I think Melinda mentioned you know what that's unprofessional and it is so here's the thing on the deis let's avoid that okay I think it's really important I apologize I accept it I apologize I think this is a time I'm going to jump in because I think but I do want to say something else too okay I

do want to say something else okay we're going to try to keep it I want I want to say something else in terms of accountability okay this is for you and Joseph because I had a very hard time with both of you in Clos session okay that day and the fact that I had to fight my way okay not just by myself but we had

to fight our way out of bringing parental notification and the flag policy out in the Forefront okay to the public you two wanted to keep that in close session no Dr Woods specifically talked with me about that and chose to keep it in closed that is not something that Joseph and ipir to do ever excuse me I understand that Dr Woods

recommended that but you were the Pres presiding officer and you you could have overruled him okay so if that was the case where you did not want to keep it in close session then why did you vote against okay bringing it out into the open okay when the motion was made that we bring it out into Open Session both

you and Dr kroski voted against that I would like to talk you made a lot of assertions and let me just tell you right now you're violating the brown act by talking about what happens in confidentiality and Clos session please stop you know what that's number one number two it was read out in Open Session Joe I've heard you for about 10

minutes AAL number two you make a lot of assertions there's half truths involved and there there's lack of context and I want trustworthiness from you I'm in subcommittee with you me and you have had this conversation I'm willing to move past all that you make a lot of assertions throwing us under the bus your first meeting number three you talk

about reaching out to Mr Schwarz no problem you're a new board member great right reach out to all the board members but to insinuate that I'm not doing it or somebody else isn't doing it you're completely missing the context and I'll talk with Mr Schwarz later and we'll move past this but I have an injustice that was committed Against Me by him

Gathering signatures for my recall so pardon me ail if I'm not reaching out to Mr Schwarz to mend that bridge where there's an injustice from him against me on the recall me and him can air this out later and I promise you Mr Schwarz I will not bring it up again after this meeting it will be water under the

bridge but but don't think you can come in here and make all these assertions without push back because some of them are outright false Amil and I don't want to spend all more board meeting pinp picking them number one you lied there is no Tru truth when you say you talk to an attorney but then you don't give it

to Dr Woods you don't give it to Mrs WMA then you shift gears and said well it was actually wasn't a lawsuit it was attorney's fees well then you shift another gear and then you say well it wasn't an attorney it was assistant super I mean yeah assistant superintendent two of them you talk to these are what I call lies I'm going to

call them like they are I don't think so but let's move on let's move on yeah be careful with your assertions you know what I'm not making any false assertions everything that I've said is true oh there you go bottom line so I would like to move us along Melinda well I've encouraged I think right now what

we have is everybody wants to take names and then we exasperate our problems who said that and then we say who said it and then that person is now brought in to our dysfunction so I've been encouraging to stop one I think we need to stop saying who said that because I don't think there I I made the point

like someone said something to me they didn't what was their motive of making this story up out of the blue for me so people have said things but I I I have encouraged ail and Mr Schwarz and I've encouraged we need to stop saying like let's take names because what we're doing is we're pulling the public into

our dysfunction and whether it's an attorney or whether it's Dr Woods I I'm I I really want to discourage the rest of the board of saying I want names because all we're doing is causing more dysfunction cuz the second someone takes a name now that person's been Dragged In and they're getting called out and they're getting phone calls or whatever

so I I I really think like I don't think there's any incentive for me ail to have made up the fact I was there there was an attorney present but I'm I'm kind of like let's not take names anymore because it's not helping it it's exasperating the problem so that's my point with thanks I am going to move us

along and I think there's a balance in today's meeting between speaking openly about things that are still disturbing you that may have happened in the past and totally dwelling on the past so I want to maintain the balance in the sense that everybody has an opportunity to speak about what's on your mind but we do have a focus and I'd like to move

us ahead it's okay well the next few Tabs are on specific board uh policies or board bylaws but I want to jump ahead and come back to those later and look at the the uh governance manual itself because there are parts of the governance manual that we definitely want to make sure we address it's lengthy and I will tell you we're not

going to go through it word by word because we don't have the time today but I do want to focus on some areas that uh I consider important and I did speak with Gary prior to today to agree on some areas that we want to make sure we address but if I leave a section out that you think is important please get

us back to it because uh I may decide that something isn't as critical and you may want to talk about it but as we look at the governance handbook I want to move a little bit forward and go to page four I've heard discussion about Unity of purpose and that is the most critical piece here in terms of what a board

needs to do and you'll see that on page four when it talks about for governance team to work together effectively members need to maintain a Unity of purpose and uh St St and you mentioned the things that are most important to you to accomplish and we're going to address those and plus a couple of others that are mentioned in the

handbook then of course agree and govern within the appropriate rules and you do have bylaws that address the rules of governance and if there's any question on those that you might want to take a look at making any revisions we will do that today you want and this is this one of course is critical create and sustain

a positive governance culture and sometimes to do that you have to be willing to let the past be the past and say how do we create that positive governance culture moving forward that's really what what we're here for today and then create a supportive structure for Effective governance so that's what I want to talk about on page four let's

jump a little bit ahead to page six which talks about the board values I'm not going to read those aloud but please take a moment to look at the four areas of board value vales listed on Page Six and the one that I just briefly want to address is under leadership because that's the main focus of why we're here

today prioritize parent and Community engagement now that's an interesting one because one might say well I want to prioritize engagement by just bringing certain people forward who happen to believe the way I believe that could be a type of Engagement that may ultimately provide more Division if every board member just says I'm going to encourage people who agree with me on this area to

come forward and we basically it becomes like an echo chamber where you hear the same points of view over and over again and it doesn't necessarily move the board along so parent and Community engagement needs to go beyond just getting people to speak their mind on issues at board meetings it means really to be actively engaged in the ways they

can uh for example you have committees that include parents for lcap and other opportunities for real participation so I I Ur you to think of Engagement as Beyond just coming to board meetings and speaking the one I want to really talk about is to set clear standards for respectful professional conduct I think we agree that that may have been lacking

and that's one of the things we want to agree on today now demonstrating fiscal responsibility you mentioned that Stephen I think that's one of the obvious purposes of a board if you can't keep the district physically healthy nothing else you try to do is going to work okay okay I want to turn to page seven and I'm not going to read through

all of these but do take a look in the middle of the page where it talks about the board carries out responsibilities in each of the following job areas are those areas pretty clear to everybody what your role and responsibility is in those areas because if not this is a good opportunity to bring it up yeah I just want

to encourage the board um as far as I know a lot of those are lumped up and I brought my Master's in governance handbooks it's like a five-week course this is not even the tip of the iceberg there's a lot of complexity involved in all of this my desire is to have the whole board go to the Masters and governance together when

I was there in San Marcos last year in person I actually sat with another board they weren't they weren't all on the same page they were mostly conservative there was one liberal one moderate but it was actually they had a Unity of purpose they actually respected each other at the table and I never forgot that there's people of all Stripes that

come to these meetings and I learned so much in this so this is just the very tip of the iceberg I know Jen you did some online I don't know if you completed it I completed it I don't know if Steve did but that's my recommendation for us and it goes back to the value on the next the previous

page emphasizing professional development well I'm doing the uh boot camp now on uh we did the first one was on uh Brown act the second one was on ethics training which all of us have to take if you haven't taken it you have to take it if you're going to be on the board in 26 and then we have another one

in March so I have been doing a lot of that professional development through csba and um I I don't know about the Masters in governance haven't had time I've been busy with other stuff but I will look into doing it also well I concur with what you said Joseph I think it's very valuable I remember as a new

superintendent going through it and encouraging my board members to go through it I was fortunate that at the time most of my board members had gone through it but when new board members came on I encouraged them to do it I think it's such a solid foundation in effective governance that you learn there and you're absolutely right that

what's in your handbook is just the tip of the iceberg that really gives is effective very effective professional development now whether a board decides to do it all together or individuals do it because I know everybody has things in their schedule they have to consider but I think it's really a very positive way to be on the same page about

governance so I agree with you the one thing I want to say about Mr baram is that you had a great suggestion as we worked together for months on looking at our Niche and where we have interest where we have experience and knowledge because I totally understood his expertise in math and accounting and business business and so I think if as

we learn in these different areas we can also develop that we can't all do everything and then we can't usurp one another trying to do what everybody else is doing if we can figure out where that focus is then I think we get stronger as we understand all of these tenants so I just wanted to compliment you on that

because I felt like that was wise well you do bring different strengths in different areas of expertise and it's really helpful if you respect that and each other and take advantage of it I agree and I think Dr Woods we talked about that like with the was process that when you go through was you have this a school has different

focus groups organization and culture assessment and accountability so there's different F uh focuses here or folky um and I think I think it would help the board that if we could find a focus because I I think what has happened in the past and I think how most boards function is everybody's kind of into everything okay and I think that

if we can become experts in areas that we already might have expertise in or things that interest us I think it's going to help us become a more effective board well you want to take advantage of people's knowledge and not everybody has that same level of knowledge on other issues it doesn't mean that you're not going to inquire for further and go out

and learn some things on your own obviously you are but it's a good uh opportunity to uh really rely on the capital that you have that people have experience and knowledge in different areas so uh I I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to do that uh on the bottom of page seven going into page eight it talks about the basic

responsibilities and I'm not going to read through every bullet but I am going to point out a couple of areas that I think are interesting first one says set direction for Community Schools and the very first thing that's the most critical focus of a board and should always be is the focus on student learning focus on students and when we

say learning it's we obviously know in this day and age academic learning is just a piece of it there's academic learning there's social emotional learning there's ability to participate in athletics and other areas but overall student learning and student well-being I'm glad that's the very first one here because anything that you do that is not a line to benefit students you have to

ask yourself is this a good thing the other thing I want to point out here that wasn't always in wasn't always included but has been for about the last 10 years is the fourth bullet ensure an appropriate inclusive process to establish District priorities that involve all stakeholders through the lcap process elcap is about 10 years old or 11 years old now and that's something

that the board has a responsibility to monitor that the that that it's being done properly there's enough opportunity for both staff and parental Community input but as important as anything is that you're monitoring progress toward your goals of the lcap and I've seen some boards that say oh great we have an lcap but they don't really take the time

to monitor the progress toward those goals and that becomes a critical responsibility of yours okay I want to turn to page eight establish an effective and efficient structure for the school district I think most these are obvious I have a question yes so as you go through these things are you going to give us a chance to talk about these

things yes and any point when I stop that means you have an opportunity to talk yeah I mean I I would like and it goes back to Unity in purpose okay go ahead okay it's what is our unified purpose here what it I want to hear from you on that I want to hear from them I think

good idea sorry about that no yeah I I think that we need to talk about what our unified purposes and let's talk about it Emil do you want to begin I I ran on student achievement and academic growth that is number one for me I ran on safe schools that's number one for me I ran on I mean at every conversation at a

door that opened I ran I I talked to people about spending taxpayer money efficiently and wisely and those three things are my priorities here um and there's a lot that encompasses safety and there's a lot that encompasses student achievement and academic growth and there's a lot that encompasses uh spending taxpayer money wisely and efficiently um and and those are very

broad but those are my priorities I feel it's a school board okay you know and and school that should be the priority here and and and I would just like to hear what other people think good idea who else I know Stephen you priorities but tell and I've I've talked to Emil about it it's no secret that both of us being

former teachers are knowledgeable about what goes on in schools when we we visit a school together we look at each other and say wow that's great those kindergarten kids are doing math that kids used to do in the third grade it's phenomenal we're looking at our results of our uh IR ready results and kids are making tremendous progress and so for me that's

what I want to see that's what's important to me and those are the things I'm also working on my own projects I'm working on a handbook of parents rights I'm collecting every board policy and every Ed code that exists to give to parents so they are aware of every right and responsibility they have as a parent so they don't have to question can I can

I find out about my kids library books yes we have a library program can I be involved in my son's curriculum yes go on canva you will see every assignment he has you will see how he's doing do you look in his book bag when he comes home from school do you see what he's reading do you check what he's doing

online so these are things I'm interested in and I'm putting that all together as a package would you consider that one of your purposes to to provide that information to parents absolutely because people question well the parents have rights if you look through Ed code there's tons of I even had someone during my campaign question what we feed

the kids and there's a whole series of things about safe food we don't serve Fred Foods we try to locally Source our Foods we don't try to serve processed foods and people are just unaware of the information that's out there and I think as a board member one of the things I try to do is provide information to our

community so they know what's out there they know what their rights are they know what we're doing in schools and I think that's as as Emil said that's part of our Unity of purpose is making sure that everyone out there knows what's going on and if they have have a problem they know where to go to deal with it

good thank you Melinda you're what you consider a Unity of purpose I think it goes back to my intention for running and I think I've been very disingenuous um towards some of the board members because initially I really did want to try to unite the board and the community more but I've actually my actions have have been opposite of that

at times so I'm glad that we're having this because I want to bring the focus back to the reason I met with Steve Schwarz and the first time I met him I he did not want to meet with me I I tried to meet with him and and but my thing was I'm like I know that I'm going

to be here for four years with this man and I don't want to have problems all four years and so um the same thing when people think that there's all these conspiracy theories out there one of the first things I said was like do you have a problem if I voted for Trump like can we agree to disagree and now that I

always refer to the the great Cobb salad of Richie's Diner um how much it's probably costing a brown act violation complaints but literally I tell him like I kind of just want to like go have a cob salad with you and wear my trump hat and you can wear your Harris hat and his comment is you don't know I voted for Harris and

I'm like well I sure as heck know you didn't vote for Trump so I want us to be able to get along and I and and the first conversation was like can we agree to disagree civil that being said I I still owe my the person I ran against I still owe her an apology because um where I'm saying I want to be United I

think that I have I I'm going to take credit and say like I've done and said things that have have caused us to not be United um I talked to Jen we did have coffee and I made the point that I think I don't want people to um enjoy the fact that we don't get along and and I think

that part of it is we have a little bit opposite personalities but if we can work together I think our opposites can be strengths for the board so I'm I want to refocus on like my goal was Unity um and and I'll acknowledge that I haven't contributed to Unity um but I want to that that's my purpose is um I want I

want to refocus on like uniting the community and the board um thank you and I appreciate your taking accountability for things that perhaps you may have done that didn't contribute to that in the past but set a goal moving forward uh Jen your your purpose in terms of unity of purpose so I think my purpose has always been a two-pronged approach and

I've mentioned this several times but one it is pursuing a high level of academics I think we all want that for our students and then it's also a holding those important values that our community believes in and there's that important peace with parents and I'm glad Mr Schwarz brought it up but I boldly told the community I am not for

divisive ideology activism in the classroom it's why we chose to address some of the issues with wanting just the American flag and making sure parents are aware if records are changed or if their students going through something really important there shouldn't be secrets between schools and parents and I know we have California state law that we need to work with but that is one of

my highest priorities for this community is to represent to hear their voice to advocate for a stellar education and make sure these kids are protected and we may not all see it alike but I feel like we are moving towards an understanding with that um we can't leave that piece out and it doesn't negate the fact fact that I do want to

see our kids compete with Powe and Irvine but at the same time I'm not willing to let go of important issues the community has said this is what we'd like to see in our district so thank you and Joseph I think Unity of purpose is wrapped around common goals principles values that's wrapped around you know the students and you know this

educational you know these 29 midi cities function in at a high you know rate of Excellence one of those me and Mr baram are working on right now goals and accountability that is a Unity of purpose that me and him are eventually going to bring out to a vote for the rest of the board in May the values and

and and principles I I'll I'll give you a general principle say what you mean and mean what you say before you're elected and after you're elected continue on with continuity and be who you are don't be inauthentic so go back to your question question about Congress the reason people are so frustrated in my opinion is because people talk a big game get

elected in and all of a sudden they didn't mean what they said and so for me I ground on that I I I and also I value and these are these are two pillar stones of what I ran on I value empowering parents the more parental rights the better I also value protecting the innocence of our precious

children I was not elected to represent the district I was not elected to represent the union I was elected to represent the values of the parents of the community who put me in that doesn't mean I can't work with the district and it doesn't mean I can't work with the Union I'm a member of a teachers union

at my college I am a literal a department rep for sociology philosophy so when I'm listening to teachers talk about unions this and that there's commonality they might not know that they might not have heard me say that so I'm into bridge building and pumping up you know these these different mechanisms in the um School District that we have to work with like District

staff admins side admin things like that but I but I will not compromise on parental rights and protect the innocence of children I just will not so I have a question I have a question for you so do you do you think on this board or in this you know amongst the staff let's say the executive staff do you think

that we are not committed to protecting the innocence of kids along with you I will answer that quite simply by saying there's been certain board members who are against some of the policies we passed to protect the innocence of children like CRT like parental rights like a flag policy I could go on and on and to me I mean hell

I'll throw 5G in there I want to I want to keep students Safe People mock it's fine right people mock but I don't believe certain people shared those same values because they voted the policies down so that's just a very straightforward answer no certain people do not believe in that Emil but okay I'm just asking yeah yeah but as a

new board we might find stability and prior disagreements board members might say you know what I disagree with the past but you know what I thought about it I don't know maybe you're on to something maybe we work more collaborative it's like the old analogy where you get into a fight with somebody but then become their best friend I mean

because what I see so far and I haven't visited every place I see great teaching I see see protective teachers um I see caring teachers I see caring staff um me too I see those things so when you say I mean and I and teachers make mistakes in judgment okay but I think that we are committed here to

protecting the innocence of kids I believe that we are that every body here is committed to that then I'll be waiting to see your vote on parental rights and a flag policy in the future let me say that I think it's quite I agree with youil I'm just saying we'll be consistent and I wait to see that vote in the future it's quite

normal to have an overall agreement on a goal but have disagreements on policies that one person may think works toward that goal and another person may think it doesn't thank so it's not unusual to say we all believe that we're here to do what's best for students in every respect including their health their safety their well-being and their

innocence but that doesn't mean you all agree on every policy and I wouldn't make the assumption that if you would disagree on a policy that you disagree on the value if I thank thank you a as someone who worked with students for 40 years as a father and a grandfather I don't disagree with protecting the innocence of children and

I I will Echo what you said the fact that we don't agree on a particular policy doesn't mean that I don't agree with you on protecting children from pornography and all the other things that you talked about and I agree with you on that I just never agreed on the particular policy so perhaps at some point and taking what I'm talking about

with parental rights we can put it all together in a policy that we do agree on and I don't disagree that there are dangers out there from radiation I just don't know enough about it to make an informed decision and uh again putting the past aside if we can agree as Emil agreed with me on what are

my priorities I think that that's let's talk about principles not about policies let's talk about the ideas that we're talking about and make maybe we can together come up with something that works for all of us philosophically even though we agree on what's behind it we may not agree on the particular policy because a lot of that

has to do with Dr kroski as well it has to do with process we have to do things we want I believe that we want the same things but we have to do things that are compliant with the law for example okay that we haven't done so a lot of things in the past have been process errors and you

know we have to get those processes correct in order to get the policies that I think we both want and I want to remind you with the neutral classroom policy that I put forward what did I say in that policy that you're you know you're you're you're looking for I vote on a flag policy I think I said an

American and state flag should be outside if uh for an instructional purpose those should be the flags in the classroom okay but I think we have to pay attention to the process here and I think that that is something that has been missing not only the process in terms of being compliant with the law but also let's listen to our executive

staff they are smart people I mean I find them very smart very helpful that is what they're there for and I think that we have to we have to embrace that I mean as as a first step towards moving forward with parental notification or a flag policy they have experience in these things in terms of negotiating with the unions and the things that we

need to do and I and I don't think that we're doing that well I will I will agree with a lot of what both you and Mr Schwarz said and going back to my earlier question even this roundabout exchange gives me more hope that the board's salvageable because there's a lot we just agreed on I get the process

versus the substance of the policies I get all that and I'll just remind you some of what we did was Uncharted Territory it's not like everybody knew hey just do this and that and this and that everything's going to be great nope do this you're going to get sued by the teachers union do this oh you're going

to get weaponized now because they're going to violate education code 754 and campaign on the school district time against you like there's a lot of other thing but I don't want to get into the minutia I'm just saying I agree with a lot of what you guys said but we were in Uncharted Territory polies but but what

I want to do in the future and working with you and you okay I want to listen to the attorneys I mean why have the attorneys present and why hire them if we're not going to listen to them the issue the issue there though is that there have been altern uh Council given from attorneys and I will say we've had a track record with a

specific attorney um who wasn't correct in giving us the information that we needed in several capacities which is why we have a variety of voices there are people that we've learned along the way in two years that we can speak to for different issues so you can't assume that we didn't listen you also can't assume that they had all the right

information it is it's true that we want to follow the law we do understand procedures but when you have lawfare weaponized and a union go after us the way it went down there was a lot at stake and we want to work with the district office but at times you have to come back to the board representing the

community the voices of the parents we're not always one and the same but we don't disregard them either it is a very tricky role I think we'll all agree to that it's complicated with all the stakeholders but but it's not that simple so well I find it very simple so far tell and that's a big difference between us because we've spent two years

living the experience so I wish I had been keeping track of every time I've heard the word agree because I've heard that more than I expected to in terms of people hearing what each other is saying and I haven't been telling the number of times but it's very hopeful because even though there are some fundamental disagreements I hear you making

statements where you've attributed to the other person I agree with the point that You' made and in my opinion that's a good step forward just acknowledging the areas where you do agree Melinda were you going to say something yeah I I actually think that we agree more than we disagree and and we agree so much it's like who I said in closed session I

said I think we're fighting over like who loves these policies the most and we're and and even um Mr Schwarz said something about the neutral classroom policy and he said if we can if you get it through the Union and it's like he's like you've got my vote so I think that we can come together as a community I I

want to ask the rest of the board like can't and it may take time because you know there are some pretty deep wounds that we all have but I want to just acknowledge that um Jen and Joseph came out of Co and they were new board members and that is an environment that like no one has ever

been in before um and so I I personally I've passed a lot of judgment on the way they've done things and and I'm just I know I wasn't there I I want to move on I want all of us to move on and I I'm hoping we can stop saying like what if well what if this attorney or what if and if we can

like move on and know we've been given a gift we have an opportunity to move on and we have two new board members so we have new eyes and that maybe we can do this in a different way you know uh Jen brought up it's true I I uh went through and did my um my uh rules of debate and and pass

that with without um first I you know we talked on the dis but um I thought it was a great idea so I know how it is to feel like hey this is a great idea I'm going to pass it um but but now I'm realizing like feedback is always a good thing Community feedbacks been good and

and the community feedback I think is going to be I think I I sense the tone already um calming in in the community a little bit I think we're going to always have a handful of people that that are just here for the fight the school board is an opportunity for them to like fight I'm glad you said that because sometimes

you're put in the position for people who like to argue with their neighbors to let you do the arguing yeah sometimes not even something that you seek out but it's put upon you so I I think it's good that you acknowledge that one of the things that you said that I would keeps coming back to why we're here today is

to really do your best to get Beyond past judgments there have been wounds there have been things that have caused disagreements and hurt but the judgments that you've made before you have a chance to talk to an individual and try to straighten that out but the most important thing is not to hold that not hold on to that in the long term but to

make an assumption that we're all here for the right purpose we're all here with the right intent of doing what's best for students even if we sometimes disagree on a specific policy and if we could do that then we're not going to personalize everything and that really is one of the things we're going to talk about right now as we move on to page 12

of the handbook because I think what what is said on this next section page 12 and 13 and then moving on to some of the protocols is really the basis of why we're here today oh yeah and I just want to let the board know I'm I want to see if I can get consensus to make a change

on a meeting guideline just before we leave this page which page is that now page 12 on meeting guidelines okay I can do it right now unless you want to open up for this you go ahead right ahead I don't want any eating on the Das chewing mints no eating on the Das chewing mints is one thing but look look no eating I

think it's unprofessional okay everybody agree we get consensus all right no eating thank you I'm going to just write that down and add it to it not eating on the days and quite honestly if we got low blood sugar and we want to eat maybe we should have regular breaks hey I wasn't the greatest at that I'm prior

board president because of the Dynamics but maybe we can incorporate brakes maybe not but that could be something that you think isiv right well well that's the other oh I I hear what you're saying but then some community members have been saying you know it's unprofessional get up and use the bathroom well okay then maybe we need a break I hear you there are times

when it's in the best interest of the board to take a break to either go to the bathroom have a snack or something like that and if especially if it's a fairly long meeting there's no reason not to take breaks I'm up for it if you guys are I'm not rigidly saying we should schedule it but if we're up for a

break every meeting if the meeting goes along 100% I am praying that someone like motion to recess I just am the new board president so I'm on board I'm very supportive of having the board do those how about how about meetings with uh what is it in our um board meetings we we approve the agenda with flexibility

so something in here with flexibility with breaks some some language where it's not rigid but if we want to do a break we just yeah yeah I was thinking that the whole last meeting oh till 1:30 in the morning yeah well you can simply put you can simply add take breaks as needed and leave it up to the board to determine

when it's needed I'm up for it so I thank you for bringing those up I'm going to add one in my opinion because it used to drive me crazy when I would see boards do this but there are times I would see board members when they're supposed to be conducting business texting people and sometimes texting other board members and to me

that's a lack of professionalism on the board and it could sometimes be really uh very harmful to what the board's trying to accomplish I don't know if you all agree but it's one of the areas that I felt very strongly about as a superintendent because I just don't think that's when texting should take place when you're at a board meeting I

think your full attention should be on what the board is doing and discussing any comments on that I wholeheartedly agree and I'm guilty of it myself okay um I don't like it I was I don't like it I was a a deputy superintendent in the district where two board members were constantly texting each other other during the meeting and I thought how

disrespectful I would agree unless it's you get Joe you're a parent you get a a text from your wife that your child is ill well you have to say excuse me for a minute I need to contact my wife or Jen you get something that something went hi hey why where at the school you work at say excuse me for a minute I need to

respond to this but other than that I think I agree with you I think the only other exception should be if someone like when Steve was attending via Zoom and there was a a a breakdown in um I think he texted like Dr Woods because his phone cut out so that would be the only exception and there may be exceptions but I AG General

I just think it's disrespect yeah okay so looking at the meeting I got I got another change goad sorry I promise you Steve this is not to throw you under the bus what you didn't realize on that meeting is like four or five District staff were handing your phone around dur in the meeting yeah part of me says if you can't zoom you

shouldn't be able to attend the meeting but that's rigid all I'm saying is you didn't see behind the scenes there was a lot of delay on the phone and I don't know how we work through that we should have been on WhatsApp if we were on WhatsApp it would have been no problem WhatsApp yeah you don't have WhatsApp

you can call anywhere in the world for first does it uh is it were you on WhatsApp at the time or I wasn't but had I had I know that when when they tried to set it up it didn't work so the only way I could work was to call directly uh I didn't know if Gary was on WhatsApp

and I don't think he was otherwise have you if you have the WhatsApp app you can call anyone in the world anytime for free yeah I talk to my family in Israel all the time on the phone and you don't have to does it Zoom with your face or is it just voice I don't I don't know if it's

just voice time I think it's just voice I think it's just voice had I known that the thing wasn't going to work when we tested it then we would have done I'm up for that but CU it it helps like I can't tell you like the delay it ca but you didn't know that yeah yeah I think we

need to prepare better if that happens again so I agree with you on that anything else you'd like to add or anybody would like to add to these meeting guidelines what we agree to maybe the WhatsApp that we just talked about if unless we just agree to it or something that fact I mean I I don't I agree with you I

don't like the phone so I think maybe we can L I got you okay all right okay so under those bullets from meeting guidelines please to yourselves take a quick look at them read them over are there any that anyone disagrees with or has questions about that maybe need clarification I think one thing I said in that first

meeting is more than restoring parliamentarian order and style is restoring respect and the two can work hand inand together right but if if we can really work hard and again I haven't been perfect in every meeting if we're not dismissing devaluing others going after each other's personal life or faith or any of those things that is huge and if you don't mind I'm going to

segue into operating in a governance culture of trust and respect because I think do that go ahead that's what we want to do right so show respect not devalue others not arriving at a negative conclusion right off the bat don't get personal and the thing that I want to emphasize here is can we agree to do that both on the deis and when we're

representing in public and this is going to be awkward but I'm going to bring it up because it's important to me but Mr Schwarz in the past in public you have labeled me or Dr kroski and I as white Christian nationalists I know there have been people that have spoken to it so just just let me finish because we can

get past this go ahead but but here's something else that's really important to me as a woman at csba we stood in front of a Christmas tree we took a group picture I put my hand on your shoulder and you told me you know what you can go ahead and cop a feel if you want and I stood there in shock not

knowing what to say Melinda heard that we walked away and she laughed and said that's just Steve and I I walked wait wait let me finish I walked this is a civil matter have let me finish because I did ask there's going to be a lot of problems if you keep going on well here's the thing I I'm going to ask right now point of

order this is not regarding the governance handbook and there's already attorneys involv but if we with the attorney gave me the advice to why I'm there attorneys involved to the level that you don't the attorney told me bring it up in the workshop because this has to do with how we treat each other Mr Huff spoke with me and said look this

is something we can't fall into a level of religious bigotry sexual harassment anything like that and I'm willing to get past this but you know what that is a fact of how we treat each other here in the workshop and I was told by legal that it was something to share because it's important how we treat each other

and if I as a woman I think you're digging your own grave and I'm trying to help you by saying point of order you need to stop talking about right now I'm doing you a favor by telling you David Huff specifically shared with me that this is something that can be discussed as we discuss positive governance and how we

treat each other professionally you're kicking a hornet you need to do it in private Jen and it needs to I'm doing you a favor right now by saying if you want to if you want want to kick a hornet's nest I think it might be too late but you're going to dig yourself into a hole and I was trying to do you a

favor by calling point of order so I think we need to call point of order what you didn't do me a favor with is devaluing who I am as a woman and not acknowledging the egregious commentary with that I'm not acknowledging and and David Huff knows I'll have my own private attorneys that I pay for myself and that um this is a civil matter I'm

I'm just having a discussion here that's not my intention excuse me excuse me if I called you a Christian nationalist I don't recall doing that I sincerely apologize if I did that thank you it was in the CBA application thank you I don't re say it again it was in your csba application Christian nationalism is something that you wanted to fight

against did I call you a Christian Nation I to ask you Steve can you explain and you shut me down didn't want to talk so I said I'm a Christian but I accept your apology thank you did I call you a Christian nationalist you were assuming me Danny and I'm sorry did I call you a Christian nationalist you did

not talk to me that's all Miss is weird about you know I try to disregard what you said and I I have an attorney and he told me I should contact all the people who were there at the Christmas tree and get written statements from each of them to see if each of them heard what you said you heard and I have five written

statements from the five people who were there and none of them heard what you just accused me of now I excuse me you didn't let me finish that's just Steve she heard it if she denied it that's a lie she heard it as we walked away together well you could ask Mr baram if he heard it I didn't hear anything you

were between you could ask Mr baram if could ask Dr Woods if he heard it you could ask Mrs Anna sear if she heard it I didn't assess anyone hearing it other than Dr Anderson and you can ask Mrs Anderson if she heard it and everybody knows that I'm not making any comments or getting involved unless I

have an attorney present and that's my attorney will be filing suit in civil court for slandering Li at this point at this it is a civil well should we take a disregarded as a woman offensive is AED meeting Dr Anderson can we take a break I'm going to call for a recess yeah how long do you want um five

minutes I I understand if Mr Schwarz needs to be dismissed I have to call my attorney okay find was so we are reaching the 1:00 time period and some people have to pick up kids from school so what I'd like to do is adjourn this meeting and I think we need to um come back to the governance

handbook I all I already recall that there was a request for board member comments at the end I don't know if you have oh yes thank you would you would would you like to open for board member comments sure um just want to thank the board for getting together today we had to out some dirty laundry um going into

those possible injustices but it's a step forward that we recalibrate as a board and it's important for the community to see us starting with leadership by example right here on the day it's rough but we're going to stabilize That's My Hope I've seen some improvement today in our conversations and the level of agreement we're trying to find agreement amongst each other and

there's plenty to go around the disagreement they can start falling away I mean unless we're voting our values and we disagree on that totally fine but if we can treat each other respectfully I'm all on board let's just be honest and respectful with each other even if you disagree with somebody but we don't we don't need to demean we

don't need to be participating on social media battles behind the scenes and and you know whatever battles are happening at the street level we just need to be professionals here on the de that's why we're elected thanks I heard you put out a video about you gave me a shout out in a video I heard I haven't seen it yet but you know

I I want to say and as I've just said to you and there and as I've said to others here the work that you and I do have done I think has been great I mean you know we haven't seen eye to eye on on things and I've we've talked about those things but when we focus on schools and

education I think we are doing great work well and people need to see this yeah starts I think we're doing great work I mean it's like I said we're not going to you know the things that you know the things I don't I don't want to relitigate those things but when we focus on schools which is what we should

be doing and the kids we're doing good stuff so I'm appreciative of that um and I'm just hoping that we can move forward um I still think we have some things to hash out maybe um I I'm not holding any ill will okay in my heart okay towards you at all or anybody here um like I said there's things I don't

like I hate the Social Media stuff I think that we have more control over that with the people that are putting that stuff out uh then we're willing to admit and I think that that really hurts I think when we talk to other community members about each other that really hurts um and I hate that and you know I'm hoping that

we can we can stop all those things because it doesn't help us here um and uh I value my relationship with Mr Schwarz I know that some people can't stand that but too bad um because that's the way I roll I think you're doing a great job as the president um and Dr Woods I love the relationship that we

have and I love executive staff lene thank you so much for all of your input um I value I mean our Safety and Security director has such a great vision I mean we're we're all here for the kids and that's what we need to focus on I mean not all this other stuff I mean it's a distraction it's a distraction so thank

you everybody can I say um I want to thank Jen for meeting me on Saturday um I think there are people that want to see us someone use the word cat fight but I think like two strong women sometimes are not going to get along but I also think like two strong women can be a force to be reckoned with so um

anyone that was enjoying the fight that I mean you know I think that her and I can work together really well um and I do I actually am very optimistic when I go to the school um I just pointed out um Jose has been meeting with the ASB and I will do a site visit and I feel the momentum of

having um board members Steve goes to soccer games and mathlete competitions um and you know Emil and Jen and I have been trying to do site visits when we can and I feel the momentum of um this the students and the staff I feel like there was a breakdown in the relationship with with the district and and the board but I can kind of already

see the momentum building in favor of the board so I think this this meeting was really important we do need to go back to the governance handbook but I think what was accomplished here today may be better that we were able to air our Grievances and move on so did anyone else want to make comment Mr Shapiro I would just like to

thank you for coming and I saw uh a number of steps forward and I really appreciate that Schwarz well I want to thank you you all for make my comment sorry Steen gohe there's two more comments sorry I just want to uh give you a chance Jen to retract what you said because you know it's a lie I'm giving

you a chance publicly to retract it I would really appreciate it if you would and we could move forward because if not I I just my attorney just was watching the meeting and he's preparing in the lawsuit now I have statements from everyone else who was there that nothing was said so I'm giving maybe you thought I said something maybe you

thought I you heard something I'm giving you the opportunity to retract it publicly because you hurt me deeply you really did hurt me deeply and I resent what you said and I'm giving you the opportunity to take it back and for whatever reason maybe you misheard or you thought you heard something but that's all I have to

say I have done my best in the past two years to represent this community and the students and the district with truth and integrity I would never make something up like this and Melinda I appreciate you saying you support me as a woman because if you know you know what happened and I sat on it for weeks and I feel like I have

been a victim of some abuse and I think it's right for me to stand up for myself and for people to understand that we expect you as men to offer us respect and dignity it's important to me and I came here today because we do need to have an honest conversation and I did want a public apology

because those things hurt and I didn't know what to do with it but at the end of the day I'm not here to send a silver bullet through you I'm here to say can you recognize the hurt and the disrespect because I do believe you're here to love kids and I do believe that you enjoy being a school board member

and I support you in that I don't support you when you choose to make those kinds of comments to me as a woman and I need that to be heard and this Workshop was the opportunity because if we're going to be professional and have expectations of one another accountability is where it needs to be and so I'm hopeful you and I can

continue this conversation but I will always speak truth I'm not here to weaponize anything and I do want to thank this community for bearing with us in the last two years I actually do have faith that we can come together Melinda I appreciate your transparency and I appreciate you being honest with some things ail thank you for having the

conversation with me I saw what an incredible trustee you could be from the beginning it's why I reached out to you and formed that relationship Dr K I could not tell you how glad I am that you're back and that you fought through incredible angst and Peril because you believe in the kids and you believe in being here

to represent so thank you for everything that you're doing I love you Mr Shapiro thank you for facilitating I know this was probably an unordinary meeting but I appreciate your advice and your wisdom and I hope from here we can move forward and change some things thank you for serving in the community of education because it means

a great deal thank you for dealing with the unexpected we appreciate your time and thank you to Dr Woods for setting this up for us I think there can only be healing if there's a true acknowledgment of some of the problems that are here and if we shed light I think we can move forward together saying you know what

there is room for forgiveness there is room working for working together but we have to do it with honesty so thank you to the staff for being here today I appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak okay thank you um the next regular Open Session business meeting of the governing board of education is scheduled for February 25th

2024 this meeting is adjourned today Tuesday February 25th at like 1:08 p.m.