2025-03-12

March 12, 2025

The March general meeting was held on March 11, 2025.

Agenda Item 4: Approval of Agenda

Motion: Yes (carried: yes)

There were two items that we added to the agenda: the HR reorganization progress report, and the 2025-2026 calendar first reading.

Agenda Item 9: Changes to the Consent Agenda

Monica Moriak removed 10.04, Resolution on Upcoming Meetings, for further discussion.

Agenda Item 11.01: Policy Review

There were three policies up for a vote today.

Agenda Item 11.01a: Policy Review: 02.02 - Prohibition of Firearms: First Reading

Motion: Yes (carried: yes)

This policy has to do with firearms on school property, and it just basically matches state law; it doesn't do anything interesting.

Agenda Item 11.01b: Policy Review: 02.31 - Protection of Undocumented Students' Right to a Public Education: Second Reading

Motion: Yes (carried: yes)

This was the second reading of the anti-ICE policy.  It is now our official policy that ICE can fuck off in a clearer, more understandable manner.

Agenda Item 11.01c: Policy Review: 01.18 - Responsibilities of the Board: First and Final Reading

Motion: No (carried: no)

This was a tweak to to the responsibilities of individual board members that appeared to target Moriak and basically said that board members weren't allowed to participate in staff-related meetings unless they were specifically part of the group or committee involved.  When discussing this change previously, Donald Patton had mentioned receiving complaints from people about a board member at an unspecified meeting.  He provided no concrete examples or other data to support a policy change, and ramming this through as a first and final reading seemed a bit suss.

Those in favor: Patton, Smith-Tucker, Lou.  Those against: Manley, Moriak.

Agenda Item 11.04: Douglass ESC program

Motion: Yes (carried: yes)

The short version of the story here is that we have a program at Douglass for students who have been expelled or otherwise removed from their normal school where they can continue their education.  At this location, we have two vendors (contractors) that provide service to those students, and one of them had 4 arrests and the other had 28.  We generally frown upon arresting students unless it is absolutely necessary, and the first of those vendors explained their number and what they were doing about it.  The second did not attend (it is not clear to me if it was a scheduling thing or their attempt to duck the board), and we spent some time discussing the situation.

Ultimately, I made a motion to direct the district to investigate the 28 arrests in question (as well as any others that we did not specifically discuss) and provide a report to the board at the April meeting.  The motion passed unamimously.

Agenda Item 11.05: HR Reorganization Progress Report

A while back, the board identified the current HR processes as a source of pain for the district, creating unnecessary problems.  We approved a third-party analysis of our processes, and once that was complete, our CFO, Bob Vacca, requested the opportunity to propose a set of solutions.  Vacca has extensive experience in HR through his previous work in the private sector, and he believe that he could save the district time and money by using that previous experience as well as his first-hand experience in the district to come up with a plan faster.  He sent that plan to the board in February, although it looks like some board members may have not received it (I definitely received and reviewed it).

Interim superintendent Andrzejewski wants to slow-roll any big changes and let the next superintendent deal with it, but I think that's a bad idea.  We know that HR is broken in some ways, and we asked for this to be fixed not for fun, but because it's important and hurting the district.  Even if we think that the next superintendent might want to make changes, that would be true of any and all parts of the district; HR is not special in that regard.  My view is that we should do the things that we know are good for the district because they are good, setting the next superintendent up for success.  Anyway, the next superintendent would likely not make any major changes for at least six months anyway as they get a lay of the land.  So if we don't act on these HR issues now, we likely won't act on them until next year.

Agenda Item 11.06: 2025-2026 Calendar: First Reading

Motion: Yes (carried: yes)

The 2025-2026 calendar was erroneously left off of the agenda, so we added it and approved it.

Agenda Item 12: Items Pulled From Consent Agenda

Item 10.04 was pulled from the consent agenda.

Agenda Item 10.04: Resolution on Upcoming Meetings

Motion: Yes (carried: yes)

The resolution on upcoming meetings listed the May meeting as May 6 (the first Tuesday of the month) due to the election for Smith-Tucker's seat falling on May 13 (the second Tuesday of the month).  We normally use the next Wednesday, which would be May 14 in this case.  We asked the district to re-evaluate their choice to see if the Wednesday following the election would be better.  Historically, moving the meeting up a week has been extra work for the district, given the proximity to Spring Break.